Jan 22-28, 2024
My memories of Calcutta are from when I was visiting
my Mama as a 12-year-old – sleeping soundly under the stars (at the Birla
Planetarium), my elder sisters telling me about the badly nicked thumb (from
slicing the veggies) of the jhalmuri
wala at Victoria Memorial (whose wares I may have enjoyed) and following Papa
through long streets while he stopped occasional passers-by to ask, ‘Netaji baari
kothay?’
Jan 22 – Bangalore to Shantiniketan
We had just finished packing for our trip the night
before leaving when Andy messaged: In case you haven’t left…Kolkata is going
through an unexpected cold wave. Carry a warm sweater/jacket. A screenshot
he sent showed a high of 21 and a low of 12 degrees – quite like Bangalore
weather then and we didn’t wear warm. So, we both wore our light jackets before
leaving at 4 AM, and I packed a light sweater (D thought I was going to pack
his too, so that got missed). Arriving
in Kolkata, we realised– it was much too cold. Jaisin, from
Shantiniketan, was there with his cab to pick us up. At around 12, we stopped for chai (read
aloo paratha) at a roadside eatery and found everyone inside staring at the big
TV screens – the 12.20 Ram Lalla parn pratishtha was on.
My heart was so full looking at the countryside Tagore
wrote about – there were ponds and fields of mustard in bloom and paddy not in
bloom. It took us 4 hours to arrive at the Santorini-styled Ananda Resort in
Sriniketan, a twin town. Being the introverts that we are we preferred this to
the very-well recommended homestays all over Shantiniketan. Ananda staff were obliging,
simple folk; do not expect business-class, city-hotel service. The room felt
icy cold. They had no room heaters but gave us an extra quilt. We ate a late
lunch of dal, roti, rice and jeera-aloo – a wholesome home-style meal at their
restaurant and then came out for a walk.
Young boys and as many girls (a lot of them wearing
hijabs) were returning from school, riding cycles in groups and chatting excitedly.
People were returning home in totos – 4-seater autos – with seats facing each
other. D spoke to the girls – they could talk in Hindi though they study in
Bangla medium. Walking aimlessly, we arrived at a village – Bahadurpur, where D
played a spot of cricket with the boys. We tried taking a toto to go around but
when the cold wind hit our ears and noses, we got off and called it a day by 7
(the sun sets at around 5 in the evening!) D had some toast and coffee for
dinner, I just slipped under the double quilts pronto!
Jan 23 – Visit to Visva Bharti
This was our big day. We’d waited to visit the places
associated with Tagore and the Visva Bharti (university) for years.
Shantiniketan is not a place/town – it is a bungalow
in the Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum district of West Bengal. In 1836,
Rabindranath Tagore’s grandfather Debendranath Tagore, took on lease 20 acres
of land in Birbhum from a Sinha zamindar family to build a guesthouse – he had
come there seeking peace – naming it Shantiniketan, and gradually the area
around it came to be known by this name – now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The house is not open to the public but looks well-maintained from the road. There was a chhatim (saptparni) tree under which Debendranath Tagore used to meditate and he built a prayer/meditation hall, Upasana Griha (1863) close by made of Belgium glass and Italian tiles.
Our tour began from the Uttarayan Complex, one of
Tagore’s many homes. It is believed that he wrote a significant body of his
work here, including Gitanjali. The first stop was the Tagore Museum that gives
glimpses of his life – personal articles, photos and letters, including the
Nobel Prize replica and announcement.
A Guide was arranged, and he came in the car with us showing
us the various educational departments spread over the campus, the VC’s
bungalow and the squat, yellow houses with beautiful winter blooms in the front
that are leased out to ‘Calcutta people’.
We went past Amartya Sen’s grandfather’s house where the
Nobel Laureate was born. The Guide commented that Tagore did so much for the
country, but Sen went off to live his life in America.
We stopped at a small bookshop where I bought three
books (Visva-Bharti publications): Letters (Tagore’s letters written to
Mrinalini Devi), Poems (translated into English by Tagore himself), and The
Religion of Man.
