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This is an imaginary story. Any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental.
It was a rainy Saturday evening. Rahul was on a casual date at Oxford Bookstore with Panchali. She was a nice, cute, sweet and pretty in her own way kind of a girl. Rahul was interested in her but he also knew that he would lose interest in her in the next few months. They were hanging out at Cha Bar. Rahul ordered grilled chicken sandwich, non-veg platter and the newly introduced Bubble Tea for him and Bubble Milkshake for her.
It had been raining almost all day. Oxford was a bit less crowded. Rahul and Panchali were having normal conversation about the weather in Calcutta and how it was making everybody romantic. Suddenly a young and good looking girl came and sat on the next table. She ordered black coffee and started reading 'Catcher In The Rye'. This girl caught Rahul's attention and for that brief moment she became the centre of his universe. She was wearing a black top and a black jeans and had the tattoo 'live love laugh' with an infinity sign on her right arm. As she was sitting cross-legged therefore Rahul noticed that she also had a 'scorpion' tattoo on her left ankle. Rahul wondered whether this black beauty had any other tattoos on any other part of her body.
Rahul kept on having a meaningful conversation with Panchali but deep down he was desperate to have a deep and meaningful conversation with this black beauty. He was simply mesmerized by her looks and by her sheer presence. As she was reading 'Catcher In The Rye', a lock of her hair would sometimes fall in front of her eyes and then she would just casually brush that lock of hair back. She looked so beautiful in this act. She looked like a young Urmila Matondkar. Back in his school days, Rahul had a huge crush on Urmila Matondkar and songs like 'Hai Rama Yeh Kya Hua' from RANGEELA and 'Zehreela Pyaar' from DAUD used to turn him on very badly.
Anyways after some time, Panchali went to the washroom downstairs. This was Rahul's golden opportunity to talk to this black beauty. But she was totally immersed in that book. Then the miracle happened. Cupid must have surely intervened himself because out of the blue this black beauty suddenly took her eyes from the book and looked at Rahul. As he was already looking at her therefore he felt a bit embarrassed because he was caught red handed in the act of ogling at her but Rahul gathered his wits quickly and after a fraction of a second he said, "Nice Book". The black beauty smiled at him and said, "Yeah". As Rahul was about to say something more, suddenly this bloody waiter came up to him and said, "Sir, would you like to order anything else?". Rahul gave a firm negative reply. This bloody waiter then said, "Sir, how did you like the Bubble Tea?". Rahul just said, "Yeah Nice". By then Panchali came back from the washroom. The opportunity to talk to this unknown black beauty was lost. Rahul was feeling really angry and depressed at the same time. He really felt like killing the waiter. He really felt like smashing the tea cup on the head of the waiter. Anyways after some time he and Panchali left Oxford. Before leaving, Rahul took a good look at the black beauty. She was still deeply immersed in 'Catcher In The Rye'!
A few weeks passed. Rahul had almost forgotten about that black beauty. Then on 24th May, he went to Hard Rock Cafe to watch the special performance by Nondon Bagchi to celebrate the birthday of Bob Dylan. And there right in front of her eyes was that black beauty. She was there with her friends. Rahul just could not believe his eyes. This time there was no bloody waiter to disturb him. So he straightaway went to her and started a conversation. Here is how it went :
Excuse me, Hi, I think I saw you last to last Saturday at Oxford Bookstore. You were reading that 'Catcher In The Rye' book.
Ok. Maybe. So?
So are you here for the Bob Dylan night? Well actually thats a very stupid question. You are obviously here for the Bob Dylan night. Sorry for asking such a stupid question. By the way, what is your name?
Alisha
Ok. Hi. My name is Rahul...
This is how the conversation started. Rahul and Alisha became friendly. Alisha was studying English honours at St. Xavier's College. She was a first year student. Rahul calculated in his head that there could be a gap of eighteen years between them. But somehow Alisha did not notice this age gap. She introduced him to her friends. After the performance Rahul was supposed to go to Some-Place-Else because there also Bob Dylan's birthday was being celebrated. And D-Trio was performing there. He asked Alisha to go with him to Park Hotel and she agreed after some hesitations. None of her friends wanted to go to Park Hotel because they all had to go back home. So Alisha went to Some-Place-Else with Rahul. She just called her mom and told her that she would be late by two more hours.
At Some-Place-Else, D-Trio gave an electrifying performance. They only sang Bob Dylan songs. The next day was Saturday. Rahul and Alisha met at Cha Bar. He gave her the dvds of Grigori Kozintsev's 1964 film HAMLET and 1971 film KING LEAR. Rahul has a huge collection of dvds of foreign films. He has the rarest of the rare collection. He has collected these dvds over a period of twenty years. He has everything from Věra Chytilová's SEDMIKRASKY to Yilmaz Güney's YOL and from Stanley Brakhage's CAT'S CRADLE to Fernando Arrabal's VIVA LA MUERTE.
Anyways Alisha was really happy to receive these rare dvds. In the course of the conversation Rahul learnt that she has an elder cousin sister who was also a student of English honours at St. Xavier's College. Her name is Manisha. As destiny would have it, Rahul had already dated Manisha sixteen years back.
