Envy

Smearing blood on the pitch black
Off to the beach, the moon goes back
Troubled waters, scuffling oceans

Finding your way through desolate streets
Come home to watch your kid on sleeping sheets
Fiery strips aplenty in the city, on stage

Gesturing with the eyes, yet again
Beckoning the music of the soul, down memory lane
Peeping to amaze, let’s bring them back

A single footstep would fetch you closer.

Of Relationships

Clusters of fragments, which am I,
A single posture to read
Darkness has been discussed
With an excuse of enlightenment
And riverbeds rise within
The stream of my earthly breath, and
Bygone daylights

Those who claimed to be related
With punctuation marks and metaphors galore,
Wipe out with deft strokes of colours
All identities— a complete washout

What to be done as Feminism keeps me
At gunpoint
Self images frame me up like a tutor,
What excited bureaucracy the day before,
Comes today seasoned with Dramatics
What to be done?

In this congested metropolis
No sight is image.

For Kolkata, Love’s Labour is not all Lost.

Where whenas death shall all the world subdew,
Our love shall live and later life renew.

--- Edmund Spenser

How can one not write about the ever-changing, ever evolving expressions of love while discussing the changing face of Kolkata? When you are 20 something and belong to the Gen-RDB, romancing love seems to be the best way to understand the soul of Kolkata.

While one can see the city is stretching its arms with extended towns, malls and multiplexes, flyovers and skyscrapers…One can feel the city is gradually opening up to the uninhibited and honest notions of love and public display of affection. It is such a relief that you rarely attract frowns nowadays while taking a stroll together on the street or sitting intimately in the gardens, which, until recently, were still taboos among us. What is more heartening is Kolkata could be the most liberal among Indian cities when you discuss homosexual love.

Some might say the haste and hustle of the new millennium have ripped love off its coyness, innuendos and veiled mysteries to make it insipid. But I strongly oppose them. I believe the green stretch of Maidan still looks greener, the traffic jam at Belgachhia crossing seems bearable, the waterlogged lanes of Behala do not bother us anymore, the dustbowl of the Book Fair adds to our complexion…Kolkata still seems beautiful when you fall in love.

Kolkata makes you cry when you say goodbye to your love at the Terminals.

Kolkata makes you feel blessed when you travel in the last metro home with your sweetheart. And then we all know, Love’s labour is not all lost in Kolkata.

Kolkata Celebrates Oktoberfest!

Goethe Institut/ Max Mueller Bhavan, Kolkata organised Students’ Oktoberfest, a miniature Kolkata version of the world’s largest beer-festival, on its premises on 27th September. The Oktoberfest is a two-week festival held each year in Munich, the capital city of Bavaria in southern Germany, during late September and early October. Around six million visitors gather in Bierzelts (large beer-tents) to enjoy the specially brewed beer for the occasion. There had been a number of thematic workshops for everyone at MMB such as film shows titled “Glimpses of Munich”, Oktoberfest quiz, crash courses on the Bavarian dialect and music to tune up a perfect prelude to the main festivities. The party kicked off with Dr. Reimar Volker, the Director of MMB and Mr. Jürgen Fischer, the German Vice Consul in Kolkata tapping a keg of Bitburger beer and declaring “O’zapft is!” (“It’s tapped!” in Bavarian).

The kegs were tapped. The beer was poured in huge mugs and soon revelers to be seen swooning to the peppy notes of Bayerische Blaskapelle (the Bavarian Chapel music played on the trumpet, accordion, tuba and clarinet), performed by Brandkobl-Blosn, a Bavarian Brass Band exclusively flown in from Munich for the occasion. The members of the band, wearing the traditional Lederhosen (leather pants worn by Bavarian men), charmed everyone with their exuberance and energy and as a result, all gathered to lip-sync the beer-song “Ein Prosit der Gemütlichkeit!” meaning “A Toast to Happiness” and it lit up the atmosphere. With delicacies like Würstchen (sausages),

Käsespätzle (cheese noodles) and Kartoffelsalat (potato salad) to gorge on and a Mass (beer-mug) in every hand, the countdown to Bengal’s own “Oktoberfest” (the Durga Puja) would surely have been merrier to some of the citizens!

Monsoon in Kolkata...Finally !

In recent times,the citizens of Kolkata have gone through a clearly visible change of unprecedented atmospheric behaviour...the weather board has also acknowledged that Kolkata is receiving late monsoon and short winter...the demon of global warming (alas!) too has struck our dear
city ! Well... for years the Kolkatans are experiencing hot and humid summers with crowds of perspiring foreheads,glasses of aampora shorbot (green mango juice),scent of khus-khus and of course,the regular heat-buster every evening; the lashing Northwester winds which would cool down the daytime heat-wave...but we were missing our dear kaal-boishakhi (yeah ! that's the name we call it by) very badly this time.In a quite unprecedented way,the summer of '06 has been very dry (it draws an immediate parallel to the extreme summer of Delhi,with severe heat waves) which rather added to our woe...it was really a strangling struggle with Mother nature I must say !
But ah-ha ! goodness gracious...much to the relief of Kolkatans...the Northwester has striked back and what a soothing experience it has been ! Last week there were hints of a thunderstorm taking place but apart from a few gusty blow and droplets of h2o...all was there were anticipations ! Finally,yesterday the kingdoms of heaven were so pleased with the City of Joy that it sent a mighty bolt from up above and voila! the next twenty-four hours there would be incessant raining...quenching the thirst of flora and fauna,rejuvenating our mind, drenching us with the rain of life...singing the malhaar raag of upcoming monsoon
"Rain on the roof-top,and rain on the sea...
Rain on those li'l cars...and certainly upon me...!"
I am so happy that the scorching summer would soon take its leave...at the same time I feel bad about those who live in shanties,lead poorly clad,poorly fed,poorly dreamt lives in thatched huts and can anytime be snatched away of their shelters by the mighty blows of windstorm...I can fantasize about the deadly charm of the storm,I can even write a poetry about it...but can I really feel like those helpless people who would be at our doors for nibbles of food,grains of rice and clothes soon after a horrible thunderstorm devastates their "insignificant" existence...? Can I really be one of them
I know I may lack the guts to endure the pangs of being homeless but one thing I can promise to myself...the Northwester might show them the wrecks of nature...but to my humble best,I can try to bring to them a piece of rainbow(in every sense it could be )after the thunder-showers cease creating havoc...as a human being,would that be much to ask from my self within ???