Posts

Back to School with a Promise of a Better Time

Image
 [The piece was published in My Kolkata on April 12, 2024.  You can read it online here . ] This is the original as written by me. A teacher by vocation, this Kolkata Goan shares some of his back to school experiences as a student and some insider information as a teacher, very tongue-in-cheek. On the day of the solar eclipse a reader of My Kolkata shared a picture of a circular rainbow seen in Kolkata. It was beautiful and brought to mind all the different imagery of rainbows and their meanings. The one that sticks is the legendary rainbow after the flood in the Bible. This was interpreted as the promise of things to come. The season of Spring is poetically the promise of the future, the darling buds of May. In the world of education, too, it is the excitement of a new school year, new classrooms, new teachers (hopefully) and new textbooks. Or old, depending on which millennium you were born. In the one in which I was born, there was something called “Book Mart Day” - this was an enti
Post a Comment
Read more

Weathering the Web of April Showers

Image
 [The original piece was published in My Kolkata on April 7, 2024.  You can read it here . The piece as written is reproduced below.   [The writer has survived the storms of life in Kolkata for six decades, from the pre-electricity era to the post-Covid era. He writes about the storms, virtual and real.] There was a song that Bing Crosby used to belt out from the old gramophone my dad owned. It went like this: Those April showers, they come your way They bring the flowers that bloom in May So if it’s raining have no regrets ‘Cause it isn’t raining rain, you know, it’s raining violets! Bing Crosby warbles on through the song about clouds, hills, bluebirds and daffodils, and all the benefits of those showers, but I get back to thinking about Kalbaisakhi  and how it affects my life.  A couple of weeks ago, after ages, my internet connection started ‘flapping’ - that’s the official term, I kid you not. It came, it went, it came again and as I logged into my online conference, it went again
Post a Comment
Read more

Night vigils and eggs to misbehaved bunnies

Image
  [This was published by My Kolkata on 26 March 2024.  You can read the published article online .  This is the pre-edited version without the pictures and links.] Eggs, Bunnies and Chicks - it’s Easter again! [A survivor’s guide to Easter in all its forms, with a little serious information thrown in … ] Eggs, Bunnies and Chicks - it’s Easter again! [A survivor’s guide to Easter in all its forms, with a little serious information thrown in … ] “Happy Good Friday!”  The wishes ping forth from the recesses of WhatsApp on the Friday before Easter.  It’s a red letter day on the calendar, it’s a long weekend at the office, obviously someone is celebrating something, so let’s wish them. The lone Christian on the employee list is singled out for the wishes. Painstakingly patient, she responds, “Good Friday commemorates the death of Christ. It’s a day of remembrance and mourning. We celebrate Easter, the resurrection of Christ on Sunday.” “Ok, then.  Enjoy!  We will wish you again for Easter,”
Post a Comment
Read more

Of Bumps, Baby Bumps and Other Barriers

Image
 [This piece was originally published in My Kolkata on March 15, 2024.  You can read it here .  This is the pre-edit  version. ] Bumps and other Barriers [The author drives wherever he can, encountering a few avoidable bumps in his daily commute or his visits to other cities. Here’s his irreverent take on our streets, our traffic and the ups and downs of driving.] Several years ago I was enamoured of the movie My Fair Lady. The words of one song in particular stayed with me long after. Here are the first two lines: “ I have often walked down this street before / But the pavement always stayed beneath my feet before” Walking down the streets of dear old Calcutta (sic), amusement made me link the words to the journey.  As an adolescent I wrote about that somewhere and recall that it was largely about the Kolkata Mud Digging Agency (KMDA). The pavement and much of the road, in old Calcutta, hardly stayed beneath my feet.  Potholes, open drains, and other traps for the unwary were par for
Post a Comment
Read more

Music, the Food of Goan Love

Image
  (This piece was published in My Kolkata on 23.02.2024 Read it here ) A Kolkata Goan, visiting home during Carnaval time in Goa, does a quick round up of the bands and duets he heard.  From small parties to weddings to massive stage shows, Goan musicians have it all in the blood - tune, tempo and emotion. The pounding of the waves on the Calangute shore was overwhelmed by the pounding of bhangra emanating from the “shacks” on the beach. The continuous boom-boom of disco tracks, indistinguishable from each other, melded into what can loosely be described as a racket - to which local tourists danced in gay abandon, wearing matching coord sets, kurtis, I Love Goa tees and even sarees. The soft Billy Joel from the speakers in the coffee shop in which I attempted a cappuccino was completely drowned by the surge of sound from the beach. “Stay off the beach!”  The advice given by a college friend and established sound engineer couldn’t be more appropriate. And stay off I did except for a co
Post a Comment
Read more

Chorice, Corsets and Confetti - Inside a Goan Wedding - in Goa

Image
The original of this piece was published in My Kolkata on 16 February 2024.  You can read the published article here   The unedited piece is reproduced here, as written. Destination Goan Weddings (A Kolkata Goan visits his desh  to attend two family weddings and finds similarities and differences cutting across communities and cultures, religions and rituals.)  The newspaper advertisements scream “Destination Wedding” for Bangkok, Vietnam, and Goa.  Most of these are five-star affairs where the richer families book entire hotels and transport everyone across for a few days of happy chaos.  Destination wedding for some, a fairy tale wedding for others, a family wedding back home in Goa for the rest of us non-resident Goans. Travel and accommodation is every visitor’s own responsibility unless, like me, you know someone!   Pre-party A few days before the wedding, Goans have the Roce ceremony - equivalent of the haldi, or gayer halud for the Bengalis.The word roce being similar to ros of
Post a Comment
Read more