B 'n B (born and brought up) in Nagpur, graduated from Allahabad and then trained in Chennai and Delhi left me with only one direction to go, in order to have inhabited all the coasts in India, EAST. Even during my numerous adventurous trips that I made EAST had been the only coast untraversed. But as I say LIFE is a bitter-sweet symphony and it gave me a fair chance to enjoy the eastern culture when I was posted at Kolkata to work for CTS.
Flash back: The memorable day 10/09/04 when 9 out of 10 people who got their posting in Kolkata were attending the final rituals of the Training program at 27, Whites Road, Chennai. What a lovely batch it was all the prisoners collectively numbered 308 :-) !!! And even more adorable was the troup destined to reach Kolkata on the 12th of September 2004 - a conglomeration of 3 mallus(Hari, Nibin & Shakki), 1 tambi(G. Anthony), 3 UPites (Sachin, Rahul & Swati(f)), 1 NE gal (Zeenat) and a hybrid(Kartik)- thats me and best part was none of us had ever stayed or for that matter even visited Kolkata !!
I had a very pleasant candle-lit dinner with my remaining 3 room-mates and we mulled over the memorable moments that we had spent together at Chennai. Even the others had their food and bid adieu to their beloved ones. We all proceeded to Egmore Station from where we had to board the Chennai mail. Finally inside the AC compartment away from the heat and sweat ... it felt like heaven. But at the same time everyone (i mean those who had some feelings :P) was sad camouflaging their emotions with a hard-pulled smile. The real feel-good factor happened when Sh. Priya, one of the prisoners of the 308 batch came to the station to see us off. Sharp at 10.30 pm the train started - destined for the 'City of Joy' with 9 apprehensive souls dreaming about their share of joy ..........
15 days at Akash Ganga: So there we were, stranded at the Calcutta railway station outside platform number 20, involved in an altercation with a bunch of taxi drivers over the sky high taxi fares they were demanding to drop us at the only address we all knew: Hotel Akash Ganga, 1, Orient Row, Kolkata. Frankly speaking none of us knew heads or toes about kolkata and didn't even know whether they were asking for the right amount. But based upon the past experiences with the taxi and auto drivers in India, we kept pestering for a cheaper drop. Finally after all the disputes settled we all got dumped into 2 taxis along with our luggage and were bound for the Hotel. As we cruised across the magnificent suspension bridge - we all were pouring our heads out of the taxi to have a full view of The Howrah Bridge. After that bitter altercation we all were wide awake at 5:45 am and enjoyed the ride to the fullest. The drama again started when everyone was teaming up with one another to find a perfect room-partner with whom he/she would spend the next 10 days (although we all got it extended till 15 days under the pretext that we had not managed to find a house to shift into :-) ). Another reason being everyone wanted to be away from the one and only Rahul Dwivedi.....one of the UP guys I mentioned. Though he was not a bad guy, but he was quite boring as he never enjoyed the company of others and the later didn't enjoy his.
Oh!! forgot to tell you, we all had an all sponsored trip from Chennai to Kolkata, including the food 'n stuff. All thanks to Vijay who didn't board the train and Nibin 'n Party who got the ticket encashed. Vijay quit CTS as soon as he heard about his posting at Kolkata and is now having a good time in the States.
The hotel rooms were pretty descent with the TV, A.C. and also a geyser. Now, stop thinking as if it was the first time I had checked into any hotel :-) The best part was my roomy and also sutta partner Shakki. Also Hari was put up in the next room. We three-some had wholesome fun and even more when accompanied by the others.
Out very first day at Kolkata was an eye-opener. All our concepts of breakfast were shattered when we were offered dishes like mutton-chap, keema kulcha etc as breakfast and we all were expecting to hear something like bread with butter, fried eggs etc. (Well, later we realized that we had been looking in the wrong places.) So, after a bickering start to the day, we now set out on a hunt for some good restaurant and finally landed up in one owned by a mallu and served all the south-indian delicacies from idli to idiappam. As you might have guessed the 3 mallus were ecstatic :-) So was everybody else and on that happy note we had a brunch (break-fast + lunch) and retired to our rooms for a pleasant nap. After a refreshing sleep, all we hungry creatures again ventured out into the wild. We experienced our very first Tram ride as we hopped into one as the mild drizzle suddenly turned into a heavy shower. It was bound towards someplace called 'Park Street' and we got aboard from Park Circus.
