Beginning of the backpacker girls
Rachel: So now, do you guys have big plans?
Frank Jr: Ya, I was thinking maybe go down to Times Square and pick up some Ninja Stars. Oh, and my friend Larry, he wants me to take a picture of a hooker.
Chandler ( to Joey): You know, we don't really take advantage of living in the city.
~ --------------- ~
When the comforts of the regularity hit you, you start to find even the mundane office place, work route, shopping groceries, the coffee place nearby your house and mostly your bed as the comfiest space. Little do we want to get out of that cozy world of ours that we have carved for ourselves and step out to get a bit sweaty, walk to a certain location or even get lost while finding a place in our own cities. I can assure that even some (not all) of the readers who are reading this piece must be wondering right now that how many places have they seen in their own city? As a local, we always tend to ignore such places that otherwise a tourist would have planned for days to visit.
Such kind of a circadian lifestyle was revolving around me and my bestie too, when we, after months of planning, postponing and re-postponing it, at last, broke the shackles of slothfulness and awoke to a bright morning of Kolkata to do all sorts touristy things on a Saturday in our own local place called "the city of joy".
As it always happens with me and a few others too hopefully, we plan and plan and plan but we never materialise that plan into action; I and 'R' planned that we don't plan and just go! On Friday we set our alarms at 6.30 am, charged our camera batteries, calibrated our google maps, exchanged numerous selfies deciding about what to wear and slept for the night.
7.00 a.m was being pushed to 7.30, and dragging ourselves out of our half-completed dreams we reached our meeting point seven fifty-ish. A warm but comfy morning welcomed us as we booked our cabriolet and set out for our first (and all-time favorite) James Prinsep monument and Ghat. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prinsep_Ghat)
Even an insomniac like me, who had half-heartedly slept at 3.00 am to wake up at 6.30 was feeling fresh and feisty to experience such a morning. All dressed up and pretty we entered the monument to see almost a mini crowd laid over the lawns of the Prinsep monument and exercise with utmost dedication. Let's be honest, Kolkata is a crowded city. There are people everywhere you see. It's like all the residents of this city decided to come out from their homes at the same time kinda crowded. But that day it was serene, apart from a couple giving weird poses for their pre-wedding photo shoot and a few teenagers running amok the white pillars with a DSLR, there was hardly anyone to be seen. It was a blessing really. We clicked photos to our heart's content and once again like the other innumerable times that we've been there, admired the beauty of the Ganges and the colourful boats above it. R and I discussed life very seriously over a platoon of police cadets doing their run routine wearing tights and burst out laughing the moment they were at a safe auditory distance.
Frank Jr: Ya, I was thinking maybe go down to Times Square and pick up some Ninja Stars. Oh, and my friend Larry, he wants me to take a picture of a hooker.
Chandler ( to Joey): You know, we don't really take advantage of living in the city.
~ --------------- ~
When the comforts of the regularity hit you, you start to find even the mundane office place, work route, shopping groceries, the coffee place nearby your house and mostly your bed as the comfiest space. Little do we want to get out of that cozy world of ours that we have carved for ourselves and step out to get a bit sweaty, walk to a certain location or even get lost while finding a place in our own cities. I can assure that even some (not all) of the readers who are reading this piece must be wondering right now that how many places have they seen in their own city? As a local, we always tend to ignore such places that otherwise a tourist would have planned for days to visit.
Such kind of a circadian lifestyle was revolving around me and my bestie too, when we, after months of planning, postponing and re-postponing it, at last, broke the shackles of slothfulness and awoke to a bright morning of Kolkata to do all sorts touristy things on a Saturday in our own local place called "the city of joy".
As it always happens with me and a few others too hopefully, we plan and plan and plan but we never materialise that plan into action; I and 'R' planned that we don't plan and just go! On Friday we set our alarms at 6.30 am, charged our camera batteries, calibrated our google maps, exchanged numerous selfies deciding about what to wear and slept for the night.
7.00 a.m was being pushed to 7.30, and dragging ourselves out of our half-completed dreams we reached our meeting point seven fifty-ish. A warm but comfy morning welcomed us as we booked our cabriolet and set out for our first (and all-time favorite) James Prinsep monument and Ghat. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prinsep_Ghat)
Even an insomniac like me, who had half-heartedly slept at 3.00 am to wake up at 6.30 was feeling fresh and feisty to experience such a morning. All dressed up and pretty we entered the monument to see almost a mini crowd laid over the lawns of the Prinsep monument and exercise with utmost dedication. Let's be honest, Kolkata is a crowded city. There are people everywhere you see. It's like all the residents of this city decided to come out from their homes at the same time kinda crowded. But that day it was serene, apart from a couple giving weird poses for their pre-wedding photo shoot and a few teenagers running amok the white pillars with a DSLR, there was hardly anyone to be seen. It was a blessing really. We clicked photos to our heart's content and once again like the other innumerable times that we've been there, admired the beauty of the Ganges and the colourful boats above it. R and I discussed life very seriously over a platoon of police cadets doing their run routine wearing tights and burst out laughing the moment they were at a safe auditory distance.
