MY AVERAGE LIFE AS A MANCHUNIAN

Most of the time when I ping my friends over Social Media sites, the first question they ask is how am I spending my days in Manchester. So I thought let me describe my normal days, in this post. Here, I would mention that I have classes only two days a week and the rest of the five days are usually spent at home when I am not going out to explore the place with friends.

SUNRISE OVER BEETHAM TOWER

 My mornings begin the last, that is after my father has gone out for work and after my mother finishes her breakfast and starts chatting with some of her friends back in India. I happen to open my eyes at such a time. Of course I have never seen the colourful hues of sunrise here except for once but I could not capture it though my lens (maybe it would be my next New Year’s Resolution). The first thing I do is check my phone and later proceed to have my breakfast after a quick wash.

DOGGIE

 While I eat breakfast, I get to see my neighbour taking their bull dog for a walk. The dog seemed cute until I managed to make him angry by switching on my camera flash right at him. Since, then he has mood swings when he sees me. Some days I am non-existent and other days I am fortunate enough to evoke a little wag from him. But it is for sure that this dog will not shake paws with me EVER!

THE NEXT DOOR CAT

 My other neighbour, who I have no clue about, owns a cat. After a lot of research I have managed to figure out that it is a British Semi-Longhaired black cat. This cat does nothing but sit at the window staring at something. It is only when it rains that I do not get to see him.

After breakfast comes my daily routine of going to the garbage dump at the basement and to the letter box.

WATCHING TV

 Thereafter, I sit on the couch with my laptop and watch the television and improvise on my blogs when I am not writing my assignments. This takes most of my time and I head for lunch. After lunch it is T.V time again.

The evenings are mostly kept for household shopping for which I go to the Manchester ARNDALE. After shopping I usually make a stop at the Hasty Tasty Pizza which stocks some of the best takeaway pizzas I have ever tasted.

With the rain clouds hovering above our heads most evenings see a shower here. After shopping we are mostly stuck in rain and have to brave the heavy rain and wind to come back to our apartment again.

Subsequently, it is laptop time where I sit with my laptop, watch CID or listen to songs till dinner is announced.

After dinner, I go to sleep.

Most of my days are spent like this. When I wake up here, it is already afternoon for my friends back home and by the time I am free in the evening, it is midnight for them. I can’t remember how many days has it been since I last heard their voice. It is mostly email and Facebook or Whatsapp chats nowadays where we reply as and when we are free. But behind the veil of glamour and beauty of this place, there is a night of darkness and loneliness that this place possesses. It is not that I am having a bad time here, I love this place and my friends here, but I also long to be in touch with my friends back home; to know where they are now, what they do, to meet those who I have not met for years, to take part in festivals. Durga Puja and Diwali just went by, but the noise and the lights never reached me except for in the colourful photo messages sent by my friends.

So, for all the people back home who think I have become a Bileti person, you guys probably have a life that I envy a lot. Life is not as full of glamour as it seems to be. It is, in fact, really difficult and sometimes tests your patience and limits to endure against the weather, the place, the dark gloomy nights and your inner demons. To end this post, I’d rather quote Iris Murdoch “We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality.”

A Strange Encounter

“The world is my garden” she said before I resumed my path. . . . . . . . . .

Stepping out of my home I usually head straight to my destination without sparing a thought for my surroundings. But now with no examinations and classes at hand, I have lots of free time .  Thus unlike my usual routine I decided to take a leisurely stroll around my neighborhood.

After travelling quite a distance, I chanced upon an old lady who I saw was watering plants. Fair enough! Nothing new! But this lady was watering the roadside plants. She carried on with her work for quite some time and I stopped to look at what she was doing.

She watered the plants, picked up wrappers of chips and chocolates and disposed them off at a nearby dustbin, cut off the dead leaves, pruned the grasses and her work went on and on. I was so amazed to see her working selflessly for these plants that I lost track of time.

She saw that I was looking at her and motioned me to come nearer. She was clear in making me understand that she was not educated enough to converse in English and was very glad when she saw I understood Bangla. Thus began quite a monologue which changed my perception towards life quite a bit.

According to her we are mostly alive and surviving the scorching heat due to these plants which grow on the roadside. However, they are abandoned in nature. Even though they give us so many useful resources, no one takes care of them. She thought it to be her duty to take care of these plants and thus every morning she watered the neighborhood plants. She explained that since this activity of hers takes a long time she never bothered to maintain a house garden of her own. Every time a plant dies she goes out to the market, buys saplings and replaces them.

