Oh Kolkata! A Sunday Mid Morning Walk on Park Street

Flurys Park Street Kolkata

Some things in life never change. Like a Sunday morning on Park Street. There maybe an entirely different Government at the Centre. The country's political and social landscape may have changed beyond recognition in the past decade. I might be older(and wiser?) by a decade. More importantly there maybe an entirely different Government in Kolkata with the leftist flavor gone perhaps for ever...but Kolkata in many ways fortunately remains the same!

CLosed Park Street shops

A stroll on Park Street looking for a hair parlour and reviving old memories made me realise how much had gone by in the last 9 years but one could get no inkling of it here! The roads were a virtual empty stretch. In Kolkata's premium shopping and businss district it has been a source of constant amazement to me how it can sleep so utterly on Sunday mornings. No cabs, no lining up at exclusive shops, little pedestrian traffic, no jay walking or hustling to flag down a cab, no street vendors. All the pricey shops lining the Park Street utterly closed with massive shutters down. Its a Sunday in the true sense of the word, a day of no activity. So Worldwide while businesses vie for the weekend traffic and crowd and business, Kolkata preserves its serenity and how!

Park Street on Sunday

 I knew for a fact though things would start moving after one o'clock when the early diners would start coming to the lovely restaurants...the Peter Cats, the Trincas, the Silver Grills and the rest or even before that as late breakfasters would throng into Flurrys. True to my belief, old faithful Flurry's was a flurry of activity...while new entrant Au Bon Pain was virtually empty. There were of course the new additions of KFC and Mc Donalds which looked delightfully empty to my prejudiced self.

 At the end of the street (coming from the Park Circus area) Apeejay House stood steady in its regality (RIP Brother Pauls) while the stylists at A N John remained as snooty as ever! So after cutting my hair at a new parlour (Oxygen), since I couldnt convince the A N John's stylist to cut my hair as per my requirement, I completed my wanderings through the much beloved streets around Park Street with the universal cure for a hot sultry morning with a stop at Saturday Club.