Sailor’s Song

I do not have any love any affection for KT. Do not have the mindset
like the Hungryalists* to visualize it as a poet's pub and vouch for
it. Actually I do not get any kick out of drinking anymore. Still
getting sozzled in KT with local hooch so very many times I went to
the hermitage of Sonagachi *, drank adulterated local hooch on the
roof top and in the shades of the hermitage. Sitting on a chair I saw
the flux of colours pouring in through the front door of the coffee
house. Who took me out into this city of Kolkata and KT for the first
time to this city of eternal night? Subhash use to say—drink and be
well. After Subhash’s death I don’t feel like going to KT anymore or
to get well. So many days with so many friends, so many buddies hand
in hand, sometimes alone with boiled grams.Two watch mechanics were my partners in my noon sojourn and boiled grams, potatoes and onions deep fried in some kind of obscure oil tossed with red chili powder and salt or maybe a little food made by parching rice on hot sand and local hooch and water and tears in various assortments, manners and subjects. In that great mourning all the tears of my life has dried up.


Notes

Hungryalists : The writers of the Hungry movement, an underground
literary movement of Bengali literature of the 60’s.
Sonagachi : Infamous for its variety of whores.
Subhash : Hungryalist prose writer.