---
2020 is a cursed year. 2020 is a Corona year. There is no doubt about it. This year started off well but then from around March things started going downhill. This year my new year resolution was that I would click a selfie everyday at different bars, pubs, restaurants, malls, clubs, discos and other places in Calcutta. But as the saying goes, Man proposes, God disposes! The first two months of 2020 went well. I was busy with my life at Park Street, latest coffee shops, Calcutta Club, Tollygunge Club, Book Fair at Central Park, horse racing at Royal Calcutta Turf Club, Arijit Singh's concert at Eco Park, freemasonry at the Freemasons' Hall, nightlife of Some-Place-Else, Tantra and Roxy etc. But then this deadly Chinese virus named Corona, which was again renamed as COVID-19, came to the forefront and screwed up the entire world. Before this pandemic I knew Corona as a beer which I never liked anyway. This virus was first detected in China in December 2019. Someone messaged me on Whatsapp stating that COVID-19 stands for Chinese Originated Virus In December 2019!
Anyways the last party that I could go to was the Holi party at Nalban. It was on 10th March. It was an amazing party with lively colours, DJ music, rain-dance, foam-dance, good food and a rocking crowd. Me and my friends reached Nalban around 11 a.m. and partied till 4 p.m. The party was a real blast. Then from there I came to Park Circus and bought chicken biryani from Zeeshan and came back home. Back at home I took a shower and then ate my biryani. Here are some pics from the Holi party :
Well, I decided to go into self-isolation even before Modi announced the first lockdown. I knew that the lockdown would atleast last for a month, if not more, therefore the first thing I did was to shave my head. Since all the saloons were closed therefore I shaved my head with my Gillette razor myself. The last time I had shaved my head or rather my father had forced me to shave my head was when I was in school. It was most probably during summer vacation. That was most probably in the mid nineties. So after all these years I finally decided to shave my head again. For the last many years I was thinking of shaving my head during summers but never could gather the required determination to do it. But this time I finally did it. It was my lockdown look! Its a heavenly feeling to caress one's shaved head with one's hand. It really feels so nice and soothing. After shaving my head, I took a shower and then put talcum powder on my head and started caressing it with my hand. It was a divine feeling. My head felt so light and blissful. For the next several days I kept on repeating this caressing act. Here are some pics of my lockdown look :
This Corona virus really screwed all our lives. Humanity was helpless. It still is. The only thing that kept me sane during the lockdown was my internet connection. Otherwise I would have turned into a murderous zombie. Its really sad that I had three tickets for the third one-dayer between India and South Africa on 18th March at Eden Gardens but the match got cancelled due to Corona. During lockdown the game of Ludo on Facebook suddenly became a household activity and a phenomenal craze. I also played a lot of Ludo on Facebook and also managed to win a few games. Also played a lot of other online games like chess, texas holdem poker, blackjack, roulette, teen patti etc. Another thing that became a craze during the lockdown was Dalgona Coffee. Suddenly everybody started making this coffee at home and started posting its pics on Facebook. I also thought of making this coffee at home but then was too lazy to actually make it. In another trend women started challenging other women to post saree pics on Facebook. I don't subscribe to any newspapers at home. Whenever I feel like reading a newspaper, especially on Sundays, then I buy it from the hawkers. Because of the lockdown I could not buy any newspaper. Finally bought 'The Telegraph' and 'Times Of India' on 29th March. Badshah's 'Genda Phool' song and music video became an overnight sensation and an instant hit but it also attracted a lot of controversy and criticism regarding the bengali lyrics in the song. The song did not give due credit to the original folk singer Ratan Kahar who had penned down the original bengali song. Jacqueline Fernandez looks like a smoking hot goddess in this music video. Doordarshan started re-telecasting its old shows like Ramayan, Mahabharat, Shaktiman, Shreeman Shreemati, Byomkesh