With school holidays over, I imagined it was the perfect time to travel from London to Kolkata on empty flights and catch up on movies in the flights.
Very confidently, I arrived at London Heathrow to be denied boarding because I did not have a negative RT PCR test. My option for one free change of date was also denied ( I later in Kolkata that I did have a free change). I paid 179 GBP penalty to fly the following weekend.
London Heathrow should be renamed chaos. We were still doing security checks past the flight departure time and asked to RUN to the aircraft.
We arrived late at Doha airport and 8 of us missed our connecting flights. 6 eager Bengalis stuck together, took alternative full flight to Delhi airport but there was no Qatar Airways personnel to receive us. We found our way to Air Vistara from Delhi to Kolkata. One of us was again being denied boarding as his ticket was not showing in the system! We jumped in. Unity was strength.
With a long wait for early morning flight from Delhi to Kolkata, I ate some hot idl/vadas at the airport lounge. Had a friendly chat with a family travelling
to Andaman and Nicobar islands. A man and his daughter slept with abandon on one of the sofas of the lounge
Hot and humid, the air quality was far better than winter months in Kolkata. My dads house was clean. The ceiling fan did not work properly and after my dad fixed it with a brand new one. I slept long hours and got acclimatised. The week days, I worked UK hours. My internet was good most of the times but towards the evenings, used to be sporadic. The south west monsoons caused some torrential rains. Weekends, I caught up with Bengali movies, shopping and street food (Egg roll, chowmein, momo, puchkas).
I visited the Indian museum. Such a vast and rich collection of natural life, fossils, mammals, birds, sculptures/rocks including a Dinosaur egg. There was even an Egyptian mummy.
It is indeed a UNESCO intangible heritage. I visited the Durga pooja pandals in North Kolkata especially the Ahiritola
The theme of musical instruments with a piano going up the apartments was amazing. Kumartully had underwater with scuba divers, fishes and sea life projections.
Went to see the Vatican at Sreebhumi Durga pooja pandal. There was a ashtadhatu (8 metals) idols made which were fantastic. The next day, I attempted South Kolkata circuit to see a themed pandal and a freedom fighter themed pandals. There was even a South Indian with gopuram.
I took local buses and autorickshaws. The mass of humanity was swimming everywhere. Yet, there was order in the chaos.
In one pandal, the idols were set in the pristine mountains while in the others, they came from a cave. It was surrounded by javelins. In another the goddess has two lions sitting next to each other as pets.
The angry mood of the goddess was amused She was in sitting position instead of standing. Sometimes alone too instead of being with her two daughters and sons. The idol makers had a field day interpreting their gods and goddesses.
We have a family get together with food and adda with my pocket having a little gadda 😊 In the evening , saw the red fort pandal with laser show at Lebutala with my uncle.
On final day, I went to visit dads friend in Salt lake ( Bidhan Nagar) suburb of Kolkata using the clean and well maintained Kolkata metro. Saw a replica of the new
Ram temple, a traditional boat of the Ganges and stress of education on children. Finished with authentic Hilsa dishes for lunch.
As if it was all enough, Bengali blockbusters were released during the festive season at Nandan theater. I went to watch some based on Bengali history. Visited Quest Mall and watched a Telugu blockbuster, Ponniyan Selvan part 1, a classic written by Kalki on the Rajaraja Cholas life. Again some more food to finish the day.
Soon, it was time to pack and get ready to fly back. Did some small shopping from nearby shops. Was craving for fresh pineapple and sweet coconut water.
