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...)