The New Yorker's Talk of the Town and the Calcutta Notebook...

I have blogged before about the arresting beauty and charm of the Talk of the Town section of the New Yorker magazine -- weighty articles on foreign policy, international disputes etc sit cheek by jowl with others on the minutae of New York life, stuff like poodles doing their thing in Central Park, cabbies and their varied world, the society of corduroy lovers...

This is such an impish, eclectic mix, an exercise in glorious brevity and impeccabale wit and oftentimes, with topics which can seem rather provincial, a marked solemnity and seriousness, illuminated with the winking, flashing lightening of humor.

It calls to mind another feature I grew up reading - the Calcutta Notebook section of the Statesman...recommended reading for all who cared anything about their English and a jaunty, effortless, weightless felicity of expression. It consisted of 6-8 short pieces at the back-page of the Monday edition, each piece a whimsical take on some aspect or event in the city: from the morning exercisers in the Maidan, to incidents in Calcutta trams to the pleasures of seeing a tender green coconut hacked in front of you by "swarthy, muscular upcountry boys" (oooh, how I still remember this description.."upcountry boys"...how cute how affected) and then drinking that mildly sweet refreshing water inside...

Just as the New Yorker has some regulars (and heavyweights) as Adam Gopnik, Hendrik Hertzberg, Rebecca Mead composing those priceless miniatures, the Notebook had people like the redoubtable Jug Suraya [here and here] and the equally talented Bachi Karkaria [here and here] adding zest and spice to a city's many moods and lives...