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This is an imaginary story of two lovers from a time when the evil Communists were ruling West Bengal. Any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental.
In those days Orkut was more popular than Facebook in Calcutta. Though Facebook was slowly but steadily trying to charm and seduce Calcuttans. First of all those pretty little things and those wannabe jobless freelance models cum actresses shifted to Facebook just to prove that they were too cool to hang out in Orkut. Thereafter those horny boys followed these hot and semi-hot chicks and shifted to Facebook. Gradually the shift from one platform to another started happening in Calcutta. But for old-timers and loyalists, Orkut was still the place to be. These old-timers and loyalists were also on Facebook but they preferred to spend more time in Orkut. They wrote scraps and wrote testimonials and became each other's fans. Orkut was a different ballgame altogether. In Anjan Dutta's song 'Ranjana-2' from his 2007 album 'Aami Aar Godot', there were these lines :
Tumi Janabey Tomar Mot
Dekhabey Naa Mukh
Sudhu Montobbye
Bhorey Jabey Orkut
Sudhu Computer Achey Nei Oboshor Somoy
Tai Ranjana Aami Aar Ashbona Tomar Paraay...
Rahul first saw Vinita in Orkut. He immediately sent her a friend request which she accepted after a few days. Their wavelengths clicked instantly and they soon became the best of friends. At that time Rahul was in Calcutta and Vinita was in New Delhi. She was working there in an advertising firm. She used to work in an ad agency in Calcutta but for the last three years she had shifted her base to New Delhi. She was also three years older than Rahul and had just come out of a relationship with a Muslim guy. Rahul was pursuing his masters degree in political science from Calcutta University. What amazed Rahul was her knowledge about foreign films from Jean Luc Godard to Jean Pierre Jeunet and from Abbas Kiarostami to Apichatpong Weerasethakul. She was indeed a very smart, well-read and intelligent woman. Someone with whom Rahul could talk for hours and learn so many new things. She was not like the dumb and ill-read girls in Rahul's University. Moreover Vinita was quite pretty and had killer eyes. Every night Rahul and Vinita talked in Orkut for hours about every thing under the sun from politics to prostitution and from sex to spirituality. But foreign cinema was their main area of discussion. They both loved talking about 'The Dreamers' by Bernardo Bertolucci because at that time Rahul had a huge crush on Eva Green and Vinita had a huge crush on Louis Garrel.
Anyways after a few months of chatting online, Vinita finally decided to meet Rahul. She took seven days off from work and came to Calcutta just to meet him. She was also low-key missing Calcutta. You can take a bong girl out of Calcutta but you cannot take Calcutta out of her. Once you have a taste of Calcutta then no matter where ever you go, you will always have that yearning for the City of Joy. Its like if once a woman tastes the pleasure of her man licking her down there then even if her man has a twelve inch appendage, she would still have an yearning for that taste of pleasure from her man's tongue!
On the first day, Vinita took a flight and reached Calcutta by noon. She went to her house, met her parents and sister, dropped her luggage, had a shower, had her lunch and then went to Max Mueller Bhavan in the evening to meet Rahul. In those days Max Mueller Bhavan was on Gurusaday Road. Nowadays its inside Park Mansions at Park Street. Anyways Rahul and Vinita sat in the coffee shop inside and ordered black coffee and chicken sandwiches. There was a photo exhibition that was going on inside Max Mueller Bhavan. After having coffee they went to see that exhibition. After that Rahul took a cab and went to drop Vinita home and then came back to his house in the same cab. Inside the cab he held her hand and he gave a light kiss on her lips. She initially felt a bit shy but then she herself kissed him back. They smooched a couple of times. The cab driver was looking at them surreptitiously through the rear view mirror. But both Rahul and Vinita were just too cool to give a damn!
