TO KOLKATA WITH LOVE

O Kolkata, my Kolkata, the city of joy!
I love you like a mother loves her little boy.
You are olde world charm with many a busy street
You are like the face next door familiar and sweet.
You are a melting pot of culture and leftist clout
You are sunshine and rain and power blow out.
The Bidhan Setu majestically spans
The rich and the poor and the also rans.
Mosquitoes and mangoes and potholes anew
All fight for recognition in your bubbling stew.
Rasgollas & Illish, food fit for the gods
Find equal satisfaction in the stomach of urchins or landlords
Cricket and football and a firebrand Mamata
All keep you bursting with energy, O Kolkata, my Kolkata!

But at times you seem so tattered and torn
Sweaty, damp and quite forlorn
Yet during the Pujas you are in shining glory
The beat of the drums adding legends to your story
Whether you are wrapped in smog or shimmering in dusty heat
You are a paradise for book lovers and devotees of Tagore
And you support the trams and the rickshawalla who shuttles from door to door.
You are warm to strangers and generous to a fault
Though sudden strikes bring your machinery to a resounding halt.
You are as unforgettable as Mother Teresa of the Poor
You leave your mark upon the soul and that’s for sure!
From Job Charnock to the sultry Sushmita – a vast heritage is yours
That cannot be encapsulated here, O Kolkata, my Kolkata!

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