Oh, Calcutta!

In an earlier post, I had said that Calcutta was like homeopathic medicine; best taken in small doses. I was given a double dose today, but I have no complaints. If anything, I'd like a refill, please. Oh, and a side of nostalgia to go with it. 

Allow me to explain. Today, my mother and I went to buy some things from College Street. To a native of Calcutta, that's incredibly helpful, as College Street sells practically every last thing you could possibly need for academic purposes, or otherwise. For someone who is not familiar with Calcutta, it's time for a crash course. 

If a book doesn't exist in College Street, you won't find it anywhere else. If they say that a certain edition has gone out of print, you need not search elsewhere for it. It is the place to go to for books. I've heard people rave about the Daryaganj book market in Delhi, and a ton of other places in and around Delhi. With all due respect, I say to you: Do not cite the Deep Magic to me, Witch! I was there when it was written. 

There is nothing even remotely comparable to College Street. Imagine this. A 1-kilometre radius. A million bookshops, each so small you can only just stand upright in them. On both sides of the road. And on every surrounding street and by-lane. Now imagine the shutters are open and there are stacks of books taller than you are, just sitting there. Or lying on the footpath, not in neglect, but waiting to be unpacked or referred to. 

Competitive exams? Every single shop has the books you need. Prescott's Microbiology? Right here. GATE past year question papers? Behind you, on the opposite footpath. As The Crow Flies by Jeffrey Archer? That and the Collected Short Stories are available, in three editions to choose from. Percy Jackson? Say no more. The entire Riordanverse is literally at your fingertips. An art book by some obscure author? Is it this one? the shopkeeper will ask, holding up a slightly yellowed book. You see that is the book you have looked everywhere for. Well, obviously not everywhere, because you hadn't looked in College Street. Until now.

All that searching for books must be making you hungry. Kindly look to the Coffee House, where you can sit all day and not order anything, but nobody will mind. Thirsty? Paramount is waiting for you to step in and quench your thirst, with over 50 varieties of cold drinks. These are cold drinks, mind you- not aerated ones. Once you've refreshed yourself, you step out onto the road again. 

This time, you realize that Presidency College is right there, and has been there all along. You've been so engrossed and entranced by all the books that you didn't notice one of the leading universities in the country. I'm not being biased today; Calcutta University is, without a shadow of doubt, among the premier universities of the country. Presidency College's gates sit right there, with signs of student activism visible even in the midst of a pandemic. The front gate is festooned with hand-made posters protesting against the CAA bill and whatnot. 

You keep on walking, and now find that you had neglected the other shops just beyond this one avenue. One zebra crossing (at one end only, mind you) takes you into a different world, this time filled with shops of sanitaryware and food stalls. If you go the other way, you'll find shops for every possible apparel, ranging from sarees to .... I'm woefully out of date with ladies' fashion, so I'm leaving it up to you to finish that sentence.

It's not over, though. Far from it. Today's the 27th of January. Durga Puja is nowhere in sight. Once Durga Puja comes around, Maddox Square is the place to just sit and chat. No pandal-hopping. Just adda and food. One thing really made me feel sad, though. Thanks to the pandemic, more than half the shops had to stay closed. Not because they were shutting down, although that has also been a major cause. All the shops cannot open at the same time as there would just be too many people, and COVID doesn't pick and choose its victims. 

These people shouldn't have to bear the brunt of COVID norms. They're just minding their own business, not harming anyone. I'll tell you why COVID has increased exponentially. Every mid-teen or young adult manages to get into a relationship without the foggiest idea what it entails. However, the two things which it always entails are (drumroll, please) hand-holding and PDA. These idiots are true romantics; why else would they be holding hands in the middle of the COVID pandemic? Of course, they might just be plain stupid, but nobody's that stupid. Right?

It was a trip down memory lane for me, in many ways. When I used to go to school via College Street, early in the morning, I always took it for granted. Now that it's been over 6 years since I've been able to do that, it reminds just how much I miss it. The same goes for Garpar, Manicktala, and some other parts of Calcutta. Several old buildings have been torn down, only to make way for newer, flashier and more compartmentalized homes. 

Deshbandhu Park is on the way back home from College Street. There was a tennis club there, with a swimming club under construction right beside it. I wonder if the tennis club is still running. It had six clay courts and three grass courts, and it was absolutely beautiful. I should know; I used to learn tennis there. I've forgotten how to play, but I still remember the place. 

I was a model of self-restraint today. I did not cry, beg or throw a fit even once. I came home from College Street with zero books today. You read that right. Zero. I deserve a treat at Puntiram's, but who's listening? 

Today's post is longer, but there's only so much I can leave out when I'm talking about College Street. I haven't even mentioned the Hindi or Bengali books you can get there. Sometimes, there is only so much you can remember, or pen down in one go. Even then, it isn't close to enough. Sometimes, such places remind you of people. Might be a parental figure, or someone with whom you hoped to explore the place. Either way, it's something that makes you realize that 'the good old days' really were that: the good old days. Adios!