The sport the city plays

A kind of lethargy creeps in when I spend a lot of time in Calcutta. It could be because of the weather, the mild dampness hanging somewhere between monsoons and autumn, the polluted air from all the tattered old diesel vehicles... It's hard to be sure. Today I had to go to renew my driving license and unfortunately, I had to take unofficial help from the boys waiting at the doorstep of the office to make a few hundred bucks.

Then we made our way to the Maidan to watch some football, which is still a more popular game in the city than criket is, especially since Sourav Ganguly is now retired. It is beautiful to watch the sunset from the Maidan with wild horses grazing, children playing, families picnicking... We wrapped it up with an early dinner at Flurys which is another one the famous remnants of Calcutta's colonial past, one it embraces quite strongly. The place enjoys a great reputation as a connoisseur's delight, and though the food is good it seemed to lack that feeling it once had. Commercialization can suck the soul out of anything.

Larger.