THE DAILY OBSERVER-57

 😎THE DAILY OBSERVER-(57)😎

Mon 28 Dec 2020

            OH KOLKATA

         Something simply had to happen on this site yesterday after all that build-up and it did. The volcano errupted and hot lava spilled over. Inevitable.And the "collateral" damage- also inevitable. A Board of Officers shall assemble soon for the purpose of assessing the Storm ( in a Kissan Squash- cup) damage and submit its report to all concerned (if any).

           In the meantime, for some strange reason, the spotlight seems to be shifting to the City of Joy. Last night, when the fireworks were at their best,flying fast and furious, my hand instinctively reached out for that comforting liquid nourishment. That brought me back to mother earth and stark reality. I still remember that fateful day in 2016 when i was discharged  from Apollo Hospital Kolkotta on Dec 25. I was still smiling when Dr. Roy informed me that my drinking and smoking routine had to come to a stop. " OK Doc , " i answered cheerfully,  " for how long would that be? "  There followed the  chilling proclamation that this was virtually a life sentence. Talk of an excellent fun-filled life being smashed to smithereens in a second. But what about all those poor cigarette and liquor manufacturers losing such a steady customer, Doc ? Not to talk of the loss of revenue to the State and the effects thereupon on the lives of the poor and needy multitudes?But he was firm and merciless in his insistence that i could consider that particular chapter of my life as closed for good ( pun not intended).Whatever little hope i had that my better half would lend a sympathetic ear and help me out in that hour of need was dashed the minute we reached home. All the liquor and tobbaco including various types of hookahs and pipes i had so painstakingly collected during my sbort but eventful stay in the city had vanished. Looked like there was nothing left to look forward to in life. It still pains even to talk of that fateful day. Turning towards better memories.

          Anyway, it was not long after i joined duty in the City of Joy that i learnt about the Black Hole of Kolkata too.More of that also later.

       One of the first things i did on arrival at this great city was to make a serious attempt at getting to know the Bhadralok there. A friend in Chennai had helpfully given me the phone number of a gentleman who was a direct descendant of the ertswhile royal family of a Northeastern State. On contacting him, i was invited to his place for dinner. After a long drive i reached his place with some difficulty in locating it. The road on which it was located would be the last one where one would expect a palace to be located. Anyway, i was given a warm welcome after i entered the hall through a corridor with ivory on both sides providing an arched walk-way. After loads of excellent whiskey, dinner was served . Now came the rub - firstly fish is not something i am overly fond of. Still, after being sufficiently warmed up, i do not mind staring at a fish-head on my dinner plate. But no amount of whiskey can make me enjoy the experience of a fish staring at me from the plate. Unsettling, definitely, to say the least. But it was served with so much love and affection that it would become rude not to accept. In fact, the rest of the night was spent between pretending to relish it on one side, while politely and firmly seeing to it that there was no chance of a second helping finding its way on to my plate.Needless, to say , i woke up the next day with the mother of all hangovers and was struggling hard to stop the world whirling around me. I was sitting in the balcony of the tbird floor of my office where i had my temporary residence in the guest-room, trying to smoke away the memories of the staring fish. Matters came to a head when i almost fell off the steel chair on which i was sitting. Time to hit the nearest bar and get outside of a couple of cold beers, i decided. On walking out of the office,i noticed a crowd collected outside the Airport Authority building on the other side of the road but paid scant attention.Oñ  reaching a roadside bar, i was surprised to find it totally empty and everyone standing outside. I shouted loudly for a beer.Guys slowly started trickling in and in answer to my puzzled looks, one of them pointed to the TV Screen. It was being announced that there had been a severe earthquake in Nepal, tremors of which had been felt in the City of Joy. The crowd collected outside the Airports Authority office  was being shown on screen.i had not almost fallen off my steel chair for nothing. Oh, Kolkata. This was only the beginning of a series of colourful bhalo-bhasha episodes at the fag end of my official life.