Back in 1977, Kelvin Donegan was our English teacher. With his blonde hair, fair skin, smart dress, sharp goatee and a motorcycle to boot – we, the fifth graders, were in awe of him.

When he said something, we listened. And remembered.

One day that year, one of my classmates (I forget who it was) had used the phrase “bus stoppage” in one of those “make sentence” exercises. “Bus stoppage” was (and I suspect still is) very commonly used in Bengal. Not sure of outside Bengal.

In any case, Sir Donegan had firmly told us that there was no such thing as “Bus Stoppage”. That is a made up word by Bengalis. Ever since, I got used to saying and writing “Bus Stop”.

While being driven to the airport a couple of days back, I noticed this sign along EM Bypass (these have been put up for the FIFA Under 17 World Cup being held in Kolkata).

I realized that “Bus Stoppage” is still alive and kicking in Bengal.

Just to be sure, quickly checked Google. Apparently, “stoppage” is a perfectly good word. But looks like “Bus Stoppage” may not be.

Any opinions out there?

Saw this in a mall yesterday. The obvious question that pops to mind – “Which one?” Followed by the inevitable “Why bother putting the buttons there to call the elevator?”.

Love these small anomalies in India that seem to surround you…

The risk was that if I missed my flight back, I would surely miss my long haul back home to US. The opportunity was that my eighth grade class teacher had just moved to Siliguri and if I could align all my flights, I had a window of opportunity of about an hour and a half to see her. After 1980. That is almost 38 years if you are keeping count.

After much dilly dallying, I decided to take the risk. How cool would it be for me to say that in one single calendar year, I met 9 out of 10 of my home room teachers of my life? (The tenth one is a very different equation; more on her later). Plus my goal for this trip to India was to take care of my dad and with any extra time, I was to meet my old teachers.

That decision took me to a flight to Bagdogra and then a pre-paid taxi later. I was standing face to face with the lady who was my class room teacher of eighth grade. It was instant magic. It was almost half an hour of just running thru our old teachers and students from our school, that I remembered to ask her if I could wash my face. (It was a hot day here and the pre paid taxi was non AC).

We were the second batch in Miss Nandita Gurung’s long teaching career. Obviously, we had a lot of fond memories of other teachers, our school, our head master and some of the students. But the best part was me learning Miss Gurung’s personal background.

A highlight of the day was meeting her husband – Mr. Uday Gurung. We talked about a lot of things and we had a lot of connections – from motorcycle riding to mixology. (I am now intrigued about the motorcycle ride from Leh to Ladakh). What was most impressive to me was how Mr. Gurung had fought back cancer successfully.

Siliguri is my sister’s town. After getting married, she moved to Siliguri. I have come here many times. I even have pictures of goats waiting to cross the runway after the plane cleared from over 20 years back. My sister moved out about 10 years back.

It was just great to visit to a town that I had some familiarity with. With a teacher that have a lot to be thankful for.

Picked up quite a few tips about the mountain areas from Mr.and Mrs. Gurung. Natasha is the mountain person at home. Maybe, I can entice her to visit this part of the world soon!!

I was browsing idly the toll receipt that my brother received at the Palsit Toll Booth on the expressway to Durgapur. I had almost thrown it into the glove compartment when something caught my eye. You can see it for yourself the line that caught my eye.

Note that some of the letters had gotten wiped out. But as it stood then, it read
IS FATAL SAFE SEX IS HE KEY

One can guess that the second part is to read “Safe sex is THE key”. The first part was probably “STD” or “HIV” or something like that being fatal.

Once you have gotten past that, you have to ask yourself the question – What the heck is that message doing on a toll booth receipt on the highway? If it is meant for some of the long distance truck drivers (who if I recollect from a research is a segment with high propensity of unsafe sex), I assure you they cannot read English. They cannot even follow far simpler English like “Keep safe distance”, “Stay in your lane” or “No overtaking”.

And you know what was my observation looking at the vehicles on the highway? SPEEDING is fatal. Driving without helmet is fatal. That would be more appropriate message! And safe sex would not help in any of those…

Any opinion why this placement of the message?

Found this in my father in law’s garden. Incredibly red (absolutely velvety red) in color, they seem to bloom in a pair together. And it appeared that each flower had 2 petals. Pretty small in size. The red color looked great against the lush green. But I do not know the name of the flower.

Any help?

Drove to my in laws’ place in Durgapur yesterday and spent an hour with them. Most of the discussions there were around physical ailments and doctors and medicines. Decided I was eminently too young to be involved in those discussions 🙂 Letting my brother hold fort with them, I ventured out in their garden (my father in law has great green thumbs) to see if I could take some pictures of flowers with my iPhone.

This one, I believe is a Radhachura. Not sure of the English name. We grew up in Durgapur with this flower and its close relative Krishnachura (which was entirely yellow in color).

Anybody knows the English names?