Meandering Thought Tram To Nowhere

There is this very rare sensation that I have from time to time when my eyes sting, a weird tingling is felt near my nose, a crazy throbbing ache in my throat as if something is stuck in there; And this persists till my eyes water a little and I swallow. Swallow my inexplicable feelings and non-existent emotions and realise that I have a cold.

The humidity of Calcutta has the propensity to give me common cold inter alia. Yes, just cannot manage to not write about Calcutta and law school and in fact managed to put bits of the two in the last sentence.

During those privileged times when one is travelling by air-conditioned transport, rather than holding on to their backpacks like their dear life, dignity and money to go home are in it, one has the luxury to let their thoughts wander. North Calcutta and its culture have defined the Calcuttan nostalgia for far too long now. The internet is filled with musings of North Calcutta while those in the South grope in the dark by-lanes of their imagination for the dingy lanes the intellectual writes extensively about. The South Calcuttan in me often revelled in the glory of being called “tyash” and not –so-Bengali till I had to step out of the city and the rest of the country could apparently read the Bengaliness on my face.

I am one of those people whose Bengali accent is doubted back home for not being Bengali enough and outside for being very Bengali. I am not alone. If you are reading this, you are probably of my generation and in case you are from the same city, maybe you know what I am talking about after all. But through the cavities in your accent and the teeth gaps of your diction flows a peculiar fascination. The city in all its office-hour-rush glory fascinates me.When you walk through the streets of Calcutta, surrounded by the intimidating and yet inviting in a “mamarbari” sort of way- structures of Raj Bhavan, Town Hall and the Calcutta High Court, you feel small, tiny and freakishly jobless as you see purposeful faces rushing towards important places where they have to be. The street food that Calcutta is celebrated for – the cheap and good; that is here. In the midst of friendly morning chatter luchi-aloor dam and cha is downed.

When you approach the temple of justice from this side of the road, the blind lady's abode is to your left and that of her worshippers to your right. On your left justice is showered and a bee-line of the commonly clad is visible. You are better off looking at the commonly clad waiting for their showers of blessings rather than the scantily clad showering on your right. With British buildings on either side of Old Post Office Street , this part of the world fits well into the black-and-white days and by the end of the morning, it will indeed be swarming with multitudes of worshippers clad in black and white.

I have got to go, enter the building on my right for now. You admire the fascinating architecture all you want. Just be careful to not walk in the middle. It’s a one-way street. You will get hit by a car and all the admiration for the temple will bleed away with you.

Anurupa.

May 19, 2016