Calcutta 3
An Evening in Cacutta
We are still on our day more and above of the 23rd NDA,
Reunion in Kolkata, and just a few hours are left of the first day before the undertone of the dusk slips in. But before that is the magical moment of the sunset
on the Hooghly river-front.
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| Oil By Maria Greene |
Sunsets
What is it about
Sunsets that enthrals us! It is an everyday happening and heaven creates a new
perspective on the canvas everyday, yet this fleeting moment never fails to
hold us captivated as if bound by a dreamlike charm. The solar deity of the sky at
that moment dips his brush in burnished shades of copper and gold and sets the
clouds in one great canopy of flame above the earth. Perhaps that is the
mystique of Sunset, it is so ephemeral that it is almost blink and miss. And we
did not want to miss this magic of sunset on the river Hooghly.
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| Canopy of Flame |
Tea at the Heritage
Club.
But as there is sunset before dusk, there is time for tea before the sun
sets, and we had a long standing invite from the Secretary, Col Manish Bakshi, of one
of the oldest heritage clubs of Calcutta, ‘The Ordnance Club’ at Hastings. This
club has been there since 1907 and has welcomed many of the Royal Peerage through
its portals. All Officers of the Army Ordnance Corp are lifetime members of
this club. My father being a former Ordnance officer is perhaps
one of the oldest at 94.
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One of the Heritage Clubs Calcutta Ordnance Club
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After
the fortification and re-construction of Fort William the East India Company
and the
British Crown had to re-format, and start to expand, thus needing not only
more artillery, weaponry, arms and ammunition, but management of inventory and
repairs. Gun carriages belonging to the East India Company used to be repaired
at Fort William.
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| Gun Carriage Factory Fort William |
From repairing gun carriages, the factory graduated to Ordnance
Gun Foundry in 1830, acknowledgments to the skill of the Indian artisans
engaged in casting, turning and boring to produce barrels. Much later in 1905, it became the ‘Gun and Shell Factory. A Board of Ordnance was formed in 1775, and a
recreational centre desired was created in
1907, managed by the Ordnance Officers for Europeans and Anglo-Indian
employees of ordnance factories and allied military establishments.
Mohan and Sushma,
our fellow 23rd er’s and our
Kolkata hosts were to join us for Tea, however only Mohan was waiting for us. Our
extremely talented hostess was caught up winning a Lawn Bowling trophy at Royal Calcutta Golf Club. The British
expatriates, it seems had introduced this game ,Lawn Bowling in the year 1830 mainly for
recreation in addition to golf.
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| Ladies of the Raj at Royal Golf Club |
I knew nothing about Lawn Bowling,
except that it is a very old and was
played in Europe during the 12th century and a great stress
buster . Though, from
outside, the game seems easy but is a very challenging game as one side of the
ball is not proportioned and the ball travels in a curved path. The balls used
in Lawn Bowling are asymmetrical in
nature. The main objective of the game is to place the ball as close as
possible to the target which is called as jack.
Now coming back to our tea table , that most
quintessential of English customs that was perhaps , a relatively new
tradition popularised in England during the 1660s by King Charles II and his
wife the Portuguese Infanta Catherine de Braganza,though it was not until the mid 19th century that the
concept of ‘afternoon tea’ first appeared.
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| Silver Tea Service & Scones with clotted cream |
This tête-à-tête over a cup of Tea, in Victorian England became a
fashionable social event with the 1880’s
upper-class and society women.Their tea-table became a Silver Tea Service with delicate
linen , Royal Doulton china , dainty sandwiches, scones served with clotted
cream and preserves and Cakes and pastries. On the other hand, here we opted for chilled fresh lime soda and just a
cup of tea.
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| Mohan Burman |
But then,when old friends meet it creates a
charmed circle and time gets wings to fly. We had a sunset to catch on ‘The
Strand’ and Mohan had to leave to prep for the rest of
the 23rd course check in on 23rd February 2018, but
when he left, it was with a
diktat that had two qualification, ‘Be on time for dinner at home tonight at Ballyganj’, second the 23rd Course ‘Reception centre and the welcome
Standy’ had to be up before 9AM in the
HHI Lobby. Aye Aye sir! moment …. an officer trying to be a gentleman. Wish
could put a smiley here.
Sunset on Hooghly
Shastri
ji, our driver dependable was waiting for us, and was quick and deft through
the traffic to win the race with the
setting sun. From the flyover, high above the urban roof-line we could see the sky over the
river changing and colour spread from red to orange.
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| Urban Skyline |
Timing
was perfect and we made it to the river front near the Princep Ghats.
Now we could see
the sun going down from here in the horizon creating a spectacular, a
magical art work with the Vidyasagar Setu in the foreground!
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| Pink fluff clouds over Princep Ghats |
Sunset is
indeed one of the most beautiful sights to behold especially when the sun seems
to sink in the water turning it to liquid gold to rose gold. I wonder if you have
ever felt the strange absurdity about
the sunset, that you do not actually
want the sun to set, you want it to stay right on the perspective, not below
it, not above it, just right on it.
The aura is so short-lived that I just wanted to
hold on to it.
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| Water turns Liquid Gold to Rose Gold |
We
were lucky to be at the right place where we wanted to be, that is at the river
front at Princep Ghats. When the time came,and the sun was about to slip away,
the radiance of the aura cast a warm glow on all our faces.
Sun Glitter
Standing on the river front we saw
gold imbued rays of the setting
sun create a pattern on the surface
of Hooghly water that appeared to form an glistening
path . This is a signature glint
called the ‘Sun Glitter’. If you throw a stone in the water, a quick ripple
will create a glittering effect on the surface.
This was truly a magic of the moment.
