Kolkata - the City of Joy

I wanted to name this story 'the mother and the son'. But then someone had described them much better than me years before even I was born and he named his book 'The City of Joy'. So this is a dedication to that foreigner who made a rickshaw puller and this city immortal in his story forever.
 Lately it had been drizzling quiet a lot in Kolkata. I wanted to go shopping for something and my favorite destination is Esplanade.

This time though it was a little different.  It rained in the evening, so less people on the streets and more traffic on the road.

Most of the hawkers had shut down after the heavy shower, poodles of water in the ‘brand new holes’ in the middle of almost every road. I was a little disappointed seeing so much less crowd, though relieved at the same time because we could walk faster and smoother amidst a comparatively less crowded new market place.

What caught my eye was a woman sitting in front of an underground mall. Her hair looked like almost that of a mad woman. I almost felt bad for her until in a minute or so a boy aged between 10-11 years of age joined her.

Her eyes lightened up suddenly. The look of a mad woman who seemed to have lost everything in the world suddenly went away. I realized that boy was her son.

They were beggars. The system that works almost everywhere in India is similar to this, except that we never see the happy endings. Most of us see one side of the scenario.

We either see the children holding their siblings asking begging for money at every possible traffic signal, or we see women who look deserted and ask for food or money from every passerby sitting in front of a mall or footpaths.
This story of the mother beggar and son duo might not be of a family deserted by a rickshaw wala anymore, but nonetheless it’s someone who married that woman somewhere in a remote village in India with hopes similar.

When she got married she must have been a teenager. Child marriage is still rampant in every remote nook and corner of the ‘covered’ Indian villages. I kept wondering while coming back what her life must have been from a bride to a mother who begs along with her son in separate places.

I found one similarity between them and us.  *MOMENTS*

She was not born in the same ‘financial’ status as me. But my mom is a housewife, cooks every single day and waits for my father and me to return from work.

When we return, in spite of being tired we have our small little ‘everyday’ stories to share. Same for working mothers too.
The boy was telling one such story while she was enquiring about how much he must have managed to beg and ‘earn’ that day. Engrossed they were in their own world.

For those 5 minutes I did not feel I was watching regular beggars. I felt a mother and son talking to each other, like mom and me having our gup shups.  I saw a child being brought up in a similar way like me, where both of us come back and tell stories to our mothers. I saw a moment of happiness in the life of the beggars.

The difference?

He doesn’t come back from school and shares his stories with her. He tells her how a man shouted at him when he was begging at the signal that day. He asks her when can he have the 40 bucks chicken sandwich that he sees every day being eaten by hundreds of people right in front of the place where his mother sits.

Ending?

I came back long before they left. But I guess in some temporary shackle called ‘home’, the mother cooks daal chaawal for her son. He is her strength and she is his reason of existence. That is how life works, for EVERYBODY. The cycle is same for us all.

Below are the blurred pictures that I could manage feigning clicking my guy to just capture their moment in my memories forever too.

XOXO

Poulami

Online Shopping India : My experiences

I wanted to write for a long time about online shopping. Before I do so, I would like to confess I am a shopaholic who at times tries to justify incessant shopping by renaming the addiction as 'retail therapy'. Moving on..

Well my first online shopping experience was from the site which I believe is the 'Leader' of the pack i.e. Flipkart.

Yes, when I said shopaholic, I didn't just mean tops and dresses. I meant EVERYTHING.

Undoubtedly Flipkart is one of the best when it comes to customer service in both literal and figurative terms.   Not only have a I shopped by the 'cash-on-delivery' system, but also by card. And here comes the reason why I want to write something about 'Online shopping'.

It has been more than a year since I have shopped, gifted and received gifts for friends and from friends online. I find it really easy because it saves me a LOT OF TIME.

Best online sites on my list are:

• www.flipkart.com (for books, gadget accessories)
• www.jabong.com (for tops and dresses)
• www.zovi.com (for cosmetics)
• www.myntra.com

While Jabong and Zovi were the first ones I tried, Myntra was the latest that I added to my list. And must say, again fast and good. They deliver what they claim.