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| That twirl at the Prinsep monument! |
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| Pondering besties |
After spending almost 2 hours there we realised that only tasting the beauty of the view ain't going to get us energy and save us from starving. We hopped to a nice and the only few of the cafes that opened around 10 a.m, ordered their breakfast specialty and planned our remaining itinerary. A fully unplanned day you see. Over butter toasts, sunny side ups, mushrooms and crispy bacon strips we decided upon our next destination.
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| This godly and greasy English Breakfast! |
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Paul%27s_Cathedral,_Kolkata)
This was a place that R hadn't visited before but I had twice; so I was pretty excited for her actually. By this time the sun was fully up and it was starting to get humid and sweaty but it didn't wash out our enthusiasm one bit as we entered the church premises. The tall, white structure is really grand and inviting. A service was ongoing and we were standing there admiring the colorful glass painted windows and high ceiling. Amidst the melodious choirs and speeches, we collected some much-needed peace and left with a positive vibe and feeling happy from inside.
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| A panoramic view of the cathedral |
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| Selfie toh banta hain! |
Now we were en route to Jorasanko Thakurbari,
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorasanko_Thakur_Bari ) our next site-seeing location.
Jorasanko is a place that was unknown to both R and I. I always thought this thakurbari was at a great distance from my home and thus I had always postponed a visit to it. But today was different. I actually realised that all these years' postponing was baseless as it was hardly 5 km from my house. We had a full tourist vibe and were in a mood to explore the city, whatever may the case. A narrow, crowded lane beckoned us in and we could not see any heritage building within our vision's range. I decided to take out my camera to complete the tourist look and we started walking into the lane where we were being ogled, hooted and catcalled till we, well mostly R, scared enough now, reached a big gate with security guards and boom barriers, thus concluding that we have reached (It is not one of the safest streets of Kolkata to roam around alone maybe, if you are new to the city). To be honest, I had not expected it to be more than just a bungalow or a big ancestral house that is being opened for visitors as a reminiscent of Rabindra Nath Tagore and his family. To see a thakurbari, triple the size of my imagination and a beautiful museum to top that, actually blew off our minds. I fell a little more in love with Bengal's traditions, culture, heritage, and history. Every nook and corner of this house had a history, every part of this raj bari wanted as if tell you a story if you wanted to listen. It was mysterious, informative and a beautiful place to have visited. Without even realising we see the time to have spent almost 2 hours in this place and we could have spent more if we were not starving again!
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorasanko_Thakur_Bari ) our next site-seeing location.
Jorasanko is a place that was unknown to both R and I. I always thought this thakurbari was at a great distance from my home and thus I had always postponed a visit to it. But today was different. I actually realised that all these years' postponing was baseless as it was hardly 5 km from my house. We had a full tourist vibe and were in a mood to explore the city, whatever may the case. A narrow, crowded lane beckoned us in and we could not see any heritage building within our vision's range. I decided to take out my camera to complete the tourist look and we started walking into the lane where we were being ogled, hooted and catcalled till we, well mostly R, scared enough now, reached a big gate with security guards and boom barriers, thus concluding that we have reached (It is not one of the safest streets of Kolkata to roam around alone maybe, if you are new to the city). To be honest, I had not expected it to be more than just a bungalow or a big ancestral house that is being opened for visitors as a reminiscent of Rabindra Nath Tagore and his family. To see a thakurbari, triple the size of my imagination and a beautiful museum to top that, actually blew off our minds. I fell a little more in love with Bengal's traditions, culture, heritage, and history. Every nook and corner of this house had a history, every part of this raj bari wanted as if tell you a story if you wanted to listen. It was mysterious, informative and a beautiful place to have visited. Without even realising we see the time to have spent almost 2 hours in this place and we could have spent more if we were not starving again!
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| Such symmetry |
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| Caught in action! |
With a promise to myself about revisiting it, we booked a cab, this time towards our locality. With talks over an enthusiastic and heavy lunch, we decided to make it a weekend thingy. To try and explore every corner of this ever colouful city. Where people are ever friendly, eateries and commute are cheap and affordable (the best thing really), and there is joy spread all over this "City of Joy".
Is it the beginning of an upcoming travel together R? Maybe? Until next time!
Is it the beginning of an upcoming travel together R? Maybe? Until next time!
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