HAPPY NEW YEAR

Ok guys this is the last post of the year and the decade. Its been a wonderfull and exciting year. Now looking forward to a great new year and decade ahead.

So the party starts tonight at Tollygunge Club.

Catch you in the new year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Another Cocktail Party on the River Hooghly

A Freaky Movie: PUSH

Stayed up till the wee hours watching this crazy fast paced movie.

A group of young American ex-pats with telekinetic and clairvoyant abilities are hiding from a clandestine U.S. government agency. They must utilize their different talents and band together for a final job enabling them to escape the agency forever. Written by Anonymous

In Hong Kong, the "mover" Nick Gant is contacted by the "watcher" Cassie Holmes to seek out the "pusher" Kira Hollies. She has just escaped from the Division, a shadowy governmental agency that chases the youngsters with abilities. When the trio is reunited, they join to other persons with ability to fight against the "pusher" Henry Carver and his men. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Push
Dakota Fanning (Cassie Holmes)
Chris Evans (Nick Gant)
Camilla Belle (Kira Hudson)
Djimon Hounsou (Henry Carver)

The Final Wedding of the Season, I hope!

The Bengali Wedding! Yeah we missed the Church one at Bangalore, but this is Souvik and Candice sealing the deal in as many ways possible. They're married now. Period!

Christmas Eve Party @ Tollygunge Club

It was spectacular! Merry Christmas world!

Movie Of The Decade: AVATAR

Director James Cameron strikes again with the movie of the decade probably. A must watch in 3D, Avatar is like a 3 hour, $120 Million Advertisement for Greenpeace and I think people are just lapping it up. I'm definitely going for the joyride once again.

AVATAR

Sam Worthington (Jake Sully)
Zoe Saldana (Neytiri)
Sigourney Weaver (Dr. Grace Augustine)
Stephen Lang (Colonel Miles Quaritch)
Michelle Rodriguez (Trudy Chacon)
Giovanni Ribisi (Parker Selfridge)

Dinner on the Rooftop

Though my wife had been here before, today was my lucky day. I got to check out this rather interesting restuarant, actually food plaza, as it is called is more apt. Several floors of dining with diffreent ambiences and cuisines make it just that.

We decided to head for the Rooftop and what a splendid idea it was on this not so cold winter day. A couple of beers and some chinese food was just the perfect blend to breathe in that cold winter air on the top of that buidling.

Tucked away just behind a tall hospital buidling opposite the mighty Salt Lake Stadium, this eatery provides for a perfect setting, even if the food might not match up to some of the finer eateries in town.

I suggest one should try this place just for its ambience and the highly affordable menu.

ABCOS Food Plaza
IB-172, Sector III
Salt Lake City, Kolkata - 700106
Tel: 033 23358359

New Band at SPE!!!

After our wonderful day around Kolkata, and an awesome dinner at The RCGC Maidan tent, we decided to head to Some Place Else. Just for Old Times sake and see what the music scene was like nowadays. Well there was a new band with some kids belting out covers of some classic Rock tracks. I don't know what the "KrYptiC" message was, but the moment they decided to do a cover of good old Jimmy Hendrix, I knew there was just so much I could tolerate.

We decided to call it a night!

Awesome Sunday Around Kolkata

EDEN GARDENS: The World Famous Cricket Ground's Floodlights switched on at dusk.
Vidyasagar Setu (New Hooghly Bridge): At twilight. Notice the lights on the bridge, the boats and the crecent moon above.
Vidyasagar Setu (New Hooghly Bridge): The mighty bridge at sundown.
Vidyasagar Setu (New Hooghly Bridge): The sun setting behind one of it's towering pilars at the Howrah end with a boat sailing into the sunset.
The Oberoi Grand Hotel: This is one of the oldest and best hotels of Kolkata. The Grand Arcade below is a shopper's delight, be it street stuff or branded!

Ranbir on a Roll: Rocket Singh

Rocket Singh ( 2009 )

Ranbir Kapoor - Harpeet Singh Bedi
Shazahn Padamsee - Ritu
Gauhar Khan - Koena
Prem Chopra - Harpreet's Grandfather ( P.S Bedi )
Mukesh Bhatt
Manish Chaudhary
Naveen Kaushik
D. Santosh

Harpreet Singh Bedi (Ranbir Kapoor) has just graduated, and his marks are, well, let's say a little embarrassing. But marks never stopped him from dreaming of an exciting and adventurous career, and they never will. 'Rocket Singh - Salesman of the Year' is the sometimes thoughtless, sometimes thoughtful story of a fresh graduate trying to find a balance between the maddening demands of the 'professional' way, and the way of his heart - and stumbling upon a crazy way which turned his world upside down, and his career right side up. Welcome to the world of sales, boss!

