Down Memory Lane….

My heart is where my home is,
Going back there is my heart’s true wish.
Miss those childhood days playing,
Often had fights with my brother which seemed annoying.
The stupid chit chats are long forgotten,
But they come back to me again and again.
Can never forget the lovely time,
Used to spend hours memorizing my rhyme.
All my brother could do was to imitate,
Make fun of me and irritate.
Miss the spy games we used to play,
I always lost early and watched in dismay.
Gone are those days we used to fight for petty things,
Now my heart yearns for his one glimpse.
The days my father took me to school used to be good fun,
He never said “No” and was always ready to run.
There used to be a dog in our ancestral house,
He used to run around after every mouse..
The house used to be always full of people
May it be someone’s marriage or another festival..
My father used to tell me the tales of his childhood,
They were quite different from mine but I could see the likelihood.
I grew up in the same house as he did,
I am fortunate that I have been there where he once hid.
The doctor was often told I was not well,
But he could not understand the problem as I was healthy as hell.
The birthday cakes my father brought used to be so good,
Wish could go back and have a piece of my childhood.
Those were the best days of my life
Miss the home in which I thrived.
It will be there in my heart forever,
It’s memories come back to me as if they never left me ever…

Calcutta Calling.....

Oh Calcutta!
My heart still skips a beat when i hear that...the city of joy..the former capital of India..the cultural hub of the country..home of Rabindranath Tagore..Bankimchandra and many more prolific writers..yes it is my own Calcutta, my home and not Kolkata as it is now known as...

One of the first things that comes to my mind when i think of Calcutta is the Howrah Bridge..the pride of Calcutta...the gateway to Calcutta.As a child going out of station seemed appealing because i got an opportunity to drive through the massive bridge..i looked in awe every time as my father showed me the Ganges and tried to teach me which direction of the river leads to Allahabad..my aunt's place..

People often say Calcutta appeals to those people who have lived there but the truth is that the city has touched every one who has ever been there in it's special ways.One thing that cannot be undermined is the spirit and hospitality of it's inhabitants.
From the early morning activities at the Babu Ghat..to the busy streets of Park Street.to the narrow by lanes of North Calcutta...to the crowded Kalighat temple ..to the street hawkers of Gariahat.. to the maddening crowds at Eden gardens...the spirit of Calcutta is alive and well in it's people.

Calcutta is a very cosmopolitan and modern city...orthodox in it's own way and modern on the other trying hard to embrace the new age.

The best thing about Calcutta is it's cuisine..a mixture of many cultures..
In Calcutta you can find the most amazing "Biriyani" and at the same time the most authentic Indianised Chinese food.As a child i remember going to Park Street for dinner...and how can i even forget China Town..the hakka noodles and gravy chilli chicken have rocked the hearts of Calcuttans for years now and obviously i am no exception.

The city celebrates Durga Puja and Christmas with equal enthusiasm..such is the love of of other cultures. The decked up Park Street on Christmas Eve and New Year is a sight worth seeing. I have been to many places but have never seen a Hindu dominated city celebrating Christmas with such enthusiasm. The city takes another beautiful look during the Durga Puja festival. All year round every Bengali waits eagerly for the pujas to come so that they can surrender themselves to a spiritual and cultural extravaganza. The clear blue skies with small white clouds, pleasant winds and fields adorned with "Kash Phool" signal the advent of "Sarat Kaal" and with it comes Durga Puja. The environment casts a magic spell and every one gets carried away by the grandeur of the festival....

Calcutta is a modern city built on the ruins of the past...though it's changing day by day yet it has managed to cling to it's roots.Calcutta today is as parochial as it is modern.It lives in the past as much as it lets it's past decay. India's first global city,it is littered with the remains of many worlds: the rickshaws brought in by the Chinese,the Mughlai food brought in by the Mughals, the hip hop and jazz culture brought in by the Americans and the everlasting impressions left behind by the British.

Calcutta to me is my home..it reminds me of my childhood days..it reminds me of the days i walked around the city holding my mother's hand....Calcutta to me is more than Victoria Memorial or Kalighat or Mohanbagan or Flury's or even Saurav Ganguly. Though all these things together make what Calcutta is today...it will always be special to me in more than one way..to me it is what i call......
Home..Sweet Home!!!

My School Days...

From a very young age i was very proud that i was a student of South Point High School..one of the most famous schools in Calcutta.i dont remember my first days at south point but certainly few of them are still very much alive in my memory...my father used to take me to school and buy me some flowers for my teachers..which later on became a habit..so this way i started my school life..or rather i started my life in the school which gave me good education, my best friends.. favourite teachers and most importantly it gave me my love..:D
I always had very few friends but the ones i had were the closest to me ever.Manjari and Parama...what can i say about them...they have a special place in my heart..Manjari was the notorious one like me and Parama was the cool one.Everybody called us "Three Musketeers".We did everything that we were not supposed to do..we ran around the school..played pranks on others.called names to other girls who were always busy concentrating on how they looked..and we were concentrating on how the boys looked..:D
As we grew up we changed as persons but at heart we were and still are the same..time flied by and someone special came into my life....Deepayan.He was more of a friend than anything else.In this case also my great friends gave me great support.
I loved my school so much that i ditched a very good college to continue my studies in my school after i passed 10th standard..Years flew by and gradually i reached the last day of school..It was one of the saddest day of my life..I hardly had a life without South Point..but i had to move on....and i did.
More than 8 years have passed since i last went to school but i can still hear the tiffin bells which we eagerly waited for or bells to commence the end of a boring period..the chitter chatter in class...still can remember the stupid things we used to do in school..the laughs,the cries,the joy,the pain and yet it seems so long ago.............