Missing in Kolkata

Apologies for the slightly prolonged absence from this blog.

I was in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata on a work assignment.

It wasn't a planned visit, unlike my last and only trip to the city. That was almost 13 years ago and I was travelling with three of my closest friends.

All three have their origins in West Bengal and reasonably familiar with its capital, Calcutta (as the city was known then). My first memory of that trip is getting out of the Howrah Station and into a sea of traffic. It took quite a while to get to the Howrah Bridge, but the journey became faster as we got closer to Dum Dum – where we had found affordable accommodation.

The four of us had made a pact on not eating anything vegetarian. Only creatures that live on land or swim in sea. And wash that down with loads of drinks.

Each day, we would take the Metro (India's oldest underground transport system) and go Park Street to have kathi rolls. For those of you who do not know, a kathi roll is made of thin bread with delicious chicken or lamb filling.

The rest of our time was spent discovering the other culinary options in the city - with the occasional bit of sight-seeing. Victoria Memorial is the only place that stuck to memory from that trip.

On the way back to Howrah Station, our taxi got stuck in traffic again – and we had to rely on a ferry to catch our train back to Delhi.

This trip was different in every way. For starters, I was flying from Delhi to Kolkata. Delhi's new domestic airport is quite impressive. The check-in happened in a flash and there were loads of options for window-shopping.

The flight landed towards Dum Dum and we had to make our way into the city, where our hotel was.

Along the way, there were hoardings selling brand-new housing development, telecom services or cosmetics. The Hindi language seemed to have muscled its way into the market, sitting proudly amidst English and Bangla. So had names like South City, which probably took roots in the real-estate book in the Delhi NCR (National Capital Region). Retailers like Big Bazaar are establishing themselves quickly, and shops selling mobile services can be found everywhere.

Like the other big Indian cities, Kolkata has also seen a rapid rise in car ownership. And this rise has been followed by construction of flyovers and other such structures to ease the movement of cars along the city.

An early morning excursion (and trust me that's the only time you'd like to be in a car) to the Howrah Wholesale Fish Market exposed me to another interesting dimension. Most parks were full of boys playing cricket, football or volleyball. The Maidan - a huge park in front of Victoria Memorial - had many middle-aged men and women out to get some exercise.

Like in Delhi or Mumbai, they came in their swank cars - many driven by chauffers and parked by the memorial - to get a breath of fresh air.

Yet, Kolkata feels much smaller than Delhi or Mumbai. It still gives impression of a city that had a glorious past, but is trying hard to catch up with an exciting present and even more exciting future. Apart from those numerous colonial-era buildings, it also has its hand-drawn rickshaws and the bright yellow taxis.

In my six days in Kolkata, I saw the city largely through the windows of a hired car. There was little time to eat, so we had our meals either at the hotel or in our local bureau. The bureau had a stunning view of the Victoria Memorial - and that is what will stay with me again.

Unfortunately, I can't share it here as the office was on the 11th floor, the window was too dirty and it seemed too risky to hang out of the window for the sake of a photo - when loads of them, in much better quality, exist on the web!!