Calcutta Diaries 1

28 May Thursday

Arrived in Kolkata on the 28 th morning at 11. The flight by Indigo was comfortable but I was pretty tense, I guess I am still a huge nube with air travel. also the pilot wanted to land in the main runway but did not get clearance and hence was forced to land in a alternate runway, this contributed to my tension too! Got a prepaid taxi to Jadavpur, was a breeze, the taxi system should be implemented with Madras autos...taximan was on Mr.Ali, told him sheepishly that I could follow Bangla but did not speak any Bangla. asked for running commmentary on the route, found the parts near the airport to be small townish, reminded me of Trichy strangely but soon Ali showed me a Macdonalds (man the americanos want to make the world uniformly shitty :-P)! Not many surprises, Aila has smothered the suburbs. Madipakkam and Velachery need not feel special, all suburbs are meant to be f**ked when it rains. Ali strongly advises to first visit the Kali Bari before beginning my tour of the rest of Central Kolkata, strange considering he is probably a muslim. Kali must be a secular symbol of Calcutta....Ali was happy about the recent electoral reverses of CPM since he is a long time Congress supporter....Damn phone does not work, got a Calcutta phone later...reached IACS and met KS and we almost immediately launched into discussion of what we will work on, interesting stuff ahead....Had great lunch and followed it up with a nap...damn the jet lag, 2 days in Chennai helped but still tired around 4 in the evening...follow it up with excellent chinese dinner at Bawarchi (is this the Sunil Shetty chain??) sadly no hyderbadi biryani on the menu and even if there was my veggie brain might have missed it...the guest house is brilliant, ac and also tea, breakfast in the morning! Crash at 1:00...oh and Kolkata's humidity is very different from Chennai's, Chennai seems drier compared to here, the herr Mayo was right! :)

 

29 May Friday

Great day, good breakfast. Met a grad student from S's group at HRI. Discuss what's going on in grad schools here and also how computing facilities can be improved to tackle the massive needs of the particle physics community post LHC results...work at the library in the morning,followed up with long lunchtime meeting with KS, task identified. Afternoon was ok, still jet lagged and had roadside chai later. Got out around 7, called old friend A...he is part of corporate India now and decide to randomly join him for a Salsa party in the night...Salsa party was pretty loud, lots of very beautiful women and men who dance well.. was mere onlooker, what can you do when you have 200 left feet? had good dinner, couple of beers, the lounge was generally nice, very swish.somewhere near Park Street I am told (fort knox is the name of the building)....notice that I had passed through Shakespeare Sarani...it happens only in Kolkata I believe :) notice lots of police presence on the way back near Park street etc, post Mumbai attacks any place frequented by non-Indians seems to be recieving attention, I would probably increase police protection everywhere, infact protecting citizens must be the first goal.....Satisfying day all in all, crash for a 'good' night's sleep!