Walking through City of Joy- 4

It was to be the best day of our exploration so far, as wherever we went we got more than what we expected. It was also to be the biggest surprise in my experience so far in Calcutta as I got to know the wealth that exists here, as I went to Marble palace or as people call it, Mullick-badi.

Our plans were already set in place as we decided to start with one of the famous Churches in Calcutta, get the permissions & visit both synagogues & follow that up with a visit to Nakhuda Masjid & end with Marble palace or as locals call it, "Mullick Badi".

Christmas decor

Church- It was Christmas holiday and we reached decently post the morning mass, so the church was empty but for the local organ player. And the church had the biggest organ that I had seen so far in my life. Huge instruments, with very old ivory made keys & functionality was also very outdated, giving it that old world aura. But it produced awesome music, as demonstrated by the organ player.


Synagogue- After requesting a lot we got approval through a phone call, as again the approving authority wasn't there at the Nahoum Bakery. Our trump card being the story of Maskey shifting to US in near future & this being his last opportunity to visit both the synagogues. 10 minutes later we were traveling towards the first of the synagogue with one of the regular worker of the bakery. He gave us loads of information about the local Jewish community & the dynamics governing the responsibilities of the social owned stuff of the fraternity, which kept us engaged till we reached the first of the synagogues.

Beth el synagogue-  We knew that  it would be beautiful, having seen the exterior that bit was pretty easy to predict. But since this was the first visit to any synagogue for me, quite a few interesting things emerged out of the experience. Simple things like the skull cap which you need to wear before entering, they were extremely particular about it even though there wasn't a Jew there in sight there, staff was extremely sensitive towards the tradition & customs.

Beth-el Synagogue

It was beautiful at all level, not in your face kind of beauty but serene & calm kind of beauty which soothes your mind. Right from color combination used, white & blue, to old fashioned high ceiling with hanging fans & lights, it was all part of the look. All the windows were made up of different colored glasses, when sunlight passes the glass it takes the color of the glass itself giving it a really nice touch. Chairs & all were in really bad condition, but rest everything was well maintained.



Basic understanding of the structure was very simple, one dedicated area for "Torah Study", where the book would be kept & read, with chairs around it for listeners. 'Torah' would be kept on 'Bimah', a wooden table. Then there would be another area which would be used to keep religious pictures & symbols. This area would be beautifully decorated & full of pictures of symbols which we couldn't understand, but it was nice nonetheless.

Maghen David

Maghen David Synagogue- Though second in the series of Synagogues, it was better than the previous one in terms of beauty. Huge chandeliers hanging on top of the 'Torah study' & the reflection of the windows falling from all directions, make the thing looks fantastic. Beth-el was covered from all direction hence no reflection of colored glasses were visible in side, the same wasn't true in case of Maghen David making it more colorful.

Beautiful looking windows all around, made the place a visual treat. Then the area where the signage/symbols/pictures were kept was much better here. The place also had a different kind of lamp, with a very exotic looking ceiling. It was intriguing for us & without answers to our questions regarding the relevance of all the elements, it remained like that till we came out. The place also had some real designer type stand lamps, which added to the visual appeal. We clicked loads of pictures here, but then we decided to move as there were many more places mentioned on the agenda for the day.

Roads leading to Nakhuda Masjid

Nakhuda Masjid- Like both of the previous public religious place, this was also in middle of nowhere surrounded by shops & restaurants with sea of humanity on all sides. It had a very interesting facade, which stood tall in front of the mosque.
After a while we decided to enter but we were slightly circumspect, blame it on the image created by media or the various news channels or the incidents across the globe or the bias created by our own mind, but we realized later that it was for no reason. It was a different set up inside, the flow of activities were, you enter & proceed towards the well where you clean yourself, feet, face, hands, etc after which you proceed for offering "namaaz".

Clocks with different time

Just behind the facade there was a collection of watches which were showing different time, we guessed that they were attuned to various holy places as per Islam. Overall a very interesting setup with huge open spaces. Loads of people coming & going, at times interacting with known faces for a while. We clicked loads of pictures here also, some came out real nice.

