Winter has finally arrived in Kolkata

Winter has finally come in my city of joy – Kolkata. Since last Sunday, I am feeling the biting cold penetrating deep into my skin. Actually I am very scared of the winter season, as it brings with it chilly gusts of winds and colder nights.

The Alipore Meteorological Centre has already recorded the city’s minimum temperature of 15.2 degrees Celsius on last Sunday, lowest in 7 years. Now I understand why I was feeling so cold while coming out of my quilt at 7 in the morning.

However it’s also true that winter happens to be my favourite season. It’s the time when we can have so much fun in terms of holidaying or eating or endless roaming. I think almost everyone of you will agree with me to the fact that we usually never feel tired at the end of a day’s hard work or don’t mind even travelling in a crowded bus or metro, during these chilly months.

According to me, the best time in winter is at night. It really feels great to just crawl inside a quilt or heavy shawl, and enjoy a relaxing, nice sleep. But again it’s equally pathetic to wake up early in the morning and leaving your bed without getting some more time to sleep. (I hate rising early in a winter morning). I really get shocked as to how my father manages to get up so early in the cold mornings (at about 5 o’clock) to go for his daily morning walk in a nearby park.

I always tell my mother that even if someone lures me with Rs 1 lakh or more in the pretext that I will have to wake up very early in the morning or sit outside my room during a cold night of December-January, I will prefer not to accept the offer. Even the dream of getting home late at night on a windy, chilly weather, when everyone else is sleeping comfortably on their bed, seems weird to me.

Winter is liked by many for yet another reason. It’s the Christmas time and the coming of a brand new year. Like every year, this year also I am going to spend Christmas with lots of cakes (those New Market specials) and the buying of a beautiful Santa Claus and X-mas tree. I feel like a kid in decorating the X-mas tree with colourful ribbons, stars and jingle bells. Oh and talking about jingle bells reminds me of the song that almost all kids around the world love to sing:

Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh

I studied in a missionary school, and Christmas there was so much fun and merry-making. We looked forward to the coming of 25th December and on that day we used to wear colourful dresses and enjoy ourselves singing and dancing all day. A small Christmas special play was enacted by our seniours and at the end of the celebration; we used to get lots of chocolates and cakes to enjoy gulping down.