Trial rooms of departmental stores
It’s a proven fact that no one likes to wait patiently outside a three feet by three feet trial room, nodding their heads appreciatively as his or her loved one tries to squeeze in to a dress two sizes too small or dons a top which will make a Las Vegas stripper blush. Yet, in every possible departmental store of the city, you will find scores of boyfriends, husbands, friends, sons and fathers doing the very same and doing so with a weak, resigned smile on their faces. What do you think makes them take on the uncomfortable role of the approver-without-a-say?

Outside Examination Halls
It’s as if they are cemented to their respective places. Nothing can move them away from the gates of the countless number of schools in the city, not even rain, hail or the relentless Kolkata heat. Armed with a daab in one hand (keeps the stomach cool), and a bhar of doi in the other (keeps the head cool) a typical Kolkata parent offers the biggest testament of their love- seeing their precious children through examinations. Month-long leaves are taken from office only to stand patiently outside examination halls, and offer silent prayers to a constellation of gods. And when their ward walks out of the hall, triumphant or shattered, there is always the daaber jol.

Phone Booths
Like, this risks all the shocked gasps and intimidating Os made of eyes if you are thinking low slung jeans, jholas, holding hands —— and all this in the stuffy box of a booth. Instead, let’s think silly smiles, or for the really bad cases, lips stretched in a curved line for such a long time that you wonder if Miss had imported jaws from Mars. And then when you tap on the glass door and put in your head with the most annoyed expression plastered on you, the ‘Kheyecho?’-and-pristine-Buddha-smile-in-place face that keeps you staring at the gob of rice the next day wondering about all the overlooked romantic potential in it.

Auto Stands
If you were Govinda, or closer to today, Himesh Reshamiya, autos would have a nobler role to play in your love story apart from just than allowing you to snuggle up to each other and raising no eyebrows. But the stands are but more romantic in a very K-serial sort of way. Boy meets girl, (boy has been waiting exactly at the centre of all the chaos, pushy drivers, useless people spitting pan juice at all possible directions, with admirable integrity), takes over the long exercise books, bags, trying to balance them with the flashy cell phone which he wants girl to notice, suddenly switches to action mode hollering at the auto drivers to zero in on the right auto, helps girl in and bends down probably going through the traffic rules for the nth time, all the time bearing all sorts of people, bags and umbrellas pushing past his protruding posterior, again with amazing integrity. “Thik Kore Jeo” —— did you ever realise the lofty dramatic potential in these three magic words?