Chapter 2: Calcutta
While I am in the arms of Morpheus waiting to embark on a new phase of life in Varanasi, lets move Father time back a few notches to speak about Calcutta and my own insignificant background.
I spent most of my senior schooling life in Calcutta with assorted relatives, sometimes full of joi de vivre as much as a lower middle class in India could afford, often strict in discipline and orthodoxy but then always affectionate and loving. I grew up amongst about 20 assorted relatives including several cousins four of whom were of comparable ages to mine and thus a not insignificant feeling of competition - never discussed openly but always present in the background - evolved. The competition was always healthy, with books & notes, ideas and thoughts exchanged in total harmony creating a learning environment that was sustained in its excellence and focus. My youngest uncle whom we have been introduced in the first chapter was a kind of role model for us cousins, a lean but never mean taciturn man with a knowledge of & aptitude for mathematics bordering on the genius. He was the person solely responsible for the kind of attention and focus we ourselves brought into the subject and his tutoring was a key ingredient in my eventual success in the IIT-JEE entrance examination. A measure of his hard work could be imagined by a perusal of his note books he had studiously preserved since the time he himself was in Class XII - he had 4 notebooks devoted to the key question book we used to prepare for our examinations - the first one was his initial thoughts and would have several cuts and slashes signifying his thinking process, the second would have the same problems solved in the manner used in the text books and taught as the ideal example, the third would be his attempts to solve the same problems in methods not taught or normally used and the fourth the same problems solved using a different and perhaps even unique methodology. Such a role model could not help but inspire all of us to excel and now - a decade & more later, all four of us are successful professionals in our own chosen fields and I think all of us owe a debt of gratitude to this uncle of ours.
I lived with my parents till I was 13 when it was felt that the advanced schooling in the location my father was then working would not suit a young boy and thus by consensus (well mine excluded) was chosen to go to St Lawrence High School in Calcutta. I had earlier studies in St Lawrence when I was very small before my father got transferred and thus the admission process was a little less stringent for me - for this admission, I owe a debt of gratitude to my grand uncle who used his not insignificant charm and gift of gab to sweet talk the Rector of the school to give me a break. St Lawrence in those days was amongst the best schools in Calcutta and perhaps in India with exceptional results in Academia and in general an all round growth of children and thus it was not an easy turn to get my admission done in such an august institution.
One of the key influences in my life has been the city of my birth, Calcutta and where I lived for most of my school going life. Variously it has been deemed as dirty, uncouth, polluted, slow and unhealthy but for me it was the finest place in the world. Even now, when I have lived, worked & traveled to 25+ countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, Australisia, North & South America, Calcutta still remains my favorite city, a unique place, a city full of passion, pride, culture and vitality. Calcutta as a city is quite small in terms of area & ignoring the metropolitan limits which are even smaller, it roughly extends 40 kms in a north south direction from Bagbazar in the north to Garia and Kudghat in the south & a maximum of about 10 Kms from Beliaghata in the east to the Hoogly in the west. In fact around northern extremity of the city, the east-west distance would be less than 4 Kms around Sinthee More. The newer extensions of Salt Lake and Rajarhat were ill developed in those days and we used to derogatorily refer to those places as hamlets outside Calcutta. We used to live in roughly the center of South Calcutta close to one of the landmarks - Deshapriya Park - the place where I learned and honed my cricketing skills.
This isn't intended to be a travelogue or a Calcutta appreciation effort but its vital to understand how a place & its environments play such a key role in defining the person one becomes. Calcutta's influence and more particularly the influence of its people left an inedible imprint in my development. My sense of humor some of which would get demonstrated later in the book is a direct result of the people I grew up with and the ease with which most of them would come up with wise cracks - in the middle of a hot, sweaty, uncomfortable bus or in the middle of watching a particularly engrossing and serious play in one of the numerous theaters Calcutta is justly proud of. The ability to find something to laugh at and not take oneself too seriously is a distinct Calcutta trait and something that still survives despite the changes that have occurred. At the same time, the average Calcuttan is a proud person - proud of his remarkable heritage, very family oriented - often dominated by the female members of the society, loves his travel - you will find most tourist spots in India sporting banners in Bengali during the holiday season in Oct-Nov as a tribute to the Bengali traveler and given to long soliloquies on eclectic subjects - often with friends whom he has grown up all his life. Being able to hold two distinctly different opinions on a similar subject and argue when needed for or against the subject is unique to a Calcuttan and perhaps comes from the environment - hot and humid during the day but pleasant during the evening; often polluted and crowded but always ebullient and passionate. Interesting dichotomy & something I have never witnessed or experienced in any other city in the world.