I'll let you know some insights - Park Street has now been renamed as 'Mother Teresa Sarani', although none of the addresses of the shops display that but there is a single sign board on one of the crossings which proves this point. And one more thing, even the trams have an executive class :-) One of the tram bogies would have a giant-size cieling fan attached while the other won't. Hence if you board the former, they will charge you 50p extra as compared to the later.
We were joined by one more guy 'Asru', a school freind of Zeenat and our first acquaintance in Kolkata.We all got down at a place as soon as the rain stopped. After a heated debate on what should be done next - watch a movie, eat something, roam etc. the general consensus was to EAT. Again started a frantic search for some descent place where they served veg as well as non-veg. All thanks to Swati for that. And to our surprise we found none, moreover it was pretty late in the afternoon - around 4 pm. As a result of that, we all filled ourselves with the road-side stuff i.e. rolls, tea, sweets, samosas and what not. The return journey was an eye-opener in terms of the public transport system. We boarded a jam packed bus (3A - if I'm not wrong) the boyz standing and the gals seated...there is quota everywhere !! The bus seemed as if it was a boat earlier on and they had raised 4 tin walls around the flattened boat with wheels attached to the bottom. It felt as if we were riding on the sea where the roads were waves, dented at places by the tram tracks. The buses have very good breaks and the driver doesnt hesitate an inch in exploting his resources. Leave alone the standing public, even those seated are not spared of the back-ache which results after a mere 5 minute ride.
Can you even guess what is painted on the door of the driver of these buses? - 'Pilot'. And believe me they live up to the expectations of that name :-) This very memorable day ended with a copacetic dinner of biryani at 'Zeeshan'. Well, that almost became a spot for our evening snacks & dinner when we returned from office, through-out the stay period. All of us were very exhausted and had a good night's sleep to wake up into a new day, that again would be cherished by maybe all of us - The first day at CTS, Kolkata. (Read about that in another post) !!
Every day for us would dawn at around 8:30 am, there-after a heavy break-fast and a chauffer- driven ride to the office. Now, don't start reading between the lines to comment that we had our breakfast without finishing the daily chores :-) Also, dont misconstrue that CTS had made arrangements for the daily drop. We always took a taxi but on all days the same taxi. He surely was a person to learn from atleast in terms of punctuality. The weekdays were pretty de-energizing and dull. After the droopy office hours and travel we all were left only with enough energy to throw ourselves on the beds and watch some shows on the idiot box. The weekends were even more enervating with umpteen futile trips made to Salt Lake in search of a house to shift into.
But, this highly spirited group of ours never missed out on capitalising on any of the occasions. The very first of these happened on the 13th of Sept. It was Swati's b'day and we had planned to have a party at midnight. The cake, chips and soft-drinks were arranged for and also a very special gift (though it hurt our pockets that time :-)) Sharp at 00.00 hrs, expecting to be the first to wish her, we knocked at Swati and Zeenat's door. Wallah !! both were wide awake and Swati's college friends were a minute ahead of us. But despite that dismal start we had a good time relishing the cake, chips and cold-drinks. There was a good deal of gappa-goshti / adda / bakaiti interspered with the sweet melody of 'Ghumshuda' that was played on Swati's cell by her numerous well-wishers. Ahh!! talking about the special gift we gave her. We gave Swati her very first identity in Kolkata - a new SIM. Time flew by and we all were back in our beds by 4 am and I feel Rahul would deeply regret not being part of that celebration, though no one ever enquired about that.
There is a good story associated with the cell numbers too. Along with Swati's SIM, the others, except for me and Shakki, too got their numbers and in a sequence. This lead to innumerable instances of Hari answering someone asking for Zeenat, Nibin re-directing Swati's relatives and vice-versa. But for the poor chaps they never got some-one from the opposite gender on the other end of the phone who would be interested in talking to them :-) Life cruised smoothly over the ocean of new experiences at Kol and we were deprived of any celebration until Zeenat's b'day (20th of Sept.) Even on that occasion everyone enjoyed their part of cake, chips, soft-drinks and more importantly 'the chatter'. But for Zeenat we couldn't get any gift :-( and I'm really sorry for that. As you might have guessed we were deprived of the "esteemed" company of Mr. Rahul Dwivedi.
