Venice Of The East

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Last night it rained heavily. It rained almost throughout the night. I was awake till around 4 a.m. Enjoyed every moment of this night long rainfall. Started talking to a friend of mine who stays in Bangalore. It was raining in Bangalore too yesterday night, though not as heavily as it was raining in Calcutta. We talked for almost an hour. It was really nice talking to her over phone with the sound of rainfall in the background. Then I started listening to the songs of Kabir Suman till around 4 a.m. It was really ethereal to just lie down on my bed and listen to those songs and think about the past and to look outside my window at the falling rainfall and the occasional lightnings. 

Woke up today morning around 9 a.m. Saw that there was tremendous water logging in front of my house. It was still drizzling. After breakfast I made some paper boats and put them on the water. Clicked some pictures and recorded some videos on my phone. The last time I had made some paper boats was probably around 2013. Anyways the sky was dark. Though the time was around 10 a.m. but it looked like it was around late evening. I sat on my balcony with a cup of coffee and looked at the drizzle. Smoked a few cigarettes. Nowadays I only smoke Gudang Garam cigarettes. The weather was captivating and intoxicating. I just love this kind of weather with darkness all around and rainfall.

In 2002, on my birthday my first girlfriend had come over to my house. On that morning it had rained a lot and there was massive water logging in our area. She had called me up on our landline phone before coming over to my house. I told her not to come because of the water logging and it was still drizzling. But still she came over braving all the water all around. She literally walked in knee deep water from Charu Market and came to my house in Lake Gardens. No rickshaws were available. When she came I saw that her jeans was totally drenched in water. So I asked her to take off her jeans and gave her one of my trousers to wear. She was really very shy and she would not change her jeans in front of me. So I had to go to another room and then only she took off her jeans and wore my trouser. Now my trouser was too big for her. So she really looked very sweet and funny in that big trouser. I still have that trouser in my almirah though now I have become too big and fat to fit into it. 

Many years back in the nineties, there was almost continuous rainfall for around three days and Calcutta was water logged for those three days. I was in school at that time and I clearly remember this incident. I did not go to school for those three days. I just watched Doordarshan at home and read story books. It was really magical to see water logged streets for almost three days. At that time 'The Statesman' had dubbed Calcutta as 'Venice Of The East'...

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