Ok, let’s face it. Kolkata may not be what many would imagine before setting foot here. Visitors, who come here for the first time, are readily appalled by the squalor and the din everywhere. Once they dig in though, it starts feeling better bit by bit. To its credit, Kolkata perhaps is a city you can be a part of without much effort. On the street, in the para, inside the metro, wherever you go, you cannot possible remain aloof. It’s another matter that all that you take in may not be to your liking. Which is perfectly in order, for life doesn’t taste same for all.
I’ve been browsing the net to explore what others think about the city I live in (I do this now and then), and I come upon a grand coincidence. It’s about 2 blog-posts. They look same, have nearly identical blog-title, and seem to share varying degree of passion for the city.
David McMahon’s first. Having studied at St. Xavier’s College, for David, now a Melbourne-based journalist, Kolkata is a great place to be in after presumably a long time. He is joined by Shakila Kundu and John Sampson in reminiscing all that Kolkata offered them during their visits in the past. Their accounts read so real, in particular, John’s comment, which I know comes straight from his heart (quoted below):
David, it’s lovely to read your home town prose, it yanked me straight out of my comfortable Melbourne life, through the computer monitor and onto the streets of Calcutta next to you. It’s the first place I visited when I travelled India more than 10 years ago and the pictures of that city remain just as vivid as when I landed all that time ago.
Fresh fruit stalls, packed bus – this and that
[Picture courtesy: top, above]
In contrast, Mike Unrau’s ‘City of Joy‘ is more circumspect. Mike is a ‘field reporter’, and this is likely his first trip to Kolkata. Mike starts thus:
Namaskar from Kolkata (Calcutta), where the homeless line the streets at night in the hundreds and thousands, sleeping in open air next to the tons of garbage on rickshaws and plastic sheets and doorsteps; where the crowds of people overwhealm the senses and saturate the soul..
Come, enjoy the treat.
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