[ Darjeeling first flush ] This time in Kolkata I went to buy tea. I was as confused as I am in a room full of cakes, what to chose. However with cake, I kind of know what I like, but in tea, it is impossible to chose unless you have a basic idea on tea and how it goes. Thanks to my “teaddict” brother I knew what to buy. I asked for Darjeeling first flush – oolong and Assam second flush black tea. The smell and the look and everything else of the teas were unique and different. So…
All my seasonal posts begin with my favourite poet and one of his songs. In Tagore’s hands, a season is never merely weather; it becomes a mood, a memory, a secret the earth whispers to the heart. This is what he says of Hemanta: হেমন্তে কোন্ বসন্তেরই বাণী পূর্ণশশী ওই-যে দিল আনি॥ বকুল ডালের আগায় জ্যোৎস্না যেন ফুলের স্বপন লাগায়। কোন্ গোপন কানাকানি পূর্ণশশী ওই-যে দিল আনি॥ আবেশ লাগে বনে শ্বেতকরবীর অকাল জাগরণে। ডাকছে থাকি থাকি ঘুমহারা কোন্ নাম-না-জানা পাখি। কার মধুর স্মরণখানি পূর্ণশশী ওই-যে দিল আনি॥ Now Hemanta—or Late Autumn, as we call it in English—has come. Of all…