Finally Meet My Blog's Biggest Fan

The Party People and my blog's biggest fan and host of the party "Souvik".

The famous mouth watering and delicious "Devilled Crab".

When the Music's Over...

The Party People and my blog's biggest fan and host of the party "Souvik".

The famous mouth watering and delicious "Devilled Crab".

When the Music's Over...

Mocambo Restaurant
25 B, Opposite Flurys,
Park Street, Kolkata - 700016
Tel: +91 33 22654300, 22290095

Shopping for Christmas Decorations at New Market

The Center of the market which once had a canon facing everyone who came upon the centre, as always gets transformed into a paradise for those shopping for Decorations for Christmas.
After our Christmas Decorations shopping, we came upon a strange scene outside the New Market; a bunch of foreigners who were part of the ISKON (we call them "hare Krishna People", but basically follower of the Lord Krishna) sitting around playing music and singing devotional hymns. A crowd had gatehred just to see this unusual sight and we joined them for a bit. These guys were going for it, singing, selling boks et al.

A Beautiful & Cosy Wedding

Mohita Mukherjee and Anuj Chaudhry's Wedding.

Chilling out after the Friends Music Festival

After the Friends Music Festival wound up, my wife and I headed out to our favourite hang out after what seems to be forever. Some Place Else was nice to be at after such a long hiatus. Crystal Grass was playing to a fairly decent crowd of regulars. They seemed to have changed their sound quite a bit, but I did like their little dabble into Blues. Several Michael Jackson numbers and some freaky originals was nice to hear while we sipped on our beers. But the lead singer, Tanya's voice opened up and showed her fabulous vocal range when she did a rendition of Lady Marmalade.

After a couple of berrs and Crystal Grass winding up for the evening a bit closer to midnight, we decided to head to the ITC Sonar for dinner.

Friends Music Festival: Day 3

Day 3 set a record at Nazrul Manch of over 4000 which they hadn’t seen in the past 5 years which resulted in an electrifying performance by Usha Uthup which was followed up by Chandrabindoo. Nachiketa had a brief performance, but managed to get the crowd on their feet. The next band Lakkhichara dazzled the crowd with their stage antics, dazzling lights and hard rock music. The final performance that brought a close to the three day soiree was a wonderful performance by Bhoomi who celebrated 10 years of being together.

Usha Uthup

Chandrabindoo

Nachiketa

Lakkhichhara

Bhoomi

Friends Music Festival: Day 2

Subhamita set off proceedings for the second day with Bengali Modern Songs. Dohar a popular folk band from Kolkata took the tempo up and even brought up all the Friends FM RJs on stage to sing along with them. The very talented Purbayan Chatterjee on Sitar accompanied by Pt. Anindo Chatterjee had the audience in wraps with a stupendous performance. Thereafter Raghab followed by Lopamudra Mitra rocked the packed venue on the second day of the Friends Music Festival.

Subhamita

Dohar with the Friends FM RJs

Purbayan Chatterjee & Pt. Anindo Chatterjee

Raghab

Lopamudra Mitra

Friends Music Festival: Day 1

91.9 Friends FM presented its third edition of the Friends Music Festival between 4-6 December 2009 at Nazrul Mancha. The event originally conceived as an event to celebrate its 1st anniversary in February 2008, has grown and become a calendar event for the city’s music lovers. It as also a platform for our loyal listeners to witness live performances of their favourite musicians and also get a glimpse of their favourite RJs who host the show over the three days..

Starting at 5pm everyday the festival showcases various genres of music like Rabindrasangeet, Indian classical, Folk, Bangla Adhunik, Bangla Rock and Fusion. Prominent artists set the stage alight and the crowd swinging to their music at the Festival over three days. To keep the festive mood alive, there were various food stalls, music stalls and other exhibitors at the event.

Day one started with Madhuri, a group from Shantiniketan who ushered in the Festival with Rabindrasangeet. Srikanta Acharya built up on the Rabindrasangeet and also some of his popular songs. This was followed by the celebrated artist Rezwana Chaudhury Bannya from Bangaldesh who had the audience glued to their seats with her exposition of Rabindrasangeet. The most colourful and enthusiastic performance by folk singer Baul Tarun Khyapa and his troupe was as much a photographers delight as was entertaining. The evening was wound up by Bickram Ghosh's Rythmscape with Gregg Ellis. Bickram on the tabla & Greg Ellis on the drums jammed with each other and wowed the audience to near disbelief.