Mullickbadi from outside the official boundary

Mullick-badi or Marble palace- Nothing could have prepared us for the brilliance which we were to encounter here, this was a place which was abode for Raja Rajendra Mullick built by him in 1835, which is still used by his descendants. The place has so many different facets about it that I don't know where to start & where to end.

Beautiful statue inside dirty pond

It is usually not open on weekends, hence visitors have to come on week days in order to enter. There are clearly demarcated public areas which you can enter which has interesting things but other parts are beyond visitors as the royal family still lives there. Daily select number of people are given free food for which there is a queue system (first come first model). And the place is full of beautiful stuff, but camera is not allowed inside. It also has a garden for the kids to play & enjoy themselves.

As soon as one enter, the first sight is the enormous building, in front of which is a beautiful fountain. Now this fountain is the only thing which can be clicked officially, but our greed forced us to take couple of other picture as well of breathtakingly beautiful sculptures. If there were two common observation which has to be mentioned for all pieces of work they would be, first everything is awesomely beautiful & second, none of it is properly maintained. Will come back to maintenance bit later, the place was also home for host of animals & birds of different variety. I don't even know their names apart from the a few like Peacock, Monkey, Orangutan, Langur, Emu, etc. But the sad bit was again they were not kept properly, as in the area was limited for some of the animals, some of them looked as if they were not well, etc. Though I am no expert on these matters, but even then it looked as if the animals were not comfortable.

Also we came across couple of awesome sculpture beautifully made, but completely abandoned. First one would be one of the most amazing piece of work that I have seen in my life & it was kept in a dirty pond which was used for the staff to wash their clothes. I was so sad by seeing this, but statue was changing color, it was dirty but still you can appreciate the effort put it by the unknown artist, at least I was full of respect for him/her.
Second statue was kept somewhere away from the eyes of the regular tourist, it was kept in a low footfall areas of the palace. Condition was not very good & I am pretty sure it was a broken piece of a larger work of art, still it looked pretty nice.

We were already so impressed (and a little sad by the state of affairs), that we could have actually moved out, but better sense prevailed and we decided to enter the main building where there is a part where Raja's collectible are displayed for art lovers to appreciate. After waiting a bit we entered & as soon as we entered we were amazed, not regular amazed but jaw dropping, mouth opening, ass-kicking kind of amazed. The display area was huge part of ground floor & first floor, and every inch of the huge area was covered with some painting made by Reuben or Ravi Verma or some other known artist or it was covered with some sculpture looking extremely expensive or there were visiting cards of great people, politician, etc or vase which looked as if you couldn't buy it with your net worth even after you keep saving for hundreds of years, since we couldn't take any picture hence I am sure I am forgetting many things. But I do remember one thing, we were seriously impressed by the amount of things on display their & the collected net worth that place would have. I mean every single article should be worth at least lacs, if not crores in INR. Their was a select display of birds here also, we were told that Raja Rajendra Mullick was a bird lover.

Palace of Raja Rajendra Mullick

All in all a must visit place for anyone coming to Calcutta for quite a few reasons, one needs to select the personal reason for him/herself.

All in all, a great day with a diverse set of places to explore. Level of satisfaction was rising after every day, we decided this has to continue for at least one more day.

A weekend full of drama (Movies)!!!

I have not had a movie-marathon weekend for a long time now & truth be told I was missing it. So this weekend I decided it would be just movies & books for me, more former than latter. The list of movies to watch always keeps increasing & hence it is critical to have these weekends where a major reduction happens in the list. The weekend started with me & couple of friends watching "Jack the giant slayer" at the theater. Nothing much to write about this ordinary movie, still I would take an ordinary movie to start off the weekend given the kind of movies that are getting released these days.