Now coming to my bad experience. First let me mention the name of the sites

• www.medplusbeauty.com 
• www.yepme.com

While for the first four, I could easily order, cancel and solve card issues caused due to gateway clogging by calling the customer service (e.g: I didn't receive an email confirmation from flipkart for a pre-ordered book, I just had to call and I received the email and the sms both within an hour).

Medplus was a TENSION. I had ordered via card for a lipstick and 2days post placing the order, when I tracked I was delighted to see that my order was shipped that very day itself!! 'Yay!'.

Or so I thought. 4days later when I tracked, the same thing happened. First call to medplus customer care, 'some technical default' (felt like I was talking to another telecom operator), the girl said she will give me a call in 10 minutes and 24 hours passed while I waited. Next day again I had to call, this time I was a bit rude, because my money was on stake, so finally I received an apology over phone and was surprised that 5 days post placing the order online, my order was actually dispatched!! I received what was ordered 10 days post the actual date of me ordering online.

Myntra ->ordered, cancelled, called the customer service, confirmed the cancellation and received an email from them. As smooth and fast as the above single line.

Myntra is a notch above, because they not only sms you the date and time of delivery, you actually get a call from the courier service people to let you know 'exactly at what time they will deliver the parcel'. THUMBS UP.

Same goes for flipkart.

YepMe. I want to request www.yepme.com that before they come up with an ad on the television with Cyrus Saahukar vouching on their services, return policies and fastest delivery system etc etc., 'ONE OF THE NUMBERS MENTIONED IN THEIR SITES FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE WHEN CALLED SAYS 'Please check the number you have dialled'

Do I need say anymore about my 7 days of tension regarding my order? Oh before I forget, the second number which works is always 'BUSY' (for obvious reasons).

If that is not all, then i came through a major technical glitch. Since I had such a hard time with yepme tracking my order, I mistakenly entered another docket number in their courier service site and to my utter suprise I was seeing the order some man from South India whose order was cancelled. I knew his name and address!! WOW!!

So if anybody else did the same mistake as me, then well YepMe and their courier system will be able to help knowing about shoe sizes and addresses of total strangers all over India!! Do I want that?? NO.

With 'innumerable' other online shopping sites in India fighting to create their own brand value, I have realized that you can trust only the leaders who started the rage of online shopping in India.

Honestly my latest tryst for online shopping with the last two sites and my horror for doing the same made me think I should let others know what I know.

I am sure that it is not always bad for medplus or yepme, but seriously first impressions for a few not-so-lucky like me can be very dangerous.

PS: Online shopping is like buying from proper shops like flipkart, jabong, myntra and zovi or from 'street shops' like medplus and yepme. 

So SHOP AT YOUR OWN RISK. 

Poulami

Poila Baishak - Beware!!

This is going to be an angry post. Was reading 'TOI Kolkata' today and obviously like every bengali I wanted to check if there was something 'affordable' at nearby restaurants or the good ones.
So came by this article or rather an advertisement about a restaurant near Tolygunge PS named the 'The Funjabi Tadka'.
The article claimed that for couples they are charging 400INR plus tax per couple with 'special' dishes prepared and planned for Poila Baishak covering the so called (affordable, or I thought so) celebration for the next seven days starting from 14th April.
There were two numbers given to contact for reservations, and to my utter surprise the guy I called up said he doesn't work for TFK anymore!!
First thing, 'THE TIMES OF INDIA' while you very well explained the A-Z of the new 'Bong culture and mentality', what went wrong with the re-checking of facts before putting up an article on behalf of a restaurant?
I didn't care to call up the other number because I was told that there is no such special lunch offer as '400/-' per couple and that at the end of the day even if you RESERVE and do the mistake of not ASKING about the menu details and price, then you will end up paying the double of what you READ.
So this is just to warn everybody, call up the numbers, ask specifically and directly whether as written it's rupees 'xyz' per couple? Or is it rupees 'xyz' per person???
Honestly I would rather suggest that if it's about food and the TASTE which matters to you, then go for the restaurants which do not advertise as much as others.
Yes, if you have the moolah to spend on 'The Park' and their special 'Poila Baishak' special menu, then go for it, because I am sure they will make the taste worth it.
But for other such less known food joints, please beware of what you read, what they say and what you pay.