Bakshi, Chanakya, Buniyad, Dekh Bhai Dekh etc. It was so nice and nostalgic to re-watch these late-eighties and nineties shows on TV. This helped me to relive my childhood memories. As a child I used to watch a lot of serials on DD-1 and DD-2. For a brief period there was another channel called DD-3 too. In my childhood days, load-shedding in Calcutta was as common as sunrise and sunset. Load-shedding was a daily phenomenon and the evil Communists did nothing to change that scenario. Anyways I still remember that once Ramayan was going on and suddenly the electricity went out. It was a very special episode of Ramayan because a battle scene was happening. As a child I loved seeing these fight and battle scenes in Ramayan and Mahabharat. As a child I was really interested in violence on TV. Anyways as a child I prayed really hard to Lord Rama and begged him to make the electricity come back in our locality. But Lord Rama did not listen to my prayers and I unfortunately missed that episode of Ramayan. In my childhood days, the evil CPM was my Ravaan. I was really very sad and depressed. The electricity came back after a few hours and by then I had lost my faith in Lord Rama too. On 27th March 2020, the legend Bob Dylan released a new song after almost eight years which was named 'Murder Most Foul'. This song is 17 minutes long and these 17 minutes are the best 17 minutes of 2020. Facebook was full of strange stuff from the Simpsons predicting the Corona virus to a Calcutta sweet-shop making Corona sweets!
Modi announced the 'Janata Curfew' on 22nd March. The Phase 1 of the lockdown started from 25th March and ended on 14th April. The Phase 2 was from 15th April to 3rd May. Phase 3 was from 4th May to 17th May. Phase 4 was from 18th May to 31st May. Phase 5 (only for containment zones) started from 1st June and is still going on. Modi also gave a couple of tasks during the lockdown but I was too lazy to do them.
Throughout the lockdown Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hoichoi and Mubi kept me busy. Saw some amazing movies, web series and documentaries on these platforms. The flavour of the lockdown was 'Money Heist' on Netflix. I saw all the episodes. Loved the songs 'Bella Ciao' and 'My Life Is Going On'. Loved the character of the 'Professor'. Everybody was going gaga about this web series on Facebook. This show became a phenomenal success worldwide. I also saw a lot of movies related to viruses and apocalyptic situations like Contagion, 12 Monkeys, Outbreak, Train To Busan, 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, World War Z, I Am Legend, The Andromeda Strain, Resident Evil series, Mission Impossible 2, The Happening, Artificial Intelligence, Delicatessen, Dr. Strangelove, Armageddon, The Road, Mad Max series, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Children of Men, On The Beach, The Book of Eli etc. Among all these movies the most realistic movie that I saw was Contagion which was made in 2011 but it looked like it was shot in 2020.
Its true that we human beings have polluted and destroyed this beautiful Earth and we all really deserve to die. This Earth without human beings would be the best thing for all the other species on this planet. Corona virus is deadly thing for homo-sapiens but its a good thing for Mother Earth. I really support Agent Smith from Matrix when he says :
I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I've realized that you are not actually
mammals. Every mammal on this planet
instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment. But you humans do
not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and
the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is?
A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague...
During this lockdown I saw a lot of travel videos on Youtube. This travel vlogging is a great thing. I love all these travel vloggers on Youtube. I traveled through almost all the major cities and tourist destinations in India via Youtube. Also traveled through many foreign destinations via Youtube. I also want to become a travel vlogger. For that I need to buy a good camera. I am thinking of buying a DSLR. Went through a lot of videos on Youtube about DSLRs and Mirrorless Cameras. Finally I have decided to buy the Canon Rebel SL3 which is also known as Canon 250D and Canon 200D Mark II. One camera has three names in different parts of the world! But now I am thinking that whether I should buy the Canon SL3 or whether I should wait for the Canon SL4.