Was in a mood for drama based movies, so I ended up seeing 6 movies namely "The perks of being a wall flower", "Your sister's sister", "People like us", "Pitch perfect", "Reign over me" & "Vishwaroop". Almost all the movies were good, and some extremely good, especially "The perks of being a wallflower" or TPBW which is an awesome coming of age movie with superlative performances by Emma Watson, Logan Lerman & Ezra miller. Emma Watson has received fair share of appreciation as Hermione in HP movies, but she is a revelation here portraying a range of emotions & doing it perfectly at that. As a mentally scarred young boy who is still struggling to find his place in the school, Logan Lerman does well. Coping with baggage of bad memories from childhood, close friend committing suicide, failing at love, etc he is just trying to find a place where he would actually belong & the pain of all the events shows in his performance. But the real star of the show is Ezra Miller, who first impressed me in "We need to talk about kevin" a movie where he managed his own amongst seasoned actors like Tilda Swindon & John C Reily. His performance in this movie just reaffirms the promise that was visible before. All in all a great movie, one of the better ones from last year & a must watch for all.

"Your sister's sister" has a great ensemble cast, who specializes in this kind of movie, Lynn Shelton is the director of the movie, whereas Mark Duplass, Emily Blunt & Rosemarie DeWitt play the main characters in the movie. Its a movie with a deadly combination of humor & emotions. Primary theme of the movie is various characters dealing with grief, Mark Duplass struggling with death of his brother & his stagnating life, Rosemarie DeWitt dealing with separation with her partner & notion of getting a child in her life & Emily blunt dealing with falling in love with her deceased boyfriend's brother. Even with so much of emotional baggage movie keeps inducing a smile or a laugh every now & then, as the heavy stuff is treated in a light manner. And it all merges into a happy & uplifting climax. One of the must watch for someone keen on a light hearted drama, with a few smiles/laughs here & there.

"People like us" starring Chris pines, Elizabeth banks & Michelle Pieffer in main roles, the movie is a family drama where Chris Pines & Elizabeth Banks play characters who have grown without love/acceptance of their father. Both of them are struggling in their life & are really bad in maintaining relationship because of their childhood based father-related issues. Chris Pines plays a debt ridden sales professional who never got to interact much with his father during his childhood & Elizabeth plays a struggling bartender-cum-single-mother who never got the legitimacy from her father as he leaves them early on in her life. But both come together post the father dies due to the letter left by the father for Chris Pines, making the movie one hell of an emotional ride. It is a good watch with good performances from the entire cast, another movie which is a definite one time watch.

"Pitch Perfect" is a movie based on competition in the sphere of a-capella (music without instruments, only basis the singing & instrument sound made from mouth). Its a really light movie with decent performance from Anna Hendricks, who plays the central character of the movie dealing with lack of understanding of her father in her keen interest in music mixing & creating. She join the the girls a-capella group of the campus in order to convince her father about her serious attempt at college life. And the movie continues with her effort to reinvent the group, leading to the most predictable outcome, i.e. the group winning the competition. Decent performances & a-capella rendition of some nice songs makes this movie a decent watch & Anna Hendricks as usual impresses with her performance here also. All in all a decent one time watch.

"Reign over me", Don Cheadle & Adam Sandler portrays the central characters in this movie, where Adam Sandler plays a bereaved husband & father due to 9/11 events & Don Cheadle plays his friend who trying to help his friend back to normalcy. Adam Sandler bring the role of a grief stricken characters who stays in denial & prefers to forget about the part of his life which has painful turn of events rather than dealing with it. He doesn't have friends & due to a chance encounter his college roommate, Don cheadle, catches hold of him. He is shown to be mentally unstable, portraying anger at any instance where he is made to relive his past & also he doesn't want to stay in touch with people who reminds him of his girls & wife. Don Cheadle while happy to meet an old friend, also realizes the need for his friend to get medical treatment to get over the losses he has suffered. A very restrained performance by Adam Sandler, usual class shown by Don Cheadle, along with decent performances by the support cast makes this movie a good viewing experience. Recommended for those who are not averse to watch tragic-drama.

A very interesting bunch of movies seen over one weekend. As far as "Vishwaroop" is concerned, which I saw because of Kamala Hassan & Rahul Bose acting in the movie, lesser spoken/written about the movie better it is..

Funny people can be serious too!!!

This video is hilariously funny, but what got me going was the advice given  by John C. Reily to both Jack black & Will Ferrell. Reily has always been an actor who has mixed things up, with movies like "Boogie Nights", " We need to talk about Kevin", "Carnage", etc along with most of his hilariously funny movies. But there are some other actors who do more work in a particular genre with very few or no movie in a different genre. This post is dedicated to actors who have done more movies in humor/comedy genre & are known for that. Most of the actors mentioned have come through either stand up comic acts or television performances in comic roles.

