The Kolkata Connection

Hey everyone,

Today’s story is also about a trip I made recently; this time to Kolkata. It was super short. I was barely there for a day and a half, but I think I fell in love again.

New places always pull me, but Kolkata was special. The city oozed history and culture. It is the cultural capital of the country for a reason I guess.

I was staying in the older part of the city, and every building I saw there seemed to have a story to tell. I really wanted to stay longer and soak up the energy of the city in full, but couldn’t. However, I’ve decided; Kolkata is one place I’ll definitely be visiting again.

My mother had a conference in Kolkata and that was how I happened to go. It was a chance to visit a city that I had been longing to visit for a while and get free accommodation in the process- meaning that my parents would pay for my food and stay. 😛

My dad, sister and I were supposed to go to Kolkata with my mom. However, we had to attend a pooja at home in Kerala, so we ended up arriving two days late. There were no direct flights from Coimbatore (which was the closest airport to place of the pooja) to Kolkata, so we had to transfer at Chennai. Thus it was late afternoon by the time we reached Kolkata even though we had started early that morning for the journey.

From the Kolkata airport we took an Uber to the place my mom was staying at- the Monlisa Lodge. If you’ve seen the movie Kahani starring Vidya Balan, you’ll be familiar with it. It was where Vidya’s character was supposed to have stayed in the course of that movie. In fact, there is actually a big portrait of her from the movie at the entrance to the lodge.

My mom chose this place on the recommendation of my sister who had stayed there for a few weeks while she had been in the city for work. This meant that all the staff at the lodge knew her pretty well and was extra helpful toward us.

The lodge itself was an old house converted into a lodge, and it had nice comfortable rooms. I guess it had been repaired and repainted a little before the time of our stay; it looked pretty good. Additionally, they served excellent homemade food for meals. So, you had to tell the staff what you wanted ahead of time so that they could prepare it. Overall, I quite enjoyed the lodge as much as everything else I saw in the city.

By the time my dad, sis, and I reached the lodge in the afternoon my mom had not returned from her conference. So after freshening up we decided to explore the area on foot to find some place to eat. Since my sister knew the area and the city pretty well, she was our acting tour guide.

I loved this little walk because we were surrounded by so many of those old buildings that oozed history I mentioned before. We stopped at a little Udipi restaurant, that my sister knew, to have a late lunch. By the time we were done and walked back to the lodge, the sun had more or less gone down even though it was only ataround 5 o’clock. I guess that is how it is when you’re in the eastern side of the country.

When we reached the lodge after our lunch walk, we found out that my mother was back. Once she had a chance to freshen up and have a cup of coffee, we decided to go for another walk around the area and do some shopping. My sister was once again the acting tour guide.

Here, I must mention that we were not alone on this little trip. My mother’s best friend and her husband were also present. My mother’s best friend is in the same profession as my mom and was also there for the conference. And when we decided to go shopping in the evening, she and her husband joined us.

I am not going into details about the shopping; it was mostly saris and clothes for ourselves and as gifts. Once we were done, we headed back to the lodge, had dinner and settled in for the night.

The next morning was to be our Kolkata darshan. Only, my mother and her best friend were busy with their conference, so they weren’t able to see all the sights of the city with the rest of us.

They did, however, come to the Kali ghat temple in the morning. Luckily, it was pretty close to where we were staying and so we managed an early morning visit. This temple is on the banks of the Hooghly river and is sacred to Mother Kali. While I think it’s a nice enough temple, it was all about the money for the brahmins there, which I do not appreciate. Moreover, we barely got a darshan before we were pushed out. I don’t suppose I can blame them though; it is their source of income.

My mom found an old christian missionary right next to the temple, which both she and I found kind of ironic. But then again, this is India where we can have a temple, a mosque and a church all in the same area. Also, the missionary was for conversion and placing it right next to one of the oldest and most popular temples in the city kind of made sense.

After the darshan, we went back to the lodge, from where my mom and her friend went for their conference and the rest of us went for our Kolkata darshan.

My dad, sister and I left a little early and my mom’s friend’s husband joined us later. The three of us were really touristy about the places to see and we decided to start with the Victoria Memorial first.

Architecture wise, the memorial was really beautiful. It is a gigantic structure made of marble with a huge garden and a lot of information on the history of the city. There was so much in there about the origin and colonizing of the city, that it was an information overload. Also, quite bit of the morning went in seeing the entire memorial and while waiting for uncle (my mom’s friend’s husband) to show up.

Once he did, we visited the Princep ghat and saw one of the bridges that cross the Hooghly – the Vidyasagar Sethu. This bridge reminded me a lot of the Bandra-Worli sealink in Mumbai because it is also a cable-stayed bridge. Additionally, the ghat had a walkway along the river with a garden where people could have a picnic. It had just finished raining when we got there, so there was a little moisture in the air that made the ambiance of the place even better.

The four of us had taken a yellow taxi of Kolkata to get to Princep ghat from the Victoria memorial. I found that journey quite an adventure too, since this yellow taxi was one of the old ambassador models that don’t really get made anymore. They are the traditional taxis of Kolkata that people used, before Uber and Ola became a thing; similar to the black and yellow taxis of Mumbai.

We then went to a restaurant near Park Street for a slightly late lunch. Park Street is one of the most popular commercial hubs in Kolkata. There are a lot of shops and a lot of places to eat there.

The restaurant we went to was called Flury’s. It is a pretty old and famous diner/restaurant in Kolkata. The food was really good too. I’d give it a rating of 4 out of 5 at least. We got my mom and her friend pastry’s from this restaurant, since they are quite famous for them. But it was my sister and I that mostly finished the pastry we got for our mom.

After lunch we headed back to the lodge for a rest. My mom and her friend also returned from their conference and later in the evening we booked an Uber and drove around the city. We crossed the Howrah bridge and back and had a coffee at the Old Indian Coffee House in College Street. This particular Coffee House is one of the oldest in the city and has played an important role in the cultural history of the city as a meeting place of intellectuals.

I was very interested to go to College street because it has a string of old book shops where they sell really great books at super cheap prices. However, by the time we reached there all the book stores had closed so I was pretty disappointed. I really wanted to explore those book shops. This is one of the reasons I want to go back to Kolkata.

After we were done at the Coffee House, we decided to call it a day and head back to the lodge. We booked another Uber and had a nice drive back. I liked seeing Kolkata in the night lights. Moreover, since we had gone just before Navrathri we saw a evidence of a lot to-be-built pandals for the upcoming Durga Puja. The Durga Puja is to Kolkata what the Ganesh Chathurthi festival is to Mumbai.

We reached the lodge, had dinner, and went to bed. I flew back to Mumbai the next morning while my parents and sister stayed a few hours longer as their flight was only in the evening. My mom’s friend and her husband were to fly back to their home only the day after.

And that was how my super short trip to Kolkata ended.

That’s it for now. Until next time folks!!!