The City Of Joy !!!

Or is it?? On second thoughts, Im compelled to say NO!! I am slow in realizing that. I should have realized that as soon as I got onto the railway platform. The journey from the railway station to the guest house was a very harrassing one. It was all but 12 kilometers, and we could reach the place only after an hour and a fifteen minutes. It was a hot and a sticky day, and to top that, the traffic came to a standstill every now and then. We had a tough time coping up with all the horns and the shouts of all the taxi drivers and the denizens of the city. That was the unceremonious reception we got to the well known city of Kolkata.

After a very refreshing and a much needed bath, we had lunch at Haldiram's, one of the best places in the city to have a quick lunch. Then, we set off for the world renowned Kali ghat. And shocked I was at the pathos of the place. The place where Mother Kali, with her hanging red tongue, immortalised in many picture frames in many hindu households was a place painted with another red, that of chewing and spitting paan, that is ever resplendent in most bengalis' mouths. The way the place was maintained is enough to shake anyone up. The temple has an entry and an exit, each manned by only 1 securtiy guard each. The entry has only one detector and it is faulty. You go directly into the temple and right near the goddess. There, I got the shock of my life. There were 4 or 5 pujaris out of which one of them came to us and mumbled something very much like ' Om myam nan dan janhg tum mam Om' and flung out his right hand and shamelessly, meeting my father's eye, asked for 500 rupees. My father gave him a 5 rupee note, asked him to be satisfied with that and we moved on. There are quite a few places where the moment you set your eyes upon the god, you are entranced by the beauty and the surreality of it. You do not get that feeling here. You can't call such a place religious. The guard had already smoked 2 cigarettes by the time we went out.

There are many other places of ' interest' in the city, but they turn out to be unusually boring. There is a place called Science City, which doesn't match up to your expectations. Belur Math and Dakshineshwar temple are two wonderful and peaceful places which are not to be missed and can provide solace from the maddening crowds of the city. For those with interest in museums, Victoria Memorial and the Nehru Museum are places worth going to.

For all those who look with awe at a clip with multi-coloured spectra on it, or can stare for hours together at that wonderful dress on the window, or go ' ooh! ' and ' aah! ' at the sight of rows of pairs of slippers and shoes, Kolkata is what The Vatican is to the christians and Mecca to the muslims. There are a lot of shopping districts in Kolkata to which many tourists and the locals flock to. A statutory warning to all men: The shopping districts are places where there is a danger of your pocket being picked by your wife, or girlfriend, than the local goonda . You will be stripped off your wallet in no time at all. The amount spent by your spouse will go sky rocketing to an extent where you start wondering why you married at all. It is the worst place I have seen and I was bored to death.

So, my favourite places in Calcutta sum up to this: Haldiram's, The Metro and Forum. The Metro is a great place, with central air-conditioning and all that. The trains are neat and a lot of people travel by the Metro. You reach places in 5 minutes, which by road takes you more than an hour. The thing I loved about Kolkata's girls was, they know how to dress up. Their dress sense is so good that you can't find another city with such inexplicable taste in dresses. Even though I didn't like the city much, I felt some heaviness in my heart as I was leaving the city and I still don't know why. Maybe the city is as great as they say, after all.