Memories from yore...

My life in Kolkata has always evoked mixed feelings. Even though I was brought up in Kolkata and stayed there for a good fifteen years (1984 to 1999), yet I remained relatively unaffected by the stereotypical Bong culture. This was primarily because, I was brought up in a cosmopolitan environment. Since my Dad had a job which could send him off to far flung places, my parents thought it wise to have me study Hindi instead of Bangla.

My school is one of the biggest schools in Kolkata - South Point. At one point in time, it had a student strength of about 13000. My class consisted of a veriety of students from all corners of India. This was the only class which was cosmopolitan. All the other classes had only Bengali students. Ours was the only class in which Hindi was taught as a second language in addition to English. In all the rest, Bengali was the secondary language next to English. We had the most spoilt kids - Marwari brats who had pocket money running into hundreds even in those days, a few Tamils, a few Gujaratis, a few Mallus and us - a handful of Hindi learning Bengalis.

Anyway, the point is that because of such an environment, I never had any Bengali friends except an occassional one or two who were also in my class. So, I never got to interact with any one who actually was bred in Bengali culture. For a good part of my life, I couldn't read or write Bengali. I tried painstakingly to learn the language by trying to read the billboards, the movie posters, Anandabazar Patrika - the leading Bong daily etc and asking my parents for clarifications. After years of effort I finally managed to scroll my first letter in Bengali to my granny. She was more than happy to get it even though it may have been 99.99% wrong in spellings.

Some of my best friends in school were non-Bengalis. There was S. Ramdas - a typical Tamil guy, Kalaimani Kartick - another Tamil, Abhishek Dhingra - the Punjabi 'bong' :-), Nitin Jain - the frail looking sweet Marwari boy, Prakash Parakh - the little girly Gujarati lad, Rashi Agarwal - the ever studious Marwari girl, Rachna Saha, Bijal Kamdar, Arati Bhartia and my only Bengali friend of those times - Priyadarshi Sarkar - the topper of the class. These are the people whom I grew up with. They went out of their way to help me in times of need and I reciprocated in equal measure. Among all of them, Kartick, Ramdas, Nitin and Priyadarshi deserve special mention.

As part of the curriculum, we are supposed to learn Sanskrit for two years in Standards VII and VIII. We, as Hindi students had no option but to choose Sanskrit. But Bengali students had the option to either choose Hindi or Sanskrit. So, we suddenly found a set of new classmates who had joined our class for Sanskrit lessons. Most of them were Bengalis. During the Bengali lectures, they used to leave our classroom and go to some place else to attend their Bengali periods. Even though, we had new classmates, I never was too close to any of the Bongs around. Neither did I feel the need to bond with them.

Around this time, my cousin came down to study in Kolkata. She became one of my best pals around at home. We could discuss anything, we could laugh about anything! It was she who introduced me to the world of English fiction. It was she who inspired me to be confident of myself. She spent a good 3 years with us till her graduation was over. It was her presence at home that made my home life more colorful and cheerful than ever before.

I remember a very funny incident from Std. VIIIth. It was a Physical Training period and the boys were supposed to attend the same in shorts. So most boys used to wear shorts inside their trousers and get them off during the period. I hated the idea of undressing in front of all these guys and girls and so mostly, I used to wear only shorts on PT days. So, anyway, on that day, all the girls had left the classroom as usual and the boys were in various states of undress. Soon, most of the boys also left and only 5 including me remained. I was putting things in place and arranging my school bag. Even I was about to leave. There was this rowdy group of 3-4 Bong guys who had joined recently and they were the ones who used to discuss birds and the bees quite openly in the class. These guys were fooling around and suddenly, their discussion turned to the 'size'. I felt my ears turning crimson in embarassment. These guys huddled in one corner of the classroom and were flashing their 'stuff' to each other. I dashed outside when I suddenly saw a girl running wildly towards the classroom. I signalled to her not to go inside but she didn't really understand what I meant. I waited outside the classroom to see her reaction. She went inside, stood for a second and did an about-turn. When she came out she was visibly shocked. I smiled at her and we started laughing our hearts out. For the remaining time during the PT class, we were constantly giggling. A good ten minutes later when the 4 guys joined us in the PT class, their faces were flushed red. It was a hilarious sight.

