The moving finger writes.............

It's just 14 days to go for the Durga Pujas, that time of the year when the Bengali goes ballistic and the normally torporic Kolkata swings into action. Elegant pandals come up beside decrepit roads, the beautiful smiling face of Maa Durga looks down upon us from every nook and corner, and the city goes into its biggest carnival season. It’s a   carnivorous season, too, going by the amount of non- vegetarian food consumed during these days; people from other metros fail to understand how non-veg   food can be consumed during a Puja, and we Bongs say with a smile- “Well, that’s how it is in this part of the country- you guys will never understand us!” I can see the pandal coming up near our house- shaped like an alien spaceship. Pandals in all shapes and sizes are coming up in other parts of the city. Each caters to a different “ theme” . I remember the time a few years back, when the “ theme “ for our neighbourhood Puja was Egypt, and the idols  ( Durga,...

Rains have begun in Kolkata. And with the rains, the mud and the mess have come on. Life becomes stuck in a mire of poodles,slush and traffic jams. The already messy Kolkata roads become messier and tougher to navigate. People hang on to the buses for their dear lives. Cyclists pedal hard to escape the torrent. Cycle rickshaws with a curious sort of plastic covering hood, make their way across the city. One good thing, though. There is a respite from the intensely hot weather. From the  window of my office, I can see the clouds lining the nearby multistoried buildings. Dark clouds over the horizon. I used to like the rains when I was young, and we could run down the huge school grounds, soaking the water into our shoes. Now, practical concerns of car navigation, going to office and so forth have taken over, and I am not really too enamoured by the onset of the rains. I have seen rains in a number of cities. Kolkata, Mangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi, Pune, C...

It’s been some time since I have written. Caught up with work and other issues. Life has been settling into a familiar terrain of work, family and the daily grind. I have been reconnecting with family, after many years. But I do get the occasional time for some other pursuits, though few and far in between. Besides the television and the Car FM Radio, Ruskin Bond has been keeping me engaged these days. His stories are like a balm upon the soul, refreshing and healing at the same time. Multifarious and touching many lives, his stories are intimate studies of human beings and their lives, amongst tranquil nature. I also did the Art of Living course and   managed to gain some benefits from it… which I hope to continue. I have been discovering/ rediscovering many parts of Kolkata ( nee Kolkata). The Lakes, the malls ( may daughter is addicted to   malls already) , the Zoo, the Circus ( after decades), the   Lake Kalibari, the Rabindra Sarobar ...

She grew up faster than I could know. I guess children are like that- one day they are a newborn kid babbling in your arms; and the nest thing you know, a few years have crossed by, and they turn into this little adult whom you never knew. She recently entered KG from Nursery. Quite a transition; I remember the School Interview where she was one more babbling kid, accompanying her parents to the interview.And today, she is a school-growing kid with varied interests from Chhota Bheem to dance and art. We play bubbles and football on the terrace quite often, and Snake and ladders at other times. The other day, her toy bird overshot the limits of our terrace, and went into the neighbor’s compound. It was quite a late night adventure to retrieve it. We took her to the circus this year, and she was enthralled to see the clowns and the animals. It was quite an adventure for her young life. Most of all, she remembers the joker who played the practical pranks. My late n...

Summer has hit with a vengeance. It is plus 35 already in the daytime, and the forecast for Calcutta this year seems to be 49 degreess Celsius. It is my first Calcutta summer in some time, and I take it as a (over) warm welcome :)  Having seen the worst blazing summers in Delhi, I can claim to be sufficiently immune to heat waves. But even so, I am bracing for the worst. Bottles of cold drinks   and water notwithstanding, one still feels drained , and even more so if one is outside. The perspiration also hits. This will, however, be the scenario for the next 3-4 months, so we are bracing ourselves for the worst. Some of the worst summers I spent were in Delhi, where I had to sleep on the terrace at night (with the mosquitoes and in threat of the monkeys!)   due to the infamous power cuts, nearly 7 years back.I remember how I used to drench my mattress with water (which used to evaporate pretty soon), and buy endless cold water bottles ( since there was...

Holi is the festival of colours, when the country is drenched in colours, and a general air of festivity is palpable all around. From the northern plains to the Western Ghats, the sound of “Holi Hai” reverberates. The popular Holi numbers, such as “Rang barse” enthral the mind. The story behind the festival, Holi, starts with Holika, the sister of Hiranakashyap, the father of Prahalad.Hirnakashyap had declared himself as GOD and wanted his son Prahalad to worship him and not Vishnu. When Prahalad refused to do the same, he was made to sit with Holika in an open fire. Holika had a boon that she would not be burned even if she was on live fire. When she was made to sit with Prahalad on the live fire, the opposite happened. She lost her life and got burned but Prahalad came out alive from the fire. The above story has a deep spiritual meaning. Here, Hiranakashyap represents the "ego" which when takes control makes one forget about their own consciousness and makes...