Sriradha Bandyopadhyay, Singer
CE Block
Being 18 was about stepping out and being allowed to wear sari. I could borrow from my mother's collection which she gladly shared when I went to college or any social gathering. It meant a new self-image. I enrolled in English honours at Jogamaya Devi College. Bhowanipore was a cinema para. So far, I had been allowed to see only films like King Solomon's Mines and The Ten Commandments. Now I could go for Uttam-Suchitra movies with friends, though with permission.
Ritabhari Chakraborty, Actress
CE Block
Since I am working from the age of 15 (in the tele serial Ogo Bodhu Sundari), I was looking at the adult world since then, without actually being allowed to live in it. I even had a minor's Pan card. I was waiting for 18 to be legally doing all that adults do, including have proper documents. Once I was 18, it felt as if I had got an upgrade. I was very excited that I could vote. That was 2011, and in the aftermath of the Nandigram episode we, youngsters, were feeling strongly about the need for a change in government. A female chief minister also seemed a refreshing idea. It wasn't about any political party but what was right at that point of time. I was so excited that as a voter, I could be a part of the change. Getting my finger inked was such a high that (the excitement of) my first vodka a few years later doesn't even come close.
Antara Acharya, Bureaucrat (secretary, public works department)
CA Block
Picture by Sudeshna Banerjee
Being 18 meant getting a voter identity card. That was the time in the mid 90s when chief election commissioner T.N. Seshan had introduced electoral photo identity cards (EPIC). Standing in the queue to get my picture clicked for the card gave me such a sense of empowerment! I have always been inclined towards social causes. In those days, in middle class families as ours, there was no fancy celebration on turning 18. So this was the biggest cause of excitement.
Gargee Roychowdhury, Actress
BP Block, Sector V
Being allowed to go to Gariahat Market alone was a huge step into adulthood. We used to stay in the Park Circus area. The other big development was going to a night show. Three of us friends went to Priya cinema. It was a Bengali film though I do not remember which film. It was the only cinema hall nearby. And there was no tension about going back early despite the late hour.
Dibyendu Barua, Grandmaster and chess coach
FD Block
I went on my first solo trip abroad after I turned 18. It was an invitational tournament in Prague in 1984. Before that, I had gone to Mexico, France, Germany and England but I had never traveled alone even inside India. I was nervous as I had to handle my ticket, passport, traveller's cheques and foreign currency all by myself. The memory of one night from that trip that still rattles me. A couple of youths approached me after a match and offered to show me around Prague at night. They were Bengali students who had read about my visit in the newspaper. We arranged to meet the night before the rest day.
When we completed sight-seeing it was past midnight. Since their destination was in the opposite direction, they made me take a tram that would be plying by my hotel. At that hour, the only passengers were young couples, who were making out, causing me no end of discomfiture. The tram suddenly took a turn from the straight route and there was an announcement in Czech. Everyone got off but no one understood English to either explain to me what had happened or tell me how far my hotel was. Rather, a beefy guy much taller than me, who was clearly drunk and was walking with his girlfriend, locked me in an embrace when I asked him about my hotel and it was with quite some effort that I wriggled out. By now, I was in a state of panic and on spotting a police patrol, I hailed it. Since they could not understand me, they took me to the police station where they found someone who spoke English. It was close to 2am when they dropped me back at the hotel.
Moidul Islam, Footballer- Mohammedan Sporting (1979-88), East Bengal (1989-91) and Mohun Bagan (1992-93)
FD Block
At the age of 18, I started playing club football in Calcutta, joining South Suburban Club. Practise was early, from around 7.30am. I had then just finished Class XII in Ghatal College. I would leave home at 3am and paddle 24km to Panskura station, park the cycle there and take the 5.15am Panskura Local to Calcutta. Practice would continue till 12noon, after which I would return by the the 1pm train, this time taking a bus from the station, lugging my cycle to the roof of the bus. In case we had practice in the afternoon, I would take the last train at 8.20pm, reaching Panskura around 10.15pm. In case there was a snag or some disruption on the way, the night would be spent in the train compartment itself.