Durga Pooja - the primary Bengali festival was spent amidst a lot of fun! We used to run off to our granny's place on most occassions. It was great fun there! We didn't see too many Pujas in Kolkata. We spent most of the Pujas in Midnapore which was about 120 kms from Kolkata - a small idyllic town akin to Malgudi of R.K. Narayan! :-) We were pampered a lot there! Infact, most of our long holidays like the month long summer and Puja vacations were spent in Midnapore.

It seems funny that although I spent a good fifteen years, I seldom went to places of interest in Bengal. We neither went to Darjeeling nor to Shantiniketan, nor to the Bengalis' favorite get away - Digha. Plans were made on numerous occassions but they fell flat on their face! It's also queer that I seldom roamed around Kolkata on my own. Infact, the only time I went to the much hyped Kolkata Book Fair was in 1996 when a huge fire razed it to ashes!! I had just gone there to take a look at the trail of destruction! I never went inside Victoria Memorial. The only time I saw the Indian Museum or the Botanical Gardens at Shibpur was because the school took all of us on educational trips. I visited Dakshineswar, Belur Math a couple of times, Kalighat probably 3 to 4 times!!! And that was all. I still don't know more than 75% of the places in Kolkata. :-P At one point in time, I used to squirm at the thought of going to places like Garia or Behala or Tollygunge! My Kolkata began from Ravindra Sarovar and ended in New Market! :-D

Anyway, back to school days! Things changed in Standard IXth. In Standard IX, all students are divided according to the additonal subjects they choose. Most of my non-Bengali friends settled in for Economics. I selected Biology. So, suddenly I found myself in a completely new environment. We were just 3 or 4 Hindi students in the class of 60. The rest all were Bengali students. For months on end, I felt completely disconnected. We, the Hindi students used to stick together and we hardly made any new friends in the new class. The only guy whom I knew among the Bengali students was Ranjan. I had known Ranjan since Standard VIIIth, because we took the school bus from the same bus stop. We had started talking since then and instantly became good friends. Over the next 4 years, Ranjan became one of my closest buddies. Infact he was probably the only Bengali friend whom I could open my heart out to. We used to go to tuitions together, catch movies together, explore about the birds and the bees together and go for evening walks together and engage in constant 'PNPC' that Bongs excel in. (PNPC = Poro Ninda Poro Chorcha - in layman's terms, it's a polished word for Bitching ;-))

I remember another anecdote vividly. This was in Standard IXth. There was this Bengali guy in our class called Adhiraj Ghosh. He was extremely cute and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that he was my first serious crush at school. I secretly admired him and wanted to be friends with him, but I didn't really know how to approach him because that would have looked rather silly. Anyway, the opportunity presented itself in form of Friendship day. I decided to give greeting cards to a few selected people whom I wanted to be friends with. This was just a conner. I had to hide my obvious interest in Adhiraj and that's why I deliberately made it look like that I was interested in making friends with some other guys too!!! After mustering enough courage, I finally walked upto him and gave him the card. He accepted it. And soon enough we became good friends as well. I could never tell him what I actually felt for him but just the fact that he was around me made me happy. Since I was one of the brainy chaps in class, he used to come to me for notes etc. I was soon a regular at his place. I got introduced to his mom, his dad and his elder sis who incidentally shares her name with my sis as well. :-) It's sad that we couldn't keep in touch though! He moved to Bangalore right after 10th. Later I heard from one of his cousins that he had gone off to the UK. Ever since that, I have tried to find out about him but to no avail.

