We struck gold on the third attempt. Our bad run hadn't deterred us from continuing on our journey & our patience paid off :)
We came across a very interesting piece of construction, it was the official building for "Standard Life Assurance Company", the facade of the building had angels of death on it. Entire building was tastefully done, it looked nice even though there hasn't been much maintenance for it since Britishers left the country.
We also came across "Calcutta metropolitan water & sanitation authority" office, which was so dirty, spiders have been building cobwebs since ages, layer of dirt was so thick that actual color of the building was difficult to determine.
We also encountered some other unlikely sights, like kids playing football on the busiest street of Calcutta, almost non-existent traffic, cops being fine with us standing on the middle of the road to click pictures, etc.
Malai Toast & tea-After completing a full circle of the area, we stopped for much needed tea-break, just that tea wasn't the main reason for the break. There is this place near tea-board where you get heavenly "Malai-toast" & a decent tea to go along with it. Even on Sunday the place was thronged with people coming in with families & one would find all kind of expensive cars waiting there for their owners to dig into awesome malai toast.
Cathedral- It was close to Christmas & cathedral was fully decked with lights, statues & stuff. It was all extremely beautiful, decorations were top notch & there were spaces which were trying to tell different stories related to different life stages of Jesus Christ.
It was looking even better inside, making me think how come I have not visited the place before.
Fire & Camera-Shy Chacha- When the mercury drop people find ways of making themselves comfortable, one of the simplest ways is to burn stuff so as to get a fire going. And these are great place to socialize, with no barriers all kind of people can come here get some much needed warmth & then get on with their life. Since it was a holiday & nobody had to be anywhere, it was almost like a carnival around one of the fireplace. And without waiting for an invitation we also joined in. After some random chit-chat, they all happily agreed for a photo session, but one of the elderly person, affectionately called chacha by all there, was too shy & wasn't comfortable with the idea of people clicking him. But the crowd ensured that we got some nice clicks of the shy-chacha :)
We decided to stick to central kolkata for the day, starting from mission row & moving towards dalhousie & then ending at park street. It was a cold day & street were empty, as it is an official area & Sundays even most of the tea shops & eateries remain closed.
At the beginning we came across the first Chinese eatery of kolkata "Eau Chew Restaurant", if anything the picture did prove that, it did look old. We wanted to have food here, but it was closed. We went to mission cafe for their much famed Special chai, after waiting a decent bit what we got was not worth the wait. But just outside that an elderly man was sharpening knives, we started clicking his picture, he was happy with the attention. On requesting, he increased the sparks so that we can capture the same nicely.
Old Buildings- We started moving towards Dalhousie, now I have been to the place a zillion times but never have I paid attention to buildings, their architecture, the windows, facade, etc as there is a very good reason for that. This is one of the most densely populated areas in the city during office hours. Its a hub for government offices to trading shops, from brokerage houses to electrical market & it is also a destination for many official/business centers. But on holidays/weekend the place is almost deserted, as found by us on a Sunday.
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| Man who played with sparks :) |
Old Buildings- We started moving towards Dalhousie, now I have been to the place a zillion times but never have I paid attention to buildings, their architecture, the windows, facade, etc as there is a very good reason for that. This is one of the most densely populated areas in the city during office hours. Its a hub for government offices to trading shops, from brokerage houses to electrical market & it is also a destination for many official/business centers. But on holidays/weekend the place is almost deserted, as found by us on a Sunday.
We came across a very interesting piece of construction, it was the official building for "Standard Life Assurance Company", the facade of the building had angels of death on it. Entire building was tastefully done, it looked nice even though there hasn't been much maintenance for it since Britishers left the country.
We also came across "Calcutta metropolitan water & sanitation authority" office, which was so dirty, spiders have been building cobwebs since ages, layer of dirt was so thick that actual color of the building was difficult to determine.
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| Waiting for the day's catch |
Leisure activity- We saw quite a few groups fishing on the edge of the lake, on enquiring they said that every Sunday they would come in groups, they would bring their own cooking equipments & cook their catch there itself & enjoy with friends. After setting the lines, they would play cards with friends & drink local alcohol. It was pretty cold, so they also light fire so as to sit comfortably. The entire set-up was just awesome & made us want to spend some time with them, but then there were more things to be seen, hence we moved on.
We also encountered some other unlikely sights, like kids playing football on the busiest street of Calcutta, almost non-existent traffic, cops being fine with us standing on the middle of the road to click pictures, etc.
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| Malai toast & me!! |
Malai Toast & tea-After completing a full circle of the area, we stopped for much needed tea-break, just that tea wasn't the main reason for the break. There is this place near tea-board where you get heavenly "Malai-toast" & a decent tea to go along with it. Even on Sunday the place was thronged with people coming in with families & one would find all kind of expensive cars waiting there for their owners to dig into awesome malai toast.
It was looking even better inside, making me think how come I have not visited the place before.
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| Beth el synagogue |
Synagogue- Post the church it was time for us to to explore, the only two Synagogues in Calcutta, Maghen david Synagogue & Beth El Synagogue. Even though it takes some approvals to get inside both of them, we decided we would take a view from outside. If it would look good, we would take the necessary approvals for our next walk. And we were impressed from what we saw from outside. Both the buildings had that deserted look, but they were beautiful nonetheless. Great structure, covering decent areas they were both looking nice from outside, hence we left with promises of coming back.
Fire & Camera-Shy Chacha- When the mercury drop people find ways of making themselves comfortable, one of the simplest ways is to burn stuff so as to get a fire going. And these are great place to socialize, with no barriers all kind of people can come here get some much needed warmth & then get on with their life. Since it was a holiday & nobody had to be anywhere, it was almost like a carnival around one of the fireplace. And without waiting for an invitation we also joined in. After some random chit-chat, they all happily agreed for a photo session, but one of the elderly person, affectionately called chacha by all there, was too shy & wasn't comfortable with the idea of people clicking him. But the crowd ensured that we got some nice clicks of the shy-chacha :)  |
| New market |
Nahoum Bakery & New market- We decided to see if we can get the necessary approvals for the visit to both the synagogue as the approver is the owner for one of the old & famous bakeries of Calcutta, Nahoum Bakery in new market. Now new market is generally a crowded place, but we found a Christmas special crowd making our life extremely difficult. But somehow we managed to reach the bakery & we were told that the person who handles the permission for visit was not there, leading it to be a fruitless trip. But still the feeling of it being close to Christmas caught onto us, as the atmosphere was full of festivities. While getting out of the place an old song was playing in the head " I feel it in my finger, I feel it in my toes", version used in 'Love Actually' :)
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| Park street in festive mood |
It was late & hence we decided we would call it a day, not before going to park street & just seeing the entire street celebrating "Kolkata Christmas Festival" for a period of 10 days, where both Christmas & New year would be celebrated. Entire place was covered with lights, extra security arrangements, families coming to admire the decoration, light & sound shows, etc. It was a satisfying day & we were looking forward to the next installment.
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