Calcutta, now Kolkata

After a delicious Top Shelf Margarita at a dinner out last night our conversation turned to reminiscence. I talked a lot about my CAG school days. Mostly,  teachers and school friends. While they call the city Kolkata, it will always remain Calcutta to me. 

According to my niece who spent about six months with us, she has never heard anybody in our family talk about Calcutta as much as she has from me.

She is right.

Calcutta is almost never out of my mind.

I am going down the memory lane now. Somethings I remember very well, others not. I have always envied people with photographic memories.

I often visualize  the spacious road we lived on; the neighbors we had; the games we played. I map out the everyday walking route I took to my  school. I remember the way but not the shop keepers except a fabric merchant, Primus repairer and a snack shop owner.  I believe there was a pottery store at the corner of main road and the side street. During Monsoons, I remember treading the road in knee deep water mixed with sludge. Rains were so heavy that drainage system could not cope with water. Many times we would step on some crawly creatures we did not know what they were. An eeck would  go through my body. Most of the times we would be soaked through to the bones for the lack of umbrellas. Umbrellas were , often, ineffectual in torrential rains.

I remember some of my teachers; Sumita Sen,  Monjula Choudhry, Panna Bhatt, Padma Vaswani, Pankaj Mehta(?) , Devendra Dave. I do not remember who taught what in which standard. Class mates I remember are, Kalavati Coonverji Shah, Jaswanti Manek, Damayanti (?), Madhumati Shah. Other school friends were, Manorama Shah, Dipika Kadakia, Ranjan Surati(?), Rashmi Joshi, Manna Sheth(?). 

One of my fondest memories is, during  recesses one of the school guards, whom we used to call Darwanjees, would call me out of the line of hundreds of girls first and pour water on my hands to drink. We did not have water fountains we have here. There is an Indian method to drinking water; one pours and the other drinks. He always favored me over other girls. After many years, when I went back to visit my school once, he was there and still remebered me. I wonder if he is still alive!

I remember the street vendor, Mamoo, who sold Moshla Mudi, a local snack favorite. I often retrace the way to weekend outing destination; Victoria Memorial . But I do not remember how we went to Eden Garden. How on many Sunday mornings I, with my younger brother and sister, walked to Esplanade.

During couple of my college years I  took number six bus to my college, Shikshayatan. My favorite professor at the college was named Mrs. Pant. She taught Commercial Geography. There was another Professor I liked, Miss Mitra. She taught Philosophies of Francis Bacon, Renee Descarte, Emanul Kant and I forget who else. 

Then, I left Calcutta for good. But......... Calcutta never left me.