Farewell Kolkata - Part 2

A brief about some of the friends that I was with at CIL. It was a unique experience being with all of them and we shared a lot of memories amongst us. Ones that will surely last a lifetime.

Jaggu: Let him be the way he is… If you disturb him you will be greeted with a baleful stare. He is odd but in a good way. He is one person that will do weird things, or not do sensible things, just because his mood dictated him that way. He is also a terrific cook. He makes food for the most of us over there and boy was it tasty or what. He used to make lot of PJs but now, apparently, he has given them up (Raaaaaiiiiiight!). Check some out here. (I know right isn’t spelt like that but I wanted to make it sound really long)

Sachit: At more than six foot, and a burly physique supporting it, this giant of a guy could not be in more contrast to his true nature. He is a real soft spoken person and likes to watch TV series… A whole lot of them. Every week. But he is one person that you know that you can depend upon. I am sure that he will do wonders in the world of I-banking once he gets there.

KK: If I have to picture him, I will picture him as wearing a half sleeve T-shit, faded blue jeans, S**** in the left hand and mobile in the right (Talking to a particular female... same always). As a friend of mine said, KK has only ON and OFF stage. This person doesn’t have any intermediate stages. He will either sit (or rather talk on his phone while smoking) or just blow his top off. And that has nothing to do with the significance of the issue at hand.

Raja: A white Sardarji who is known for wearing Sunglasses all time long (atleast when he is not in his room). He has some particular habits like having some “calls” at odd hours and at strange frequency, or like his sleeping habits (I have only heard of it) but none of which I would get into now. He always has a smile on his face and he is always looking for an opportunity to what’s called in hindi as “kisski maarna”.

Gopesh: “Yaar roti kyyon nahin mangwayi?” would probably be the first thing that he would say at a dinner. He is a fanatic about proper food and having rotis with his food. He is a good person, albeit with a strange sense of humour which may not be digestible to all. And heaven forbid if you are stuck with the diabolical combination of Jaggu and Gopesh.

Priyanka: I think the smallest in the entire gang of MTs, don’t let her size fool you. She is sharp as a thorn (oops!). She is a good company to be with, fun and really smart. But one thing that you remember the most about her is her smile and her unique way of saying Bye. And she is a reasonably well cook as well (No offence Jaggu.. You are the best)

Ritu: She cooks really different kinds of foods but that’s not to say that it is not good. In fact, it is amongst the more tasty ones that I have had. But she is very unique in the way that despite the fact that she had a paternal aunt in the city, she decided to go solo and fend for herself by staying in the guesthouse. And with her mellifluous tones, she makes sure that you can’t ignore her as you feel she is all around you. But she has an amazing patience with kids running all around her room and even making an effort to teach them a thing or two.

Aniruddha: God forbid if you dare to surf net when it is his chance to. Be prepared to be faced with a sulky Pal. An avid gamer by nature, he loves playing DOTA, Warcraft and what all. And he actually loves to play all these games. I mean REALLY LOVES. At all times. Even between breaks from his extensive SUTTA and Phone routine as well. And he gains an otherworldly joy when he defeats the CPU in any game. Since he was with my field training, I spent an extensive time with him. One instance I remember is when one of officers staying with us at the MCL guest house said to me “Please tell that guy with you… you know the one that is on phone at all times, to smoke less”. And that was whne we were almost next door neighbours for more than a month and a half. One thing that is very particular about Pal is that he doesn’t like to eat Roti… Either Poori Sabji or a non veg item or South Indian. Period. Don’t ask me why.

Sarita: “Ungli Neeche”. She is very particular about these things. But I must admit she is one hell of a person. Very hard working by nature; I have seen her read through reports so thick none of us would have ever dared to even open them. Even some of the senior officers were exceptionally impressed by the thoroughness of this gal and the due diligence with which she is known to read through the report. Though, in their group (you know which one I am talking about), she is notorious for not keeping back the laptop at the designated place.

Sorry that I can’t write about Pooja, Vineet, Gaurav and Shivaji because I couldn’t have a lot of interactions with them and so couldn’t catch a lot of their traits… Except one thing for Vineet.. That guy loves his bed (Wherever or whichever floor that may be :D)… There was a phase when we would see him in bed when we leave for office and then see him in bed when we come back from office (Still talking about the same day)

PS: If you notice that in this and the previous post, food was mentioned at a lot of places and you felt it out of place… Well food was an important part as being in Kolkata is not easy for Northies especially if one is Vegetarian.