I do not booze much. I am not addicted to alcohol. But some evenings I feel like having a peg or two. During the lockdown all the liquor shops were closed. Last November I went to Goa. From there I bought quite a few miniature alcohol bottles. Throughout the lockdown I finished all these bottles one by one. Once the liquor shops opened I went out and bought a bottle of Old Monk for 450 rupees.
Throughout the lockdown I wrote many poems. Here are two of them :
If you want to read my bengali poems then here is the link :
https://www.facebook.com/rajgaurav.debnath/media_set?set=a.621513487995272&type=3
If you want to read my english poems then here is the link :
https://www.facebook.com/rajgaurav.debnath/media_set?set=a.2084233848389888&type=3
Super Cyclone Amphan hit Calcutta on 20th May 2020. Throughout the day it was cloudy and windy. The cyclone came around late evening. I watched it with a cup of coffee sitting on my balcony while smoking cigarettes. The electricity went out during the cyclone. I lit a candle in my room. A neighbourhood aunty was blowing conch shells continuously. Some people still believe that blowing conch shells will stop upcoming storms. This was the strongest cyclone that I have ever seen in my life. It was really scary. I composed three poems that day. Here are the poems :
Luckily we got our electricity back around 11 p.m. on the day of the cyclone itself. In our locality more than fifty percent of the houses did not receive electricity for the next three to four days. Various parts of Calcutta and the rest of Bengal were out of electricity for so many days. I did not have my wifi internet connection at home for the next ten days. My Airtel internet connection on my phones was also very bad. After a few days the mobile internet connections improved a bit. I also did not have cable on my television. The cable came back after many days. Some bengali news channels were calling the cyclone as Amphan and others were calling it Umphoon! Two days after the cyclone, I went out in our area and clicked a lot of pics. Here are some of them :
Ever since the lockdown, I did not eat biryani from any restaurant. Biryani is my most favourite food. Finally on 3rd June, I bought chicken biryani with chicken kebabs from Paradise Restaurant on Southern Avenue.
My mother also cooked biryani at home. Obviously my mother's biryani was far tastier than the restaurant's biryani.
---
2020 is a cursed year. 2020 is a Corona year. There is no doubt about it. This year started off well but then from around March things started going downhill. This year my new year resolution was that I would click a selfie everyday at different bars, pubs, restaurants, malls, clubs, discos and other places in Calcutta. But as the saying goes, Man proposes, God disposes! The first two months of 2020 went well. I was busy with my life at Park Street, latest coffee shops, Calcutta Club, Tollygunge Club, Book Fair at Central Park, horse racing at Royal Calcutta Turf Club, Arijit Singh's concert at Eco Park, freemasonry at the Freemasons' Hall, nightlife of Some-Place-Else, Tantra and Roxy etc. But then this deadly Chinese virus named Corona, which was again renamed as COVID-19, came to the forefront and screwed up the entire world. Before this pandemic I knew Corona as a beer which I never liked anyway. This virus was first detected in China in December 2019. Someone messaged me on Whatsapp stating that COVID-19 stands for Chinese Originated Virus In December 2019!
