Kolkata goes 'red' on Christmas

It was Christmas last Saturday - and like always i looked forward to the big day. As a child in the 80s of Kolkata, i have some distinct memories of the day - a jaunty group arriving at our neighbour's house on Christmas eve to usher in the big day, with their sweet carols. They finely strummed the chords of the guitar and sang in lilting harmony praises to the Lord.
Christmas also meant lots of shopping in New Market - walking past rows of sparkling Christmas trees and stuffed Santa; while the soft scent of freshly baked cakes and cookies filled my senses!
Christmas meant a decorated Park Street, gleaming in different hued lights - where revellers walked its entire length through the depths of the night.

This time around - while the traditional Christmas ball was on in a few known places, some others tried to rev up more steam on that nippy December evening. They were a bevy of 20-something swell beauties who promised to 'raise the steam and burn the floor' at the various venues. So, for a Las Vegas Christmas experience you had skimpily clad nymphs serving you alcohol; somewhere else you had an oomph-oozing belly dancer swaying to lilting rhythms, while testosterone-high gawkers gawked endlessly at her; and elsewhere you had Ukrainian svelte bodies dressed in skimpy Santa gear (with a red and white furry tail hanging from behind) who promised the best lap dance ever!

Now, what our podgy Saint Nicholas from Lapland thought of these tawdry jamborees I wonder - probably in Kolkata’s pious red bastion he was ‘seeing red’ of an altogether different kind!

The Indian Olive

The Indian Olive, a desi version of the olives found in the western world is abundantly available in West Bengal, North East and Bangladesh. It is either eaten raw, pickled or cooked to make the bengali 'chutney', wich is essentially a dish in itself and not just another sauce, like it is in most other Indian cusines.

Called 'jalpai' in bengali, the Indian Olive is greenish in colour and has quite a tangy sting in its flavour. This one however, is not laden with the olive oil, as we usually find in its western counterpart.

The funny bit here is that - most people refuse to believe that there actually exists an Indian Olive, since our knowledge about the fruit is dominated by what we know about its mediterranean cousin....Just another example of how we often fail to appreciate that which is our own!