Farewell Kolkata - Part 1

Friday, 12th March, 2010
3:45 PM

I finally left the Kolkata office Coal India for the last time. I really do hope that I don’t have to return to it again... At least not for paper chase. But I would certainly not mind making a trip to meet several of the friends that I made over there.
As I left the office, I was accompanied by Prakash Sir, Rahul, Sachit and KK. Must say that I was truly touched by the gesture because these people took out an hour of their time to drop me to a cab and bid me a farewell… Touching indeed.

A few of the friends that I would like to make special mention of…………………..

Rahul: His name springs first in my mind because he was the closest that we had in our age group in the company. He was an excellent friend and always there for us. We had oodles of good memories, good food (cooked in his kitchen) and lot of good ole bhasad. After all “Bahut Mazze Liye hain humne”.

Prakash sir and family: Theirs was immediately next door family to my apartment in the company allocated accommodation. Their young son and daughter and all the family noises helped me get comfortably settled in the new and never before explored “environment”. They were always there to help us out and of-course sometimes (okay a lot of times) with freshly prepared home cooked delicious food that would sustain you for days altogether. But all said and done, I couldn’t be more thankful of the homelike feeling that they developed on our floor.

Reddi Sir: He may appear to be strict but let me tell you… It’s all a façade. This person really is a very good natured at heart. You ask him something and the first thing that he will do is scare you or question your question your question or something like that before he gives his advice. But truly speaking his advice is amongst the best that you can get.

Vijay Sagar Sir: With more than 6 feet to his stature, and a crop of dashingly white hair; you might think that the guy must some kind of actor or something. Well, partly true as he is in the crop communications and public relations department so that a bit of acting and the stage persona involved there. But that apart, this guy is one hell of a knowledgeable person. Truly intellectual, he can talk on any subject with amazing fluency that you would think that he must have prepared for it before hand.

A special mention to Warriar madam: Thank you very much for those very very tasty Idli, Sambhar and Chutney. Can’t forget it… EVER.

This is but a fraction of the people that I met their and frankly I was surprised how wrong first impressions can turn out to be. When we think of PSUs, we think of old archaic people who do not want to change, still working in the old manners and probably still speaking Victorian English. But I couldn’t be more wrong. True that still a lot of the oldies do actually work in the closed, insulated environment and don’t want to change. But that changing and fast… not as fast that I would have preferred but steadily indeed and I expect that in the next decade or so, the reforms would really take place fully

PS: I am not mentioning other Management Trainees like me because they are all my friends and of-course we were all bonded by the common “sufferings”. :D Though something on them in the next post.

PPS: If you have noticed that there is a lack of mention of Female colleague, it is simply because there is a dearth of them at CIL. OF course MTs don’t count as they have a separate post for them.

PPPS: Everyone mentioned above, other than Rahul, have crossed their 40s.

Holi - Festival of Colors!

At the best of the times, I am not interested in playing with colors. Least of all at Holi. I somehow, feel that this is all a childish kind of a thing and that we should grow out of it.

This was the reason that this year, I did not participate in the Holi celebrations in our Company Society. Some of my friends did venture out amidst "Abir" and "Gulal" and lots and lots of "Pukka Rang" (admittedly they bought it themselves). And I thought that I was free, yet again, from all the colors and hours of bathing and scrubbing to rinse out the color. Little did i know that the fate was ROFLing at me at that instant.

A quick knock on the door and suddenly i am drenched in something of a blue-green colour. The effect was such that it made me look like something out of the movie "Avatar". The only think that I think was missing was some kind of Glitter to get me that native Pandora-ish of a look.


Post this, it took me an hour's wash to get the worst out of my hair (Literally!) and even after two days of normal bath after that (including trying F, soapm Shampoo, Rin, Vim etc to get the colors out of hands etc); I still look like some person green with envy (Believe me... I am not envious... Green though I am)

Poojo in Kolkata

Poojo is the time when Kolkata is at its best and brightest. I had an opportunity to be here at this special time and in this special city. I came out one morning and noticed everybody dressed in new clothes (It was then that it struck me that Poojo had started). It was holiday even in the post office and railway ticket reservation centres.

The city usually known fr not being as clean ws just the opposite. The same old yellow taxi's added added turmeric to a tasty recipe for a deeply cultural experience. The whole city was smoothly managed by the famous Kolkata Police. even while handling unimaginable volumes of crowds the policemen were very polite in handling and giving directions to the people.

