'Pets' nowadays...

I read somewhere – Falling in love may be instinctive, but maintaining it needs hard work and understanding, compassion, and compromise. Love, after all, is a decision. It is not something that appears out of the blue as something wonderful. To maintain love, you need to respect. Another great saying – excess of anything is bad. Having said these two things, I now proceed to telling the actual story.

I had gone to the barber yesterday for a hair-cut. As my hair was being trimmed, a customer, an elderly man entered the shop. He was probably the barber’s acquaintance, and from what they were speaking, I could make out that it was the marriage of the man’s son, and somebody from a girl’s family would be visiting their house in the evening.

Below, I have tried to reproduce the conversation as it was spoken between the two.

[The customer enters the shop]

Barber: Ki dada, ki khobor?

Customer: Ei chole jachche... Tomake je dekhte bolechhilam, to tar kichhu holo?

Barber: Hnya, ekjon achhe. Mamra te thake. Meye ekta kon college e lecturer na ki ekta. Lok bhalo ora. Ora bolechhe je sosur bari jodi bole, tahole meye chakri chhere deete raji achhe.

Customer:  Dakho, amra kusti fusti mani na. Aajkaal ei science er joog e jodi kusti mani tahole er theke lojjar aar kichhu hoy na. Aar o sob bis pochis hajar takar chakri amader lagbe na. Bis pochis hajar takar jonno chakri korte hobe na. Amar chhele je chakri kore tate 10 ta lok ‘POOSTE’ pare.

Barber: Hahahaha... apnar chhele ja chakri kore, tate 10 ta lok to durer byapar, 10 ta family ‘POOSTE’ pare. Ki bolen?

Customer: Hmmm... Ami je taka te shesh korechhi, tar double kamaay amar chhele ekhon; aar ekhon to or sobe suru. Osob bis pochis hajar takar chakri amader lagbe na...

Barber: Apni koto te shesh korechhen?

Customer: Ami jokhon shesh korechhi, tokhon ami 51 hajar petam... Aar amar chheler to ei sobe suru.

I could make out from the conversation that the son is just another money making machine, probably an MBA, whose father has bloated egos about his son’s salary and education in science, and has not an inkling about how hard it is to look after a family with the current salaries given the increasing cost of living everywhere in this country, and had at some point of time in his life kept a “PET” in the form of a wife, and expects the son to do the same. The fellow also probably does not know that astrology, even if some part of it may not be acceptable, is also a science. (I also do not believe too much in astrology, but I also cannot disregard it as totally bogus. There are many people who believe in it, and they are far far more educated than I am! It is all about respect.)

I also understood one more thing. These people have never seen so much money in their lives. They feel that they can buy the world with 1 lakh rupees per month, which is ridiculous. This money is excessive for them, and this has made them look down upon other humans. From the way the man was speaking it seemed as if his son was the CEO of some multimillion dollar company – trust me!

So readers, what do you say now? Is it not so abvious why the so called ‘high profile’ and white collared job holding people generally do not have peaceful and happy families? Is it not so obvious why there are so many divorces nowadays? If parents speak like this, then it is nothing so strange that their children are becoming all the more ill-behaved everyday and treating their fellow human beings just like animals – parents speak ‘tutor rekhechhi’ (I kept a tutor for my child), as if the teacher is some animal. The day is not far when they will say ‘bari te ekta bou rekhechhi’ ( I have kept a wife at home) just like they say ‘bari te ekta Alsatian/Doberman rekhechhi’ (I have kept an Alsatian/Doberman at home).

(Speaking of how ill-behaved children have become, I relate another incident here in short even though this may be a bit out of the topic. I was travelling in the metro rail one fine day, and I saw two boys of about 14 years of age come and stand in front of me. Suddenly an elderly lady came running, snatched the sunglasses the one of the boys was wearing inside the train, and started shouting at him. From what she said to the boy, I understood that there had been a fight between the two over a seat, and the boy had told the lady aged almost 50 ‘Shut up’. Unthinkable, right! Yes, of course – at least in our times. And in our parents’ times, it would send a chill down the spine of a child to do such a thing.)

Now coming back to the topic, one last question – will any girl want to be a pet, or a mere commodity to be used to do all the hard work in the day and give pleasure in the bed at night?

[P.S. - I will be thankful from the core of my heart if someone can please do an English translation of the conversation for me that will give the same feeling as the Bengali or the Hindi one. It will be published in the comments. I did not find the right words for a proper translation.]

Holiday in Mumbai (March 27th to March 31st)

It has been quite some time that I have returned from Mumbai, and I am very late in writing this travelogue. It was the 27^th of March that I went there. It was the first time in my life that I would go to Mumbai, and naturally there was a lot of excitement in my mind. I was very apprehensive of the trip, and I had reason to be so. I was going to see one of my very dear friends who stays in Mumbai.

It was only a consecutive 5 day holiday for me, and that too was possible because there were so many holidays that were present consecutively – I had to take only a single day’s leave! I went on the day of Holi. The flight was early in the morning at 6:10 AM, and I had managed to get very little sleep in the frenzy. I woke up at 3:00 AM, and one friend of mine dropped me at the airport on his motorcycle at 4:00 AM. I spent the 2 hours at the airport waiting, and waiting, and waiting... It was as if the wait would not end.

The aeroplane was a good one, in the sense that there was lot of leg space in between the seats and one could stretch his legs and be perfectly comfortable, and every seat had a small TFT screen in front so that the passenger could choose from a list of programmes that were being played. One could watch movies, listen to the news, or get weather updates about the altitude and the outside temperature. I did not feel like I was on board an aeroplane belonging to a domestic airlines company. There was free food also!

