My sister came to Kolkata and helped me buy a fridge. It was a long and detailed exploration, comparing brands, sizes and prices at various places. We wandered around, visiting shop after shop before we finally decided what would suit me and made the purchase. We spoke to my parents that night, relieved."What brand did you buy?" asked my mother. "Haier." "What size?" I told her. I don't remember any more. "How much was it?" "6500." "Do you need a stabilizer for it?" "No, it has an inbuilt one." "How long is its guarantee?" "One year." "Where did you buy it?" "Sarat Bose Road - also called Lansdowne Road." "Did they deliver it home?" "Yes, I've started using it already!"The next morning, my mother called my grandmother and said, happily, "Varsha bought a new fridge!" "Oh!" said my grandmother, excited. "What colour?" "Hmm." The one question my mother never thought of asking. … [Read more...]
The First Year Away
I remember the time the house got flooded and I put my mattress up on the fridge. I shared a bed with my flatmate, and we watched dead cockroaches, plastic bags and coconut shells floating around us.I remember the time when a thief came to my window in the middle of the night. He did not make a sound, but I woke up and saw a man with a stick at my window, reaching into my room. I was too scared to scream.I remember the time when a cat jumped on my feet when I was in bed. A white cat. In the middle of the night. It woke me up and streaked past. I wonder how I was sane enough not to think that it was a ghost.I remember the time I fell down a manhole.I remember the time when a bag - with my PAN card, library books, library card and wallet - were stolen from my room during the course of the night.I remember how I woke up with a huge cockroach on my face. I picked it up, threw it … [Read more...]
Easter in France
The good thing about being a foreigner in a French family is that they do everything to give you the true French experience.My family could not control the weather - it was cold and there was hail that spring - but they did make Easter special!Traditionally, children are sent out into the garden with baskets to hunt for Easter eggs hidden for them.Even though I was 24 (and not quite a child), my family wanted it to happen. But it was too cold. The garden was wet and not very clean. So they did the modern commercial version of the event for me. They bought chocolate bunnies and hens, and packets of Easter eggs that we could find quickly without getting too wet and too cold. As soon as I woke up and went downstairs on Easter Sunday, they told me what I was supposed to do. Shivering with cold and excitement, I went out and happily collected my eggs and bunny. They had even marked my … [Read more...]
Désirée
Have you read Désirée by Anne-Marie Selinko?I read it when I was in school; I think it was the first really thick book I read.Yes, it came even before Gone with the Wind.I loved it so much that I read it again. And, I think, again.And then, I found an old, old copy of it at my grandparents' place, and how could I not read it again?It's the story of Napoleon's first love - the daughter of a silk merchant, Désirée Clary. When I read the book, all those things were just names to me. Marseilles, Stockholm, the Tuileries ...And then I went to Marseilles.There I was, thinking only about Alexandre Dumas and how close we were to the Chateau d'If. We went, of course, by metro. And guess what we found?It isn't easy to tell, but the second station on the line is Désirée Clary! … [Read more...]
Manjri Adventure
The bus-driver looked at the traffic piled up on the road ahead. We had to get to school and we were late anyway. The traffic was impossible, so he suggested that we take a detour through Manjri village. That's when our adventure began.We passed custard-apple orchards and a stud farm. We passed tiny nondescript nursery schools. We passed fields after fields, bumping our way through roads that had probably been created by bullock carts. I wondered what we would do if a bullock cart came towards us from the opposite direction. There was enough room for two carts to pass, but surely not a bullock cart and a bus! I was mistaken. Villagers are far more confident than city-dwellers when it comes to cheerfully getting their vehicles off the road and driving on, without even losing the thread of conversation with co-passengers. We passed a tractor that merrily went right off the road to let us … [Read more...]
Travel Records
My sister and I looked around.Things seemed perfect.It was a beautiful morning. It was not raining. Shops were just opening; restaurant-workers were setting their chairs and umbrellas.In the middle of a square, we looked around for the perfect spot.We sat on our haunches and put our arms around each other. People on their way to work threw puzzled looks at us. We giggled.We weren't looking at our backpacks, so we threw an arm around them, just in case. Passers-by frowned. Some even stopped to look. We laughed out loud.We were in a public place, sitting awkwardly and uncomfortably in the middle of nowhere, hugging our bags and laughing delightedly. We were foreigners - very obviously so. I think some people were even getting bold enough to come and talk to us. We continued to laugh, holding each other tighter.The self-timed camera carefully positioned on a chair in front of us … [Read more...]
Trams in Kolkata
The first time I went to Kolkata, I also went to Darjeeling. I was much younger then, and I was really just visiting my father's city, the place he grew up. We went in a tram, of course, and in Darjeeling, we took a ride in a toy train. Everyone talks about how picturesque that is, something tourists must do in Darjeeling. Returning to Kolkata, I confessed that the tram ride was much more thrilling than the toy train. My father joyfully took us on another tram ride.And so, when friends visited me in Kolkata, I insisted that they take a tram. Not to reach a destination (a certain detachment from the world is essential if you are taking a tram to get somewhere), but for the experience of it.A very dear friend of mine was, as always, the most expressive about the experience. "It's not possible," she said. "What?" "How can a tram go in one direction and all the traffic in the … [Read more...]
Vegetarian and Unadventurous
I've always tried to be adventurous with food, but to be honest, I am completely unadventurous. I try, I swallow, I sometimes even appreciate. But I also suffer from an overactive imagination.I remember the time a teacher of my sister's took us for a French meal. She took us to a beautiful, typical, arty place - with strict instructions not to look at the prices while ordering. That was difficult. But anyway, I cheerfully chose what I wanted - the one vegetarian dish that was typical of the region. I was happy; everyone was happy.And then, I was told, quite firmly, that a tarte tatin à la tomate was too small to be sufficient. Yes, it would be ordered, but I must have something else. Finally, I chose a souris d'agneau. My reasoning was this: it's lamb cooked slowly over the course of six or seven hours; surely it would be less meat-textured and my imagination less active. I … [Read more...]
Essel World
When I was ten years old, I wrote a story that won me two tickets to Essel World, and 4 tickets to Nehru Planetarium. Going to Mumbai was impossible, so we passed the tickets on to friends in Mumbai. I have no recollection of being upset with it, or in any way deprived. I think the friends who used the tickets felt far worse than I did!When I won the same things again, a little later, my parents and our friends in Mumbai decided that somehow, this time, little Varsha had to go to Essel World. And so, we planned it.This was a time when I was obsessed with writing down everything to be sure I did not forget treasured experiences. I wrote down all kinds of details, including what we ate and where. At Nehru Planetarium, there were weighing machines that were fascinating. "On the moon, I'm 6 kgs," I wrote. I wrote all the details. What I weighed on earth, Jupiter, the sun... Figures and … [Read more...]
The Dahu
Do you know the dahu? What a fascinating creature it is! A friend in Grenoble told me the story.The dahu looks like a deer, you know. A deer with a difference. It has two short legs and two long legs and lives in the mountains of France and Switzerland. The most intriguing thing about the dahu is that there's no system that defines which legs are short and which long. If its two right legs are short, it can go up a mountain only clockwise, not anticlockwise. You can imagine why. But the poor baby dahu that has alternate legs short won't survive. How will it? How can it run from danger?Rarely spotted and therefore much coveted, hunting the dahu was considered great sport in the 19th century. Capturing one of those rare beasts was a source of pride indeed! Dahu hunts are still conducted as outdoor activities, but on April 1, 1967, the Prefect of Haute-Savoie (France) … [Read more...]