Pradip Rudrapaul, Sculptor
BJ Block
Pradip Rudrapaul
I was allowed to see a film in a cinema hall after turning 18. I grew up in Kumartuli in a joint family of six brothers, including uncles Rakhal Pal, Nepal Pal and my father Mohanbanshi Rudrapaul. There were 22-24 brothers and cousin brothers and a similar number of sisters and cousin sisters under the same roof. We led a very regimented life. The only films I had seen so far were on TV. So it was a huge excitement to get to walk into a Hatibagan cinema with friends. My first film was Naseeb, starring Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini. I used to make small Saraswati idols from my early teens which I would sell. That money I would save over the years. The ticket price came from my savings. That was also something I was very proud of.
Upal Sengupta, Singer-lyricist-illustrator
AE Block
I went on my first vacation with friends around the time I turned 18. We visited the desher bari of our friend Ijaz in a village near Dhuliyan in Murshidabad. We reached at dawn by bus and were led to the attic to rest. We slept late and on waking up, spotted a huge beehive under which we had to pass to reach the room. But the family was relaxed about it, which showed how villagers are more adaptable about coexistence than us, city folk. We travelled to Farakka simply by hailing a truck passing by which carried us free, no questions asked. There was no public transport otherwise and this is how they travelled.
I wanted to come back earlier than the others and took a train from Behrampore. This was my first train journey alone and I had no idea that one had to reserve a seat in advance. So all I got was a general compartment ticket. It was an overnight ride and other passengers squatted on the floor on newspaper sheets. I felt squeamish about sitting on the floor and kept standing. After a while, a man offered me his seat and said he would stand for a while. Though embarrassed, I grabbed the offer and also fell asleep. When it was time to get off at Bidhannagar Road station, he asked me for help to unload one of the two sacks he was carrying, which I gladly did.
Gaurav Sharma, Police commissioner, Bidhannagar Commissionerate
GA Block
I was the youngest of four siblings. On election day, I would get to accompany the family to the polling booth but be left behind at the gate. There was always this curiosity about what was inside. I was very competitive with my youngest sister but being three years elder to me, she could vote before I could, which upset me no end. So when I turned 18, I chose to go to vote alone, after my mother and sisters had returned. And I relished the attention that political parties showered on me. Suddenly I was so important! Inside, the polling officials must have realised I was new. They asked for my voter slip and showed me how to vote on the electronic voting machine, very respectfully. On coming out, I turned my inked finger over and thought I was an adult!
After that, I did not vote for years due to pressure of higher studies. But that first time was really special.
Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta, Singer
Vidyasagar Niketan
Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta
I grew up pretty early. I was tutoring students younger to me by the time I was 13, both in studies and music. At 18, I got my first job. The job was with cows. A friend of my brother's had got some Australian jersey cows. This was within walking distance of our house in Sinthee. He asked me if I could spare time. It was an accountant's job. But I could spend a lot of time in the cow shed, getting to know the gentle creatures. There were over a dozen of them. They were huge in size. I can still smell the typical body odour that they had, very milky. I would speak to them. I believe they could communicate with me.
Suranjan Das, Vice-chancellor, Adamas University
FE Block
Suranjan Das
The school years were about a regimented life, attending class for fixed hours, travelling by school bus and then by a fixed rickshaw which ferried me and my younger brother. Once I enrolled in Presidency College, for the first time I could travel alone. My alternatives were bus no. 10 or tram no. 26 from Ballygunge. The first day when I got off at Harrison Road crossing, I asked a policeman where Presidency was. I still remember the incredulous look on his face. I could also go to Coffee House alone. For someone like me, a city-bred pass-out of an English medium school, stepping into Presidency meant getting exposed to the demographic spectrum of West Bengal.
Shuvaprasanna, Artist
BH Block
In the West, young people leave home at 18 and become self-reliant but here we stay on with parents. However, I had to fend for myself as my father had turned me out of the house. Once I passed Class XI, which was school final in our time, my father wanted me to become a doctor. But I signed up for art college. That did not go down well with him. I used to stay with my sister mostly who was married not far from our College Street place. Father forgave me years later only after noticing my strides of success.
