If you have not been to Kolkata during Durga Puja, you have no idea what the word 'frenzy' implies. Bengalis are very passionate by nature.They celebrate this festival with all their might.They leave no stone unturned in manifesting the festive spirit with the quintessential bengali quirks,and best of all the 'pujo' spirit is addictive to the hilt. Hold on, i am not here to tell you about how bengal celebrates its favourite festival.I am here to share my experience of sitting in a hand-pulled rickshaw amidst the afore stated'frenzy'.
But before that i would like to describe how a hand-pulled rickshaw works.A HP rickshaw is just like the normal rickshaw,except for the fact that instead of three wheels these rickshaws have two.The front portion of the rickshaw is embellished by two protruding wooden poles.These poles serve as 'handles' for the rickshaw puller.So the mechanism works like this - when the rickshaw is in the standby position, the whole structure stands at approximately 45 degrees from the ground.So its pretty easy to get up and sit on the rickshaw.The problem starts after that.i.e when the puller starts pulling the rickshaw.After every alternate nanosecond of your rickshaw ride ,you a experience a mixed sensation comprising of sympathy for the puller,self derogation because the person in front of you is toiling in order so that you can go places,and of course nail-biting anticipation of the moment when you are finally going to fall down from the manhandled vehicle with an evasive yet oh so natural backward somersault.
So i was pandal-hopping (as they say) with my cousin in this place called Shyambazar/Baghbazar/Shovabazar....yeah that is because once you are away from the main road, inside the by-lanes of north Calcutta, you have absolutely no way of finding out where exactly you are located.So i was roaming around with my cousin who happened to have graduated very recently with a first class Bsc degree .So because he had Physics as his major, he was trying very hard to amuse (read astonish) me with the subtle nuances that the vast subject of physics offered.We were going from one pandal to another strictly following the crowd and trying to figure out the 'quality' of the various puja pandals on the basis of their theme, lighting pattern etc.
So we had a fairly nice time.We had started our journey from the Shyambazar metro station.From there we covered an area of approximately 1.5 kms on foot , and most importantly we were able check out around 15 puja pandals.But herein the problem started.At the 15 th pandal we decided that we were getting late and should make an an effort to go back.In the process we found out that we had no idea how to go back to the Shyambazar metro station.This was a result of bus conductors sayin no,taxi wallahs sayin no,auto wallahs sayin no.Nobody would go to the metro station.So the situation was like we were in the ancient by lanes of north Calcutta,without the slightest idea whether we were in shayambazar, baghbazar,shovabazar and we had no idea how to go home, or to the main road for that matter.
And you got it right.Herin the HP rickshaw came to our aid....or did it?I am very good at predicting discomfort.On the basis of that i told my cousin that it wouldn't be that good an idea to embark on the HP rickshaw.Plus we both were not exactly 'anorexic'.Given that we both belonged to that category of Calcuttans who feast on the various lip smacking sweetmeats available, day after day ,every day for breakfast,lunch,dinner...I hope you get the point.On that ,my otherwise really sweet cousine started explaining the mechanism of the HP rickshaw,with supplementary explanations of why we did not stand a chance of falling down,you know, the earth’s magnetic pull and all that.I confess i agreed to board the vehicle in order to escape the phisycular explanations.
As you might have gussed by now,the experience did not exactly qualify as what you call a 'joyride'.The rickshaw puller in concern was an ace rickshaw puller.At least he behaved like one.He found it very irritating that an oversized bus was constantly trying to overtake us.First we were not on the main road. It was a lane.And there were autos ,taxis ,buses and of course hordes of people in festive spirit(read :not in a mood for traffic rules).Amidst all that came a genuine confession from my cousin.He was scared ,he will not board a HP rickshaw ever in his life,if he is alive by the time the journey ends.Most importantly physics sometimes looks all good in text books,real life has its own lessons.The experience was nerve-racking.It was the first near-death experience of my life.I mean first of all the fear of falling down ,backward somersault et all,plus the dangerous possilbilites of your rickshaw puller being 'experienced',boy! at one point i actually considered jumping inside the interior of a bus direstly from the rickshaw,in order to save myself.
Like all good things ,all nerve-racking experiences come to an end as well.So did the richshaw-ride.But you know ,there are times when you take snapshots of some moments in life,and these shots remain forever etched in your memory.I got one snapshot from this experience.It was taken when i was on the rickshaw, in the dream like surroundings.There were people with happiness all around.The lights were adding on to the celebrations.The rickshaw was going past some ancient houses in narrow lanes.The people inside those houses seemed to be caught in a time warp.Sitting on the porch of one such ancient house,there were a group of young guys.Clad in kurta-pajamas they were playing guitars and singing.Their happiness looked intense.'This is the spirit',said my cousin.And life was suddenly very beautiful.