Standard XIth and XIIth were a roller coaster ride, quite literally. After scoring moderately well in the Xth boards, the science subjects of Standard XIth were too much to comprehend. So, much so that the 'never happened' actually happened. I flunked in Physics in one exam, Chemistry in the next and Mathematics in another!! But then, I was not the only one. That was the plight of a majority of the students. We were all promoted to XIIth with warnings to improve our performance. A flurry of new tuitions one for each subject kept all of us on our tenterhooks for the next two years. I particularly dreaded Mathematics. It never made any sense to me especially the solid geometry and calculus parts! Ranjan was equally apprehensive of the subject. Both of us had the same Mathematics tuitions. It's a miracle really, how we managed to clear all the subjects with good grades in the XIIth boards! :-)

1999 was a turning point in my life. I finally bade farewell to Kolkata leaving behind a past and looking forward to a future. My days in Kolkata taught me a lot. The trying circumstances at home taught me how to be hopeful in even the most adverse situations and how to make the most of it. It taught me that life is too valuable to be spent brooding over the past. We must live every moment and learn to live every moment like that moment is gonna be the last moment of our mundane lives! If we succeed in doing so, then when we grow old and look back we would not have any regrets! :-)

People say that Kolkata is a dying city! A city full of contrasts - the city of filth, a city where the poorest of the poor live! Yet, it has given us some of the best luminaries of all times like Tagore and Ray to name a few. It is a city where an octogenarian toiled till the very last days of her life to serve mankind. Even though I never had any special feeling for the city while I was there, it is only now that I feel a sense of belonging to the place. I want to go back to my roots over and over again!!! Never have I felt so much connected to the place. It leaves me with a sense of pride to belong to a place which once was the jewel in the crown of the British Empire!!!

Love thy neighbor! :-)

I have been staying at this cute little place for almost a year now. It's a row house and I occupy one of the three rooms on the first floor. It's got an attached bath, a balcony, and I have tried to make it feel like home. I have put up blue curtains, got a TV with cable, my PC with broadband, a closet full of my clothes, a soft cushy bed, lots of movie DVD's etc. So much so, that on weekends, I am virtually confined to my room unless it is utmost necessary to go out.

The two other rooms have also been let out too and they are occupied by one guy each. Recently, one of the rooms got vacant and a guy from Delhi called Naveen has moved in. Naveen is a 25 year old chap, cute looking albeit quite stocky. Though I must say that if he shed those extra pounds he could become quite desirable to the already starving Pune gay community.

We spoke a couple of times earlier but were never really 'into' each other! Anyways on Friday evening, this guy knocked on my door and we started talking. I invited him to sit inside. He told me about his job, how he came to Pune, about his family etc. The guy is so damn frustrated that he can actually be a perfect case for study. Much of the frustration is because of his work place. He works for Tech Mahindra and was a Test Lead there. Some manager apparently lured him to Pune promising him an onsite opportunity but that never came. Some other guy was packed off to the UK in his place and as it turned out that he became the most junior resource in his current team. Now, that's a recipe for disaster. That's where it all started. He has lost sleep over this situation. He in fact barely sleeps over 4 hours a day. He doesn't eat much, though I must say that not eating will do him more good. :-) He is technically sound and is quite a nerd so to say, or so I thought until Saturday evening.

He bought a new computer on Friday evening and borrowed a couple of movie DVD's from me. On Saturday morning, as I was about to go for lunch, I knocked on his door and we went out together. Over lunch too, he kept on telling me about his job and all that. I consciously tried to look interested but it wasn't interesting at all. I had to fake interest all the way. I changed the subject and asked him about his personal life, like if he was single / committed. As it turned out he said that he couldn't afford to be committed at the moment because apparently he was too busy concentrating on his career. Talk about lame excuses. But anyway, then he asked me THE question of the day. "Are you a virgin?" I was a little perturbed by the suddenness of that question though I was thoroughly enjoying the direction in which the conversation was moving. I replied "No" thinking to myself "Sweetheart, do you know whom you are talking to?" Anyway after lunch, we went back home and slept through the rest of the afternoon. In the evening around 7 he again came knocking at my door and asked me if I wanted to catch a movie with him. I replied in the affirmative. We went to the closest multiplex but as it turned out the tickets were sold out.

