Travel Inspiration | Oindrila Goes Footloose

Sometime last year, I told you about my journey to Lleida (read: Lleida – A Reminiscence). What I did not tell you was what happened behind the scenes. To the casual onlooker it might have appeared that I was taking a lazy holiday in the country famous for its street parties and endless beaches. But “getting there” was a challenge for me. After several rounds of selection, I had grabbed a wonderful internship opportunity at a prominent IT firm in Spain. But taking leaves from my engineering college proved to be quite a trial! After many sleepless nights, I was finally all set to take my first solo step out of India. I was not just going to do an internship, I was going to #StartANewLife!

Estació de Lleida Pirineus

After a journey of over twenty hours that saw me changing flights and trains, taking the metro, and finally getting a car-ride, I reached my apartment. This was going to be my first long stay outside of the home I grew up in. I had never lived with other people before. I also did not know much Spanish or any Catalan. I knew that English would not take me very far in Lleida, where only a minority would understand the language. There were many thoughts that swirled in my head and intimidated me. But I was here for a reason. I knew I had to take a bold step and bring in some much needed change in my life. “Change” was the only thing that would make me grow. And I did grow on that trip… in more ways than I had imagined!

Barcelona

I learned to read coding errors in Spanish. I learned to greet my colleagues in Catalan. I scanned through the daily news in a language I could never comprehend before. I asked for directions on the streets using some broken Catalan and excessive gesticulation. 😛 And by the end of that month, I actually wrote an entire article in Spanish (of course, with a lot of help from Google Translate)! 🙂

Camp Nou

Language was not my only learning. I cooked my own meals for the first time in my life. I did grocery shopping on my own. I learned to read maps effectively and developed some much needed road sense after two decades of relying on my parents for everything. But the best thing I learned was to TRAVEL. The travel-bug had bit me hard! The more places I wandered in, the more I wanted to wander. The more exotic dishes I tasted, the more grew my hunger.

How I got “framed” in Lleida 😉

Before Catalonia happened to me, I knew travel as a list of things to be ticked off my list. We would go to the popular tourist attractions and come back with a lot of souvenirs. But it is here that I learned to travel for my soul. I wanted to linger at places and capture their “feel”. Photographs and videos can show you the places and play the sounds for you. But only your memory can recreate the feeling within. I left Lleida after my internship, but I had just started a new life.

Have you ever embraced change in your life? Were you scared in the beginning? How did it make you feel in the end? I would love to hear your stories in the comments below.

We experience so many sensations when we visit a place. Some dazzle us with their visual appeal, some delight us with their melody, some flatter our taste buds with their strong or subtle flavours. And then there are those that refuse to leave us when we have long left the place. Today, I’m going to talk about some sensations that have attained a state of permanence in my subconscious. And most of these are deeply linked to the distinct scents they carry.

Of all the smells that my olfactory faculties sense, those originating in Kolkata remain the most powerful. Last year, my mum and I booked our tickets, packed our bags, and set off to “the city of joy”. Here’s the first meal that greeted us:-

A full Bengali meal

The inviting aroma of warm mung dal drew me out of my room and I decided I should unpack later. Before me was a large plate full of Bengali delicacies. Food so flavourful is eaten with hand! The hot meal was spiced with asafoetida and turmeric, but there was a perfect balancing element – the sweet dish. The blood-red tomato-chutney was subtly sweet and tempered with black sesame seeds. But my favourite dish was mishti doi, the famous pink-tinted yogurt which is sweetened with khejur-gur (date-jaggery). Served in a small earthen urn, mishti doi always manages to tranquilize me with its delicate scent of succulent dates that mixes with the smell of baked earth.

Horse-carriages from an era bygone

Kolkata feeds not just your body but also your mind. On our way to Victoria Memorial, we walked past a string of royally embellished carriages drawn by handsome Arab stallions and English thoroughbreds. I don’t know what the 18th century smelled like, but to me it smells like fresh paint blended with hay from horse stables. This unusual odour is so potent, it makes one dream of the times one only reads in History textbooks.

Retirement? What is that?

When one thinks of the olden times, one cannot help but notice old age. I walked around the streets to find several rickshaw pullers awaiting their customers. Quite a few amongst them were well past their middle age; their hair, a snowy shade of white; their salt-and-pepper beard, more salt and less pepper. In the damp air, I smelled their spirit and strength to carry on with work and let age only remain a number.

The ‘sisters’ at the annual procession

Kolkata is full of noises – the bleat of a cycle-rickshaw horn, the holler of a bag-seller, the ringing bells of a tram, the creaking of a rickety State-bus and the constant shuffling of feet. But I found peace amidst the noise – several nuns (from Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity) walked quietly through the streets at their annual procession. If peace has a smell, it’s most certainly that of starched cotton.

Nepalese momos – Calcutta’s street surprise!

This city can start feeling like home in a few days. The Albanian Saint Teresa stayed back in Kolkata for many years and so have people from various other countries. The intermingling of different tongues has also brought about a revolution in the Bengali food circuit with the introduction of many cuisines. The momos, every other Bengali’s favourite, are actually from Nepal. For only 20 rupees a plate, these momos are a steal! The stuffed, steamed dumplings come with a spicy dip and a bowl of piping hot soup. I take one long whiff of this street food and my brain instantly declares Chinese! But I bite into a tender momo and know this is definitely not Chinese.

The Bangali puchka

Once enamoured by a street-snack, I can’t help but dig into some more. I reach a puchka-stall and order a round of serving. The ellipsoid puris are like nothing I’ve seen before! These flour-crisps are bigger and longer than the regular spherical puris one sees in the rest of India. The smell of tamarind in the puchka-water makes me ask for another round of puchkas!

Ever been invited for a Bengali tea break?

Ever been invited for tea at a Bengali’s?

Eating in Kolkata doesn’t only happen outside. In fact, it mostly happens in the homes of the locals. The snack-spread in Bengal is slightly different from the elaborate lunches and dinners. Tea time is an intimate moment of reflection and discussion on all matters that affect the world. Friendships are forged over the aromatic Darjeeling tea or the malty Assam tea with some sugar-coated biscuits on the side. Bengalis drink tea like a European would wine. Tea is first tasted with the eyes as one discerns whether the colour is strong or translucent. The teacup is then brought to the nose to appreciate its aroma. It is finally sipped and gulped with some knowledge of the flavour.

I can distinctly smell Kolkata when I close my eyes, every fragrance becoming clear to me. Do you ever notice the smell of a new place? Has any place left a scent in your soul?