Calcutta

I was reading the Giant's blog and she'd written a lovely post on Home. Yes that idyllic place of memories and parathas, homework and adrak ki chai, ma and her nagging... it's such a part of me that the capital H comes on its own accord.

But these hols Home, is not tiny Doon, but languid Cal.
I wanna gorge on tiger prawns at my masi's place...
go to my favourite restaurant Mocambo and have their famous prawn cocktail, then zip to Oxford to spend two glorious hrs browsing random books... aah!
and then! sigh...eat puchkas on a rainy cal evening, half-drenched, giggling...

sit on the terrace when it gets too hot...aadabaazi-ing, all the while trying to catch that tiniest murmur of a breeze...damn that Calcutta weather!

Cal, for me has always conjured the images of Ol' Cal....possibly because my earliest memories of the city are of Victoria Memorial (I used to run round and round the building in a polka-dot frocka & white ribbons in my hair. That my mother did not die of exhaustion trying to catch an abnormally energetic 4 yr old is a testament to that woman's strength); Howrah; Blue Fox, a colonial restaurant which is has succumbed to the recession Calcutta has been facing long before America; and my sojourns in North Calcutta with my chhoti masi where I'd eat all the sandesh & then promptly throw up..

While growing up, in my teens, Cal now took the form of The Forum on Camac Street, Pantaloons at Goriahaat, endless rides on the ancient metro. And frequent bouts of indigestion i suffered at the hands of my dida's spicy bong preparations.
The visits grew more f
.
.
.
These holidays, hopefully, I shall be going to the city after 4 years. I've no idea what to expect. Has it changed? Will i like my cousins now that they re growing up? What about the tidal wave of relatives who would want to know all 'bout my blood group, height, weight,roommates,college,teachers,career,cgpa,boyfriend,marriage plans and everything under the blazing Bengal sun!
I don't care..
All I know is I'm going to Calcutta!!!!!