I sign off for now reminiscing those lovely memories that savoured our stay at Hotel Akash Ganga before we shifted to our respective rented houses in Salt Lake.
Flash back: The memorable day 10/09/04 when 9 out of 10 people who got their posting in Kolkata were attending the final rituals of the Training program at 27, Whites Road, Chennai. What a lovely batch it was all the prisoners collectively numbered 308 :-) !!! And even more adorable was the troup destined to reach Kolkata on the 12th of September 2004 - a conglomeration of 3 mallus(Hari, Nibin & Shakki), 1 tambi(G. Anthony), 3 UPites (Sachin, Rahul & Swati(f)), 1 NE gal (Zeenat) and a hybrid(Kartik)- thats me and best part was none of us had ever stayed or for that matter even visited Kolkata !!
I had a very pleasant candle-lit dinner with my remaining 3 room-mates and we mulled over the memorable moments that we had spent together at Chennai. Even the others had their food and bid adieu to their beloved ones. We all proceeded to Egmore Station from where we had to board the Chennai mail. Finally inside the AC compartment away from the heat and sweat ... it felt like heaven. But at the same time everyone (i mean those who had some feelings :P) was sad camouflaging their emotions with a hard-pulled smile. The real feel-good factor happened when Sh. Priya, one of the prisoners of the 308 batch came to the station to see us off. Sharp at 10.30 pm the train started - destined for the 'City of Joy' with 9 apprehensive souls dreaming about their share of joy ..........
15 days at Akash Ganga: So there we were, stranded at the Calcutta railway station outside platform number 20, involved in an altercation with a bunch of taxi drivers over the sky high taxi fares they were demanding to drop us at the only address we all knew: Hotel Akash Ganga, 1, Orient Row, Kolkata. Frankly speaking none of us knew heads or toes about kolkata and didn't even know whether they were asking for the right amount. But based upon the past experiences with the taxi and auto drivers in India, we kept pestering for a cheaper drop. Finally after all the disputes settled we all got dumped into 2 taxis along with our luggage and were bound for the Hotel. As we cruised across the magnificent suspension bridge - we all were pouring our heads out of the taxi to have a full view of The Howrah Bridge. After that bitter altercation we all were wide awake at 5:45 am and enjoyed the ride to the fullest. The drama again started when everyone was teaming up with one another to find a perfect room-partner with whom he/she would spend the next 10 days (although we all got it extended till 15 days under the pretext that we had not managed to find a house to shift into :-) ). Another reason being everyone wanted to be away from the one and only Rahul Dwivedi.....one of the UP guys I mentioned. Though he was not a bad guy, but he was quite boring as he never enjoyed the company of others and the later didn't enjoy his.
Oh!! forgot to tell you, we all had an all sponsored trip from Chennai to Kolkata, including the food 'n stuff. All thanks to Vijay who didn't board the train and Nibin 'n Party who got the ticket encashed. Vijay quit CTS as soon as he heard about his posting at Kolkata and is now having a good time in the States.
The hotel rooms were pretty descent with the TV, A.C. and also a geyser. Now, stop thinking as if it was the first time I had checked into any hotel :-) The best part was my roomy and also sutta partner Shakki. Also Hari was put up in the next room. We three-some had wholesome fun and even more when accompanied by the others.
Out very first day at Kolkata was an eye-opener. All our concepts of breakfast were shattered when we were offered dishes like mutton-chap, keema kulcha etc as breakfast and we all were expecting to hear something like bread with butter, fried eggs etc. (Well, later we realized that we had been looking in the wrong places.) So, after a bickering start to the day, we now set out on a hunt for some good restaurant and finally landed up in one owned by a mallu and served all the south-indian delicacies from idli to idiappam. As you might have guessed the 3 mallus were ecstatic :-) So was everybody else and on that happy note we had a brunch (break-fast + lunch) and retired to our rooms for a pleasant nap. After a refreshing sleep, all we hungry creatures again ventured out into the wild. We experienced our very first Tram ride as we hopped into one as the mild drizzle suddenly turned into a heavy shower. It was bound towards someplace called 'Park Street' and we got aboard from Park Circus.
