A crowded park in Kolkata on Christmas eve.
| Photograph Credit score: Getty Photographs
At one time, I used to be all the time embarrassed a few Kolkata Christmas. It felt like an enormous fats slice of colonial nostalgia. The British had left however we had held onto their traditions. All the things about it was pretend — the cotton wool snow, the Santa Clauses with crookedly pasted beards, the spindly Christmas bushes.
In America, my associates regarded the wealthy fruit cake as a little bit of a joke, the Christmas reward that’s promptly re-gifted. However Kolkatans took their fruit muffins 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serpentine queues for hours to get that one fruit cake from that one Jewish bakery tucked away within the bowels of the outdated New Market.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 However the al fresco Christmas in Bow Barracks, their outdated neighbourhood, had change into a jam-packed carnival for revellers in Santa hats, only a few of whom had been truly Christian.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 photos and providing skilled commentary. “It’s a international rooster?” requested somebody. “No, no,” mentioned his good friend confidently. “It’s an Australian ostrich.”
Turkey for the desk
A poultry farmer who raised turkeys in his yard informed me he had first encountered turkey meat in a deli in America. He didn’t actually know learn how to prepare dinner them. He’d by no means roasted a turkey. Generally his spouse made a curry however he didn’t significantly look after it.
However he raised them as a result of they had been hardy birds, straightforward to lift, and made for good enterprise right now of the yr. “Individuals such as you wish to have turkey for Burra Din,” he informed me.
The turkeys and suckling pigs now served as Christmas lunch in fancy eating places in Kolkata aren’t 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 e book Indian Christmas with Jerry Pinto, says as a Christian household in Uttar Pradesh, their massive Christmas lunch was rooster curry, mutton pulao and shammi kebabs. Her mom would bake a Christmas cake however she needed to make the candied peel at house as a result of there wasn’t any to be discovered on the native shops.
Even the cake would change because it made its manner 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, folks used fermented cashews and apples to make the cake rise. However the Kolkata Christmas with its wealthy plum muffins and tipsy puddings felt like cheesy tinsel, a sort of make-believe Christmas Pujo, devoid of actual substance.
After I went to the U.S. as a pupil I assumed I might lastly encounter an actual Christmas. The lead-up was promising. San Francisco was bedecked in twinkling lights. An enormous Christmas tree got here up in Union Sq. buying 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 midst of Union Sq.. Even the pet canines 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 part was shut and I had nothing to do and nowhere to go. The lights had been vibrant 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 little bit resort within the Russian River woods close to San Francisco for Christmas. There was a log fireplace 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. If you happen to didn’t have household round, Christmas was truly 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 Lodge, 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 complete 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 part was tightly shut. It was laborious to even get a taxi.
It made me completely homesick for a Kolkata Christmas and respect it a little bit extra.
In Bethlehem, there was no room on the inn for child Jesus. However in Kolkata, there’s all the time room for you on the Christmas occasion. And a slice of wealthy plum cake.
The columnist is the writer of ‘Don’t Let Him Know’, and likes to let everybody learn about his opinions whether or not requested or not.