Back then Park Street was different. Rahul and Manisha used to hang out at Music World a lot. Music World was the coolest place in Park Street back then. There used to be a coffee shop called NESCAFE. Nowadays the VIP suitcase showroom stands in its place. Rahul and Manisha used to hang out at this coffee shop a lot. The price of coffee was only twenty rupees back then. Barista and Cafe Coffee Day also had opened in Park Street but they were expensive. The price of coffee at Barista and CCD started from fifty rupees. Barista was on the opposite side of the road from where it stands today. It was nearer to Giggles card shop. CCD was next to Peter Cat restaurant. In those days Barista had a black acoustic guitar on its wall. Anybody could play that guitar. Rahul and Manisha went there a few times and he played that guitar a couple of times. The NESCAFE coffee shop consisted of a ground floor and a first floor. There was an old spiral staircase. One had to pay the bill downstairs, take the coffee from the counter and go upstairs. Upstairs there were cozy chairs and tables. This place was famous for couples. Rahul and Manisha used to walk throughout Park Street hand in hand. So many winter afternoons they had spent in the Park Street Cemetery. They sometimes used to go to Shiraz restaurant near Mullickbazar for lunch or dinner. Sometimes they used to walk even further all the way to Park Circus to have biryani at Arsalan restaurant. In those days they sometimes used to go to The Blue Poppy restaurant inside Sikkim House on Middleton street. The chinese food was great there and the prices were reasonable.
Anyways coming back to the present times, Rahul and Alisha started meeting on a regular basis. She told him that Manisha is now married and she now has a baby daughter. Rahul told her not to say anything to Manisha about him. Though Manisha was Alisha's first cousin but still they were not that close to each other. They only met up on family occasions. Panchali called up Rahul a few times and wanted to meet up. But Rahul did not have any more time for Panchali as he was totally obsessed with Alisha.
Rahul proposed to Alisha and she accepted. They kept on meeting almost everyday. He took her to the Marble Palace, took her to the early morning breakfast at Teritti Bazar, took her for an early morning Tran ride, took her to the early morning flower market at Howrah, took her to the new Biswa Bangla Gate, Eco Park, Club Fenicia, Altair Capella, WhatsUp Cafe, Level Seven and many other places. She was really happy with him. Rahul really loves open air restaurants. Right now Calcutta is blessed with a lot of open air restaurants. Rahul and Alisha also started going to Oxford Bookstore a lot. Every now and then Oxford has some book launch or some literary seminar. Rahul and Alisha started attending all these book launches and literary seminars together. They also went together to the Apeejay Literary Festival at Allen Park and also attended the Tata Literary Festival at Victoria Memorial. The Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee came to grace the last day of the Tata Literary Festival at Victoria Memorial.
The first time Rahul made love to Alisha was on a Sunday. The previous night they had partied hard at Roxy till 4 a.m. After that Rahul dropped her home and came back to his place. On Sunday in the afternoon Alisha came to Rahul's place. After lunch they made love. As he saw her naked for the first time he noticed that she has two more tattoos on her body. The first day that Rahul had seen her, he had noticed that she has one tattoo on her right arm and another one on her left ankle. Now Rahul noticed that Alisha has a third tattoo of a heart shape on her right inner thigh and a fourth tattoo of a star shape on her left inner thigh.
Since Alisha was an English honours student therefore Rahul discussed with her the various aspects of the Anglo-Saxon Period to the Middle English period to the Renaissance to the Neoclassical period to the Romantic period to the Victorian period to the Edwardian period to the Georgian period to the Modern period and till the the Postmodern period. Rahul has a vast knowledge about the history of English Literature. Rahul and Alisha loved discussing about topics like Cynewulf, Bede, Caedmon, Chaucer, William Langland, Thomas Wyatt, Henry Howard, Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kyd, John Donne, Francis Bacon, John Webster, John Milton, John Dryden, Alexander Pope, William Blake, Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Johnson, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Mathew Arnold, Charles Lamb, Jane Austen, Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, Bronte Sisters, Mary Shelley, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, Herbert George Wells, David Herbert Lawrence, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, William Butler Yeats and many more. The list is simply endless. Rahul actually wanted to study English honours at St. Xavier's College but destiny had other plans for him.
Anyways, Rahul and Alisha were having a gala time together and were painting the town red with their love. Every Saturday night they started partying at either Roxy or Tantra or Underground or Gold or Ozora or Myx or Shisha or Lords & Barons etc. They also started going to the newly opened Hammer at Park Street a lot. A lot of cool and happening nightclubs have come up in the Salt Lake Sector Five area over the last few years. But Rahul still prefers the places in and around Park Street. He has been to all the nightclubs of Calcutta but somehow he has a soft corner for the places in Park Street in his heart.
Sixteen years back Rahul and Manisha used to go to Tantra a lot. They also used to go to Venom at Camac Street, Winning-Streak at Hotel Hindustan and Red-Lounge at Alipore. Both Venom and Winning Streak have closed shop now. There was another place called BED where they also went a couple of times. BED has closed down too. On Friday evenings Rahul and Manisha used to go to Princeton Club at Anwar Shah Road. In those days on Fridays there used to be live band performance at Princeton Club. Over all these years Some-Place-Else at Park Hotel is still the same. Nothing has changed at SPE. Rahul has been going to SPE for the last twenty years and its still the same, the only exception is the addition of the smoking room.
This year for Holi, Rahul and Alisha went to Nalban. The Holi party there was amazing. There was DJ music, rain dance, foam dance, good food and lovely people all around. While Rahul and Alisha were dancing they suddenly bumped into Manisha and her husband. They all exchanged greetings and Manisha immediately knew that Rahul was sleeping with her cousin sister. There was a hint of anger and in her eyes. Anyways they all got together and had one of the best Holi parties ever. Sixteen years back Rahul and Manisha had gone to the Holi party at Aquatica with a group of friends. It was a great party and after the party Rahul and Manisha had come back to his house and had taken a shower together and had made love in the shower. This time also from Nalban, Rahul and Alisha came back to his house and they took a shower together and obviously made love in the shower...
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