Long Weekend that deserves a Long Post
I've had a happy four days. My parents recently visited me here, in Calcutta for a weekend. It was the first time I really got to travel in this city and see some of the things it has to offer. First and foremost being the delectable cuisine.
My parents happened to come here at the most opportune moment. The Hilsa Festival is on and this short period is the only time this exquisite and slowly depleting fish is available (I did a quick google search mid-bite). Of course, now that I know it's endangered I shall never have it again.
For most of the part, we planned our trip in such a way that each meal was something different, and the area we were in had something interesting to see.
On their first day here in the city, my parents visited the design studio I am interning at, probably spoke to my bosses for an hour or more and were given a few hundred suggestion of places to go see in the city. We walked around in the evening for a bit and tried some street food: some Jhal Muri (spicy puffed rice), Chicken fry, and Fried Fish from a tiny shop called Aponjon that's been here for a few decades. It was delicious. We then went to a South Indian restaurant called Ammini, which has to be one of my favorite restaurants in this city. It serves up some beautiful mutton, and I can lick those banana leaves I'm served on, clean.
The next day started out with a trip to get my phone fixed, which took a few hours, and then a humongous lunch at a restaurant called Oh Calcutta!, where my father went all out and ordered seven or more dishes to be shared amongst the three of us. Of course there were left overs, and of course, I was more than happy about that. It's a meal I would rate 10/10. It's here that I had my first and last serving of Hilsa. We wandered around for a bit, but the heat and humidity got to us, and we ran back home for some AC time.
A quick nap, some major decision making later we finally left for a restaurant called The Bohemian. A quaint little restaurant that has perhaps 7-8 tables, and no more. A wonderful meal that was followed by some very peaceful sleep.
Sunday was a day of Firsts. My mother tried her first ever waffle, and loved it, the first time we had Puchka in this city, and the first time we went to a museum together, as a family. The Indian Museum is huge. I heard someone claim that it was once a mansion (a claim I'm far too tired/lazy to google and verify right now). A little on the unpolished side with poor ventilation, filled with perhaps a hundred artifacts, it is still quite a sight to behold. Four hours aren't enough to go through all the exhibits, and the security will promptly start kicking you out at two minutes to 5pm. A museum with a lot to offer, but in my opinion, not curated all that well enough.
The section that stands out is the Egyptian Display. Clearly, when people from outside the country are in charge, order is maintained. The museumĀ has a lot of artifacts to view, but little to zero information that you can take away from it. Other than a small write up that's given section to section only about the particular era, the artifacts only had a nameĀ and logistical information. I would've liked to know more history about each artifact. Anything to make it more personal and memorable would've helped.
Post our museum visit, we went to a British Era establishment by the name of Flurry's. A cafe/restaurant/breakfast place. Best croissants I've ever had, and I shall leave it at that.
We hop, skip, and jumped to New Market in the rain, and were drenched to our bones. The market happened to be shut since it was a Sunday, but we did walk around for a bit and take in the sights and smells. My mother then decided that she wanted to see Prinsep Ghat so we cabbed it all the way there, and walked some more in the rain.
Prinsep Ghat is a beautified section of the bank of river Hooghly. It has trees and plants galore, benches for couples to sit on and do as they please, beneath big umbrellas that may or may not be opaque, a few street shops selling Bombay style "Paw Bhaji" (that's how they spell it), and steps at regular intervals for people to go down and take a boat ride. At the end of the long walk, the garden pathway veers left and into a huge open lawn, where there are Palladian styled columns built in memory of the Anglo-Indian scholar James Prinsep. The sole purpose of this structure, in my honest opinion, is to shelter people from the rain and another little corner for couples to enjoy each other's company, away from prying eyes.
From here we went on to eat dinner at Haldirams' own establishment. Two stories of this building are food courts. The ground floor is for only sweets. The first floor is everything else. I witnessed an engagement ceremony taking place here, amidst a hundred random people who'd come to sate their hunger. And that was how day 3 ended.
15th of August is Indian Independence day and my father decided to spend it watching a movie in the theater. His logic: We'll get to enjoy the National Anthem in the theater. My mother and I were forced to watch a movie called Mohenjo-Daro. I classify this movie as a tragedy and a comedy. Tragedy because it's so bad. Comedy because it's hilariously inaccurate and plain stupid. The less said the better. Post that, we went to my favorite cafe, the 8th Day and spent a few hours playing Uno there (and by playing I mean teaching my parents). The owner of the cafe came and spoke to us for a bit, which made us really happy and feel pretty special! It's always the little things.
We went home, I helped them packĀ and had a teary farewell. It was an amazing weekend. One that will be hard to top.