Poila Baishak Celebration Gallivanting

Yesterday was Poila Baishak (Bengali New Year) and the only way to celebrate it in the state of West Bengal is by it being a holiday. Well a holiday for everyone except our office. Anyway the attendance was kind of thin and the few that were there also decided to call it an early day. I left office and made the best of the early exit by indulging in some lukkhagiri. Where better but in the comfort of South City Mall. Air conditioning in this sweltering heat was the best excuse. Ok, Ok, I’m a Shop-o-holic, if there were such a word to describe it.

After manoeuvring through the tricky traffic in front of the Mall, I headed into the 2nd level basement parking and found a spot right in front of the entry gate. Straight into Spencer’s and for a change it wasn’t that crowded, albeit was a holiday. Got around to buying some stuff and during the time I was waiting at the express billing counter because of some mess-up done on my bill, I caught a glimpse of what seemed to be a rock band playing live in one of the shops being readied for opening which served as a makeshift studio/ stage for their performance. That is where the crowd seemed to have gathered. It was a full-fledged Bangla / English Rock band pelting out some high voltage music. Once out, headed back into the car to dump the stuff I had bought and head upwards.

I had never been up to the food court level so that was on the cards, save a short interval to step out of the mall and have a smoke. Well that led to me indulging in some mouth watering Puchkas that beckoned out to me to savour them. Well, I had never had Puchkas here before, so I thought to myself, why not? Then I headed back onto mission Food Court. But before that I did have a taste of some fine acoustics at the SONODYNE listening room. I sampled five minutes of their new Home Theatre System. Thereafter, up towards the food court. Well it’s an impressive food court in sheer expanse and seating capacity, but I wasn’t really impressed with the food counters and the kind of fare on offer and thus after taking a stroll right around decided it was time to leave. Two and half hours of lukkhagiri was enough.