I'll let you know some insights - Park Street has now been renamed as 'Mother Teresa Sarani', although none of the addresses of the shops display that but there is a single sign board on one of the crossings which proves this point. And one more thing, even the trams have an executive class :-) One of the tram bogies would have a giant-size cieling fan attached while the other won't. Hence if you board the former, they will charge you 50p extra as compared to the later.
We were joined by one more guy 'Asru', a school freind of Zeenat and our first acquaintance in Kolkata.We all got down at a place as soon as the rain stopped. After a heated debate on what should be done next - watch a movie, eat something, roam etc. the general consensus was to EAT. Again started a frantic search for some descent place where they served veg as well as non-veg. All thanks to Swati for that. And to our surprise we found none, moreover it was pretty late in the afternoon - around 4 pm. As a result of that, we all filled ourselves with the road-side stuff i.e. rolls, tea, sweets, samosas and what not. The return journey was an eye-opener in terms of the public transport system. We boarded a jam packed bus (3A - if I'm not wrong) the boyz standing and the gals seated...there is quota everywhere !! The bus seemed as if it was a boat earlier on and they had raised 4 tin walls around the flattened boat with wheels attached to the bottom. It felt as if we were riding on the sea where the roads were waves, dented at places by the tram tracks. The buses have very good breaks and the driver doesnt hesitate an inch in exploting his resources. Leave alone the standing public, even those seated are not spared of the back-ache which results after a mere 5 minute ride.
Can you even guess what is painted on the door of the driver of these buses? - 'Pilot'. And believe me they live up to the expectations of that name :-) This very memorable day ended with a copacetic dinner of biryani at 'Zeeshan'. Well, that almost became a spot for our evening snacks & dinner when we returned from office, through-out the stay period. All of us were very exhausted and had a good night's sleep to wake up into a new day, that again would be cherished by maybe all of us - The first day at CTS, Kolkata. (Read about that in another post) !!
Every day for us would dawn at around 8:30 am, there-after a heavy break-fast and a chauffer- driven ride to the office. Now, don't start reading between the lines to comment that we had our breakfast without finishing the daily chores :-) Also, dont misconstrue that CTS had made arrangements for the daily drop. We always took a taxi but on all days the same taxi. He surely was a person to learn from atleast in terms of punctuality. The weekdays were pretty de-energizing and dull. After the droopy office hours and travel we all were left only with enough energy to throw ourselves on the beds and watch some shows on the idiot box. The weekends were even more enervating with umpteen futile trips made to Salt Lake in search of a house to shift into.
But, this highly spirited group of ours never missed out on capitalising on any of the occasions. The very first of these happened on the 13th of Sept. It was Swati's b'day and we had planned to have a party at midnight. The cake, chips and soft-drinks were arranged for and also a very special gift (though it hurt our pockets that time :-)) Sharp at 00.00 hrs, expecting to be the first to wish her, we knocked at Swati and Zeenat's door. Wallah !! both were wide awake and Swati's college friends were a minute ahead of us. But despite that dismal start we had a good time relishing the cake, chips and cold-drinks. There was a good deal of gappa-goshti / adda / bakaiti interspered with the sweet melody of 'Ghumshuda' that was played on Swati's cell by her numerous well-wishers. Ahh!! talking about the special gift we gave her. We gave Swati her very first identity in Kolkata - a new SIM. Time flew by and we all were back in our beds by 4 am and I feel Rahul would deeply regret not being part of that celebration, though no one ever enquired about that.
There is a good story associated with the cell numbers too. Along with Swati's SIM, the others, except for me and Shakki, too got their numbers and in a sequence. This lead to innumerable instances of Hari answering someone asking for Zeenat, Nibin re-directing Swati's relatives and vice-versa. But for the poor chaps they never got some-one from the opposite gender on the other end of the phone who would be interested in talking to them :-) Life cruised smoothly over the ocean of new experiences at Kol and we were deprived of any celebration until Zeenat's b'day (20th of Sept.) Even on that occasion everyone enjoyed their part of cake, chips, soft-drinks and more importantly 'the chatter'. But for Zeenat we couldn't get any gift :-( and I'm really sorry for that. As you might have guessed we were deprived of the "esteemed" company of Mr. Rahul Dwivedi.
I sign off for now reminiscing those lovely memories that savoured our stay at Hotel Akash Ganga before we shifted to our respective rented houses in Salt Lake.
1 comment:
Good one buddy...keep writing..just waiting for that Akash Ganga episode..
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