Saturday, August 21, 2021

Kolkata As Seen Though the Lens of Someone Who Grew Up Here: A Guest Post by Anwesha Chowdhury

 Anwesha Chowdhury is a music teacher and musician whom I’ve known for about a year or so on Facebook. While the friendship has yet to cross over into the real world, she does have a good ear and is a very talented individual as I hope what you’re about to read below will prove. I saw this posted on her Facebook about an hour ago and it made me so emotional that I asked for permission to use it as a guest post for my blog. Anwesha agreed and so here it is!

 Thank you, Anwesha. This brought tears to my eyes and it is such a rare treat to meet someone who loves Kolkata with a passion that very few can express so well. I hope you live long and prosper and keep rocking!

 The Bilge Master

 Today while on my daily walk, I walked around 16 kms, around the lanes and by lanes of the city.

Since we all treat Facebook like a blog, I thought I'd pen down something I felt on my walk today.

Recently I've been seeing posts with "The only thing to do in Kolkata is leave", "Kolkata is a trash city", etc etc. At times I laugh at this, tell my friends -ei sohor tar are kichu hobe na,(This city is dead, there is nothing that will happen in this city) while I dream of building a future here myself.

I've had many, many people asking me why I want to stay here, gotten offers from around the country. My family is here, my sister shifted back here, my better half is here, all the kids I've gotten so attached to over the years, they are all here. All of this is a part of why I'm still here, but you know why else? This is where I first sat with a group of older dadas when I was in class 10 and they told me, “Kid you need to listen to Dream Theater". This is where I had my first heartbreak that made me want to express through music. This is where I cycled around the city with my friends, while my mom thought I'm roaming the streets of Jadavpur. This is where I met my first music teacher, who I still look up to today. This is where I had countless shopping dates with my sister, only to buy chips lol. This is where I acted like a clown in school trying to get people to laugh, and acted emo with others to get them to call me weird. This is where I walked through the streets of Gariahat looking at toys I really wanted, too scared to ask my mother for anything. This is where I walked into the metro station alone for the first time going to Dumdum to my boyfriend's house. This is where my sister threatened to tell my mother about some guy I liked as a kid, if I didn't buy her chocolates every day, and I obliged with my pocket money. This is where I got wet in the rain for 3 hours with the boy who's now my boyfriend, too scared to tell each other we liked the other.

This is the city I loved in, I fought in. The city that gave me friends, I never talk to (sorry about that). The enemies I made up with. Gave me the family I hate and I love. The boyfriend I despise most of the time but love more than I love anything. This is the city that let me become the person I am today. Yes, the city is horrible at times, but it is where I built my dreams. This is the city that built me. This is not just about Kolkata; this is about my hometown. I'm forever indebted to my hometown for making me the person I am. I think it applies to any of you and whichever city you are from as well.

And someday I hope I can become a person, in this old dingy city, happy with the little money I made knowing that I made a few children believe in their dreams and played a little part in building it.

 

Translations and NB:

1.     Dada- term of respect for someone older than you in the Bengali language, used to refer to a male. Didi is the female equivalent

2.     Jadavpur and Gariahat are areas in the city of Kolkata



 

No comments:

Post a Comment