On the second day, Vinita came to Rahul's house at Lake Gardens for lunch. After lunch they only had one thing to do and that was to make love. So they did that without any hesitation. After making love, Rahul put on the film 'The Motorcycle Diaries' on his desktop computer. He had downloaded the film from Limewire. Nowadays Limewire does not work properly anymore. Vinita also had a slight crush on Gael García Bernal and Rahul knew about it. Around evening they went to Rabindra Sarobar and walked around the entire lake. It was a full moon night. Vinita was carrying her DSLR and she was a passionate photographer. She clicked a lot of pics especially of the moon through the tree branches. It was an ethereal ambience. The moonlight just danced gently on the water. The moonbeams flirted seductively with the ripples on the lake. There were a lot of couples who were making out near the lake. Some guys were jogging and some senior citizens were indulging in their daily dose of evening adda and were pnpc-ing against their neighbours and were also criticizing the State Government. Rahul and Vinita also made out for some time. Then they went to Lake Road CCD and sat on the open front portion which was the smoking zone. Nowadays the smoking zone is inside to the left. There at CCD they ordered coffee and grilled chicken sandwiches. They also smoked a few clove-cigarettes. The brand was Gudang Garam. Rahul used to buy this Indonesian brand of cigarettes from Park Street. From CCD Rahul took a cab and dropped Vinita home and then came back to his house in the same cab.
On the third day, Rahul and Vinita met at College Street Coffee House for lunch. He ate mutton kabiraji and she ate chicken afghani. After lunch they went to Paramount to drink sherbats. He drank rose malai and she drank daab sherbat. After this they walked around College Street and also went to Signet book shop and bought Samar Sen's poetry book. Then Rahul forced her to walk with him in a michhil from College Street to Esplanade in protest of the then evil Communist Government of West Bengal. He had prior information about this michhil. Vinita by nature was anti-establishment but she never physically took any part in any michhils, protests or demonstrations. She was more of an online protester. So initially she did not want to take part in this michhil but due to Rahul's persistence she finally yielded. This was a completely new experience for her. This was her life's first michhil where she walked from the starting point to the closing point. The weather was pleasant. The michhil was supposed to start at 3 p.m. but since only bongs participated in it therefore it started at 4 p.m. because we bongs are known to practice Indian Stretchable Time! The michhil started in front of Presidency College and went towards Hind Cinema, which is now known as Hind Inox, and then from Wellington Square it took a right turn and ended at Esplanade. Vinita was tired after walking for so long. So Rahul took her to Nizam's to relish their hot kathi kabab rolls. After the mutton rolls Vinita wanted to booze. She wanted to taste country liquor. She had never tasted country liquor before. And she also wanted to see Khalasitola. She had read so many articles about Khalasitola but never knew its exact location. So Rahul decided to give her a taste of a different kind of Calcutta and took her to the intersection between S.N. Banerjee road and Rafi Ahmed Kidwai road. The exact address is 5/2 Wellesley Street, Calcutta 700013. There in front of her eyes was Khalasitola. The place was very dirty and was basically full of people from the lower strata of society. There were rickshaw-pullers, van-pullers, cab-drivers, bus-drivers, bus-conductors, small time business folk, clerks, students, poets, pimps, pickpockets etc. There was a time when bengali intellectuals used to visit this bar frequently. People like Ritwik Ghatak, Kamal Kumar Mazumdar, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Shakti Chattopadhyay, Manik Bandopadhyay, Barin Saha, Sandipan Chattopadhyay, Dipak Mazumdar, Pritwish Gangopadhyay, Kamal Chakraborty, Basudeb Dasgupta and many others were regulars in this bar. But nowadays the famous and renowned celebrities of the literary world are seldom seen there. Though sometimes people from the little magazine world of Calcutta are seen there. Rahul used to go there almost twice a month with his friends. He and his friends used to sit on the roof which used to be open only in the evenings. Women are generally not allowed in this bar. So Rahul quickly took Vinita inside and came out within a couple of minutes before anybody could guess what was happening. She did not like the place. Once they entered all the male eyes were on her. She wanted to click a few pics inside but Rahul firmly objected to that. He brought her outside and then made her wait in front of a nearby paan shop. Then he went inside and bought a small bottle of country liquor for around forty rupees. Then he came to the paan shop and bought a bottle of Sprite. From there they took a cab and came back to Rahul's place. Back home they took a shower together and made love after consuming the country liquor with Sprite. After the initial round of love making, Rahul put on the protest songs of Kabir Suman on his desktop computer and forced Vinita to listen to them. She liked some of the songs though not all of them. Then they indulged in another round of love making and then Rahul took a cab and dropped Vinita home and then came back to his house in the same cab.