I suggested that we go to have dinner together at this resort "Up & Above", not far from our place. We reached the place and ordered drinks and food. I had two pegs of vodka but this guy wouldn't stop. He kept on drinking and blabbering more about his office politics and his frustration. The conversation quickly moved to his rather flamboyant life in Delhi where he confessed that he had apparently made out thirty five times with all kinds of females - Indian, Israeli, Spanish, American etc etc etc. He boasted about his so called 'contacts' and how the girls were mind blowing. He also told me that during one of his previous trips to Pune, he had slept with some hooker here too. And then, he suggested the most bizarre thing! He told me "Dude, if you ever want to (visualize a hand gesture here), let me know. Let's go together and have some good time..." I simply nodded and smiled. I mean, what am I supposed to do with a female hooker. Play hide and seek? I can't surely be a lesbian. :-(

After dinner, we returned home. He then asked me if we could watch a movie together. We watched RDB together lying on his bed side by side and throughout the movie he was saying that he was willing to pay upto 6K for a night with the firang actress in the movie. Oh. My. God. He was high on spirits. He kept on boasting about how he had nailed a girl in Delhi. He told me that he preferred oral sex because it was good fun. He told me about his trips to some female in Delhi who gave him 'fantastic' blow jobs for 150 rupees. I was smirking and thinking to myself "Honey, what girls can do, I can do better!!" After the movie was over, he put on some porn and insisted that I gave him company through it. I was genuinely uncomfortable with him next to me. And I had to squirm, twist and turn to hide the obvious. Anyway, finally when the movie ended, he had something even more interesting to say...He said "Dude, let's go and bang a chick together tomorrow." I just smiled and dashed for the exit.

The incident was really funny. For the rest of the night I kept thinking that whether he could be told. But then I decided that it was best to keep quiet. On Sunday evening, I was watching Will & Grace. He came and watched it too. It was indeed a good weekend spent. I got to study another specimen of the species up, close and personal. :-)

I am gay because...

Let's talk about something interesting, shall we?

What makes me gay? Let's make this as funny and interesting as possible.

1. I can call anyone "honey" including pets.

2. I understand the immense importance of good lighting especially in photographs!

3. I can be at a crowded disco the size of two football fields and still spot the hottest guy.

4. I can tell a woman that I love her bathing suit, and truly mean her bathing suit.

5. I can explain the nuances between steady date, boyfriend and lover.

6. I really have "been there, done that."

7. My women friends tell me everything I want to know about their boyfriends. And that means everything.

8. I am the only type of male who gets to say "fabulous."

9. I have naked pictures of men I don't know in my home.

10. I can have naked men I don't know in my home.

11. I understand why the good Lord invented spandex.

12. I know how to get back at just about everyone. And have.

13. I can smile to let someone know I can't stand them.

14. I am good pals with women other people can't stand.

15. I know how to dress strategically.

16. I am the only one at your high school reunion who looks a lot better than I did in high school.

17. You know that sex complicates things. So?

18. I choose the most fabulous greeting cards.

19. I know how to program my DVD player.

20. I've got sunscreen at every conceivable SPF level.

21. I've called someone "girlfriend" who is neither a girl nor a friend.

22. I know that pigs and bears are not necessarily rural wildlife.

23. My favorite dinner accessory is often my dinner companion.

24. I've shaved something other than my face.

25. Unlike most straight women, I have no problem being treated solely as a sex object.

Much ado about nothing...

"SMS us on XXXX and tell us why you think the snake is after the little boy."

"SMS us on XXXX and tell us what you feel about the marriage of Abhishek and Aishwarya."

"Call us on 011-XXXXXXXX and tell us what you feel about the Bipasha - John split."

"Call us on 022-XXXXXXXX and tell us how should the government react to the Richard Gere and Shilpa Shetty kissing episode."

Many a times, I am bewildered by these kinds of announcements on the news channels, especially the Hindi news channels. Star News, Zee News, Aaj Tak, IBN 7, Janmat, India TV all these news channels deserve to be in the Guinness book for dishing out nonsense in the name of news. Every news is supposed to be 'exclusive' and every news is supposed to be 'sansanikhez' too. Crap! The most hilarious thing is that viewers actually call back and text their 'valuable' views and comments on all such ridiculous topics and questions.

