After 8 years I managed to make time to visit Calcutta. And what a great trip down memory lane it was!

Met dear relatives, my cousin Bhagu (who is also expecting a baby) and visited old haunts which I would visit during the 4 years I was studying at IIT Kharagpur.

I spent a half a day on Park Street with Soubhik Dawn.

We intended to meet over breakfast at Flury’s, but it was insanely crowded at 11:00 AM. So we skipped that and headed to Barista just across the road, which seems to be languishing though it’s on a high street. We recounted our lives from the time we last met, giving and taking updates, advice, and frustrations.

Post that we headed to the Oxford Book Store on Park Street. It used to be my favourite haunt while at IIT Kharagpur, as it gave me access to a world of books. I really enjoyed spending time there, sitting on the beautiful wooden benches and reading/reviewing books.

That accomplished (and after I made a customary purchase – The Big Short by Michael Lewis), we headed to Esplanade. I had wanted to check out my regular haunts such as New Empire Cinema, The Globe (it shut down some years ago), Sriram Arcade and the Dominoes inside New Empire Cinema. We took a walk around the block, all the while talking/discussing/sharing.

We then ended up at Peter Cat for lunch. After all these years, I found the experience to be lacking/hyped, possibly fed by my standards and memories of visiting it as a student.

Soubhik Dawn then proceeded onwards, and we parted at Cammac Street. I decided to walk down Cammac in search of Vardaan Market, which I found.

This place allowed me to shop to my heart’s content for Ninaad’s clothes. Got him some good indian traditional as well as western outfits.

I then took a taxi to Suresh Kaka’s place, and we got sweets and visited most of our relatives in celebration of the birth of my son, Ninaad.

The rest of the evening was spent chatting with family at home. The next morning, I left for Bangalore.

Some photos from my trip can be found in my facebook album, Calcutta Chromosome.

So Rakesh, a friend from the good old IIT days visited me this weekend. He was interviewing for my company, and I asked him to extend his stay by a day so that we could catch up, and I’m so glad I did ask.

Friday he arrived in the morning at around 11:00 and had his interview at 11:30. Both me and him thought that it would be done in an hour or so. At around 2:00 pm, not having heard from him, I called up the person he was interviewing with and asked him as to where Rakesh was. The reply I got was, “usko shaam ko aake le jana” (come and collect him in the evening). I was like wow, is he being ragged or is he being ragged *grin*. It seems the interview went well overall.

So at around 6:30 I picked up him up and proceeded to grab some coffee and catch up. It was nice to meet someone from collegiate times, and for once be in a coffee shop with someone you know (hasn’t happened in a long long time). We discussed everything from investing to batchmates to friends to personal lives. At around 8 we proceeded to get tickets for a pretty interesting movie called Pyaar ke side effects (Side effects of love), and also grabbed some dinner.

The movie itself was quite interesting, but that’s for another post. We both got back home at around 1:30 and chatted up till about 2:30. We were so zonked that we finally woke up at around 11:30 in the morning and proceeded to have brunch.

That accomplished, we fetched another school friend of Rakesh’s and proceeded to yet another Barista (score!). At around 5:30 Rakhe was hungry yet again so inspite of having to reach the airport at around 6:20, we went out to grab some grub, oh and what a mistake that turned out to be.

We finished eating at 6:20 and I realised that his chances of catching the flight were nil if he took a cab, and I was to be his saviour in shining car (my brand new Alto) *grin*. We did make it to the airport with seconds to spare, and my confidence in my driving grew by leaps and bounds.

All in all, it was an adventurous 2 days

So I was walking down the road talking to R on the phone, and suddenly I hear someone say something akin to “Yaar aaj kal rah chale kgpians mil jaate hain” (Man, these days I just seem to be running into KGPians on the road).

And I just had one look at the two blokes, and I literally screamed “Barbatta!” (his name). And then we got reminiscing about the good old days at Kharagpur (KGP), and how things had changed since then. Ended up exchanging information about who all got married (seems like many did), or will bite the dust soon.

Good times.

This is what my college produces: Prejudice (read before coming to any conclusions).

It’s a feeling of brotherhood like no other.