Madhuri - Shantiniketan

Srikanta Acharya

Rezwana Chowdhury Bannya

Baul Taurn Khyapa

Bickram Ghosh's Rythymscape & Greg Ellis

A Cocktail Party on the River Hooghly

As part of the numerous ceremonies of this elaborate wedding "Aroop weds Pamela", this one was a bit "hatke" (different); Cocktails on a Boat on the River Hooghly.

When my wife and I got the invitation which read like a 10 day festival of sorts, we really had to decide which one of the ceremonies we would attend. After all it was wedding season and I had a huge 3 day event coming up on the work front at around the same time. So the Cocktails on the river was my first choice and so what if it was a Monday night. Firstly I didn’t have any prior engagements and secondly I just had to know what it felt like being on a Boat all lit up with blaring music and booze flowing. My wife and I had been witness to these boats going up and down the river on numerous occasions when we had visited the strand and always wondered if we’d ever go on one of these jaunts.

The day didn’t start too well as we heard news of the violence that had hit various pockets of Kolkata and I decided to take my bike to work. My wife decided not to go to office as we saw images on the morning news of a bus being burnt right in front of her office. The original plan was for me to come back home, but just in case I couldn’t make it back, I had kept my cocktail attire out. Sure enough, I got stuck in office and she had to come get me.

We left the office about 6.30pm, and we recalled how Aroop had said that the boat would leave at 7.00pm on the dot and those who didn’t make it on time, would be left behind. Heck, we didn’t want to miss this opportunity. So I didn’t bother going back up nine floors to my office to change. I just told my wife to drive to the jetty and while she was driving, I changed my clothes in the car. She was in complete shock and was laughing her guts out as she witnessed me transform from jeans, t-shirt, sneakers mode into the trousers, silky red shirt and black shoes party guy. And all this happened through the length of Theatre Road. Kind of reminded me of Clark Kent going into a phone booth and coming out as Superman.

Anyway we reached the venue well in time and got on the boat and went straight up to the upper deck where arrangements had been made for the evening ahead; the bar and food at the rear and the Entertainment at the front. We found ourselves a seat strategically located behind one of the speakers and waited till the place filled up. Once all were aboard, the boat departed from the Jetty at about 7.30pm. After a bit of socialising with some known faces, we decided to head to where the action was about to begin. Yeah the bar opened shortly after we got into position right in front of it. The evening was kicked off with a brief announcement about the occasion and straight to some old rock ‘n roll Kishore Kumar songs.

As the boat went down river under the Vidyasagr Setu and turned back around, people were already getting into high spirits. But to our surprise we headed back to the Jetty after a short 45 minute ride and learnt the reason was because some of the guests would be hopping off as they had to attend another wedding too. Well that was good, because while we were getting the Jetty frantic calls had bee made to shore. We had run out of cold drinks and the stock was more than replenished once we set off again at 8.30pm. This time the destination was Dakshineswar which was about a two hour cruise from here. This was truly going to be fun!

The high point of the evening was and incident which had me nearly in splits. While we were making merry on the front deck, an elderly British gentleman joined us and my wife, to my surprise, introduced herself and struck up a conversation with him.

Well the conversation went thus:

My Wife: “Hi, I’m Divya.”

British Gentleman: “Hi I’m Roger. I’m Aroop’s dad!”

My Wife immediately shot back: “No you’re not!” while I looked over her shoulder in shock and very confused. As far as I knew Aroop’s dad was Dr. Sen, so how come some Brit guy was introducing himself as Aroop’s dad.

Well that’s when he clarified and told us how Aroop spent a lot of time at his house in UK and that he was part of the family et al.

The best part is that he had probably told everyone he had spoken with at the party that he was Aroop’s dad, and my wife was the only one who had shot back point blank that he wasn’t.

Anyway as the night progressed we passed Belur on our left and went under the Bally Bridge (Vivekananda Setu) and turned around beside Dakshineswar and headed back down river to Kolkata making merry and making new friends.

We finally got back close to midnight after a fun evening on the river.

The Entrance of Outram Jetty (also called the Police Jetty). It's actually the jetty where the River Police have their boats.

This Boat all lit up for the Cocktail Party.

The Party Kicks off.

Approaching the towering New Hooghly Bridge (Vidyasagar Setu).

Approaching the iconic Howrah Bridge (Rabindra Setu).

Heading back from Dakshineswar approaching the Bally Bridge (Vivekananda Setu).

The Party People. People sure were having a good time.

Alighting from the boat after a four hour soiree of sorts on the River.