Kolkata is Crazy about Cricket

Today Jaideep was a bit disappointed and told me I had lost focus on my blog and the essence of the initiation was to be Kolkata centric and it had lost that. Well I do agree that was the objective, but after all it’s my blog and about my surroundings and so if my surroundings had temporarily become the wide roads, clean air of Delhi and the wide expanses and high rises of Gurgaon, gues I can’t help but write about them. Besides On my arrival I was glad to be back in Kolkata and it’s hospitality. A special mention of my Cab driver who kept me engaged in conversation all the way from the airport to my house.

Yeah Kolkata is way ahead of a lot of the other cities in a lot of ways as Jaideep and I were discussing on the way to work this morning. A lot of things that have happened here have been taken to other cities. That discussion done, the rest of the day was quite uneventful, except the fact that I came upon a flock of pigeons outside my office during lunch break. Kolkatan’s really like animals and nature I think. Feeding birds is quite a pastime here.

Anyway the high point of the day was exactly at about 6.02 pm on our way back from a gruelling yet productive three hour meeting when I saw a large crowd gathered on the right side of the road kicking up quite a commotion. The thought’s running through my head were, they’ve caught a thief, or there’s some political trouble brewing up, only to find that the people were annoyed that the TV on the wall hadn’t been switched on and the match, India Vs. West Indies was reaching critical mass. I couldn’t help but just stare in awe and capture a couple of pictures of this bizarre incident. Cricket is huge. And so I noticed out side every shop on the short walk back to office. Weary office goers, tired labourers and street urchins crowded up any shop that had a television to catch a glimpse and the latest update on the match.

The TV in the Wall