I spent most of my senior schooling life in Calcutta with assorted relatives, sometimes full of joi de vivre as much as a lower middle class in India could afford, often strict in discipline and orthodoxy but then always affectionate and loving. I grew up amongst about 20 assorted relatives including several cousins four of whom were of comparable ages to mine and thus a not insignificant feeling of competition - never discussed openly but always present in the background - evolved. The competition was always healthy, with books & notes, ideas and thoughts exchanged in total harmony creating a learning environment that was sustained in its excellence and focus. My youngest uncle whom we have been introduced in the first chapter was a kind of role model for us cousins, a lean but never mean taciturn man with a knowledge of & aptitude for mathematics bordering on the genius. He was the person solely responsible for the kind of attention and focus we ourselves brought into the subject and his tutoring was a key ingredient in my eventual success in the IIT-JEE entrance examination. A measure of his hard work could be imagined by a perusal of his note books he had studiously preserved since the time he himself was in Class XII - he had 4 notebooks devoted to the key question book we used to prepare for our examinations - the first one was his initial thoughts and would have several cuts and slashes signifying his thinking process, the second would have the same problems solved in the manner used in the text books and taught as the ideal example, the third would be his attempts to solve the same problems in methods not taught or normally used and the fourth the same problems solved using a different and perhaps even unique methodology. Such a role model could not help but inspire all of us to excel and now - a decade & more later, all four of us are successful professionals in our own chosen fields and I think all of us owe a debt of gratitude to this uncle of ours.
I lived with my parents till I was 13 when it was felt that the advanced schooling in the location my father was then working would not suit a young boy and thus by consensus (well mine excluded) was chosen to go to St Lawrence High School in Calcutta. I had earlier studies in St Lawrence when I was very small before my father got transferred and thus the admission process was a little less stringent for me - for this admission, I owe a debt of gratitude to my grand uncle who used his not insignificant charm and gift of gab to sweet talk the Rector of the school to give me a break. St Lawrence in those days was amongst the best schools in Calcutta and perhaps in India with exceptional results in Academia and in general an all round growth of children and thus it was not an easy turn to get my admission done in such an august institution.
One of the key influences in my life has been the city of my birth, Calcutta and where I lived for most of my school going life. Variously it has been deemed as dirty, uncouth, polluted, slow and unhealthy but for me it was the finest place in the world. Even now, when I have lived, worked & traveled to 25+ countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, Australisia, North & South America, Calcutta still remains my favorite city, a unique place, a city full of passion, pride, culture and vitality. Calcutta as a city is quite small in terms of area & ignoring the metropolitan limits which are even smaller, it roughly extends 40 kms in a north south direction from Bagbazar in the north to Garia and Kudghat in the south & a maximum of about 10 Kms from Beliaghata in the east to the Hoogly in the west. In fact around northern extremity of the city, the east-west distance would be less than 4 Kms around Sinthee More. The newer extensions of Salt Lake and Rajarhat were ill developed in those days and we used to derogatorily refer to those places as hamlets outside Calcutta. We used to live in roughly the center of South Calcutta close to one of the landmarks - Deshapriya Park - the place where I learned and honed my cricketing skills.
This isn't intended to be a travelogue or a Calcutta appreciation effort but its vital to understand how a place & its environments play such a key role in defining the person one becomes. Calcutta's influence and more particularly the influence of its people left an inedible imprint in my development. My sense of humor some of which would get demonstrated later in the book is a direct result of the people I grew up with and the ease with which most of them would come up with wise cracks - in the middle of a hot, sweaty, uncomfortable bus or in the middle of watching a particularly engrossing and serious play in one of the numerous theaters Calcutta is justly proud of. The ability to find something to laugh at and not take oneself too seriously is a distinct Calcutta trait and something that still survives despite the changes that have occurred. At the same time, the average Calcuttan is a proud person - proud of his remarkable heritage, very family oriented - often dominated by the female members of the society, loves his travel - you will find most tourist spots in India sporting banners in Bengali during the holiday season in Oct-Nov as a tribute to the Bengali traveler and given to long soliloquies on eclectic subjects - often with friends whom he has grown up all his life. Being able to hold two distinctly different opinions on a similar subject and argue when needed for or against the subject is unique to a Calcuttan and perhaps comes from the environment - hot and humid during the day but pleasant during the evening; often polluted and crowded but always ebullient and passionate. Interesting dichotomy & something I have never witnessed or experienced in any other city in the world.
Comments