Anyways the last party that I could go to was the Holi party at Nalban. It was on 10th March. It was an amazing party with lively colours, DJ music, rain-dance, foam-dance, good food and a rocking crowd. Me and my friends reached Nalban around 11 a.m. and partied till 4 p.m. The party was a real blast. Then from there I came to Park Circus and bought chicken biryani from Zeeshan and came back home. Back at home I took a shower and then ate my biryani. Here are some pics from the Holi party :
Well, I decided to go into self-isolation even before Modi announced the first lockdown. I knew that the lockdown would atleast last for a month, if not more, therefore the first thing I did was to shave my head. Since all the saloons were closed therefore I shaved my head with my Gillette razor myself. The last time I had shaved my head or rather my father had forced me to shave my head was when I was in school. It was most probably during summer vacation. That was most probably in the mid nineties. So after all these years I finally decided to shave my head again. For the last many years I was thinking of shaving my head during summers but never could gather the required determination to do it. But this time I finally did it. It was my lockdown look! Its a heavenly feeling to caress one's shaved head with one's hand. It really feels so nice and soothing. After shaving my head, I took a shower and then put talcum powder on my head and started caressing it with my hand. It was a divine feeling. My head felt so light and blissful. For the next several days I kept on repeating this caressing act. Here are some pics of my lockdown look :
This Corona virus really screwed all our lives. Humanity was helpless. It still is. The only thing that kept me sane during the lockdown was my internet connection. Otherwise I would have turned into a murderous zombie. Its really sad that I had three tickets for the third one-dayer between India and South Africa on 18th March at Eden Gardens but the match got cancelled due to Corona. During lockdown the game of Ludo on Facebook suddenly became a household activity and a phenomenal craze. I also played a lot of Ludo on Facebook and also managed to win a few games. Also played a lot of other online games like chess, texas holdem poker, blackjack, roulette, teen patti etc. Another thing that became a craze during the lockdown was Dalgona Coffee. Suddenly everybody started making this coffee at home and started posting its pics on Facebook. I also thought of making this coffee at home but then was too lazy to actually make it. In another trend women started challenging other women to post saree pics on Facebook. I don't subscribe to any newspapers at home. Whenever I feel like reading a newspaper, especially on Sundays, then I buy it from the hawkers. Because of the lockdown I could not buy any newspaper. Finally bought 'The Telegraph' and 'Times Of India' on 29th March. Badshah's 'Genda Phool' song and music video became an overnight sensation and an instant hit but it also attracted a lot of controversy and criticism regarding the bengali lyrics in the song. The song did not give due credit to the original folk singer Ratan Kahar who had penned down the original bengali song. Jacqueline Fernandez looks like a smoking hot goddess in this music video. Doordarshan started re-telecasting its old shows like Ramayan, Mahabharat, Shaktiman, Shreeman Shreemati, Byomkesh Bakshi, Chanakya, Buniyad, Dekh Bhai Dekh etc. It was so nice and nostalgic to re-watch these late-eighties and nineties shows on TV. This helped me to relive my childhood memories. As a child I used to watch a lot of serials on DD-1 and DD-2. For a brief period there was another channel called DD-3 too. In my childhood days, load-shedding in Calcutta was as common as sunrise and sunset. Load-shedding was a daily phenomenon and the evil Communists did nothing to change that scenario. Anyways I still remember that once Ramayan was going on and suddenly the electricity went out. It was a very special episode of Ramayan because a battle scene was happening. As a child I loved seeing these fight and battle scenes in Ramayan and Mahabharat. As a child I was really interested in violence on TV. Anyways as a child I prayed really hard to Lord Rama and begged him to make the electricity come back in our locality. But Lord Rama did not listen to my prayers and I unfortunately missed that episode of Ramayan. In my childhood days, the evil CPM was my Ravaan. I was really very sad and depressed. The electricity came back after a few hours and by then I had lost my faith in Lord Rama too. On 27th March 2020, the legend Bob Dylan released a new song after almost eight years which was named 'Murder Most Foul'. This song is 17 minutes long and these 17 minutes are the best 17 minutes of 2020. Facebook was full of strange stuff from the Simpsons predicting the Corona virus to a Calcutta sweet-shop making Corona sweets!
Modi announced the 'Janata Curfew' on 22nd March. The Phase 1 of the lockdown started from 25th March and ended on 14th April. The Phase 2 was from 15th April to 3rd May. Phase 3 was from 4th May to 17th May. Phase 4 was from 18th May to 31st May. Phase 5 (only for containment zones) started from 1st June and is still going on. Modi also gave a couple of tasks during the lockdown but I was too lazy to do them.