I have loved watching Rahul Dravid hit out at 20-20, or seeing Brain Lara try to defend out of a bad situation, or reading a humorless philosophical book by Scott Adams, etc. On the similar lines when actors who are known for their comic timing or slapstick & goofy movies, act in serious movies & kick-ass while they are at it, it just increase the amazing-ness of the viewing experience. Now all those movies may not be completely devoid of humor, but the role which these actor would play would be different from the characters they usually perform & hence much more challenging. And there are quite a few actors who have done this with ease & came out with flying colors as far as the end result is concerned.

One of the examples would Jack Black playing lead role in "Bernie", would not consider his small role in "Enemy of the states" here & would also not talk about the "King-kong" because its a shitty movie (its beyond me that the movie has a 7+ rating on IMDB). Rather his character in the movie 'Bernie' is what I would consider as an example of getting out of comfort zone. Movie revolves around the lead character Bernie, played by Jack Black, who is the Assistant Funeral Director (mortician) & a do-gooder with a multifaceted personality. He is someone who is involved in all the social activities of the town & everyone loves him. The real life based plot revolves around a rich widow who everyone in the town hates but bernie shows her sympathy. This leads to a point where the widow starts to take advantage of goodness shown by bernie & make his life hell. What measure bernie takes to get his life back on track is the main point of the movie around which the plot revolves. Though the movie has plenty of humor, but since it is based on a real life character JB had to give a much restrained performance, compared to his usual quirky roles filled with buffoonery, which I will be honest to accept is fun to watch. Have been a fan since watching "School of Rock" long back but it is movies like "Bernie" which shows viewers a versatile side of Jack black.

Another example would be Adam Sandler & his role in "Funny people". Now adam sandler is someone who strictly follow the rule of doing spoofy, slapstick comedies many of which I have enjoyed but at times his movies are a little too much to take. But once in a while he does a movie like "Funny People", okie I will change that to once in his lifetime he does a movie which makes you realise his potential as an actor. 'Funny People' has adam sandler in lead role supported by Seth rogen, who is another actor with great comic timing. The movie is about a Comic genius, portrayed by Adam Sandler, who comes to know that he is suffering from an acute version of Leukemia, starts to get insecure & realizes what his life lacks. From being a succesful movie actor, he decides to get back to his roots i.e. Stand up comedy & tries to get in touch with his ex-fiancee to apologies for his mistakes in the past. Its a beautiful movie with awesome performances from Seth rogen, Jonah Hill, Leslie Mann & other supporting cast, but Adam sandler takes the cake by giving a amazing performance as a star who knows that he his dying & is insecure about his existence. Another good watch with Adam Sandler in serious role is "Reign over me", where he plays a bereaved father & husband who lost his family in 9/11 twin tower attack. In this movie also Sandler rocks with his portrayal of a guy who does not want to accept the reality & ends up distancing himself from the world, movie also stars Jamie Foxx but Adam Sandler is the one in the limelight throughout.

Steve Carell is another actor who I find to be insanely funny, movies like "Dinner with shmucks" notwithstanding. He keeps trying out different types of roles, but in serious domain the right examples would be movies like "Dan in real life" & "Seeking a friend for the end of the world". Now both the movies are really nice & they work due to honest performance from Steve Carell. Even though "Dan in real life" is a light drama with shade of comedy, SAFFEOTW is more of a serious romantic movie with an apocalyptic plot. I liked later more as the story is better, performance from steve carell is awesome & some help from Keira Knightley in terms of her brilliant acting didn't hurt. Carell portrays a romantic guy who has received a bit of a raw deal when in face of an certain apocalyptic event his wife just leaves him & run away. How he tries & gather his life back & find his 'true love' is what this movie is all about.

