The Ordeal

Durga Puja....the most important festival for a Bengali! No matter in which corner of the world you are...if you are a Bengali, you would definitely yearn to come back to Kolkata during this time of the year! The decked up streets bustling with people equally decked up...in tune with the festive feel....children walking enthusiastically ignoring their shoe bites....the music on every corner of the road...food stalls...rides and yess the pandals! All of a sudden the city seems so lively...

I have never missed a Puja in Kolkata since the last 10 years of the life. Specially in the last two years....I skipped classes, did all I could do to prepone or postpone tests....stood in the line for tatkal tickets...travelled in sleeper class with a RAC ticket during the hot and humid month of October....everything seemed worth those 4-5days of joy!

This time it was a complete disaster though. I had booked my tickets well in advance. But because of the schedule of my exams had to cancel them...Then I decided to book another set of tickets after I realised I could do nothing much to change the dates of the exams.. By then the tickets were no longer available from Bangalore. I booked tickets to home via Chennai... waitlist though! I have an uncle who has VIP reservation quota in the railways. So there was my only chance to go home.

I wrote exams on Panchami and Soshti here at the institute. On Soshti night I took a train to Chennai. I reached early in the morning. Chennai central is quite a familiar station to me. During my M.Sc. days I used to travel to my home via Central. Anyway so after reaching there, I went to the ‘PNR status checking’ kiosk. The chart hadn’t been prepared by then. I sat for two hours in the station watching the local advertisements shown on the television in the station and waiting for the chart to be prepared. I had seen most of them in the last two years but it didn’t matter much.  At around 6:30am the chart was out and I came to know that my ticket was still in the waitlist. I didn’t know what to do. I sat in a chair and cried for 15-20mins. It seemed to be the best option. Flight fare by then was too much to be afforded by me. However I was determined to go home. I went to a “reservation after chart preparation” counter but was turned down.... caught hold of some random TTE in the station. I even thought of getting a general ticket to get on to the train and then pay the fine later. But my father just asked me to return back to hostel.

I so wanted to go home. I didn’t know whom to blame...my profs for jeopardizing my puja plans or my uncle or the unaffordable flight fare or that person in the “reservation after chart preparation” counter. The next train to Bangalore was after 20mins. I had to locate the ticket counter for local trains...which was in a different building. I finally got a ticket for myself 10mins before the train would leave for Bangalore. And then after 7hours I was back to the station from where I had happily started the night before! So I spent my Maha Saptami in travelling to Chennai and then coming back. And here I am today sitting in my room sulking on Ashtami morning. I might go out in the evening to some nearby pandals here with my friends. But then home is where the heart is. I wish September had never ended!

A MuNdAnE LifE

I am a very boring person. Well...it might not be a very appropriate sentence to start your post with but couldn’t think of anything else that would suit better. I sleep at 12 o’clock at night and wake up at 7:30 in the morning....do all sorts of boring chores which regular people do and then rush to my morning classes.

I don’t follow much in the classes though. Sometimes I would just stare blankly at the board (mostly because I am too lazy to either blink or look somewhere else :P).... sometimes I would be lost in the thoughts of people who are ignorant about the spectrum produced by a compound or are oblivious to the fact so as to what would happen if a particular amino acid is replaced by something else in the alpha helix!! Is life too tough for them? Obviously the answer is no. Then why it isn’t the same for me? Why do these facts seem so indispensable to me? It seems my life would stall without the answers! Frustrated and dejected, I decide to pack my bag and leave for some place unknown..away from the people I know. Just then, the instructor pulls me back to this earthly world by asking a question or enquiring if I am still there in the class!

I really wish I could go home..to my city. Not that I have been forced to stay here. But I have always wished for it ever since I had to stay away .... right from my postgraduate days. I feel a connection with Kolkata, which I have failed to make with any other city I have lived in. It has a charm of its own which draws you towards it. Anyways, you will find a lot of articles about Kolkata but not on my life :P ..the sole reason why I started writing on it this evening.

Well, nothing seems too interesting to me to hold back my attention for long. Change seems to be the only key to hold me back to this world. But then again I hate changes. So you see the problem ;).

Anyway, it’s almost time for my dinner. I have spent more than two years of my life living in hostel, still I have not become comfortable with the timely meals. The strict schedule seems to encroach on my freedom!! Thanks for reading this to the end! The most mundane thing on my blog! For a change I thought writing gibberish would help me get away with my boredom!

WhEn... tO CeleBRaTe, Or nOt To CeLEbRaTe, iS tHE qUesTIoN!!

Of late there has been a string of days dedicated to things and people. Fathers’ day, Mothers’ day, Music day, Widows’ day and what not!!

The day is not far when there would be more than 365 different things fighting with one another for a unique day demanding celebration. I am sure there is some economic aspect to it. The greeting card industry must be the one benefiting the most. No wonder there has been a sudden burst of websites selling cards, flowers, mementos, etc.

Anyway.... what I find interesting is that, associated with every special day are largely two groups of people. One which doesn’t mind celebrating Valentine's to Aids day! And the other which mostly does the work of criticizing the first group!

I often see people posting pictures of them with their mother, sister, brother or guitar on ‘World respective day’. Most of them I guess had been waiting for the appropriate time to post the relevant photo.  The pictures are often beautifully edited. Some even make wonderful collages with photos chosen after a great amount of thought. Then comes another subgroup of people who believe in celebrating the spirit of every occasion by wishing everyone. It hardly matters to them that their dog doesn’t have an account (most probably :P)  in that networking site. According to them, wishing it online is what the aim should be!! And now the second group of people comes into the picture.

For these people celebrating a particular day is a sin! They take it for granted that the people belonging to the first group never ever respect their parents or siblings all the year round and then one fine day they show PDA in social networking sites!

They find these people too nyaka and will go on commenting how silly and naive these people are. Who is right would be a very tricky and dangerous question to answer and I wouldn’t dare to think about it.

Personally speaking, even I don’t celebrate the different relevant unique 'DAYS'. The reason being sometimes I become too much occupied with my other unimportant jobs to celebrate or sometimes I don’t have enough money to spare and the rest of the time just because of the circumstances. But people who always manage their time wonderfully and sometimes even their finances beforehand to save something for the special day, hats off to you all. After all, theres no one in this world who doesn’t like to pampered :) .