This story I write reminiscing the good old days I spent in Kolkata in a small team of 5. Well though the project had started at such a small scale it reached a team size of 40 at its peak. And I feel fortunate enough to have featured till the end. Since the day we i.e. Me and Hari reported for the very first real-life project of our life under the able guidance of Anindya da and KG, we had a strong bonding with our mentor, guide and good-friend KG (I hope Krishnendu da doesn’t mind me addressing him as a friend of mine :)). The work for us started from the 14th of September ’04 and was pretty hectic to have drained us out by the year end. The 3rd of January ’05 was a holiday (for some reasons that I can’t recollect now) and the New Year started on a weekend. It was like the most auspicious time to get out of Kolkata and freak out at some other place – drinking booze and enjoying the free time. The time was perfect, the numerology was in our favor and KG was the first one to pounce upon this opportunity to break away from the shackles of office and run-away to a far off place to chillax. I wanted to go home but 3 days was not sufficient to have a good break if I spend almost a day in the train traveling one way. If I am ruling out my options of going home, then how can Hari even dream of it – he was from Kerela and it took him 52 hours to reach home from Kolkata, wherein he had to change 2 trains and then travel by bus for 4 hours. I just wondered which small village this smart mallu belonged toJ. The other team members wanted to spend some quality time with their family and that left only the 3 of us – KG, Me and Hari, as the 3 musketeers who would travel to someplace else and drown their worries along the way.
Oh boy! The team was formed but the place still undecided. There was a flurry of suggestions pouring in from all sides and you would have guessed; only KG was the guy who could evaluate and then rubbish them – one by one. All this drama started from the 15th of Dec keeping in mind that there would be no booking available if there was any delay in plans. A final consensus was reached – with me and Hari nodding to everything KG said, and we planned to go to Sunderbans. So excited I was to see those famous Bengal white tigers (which was the remotest possibility) while floating around in a house boat over the placid waters & sipping some liquor. Hari was a guy who had first time ever traveled out of Kerela and was equally excited. KG being a champion drinker had already getting dreams about how he would finish bottle of whiskey and how he would repeat his famous dialogues from the yesteryear films and what not. It was fun working in office during the last 10 days of the year with vivid imagination of how we are going to spend the 3 days away from office and not thinking of any work. But we forgot the golden rule -“Make hay while the sun shines”. The work at office was never easy and we slept over the plans of booking a hotel in advance. Eventually on the 27th of Dec I made the first call to a WBTC office to make us a reservation and received the first blow that all rooms are booked. The whole day all 3 of us kept making frantic calls to all travel agents and hotels spread across every nook-n-corner of Kolkata to get a booking but in vain. With a very heavy heart and thinking that all the plans had flopped, that day we left for home early i.e. at 8:00 pm instead of our trademark time of 10:30pm.
I just couldn’t sleep till late that night and was having nightmares of how I would be bored to death in those 3 days and thinking that a minimum of 3 bottles of hard drink could cajole me into deep slumber to escape the ennui. “Every cloud has a silver lining” and our very own KG was in himself full of silver. He rang up me and Hari at 6:30am the next day and said that he is getting his car fixed and we can drive to Digha for the New Year blast. I don’t know about Hari but it was a long time since I had seen a day starting at 6:30 am :). Suddenly all the nightmares had become pleasant scenes with us three involved in a drunken revelry by the sea-shore. To refresh your memory a bit, on 25th Dec 2004 the Indian coastline was hit by a massive Tsunami that drowned thousands of innocent people and the Christmas celebrations throughout the world were spent mourning for the peace of the departed souls. The WB govt. had announced that no one should be allowed within 3 km vicinity to the sea and Digha was abandoned for all tourists. So we were hit not by a Tsunami though, but received two blows in two days and I was again feeling my dreams drift towards the nightmares of last night.
KG i.e. short for Krishnendu Goswami a.k.a Krish da is a person who once takes up a task and gets his mind to it then there is no looking back – neither for him nor for the team. He had put his heart and soul into this project and was desperate for a break, even more than me & Hari. Thorough out his life, as we came to hear from him later, he has looked the storm in the eye and had emerged a champion in every such battle. It was under him that we learnt the importance of taking up responsibilities and striving hard to achieve excellence. Many a times there was a debate as to why he (KG) never wanted to share his problems with us and only know as to what was going on in our life. He would always parry all such queries shot at him with his penchant ‘chalta hai re’ and leave us wondering as to what he wanted to mean by that. But it took some time for the lesser mortals like us – me and Hari to understand that he had been very protective of us and wanted to open the gates for us only once we were completely prepared. He is a man of options, then how could he ever let go this opportunity of drinking for 3 whole days. Yes, KG is a regular, in fact very regular (I despise the word chain :)), smoker and heavy, though steady, drinker. Moreover his antique Maruti 800 had gone through a complete health check-up and he wanted to go on a long drive on that.
On Friday afternoon KG went to get the delivery of his car from the garage and called it a day at office. By evening 7:00 when both I and Hari were drooling about how we would spend the 3 days –watch movies, go for a jog, sleep, take bath for an hour n what not, my cell phone rang. It said ‘Krishnendu calling…’ and then came in the good news and also a bad news. The good news was that we three along with KG’s driver would be driving to Santiniketan – Shri Rabindranath Tagore’s abode for 2 days n 3 nightsJ and the bad news was that we were to wake up and be ready by 5:00am the next morningL. I and Hari wound up our work for that day and went home for dinner. Being a Friday and as a ritual Nibin & Shakki – Hari’s roomies and our batch mates during CTS training called me to have some booze at his place. After that I decided to pack up n port myself to Hari’s place and KG was informed to pick us up from there.