Jim Carrey, the god of all over the top comedies & in your face humor, has done some superlative comedy & some movies which are so goofy that you just cannot tolerate them. He is someone who would have covered the entire spectrum in the comedy movies, right from pure-slapstick movies like "Dumb & Dumber" & the ace ventura series to awesomely funny movies like "Liar Liar", "Me, Myself & Irene", etc. But he cracked it with movies like "Truman Show", "Yes man" & "I Love you phillip morris", where he plays a not so goofy character & the movies are really more of drama rather than a full fledged comedy. And the performances are just amazing in all these movies & they would, according to me, amongst some of the best work from Jim Carrey. But the movies which takes away the cake would be "Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind" & "The number 23", it does sound amazing that Jim carrey has done a serious Sci-fi & a thriller in his career. Will not talk much about "Eternal..." because everyone would have seen it. "The number 23" is the movie which is showcases the amount of versatility which this legendary actor has. The movie revolves around the character played by Jim carrey who is gifted a book by his wife, which talks about significance of number 23 & has loads of similarity with his own life. He becomes obsessed with number 23 & tries to find the author. In the process he also comes across a murder mystery which he tries to solve. Now the movie would have been a decent one if not for Jim Carrey giving an excellent performance, making it a great movie to watch. 

Lastly, would like to mention Will Ferrell, who is insanely funny. I have lost count of the movies I have seen of him, but there is one movie which I love the most where Ferrell gives a serious performance in a role which has many shades & undertones, i.e. "Everything must go". He plays an alcoholic sales person, who loses his job & wife on the same day. He tries a lot to not let go of things, but harder he tries quicker they move away from him. He is getting sued by an associate & he is locked outside his house with his stuff thrown on the lawn. Finally the plot takes a turn for good when he decides to let everything go, as he plans a garage sale with the help of a local boy who he teaches the nuances of sales & life. There are couple of other interesting characters who delivers with their performances, making this an extremely enjoyable watch. Will ferrell delivers an amazing performance in a script backed role, where he tries something new & comes out kicking-ass. It is a highly recommended movie for everyone, irrespective of whether or not someone like Will Ferrell.

Walking through city of joy - 3

We struck gold on the third attempt. Our bad run hadn't deterred us from continuing on our journey & our patience paid off :)

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.



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.

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.



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.

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.

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' :)

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.

Walking through the city of Joy-2

One week post the first walk we started again for our second walk & we decided this time we would do more walking/exploring & less looking for tea joints :)

Kalighat Temple

The ghat @ Kalighat (check the color of water

Kalighat- We started again from South Calcutta, Kalighat to be precise. Now I have been to the temple multiple times, but I have always had bad experience due to priest or other temple staff who you typically encounter in famous temples. Only in case of Hindu Temples you would find a discriminated system (different queues basis the money you contribute), differential treatment (basis the money you hand over to priests), etc going on in an open & unapologetic manner. Now these things are difficult to find (at least not openly) in gurudwaras, mosques, churches, synagogues, etc. Gurudwaras especially has a great system where everyone is considered equal. Now there are hindu temples where these issues are not there, but Kalighat isn't one of them. Without digressing further I will come to point, the idea was to see the area & check how good the temple looks & finally, have a look at the ghat. Temple from outside looks huge but there isn't anything striking about the temple. We then started walking around the temple, into the thin lanes & busy streets full of shops. In a lane a few kids were playing cricket & in another a young couple was getting married. It was an area full of excitement, we moved towards ghat post that. Needless to mention that it was one of the dirtiest water body that I have seen in my life. Something needs to be done here, hopefully London-ization of this place will begin soon ;)

Flags of famous football teams

Also found here in one of the by-lanes, flags of both Mohun bagan & East Bengal Football teams, who are the two biggest football clubs in Calcutta. You just have to watch a match at Salt Lake stadium to believe the frenzy they generate.




We then moved towards central part of Calcutta, starting from Mission Row. Since it was a few days before Christmas, we saw that most of the churches were decked up & people were practicing carols. We went inside Mission Church & spent some time there. Roads were empty & beautiful, it was cold hence at many places people were burning wooden stuff to get some warmth. We walked for the entire stretch till Central Avenue. And it was time for a Tea break.

