INTRODUCTION

Kolkata

There’s a city in the east Where they don’t mind you Staying forever in bookstores Reading, but not buying a thing

Where, over a cup of chaa You can discuss politics, philosophy, morality, literature and most importantly football and cricket With some strangers and end up with four new friends.

Where you can find kids With well thumbed copies of Asterix and Tintin Family heirlooms have never been funnier.

Where everyone is always late And nothing ever gets done on time Yet, miraculously, it all still works. Time, you see, has no dominion here.

Where they still know how To love someone right. Hand-written letters, poems. Evenings spent hand in hand looking up at the sky.

So when you ask me where I go When my eyes are far away Know that I go east, I go home. 8