The tour of Shantiniketan was over and we were
famished. Jaisin took us to an eatery in the Sonajhuri forest called Ram Shyam.
It was like a mess – buy tickets outside and then sit in the large hall to be
served. The veg thali was lip-smacking. I wanted to have another baigan bhaja
but D did not let me! After lunch, we roamed in the Haat bazaar. Sonajhuri
is a forest patch of sonajhuri/akshmoni (acacia auriculiformis) trees – with
bottle brush type blooms that shower down, giving it this name – shower of
gold.
We visited a Kali temple near the Kopai River and returned
to our double quilts, exhausted.
Jan 24 – Shantiniketan to Kolkata
We started for Kolkata after breakfast at around 10.45.
There was a detour as Mamataji was visiting Burdwan – Burdwan is a large city
after Bolpur towards Kolkata. We reached Park Street at around 3. It had been
drizzling all morning. We checked in and had lunch at the hotel restaurant. I was
very keen to stay on Park Street. It was most exciting to see all the historic
buildings around and in the darkness of the afternoon rain, the yellow-lit
windows of the shops and establishments added to its quaintness. We immediately
set out to explore. The streets were slushy, and people were already returning
home. We walked from one end to the other, then stopped at Hard Rock Café for a
drink and a bite without realizing it was still happy hours! On returning to
the hotel, I noticed a white bath towel spread out at the entrance so people
would not carry the muck on their shoes inside. I laughed and pointed it to D
saying: See how they use our towels! Though I had noticed the frayed ends and
believed it was an old, disused towel that they were putting to good use, it
immediately put D off. Till 11 in the night, he tried getting us a room in
another hotel. Of course, we were very hungry by then, and ordering food from
the hotel was no longer an appetizing option. So, we ordered pizza that went
back to Pizza Hut twice because the delivery person wasn’t able to contact us!
Finally, the owner himself came with the pizza – that despite the delay was
fresh and warm.
Jan 25 – Kolkata sightseeing
We had breakfast at this hotel (which I am not naming
because they were nice, obliging people, trying their best, just that it did
not work out for us) So if you run a hotel, please note that repurposing customer
supplies under their noses/feet will be detrimental to your business) and
checked out.
Jaisin’s cousin Bappa picked us up and we went off to
Victoria Memorial. Bappa was an amazing character – an unhurried man with a
sense of humour and amazing insights into politics and history. He had a genuine
interest in showing us Kolkata in its glory and made sure he pointed to every
historical building on the way.
Victoria Memorial is a grand structure. It was very crowded inside and no one would leave the Queen alone. Outside, we sat under the trees and watched the placid ponds reflecting winter flowers and people doing dangerous stunts to take photos, like
standing on the 2-foot slope into the waters and suchlike.
Kalighat temple. I don’t visit temples, especially
famous temples, but this temple has so much historical significance that I
agreed to go. If anything, it strengthened my resolve to not go to famous
temples. I felt really bad for the people from all over who come with genuine
bakhti in their hearts.
Sore from this experience, we did not get off at the Alipore Museum (formerly, the Central Jail) that Bappa really wanted us to see. I was so miffed with him for taking us there and hungry so, started looking for vegetarian food. Bappa knew one place, the name of which kept slipping his mind, but he took us there – 6 Ballygunj Place (Chowringhee). The waiting was too long for us to survive so we ate at a nearby Hadiram’s hoping to be able to come back to 6 Ballygunj.
It was nearly evening, which comes too early in Kolkata, so we zoomed to Prinsep Ghat. It was calming to watch the boats and streamers sailing on the quiet waters of the Hooghly River (is a ‘distributory’ of the river Ganga. Learned that a tributary flows towards the main river, while a distributary flows away from the parent water body!) and walk on the stretch of the riverfront. Next to it is Millennial Park which we skipped to go straight off to see the Howrah Bridge. Bappa gave us a full education on its technology. That is one of the longest cantilever bridges in the world (third longest) was learnt in school but seeing and understanding how this works was amazing. We also learnt that Howrah is a twin city across this bridge and not a part of Kolkata like we thought.
