11 January 2018

The Dasgupta family!!!

The challenge with my nephews growing up is that they are getting more and more involved with their studies and therefore has less and less time to spend with me. Last Tuesday, I was going to stay over at my brother’s place but I knew if I went in the evening, that would disrupt the nephews’ studies, homework etc. It therefore seemed as good a time as any to keep an old promise.

A few years back, I had gone to visit my classmate from school days – Sibapriya – in Midnapore where he was working at that time. I had the great fortune of meeting his dad and mom there. His own family – wife and twin kids were in Kolkata. I talked to them over the phone that time and had promised to visit them too when I got a chance.

Tuesday was that day!! Finally got a chance to meet Sutirtha, Shubham and Shruti! As strange as it might have sounded to me and Sibapriya if you had mentioned it to us when we were in middle school together, we actually discussed (along with Sutirtha) on the pros and cons of various approaches to raising kids!!

Also, I was blown away by Shubham’s artistic talents. That kid is something else!!

Category: Vacations | 7 Comments on The Dasgupta family!!!
11 January 2018

“Pen, pen, pen… Pilot pen”…

I have completely lost the moral platform to lecture the girls on all the shopping of clothes they have been doing this trip. I had found out about this place in Kolkata – “Pen Hospital” a few months back. Almost a hundred years old, it is a very small shop in a very crowded Esplanade corner in Kolkata. The owner specializes in fixing fountain pens and has a stack of vintage and new fountain pens. Both used and new.

After dad and mom went off to sleep, I managed to convince my brother to hit the road again and go back to Kolkata to check out the shop. An insane amount of traffic later, I finally hit pay dirt when I found the shop. It is not often that I come across somebody who really knows a thing or two about old fountain pens and their history.

Picked up a few pens – which are incredibly inexpensive by US standards. The crowning glory was the Pilot 51 (mistakenly called Pilot – should have been called Parker). A few days back, when my father in law and I had gone to the other pen shop, he had mentioned about the Pilot 51 pen. That was an iconic pen in his days. It was somewhat of a folklore when we were growing up. In fact many Bengalis might even remember our old rhyme “Pen, Pen, Pen / Pilot Pen / Siri thekey nemey elen / Suchitra Sen”!!!

My mom used to have one of the non-classical versions of Pilot pens that her teacher colleagues had gifted her in 1972.

The Pilot 51 is an all time classic. One of the few pens with vacuum system for filling ink, it has a very unique nib too. It is a pity that these pens used to be made in USA and I cannot find them in USA any more!! The best part of the pen that I got? The nib is an original 1946 vintage!!!

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Category: Fountain Pens | 10 Comments on “Pen, pen, pen… Pilot pen”…
10 January 2018

“The child is the father of man”

In a somewhat different twist to the age old Shakespearean quote… here is a classic role reversal. The child helping the father take baby steps and learn how to walk by himself!!!

When my brother and I reached home, the first thing dad wanted to do is try practicing some more walking!

When we are out for a week, apparently he tried again walking by himself when everybody was sleeping and had yet another fall. Fortunately, he again escaped easy – with a bump on his forehead. (Last time he had stitches).

As worried as I am that he is being too impatient, full points for not giving up on the urge to walk around again in spite of the falls…

Category: Family in India, Vacations | 2 Comments on “The child is the father of man”
10 January 2018

Curious minds want to know…

I am all for “Swachch Bharat” (Clean India), but I do have a question for the authorities…

Are they seriously under the impression that the people who are forced to relieve themselves outside – the poor who barely have a roof over their head, let alone running water and bathroom facilities – they can actually understand words like “defecation”? 🙂

I am sympathetic to the fact that trying to convey the message thru pictures might be too gross 🙂

Category: Vacations | 6 Comments on Curious minds want to know…
9 January 2018

Scored 100 percentile???

All the Indian newspapers are touting the results of CAT exams. Most are running headlines about how 20 students including women and non-engineers have “scored 100 percentile”. See the picture as an example.

Here is my question – as somebody who had to pass CAT long time back – how the heck do you score 100 percentile? I can understand 100 percent. But percentile?

Wasn’t the definition of nth percentile score that n% of the population was lower than the score? (It was strictly less than and not less than or equal to). Which is why I thought we were always taught that you can be 99 percentile… 99.9 percentile… but you can never be 100 percentile (by definition, you could not have scored less than yourself).

So, what gives?

Category: Musings | 19 Comments on Scored 100 percentile???