What did Calcutta talk about in 2008? A lot, as usual. Metro picks the top five topics.

First, South City Mall and second, Mani Square.

Just as one thought that there were more malls than footfalls in the city, up came two more mega malls, South City (picture left) on Prince Anwar Shah Road and Mani Square on the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass. They changed Calcutta’s skyline further and left a deep imprint on the Calcuttan’s mindscape.

Two realisations dawned in particular at Spencer’s in South City Mall. One happened at the live crustacean counter, which is an aquarium really, from where the shopper can take his pick of crawling lobsters and crabs. Possibly that’s the nearest the contemporary Calcuttan can come to hunting. It remains an enthralling experience, something to compare with Scary House in adventurousness at Mani Square.

Second, it was quite clear that a whole day could be spent at a mall, even at Spencer’s. It has clothes, eateries, wine store, music, books, electronic goods, food — raw and cooked. It is a world of its own. But it’s part of a larger design, for Spencer’s is only a mall within a mall. It is the microcosm. Outside waits the entire South City Mall. Worlds expanding. The mall is a whole world. The whole world is a mall.

Third, Sourav Ganguly’s retirement from international cricket. “But he could have carried on. He still had a couple of years of cricket left in him!” roared the Calcutta chorus. When the Prince of Calcutta didn’t relent, his city worked on his post-retirement plans. It wants him to be serious about restaurants.

Fourth, music contests on television, especially shows featuring “talents” from Calcutta, who grab the city every evening by its eyeballs and then spill over into dining table talk. Anwesha Dutta Gupta from Golf Green competed with Ahmedabad’s Aishwarya Majmudar over posto and how good Aneek really is was remembered over machher jhol and how nice it is to see our very own Howrah boy Ravi Shukla win STAR Voice of India 2 and Debojit Dutta may be out, but Soumen Nandi is still at it in Sa Re Ga Ma Pa while washing hands. You cannot beat us Bengalis at music — over lighting up the post-prandial cigarette.

Five. Obama. This was arguably the funniest joke to come out of Calcutta. “With Obama elected President, should the US be renamed Barackpore?”

Darsheel Safary takes the stage at Nicco Park with cartoon character Shin Chan. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

Laugh line

Idiomatically one can laugh one’s way to the bank. Or sing for one’s supper. But laughing for one’s entry pass to a show? That’s what 20,000 Calcutta kids did to reach Nicco Park and watch Darsheel Safary, the Taare Zameen Par child-star, in the company of two cartoons from a television channel. The children won their entry passes by calling up designated phone lines and laughing out loud and leaving their “best laughter”.

What were the guidelines? How long did one have to laugh? How loud? Could one pause in between? Or did it have to be one continuous, unflinching effort? Would it lead to another talent show with kids, based on laughter?

Thankfully, there were no rules. Better, there were no prizes for the best laugh. Everyone who laughed on record got in. The kids were then encouraged to laugh more!

(Contributed by Sudeshna Banerjee)