Jaidip Mukerjea, Former tennis player and coach
Panache, Sector V
I played my first Davis Cup match when I turned 18. The tie was held in 1960 against Thailand in Bangkok. My birthday was on April 21 and the match was the day after. In those days, the team comprised barely two or three players as there was no money to send a bigger team. Premjit Lall was ill and did not qualify. The team comprised captain Ramanathan Krishnan, Naresh Kumar and me. On landing in Bangkok, Krishnan was found to be infected with chicken pox. So I substituted him in the inaugural match and won the fivesetter. In fact, India won the tie 5-0.
Jaideep Karmakar, Olympian shooter and coach
Rishi Eco View, New Town
I got a job at 18. By then, I was two-time junior national champion in 1994 and 1995. So I had applied in the sports quota, and in 1997 I was asked to join South Eastern Railway as ticket checker, just as M.S. Dhoni would a few years later. In fact, we were both assigned to the same Kharagpur division.
Jaideep Karmakar
It was not my earning, though. I had done tuitions and even sold shirts as a teenager. I would buy an consignment from Metiabruz and sell them in our Dum Dum neighbourhood.
But it did give me a high to see the President of India named in the employment contract which I had to sign. And I also remember gifting my elder sister a watch on getting my first salary.
Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, Former Chief of Air Staff
Jal Vayu Towers, New Town
Years before people can appear for a driving licence test, I had started training for my wings. At the age of 15.5 years, I was enrolled as a flight cadet with the National Defence Academy (NDA) at Pune. So it was there that I turned 18 and started flying Gliders and even doing solo sorties. In June 1973, I would pass out of NDA.
At 18.5 years, I commenced flying solo in HT-2, a Hindusthan Aeronautics Ltd-manufactured aircraft that is difficult to fly but most forgiving for beginners, at the Air Force Training Centre in Bidar, Karnataka.
A few months down the line, I would join the Air Force Academy in Hyderabad where I would complete a oneyear flying training and be commissioned in the Indian Air Force as an officer and a fighter pilot.
It was later, at the age of 20, that I got my driving licence and started riding a Jawa motorcycle.
Dr Purnendu Bikash Sarkar, Eye specialist and Tagore researcher
Purbachal Housing Complex
Ours was the first batch to appear for West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination,in 1971. So we had no suggestion by way of questions papers of earlier years. I had studied in the Bengali medium at Gobordanga Khantua Higher Secondary School. This was my first exam in English. Still, I had found the physics, chemistry and biology papers quite easy. Only mathematics was tough. I ranked 45th and could opt for either engineering or medicine. I chose the latter and enrolled at Calcutta Medical College. That happened a year later as in those days there was a bridge course to attend at Maulana Abul Kalam Azad College. It was quite useless and was discontinued after a few years. In medical college, we would not get a stethoscope in hand till we reached the third year but I remember lugging Gray's Anatomy every weekend when I left for Gobordanga by train from Sealdah. Everyone back home would be so impressed on seeing me studying the tome. Chhele daktari porchhe!
Pramadrija Chatterjee, Student
IA Block
Pramadrija was born on the same day as The Telegraph Salt Lake —on August 12, 2005. She was featured on the cover of our first anniversary edition. And it is with us that she will turn 18 on Saturday. As she leaves her Salt Lake home for higher studies (B.Tech in mechatronics engineering at Manipal Institute of Technology), we wish her all the best for her birthday and her journey ahead.
I am looking forward to learning how to drive. My parents have been liberal in letting me do pretty much everything else. Driving is the only thing left. I love to travel. So once I can drive, I can do solo trips to places near and far. I will also get my first smartphone but since I have survived without one, using Ma's phone for the needful, it is not something I covet. Rather it is my parents who are insisting on giving me one as I am travelling out of town for higher studies.
Sohini Sengupta, Actress
HB Block
I started getting pocket money on turning 18. It was a princely sum of Rs 50 per month. It was meant to fund my snacks breaks while at Jadavpur University where I was studying English. The momo stall was a favourite haunt as was Milanda's canteen. Both allowed dues to pile up. And they did pile up as I was terrible with savings -- I still am -- and spending judiciously. So my pocket money ran out before the month did. But some of my friends often picked up the tab on my behalf. I also loved to buy stationery items and stickers from shops in Gariahat.