Kali Babu's shop

Kali Babu- Now those who know the central avenue, would know Kali-babu's Tea joint for great tea & awesome Samosas. Its a pretty ordinary looking place, which I have always seen fully filled up with people waiting for the famous tea-samosa combination, more so in winters.




We started moving towards northern side of Kolkata. The destination was Girish Chandra Dey & Nakur Chandra Nandy, Hedua. And on the way our first stop was Thanthania Kali badi, this is a small temple but again a famous temple in north Calcutta.

Post this we stopped near Swami Vivekananda's Ancestral House and Cultural Centre at maniktalla. It was a beautiful place with an enormous statue of Swami Vivekananda at the entrance. Even the building was beautiful & huge, after clicking for a while there we figured out that it can be a decent place to come & check during its working hours.

Post this next stop was Hedua lake, now we wanted to capture the carnival feel of the place by clicking pictures but soon we ourselves got engulf into it. As soon as I saw a rifle & a board full of balloons, I knew what I had to do. We shot every nail, coil, coin & even a wire, which was strung off a rope, before we moved ahead. While going around the lake, we found out that this was a usual hanging area of young couples, who do not get private space for expressing their love. Lack of proper coverage of light bulbs didn't hurt their cause. At the end was a typical place where elderly of the locality would get to have their regular adda.

Post this we reached the famed sweet shop & tried out 3-4 varieties. Now its not a fluke that this shop is extremely famous & at any point in time is thronged by consumers. It was time for nalen gur, which happens to be my favorite type of sandesh. After trying 3-4 variants of nalen gur, we moved to chocolate sandesh, which was also pretty good. But the best was reserved for the end, it was nalen gur sandesh wrapped in fat slice of Malai, and it was heavenly. We had two rounds of the last mentioned variety & all the good work done by walking throughout the day was nullified, but it was completely worth it.


The last bit of the fun was reserved the notorious auto-rickshaw drive till kankurgachi. The vehicle was decked up with disco light & a CD with choicest of himesh hits playing on the music system at its loudest. With the auto wallah driving like there is no tomorrow or there is a beautiful damsel in distress who is supposed to be saved by him , it was a fun way to end the day.

Walking through city of Joy- Part 1

The objective of this series is to talk about places which people can explore in Calcutta/Kolkata. After staying in the city for a long time, I started exploring only now & even though first two walks were not up-to the expectation, eventually I was pleasantly surprised with the results :)

I have always believed Calcutta is the place when it comes to good food, culture, soul of the city, helpfulness of people, etc. But I or any other Calcuttan for that matter have never thought that city has places worth exploring. So when a friend bought a book named "Ten walks in Calcutta", I felt the time was right to burst this myth. Idea was to select a part of city & walk around it to see if there are any places which would be worth the effort. Also we decided we would take help of the book, some websites & my knowledge, which is extremely limited.

We started with a pilot, which was done without a camera & which turned out to be a decent experience. Fully charged we decided to walk towards Burrabazaar through Bastalla, which surely would be one of the most populated street in the world. At any point during the day one cannot walk through the street without bumping into multiple commuters & walking is tricky as one needs to duck, swerve, run, stand, jump, etc at some point or the other. So we reached Burrabazaar & we decided to break for a cuppa @ Bapu Tea Stall. Now the best tea in kolkata would definitely be "Pauwa Patti' chai here, the concept is they take a Pau (250 grams/lts) of milk & reduce it to a cup of tea, which would also have plenty of masala. Its a time consuming process, but the wait is completely worth the end product. Post this we walked towards howrah bridge, visiting the Mullick Ghat flower market. Its a great place for anyone with a penchant for clicking pictures, amazingly beautiful variety of flowers & loads of them. It is a great place to spend an evening, the only catch being the smell of rotten flowers, leaves, etc which might be little too much for a person with sensitive nose. Post this we kept walking near the numerous ghats spending time at all the ghats & interacting with various groups on the way who would be indulging in either a joyous discussion or a game of cards. While walking we came across a small Akhara, two Pahalwan practising their moves in a small soil/mud filled enclosure. And the location was the key thing there, it was bang on a small ghat. Needless to say, like all the other ghats in Calcutta this was also extremely dirty. We then took a steamer to Ahiritola Launch Ghat, to visit Bhoothnath temple. Steamer has always been one of my preferred mode of transportation when it is available. After spending some time at the temple we had a second cuppa near Bhoothnath clubbed with some Puchkas (both highly recommended). Then we started back for home. It was a satisfying pilot & we took a call of continuing this.