There was an amazing camaraderie amongst the people. Even where the crowd was dense, there was very little pushing, jostling and overtaking cues.

Now lets come to the Pandals. There is one at every turn you take. Work for the pandals starts 6-8 months in advance. There is an unparalleled display of artistry, imagination and devotion. So much so, tht after seeing a couple of them I had difficulty in distinguishing the pandals from the real buildings & had to touch some of them to confirm. The chandeliers were particularly brilliant. most pandals are designed around themes like, statue of liberty, parliament, hut, boat, kailash parwat etc.

Poojo provides livelihood to numerous artists, craftsmen, pandits & musicians etc. it may be the reason why so many of the traditional occupations are still alive in there original forms.

PS: If you really want to see the pandals in peace & in detail then start 2 days before poojo begins. These poojos are of 2 types 1) Private family poojo's (some of which are quite famous); 2) public Poojo's of different colonies, parts, communities, streets or lanes of the city.

Kolkata ki Cabs

I am sure a lot many of us must have heard of the song “XL ki kudiyan…” Well the other day I was traveling to office in cab and I saw a bumper sticker in one of the cabs saying “Kolkata ki Cabs” and I thought to myself… “That’s saying something”.

Those who have been to Kolkata would know what I am talking about. On any road, station, office or any other place; the yellow cabs significantly outnumber the people standing in the queue. With that being the case, one might think that there would not be any commuting problem with such a significant number of cabs available on the road. But they couldn’t be more wrong about this assumption. As it turns out, the cabbies here have hailed from yet another planet (readers may remember that to an outsider Kolkata is another planet from yet another universe. More details at earlier post at http://aashishsood.blogspot.com/2009/09/decaying-city.html). They do not want to go anywhere, irrespective of the destination you may name, the price you may offer or the threats you may throw at them. They would rather sit in the cab on the curbside but would not do an honest days work.

Furthermore, for those of the cabbies that do agree to take you to your destination, you have to be very very cautious. We have had several instances in the beginning where we were taken in a roundabout way for our destination so that the trip, which should have taken around 15-20 minutes, ended up as an hour and a half journey. Yet another amazing thing about these creatures is their amazing sense of driving. I could not have imagined how a person could drive on the tram tracks or the continuous honking of horns despite being stuck in a long jam or ability to drive on the footpath or the art of scaring the shit out of the passengers and walkers alike. But I was given this divine chance to see all of these and appreciate how simple and good my life was before KP (Kolkata Posting) era. But that’s not all folks. Despite the fact that they overcharge you for cab, despite the fact that they take you through longer routes, despite the fact that they drive like madmen on the streets; we also observed that more often than not, their meters are tempered to go at a faster rate.

But still the cabs are the most popular way of travel in the city we know as Kolkata. I wonder why?

Kolkata is dead. Long live Kolkata.

A decaying City

My first impression when I got off at Howrah station was “God! There are so many damn people here”. The image that I developed of Kolkata at that time got progressively worse. As I left the station to hail a cab, I saw along line of cabs standing outside the station and an even longer line or people queuing for these cabs. The moment I saw the cabs, I thought that I had time traveled back to the sixties with only ambassadors in sight as far away as I could see. Or even that perhaps I have stepped into a place which is filled with inhabitants from a different planet. As it turns out, after my later interactions with people and observing their cultural habits, I was right. It is indeed a new planet.

My subsequent foray into the city did nothing to dispel this notion of mine. The city was filled with people, people crossing the road, people standing on the traffic junctions, people chewing beetle leaves and spitting on the road, people in lungi and baniyan, people without lungi and baniyan and so on and so forth. The roads were lined with Victorian architecture, grand buildings from the British era and other miscellaneous decrepit structures. It was like the entire Kolkata is Chandni Chowk (The original one from Delhi) all over. The first thing to strike my mind was that Kolkata is like a woman who must have been good looking in her prime but has now let herself go.

The one overpowering feeling that I got while traveling through Kolkata was that it is now a decaying city. True that the city hasn’t lost all of its earlier glory, true that it may have a rich culture. But it also true that there is little, if any, growth in the city. Most of the parts of the city are now stagnant. Filled with the human life forms thronging together, it is somehow going through the daily motions but the disease seems have to have set in. the symptoms are there for all to see, people just ignore them. I don’t know if it would ten years or twenty before the city finally given in to the forces and let the collapse settle in. And I know this, I wouldn’t want to be there when that happens.