She went on saying that there are many afforestation programs in the world, but how many people seriously take part in it; and what after planting the sapling? They abandon it and get on with their regular day to day activities never sparing a thought for the needs of those saplings they plant and took selfies with (Yes she used the term selphy). She brought in an example and pointed out  that if pets are cared for then why not plants- both are living, both have feelings and above all both need love to grow and survive. The lady told me she remembers the names of each and every plant there (scientific names) and sometimes lovingly gives the new saplings a nickname of her own.

Her biggest concern was the polluted roads during the rainy season which would harm the plants.

I realized that I had been away from home longer than I intended to. I bid her goodbye and carried on my own way. “The world is my garden” she said before I resumed my path. Her selfless devotion to the roadside plants indeed left a deep impression on me. It has compelled me to question whether we have become insensitive to our natural surroundings. Are we truly missing a point here?

I have gone past the same road quite few times after I met this lady and on one or two occasions have spotted her busy managing her “garden”. Do let me know of what you feel about her work and if possible ponder for a while on my question that are we really becoming insensitive towards nature.

P.S I have no photographs here because the lady wanted to remain anonymous and I did not want to attach photos from the net in this post. 

A Calcutta That Was. .

                                     “Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we                                                                                             remember it.” 
                                                                                                    ― L.M. Montgomery, The Story Girl

I begin today's post with such a quote as it is specially connected to what this post is going to be about. Today I write about memories forgotten by many and unknown to many . Kolkata as we now know it , which is home to many of us has turned so modern that many cannot visualize what Calcutta was like. Though I do find some remains of old Calcutta here and there and mostly in North Calcutta, much of what was, is lost to us. The buildings demolished, the mansions brought down to make multi-storey buildings and above all the people who knew the past are fading away quietly  burying with them the many secrets of Calcutta.

Unfortunately I myself have not ever had a chance to communicate with such people but the good point is that these scenes are captured by great artists in their works. These works would never die and remind us of our culture and heritage whenever we forget it . I still remember during one of my college breaks when I entered a famous bookstore in Park Street and while my friends were looking at books I was staring at some paintings of Old Calcutta. A  young man called for an attendant  and asked him about the paintings to which the attendant looked clueless. In fact he replied that no one ever buys those and they just lie there year after year gathering dust. I was amazed by the reply which the young man gave and that reply is one of the primary reasons I am writing this post today he said and I quote" I am most unfortunate to not have been able to see the beauty of Old Calcutta and I am just trying to discover and keep that fire alive in society". That day he stunned two people with his reply- the attendant and me as well.

Since then I have started my own research about paintings of Old Calcutta and I think it would be best that they tell their own stories rather than me describing them today. Though there are lots of copyright issues I have still managed to find some that will not put anyone in trouble.

Starting with the oldest, anyone who has ever read the history of Calcutta would know the Battle of Plassey.

This is a painting of one of the famous animal sports played during the Raaj. Armed men would be seated on top of elephants and begin their hunt to kill an animal. These were some of the atrocious animals sports played and I sometimes wonder whether they are one of the reasons that wildlife is becoming endangered and extinct today.

Up next two of the most renowned and famous temples of Kolkata- Dakhineshwar Temple (Above) and Kalighat (Below). Earlier one used to cross the Ganges on shared boats to reach the Dakhineshwar Temple but today the infrastructure is so developed that hardly one sees anyone coming there by boat. In fact the boats seen in the sketch of Kalighat are near extinct. If one is lucky one might get to see some of them parked at the Ganges Ghat.

If temples are found in Calcutta, churches are also no less. Considering that the British ruled over us for 200 years it is impossible that churches were not built. The Scottish Church (Above ) and St Peter's Church in Fort William (Below) are two of the oldest churches in Calcutta. However if one visits them today, one would not be able to imagine the difference between the paintings and reality.

These form three of my personal favorite paintings and sketches. The First painting (above) is a view of the Esplanade road from Chowringhee. Looking at the place today it is hard to imagine that horses roamed the very streets once.The next one (Middle) is a painting of Belvedere  House Alipore. Interestingly such old houses today are the hotspots of ghost stories . Whether these stories are true or just tales told by locals to scare away people for their own personal gains is yet to be discovered. The third (Below) , a pencil sketch of Victoria Memorial  by Samir Biswas would always remain etched in the minds of those who take one look at it.

Since this post deals with sketches and paintings it would not be fair if I do not add a painting of an art gallery. And lastly I end the post with two very popular traditional Bengali paintings. The first by Jamini Roy and the second depicting the famous Sindoor Khela during Durga Puja.