So we started our first walk in the series of many such walks.

Lake with a light & sound fountain

Lake- So for first walk we decided we would try and cover parts of south Calcutta starting from Lake & then taking it from there. Now I would have crossed lake hundreds of times, but have never bothered to see the actual lake. With a garden around it, clubbed with dim light, it was an ideal place for love birds. It did look beautiful but was not that great a sight which will wow you.

Feasting on Sand-Art- Post which we started walking on the lake road, we had Puchkas near Lake Kali Badi (Badi is Bengali for home). We were just passing by when we saw a signboard for an exhibition of Sand art, made by Sudarshan Patnaik. It was drizzling & we couldn't care less for rain, but it was affecting the exhibition & people were waiting for rains to subside before venturing inside. So it was completely empty & without thinking twice we entered & started looking around, and I was impressed within seconds. It was awesome display of creativity, precision & patience. Some of the work were so good that it didn't look like piece of art made of sand. There was a piece dedicated to Malala, one in support of Obama & one dedicated to hurricane victims. We spent loads of time there & after looking at the work created by Sudarshan patnaik, we went ahead & took a look at the art created by the people who attended his workshop & mostly were first timers. Some of the piece even here were too good, though it was all getting destroyed by rain. We decided it was time to bail out.

Hunt for ideal Tea-joint- Being a tea-lover, I always look to find new places for good & if possible, new varieties of tea. We had found a place called Dolly Tea shop a few days back & tried a few variants there, but it didn't live up to my expectation. The idea was to track down The Tea Trove, which is somewhere near chakraberia, and try some of the specialty of that place. But universe was conspiring & while we were walking towards chakraberia we came across 'Tea Cafe' a small tea shop on Southern avenue. And after a long time I was happy with a new variant of Tea, which was cold tea. It was regular milk masala tea, which was cold & tasted pretty good. It was the first-with-milk cold tea that I had tasted which was good. Post this we continued towards "The Tea Trove", walking for 5-6 kms easily. It was a good place with nice ambiance, young crowd playing games or chatting. Loads of energy & you don't have to sweat a lot before liking the place, but then tea came & it turned out to be an ordinary version of a masala tea. That did it for us, we decided to call for reinforcement (read other friends), went to saw a movie & ended the day's walk without seeing much.

Unleashing the beast!!!

Times are awesome for cine-lovers as the movies which one gets to watch are so damn different from each other & not just that, they keep exploring new territories for movies taking the subject/plot anywhere & everywhere.Last week was one such week where I saw 4 movies last week, all recent releases & all of them impressed me, some more than the other.

Pick of the lot has to be "Beast of the Southern Wild" & what a viewing experience it was. I was extremely unhappy having missed an opportunity to watch the movie on big screen during KFF, my pain increased post watching the movie. I mean if one considers the fact that the movie has been made by a first time director, screenplay written by first time writers, awesome performances by first time actors & then try to assess the movie it becomes a daunting task. Its a great movie with multiple interpretations & it lets viewers interpret according to there imagination. The movie is set in a place called bathtub which is shown both close to & far away from civilization. Close in terms of distance & far in terms of lifestyle, in its broadest sense. Here people live like beast with no rules, they just want to be happy all the time. A daughter-father duo happens to be at the center of all the activity here & how change in weather & melting ice-caps affect their home & fading health of the father affect their life.
Movie captures attention from the very first scene, where 6 years old girl Hushpuppy is shown checking various animals & listening for their heartbeat as she doesn't understand their secret language & heartbeat is the only thing through which she can connect with them. Throughout the movie she does a narrative voice-over which impresses even more. The scene where she thumps the table & answers her father shout of "Who the man", with "I am the man" stayed with me for a long time. Quvenzhané Wallis gave a performance which is getting her quite a few awards in the festivals the movie is visiting & it should not end here, this girl definitely deserves more. There are some real talent which are getting unearthed early on &  viewers can't be happier. Dwight Henry who portrayed the role of the father worried about the daughter, trying to teach the important lessons of survival to her as he knows that she would not have the support of a guarding father for long time,  with utmost ease. He himself is a revelation & does more than required to impress. I wont even get started with praising Benh Zeitlin. The manner in which he created a world where aurochs (a mythical creature) are approaching with civilization close by, would definitely look forward to the future work of this impressive director/writer.

