New Market & Treasure Island

I can't believe that I actually got on my bike and went to New Market yesterday. It was 1.30pm and my wife insisted we go on the bike because getting parking there is a daunting task. I couldn't even get on the seat of the bike for a good 10 minutes because it had been parked out in the sun. Even before I got on the bike, drops of sweat were pouring down my face. That didn't really stop us though, now that we were committed to the mission at hand. Of course I was thinking, once we started moving the breeze would be soothing on my exposed skin. That was just hope. As we rode out on to the E.M. Bypass, gusts of hot wind kept hitting us from all directions. This was going to be one long hot ride. All along, I was just praying that we do eventually buy the earrings she had wanted from New Market. I was even cursing that I should have got off early from work during the week and taken her in the evening. But here we were, riding on my Karizma (the only saving grace in this wretched heat) towards new Market. We finally did get there and in good time too. Bikes are the best to negotiate traffic in Kolkata and we didn’t get stuck anywhere. Thank God for that.

So we parked the bike in the lane opposite New Market where Globe Cinema is and as we got ourselves a chilled bottle of water, I noticed Treasure Island at the end of another lane. Gosh it had been what, 15 years or more since I last went there. So we first headed to New Market to get the earrings, and after a lot of seeing and trying she did get quite a bit of stuff. I for the better part was standing outside finishing the bottle of water and sometimes ducked back inside when needed for decisions. Once done from there, we (read I) decided since we had come this far, a bit of Lukkhagiri was in order. So we went around the market and to my surprise, I found this place better stocked than most malls with stuff that you need. I ended up picking up some fabulous Deo-sprays and shaving blades that I couldn’t find at any of the malls I had visited recently and really cheap too. Awesome!!

After that, we headed to Treasure Island, but not before buying another bottle of water. It was something like 42 degrees Celsius I later found out. Hot and with a loo blowing, the water was like heaven. Anyway I clicked a couple of pictures on my way to Treasure Island and then headed into this A/C Market that used to be a rage at one point of time. Before we knew it, we had covered the entire two and half floors and all the shops seemed to be selling garments. So we stopped at one to buy a salwar suit piece. After having bought it and while paying, the shop-keeper asked if we were from out of town, to which I answered back in Bengali that we were very much from Kolkata. So he explained that he saw me taking pictures of the building on my way in and assumed that we might not be from Kolkata. That was quite amusing! If he just knew what a clickey-finger I have.

Anyway it was back on the bike and my wife now had two additional bags apart from her own, which she nestled between us and off we went. No questions about the next stop; home sweet home, to the comfort of an AC Room. I was just keeping my fingers crossed that we didn’t have load-shedding.