28 January
2020
27 January
2020
Guess who I met in Kolkata airport?
I got to know Anzee when she worked in ITC Hotel (I used to be a regular there before they built the Westin close to the airport). Anzee eventually left the job and moved on.
I know the particular place she worked in the international terminal. I check in that shop every time I am here. Most of the time she works during the day and I am here for an early morning flight and therefore miss her.
There was the one time that Sharmila and I were traveling with the family and we managed to meet her.
Today, I lucked out. She was working at night instead of day shift. It was great seeing her after such a long time and got a chance to catch up with her and her family.
(She, by the way, is from Darjeeling – which is famous for tea and also where my sister spent early part of her married life)
27 January
2020
The last ride/walk for this trip.
27 January
2020
5K run in Kalyani
26 January
2020
Back in Kalyani!
26 January
2020
That be my mother in law
Hearteningly enough, she is doing great by herself. After my father in law passed away one and a half years back, she has settled down in her own routine and seems to be very happy with herself.
After the previous time’s challenge of getting her to look at the phone and not my Apple watch, I took no chances. Got DN to take our pictures!
26 January
2020
Durgapur. First stop.
Four hours of drive from Kolkata (we got stuck a couple of times) and we were in Durgapur. When in Durgapur, the three mandatory stops are at my mother in law’s, my maternal uncle’s and a dash to check on my friend Baisakhi’s son. This time I was in Durgapur for all of one hour and fifty minutes and managed to knock off the first two.
While I go to my uncle’s place every trip, this was different. First, I saw my cousin after a long long time. He is always busy with his work and business and in spite of my quarterly visits, I never manage to catch him. Today, I was able to nail him before he could escape. Had a great time catching up one on one with him.
Second, his son was there too. Last couple of times, I had missed him since he was in school. Usually, with him around, nobody else does the talking.
Finally, it so happened that my niece (daughter of my uncle’s first daughter) was visiting her grandparents at the same time!! So, that was a full family!
We pulled chairs outside in the sun and then when we ran short of chairs, simply sat at the doorstep and made a quick hash of a 45 minute trip. With a cup of tea and some very funny stories from the past!!!
26 January
2020
Of palindromes, death and girlfriends!!
Back in Kolkata after a few hours of visiting my parents. My brother in law and nephew were already waiting for me. We went up to the lounge and had a great time catching up. Usually my nephew does not talk much. I think I was able to get him to open his mouth by first giving him a math puzzle. (Like his dad, he is a nerd). He felt comfortable enough to ask me how to manage his time. Apparently, he is not being able to cope with all his studies and all that.
Wrong move!! You do not ask your soon-to-be-54 uncle about time. Not this uncle, at any rate. I don’t think he knew what hit him when I started with the old Latin phrase “Memento Mori” (Remember, you will die). Certainly, my brother in law started downing his wine much faster!!
Long story short, by the time I was done with our chat, my famously reticent nephew and I were discussing how he could ask a girl from his class out!! My brother in law was drinking up faster than you could cry “Uncle”!!!
So much so, by the time the evening was done and it was picture time, my brother in law sat on the sofa hand rest instead of in the sofa!! 🙂
BTW, Sous Chef Susanta Dey and visiting chef Shabbir had cooked up an impressive Hyderabadi dinner for us!
26 January
2020
The face says it all
After visiting my parents for six hours, it is time for me to get back to Kolkata where my brother in law and my nephew are waiting for me. A few hours of sleep and then I will be taking a road trip for four hours to see my mother in law. Couple of hours in Durgapur and then three more hours on the road and I will be back at my parents’. (BTW, I just realized that I spend more time on the road than with the people I try to visit).
In spite of knowing that I will be back the next day, he insisted on coming down again and seeing me off.
The face says it all!!
26 January
2020
Who knew?
After bringing dad back home from his trip around the neighborhood, I had a cup of tea with “DN”. Dad was fast asleep from the exhaustion.
As a background, DN and I go back nearly 23 years. Back in the late nineties, I used to come often to India for work in Bangalore. During the weekends, I used to drop by in Kolkata and stay at the Taj Bengal hotel. My parents used to come from Durgapur and I would spend the weekend with them.
DN was the driver once Taj had assigned to me to take me somewhere in Kolkata – perhaps my brother’s residence. I got to chat with him and made friends with him (Yes, Natasha and Nikita, I was always like this – making friends with strangers). Over time, DN became a necessity for me because he knew how to go to all my relatives’ places and if I got a new driver, I would have to call my relatives and go thru those instructions again. Taj Bengal went into a practice of specifically assigning him to me whenever I came.
Over the last quarter century, DN – whose actual name is Deo Narayan – and I have become fast friends. He is always there to help out my parents or my brother’s family whenever they need something. Over the years, we have been privileged to financially help his family get to a better spot. Sharmila has picked up the tab whenever his daughters get married – of which he has still 3 more to go!! (There is a funny story I will tell you later about my dad yelling at him once for not stopping after having 5 kids – he has 6)
We are family now! For all that, there was a story on his side that I had no idea about!!
Like I said, dad was asleep, exhausted. Mom had made some tea for me and DN. We were talking about what my dad did (going down to the street by himself) and I mentioned to mom that we can get him one of those motorized wheelchairs. That way he will feel more in control of himself and he can go for strolls by himself.
DN mentioned that he had seen one of those motorized wheelchairs some twenty years back.
“In India? Are you sure?”
I was pretty intrigued that there were motorized wheelchairs in Kolkata twenty years back. Surely I would have seen one of them at some point of time.
Turns out it was actually a foreigner who had brought his wheelchair with him. Apparently, the gentleman brought not only his wheelchair but also a retinue of helpers with him. DN was assigned the duty to take care of his and his team’s transit. He had to drive a big vehicle for him.
He went on to explain that the gentleman was physically disabled from birth. It was not like a case of accident or stroke like my dad. Apparently, his legs did not work, his arms did not work and his face was crooked. DN struggled to even remember if he could talk much.
I was not sure what to make of it when he said “Suney the ki bahut bara scientist hai woh”. (Allegedly, he was a very big scientist!”
You are probably thinking what I am thinking. Really? HE? He was in Kolkata? And DN did his duty?
I fished out my phone and Googled “Stephen Hawking” and showed DN an image of his.
“Yeh kaun hai?” (Who is this?”)
“Arrey, yehi to woh hai, sir!” (He recognized his old customer!)
Then he told me the story how he (or rather his team) did not tip him at the end of day. Apparently, the other drivers were getting tipped daily. And get this… DN had rationalized this in his own mind as he was helping a person in great need physically. This was not about money.
On the final day, apparently, after the airport drop off. he was given an envelope with cash. Which amounted to two whole months of salary for him!
That is the Stephen Hawking story he remembers!!
By the way, I was still incredulous. So, I Googled “Stephen Hawking visits India”. Sure enough, he had visited India in Jan 2001 for a few weeks and Kolkata was one of his stops!!
Who knew that my driver was Stephen Hawking’s driver too? I am feeling a little more intelligent right about now!!