One piece of info: Hari is a very clean chap – he neither smokes nor does he drink anything except his pegs of Sprite.
That night we both didn’t know what to dream of Santiniketan and faded off into deep slumber just chit-chatting as to what the next 3 days be like.
Oh boy! The team was formed but the place still undecided. There was a flurry of suggestions pouring in from all sides and you would have guessed; only KG was the guy who could evaluate and then rubbish them – one by one. All this drama started from the 15th of Dec keeping in mind that there would be no booking available if there was any delay in plans. A final consensus was reached – with me and Hari nodding to everything KG said, and we planned to go to Sunderbans. So excited I was to see those famous Bengal white tigers (which was the remotest possibility) while floating around in a house boat over the placid waters & sipping some liquor. Hari was a guy who had first time ever traveled out of Kerela and was equally excited. KG being a champion drinker had already getting dreams about how he would finish bottle of whiskey and how he would repeat his famous dialogues from the yesteryear films and what not. It was fun working in office during the last 10 days of the year with vivid imagination of how we are going to spend the 3 days away from office and not thinking of any work. But we forgot the golden rule -“Make hay while the sun shines”. The work at office was never easy and we slept over the plans of booking a hotel in advance. Eventually on the 27th of Dec I made the first call to a WBTC office to make us a reservation and received the first blow that all rooms are booked. The whole day all 3 of us kept making frantic calls to all travel agents and hotels spread across every nook-n-corner of Kolkata to get a booking but in vain. With a very heavy heart and thinking that all the plans had flopped, that day we left for home early i.e. at 8:00 pm instead of our trademark time of 10:30pm.
I just couldn’t sleep till late that night and was having nightmares of how I would be bored to death in those 3 days and thinking that a minimum of 3 bottles of hard drink could cajole me into deep slumber to escape the ennui. “Every cloud has a silver lining” and our very own KG was in himself full of silver. He rang up me and Hari at 6:30am the next day and said that he is getting his car fixed and we can drive to Digha for the New Year blast. I don’t know about Hari but it was a long time since I had seen a day starting at 6:30 am :). Suddenly all the nightmares had become pleasant scenes with us three involved in a drunken revelry by the sea-shore. To refresh your memory a bit, on 25th Dec 2004 the Indian coastline was hit by a massive Tsunami that drowned thousands of innocent people and the Christmas celebrations throughout the world were spent mourning for the peace of the departed souls. The WB govt. had announced that no one should be allowed within 3 km vicinity to the sea and Digha was abandoned for all tourists. So we were hit not by a Tsunami though, but received two blows in two days and I was again feeling my dreams drift towards the nightmares of last night.
KG i.e. short for Krishnendu Goswami a.k.a Krish da is a person who once takes up a task and gets his mind to it then there is no looking back – neither for him nor for the team. He had put his heart and soul into this project and was desperate for a break, even more than me & Hari. Thorough out his life, as we came to hear from him later, he has looked the storm in the eye and had emerged a champion in every such battle. It was under him that we learnt the importance of taking up responsibilities and striving hard to achieve excellence. Many a times there was a debate as to why he (KG) never wanted to share his problems with us and only know as to what was going on in our life. He would always parry all such queries shot at him with his penchant ‘chalta hai re’ and leave us wondering as to what he wanted to mean by that. But it took some time for the lesser mortals like us – me and Hari to understand that he had been very protective of us and wanted to open the gates for us only once we were completely prepared. He is a man of options, then how could he ever let go this opportunity of drinking for 3 whole days. Yes, KG is a regular, in fact very regular (I despise the word chain :)), smoker and heavy, though steady, drinker. Moreover his antique Maruti 800 had gone through a complete health check-up and he wanted to go on a long drive on that.
On Friday afternoon KG went to get the delivery of his car from the garage and called it a day at office. By evening 7:00 when both I and Hari were drooling about how we would spend the 3 days –watch movies, go for a jog, sleep, take bath for an hour n what not, my cell phone rang. It said ‘Krishnendu calling…’ and then came in the good news and also a bad news. The good news was that we three along with KG’s driver would be driving to Santiniketan – Shri Rabindranath Tagore’s abode for 2 days n 3 nightsJ and the bad news was that we were to wake up and be ready by 5:00am the next morningL. I and Hari wound up our work for that day and went home for dinner. Being a Friday and as a ritual Nibin & Shakki – Hari’s roomies and our batch mates during CTS training called me to have some booze at his place. After that I decided to pack up n port myself to Hari’s place and KG was informed to pick us up from there.
One piece of info: Hari is a very clean chap – he neither smokes nor does he drink anything except his pegs of Sprite.
That night we both didn’t know what to dream of Santiniketan and faded off into deep slumber just chit-chatting as to what the next 3 days be like.
To be continued…
3 comments:
I am not sure if I deserve all the wonderful things you have told abut me... Thanx... Have not heard from you for long ... take care
BTW - the last posting was by Krishnendu
gimme a call / or leave ur number in my blog i ll call u up
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