Calcutta Chronicles

Thank God. And thank Chetan Bhagat. In the last three years, I have traveled quite a bit and fair bit involving air travel. And I have never had so many air-hostesses talk to me so much before, in one single journey. But today was different, thanks to Chetan Bhagat.

I was carrying a copy of “2 States”, Bhagat’s latest offering. As soon as I stepped inside the aircraft, the lady welcoming me said “That’s a nice book” and that was the start of it. She kept walking past me, nudging me and telling, “oh you are so engrossed”, “I hope you are enjoying it” and such. The head of the herd, the one who makes all the announcements, was the attention seeking types, with tonnes of make up on her face. While announcing the name of the captains, instead of saying anil gupta and rahul kapoor, she said Anil Kapoor and believe me, she made such a huge fuss about it that every passenger noticed her. She hung up the phone mid-way, acted very embarrassed, walked out to the stairs leading up, walked in, covered her face, went inside the cockpit (wonder why they call it cockpit), went to the other hostess, and what not. Then finally when she did start her announcement again, she hung up once again as if to convey her embarrassment from the previous misfortune. Anyways, like I said, she was the attention seeking types. So when she walked past me, she chatted me up. Once again, thanks to the book. And it was a long conversation by any standards. Seems she doesn’t like to read Chetan Bhagat, his English is not great. Ahem. Miss Bagchi, my English teacher in school would have been proud of her reason I must say!

Anyways, so then the flight started its descent and I saw the city of Calcutta. It is so strikingly different from any other city that I have seen. There are old buildings and older buildings. Many of them look like ruins from some architectural times. And this time when I came outside the airport, I saw what I have never seen in Calcutta before. A special AC bus service from the airport. Man, I tell you. That was some sight. Something other than the old yellow and black ambassadors, or those rickety buses. And the sight inside the bus was so Calcutta! The songs, the people clicking pictures, the conversations and all of that. It was so much fun. I love this city.