A crowded park in Kolkata on Christmas eve.
| Picture Credit score: Getty Photographs
At one time, I used to be at all times embarrassed a couple of Kolkata Christmas. It felt like an enormous fats slice of colonial nostalgia. The British had left however we had held onto their traditions. Every little thing about it was pretend — the cotton wool snow, the Santa Clauses with crookedly pasted beards, the spindly Christmas bushes.
In America, my buddies regarded the wealthy fruit cake as a little bit of a joke, the Christmas present that’s promptly re-gifted. However Kolkatans took their fruit truffles with utmost seriousness, standing in serpentine queues for hours to get that one fruit cake from that one Jewish bakery tucked away within the bowels of the outdated New Market. The Anglo-Indian inhabitants was dwindling by the day. However the al fresco Christmas in Bow Barracks, their outdated neighbourhood, had change into a jam-packed carnival for revellers in Santa hats, only a few of whom had been really Christian.
One yr, I noticed a person promoting turkeys on the road. The black-and-white birds pecked on the grain whereas everybody stood round taking footage and providing professional commentary. “It’s a international hen?” requested somebody. “No, no,” mentioned his buddy confidently. “It’s an Australian ostrich.”
Turkey for the desk
A poultry farmer who raised turkeys in his yard advised me he had first encountered turkey meat in a deli in America. He didn’t actually know how one can prepare dinner them. He’d by no means roasted a turkey. Generally his spouse made a curry however he didn’t notably take care of it.
However he raised them as a result of they had been hardy birds, simple to lift, and made for good enterprise presently of the yr. “Folks such as you need to have turkey for Burra Din,” he advised me.
The turkeys and suckling pigs now served as Christmas lunch in fancy eating places in Kolkata will not be actually from an Indian Christmas. They’re from Indian entrepreneurs promoting some sort of western Christmas fantasy to Indians. Madhulika Liddle, who co-edited the guide Indian Christmas with Jerry Pinto, says as a Christian household in Uttar Pradesh, their huge Christmas lunch was hen curry, mutton pulao and shammi kebabs. Her mom would bake a Christmas cake however she needed to make the candied peel at dwelling as a result of there wasn’t any to be discovered on the native shops.
Even the cake would change because it made its means throughout India. Some used candied ash gourd. In Allahabad, Liddle says, there was cake that used ghee as an alternative of butter. Earlier than baking powder grew to become frequent, individuals used fermented cashews and apples to make the cake rise. However the Kolkata Christmas with its wealthy plum truffles and tipsy puddings felt like cheesy tinsel, a sort of make-believe Christmas Pujo, devoid of actual substance.
Once I went to the U.S. as a scholar I assumed I’d lastly encounter an actual Christmas. The lead-up was promising. San Francisco was bedecked in twinkling lights. A large Christmas tree got here up in Union Sq. purchasing district. The division retailer home windows had elaborate manger scenes and wreaths and poinsettia. I might odor the pine leaves and gingerbread. An ice skating rink sprang up in the course of Union Sq.. Even the pet canine had been parading round in cute crimson and inexperienced Christmasy jackets. The pre-Christmas gross sales, the lights, the carols conjured up a way of anticipation and pleasure.
Eggnog within the foyer
After which got here Christmas Day and I realised every thing was shut and I had nothing to do and nowhere to go. The lights had been shiny however the streets had been abandoned. My neighbourhood restaurant was solely open for lunch. The grocery store shut by was shutting early. One yr, I went to a bit of resort within the Russian River woods close to San Francisco for Christmas. There was a log hearth within the room and eggnog within the foyer. However I didn’t realise the eating room was shutting early. My Christmas dinner got here out of a merchandising machine that yr. In the event you didn’t have household round, Christmas was really the loneliest time of the yr.
It’s not simply San Francisco or London. One yr, I used to be up in Shillong on Christmas Day. Pinewood Resort, inbuilt 1898, was festooned in twinkling yellow fairy lights. Subsequent to it, a poinsettia blazed crimson — not a plant in a demure little tub however a whole tree. It actually felt like an “genuine” Christmas in contrast to a Kolkata one. However in a city with a big Christian inhabitants, on Christmas night, every thing was tightly shut. It was exhausting to even get a taxi.
It made me completely homesick for a Kolkata Christmas and recognize it a bit of extra.
In Bethlehem, there was no room on the inn for child Jesus. However in Kolkata, there’s at all times room for you on the Christmas social gathering. And a slice of wealthy plum cake.
The columnist is the writer of ‘Don’t Let Him Know’, and likes to let everybody find out about his opinions whether or not requested or not.
