But otherwise, it has remained the Calcutta I have seen - The yellow Ambassador cabs with a honking problem, an omnipresent stink, the crowd, the traffic and the carefree trams amidst it, the rossogollas and the Howrah bridge.
What was different this time was an unexpected shower of hospitality from one of my colleagues. I was invited to his parents' place. For the next 3 hours I spent my time watching Tom & Jerry and eating the innumerous sweets, delicacies, fruits and the many more things that were sprawled across the table. That was probably the first time I ate a Lichi fruit. Tastes just like the Lichi drink from Real. Or is that supposed to be otherwise!
What followed next was a sumptuous meal with rice, dhal, and fish curry. It was kind of queer to find fish and dry fish used in the same curry. And I being a gourmet had to ask.
' No, no, no. That is not dry fish. Those are fish eggs!'
That is when the head goes spinning for a minutest moment. Eggs of fish? How many did I eat? Won't they hatch inside my stomach and make a pond out of it? There must have been hundreds of them? It is psychological thing when you eat something new and something that you have not imagined to eat. That is exactly how I felt when I accidently boiled ants along with maggi. The noodles tasted just like usual until I saw the first dead body. I couldn't push another spoon of it.
'So how do you like it.'
'Oh, it's fantastic!'
(Is it? Dry fish is fantastic and this tastes like dry fish. So this has to be fantastic. But this is an agglomeration of a thousand fish eggs!)
'So you should eat more of it. May be you should try the fried ones. They taste even better.'
When Antony Bourdain can eat sheep testicles, can't I eat fish eggs?
