Oh Kolkatta, city of Joy

My first visit to this wonderful city; And i have fallen in love with it.

The heritage buildings;
They are beautiful;LIC could not pull down their old buildings and build modern complexes; I have known this for last couple of years and felt bad about that. Thought they were needly making a point about it and LIC was losing good opportunity to make money!Also maintaining such old buildings was not coming cheap; estate was a drain rather than an avenue to augment resources.
But seeing the buildings, beautifully and majestically standing there in the business district, I fully agree with the kolkattans.A high rise steel and chrome would really be UGLY in that setting.Yes, aesthetics is very important, even in builidngs, even if it means letting go of good money.Maybe it is even good business sense in the long run. LIC will be associated with heritage builidings and the money spent on their maintenance need not be sniggered at; it could be reclassified as that spent on 'publicty and pr'!!!
The trams:
Dont ask me what i thought about the trams and what they turned out to be; The trams were so cute, going leisurely in the middle of the road and absolutely no problem about causing any damage to any other road user.They had only two compartments, one first class and the other, yes, you guessed right, second class. Could not travel by tram so i cannot tell you the difference in comfort levels.Naked eye could not spot any. My cousin told me that women are powerful here and a wave of her hand and the tram will stop dead on its tracks and the world will stand still till she is safely into the compartment and comfortably seated.And the city roads are dug up to preserve the tram service as it is declared a 'heritage service'. Never knew there could be 'heritage services'.But such irrational thoughts and action is what constitutes the charm of kolkatta.
Hoogly river; A slow ship cruising the river from Dakshineswar to Belur. Setting is perfect for singing 'sringari...'There is a recent ad from airtel which also catches the hoogly river and the spirit of boatride there.Frozen in time!
Belur, Ramakrishna and vivekananda
The heritage museum at Belur just bowled me over. I am not much of a museum buff. But here the place really pulls your heart strings, the meticulousness with which it has been recreated to take us back to the time of ramakrishna and vivekananda. Every little detail which could be preserved is presered, including a safety pin used by sarada devi!And every little place associated with them has been recreated with painstaking effort and lots of care and concern.I want to come back here.
The roadside shops and the shopkeepers and the wares that they sell;
Shopping is amazing here in kolkatta and i never could believe i can go bersek in shopping, but i did here and i am not apolegetic about it. The stuff is so beautiful that only if you are not moved to open your purse strings ,your insides need to be checked!The shopkeepers are an amazing lot and they are quintessential sellers!They make you feel good to buy what you do.
The people of kolkatta;
I came away saluting them. They are not greedy for more and more and vulgarly display wealth.Life goes in a leisurely pace;they value women and still are chivalrous and affectionate.Women are beautiful and at peace with themselves.They value beauty,heritage, culture and literature.Idyllic place.
Disclaimer: This post is not meant to brush aside the negative traits of the city.I have carried only the negative impressions all these years and i feel guilty about it after seeing this city and had a chance to experience it for a few days.