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Showing posts from December, 2010

The Santa Lady

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This is a story I did four years earlier. Visit Kamala Dutta's house if you want to meet Santa Claus. He is there in all shapes and sizes. Lovely photographs too. Will upload in some time. --- Where does the Santa Claus stay? North Pole? Not really. More than 1,200 Santa Claus’s of varied shapes and sizes jostle for space in Kamal Dutta’s house. Santas made from tooth pick, sand, rangoli, wool, wax, ceramic plates, bottles, keys, pots, mugs, tiles, egg shell, coconut, pencils…whew. You name it and she has it! Every Santa, Dutta has bought or made, is proudly displayed in her showcase’s, while others are neatly packed away into cartons and boxes. Pulling them out for inspection and putting them away is such a difficult task that 76-year-old Dutta just showed us a ‘glimpse’ of her collection. Ask her how many Santas she has in her collection and Dutta says, “I stopped counting after I reached the total of 1,200. It’s not a numbers game for me.” A librarian by profession, Du

Old and New

I happened to be in Sadashiv Peth yesterday. The landscape/skyline has changed. Old crumbling wadas (there are a few left) are now sandwiched between apartments, buildings with fancy names. I was walking home so I decided to do a random check – to spot buildings/stores which I frequented to when I was staying in the hostel. Yup, Shabdali was there. The owner looking unhappy...(was he threatened by the new, swish, swanky, modern stores off the block?) I went to Shabdali often to buy Teens Today, Tinkle, Outlook and India Today. On the opposite side, there used to be Calyx – a card shop. Now there's some electronic store there. I took a turn to the Madiwale Colony. My friend's house is still there. I didn't drop in to say hello. She is in US now. Then another left turn and I came to Swami Samarth Math. I liked being there. I used to stay as a PG in a house which had its back to the Math. Now, the house has been razed down. Another apartment has come up. At that corner