For the love of food: Cutlets special and Kolkata food dairies

It rained yesterday, Kolkata enjoyed the first proper ‘Kalbaishakhi’ and as per me ‘right-on-time’ for a change.

Well I have special something’s for rain and food. Be it the cold coffee while watching rain drops, or be it the ‘Cutlets’ I am going to write about today.

In India, when we say ‘unity in diversity’ – we at times really mean it, per say our love for food and ‘celebrations’

Poila Boishak is due on 15^th April ( Bengali New Year). Shopping is a compulsion and so is eating.

This blog post is about a very old but famous ‘food cabin’ known as the ‘Anadi Cabin’ in Kolkata. It’s a part of this city’s ‘food heritage’. While we gorge on ‘chinese food’ or ‘Punjabi food’ all the time ( I love paranthas and butter chicken masala), Bengalis do have their own share of ‘speciality’ too.

Everybody must have read and tried ‘cutlets’ – which are minced fish or meat marinated with a number of spices fried in hot oil and served with ‘kasandi’ (a special sauce made of ‘shorshe and shorsher tel’).

My mention of ‘Anadi Cabin’ is because of its Moghlai ‘porota’ and ‘CHICKEN KABIRAJI CUTLET’. While shopping for Poila Boishak, I chanced upon this very old ‘food counter’ and I could almost smell the air luring me to pay a visit.

And of course I did. The shop is nothing like any restaurant we generally visit. The walls are old, a man is cooking right in front of you and it’s heated like an oven inside the cabin.

But the best part still is that about hundreds of people eat there every day. While I was waiting for my ‘Chicken Kabiraji Cutlet’, I decided to talk to a grumpy looking uncle who sat right in front of us and said in a demanding tone (to the waiter), “Ei ekta gorom gorom fish fry de toh” (serve me a hot fish fry right now).

I wanted to know about Anadi cabin, so I asked him how long he had been eating such fish fries and moghlais out here. He replied “Before you were born”. And then he smiled and said, “It’s not the same anymore, as it used to be before”. I defended by saying, “But this kabiraji is tasty uncle!!” (Yes my order finally arrived and there was no stopping me).

He told me the story of how big the ‘cabin’ used to be and now how small it is. The waiters in the mean time were busy taking orders for both take away food parcels and for the ones like us, who were sitting and eating there.

We ordered for ‘chai’ (tea) which they served in small white Chinese cups, but the feel was very old Kolkata style. I ordered for another fish fry.

It was time to leave, because about 15 people were waiting to come inside and get their share of ‘Anadi Cabin’s slice of delicacy’ – as I would love to call it.

If anybody ever comes to Kolkata, do try the special ‘Moghlai’ of Anadi Cabin (Esplanade)  and of course the ‘Chicken Kabiraji’.

Ohh by the way ‘chicken kabiraji’ is a bigger version of chicken cutlet wrapped and fried in egg white. You also get mutton kabiraji (for the mutton lovers).

Below is the picture of 'my' chicken kabiraji which I managed to click while eating halfway :P

While leaving the uncle asked, “Moghlai ta khabena?” I replied “Next time” and we left.

