Compared to most metros, Kolkata scores badly. Forget cities abroad, it is an eyseore when compared to other towns in India. Hoping for an improvement might be a waste of time. But there is hope even in all this ugliness. Infact, we must be one of the most hopeful people around!
People who come from beautiful cities say like Paris, might be upset at the slightest ugliness and which might completely spoil their day! The reverse happens here. We become desperate seekers of beauty and find it in places which won't be normally visible. A rusty broken wrought iron railing in a dilapidated building from the turn of the century, the pale purple of maybe two krishnachura blossoms peeping shly among ugly hoardings, half a road with perfect stretch of pavement, blue sky among three tall palms in front of the mint (which is all one can see in between busy large public buses), that twisty stretch on Bardhaman road, those dusty antiques furnitures piled on the sidewalk obscuring the incredibly squalid stretch on either side, one yellow blossom on a tree, half a window with green venetian slats ( khor-khori), the potholed pavement now white with siuli blossoms which must have fallen overnight.
All the mansards roofs cannot make us as happy as the mearest glimpse of any of these which is quite enough to gladden our hearts!
2 comments:
Took you a while to return to blogging :) In spite of those fleeting moments of beauty all I see these days is folks moving about in a rush in an uncivil manner that was alien to my Calcutta/Kolkata. And of course, the slime and mud that prevails on D H Road. That seems to be unchanging. There's also the clarion call of the ice-cream vendors.
I guess thats what makes us so keen for those fleeting moments of beauty :-).
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