I reached the Mumbai airport at 8:45 AM, and my friends Debajyoti and Debasis were there to receive me. Tired that I was, I was in no mood to play with the colours of Holi. The rest of the boys played with the colours and I was the photographer that day. Afternoon, and we ate like monsters the chicken that we had cooked. A very long and deep sleep post lunch left me totally lethargic in the evening, and I felt that sleeping would be a better option that going to the Juhu beach, dirty as the beach was from constant abuse by locals and tourists. We went to the Juhu beach in the evening only to find that a crowded and dirty beach awaited us. People littered food packets, rags, plastic glasses all around. Where was that Juhu beach that I had seen in the film Anand? Nevertheless, we started strolling on the sands of the beach, and finally reached a dark end of the beach that was absolutely quiet and not frequented by tourists, thanks to the unavailability of food stalls and also to certain rotting smells of sea fish and sea shells that one finds there. It was a moonlit night. The airport was just beside the sea, and we were seeing the aeroplanes taking off above our heads. Sometimes roaring, sometimes hissing, the waves were crashing on the beach, and the white foam in the moonlit night was a majestic view.

Next day I went with my friend Debajyoti to the Elephanta Caves. Located somewhere in the distant sea, one required to travel on water for almost an hour and a half. We launched the ferry at almost 12:00 PM from the Gateway of India. We passed the warships of the Indian Navy, lots of cargo ships, and lots of hills in the sea, but the thing that amazed me most was that there was human habitation in those hills also. I wondered how people live in those places – some remote island in the sea where there was no food, no modern facilities, no schools, a place from where you would need to travel to Mumbai on water even if someone falls ill in the middle of the night. It was so amazing!

The caves were beautiful at Elephanta, but the green hills there were even more beautiful. When we went to the top of a hill we found two canons that the ruler of the place had placed there to protect the whole region from invaders in the past. We spent a fair amount of time there and again retraced our way to Mumbai after a 3 hour stay there. In the evening we went to the Marine Drive and spent a lot of time there sitting beside the sea, enjoying the cool breeze of the sea and gossiping. One can find lots of super cars and super bikes that the super rich of Mumbai take out in the evening on the Marine Drive.

The next day it was a visit to Laalbaug. We made the decision late in the day to go there, and a car was booked immediately as the decision was made at 11:00 AM. The car arrived at 12:15 PM and we set off at 12:30 PM. The driver was a jovial one, and by the way he was driving I could make out that he loved the drive. It was a brand new Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire LDI, and it was so comfortable inside. The driver told us that he had a Tata Indica earlier and this was his second car. On the way to Laalbaug we passed through jungles and hills on winding roads. It was a very long drive and we finally reached Laalbaug at 3:30 PM. I was feeling sick because of heavy consumption of food on the way. I somehow could not enjoy the day at all. I was feeling sick. On top of that the sea breeze made me all the more ill. Both Debasis and Debajyoti had accompanied me, and both of them ran into the sea and enjoyed a lot. They went rafting, and they insisted a lot that I should also go with them. Alas, only if my body permitted me! The glare of the sun and its scintillating reflection in the water gave me a headache, and I felt like vomiting. But I did not want to spoil my friends’ day, so I kept quiet, and took only a few photographs. Nature displayed to us her beauty in a marvellous sunset – I saw the sun gradually hiding itself from us, bidding us goodbye for the day. Unfortunately, the camera started giving some trouble, and the autofocus did not work properly, so I missed the photographs of the sunset. However, the setting sun gave me some relief. My sickness faded away, and I went with my friends for a stroll on the beach. The twilight was very beautiful – the beach was dark, the roaring sea was dark, but the sky was a brilliant fluorescent red. I had never seen such beauty before! I stood staring at the beautiful sky until it became dark. This was the first time that I had seen so beautiful a twilight! It was time for us to return to Mumbai after that. Back in the car, I fell asleep. When we reached home my friends had to wake me up.

The last day in Mumbai was nothing so eventful. I went out with Debajyoti to Bandra. We had biriyani at Arsalan in the afternoon. Then we sent to see the sea link, took some photographs, had a ride in a taxi on the smooth road of the sea link, and finally went to a shopping mall where they sell Aston Martin cars, Ducati motorcycles, and BMW Motorrad motorcycles. I am a lover of motorcycles, and seeing the Ducatis and the BMW Motorrads, I was astounded. I just felt like experiencing a test ride on those powerful monsters, each with more than 1000 cc of engine displacement. In the evening we went to the Gateway of India once more, and then we went to a restaurant to eat some good food. Evening found us aboard a local train of the Mumbai suburban railway, and we were home at about 10:00 PM.

The next day was the 31^st of March, the day of my return. My flight was at 6:00 AM. I did not sleep at night, and I also did not allow my other 2 friends to sleep. We spoke the whole night – we spoke of what we used to do in college, we spoke of what we were like when we had joined our jobs, and we laughed. We mostly discussed all the happy and the funny moments. We laughed for more than three and half hours at a stretch, and that gave me an aching stomach and made me dead tired when I was to leave for the airport at 4:00 AM. Both of them (Debasis and Debajyoti) accompanied me to the airport to see me off. Even there we did not stop talking, recalling old memories and laughing. Finally, at almost 4:30 AM, I decided that they should return because they were also dead tired.

I checked in, and the next one hour found me yawning – drowsy, drooping and languorous. I was trying hard not to fall asleep and miss my flight. Once aboard the aeroplane at 6 o’clock, I fell dead asleep. I woke up only when the airhostess woke me up for the breakfast, only to fall asleep again after gobbling up the food somehow.

It was 8:30 AM, and I was in Kolkata...