The Rail Museum and on the Kazi, finally!

After an elaborate plan over the past week of going to Bandel today followed by a visit to the Rail Museum in Howrah, we finally managed to do the Rail Museum and that too on my Karizma.

The Rail Museum was a treat and inspiring for my foray into HO Railroad modelling. The grand engines and Coaches were a treat. I think people should visit this place just to experience the evolution of Railways in India. Apart from that, the garden at the museum is beautifully maintained. For the kids a joy-ride on the toy train will be an endearing experience.

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Eastern Railway has the honour of having a prestigious railway museum at Howrah spread over an area of 4 acres. It was inaugurated on April 07, 2006. Presently about 25,000 visitors every month enjoy the rich heritage of railway at this unique institution. It has become a must visit destination for the tourists and railway enthusiasts.

Timings: 10.30am to 5.30pm (closed on Thursdays)

Open Mike at Some Place Else

So I popped across the road and bumped into my cuz Rahul outside the Park Hotel. I was hanging out and waiting Vishal. I called and found out he'd be there in 15 odd minutes. So I decided to head into Some Place Else.

I found Rahul and his friends outside and asked what was wrong and they told me that they weren't being allowed in. So I helped them get in to the Mecca of Live Music.

Inside things were starting up. Neel Adhikari on the Mic was announcing the entrants of tonight's session. Finally the session started with the first performer of the night. Pretty and petite Sukanya strutted up and down getting her music together and finally started to awe the crowd with her deep and powerful voice. She put up an awesome performance and got the thumbs up to do a second number.

All I can say is that Some Place Else has just found one great performer, both in the looks and the voice department. Am sure after that performance on stage tonight, she'll have a lot of suitors and is going to be approached by bands looking for a great singer.

After Sukanya's two songs, things went downhill on the Open Mic. Thank god Vishal had come by then. So we hung out catching up and having a couple of beers. The next hour went by in a jiffy and we decided to catch up the next time he was in town.

A small SJC94 get together at Magnolias

Headed out to Park Street after office to meet the guys at Magnolias. Narendra was the one who had called me and told me about the get together, so when I went up the flight of stairs into Magnolias and scoped out the entire joint in search of a familiar face, there was none.

So standing by the stairs I gave him a buzz and he told me he'd find out if the guys had comes and so I took a seat at one of the tables. In several minutes the guy from the table infrotn of where I was previously standing turned around to me and called my name. Gosh it had been like 15 odd years since i had seen Shamik Chakraborty.

Anyway just then we were joined by Sumit followed by Arijit and shortly after by Debdeep. Party got moving, catching up on old times, talking about present situations in our lives et al. Then Nizar joined us and the party just got more boisterous.

Nizar had to leave in a hurry having prior dinner plans and so did I. I was meeting Vishal at SPE at 9:00pm and it was was just across the road.

Stepped in finally

After being in Kolkata for over 3 years now, and having crossed this shop on numerous occassions, I finally decided to step in and meet an old class mate of mine, David Chung.

I found him sitting near the entrance deeply engrossed in cutting some papers and when I greeted him he looked up at me, wondered for a while and then broke into a smile, which made his eyes look even smaller, and took my name. Ofcourse he did say something about me looking fatter and older, but I'll forgive him for that as age seems to have got the better of his eyesight. Just kidding.

We reminisced for a bit, caught up on each others lives since we had parted in 1994 and came up to speed. The blokes got two kids, 8 and 4 years old I think he said and wondered why I decided to get married in my old age, as he put it.

Anyway I was in a bit of a rush and took his number and parted ways, only to get a call that some of the old classmates are getting together at Magnolia's tonight. So I confirmed.

Only shortly after got a call from a buddy of mine from Delhi who was in town only for the day and wanted to meet up and so made a plan with him for later in the evening.

Gosh its been a day for catching up with old friends.

My Name is KHAN...Shahrukh KHAN!

MY NAME IS KHAN

Gosh we all knew your name is "KHAN". Karan Johar's much awaited film "My Name is Khan" starring the bollywood badshah Shahrukh Khan has set the the theatres on fire. Well what does one say about the original trio of Bollywood Karan, Kajol and Shahrukh. They're like the perfect ingredients of a blockbuster movie and I'm sure that's what is happening, but the movie with its preachy message was just a bit over the top. Yeah sure we got the message that good and evil transcends all ethnic, regional and religious borders, but c'mon you'll could've spared us three agonizing hours to convey the same.

The movie started off quite convincingly but post the interval it just went over the top in typical K-Jo style. SRK often forgetting the character he was playing and going into being SRK only to come back with a bit more over acting to portray his autistic character.

Well I'm not going into any more Bolly-bashing and will say if you do go to watch this film after reading this, be fore-warned. I wouldn't want to have to say,"I told you so...!"

Day 3: A Lovely morning at Jiraan and the Drive Back to Kolkata

Day 2: A Peaceful Day at Jiraan in Shantiniketan

Day 1: Drive to Maithon and Shantiniketan