Friday, February 11, 2005

Memories!

Just to give a bit of a background for this post, I am from Calcutta, that erstwhile (and current) hotbed of unionism and frequent strikes and hartals. Right now on the other hand I am in my 23rd floor office in Los Angeles right next to Beverly Hills High School. Of all places on the planet I would have expected this to be the furthest from my hometown's quirks.
Now comes the cool part, all afternoon today I have been hearing faint vocal rumblings from the street outside which I ignored initially as traffic and then as the rain. When I could no longer ignore the stridently familiar cadence of the shouts, I had to take a look out of the window. The Hotel Century Plaza, where the US Presidents hold press conferences and stay in while visiting LA, has a group of protesters outside. They are in blue raincoats, carrying placards and shouting slogans while walking around the hotel entrance. If I close my eyes, I am back in Calcutta, stuck in a traffic jam in Dalhousie Square. I know exactly what they are shouting - 'Management er kalo haat bhenge dao guriye dao! Hai hai, management jabab dao' (with apologies to readers who do not understand Bengali) and so on, except its all in Spanish...

4 Comments:

Blogger thalassa_mikra said...

Hi,
Welcome to LA from a fellow Angeleno! Have you been on any chow expeditions lately? I'm a fellow Bong as well, though I grew up in Delhi so always had the "probashi" tag. Santa Monica must be such a great place to go to work in, I really envy you. If you wish, I can be reached at joi_devivre@yahoo.com.

February 12, 2005 2:27 AM  
Blogger Urmea said...

Hi there,
And thanks for the welcome! Well I did go to Indo cafe (across the street from Simpang Asia which I see you have written about) for some very good Indonesian food and then La Paella last night for Tapas and Sangria. This week was rather crazy as far as my eating out went.
I live in SM and work in Century City and that has worked out very well. I was wondering though if after I had explored it a bit more whether I'd have preferred Venice.
Thanks for dropping by and I shall definitely email you :)

February 12, 2005 11:47 AM  
Blogger Sagnik Nandy said...

thanks for the nostalgia ... incidentally i found the word "chanachur" on ur blog and felt a sudden sense of responsibility to prevent this item from bcoming extinct

February 13, 2005 11:43 PM  
Blogger Urmea said...

You are welcome Sagnik! And if you do open a chanachur production facility in Southern California please do count me in as a customer!

February 14, 2005 11:13 AM  

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