Addas and all that

November 26, 2015.

For some time have been trying to get friend Abhijit Basu for a mobileadda; mobile rings, no addas; maybe Basu has no time, living in time. That does not make Basu less likeable. In Business Line, we had addas, not the Kolkata brand, yet addas; sometimes over drinks at bars till bars shut down in and around Horniman Circle; he preferred to miss Press Club and journalists; those years he was a bachelor particularly good at stocks and shares; with marriage, no addas; then he left BL and that was that. Paul inquires about Basu as we were a threesome for a phase. When a friend is off mobile, that's it. We addaed in Bengali and English though he was not a Calcuttan and me a Calcutta, poor at Bengali; Basu relished addas, rosogolla syrupped with gossip; can humans live without gossip, me cannot. Adda sets apart Kolkata (Calcutta is preferable) from Mumbai (Bombay comes easy). Most times, an ability for creative lying plus a rock in a para (stone platform in a locality) are musts; you may not have seen a football or cricket game; never ever stepped into a bookshop; pitch perfect conditions for a jomegalo adda (a well set adda); tonally, vary from loud to whispers; cigarettes must; as all Bengalis try for the first day, first show of a film, cinematic know-how a qualification; Bengalis should be in a majority; no lovely boudis (sisters) at addas, which is unfair; maybe, in 2015, boudis are at addas with dadas; winter and summer timings. When me took the Bombay Mail (via Nagpur) to Bombay in a steam loco in 1969, lost addas forever. In the 60s, me had a good friend in Aniruddha Majumdar, a stylish batsman who feigned injuries, fielding; fielding and bowling, he exclaimed, were for the bourgeoisie, being a Marxist; batting for the aristocrats. A servant carried his bat to the pada cricket matches. And then me had A.V. Jayaraj, S. Nilakanthan and of course, M.Padmanabhan for Sunday addas; but they were real not imagainary affairs. Working as a journalist, me had some standout rum-adda sessions with Narayana Karunakara Kurup and Paul Noronha. And now, me addas with me, imagining a Bengali, sitting on a bench at Murari Dairy Farm; the other morning, me was talking to me about Kolkata heading the league table of the Super League Tournament; like Bengalis me watch on TV, kicking of the ball in between shots of Nita Ambani, Abhishek Bachchan, M.S. Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar; Super League teams seem to have more foreigners than Indians; me thinks they are poverty versions of the English and Spanish leagues; me the Bengali held out over the Maidan greats from the past: Chuni Goswami, Samajpati, Jarnail Singh, Rehmatullah, P.K. Banerjee, K. Balaram, Ahmed; me, the Bengali, was sure of the Maidan greats being better than all the foreigners in Super League. Murari bhai tapped me; me-to-me adda session ended. Before parting, me bet on Goa to win the Cup; the Bengali me, Atletico Kolkata. Addas keep me live.