When you set out on your journey to Ithaca
pray that the journey is long.

Here in the city of joy of joy no matter how well planned your journey is, your journey ends up long after all. And so excuses form a part of the introductory session in all the “awphish”.
Here in the city of joy there are millions of excuses to be satisfied with.

My purse had ninety six rupees.
My pocket had a one rupee coin.

Its at least 3 kilometers between Camac Street and new empire movie hall. On a bus it would take 4 rupees and fifty paisa and 20 minutes on an average bus considering all is well in the political hemisphere.

I decide to walk.

Paulo Coelho says in his book the zahir that when we decide to do something new even if the roads are old we end up experiencing something odd. For a change i decide to do something i never did before. I decide to spend the one rupee coin.

Consider a situation where we run after a particular item that stings the urge to be bought. We pursue the path that leads to it. And if it is in our limits of expenditure we end up buying it. But what if i give someone a coin and ask him to spend it. Will not there be a dilemma in the mind as to where the coin may be spent? And after it has been spent, will the person not consider if it was well spent.

I have walked down to the crossing of chowranghee and theater road and found till now there are only two things i can buy with it a cheap cigarette and a chlormint. But i decide to resist. Its the lunch time in the offices. In the situation the one thing that i observed was that not all were hungry. But they ate. They demand everything that is included in the price tag. They claim the worth of their money.

There are more paan shops, small ghumtis, more people selling a cheap cigarette, more chlormint. But i resist.

People hand out ads and pages with usual headinngs..”urgent...please note” etc. but not many even care so much as to glance till the second line. I guess urgency has lost its value. The man hands out the same bill at me. Its about a multigym. He handed the same to the old lady walking before me, which clearly shows that the man is not even aware what message he spreads. Its typical these days, his mission is to spread the word which if he does, he will be paid. The old lady almost collides with another pedestrian while trying to read the bill.

I have reached the park street crossing and i still have not been able to spend one rupee. Its strange. All things i find on the road are supposedly much more costlier.

I try to think a little differently. The value of the coin and the value of the articles the cdroms, the key rings, fancy combs, colorful socks are not same. So lets create an analogy. If i know hebrew and i roam in the streets of Kolkata who would know my worth? None. So maybe thats why we are moving with the times. And its the rule of the time that one rupee isnt worth spending at all.


Its almost esplanade. There had been 26 shops selling lunch, 3 selling posters of gods film stars and actresses revealing provocative thoughts, many selling cigarettes and chlormint.

I reach new empire. The one rupee is still in my pocket. There was a helpless man with an open bowl. I go and give him the coin but the thoughts are not passed on.

The journey was long indeed. Took me half an hour at least.
At least it was worth an incident where nothing happened.

When in the end of the road, you find Ithaca poor,
know that Ithaca has not deceived you
but older have you become in experience
and you must know now what Ithaca means