Some news anchors are not only irritating but they also have the habit of repeating things over and over again until it almost sounds like they are memorizing something before an exam. There's this fella on Aaj Tak viz Deepak Chaurasia. He is like the self proclaimed messiah of the masses. He has taken the responsibility of bringing such 'sansanikhez' news items from nowhere to shock the masses. I feel like slapping that guy whenever I see him. I remember that just after the Abhi-Ash engagement was announced, this lunatic was hosting a special show on Aishwarya Rai's future. Javed Akhtar was called up and quite appropriately Mr. Akhtar was furious at the ludicrous nature of the question. He refused to comment and banged the phone down. On some other channels astrologers were called in to speculate and predict on their future married life. Why? All in the name of publicity? Why in heaven's name should we care? Why should we know about how or when Ms. Rai will quit films or will have babies?

And then there are these crime related programmes! 'Sansani', 'Crime Reporter' and the like. Their anchors are straight out of asylums. They have a typical style of presenting the programmes. They speak in a very weird way. "Chain se sona hai toh abb jaag jao". It's funny like hell. More often than being scared by the criminals they show on their shows, you are actually scared by the anchors themselves. I remember the ace comedian Raju Shrivastav mocking them in one of his shows. It was hilarious.

Anyway, the bottom line is that much of the news shown on television is like the Shakespearean classic "Much ado about nothing." They invent news to gain TRP's. They blow small incidents out of proportion like the incident about Richard Gere kissing Shilpa Shetty. All the channels continued to show the incident over and over again until it snowballed into a controversy. Then they started showing people (VHP, Bajrang Dal types) burning effigies of Richard Gere. And then when they realized that the situation had gone out of control, they showed Shilpa making a statement over the issue. Shilpa was visibly miffed by all the hullabaloo. She accused the media of blowing such trivial issues out or proportion. And I guess she was right.

Indian media needs to grow up. Enough of monkeying around in the name of freedom of expression. We don't need such atrocious news. Show us something good, something which is useful to the society, something that brings forth issues of geo-political importance. See BBC. See CNN. Closer home, see the English news channels like NDTV or CNN-IBN. These channels are much more mature in their content and their presentation. I hate to have to say it but I very genuinely feel that Hindi news channels are still in their infancy. They ought to grow up soon enough.

Trip to Kolkata!

Going back home always stirs up a million emotions within us, especially if home is hundreds of miles away. I left Kolkata way back in 2000 after spending a good 15 years in the City of Joy(?)! My schooling was completed there and thereafter we moved to the City of Dreamz - Mumbai. I was never too attached to Kolkata. The weather is horrible there, grimy and sweaty all the while and the peoples' tempers are always above permissible levels. The 15 years that I spent there was 90% misery and 10% fun mainly because of circumstances at home. Yet, strangely, despite the fact that the city has not offered too much to me except a nightmarish 15 years, I can't deny or run away from the fact that it is where I belong to - Kolkata is home!

Ever since I have moved out of Kolkata, I have tried to visit it at least once a year mostly during the festive season. This time around I decided to visit it in the summer mainly because my granny had not been keeping too well. Anyways, my granny's place is around 120 kms from Kolkata. It's a place called Medinipur. It can be called the twin city of Kharagpur (of IIT fame). It was gruelling hot there, so much so that I couldn't sleep altogether for 3 days. The days are unbearable. The evenings are a tad better but the continuous load shedding makes it worse. My granny was doing relatively better when I reached. However, she needs to be taken care of and the heat only makes her miserable. Anyways, I used to go out almost every evening with my cousin (who is around 14 y.o. and 6'1") to eat chaat and pani poories (Bengali ishtyle)!! I gorged like crazy! I also took my other two smaller cousins (3 and 1.5 yrs old) for ice cream, cakes etc. My aunts and uncles took me out for dinner to two newly opened restaurants in the town and to my surprise they are quite nice!

