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how many of you wake up in the morning by setting alarm in your watch? how many of you choose to put it for snooze for some more time? … staying here at bangalore and working for UK clients had made me a late riser … i actually repent … the weather at bangalore in the early hours are like perfect dose for a deep sleep…

… and it became a habit for me now … i miss sunrise … i feel sorry for not being able to capture the first rays of sun kissing over morning mist … i miss the sounds of hen … i miss twitting sounds of birds early in the morning … i miss the gentle breeze passing over in the early hours … i miss quietness of our planet earth …

i remember the days when i was living at kolkata, waking up early morning , to catch the morning newspaper before any of my roommate gets it … i was studying at kolkata then … 3 of my college friends who happened to hail from the same district, rented a 2 room flat on the top of a pharmacy shop … “swarnamoyee pharmacy”, if i remember correctly … there was a tea shop next to it … and i used to observe the business of that shop early in the morning … it all used to start as early as 4 AM … Mithu Da, the shop owner prepared tea daily… i used to observe quite surprisingly how he prepares cups after cups of tea … he had a rhythm … he had a style … all the morning walkers and vegetable vendors used to come to his shop for tea …

that was different than any other shop… seriously… there were lot more tea shops near by, but nobody used to attract customers like him … special tea was Rs 1.50 … we being bachelors and students, used to get at a discounted price … a cup of tea divided by 2 … one by two … i still remember people shouting at him, ” ai mithu, cha de re , cha de …” ( hi Mithu, give us tea ) … we used to listen from the top of the pharmacy… that was our living place…

Mithu da had a very strange fascination on bengali folk songs … every day at 4 in the morning, he used to play his music player … every day same album … i had never listened any other album during my stay for nearly 2 years … folksong by gosthogopal das… those were gems … i don’t get any of them in internet now … fortunately i have a mp3 album full of Gosthogopal das lokgeeti … whenever i listen to those songs, those days just surface in my memory … i almost can visualize those days … those songs were my morning bells and a wake up call…

a total of 3 yrs at belgharia, near bibha cinema hall … those were the days i cherish always in my life … i had some of my best times there …

[ both the photographs were taken at Armenian Ghat, near howrah bridge ... my effort to capture early morning activities ]