We were somewhat Bangalored on these streets but Bappa kept us entertained with his witty observations. We travelled 20 km to our new hotel in New Town that felt a lot like the part of Bangalore we’re used to. The girl laughed when she heard this and said, ‘You guys!’
Jan 26 – Rest day and a mela
We decided to take the day off to watch the RD Parade
on TV. It was a day of food, TV and naps. In the evening (which comes too
soon!), we went out for a looong stroll – to an old-world mela and two malls
and had only a Keventers’ coconut ice cream that had just the right amount of
sweetness to retain the flavour.
Jan 27 – The best for the last
It was our 31st anniversary. For the last
few years, we’ve decided to mark this day by travelling to places in India that we haven't been to or would like to explore more of. It was Dandeli in 2023, Gujarat in 2020 (Rann of Kutch, Ahmedabad, Junagarh, Dwarka, Porbandar) and the Andaman Islands (Port Blair and Havelock) in 2018.
We started after breakfast. Bappa was late but looked
pleased to see us. He took us first to Netaji Bhawan on Elgin
Road, Bhowanipore. I remembered the part of this which had his footsteps
painted as he escaped (the Great
Escape) from house arrest from here to flee to Berlin (Jan 1941). Taking
photos inside is not permitted but most of it you can see here.
We were now on our way to the most eagerly awaited place of this visit – the Jorasanko Thakur Bari. When I asked Bappa what ‘jorasanko’ meant, he veered off to the history of Calcutta formed from three villages - Sutanuti, Kalikata and Gobindapur – etc. I googled and gave him this: two (jora) wooden/ bamboo bridges (sanko) that spanned a small stream on this piece of land. He seemed pleased to know this but added that the three-village information was also ‘related’.
This is the ancestral home of the Tagore family. Do go into the ‘Office’ on the left side of the building and ask for a Guide. Students from the Rabindra Bharti University will show you around. Our guide was Mouli – a very articulate and knowledgeable young girl without whom this tour would not have been as fulfilling as it was. It was immensely moving to go around this house to see the bed Tagore slept in on the first floor from where he could keep an eye on the management of the entire household, a responsibility that fell on him; his jobba dress; the Japanese-style low dining table and stools that he designed and several other articles of personal use; the delivery room where he was born and the cradle-type place outside it, where people could ‘view’ the newborn; the room where he breathed his last breath and the corridor where his prostate surgery was done and from which he did not recover.
Outside in the corridor was a model of his streamer –
Padma. The sight of this was very moving because night after rainy night I have
lain awake in bed listening to the rain and reading his letters of sailing in the
Padma in Shelidah (Shilaidaha, now in Bangladesh). Shilaidah
Kuthibari.
We went to the portion of the house that Rabindranath built
on the land gifted to him by his father on his birthday – it shows his interest
in so many fields including cooking – a small kitchen where he and his wife
Mrinalini experimented and tried dishes that he had relished on his trips
abroad, including kebabs. Mouli told us that steaming and baking were
introduced into Bengali cuisine by Tagore. I found this lovely article about his
love for culinary art.
We spent so many hours here that lunch planned at 6
Ballygunj Place had to be skipped and we directly went for afternoon tea at Flurys,
the second most awaited place on my list. Hash browns, panini sandwiches,
cookies with Darjeeling tea and pastries for Bappa and us for later –
delectable! Tummies stuffed, we walked through the crowded New Market (for old
time’s sake – mummy had picked up lovely cotton chemises for me back then),
visited the magnificent St Paul’s Cathedral, and then arrived at 6 Ballygunj
place at 6.30 to eat dinner! The mojitos (Debi Choudhurani) were excellent. We
were already stuffed, but I needed to try a few dishes Andy had recommended.
Had a bit of plantain flower cutlets (mochar chop) with mustard sauce and
vegetables and paneer steamed in banana leaf (nabaratna paturi).
