A blissful week at Kolkata

9^th August, 8:06 pm; and our Indigo flight to Kolkata 6E227 touched down at the runway of the Netaji Subhash Chandra Airport. That was full four minutes before the normal arrival time. That was very good news for the impatient minds of ours who were coming back to Kolkata after almost eight months!

Baba and Ma were at the airport with our dear old Alto LXI to receive us. And after an eventless drive back without any of the well known traffic snarls or bumps on the road; we were at home before ten. A warm home cooked dinner awaited us, followed by an hour of chitchatting. And a cozy bed expected us to recover back our energy. It seemed that everything else around us was also trying to rejuvenate us from our eight month old exhaustion and indifferent lifestyle. It was in a sense a warm welcome back to Kolkata in more ways than one.

The next few days we stayed with my parents in Behala. Sunday morning we went to Kakurgachhi at Sushree’s parents’ place. We stayed overnight there and from Monday it was planned to be in Patuli at our own apartment. That was the preliminary plan that was jotted down, and we stuck to it till the end!

We woke up on Friday morning quite early compared to the hectic schedule we had the day before. The day starts earlier in Kolkata than in Delhi! The sun at quarter to seven in the morning seemed like way past seven. Even Debarghya was up and running!

Strangely enough, Debarghya was able to remember much more that we had expected him to do. He not only remembered his grandparents but somehow he also did remember the toys he had left behind. The whole Friday actually he had his giraffe with him! He even had the idea what type of food he may be getting, for example he asked for Samosas and Jalebis in the morning there, where as he had never asked for them in the morning in Gurgaon! He continues to amaze us.

Another very surprising affair about Debarghya was he had suddenly calmed down by quite a few notches pretty soon after reaching Kolkata. We had been going through a pretty difficult time with respect to the behavior tantrums of Debarghya for a couple of months now. And we were concerned beyond infinity on the way he would react upon reaching Kolkata. Yet he was a almost a transformed person. Reasons? We were not able to pinpoint any, but we felt that one of the reasons was he felt he was around a lot of people who really cared for him. This was also a feeling in me as well. In Delhi, except for Tulai and Pragati (Thank God, at least they are there), all we have are people whom we can call acquaintances. Friends? Not really. As except for Tulai and Pragati, we rarely feel a sense of warmth in any one of them. Paranoid of being a parent of an autistic child? May be. Unable to accept the practical situation of this fast paced life where we are all competing with each other? May be true as well!

Coming back to Debarghya. Apart from settling down in Kolkata, and accepting gleefully his known faces around him, he also became a bit more independent as he was able to engage himself with his toys or puzzles without any help from us. A habit he has brought back to Gurgaon as well. Lets see how we able to retain, and how far we can go from here.

Now, let’s go back to Friday again. Lunch was an awesome spread of home cooked delights (cooked both by my Baba and Ma). All mostly my favourite things, which included Hilsa! Lucky to get a proper sized Hilsa (almost a kilo in size), as this year it has been like a ‘famine’ with respect to hilsa. God knows whether it is also in its way to extinction. Human beings have become too greedy nowadays!

This time around we had agreed before hand that there will be more home coked food when we stay in Behala, mainly because my father had some serious health issues some time back, for which he was admitted in the CMRIH for a few days. Baba seemed a bit hesitant as well for having outside foods. This was compounded by the fact that Ma also seemed to have aged a bit more than just eight months this time around! So we took our turns in cooking! I cooked the Bhindi on Friday night. And Sushree tried her hand with the Potol (palwals) at Saturday lunch. Still do not know how Baba manages to get hold of the tender ‘deshi potols’ all the time. We agreed, on that day, to carry along half a kilo of potol to Gurgaon, though in the end it was cancelled in the last moment due to lack of space! Sorry us!!

Since Debarghya now was more at ease and at peace with himself, we got the chance to watch a couple of movies as well in place of our normal routine of afternoon siesta. We watched “Bhhoter Bhobishyot”. Good movie, after a good lunch, with a lot of good people around you. Now what more can you ask for?

Saturday evening we visited Bapikaka’s new house in Muchipara. I drove our dear Alto after a long time gap. It seemed to me that it has also aged a bit. Time was really flying by us!

Bapikaka’s new flat was very beautiful. We had a very heavy snack of Chicken Pakora, Fish Fry and Rasomalai. All home cooked by Deepa kakima. The snack was so heavy that we dropped on the idea of having a dinner outside; and instead came back home. Debarghya did not cause a lot of problem in this trip as well. He even tried a bit of “Bat Ball” with Diganta in the time that he had!

Sunday morning we started pretty early in the morn, to catch the Kachuri at Kayal Brothers; and to get some fresh fishes from the Fish market at Kakurgachhi. All nostalgic moments during our stay in Kolkata! We were successful in both. The vendors even recognized Sushree and provided extra discounts as well! Hence, breakfast was Kachuri, while lunch was Katla machher kalia and Shukno sorshey chingri!!

The impact of time was also evident in Kakurgachhi as well. Sushree’s parents had grown very old, so old that it now pains to stay away them. At the same time Jhilli, Sushree’s niece, had grown hearteningly older, which makes us proud; at he same time it makes us recount our days of childhood growing up days also.

In the afternoon we visited the City Centre Saltlake, Sushree had the excuse of visiting the Leather Club, while we all had the intent of going to the place just for the old times sake. The sitting area around the fountain, the various eateries and showrooms, each and every known corner and turn of the place was welcoming us with the recollections of so many happy hours, and may be few not so good ones, being spent there. City Centre had seen so many good times with us that it is difficult to ignore him when we visit Kolkata. We had a couple of cups of tea from the Tea Junction and devoted 15 minutes to sit near the fountain, Debarghya though had his choice of food: KFC.