PS: This is a special dedication to a friend of mine, who is as much a food lover as me. Stays in Bangalore now and forget Maach, he misses  alu posto too. So here’s to you. There is always coming back to Kolkata ;)

Summer hairstyles, Kim Kardashian style ;)

As promised I am back with my second summer hairstyle. This is known to everybody, every girl knows how to create hair bumps. Front bumps, side bumps etc.While the normal way of creating a hair bump is sheathing your hair (you brush your hair backwards), which in turn helps to create the volume you want.This is the Kim Kardashian kind of bump I am talking about. My hair gets limp if I don’t shampoo it every alternate day and it gets way too frizzy and dry if I do so.Plus I find sheathing a little problematic as it leads to substantial hair loss. Okay so enough with the ‘gyaan’.Point is, while watching television I came up across this product named ‘Bumpits’. All my life I hadn’t heard of any such thing and of course I had to google it later. Best part was that I found such stuffs online on sites like www.amazon.com too and at very low price.But the better was yet to come. Right here in Kolkata I found a set of bumpits being sold on the street side for just 100 INR!!Next thing I did was to grab mine. Unlike the amazon I got two sets of bumpits, one middle sized and another for bigger dramatic bumps. If you order from online sites, you will get a smaller bumpit too, which is mainly for girls who want to create a bump right in the front of the forehead using their bangs.

Using bumpits are very easy. While the one I bought was obviously not the real thing, but was good enough to serve my purpose.Above are the pictures of the bumpits and other than these you will need a few bobby pins and a hairspray.

How to do it

Place your bumpits in whichever part of your hair you want to create the bump and pull that part of hair back towards the front, like portioning your hair like this in the image below (image courtesy google).

After placing the bumpits in the right place, just put back your held hair on top of it and pin the ends to keep the bumpits on place. For a stronger hold apply a hairspray and below you can see the final outcome.

PS: The entire process might seem very tedious or tough while you read it, but in real time it takes just 10 minutes. It stays on for as long as you want, no fidgeting with the hair clutchers, no hair loss due to sheathing or anything. Gives you a style and a bump to carry with what I would say ‘Elan’ ;)

And here is my bumpits used Kim Kardashian look :)

Hope it helps :) 

XOXO

Poulami (Purple)

Summer hairstyles by me

Last year when I went for hair straightening, I was super happy. That was the ‘trend’ last year. But with temperature rising this year and my hair growing in a bizarre curly and straight way I needed some way to find some trendy yet easy to do hair do.

So here it goes.

The first one I would like to call it ‘twist-and-bun’ hairstyle. For this, you need to middle partition your hair, take one side of your hair, start twisting it from the middle and start picking up more strands of hair as you keep twisting towards the back.

Once you have reached the symmetry of your ear end, pin your twisted hair with two bobby pins.

Repeat the same with the other side and this is the result which you will get at the end.

I am totally in love with this hairstyle, and most importantly it does not matter if you have straight or curly hair, this style is for all and sundry.

Below are the pictures of my experiment :D

I decided to keep my look simple, with just a bright pink lipstick and let the hair do the talking. It takes five minutes to do it and most importantly it feels light on the head. 

If you are going out for some party or so, then I would suggest the 'L'oreal Elnette hairspray' or the 'Gatsby stronghold' to keep the hairstyle in place for long hours.

Next I will come up with something I always wanted to do.

PS: You can also side partition your hair and try the same steps as mentioned above.

XOXO

Poulami

Being a girl

Being a tomboy, it took a few years, let's say almost 25 years to fall in love with cosmetics. Oily skin and 'Who-cares' attitude kept me away from make up until the second year of my college. But I believe no girl can run away from the fact that being a girl does come with lot of options, now I call the 'collections' to choose from.
One such treasured realization is 'doll up'. Being a lazy person writing about products I thought was not my cup of tea, until I realized that I can have my own additions for the same!!
So here is the 'Maybelline' range of products that I 'treasure' ^_^
I have decided to write my own reviews for these in my own way, but it would be a lie and a burden if I don't mention IMBB and Maybelline New York India for helping me out to choose which and what will suit me.
Let's hope I can keep up with my 'newly found' obsession and share the happiness that every girl does while shopping and applying these beauties :D
XOXO
Poulami

Here's one example of how I choose what's the best for me, they have it all, you just need to 'read' and 'watch' http://makeupandbeauty.com/ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1ztkMyKuik. This is a thank you post to both IMBB and Maybelline tutorials, for bringing out the girl in me in the best possible way.