Kolkata has been a destination for exploration since the age of 15. The first visit to the city and the memories surrounding it are so fresh. The City in a way defined the development of a youngster in the late 70s. Living on the city outskirts and traversing the local train on errands. Each visit brings up new experiences and access to the functioning of a mega city. An awareness of “something big” having been attempted and somewhere “yet” to unfold its “full secrets” remains true even in this present visit in 2024.
Cities are spaces of opportunity. Especially for those who come from the periphery of a city. The opportunities it offers for education, business, and leisure crisscross the city lanes and bylanes. The Digital age brings opportunities for exploring the digital space. Imagine the Blog being created on the page link dispatched from Darjeeling and the first text being scripted from the relative quiet of the room in the vicinity of a premier school in the city.
This visit offered an opportunity to address the students and interact with management. As it unfolded I recalled the same space visited earlier for other events. In these moments one cannot but make spontaneous comparisons and contrasts. The mind brings it up and the observant/witnessing self gauges the rectitude of each assessment.
This visit offered an opportunity to address the students and interact with management. As it unfolded I recalled the same space visited earlier for other events. In these moments one cannot but make spontaneous comparisons and contrasts. The mind brings it up and the observant/witnessing self gauges the rectitude of each assessment.
2023-2024 remains a watershed year of transition from Bengal to a phase in life which could be termed post-Bengal. Of course, the Bengal Years gets trifurcated into – the city, the rural surrounds and the magic of Darjeeling in the Himalayas. The ‘love at first hearing’ of the flow of musical Bengali is overridden by the thumping rhythms of Nepali as if one were labouring up the mountains and occasionally stopping by to view the beauty of the carpeted gardens and dancing damsels.
Places become significant because of the persons. Though each visit can only bring one in contact with a few among the many, those whom you meet and interact happen to be persons who hold you dear. The conversations at Flury’s with Mr Supriyo, Sreetanwi and Ketaki Dutta, the walk on the corridors of Don Bosco School with Ratnabali Banerjee, the moments of prayer with Albert Thottungal, the visit to the senior citizen Peter Lourdes getting ready to celebrate a century at Tengra, provide the sense of the timeless that connects with a repository of wisdom.