 Though much has changed today in terms of technology and infrastructure development, still I sense that “Sometimes. . . . the things I remember are more real than the things I see. ” 

  

Shantiniketan- Home of the Bard

Shantiniketan is probably the only place I have gone till date where the absence of technology did not hurt me.Though it has been almost three years since I went there but the memories of Ranga Matti and Khola Hawa are fresh in my mind as if it were just yesterday that I had made the trip. The best part of this trip was that I was accompanied by my friends and the fun that you have when you are with your friends is something that you miss when you are travelling on your own or with your family.

I still remember the  warm October morning in 2011 when I was waiting in the Howrah Station to take my first ever train ride. Bolpur can also be reached by cars and buses which ply regularly from Kolkata . But due to lack of time we chose to take the fastest way- a train ride which would take us in about two and a half hours.

If you have not taken a train ride ever , then I suggest that you should, at least once in your lifetime. The train moving at its own pace with the scenery changing outside every now and then is a sight missed by those sitting high up in the plane.Right from barren lands to crops being cultivated and animals grazing amidst lush greenery ; every sight can be seen and experienced. There is an equal amount of activity going on inside the train as well.People from all backgrounds and speaking different languages travelling together; food vendors , book sellers, candy sellers and achar sellers shouting on top of their voices to attract customers. Overall the two and a half hours journey seems very less when surrounded by such wonderful activities. On its way the train stops at various big and small stations to pick or drop people. Some daredevils also show their skills by trying to jump off from the moving train but display of such tactics are highly objectionable and dangerous.

RIVER AJOY FROM THE TRAIN

BOLPUR STATION

Shantiniketan is a place close to nature. It appeals to the senses of a person and transcends the gap between them and nature. The beauty lies in the simplicity of the place and the innocence of the people living there. It is not a concrete jungle but a series of loose shacks, bungalows, green fields , villages and a number of tourist lodges apart from hostels for the students who come to study in the Visva Bharati University.

FIELDS 

When in Shantiniketan there are a few must see places that one has to visit.

• The Visva Bharati University campus houses not only the University itself but also a centre for Arts and Culture, the house of Rabindranath Tagore , a museum, a prayer hall and a very famous more than a hundred year old Banyan Tree. There is also a handicraft section where handicrafts made by the students are on display . But it remains open only during the sessions of the University.

PRAYER HALL

BANYAN TREE

• Family Park is a beautiful place which can be best enjoyed during evenings. watching the sunset amidst such wonderful surroundings of games , swings and food counters is not something one gets everyday.

• Amar Kutir is a very famous handicraft centre. Anyone who comes here cannot miss this place.From hand embroidered dress, Kurtis, file, folders, jewelries, paintings to pora maati  (burnt clay) show pieces , everything is available here. One must take some souvenirs which reflect on the tradition of Shantiniketan from here.

• Flower Garden Resort  is a lush garden-scape spread over few acres of land. One can name a flower and find it in the garden. Every direction one looks one can find a variety of colors - From red, pink, yellow , white roses to tulips, sunflowers, jasmines, periwinkles and some occasional fungi , everything can be spotted here. There are huts which can be booked by people to stay and relax in during short weekend trips .

TREES PRUNED TO FASHION

THE LONELY ANT

LOTUS' READY TO BLOOM

THE ROAD TO THE FLOWER GARDEN RESORT 

• Sanskriti Park is a unique display of the culture of India . It has traditional huts representing different States of the country . Inside the huts are those traditional items with which one clearly associates with the State- be it festivals, musical instruments, paintings, embroideries, etc.

ENTRANCE TO SANSKRITI PARK

TRADITIONAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS ON THE DISPLAY

• There are many villages and settlements in Bolpur. If  time permits one can visit these tribal and non-tribal villages and experience the rural way of  living.

PAINTINGS ON THE WALLS OF THE VILLAGE HOUSES

A TRIBAL LADY AT WORK

• The Village Haat sits only on Saturday evenings . It is a true reflection of the culture where the tribals sell their hand made items , Baul singers entertain people in their melodious voices - all in the banks of the beautiful Khoai.

• Lastly, the river Kopai and the irrigation channel Khoai. One can sit on the banks of Kopai and feel that time has stopped . One can feel being transported to the time of the Bard and imagine how he could compose most of his masterpieces.

CROSSING THE KOPAI

A DRIED UP KHOAI

In Shantiniketan few things should be remembered.

• With an abundance of mosquitoes at night , life can be bad.
• Waking up in the mornings to find a monkey on your rooftop or veranda is not an unusual sight.
• Cows and Goats taking a bath in the nearby river can be a pleasant view.
• People follow the simple rural lifestyle Early to bed, early to rise; thus wandering around in the empty streets after ten at night is not advisable.

Nevertheless it is a trip one should make to relax their senses from the busy tension filled hustle and bustle of the city life.

A FARMER AT WORK