Page 19 - Seniorstoday July-2023 Issue

trendy cafes too are lined with shelves of Amartya.
books, but their patrons prefer to be left to
their own ‘devices’.
Passengers await the metro train in Delhi
Image Courtesy: Zomato
In Kokotta, Flurys is now done up for dinner
As in Delhi, the metro railway has
dismantled the North-South cultural
divide. People are breaking out of their
tradition social zones though the traffic is
largely one-way, from traditional enclaves
to cosmopolitan ones. Thus, Flurys, Park
Street’s once-exclusive ‘tea-room’, began
offering a dinner menu after this iconic
avenue became easily accessible, and
brought in patrons who couldn’t make it
during leisured-class hours. On a trip last
month, I found a chatter(jee) of girls from
deep North, suburban Howrah tucking
into, yes, a full English breakfast at the
multi-cuisine Bunaphile, within an olive’s
throw from the aforementioned Purna Das
Road. It used to be the maternal home of
Nabaneeta Dev Sen, former wife of Nobel-
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #49 | JULY 2023
At one level this altered Kolkata reality
truly demands a ‘suspension of disbelief’.
But thankfully, the impromptu adda,
the pavement chess, the heated debate
over chai and shingara are still alive and
kicking; strains of Rabindrasangeet still
float out of windows to find counterpoint
in the conch blown at dusk; and yes, some
babu still leaves his soulless municipal
cubicle, and goes home to translate Brecht.
Mumbai had been marching to a more
frenetic drum beat long before I arrived
there at the start of the 70s. Like sex in the
notorious ‘cages’ of Foras Road, everything
was fatatat; show me the money and
take the goods, no time for unproductive
chit-chat. The figurative fast lane has got
slower thanks to the insane construction of
faster -- though the concrete one has got
transport infrastructure.
The coastal road and other infrastructure
projects will change Mumbai forever
In that binary of work and leisure, the
Kolkatan has a leisurely approach to
anything resembling the former – and a
business-like bustle when it comes to office
picnics. A Statesman colleague drawled
with proud disdain: ‘Over five generations,
no one in my family has lifted anything
heavier than a pen.’ In stark contrast, when
the Mumbai executive isn’t working, she’s
networking. A corporate czar said bluntly,
‘If I haven’t initiated at least three contracts
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