Why Kolkata tells us how to live

It’s been more than two years since I moved to Kolkata, though since my childhood days I have always liked visiting this city but this time it was different. The human-pulled rickshaw wasn’t a thrill ride, yellow taxis became arrogant and the afternoon shops became the lifesaver. If you say to me what really changed from the joyous city was now the struggle to keep it joyous. Somewhere along all these, me and my wife moved into a new apartment which was slightly better and looked like a place where we could adjust.

There I met a person Somnath, a lanky man who had thin line of hair above his head and wore glasses that were oversized. He always kept to himself, most mornings when I was looking at the heat of the day through the window I would see Somnath walking through the society gate.

As he was my neighbor my wife told me to invite his family for dinner just to have a good neighboring relationship. He came in next Sunday, along with hi wife and four-year-old son. I asked Somath what he did for a living he said that I worked as sales salesperson for an electronics shop. Perplexed I asked him how he found Kolkata, he looked at me and smiled. “It gives me what I want but with a bit of pain. Born and brought up he doesn’t think about living somewhere else.”

?The conversation then shifted to where I was from and there I was yankying about why Pune and Mumbai are much better than Kolkata. Somnath again looked at me and laughed, “I know that Pune and Mumbai are much better because yes money does buy a lot of happiness. Ten years back when I first got a chance to work I was given an opportunity to move to a bigger city I had refused during that time.”

Our conversation had then entered around the life outside work he had done. Somnath was a Tabla player and also loved to act in plays, since his younger days he worked his way from a side artist to now where he directs almost three plays a year. We ended our conversation moved to our dinner table.

That night I thought about what Somnath told me, I saw something in each one of them,? each of them was associated with a form of art in some way, and genuinely enjoyed it, maybe more than their work.

Each one maintained a balance that the money was making them survive, just enough but art was making them strive. A balance was maintained between what they loved and what they did.??