Reach

Recently I had a chance to visit Kolkata. I was very excited. The only place I've visited outside Maharashtra being Goa. So just the thought of visiting a place on the other coast of India was enough to cause excitement :)

I was wondering about the Bengali people because I had a Bengali friend who used to get angry quite often :) Then the Bengali language... The English Bengalis speak has a lot of Bengali accent in it. And then, I had read about Kolkata a lot in my history books at School. After all, the then Calcutta and its people played significant role in India's freedom struggle. Netaji was one of the cardinal players in Indian freedom struggle. All this arose in me huge excitement about Kolkata.

We (me and colleagues from my company, Persistent Systems) landed in Kolkata on a Friday evening. We were visiting Kolkata for campus recruitment activity. The Professor of the college had arranged for our accommodation and travel within Kolkata. We went straight to the Indian Institute of Hotel Management - Kolkata (IIHM-K) and shrunk into the bed. The IIHM-K doubles-up as Business Hotel and College for Hotel Management. This gives the students a field experience by training them directly through client interaction. Campus interviews were scheduled next day, Saturday, early morning.

From my interaction with Professor so far, I found him a very cool and supportive guy, quite contrasting to the previous opinion about my friend :) Maybe since we were here for interviews, we were pampered a bit :)

Me and one of my colleague, Ashutosh, went for a walk around the hotel. There was still some time left to start the interviews. The place we were staying was Salt Lake City. This is the IT hub of Kolkata. However, since we were from Pune, which is only second to Bangalore in IT for India, we felt Kolkata has still a long way to go. TCS and IBM were the two major companies in the vicinity.

We started the interviews from 9am on Saturday. The first session went on up to 2pm. Professor called us for lunch.

The lunch was simply superb. Me being a non-vegetarian pounced on everything that was non-veg. There was chicken, the regular dish and Bengali fish. The fish was Bedgi as it is called in Kolkata. I had lots of Bedgi, Roti and Rice. Then came the desserts and it was the famous Rasgulla. I had tried Rasgullas before but none tasted so great. After all, I was having the authentic Rasgullas in the city where it is supposed to be! Rasgullas are pronounced by Bengalis as Rashogollaas. Basically, Rasha means syrup and gollas means spheres. Then came the Mishti Dohi. Mishti is sweet in Bengali and Dohi in Bengali is Dahi in Hindi or Curd in English. Since I don't like curd, I did not have it. The Professor thought I did not like the preparation and I convinced him that I do not like the basic curd itself. Forget sweet curd. I instead made a deal to have another Rashogolla :) During this period I ate a lot and almost forgot that we still had to interview our candidates. Aaah... That was going to be tough with so much food in my tummy! We all were very much pleased with the hospitality showed by the Professor. And in the end, Bengali food esp. Rashogollas is one of the best rendition of a chef. God bless the people who invented Rashogollas (see wikipedia link to check who created this recipe).

The interviews started again. They went on up to 7 in the evening. 7pm is very late in Kolkata! The sun rises early and sets early. We all in India follow the same timezone and hence this odd behavior. I saw outside the window at 5pm and it was like 7pm in Pune. The city gets up early and closes early.

The interviews went fine and there were some offers made, not much. The Professor told us that we were visiting late, hence most of the toppers were already placed.

Since all the interviews were over on Saturday, we were all excited by the thought of being able to get a glimpse of Kolkata on Sunday. Our return flight to Pune was at 6 in the evening on Sunday.

Kolkata is famous for its Kolkata Sarees. We requested Professor, on Saturday evening to let us know about any shop nearby. It was already 7:30pm by now. The Professor told us that he would take us to one of the most famous shops for Kolkata Sarees. We went with him and spent an hour and half at a shop named Basak in Kolkata. Sarees are inexpensive in Kolkata. Most of them were at Rs.300 and the the highest of the one I liked was at Rs.800. The girls in our group told us that Rs.300 saree in Kolkata was almost equivalent to Rs.800 saree of similar make in Pune. So everyone ended up buying a lot of them, some for their spouse and me for my mother.

So, Saturday, the interview day was a very nice experience. Ahh... I forgot to mention one thing. The eyes of Bengali women. Bengali women, in this matter, are really gifted. I've seen many people around but none with such beautiful eyes as Bengali women. Their eyes resemble the goddess Durga that we see in Durga puja pictures from Kolkata. The accompanying picture will give a better idea.

The Professor was very kind to arrange a taxi for us on Sunday. We had told him about our travel plans and he advised us to visit a few places in Kolkata on Sunday. The taxi driver Naimuddin was a 60+, aged man. He knew Kolkata as if he had spent his life there! He took us first to the Belur Math. This Math has memories of Sri. Ramakrishna Paramhansa and Swami Vivekanand. Ideally, it would require almost 3 hours minimum to see and read all that is present there. However, we quickly went through everything as we had to visit Dakshineshwar, the Maa Kali Temple in Kolkata. We then went to Dakshineshwar temple where the security procedures were similar almost similar to an airport!

Both, Belur Math and Dakshineshwar temple are located on the bank of sacred river, Ganga. The legends says it that a bath in Holy Ganga would wash away all the sins committed by a mortal. We went and washed our hands and feet hoping that our counter was reset :) Jokes apart, but this river, I felt had something in it. I had never seen a river big as this. Its width was almost a kilometer or maybe more. Rivers in Maharashtra that I've seen are not so big. This was almost like an ocean to me...

We then drove over the Howrah brigde, the one on which the fight sequence of the Hindi movie Yuva is filmed. We got a glimpse of Eden Garden, the world's highest capacity cricket stadium and then the Howrah station. We then took Rashogollas for home from K. C. Dass, one of the best makers of Bengali sweets as Naimuddin said.

One thing I noticed about Bengalis is, they eat lot of sweets. The preparation is undoubtedly the best in India as Bengali sweets are preferred anywhere in India. While we just had our lunch, two college students came on a bike, stopped by a Rashogolla shop, ate a few Rashogollas as if they have just had Wada paav and left. Wada paav is a famous recipe in Maharashtra.

Finally, it was near about 5pm and we headed to IIHM-K hotel. We packed up and headed for the airport. Naimuddin took us from hotel to the airport. It was time to say goodbye to Kolkata which is such a lovely city and has so convivial people. This memorable experience would not have been possible without my company, who gave me a chance to come here, the Professor and Naimuddin.

We were offloading our luggage from taxi with Naimuddin's help. We offered Naimuddin some tip. He had really been very helpful to drive us in Kolkata and telling us what we should visit and in which order. My colleagues had just started walking to the airport gate. I said to Naimuddin, "Phir Milenge" (English: We will meet later again). Naimuddin smiled back, pointing a finger at himself and said, "Agar Jinda Rahe to Jarur Milenge" (English: Certainly, If I'm alive). I was deeply moved by that statement. Naimuddin was a old man, probably in his late 60s and I did not realise his age until he said this...

Manish.