1. The Karnagahr Temple
2. Maa Mahamaya

I also went to Karnagahr, a 15th century temple around 20-25 kms from Medinipur dedicated to the Mother Goddess. There are three temples in the complex, a larger one dedicated to Lord Khageshwar (Shiva), the smaller one dedicated to Maa Mahamaya (the Mother Goddess). My aunts and my cousins accompanied me. I went to the temple a good 5-6 years later. The temple authorities have renovated the temple, gave it a fresh coat of plaster and paint. There is a Hanuman temple there. One of my uncles has had it constructed. Earlier the Hanuman shila was lying below a peepal tree. But now there stands a nice temple on the same spot. My uncle and aunt gave me a nice shirt and tee. :-)

I went to Kolkata on Wednesday afternoon. I had an interview scheduled with Wipro the same afternoon at around 3 PM but they cancelled at the last moment. Kolkata surprises me every time I visit it. Everytime I find something new about it. It's a kaleidoscope of colors of a variety of shades and hues. This time was no different. I put up at my uncle's place in Ballygunge. Most of Wednesday was spent at home catching up on sleep. On Thursday, I went out in the morning after breakfast. I visited my Buaji's place first. Spent almost an hour with them and then went shopping. And man! Did I shop or what? I shopped and shopped and shopped and when I stopped I found that my wallet was lighter by 7K. I bought tees, shorts, jeans, kurtas, H/S shirts and unmentionables as well :-)

I met a guy called Bobby in the evening. I knew him from a couple of months and it was nice to meet him finally. We went for a drive in his car and had some ice cream. He then dropped me home. Later in the evening, I went to meet an old school friend - Ronjon! We went to a local CCD and spent some time there. We had a Hilsa festival at home that night. The fish was delicious. Later that night, I chatted with an old acquaintance called Charles. I had met Charles two years ago on one of my trips to Kolkata. He is my friend's friend. Anyways, thankfully, he remembered me and so we decided to meet on Saturday afternoon.

On Friday morning, I again went back to my Buaji's place and got the keys of our flat. The flat has never been used and I wanted to go and visit it once to clean it up! I met this guy called Sarnab the same morning and the meeting left much to be desired. Anyway, my cousin, aunt and me went shopping for a laptop in the afternoon. We finally zeroed on a HP one. My cousin bought it. After that, we went shopping again. My aunt bought me a very nice block printed Kurta from a boutique called Kanishka. Thereafter, I rushed to Salt Lake to the City Centre mall. I went to City Centre for the first time and I was really pleased to see it. Nice crowd, nice shops and nice ambience. I met a college friend over there - Anirban. Spent around half an hour with him and came back home.

On Saturday morning, I went to our flat. It was very dirty nevertheless; has not been visited for more than a year. I cleaned up the place as much as I could. After that, I met Charles nearby. We spent a nice time together having lunch at a restaurant near Gariahat. After that I met Debjyoti, one of my friends in Kolkata. We spent around half and hour together while I shopped again for mishti and an umbrella. I returned home after that. My cousin, aunt and me again went out a little later for some more shopping this time for my cousin. He is a brilliant guy. He has just completed his M.Sc exams and is now going to National Brain Research Institute in Gurgaon for a summer project. Anyway, he had to buy some shirt pieces. So we went shopping for that. While we were shopping one of my other cousins called up. She wanted to meet me before I left. So we hurried back home. We picked her up on the way and reached home. My train was on 2215 at night from Howrah. I had my dinner around 8 PM and thereafter they all accompanied me to the station to see me off. :-)

As I said bye bye to them, I somehow felt a little sad; sad because I was leaving all the fun behind, all my folks behind. But when you come to think of it, it's probably because I visit Kolkata once a year that I like it so much and my folks also make my visits memorable. Had I been there for good then probably life would have made it very difficult for us to even meet up.

I am looking forward to visiting Kolkata once again this year, hopefully during the Pujas. Let's see what's in store in the future! :-)