Dinner at Kakurgachhi was a full family affair of all sharing the same table. Dinner was simple home cooked chicken. It was nice to have all family members together at the same time on that evening, with Chhotdada, Sharmishthadi and Jhilli joining us.

Monday morning stared with the special kachuri and jilipi from Kwality Saltlake, before we reached our flat in ‘Belmont’, Patuli. It was in a pretty good shape considering the last cleaning happened over a month back. The errand boy there, Sujoy, was available and he cleaned up our home in a jiffy. It was habitable again! And habitable it definitely was. As if you look at certain portions of the home it will feel that it had been kept unused only for a week or so, as if we are back from our week long vacation from some place, and will start to live it in here once more.

We had a few more chores to complete before we could have put our feet up. One was a plumbing task regarding the small geyser of the main toilet, and the other was an electrical maintenance work. So we had to stay back and order home delivery from Dominoes! In the afternoon, we ventured out, meandering around the streets in Patuli, Jadavpur and even up to Gariahat. On our way back we packed Biryani, Chaap, Korma and Paratha from Shiraj. And indeed the biryani was awesome, something to die for! And as for bedtime stories, we had ‘Royal Bengal Rohosyo’ in our old TV at Patuli. We had forgotten to bring along the TataSky set top box along with us this time, which in a sense was good as we had more quality time to spend amongst us, a much better option than loitering in front of the Idiot Box. As if exiled (in all the good ways possible) from the life in front of daily soaps and unending sports digest!

Tuesday morning breakfast was an eat-what-you-can at Kamdhenu sweets! And Lunch was at Sholoyana Bangaliyana. The lunch menu for three included Bhat, Shukto, Daal, Aoo bhaja, Pach mishali sobji, Fish fry, Koi machh with fulkpoi, Chungri malaikari, Chicken dakbanglow and Mixed chatni. Hence it was no wonder that we both had to skip dinner that evening. This was though complimented by the fact that we both had to take the weekly teleconference call from eight till quarter past nine in the night! What an encroachment in our personal lives!!

In between all the eating though we had been spending leisurely hours going through all the left-over stuffs at Patuli. Stuffs and memories as well. We managed find quite a few things which we agreed to take back to Delhi, a few old trousers, a couple of Debarghya toys and the good memories from Kolkata. Memories of moments well spent together.

Wednesday was the fifteenth of August, Independence day for India. And hence the roads were empty, and it took pretty less time to reach Behala in the morning. That is after bidding farewell to our own little place on earth, only promising to come back soon to it later.

Breakfast awaited us at Behala, conventional and sumptuous Luchi. Yum! For Thursday lunch we went to Mainland China in South City; and it was disappointing in more ways than one. As an afterthought we all felt that Biejing in China town would have been a better option. Friday lunch was again an outdoor affair. This time around Baba brought home Biryani, Rezala and stuff from Haji sahib in Behala. While Saturday Lunch was our Process group’s get together at Keyadi’s house in Saltlake. The menu there was enormous and somewhat endless, Bhat, Daal, Aloo Bhaja, Kachu Chingri, Chitol Machh, Chingri Malaikari, Mutton kosha, mishti doi and Choclate Sandesh from Nakur. For all those who have already started gasping at our daily overdose of eateries, please note that in between we had very simple home cooked dinners to maintain sanity!

Saturday get together was a nostalgic in many ways. Old faces, gossips for old times sake and remembering the good old days in Foster Wheeler Kolkata. Yet catching up with the latest from all also made us feel the time that has passed by. In the end, it was really refreshing to meet old friends like Sayantan and Somnath after so long.

So it was time again to bid adieu to Kolkata. The last nine days just flew past like a dream. Sunday morning though started with a hiccup, actually more than just a hiccup, almost a tremor. Debarghya fell sick, it feels that his digestive system had finally given way to the all the gorging he has had in the last week. At one moment it seemed that we may have to cancel our trip, and we were both a bit taken aback as Debarghya had never given us this scare earlier or during any of his travels before. Our main concern with him had always been regarding his issues with autism and hyperactivity. So this time around it was in a way a different experience for us. Debarghya was after all a child with other issues as well, issues which were pertinent for normal children of his age. We sometimes ignore this fact, as we are mostly engaged in finding ways to tackle his atypical issues.

Debarghya may have had more liberty and attention in the few days in Kolkata, and may be that had been the cause of his sudden change in behavior as well. Or may be simply he was happy to in Kolkata, much in the same way as we were; and all those people around us who were happy to have us with them. In a way it was a complimenting effect on each other, happy feelings encourage happy vibes from people around you as well. We carried along this happy feeling in us while traveling back to Delhi. The journey back was though a bumpy one, mainly due to Debarghya’s illness, where as otherwise he was an angel on his way back. He was also bringing along the happiness in him.

We reached Delhi around 15 minutes before time. The rush at the airport and the traffic on the road was in accordance with the laziness of any normal late morning of Sunday. The day went by in our attempt to set things up in our place in Jalvayu Vihar.

The day steadily moved into the dusk, and the evening gradually turned over in to night. After settling back in our mundane Gurgaon lifestyle, we were back in bed, preparing ourselves for the week ahead. Recollections from the last few days at Kolkata flashed back. Sleep was still a distance away from the eyes. And then it started raining!!

As we started our normal life (??) and our day to day routine once more in Delhi, we hoped to hold on to the renewed hope that we have rekindled in us.