Throughout the lockdown Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hoichoi and Mubi kept me busy. Saw some amazing movies, web series and documentaries on these platforms. The flavour of the lockdown was 'Money Heist' on Netflix. I saw all the episodes. Loved the songs 'Bella Ciao' and 'My Life Is Going On'. Loved the character of the 'Professor'. Everybody was going gaga about this web series on Facebook. This show became a phenomenal success worldwide. I also saw a lot of movies related to viruses and apocalyptic situations like Contagion, 12 Monkeys, Outbreak, Train To Busan, 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, World War Z, I Am Legend, The Andromeda Strain, Resident Evil series, Mission Impossible 2, The Happening, Artificial Intelligence, Delicatessen, Dr. Strangelove, Armageddon, The Road, Mad Max series, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Children of Men, On The Beach, The Book of Eli etc. Among all these movies the most realistic movie that I saw was Contagion which was made in 2011 but it looked like it was shot in 2020.
Its true that we human beings have polluted and destroyed this beautiful Earth and we all really deserve to die. This Earth without human beings would be the best thing for all the other species on this planet. Corona virus is deadly thing for homo-sapiens but its a good thing for Mother Earth. I really support Agent Smith from Matrix when he says :
I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I've realized that you are not actually
mammals. Every mammal on this planet
instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment. But you humans do
not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and
the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is?
A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague...
During this lockdown I saw a lot of travel videos on Youtube. This travel vlogging is a great thing. I love all these travel vloggers on Youtube. I traveled through almost all the major cities and tourist destinations in India via Youtube. Also traveled through many foreign destinations via Youtube. I also want to become a travel vlogger. For that I need to buy a good camera. I am thinking of buying a DSLR. Went through a lot of videos on Youtube about DSLRs and Mirrorless Cameras. Finally I have decided to buy the Canon Rebel SL3 which is also known as Canon 250D and Canon 200D Mark II. One camera has three names in different parts of the world! But now I am thinking that whether I should buy the Canon SL3 or whether I should wait for the Canon SL4.
I do not booze much. I am not addicted to alcohol. But some evenings I feel like having a peg or two. During the lockdown all the liquor shops were closed. Last November I went to Goa. From there I bought quite a few miniature alcohol bottles. Throughout the lockdown I finished all these bottles one by one. Once the liquor shops opened I went out and bought a bottle of Old Monk for 450 rupees.
Throughout the lockdown I wrote many poems. Here are two of them :
If you want to read my bengali poems then here is the link :
https://www.facebook.com/rajgaurav.debnath/media_set?set=a.621513487995272&type=3
If you want to read my english poems then here is the link :
https://www.facebook.com/rajgaurav.debnath/media_set?set=a.2084233848389888&type=3
Super Cyclone Amphan hit Calcutta on 20th May 2020. Throughout the day it was cloudy and windy. The cyclone came around late evening. I watched it with a cup of coffee sitting on my balcony while smoking cigarettes. The electricity went out during the cyclone. I lit a candle in my room. A neighbourhood aunty was blowing conch shells continuously. Some people still believe that blowing conch shells will stop upcoming storms. This was the strongest cyclone that I have ever seen in my life. It was really scary. I composed three poems that day. Here are the poems :
Luckily we got our electricity back around 11 p.m. on the day of the cyclone itself. In our locality more than fifty percent of the houses did not receive electricity for the next three to four days. Various parts of Calcutta and the rest of Bengal were out of electricity for so many days. I did not have my wifi internet connection at home for the next ten days. My Airtel internet connection on my phones was also very bad. After a few days the mobile internet connections improved a bit. I also did not have cable on my television. The cable came back after many days. Some bengali news channels were calling the cyclone as Amphan and others were calling it Umphoon! Two days after the cyclone, I went out in our area and clicked a lot of pics. Here are some of them :
Ever since the lockdown, I did not eat biryani from any restaurant. Biryani is my most favourite food. Finally on 3rd June, I bought chicken biryani with chicken kebabs from Paradise Restaurant on Southern Avenue.
My mother also cooked biryani at home. Obviously my mother's biryani was far tastier than the restaurant's biryani.
---
No comments:
Post a Comment