But before that i would like to describe how a hand-pulled rickshaw works.A HP rickshaw is just like the normal rickshaw,except for the fact that instead of three wheels these rickshaws have two.The front portion of the rickshaw is embellished by two protruding wooden poles.These poles serve as 'handles' for the rickshaw puller.So the mechanism works like this - when the rickshaw is in the standby position, the whole structure stands at approximately 45 degrees from the ground.So its pretty easy to get up and sit on the rickshaw.The problem starts after that.i.e when the puller starts pulling the rickshaw.After every alternate nanosecond of your rickshaw ride ,you a experience a mixed sensation comprising of sympathy for the puller,self derogation because the person in front of you is toiling in order so that you can go places,and of course nail-biting anticipation of the moment when you are finally going to fall down from the manhandled vehicle with an evasive yet oh so natural backward somersault.
So i was pandal-hopping (as they say) with my cousin in this place called Shyambazar/Baghbazar/Shovabazar....yeah that is because once you are away from the main road, inside the by-lanes of north Calcutta, you have absolutely no way of finding out where exactly you are located.So i was roaming around with my cousin who happened to have graduated very recently with a first class Bsc degree .So because he had Physics as his major, he was trying very hard to amuse (read astonish) me with the subtle nuances that the vast subject of physics offered.We were going from one pandal to another strictly following the crowd and trying to figure out the 'quality' of the various puja pandals on the basis of their theme, lighting pattern etc.
So we had a fairly nice time.We had started our journey from the Shyambazar metro station.From there we covered an area of approximately 1.5 kms on foot , and most importantly we were able check out around 15 puja pandals.But herein the problem started.At the 15 th pandal we decided that we were getting late and should make an an effort to go back.In the process we found out that we had no idea how to go back to the Shyambazar metro station.This was a result of bus conductors sayin no,taxi wallahs sayin no,auto wallahs sayin no.Nobody would go to the metro station.So the situation was like we were in the ancient by lanes of north Calcutta,without the slightest idea whether we were in shayambazar, baghbazar,shovabazar and we had no idea how to go home, or to the main road for that matter.
And you got it right.Herin the HP rickshaw came to our aid....or did it?I am very good at predicting discomfort.On the basis of that i told my cousin that it wouldn't be that good an idea to embark on the HP rickshaw.Plus we both were not exactly 'anorexic'.Given that we both belonged to that category of Calcuttans who feast on the various lip smacking sweetmeats available, day after day ,every day for breakfast,lunch,dinner...I hope you get the point.On that ,my otherwise really sweet cousine started explaining the mechanism of the HP rickshaw,with supplementary explanations of why we did not stand a chance of falling down,you know, the earth’s magnetic pull and all that.I confess i agreed to board the vehicle in order to escape the phisycular explanations.
As you might have gussed by now,the experience did not exactly qualify as what you call a 'joyride'.The rickshaw puller in concern was an ace rickshaw puller.At least he behaved like one.He found it very irritating that an oversized bus was constantly trying to overtake us.First we were not on the main road. It was a lane.And there were autos ,taxis ,buses and of course hordes of people in festive spirit(read :not in a mood for traffic rules).Amidst all that came a genuine confession from my cousin.He was scared ,he will not board a HP rickshaw ever in his life,if he is alive by the time the journey ends.Most importantly physics sometimes looks all good in text books,real life has its own lessons.The experience was nerve-racking.It was the first near-death experience of my life.I mean first of all the fear of falling down ,backward somersault et all,plus the dangerous possilbilites of your rickshaw puller being 'experienced',boy! at one point i actually considered jumping inside the interior of a bus direstly from the rickshaw,in order to save myself.
Like all good things ,all nerve-racking experiences come to an end as well.So did the richshaw-ride.But you know ,there are times when you take snapshots of some moments in life,and these shots remain forever etched in your memory.I got one snapshot from this experience.It was taken when i was on the rickshaw, in the dream like surroundings.There were people with happiness all around.The lights were adding on to the celebrations.The rickshaw was going past some ancient houses in narrow lanes.The people inside those houses seemed to be caught in a time warp.Sitting on the porch of one such ancient house,there were a group of young guys.Clad in kurta-pajamas they were playing guitars and singing.Their happiness looked intense.'This is the spirit',said my cousin.And life was suddenly very beautiful.
3 comments:
Loved paragraph no 2!!!!!....
Weirdishly nice .. :-)
you just don't stop writing,got it?
must say ruddy brilliant....
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