Mesmerising an understatement!
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| Sun Glitter |
Could it be a Dolphin?
Just
as we were ready to move away a movement on surface created a ripple that
caught my eye, a bright sparkling glitter
had formed from the waves. The waves may have been caused by flow of the
water, or by movement of an animal in the water. Or a floating carcass. Now my attention
was entirely focused on this spot and I was holding my breath.So unexpected was
this sighting that I had to tell myself… Take a deep breath. That is when I saw
another hump dive on the surface.
Could
it be a Dolphin?
Or
a floating carcass. Now my attention was entirely focused on this spot and I was
holding my breath.So unexpected was this sighting that I had to tell myself…
Take a deep breath. That is when I saw another hump dive on the surface.
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| Representative Visual |
I
had heard of Indus river dolphins, but was not conversant on habitat of
Gangetic River Dolphins. How
exciting if what we saw were Hooghly Dolphins. Had to get back and Google
search and research. A fact check.!
Though
walking back to the car a couple of
media savvy young people conversationally mentioned that there was an
article in ‘Times of India’ a few years ago on sighting of a dolphin family on
‘The Strand’ river front.
Now,
that makes content for another story, another post.
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| Times of India 2015 |
Burmans @ Ballyganj
Dusk
was setting and we were late, rather getting to be outrageously late for our sun downer and dinner with Burmans. In Delhi it is part of a style quotient
to be fashionably late, but this is Calcutta, the domain of the ‘Burra Sahibs’.
To to be late here is blasphemous, thus we would have to skip our ‘must have’
reference for ice cream scoop at ‘Scoop’ Ice Cream Parlour on the Strand.
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| The Early Birds of 23rd |
This
dinner was a preamble, a kind of a forerunner to the 23rd Course
Reunion. In spite of the rush and rush we were a trifle behind the given time,
but the welcome without a doubt was in harmony with smiles and hugs. Richard Clark and Bhibu Mohanti had scored
brownie points for keeping up with time.
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| Richard, MS, Minoo,Sushma & Magie |
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| One on ones |
What
a delightful evening it was, informal banter and light ribbing mingled with
wine and whisky. Sushma and Mohan our ...... friends or should I say family,
for friends are family we chose to keep forever. Family isn't always gene connected.
Mohan and Sushma are those kind of people in our life who want us in
theirs. They are the ones, who along
with there loving family, have gone to
create an atmosphere of perfection with
great diligence and love, just to see a
smile on our face and make this reunion memorable.
Coming back to
dinner, the Dinner spread was a coup d’état.
Superb ‘Bhetki’ curry was the diva and the rounding off with Nolen Gur Ice-Cream was
a novelty for to satiate our sweet tooth.
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| Bengali Bhetki Curry |
I
used to believe that the coast from Mumbai down to Kerala had the most
flavoursome fish. That was until I discovered Kolkata bhetki, a
locally caught silver fish known as barramundi internationally.
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| Barramundi or Bhetki |
Is this the Bengal’s answer to sea bass?
What
more, it sure is Kolkata’s answer to Mumbai’s Pomphret.
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| Nolen Gur Ic Creame |
Nolen
Gur Ice Cream again was an innovative take on egg and cream whipped Ice-cream with
khajur sugar. Nolen Gurer Ice Cream originates from old Bengali kitchens and is
creamy and delicious with an added benefit of no refined sweetener.
Talking of Nolen Gur Ice Cream,
I am told that Mother Dairy has launched this regional delicacy from the east
in
Delhi.
Night
Lights in Kolkata.
We were tired beyond belief,
and moving a little finger was an ordeal, at least for me. However, Kolkata
nightlights had to be seen and drive on
the New Hooghly Bridge was unmissable, in spite of the crying aches and pains
that that were sifting in, in our life
as young geriatrics.
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| Gas Lamp Street Lights in Pall Mall London |
Calcutta is really a city of grace, culture
and joy, which has a heritage of over 300 year.
It was the capital of the British Indian Empire until 1911 when the
capital was relocated to Delhi.
Following the trends On Pall Mall in London ,Calcutta grew rapidly in the 19th century
to become the second city of the British Empire.
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| Night-Scape of Kolkata |
What we saw in the night scape of Kolkata was the
changing trends. I could see them even
in the humble lamp standing on the corner of the street .
You could call me a
romantic , or a quixotic perceptive, but
I saw evolution even in the street lamps. Beginning with the gas lamps which are relics of the Raj, that is when a person had
to come and light them every evening , to Tungsten incandescent
to halogen to Sodium vapour and now solar. In Kolkata we saw the a
trident lamp called Trifola with a LED lights.
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| Changing Face of Street Lamps |
Something old and something new. That
is the Calcutta and Kolkata that vibe in harmony with the development of a
culture that fused European philosophies with Indian tradition. Street lighting
in Kolkata certainly seems to prove point, that good lighting can certainly change
the look of the place.
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| New and Old create an ambiance |
Day is finally done.
Officially it is a ‘New Day’ today and MS, Minoo, Magie and I had our feet up
with night cap in hand in our connected ‘Family Suite’ at HHI.
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| Minoo & MS ... Time to sit and Plan the next day |
The dawn of the
next day brings for the four of us
another five hours of the time we were stretching to see facets
of the bygone era. My trip to
Calcutta would be grossly incomplete without visiting the Churches.
You could call me a
romantic , or a quixotic perceptive, but
I saw evolution even in the street lamps. Beginning with the gas lamps which are relics of the Raj, that is when a person had
to come and light them every evening , to Tungsten incandescent
to halogen to Sodium vapour and now solar. In Kolkata we saw the a
trident lamp called Trifola with a LED lights.
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