On the fourth day, Vinita came to Rahul's house for lunch. After lunch they only had one thing to do and that was to make love. So they did that without any hesitation. In the evening they went to eat pastries at Nahoum's inside New Market. From Esplanade they walked to Park Street. Vinita kept on clicking a lot of pics through her DSLR and her main focus of photography was on the street hawkers of Esplanade and Park Street. She told Rahul that someday she would organize her very own photo exhibition either in New Delhi or in Calcutta or in both the cities. They walked from Asiatic Society to Park Street Police Station, crossed the road, and again walked from St. Xavier's College to the Park Street Metro Station. Next they went to Trincas. The musical band at Trincas was playing hindi songs. From Trincas they went to Some-Place-Else inside Park Hotel at around 9 p.m. From 10 p.m. D-Trio started performing at Some-Place-Else. D-Trio consists of Anjan Dutta, Amyt Dutta and Neel Dutta. From Park Hotel Rahul took a cab and dropped Vinita home and then came back to his house in the same cab.
On the fifth day, Vinita came to Rahul's house for lunch. After lunch they only had one thing to do and that was to make love. So they did that without any hesitation. In the evening they went to ICCR to see a photo exhibition. ICCR is just opposite the Consulate General of the United States of America. These kind of things only happen in Calcutta. The American Consulate is on Ho Chi Minh Sarani! Anyways after seeing the photo exhibition Rahul and Vinita went to have tea at Cafe-Thé. Nowadays this cafe is no longer there. But in those days this Cafe was a cool place to hang out with friends. From Cafe-Thé they went to London Pub inside The Golden Park Hotel which is also on Ho Chi Minh Sarani! So now you see that an American Consulate and a London Pub can exist peacefully on a Vietnamese street! From London Pub Rahul took a cab and dropped Vinita home and then came back to his house in the same cab.
On the sixth day, Vinita came to Rahul's house for lunch. After lunch they only had one thing to do and that was to make love. So they did that without any hesitation. In the evening they went to T3 at Park Street. T3 stands for The Tea Table. Its no longer there. In its place the Nexa Car Showroom has come up nowadays. From T3 Rahul and Vinita went to OlyPub. Vinita wanted to meet her old colleagues from her previous advertising firm and maybe she also wanted to show off her new boyfriend to her old friends. When Rahul and Vinita reached Olypub they went straight upstairs and there two men and two women were waiting for them. Vinita introduced Rahul to them. All six of them had tremendous fun and they boozed like there was no tomorrow. But ultimately what happened was that Vinita got too drunk and was almost unconscious. Now there was a big problem. She could not go home in this condition. So Rahul had no other choice but to bring her back to his own house. In those days there were no Uber or Ola in Calcutta. Only MegaCabs were available but their service was not that good. So Rahul brought Vinita back to his place in a yellow cab. The cab driver was as usual a bastard and he obviously charged double the normal fare once he saw that the girl was completely drunk. Rahul had no other option and he reluctantly agreed to the fare. Back at his place, Rahul put down Vinita on his bed. By then she had completely gone off to sleep. He called Vinita's sister and explained the situation to her. She in turn explained the situation to her parents. So it was agreed that the best thing would be for Vinita to return home the next morning. Rahul could not sleep properly for the whole night. Vinita was mumbling something in her sleep and was talking gibberish. Rahul kept a watchful eye on her. Around 4 a.m. he finally went to sleep.
On the seventh day, Vinita woke up with a massive headache and a tremendous hangover. Rahul made strong black coffee for her and chaafi for himself. Chaafi is a combination of tea and coffee. You can have it with milk and sugar also. After breakfast he gave her a Saridon. They both took shower together and had lunch. After lunch they only had one thing to do and that was to make love. So they did that without any hesitation. Vinita still had a slight headache. So she smoked a couple of Gudang Garams. After making love Vinita went back to her place. That night she had her flight back to New Delhi. Rahul took a cab and dropped Vinita home and then came back to his house in the same cab. While getting out of the cab, Vinita gave Rahul a very long lip-kiss and he hugged her tightly like there was no tomorrow...
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