Kolkata loves variety in foods and the Kokattans have their favorite food joints

I did my school and college education in Kolkata and left the city in 1967 after getting a job in Nashik. Since then, I have lived in Nashik – the land of grapes, onions, the Godavari River and the Kumbh Mela held every 12 years. I have realized that the food joints of the 1960s still survive in Kolkata and have their share of patrons. I suddenly came across this story on 8 heritage restaurants from Kolkata and their iconic dishes. It brought back memories. The list includes two of my favorites. One of these is Aminia restaurant in the New Market area. In my college days (in 1960-61), I used to go there for a cup of its special tea. The cost was 12 paise and its taste really special!! Aminia came into existence on the Independence Day of India. Another of my favorite joints was the Indian Coffee House on College Street opposite Presidency College. This was the meeting place for the intellectuals of Bengal. Manna Dey sang a beautiful song “Coffee Houser sei addata nei aar nei.” It gives a vivid description of the life of youth in the 1960s – their ideals, visions and disappointments.

Other popular food joints are Peter Cat on Park Street described as one of the oldest restaurants in Kolkata and as famous as the Howrah Bridge. Another is Flury’s. This is a Swiss bakery also in Park Street. It has been there since 1927, the time of the British Empire. The third is 6, Ballygunge Place, a restaurant located in one of the historical places of Kolkata. Its popularity stems from its rustic ambience and Bengali meals. Incidentally, rasogolla and sandesh continue to attract everyone and Chinese foods are also getting noticed.

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A cat has nine lives, I have many more – 4

This happened in 1979. It was Mahalaya – a day when people pay respect to their parents who are no longer with them. It would be a first time for me because I had lost my father the previous year. Therefore, I decided to drive on my scooter to Ram Kund in Nashik. This place is on the River Godavari and considered a holy place. On days like this, there are innumerable priests available to perform the rituals. One of my friends wanted to accompany me. He, like me, had also lost his father the previous year. We decided to leave our township by 6am, drive down to Ram Kund, carry out the tarpan and be back by 6.45 am. That way we could return in time to attend our duties at 7am.

At such an early hour of the day, the traffic on the highway was less. It was the Mumbai-Delhi National Highway No 3 – and it had only two lanes. Today, it is an 8-lane highway. Anyway, we reached the holy spot, did the tarpan and began our journey back. It was the start of another day and traffic had increased on the road. I was driving the scooter and as I approached our township, I saw a truck ahead of me. It was moving at a slow speed and I wanted to overtake it. As I edged out towards the right, I saw another truck coming from the opposite direction. Instinctively, I tried to squeeze into the space between the two trucks – and succeeded. Of course, the drivers let out expletives and I did not wait to hear them out. I had to hurry because the time was nearly 7am! I added this incident into the category of other similar near-death incidents in my life.


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Good bye floods and droughts (satire)

Water is essential for life as we know it and, as we try to migrate to other planets, our first concern is water. The logic is, if water exists, so can lifeforms. On our planet Earth, water is available in plenty but, the distribution is haphazard. While some areas pine for a drop of water, other areas suffer from an abundance in the form of floods.
That is why Moody has deep furrows on his forehead – a sign of worry.
Every year there are scenes of flooded localities with relief packages being airdropped and people running to collect the food packets. There are the aerial surveys by the minister concerned to flood affected areas to assess the extent of drainage which would translate into the amount of central aid.
Side by side there are droughts – farmers sit hunched up on their parched farmlands waiting for rains and, unable to repay the loans they had taken, resort to committing suicides.
Moody wants to change all that. He does not like to hear about unhappiness among his people. He wants them to be happy. Share is his message. Those who have plenty should not hesitate to share some of it with others who are not so fortunate.
Moody, therefore, sent for two of his assistants - Hash Budden and Nitty Gadcurry.

‘I want to discuss water,’ he said.
‘Well,’ Hash Budden began. ‘There are many water purifiers in the market. All of them guarantee pure water. If we go for bulk purchase, we will get huge discounts.’
‘I don’t mean that,’ Moody shook his head.
‘Oh! You mean you want to discuss bottled mineral water?’
‘No. I am worried about water for the masses.’
‘Then we must be careful. The ground water is depleting and, to preserve whatever is available, we must ban bore wells. Moreover, these bore wells are dangerous. Kids keep falling into them and the media people have to spend hours in the night suffering mosquito bites as they give live coverage of rescue operations.’
‘Hash-ji, I am on a different frequency,’ Moody appeared to be exasperated.
‘Oh!’ Hash Budden was deflated.
‘Why don’t we link up the rivers?’ Moody shot his question.
‘We are drawing up plans,’ Nitty joined in the conservation.
‘I don’t want plans. I want action. How soon can we link up the Ganges with the Godavari and Cauvery?’
‘Well – work has started and we can expect to see results soon.’
‘Give me a timeframe,’ Moody demanded.
‘That is not easy,’ Gadcurry shifted in the chair. ‘There are many uncertainties. Especially with the Ganges. It needs to be cleaned up first otherwise the pollution would spread to all the other rivers.’
‘I see,’ Moody nodded his head. Then he began to doodle on the pad in front of him. The doodle looked like a meandering river. (to be continued …)
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)


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An alternative medicine called Ayurveda can cure many ailments

My association with Ayurveda goes back to the time when I was suffering from a disease of blocked nose. It struck me during the Kumbhmela of 1991 and made my life miserable. The doctors prescribed nasal drops and I would get relief as long as the effects of the drop remained. As a result, I had to carry the bottle of drops with me even to work.
Nashik is the venue of Kumbhmela which is held once every 12-years. I came to Nashik in 1967 and that was the first Kumbhmela I witnessed. In those days, the population of Nashik was small and I used to stay in Deolali. Our bus would not enter the limits of Nashik City but still, in order to ensure protection against epidemics and diseases, we had to get ourselves inoculated.
The next time was in 1979 and I did not feel the urge to go to Nashik to participate in the celebrations but in 1991, I decided to go – I was influenced by a couple of my friends who were keen to go to Trimbakeshwar, nearly 50-Km away, which is where all the action was. Moreover, the women were united and I had to fall in line. Therefore, we left early in the morning by bus to Nashik city and from there by a second bus to Trimbakeshwar.

We had left at 8am and when we finally got down from the bus at Trimbakeshwar, it was nearly 1pm and it was raining. There was a long queue of devotees and the line stretched from the bus stop to the specially erected bathing ghat where devotees were to take a dip in the holy waters of the River Godavari. The line was nearly 2-Km long and the umbrella could not keep away the rains – as a result, all of us got drenched and, with the water accumulated on the roads, it was a terrible experience.
When I woke up next morning, I knew that I was in trouble. The nose block had become severe and, that is when I got this beautiful advice from the wife of one of my close friends. She suggested that I begin garlic medication. Take a couple of cloves of garlic, she said, and chew them raw. Let the juice gradually seep into the body system. The pungentness would be unbearable in the beginning but, once you make it a habit and get used to it, it would be worth the trouble.
Garlic helps to maintain the consistency of blood and also to control cholesterol apart from arresting joint pains, and rheumatism apart from cough and cold.
I followed her advice and got immense relief and have continued with my two cloves of garlic every morning. It falls in the category of Ayurvedic medicine. I take it with a couple of salted biscuits and wash it down with tea. I have been doing so for the past 24-years and am loving it. (to be continued …)
(Image wikimediacommons.org)