Maach, Mishti & HIstory...

"মাছের ঝোল আর ভাত " (fish curry and rice)..!!!  Yes, this is somewhat the staple diet of almost all the Bengalis in Calcutta. People out here just can't survive without মাছ (fish) and rice is eaten even at breakfast.
Calcuttans have a weird notion that they should always leave home with a filled stomach. Totally agreed, but having rice in the morning itself makes you lethargic. Yet, this is the trend going on in this city of joy for centuries and that's what makes us who we are.
Fish holds a very special place in Bengal's heart. You got to have fish in basically all the ceremonies out here. Starting from birthdays, weddings, parties to even শ্রাদ (funerals). Fishes ranging from Ilish, Hilsa, Pompret, Katapona, Shukto Maach, Chingri and heaven knows what not. You just name it and we have it.

Coming to our specialty of মিষ্টি (sweets)... hmmm... what do I say about it. Every second person you meet has a sweet tooth. People compare good looks with sweets here! "কি মিষ্টি দেখতে " is one of the most common dialogue you will come across in here. Our specialty of Rosogullas and Mishti doi and the craze for it is just mad. I feel this is some tradition that has been going on for centuries. Having Mishti doi in bandhs or clay cups after supper only completes the meal. And you can't blame people cause the doi tastes just so tasty and irresistible.
I have never been able to understand this craze but i must tell you everyone else out here does. People from all over the world come here, taste the sweets and go crazy and then carry loads and loads of mishti back home.
When we talk about rossogullas then how can we forget K.C.Das. Everyone is just mad about the rosogullas they provide. Their patent red tinned cans of rossogullas makes every bengali and anyone develop a sweet tooth
Starting from celebrities to politicians, there's not one person who hasn't come here and taken back sweet memories of the sugar sweet city.

Changing Infrastructure

Calcutta, till a few years ago was a typical city with its share of high-rises, good and bad roads, eateries, etc. It was not a state of the art or a hi-tech city like the other Metropolitan cities in the country. The buildings here were mostly four to six storeyed with a few high-rises here and there. People wanting to go out for movies went to the good old cinema halls and saw movies on the "Single Screen" theaters. That was a different kind of feeling altogether. May it be standing in the never ending queue for tickets or buying chips and china baadam as munchies to munch on during the movies.It was so much more less technological and the cheers which everyone broke into the moment the hero got the heroine has now become an offense in the multiplexes. Have we advanced or have we Calcuttans in the process of modernisation forgotten our roots and just blindly followed the other cities like Bombay and Hyderabad and in the process lost our innocence and culture?

Howrah Bridge

We have wonders like Howrah Bridge and Victoria Memorial and still we compare our city of joy with others and criticize. .. is it justified?Why do we have this typical notion about our own city? Is it because it has lost its glory?But we in a way have given people reason to talk about us. Remember the Ultadanga flyover whose one part just broke and fell off? Also how the broken part was left there for innumerable days?

Ariel view of the broken Ultadanga flyover

Still I somewhere feel Calcutta still has the charm. If you go North it feels like you have entered a different world altogether. Beautiful old houses, palaces and the infrastructure out there mirror the lavish culture and lifestyle Calcutta once had. Though all are not very well maintained but you can still see the past glory, the rich infrastructure and the lavish babu lifestyle.