Next movie on the agenda was "Life of Pi", a very simple & beautiful movie. It has nothing which viewer would not like, at least I can't point fingers towards anything. Yes there were things which could have been improved, but they were minor things & can be overlooked easily.  The fact that movie has very decent performances, very strong story, one of the best 3D effects, Richard Parker, nature at its best & religion & belief system at its crux, ensure that not even a moment is dull in the movie. Richard parker, the tiger, was the most impressive actor on the screen, much above Irrfan Khan & Suraj Sharma. He looks awesome, instills fear & induces love/sympathy into viewers with equal ease. And there are other similar elements which makes the experience of watching this movie great, for which primarily the director has to be credited.Ang Lee has made many movies which were great, but none of them would be visually better than this one. Overall a movie which everyone should enjoy. Somehow the quality of 3D glasses improved at the theater where I went to watch the movie & it played a big role in my loving the movie.

Post this I saw "Lawless", now I must mention post watching "Warrior" I have become a fan of Tom Hardy & his choice of cinema is getting better by every passing day. He also is a risk taker, one just have to look at some of the movies this guy has done, the most noteworthy one being "Bronson", which is almost like single act of awesomeness by Tom hardy. Coming back to "Warrior", I strongly believe the movie deserves much more than what it has received. A family drama with a plot which deals mainly with professional fighting, was nothing new it was the performances & the treatment which made the movie special. So will make my point now, i.e. Tom hardy is a crucial part of the movie "Lawless". But the star cast does not end with him, Gary Oldman has a small role in the movie which he delivers without any concerns, Guy Pearce does a phenomenal job as mean cop with tones of manic disorder, Jessica Chastain also continues to impress with her range of performances & is definitely one of the actors to watch out for, Shia LeBouf does OK with the tailor made role. Movie is based on a real story & does connect with viewers, definitely connected with me.  Its not a great/brilliant movie, but an impressive one for sure. The movie deals with times when moonshine production was illegal but was done with "co-operation" of cops & how a family fights with cops, when a bad cop tries to change thing in order to make his own life better & establish full control. A good one time watch & thoroughly enjoyable movie.

 In the end comes the movie which many were waiting with bated breadth, Reema Kagti & Aamir Khan's "Talaash". Best part of the movie also ensured the disappointment which was to come later. the best part according to me was the first hour of the movie. My expectations went sky-high after watching the initial bit of the movie. It was flawless, the feel of the thriller which one used to get from old great suspense movies, the setting where you know a bit & plenty remains unknown, characters entering & leaving not before impressing within limited amount of time, etc. Just when I felt that the director cannot go wrong, before the interval, I knew what was in store for me as the climax was crystal clear. Still everything was good, Aamir khan, Raani Mukherjee & even Kareena Kapoor did the job entrusted to them & things were shaping well for a decent climax, that's when the calamity strikes the movie & directors tries to treat viewers like idiot. Now had it been a brainless movie, I would have understood the reason for making the movie idiot-proof, but a movie with such an intelligent start & a new story (for Indian cinema ;) ) need not have done that. I don't know about others but I felt bad about it, more so as my expectations were really high. But everything said & done, it is a good movie & by the standard of some of the recently successful movies it is even great. Aamir khan gives a restraint performance, Rani Mukherjee looks completely in control, even Kareena Kapoor didn't overdo her part. Story is inspired by a few English movies, but that's nothing new, at least this one did use the concepts nicely & does contextualized the borrowed concepts thereby giving an Indian touch to those concepts. If the climax was better & reduced by 25 minutes it could have been a much better movie. All in all for me it was like Gail Wynand from Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead", the movie which could have been :)