The Bengali Saga

There are certain cities I so much want to see at least once in my life time. Although I haven't travelled any extensively so there's a lot of nice places skipping my limited knowledge, but with whatever I have.. I really want to go to Calcutta once. I don't know what fascinates me there, whenever I see the pictures of that slow moving, densely populated city... May be mysterious Bongs. Yeah, I had quite many Bengali friends during my college and job days; and I must say the girls were mysteriously attractive. They have this ability to make you think about them, every time you look at them and I suppose it is exactly what the pictures of Calcutta do to me.

I like cities with a rich cultural heritage and a language of their own. Metros need to have exclusivity. Just like Mumbai, Delhi, and Chennai.... the aura of Calcutta seems difficult to be duplicated. Must say that my first encounter to this lazy city was through some Satyajit Ray movies... followed by endless google search for Kolkata pics. And yes, the other reason for this special affection is Sri Rabindranath Tagore. A city must be lucky to be adorned by such a maestro, who shares his birthday with me. But that's not all... the wide, enchanting, dirty, huge, chaotically silent Hooghly, or the Howrah Bridge or the stories of East India Company or the Victoria Memorial or the red-raided political jungle or the Trams or the erstwhile yellow taxis or Dakshineshwar Kali temple and Swami Vivekanand or Rashogulla, Sandesh & Mishti Dhoi or the Park Street or the soulful Durga Pooja or the Bengali literature or Mohun Bagan or females with golden white saari and red border and those mesmerising Bengali eyes that can cease anyone's attention if they like or the IIM-Calcutta or Mother Theresa... Gosh.. there's so much still left and all of it is too fascinating!! You tell me one city that has such varied marvels and interestingly all painted in one colour - Bengalism!! Probably, this makes Calcutta so distinct. I guess, probably Chennai might put some competition in this particular kind of unity in diversity, since Mumbai and Delhi, though distinctly unique in their own ways, are more fancifully coloured in different cultures.

Also, the dominance of females over males makes Calcutta, stand apart. However, I have never been to that place and the sample size of my observation was too minuscule to read the general behaviour of an entire race.. but as what told to me by my Bong friends, Calcutta is the city, where women rock!!!! They are the decision makers and managers and the evaluators. Might be, the credit goes to the beautiful eyes, silky hair and the sweet Bengali accent that these vernacular ladies are blessed with. After all, men could not be strong enough to let go the magical impact of such seductions... and on the top of that, the brains they have could match the IQ, smartness and at times knavishness of any race, worldwide. I really have admiration for Bengali women, again for these very vividly present but exclusive to them attributes. At the same time, most of the Bengali guys I have met till date were quite simple and recessive in nature.. laid back at times... much to what I guess from the pace of this crowded city.

Anyway, lets see when I get the chance to see this wonderful city and make opinions about it on the first hand basis... and I want to go there, during the Durga Pooja time.. people say Bengal goes insane at that time... and I want to make myself a part of that insanity for a while!