Falling in Love with a City... Part 1 (kolkata)

Hi,

Back after a long time, as May 2011 made me travel a bit around 2 special cities of India. Kolkata & Delhi.

Let me talk a little about my time with both (Cities) of them....

Kolkata :

This has been a special place for me because a particular reason. The first official training which I conducted was held at Kolkata on 2nd Sep. 2009. and somehow almost every financial year I began with a program in Kolkata and this is not planned by me but automatically by destiny.

On the following link you can checkout pics of Park Street during my last visit (morning walk)

https://picasaweb.google.com/itsvishal/MorningWalkParkStreatKolkata?authkey=Gv1sRgCMadrvyx2PXCcw#

Over last 2-3 years during my numerous visits (though almost all of them were not more than a day visit) I never got to see Kolkata beyond Airport, Park street & the terrible traffic in between. Still I can sense that the city has some charm in it, which makes you feel its identity very strongly.

Whenever I am there I do not miss to take 3-4 strolls around Park street, and following few things I could not miss to mention:

1. The Arc designs and buildings which resemble with New Delhi's Conaught place & also some parts of South Mumbai.

2. The Oxford book store : My most favorite book store in India, apart from the ambiance & other facilities the atmosphere in this store is somewhat most special. You can see young kids talking about literature, Youngsters exploring Tagore and those Booker stuff etc.

3. The street food. ( and its unbelievable price)

4. The roadside bookshops- Though you can find such shops in every small & big city in India now but the kind of collection you find in Kolkata is class apart.

5. The Floweriest : No doubt, the best floweriest in India would be from Kolkata. even the smallest of the flower shop would have innovative and designer bouquets (again the price tag would make you feel that floweriest in your city are robbers in disguise)

6. Music Mania: The city has an special attachment for Music and even a small restaurant/ Bar in the evening would be having a live band performing everyday. Though you can find such Bars in other metros too but either those will be too hi-fi Restaurants like Hard Rock Cafe or will be too shabby like Delhi's Pahadgunj types. More over the quality of performance here would be good even in some really low price restaurants.

All which I never liked there was Hand pulled rickshaws and development in hibernation. I think the change has arrived and I am eager to see New Kolkata in near future....

As for As Delhi is concerned I will comeback on this topic in my next post!!!

Luv

VT (or Vish...this is a new acronym evolving for me these days...)

The Dialogue... Part 2

"Woh Zindagi Hi kya Jisme Koi Namumkin Sapna Na Ho !!!"

 The Dialogue comes from the movie "Khamoshi The Musical". Though in spite of being a great movie Its not one of my top most favorites. However the Dialogue is definitely the one which makes me ponder a while always.

By the way let me first share with you all that I took a long time for this post as I was busy attending an outbound training program and which has taken a lot of energy. It was certainly a great experience and perhaps I would talk about the same in the next post (with pics of course...)

Lets come back to the current post...

As we grow up we keep on loosing ...

1. Interest in songs (in the lyrics of the songs, to be specific)

2. We start reading more facts than fiction, even when we read fiction, we pick then up as a big notion that they are 'Fiction'

3. Stop believing in coincidences, miracles, telepathy, power of friendship, love, intuitions etc.

4. Stop making new friends and start losing touch with the old ones.

5. Stops enjoying company of Friends...

( let me elaborate the last one.. We start enjoying the set up more than the people around e.g. there was a time when we used have a close group of chosen friends with them we used to enjoy anything and  everything be it a boring movie, a useless song, a senseless book, loved to eat out at any place almost anything etc. so the group or the person was important but not the things you were enjoying with them.

Look at yourself now. Now you need a comfortable atmosphere, things to eat & drink of your taste, a comfortable time and a lot of carefully chosen & planned things which I address as 'Set up' then only you could enjoy or relax.  finding it difficult to understand, let me explain it  further...

If you are in a great restaurant you enjoy eating even with a useless bunch of people, same thing happens when you like to dance with strangers on a 5 start dance floor  or Do not enjoy a good movie just because the Theatre (Sorry Multiplex) did not have comfortable temperature or you did not get the favorite flavor of Popcorn. Got it. The 'set up' has become more important than the company (People).

Actually we started living in the practical world and tuned ourselves to be accustomed to the realizable comforts of the life.  What we do not realise is that it leaves us as a bitter person at the end. Who has a lot negative to talk about anything.

And then I think of the Dialogue "Woh Zindagi hi kya Jusme Koi Namumkin Sapna Na ho".., This Phrase is a lot similar to my another philosophy of "Raste pe hun Manzilon pe nahi..." And I think It has a coincidence with the Tile of Steve Jobs's Book "The Journey Is the Reward" and is also similar to The Bagvad Gita's Philosophy of  "Karmanye Wa Dhikaraste Maa Faleshu Kadachan"...

Why we have stopped enjoying the journey?? Why we are so obsessed with rewards, achievements & Acomplishments....??

Have a Dream.. The one which is quite unrealizable ... (Namumkin Sapna) It will make You:

1. Loving people beyond logic

2. Giving things without calculating Returns

3. Enjoying lyrics of old songs

4. Will make feel things better just by seeing a good old Friend or just by listening to him/her

5. More over it will help you to believe in positive coincidences, power of intuition and a lot of magical things in life...

So what if you never realize the dream, if you live each and every moment with a magical self belief, I am sure the life would be much more interesting & worth living for.

Would like to conclude with one of may favorite songs, requesting you all to visualize its video while reading these lines....

"Hum jo chalne lage, Chalne lage hain Ye Raaste...

Han Han Manzil se behtar KLagne Lage Hain Ye Raaste..."

Luv

VT