First visit to the winery. Very nice set up. Beautiful surroundings. A LOT of outside places to sit in. In fact we brought our own chairs too. You can bring your own food / picnic basket.

It was a great day too. Partly cloudy, partly sunny and a lot of breeze. Finally, great company of DJ and Parijat.

What started as a small experiment over a decade ago to get a few Bengalis out of their beds on Sunday mornings to come out to and run/walk has become an excellent sustained group – Chalupa – over the years. Ironically, some of the original folks have fallen off – Sudakshina has not come in a very long time. Samaresh (who also named the group) vacillates from being very regular to very irregular depending on what he is focusing on at that time. He runs by himself though. Malobika is the only original leader (of the three) who has steadfastly come thru the years.

Of the other two regulars – Amitesh is completely focused on tennis and I usually run by myself. Once a month, I do go and join the running group for their coffee gathering after run. Often that is the only time I get to meet them.

After February, yesterday was the first time I went to check in on the group. The most delightful observation for me was how big the group has become. There were three members – Soma, Sanjib and Debjyoti that I was not even aware that they had started in this run/walk group.

There were seven couples – and of course the other consistent runner – Puja (Malobika/Ashok’s daughter).

I was the only one not dressed up for a run though! (Was on my way to Helen on my motorbike when I had stopped by to have a coffee with Chalupa)

With Parijat and Dipanjan

(Dont worry; the social distancing rules were relaxed only to take the picture)

Great discussions with Parijat and Dipanjan. Always insightful commentaries.

As seen from Safe Harbor, Aqualand

The first friends that I had brought to this spot was Amitesh and Anusuya – that was last July. (Had found out about this lakeside spot during a bike ride). That time, Sharmila was in India. Yesterday, for the first time the entire families from the two household came over.

The four girls landed up chatting incessantly while the parents enjoyed the beautiful sunset and the cool breeze after that.

(usually they are fighting with each other).
Spending some time with the Mukherjee girls..

I was absolutely ill equipped to go down a bunch of rocks. I had taken my motorbike to the trail. So, I had my jeans on and my shoes were not meant for hiking. Eventually negotiated all the way down to the bottom of the waterfall – but not before slipping on the algae on the rocks once. Missed the step and dropped my right leg about a foot in the water. It was worth it – just to be able to take a picture of the waterfall from the front.