Bloggers of the world, united

Rohit Talwar a.k.a RT had been making plans to come to Kolkata to meet Sayantani Dasgupta, when she is here in Kolkata and me. So mid July, we had booked tickets and made a plan for the long weekend of 15th August.

After much confusion, cancellation (of tickets) and change of plans, RT finally arrived in Kolkata late on Thursday night. We came home, and talked, gossipped, discussed everything under the moon. Also since he came with a long list of things-to-do-in-Kolkata, we discussed those and decided that only a quarter of that could be done in the three days he was here, and made a feasible plan for the weekend. This was accompanied by the usual snacks - biscuits, potato wafers, and Maggi, of course. Finally slept around five in the morning.

Next day, RT woke up at one in the afternoon (despite my attempts to wake him up since 8:30), which meant all the plans that we made last night were to be reworked. So we ended up having lunch at Mocambo in Park Street, and I showed him Park Street. Then we went "sightseeing" - Eden Gardens, High Court, GPO, Writer's building, Howrah bridge, 2nd Hoogly bridge, Race course, Victoria memorial, Fort William - all from outside in an hour or so (I am proud of myself). Then we strolled in the old market area of Esplanade called New Market. Rohit finally had something that he liked - the mutton roll from Badshah. We took the Metro to Rabindra Sadan and had coffee and browsed books at Crosswords. Later in the evening, handed him over to Sayantani, who took him to her grandparent's house in Salt Lake.

On Saturday, RT came back around noon, and informed me about yet another change of plan. He had to prepone his going back to Delhi. So we had lunch at home (he liked the poshto or poppy seeds, I think), got his new tickets online, and cancelled his old tickets. We had fuchka (paanipuri) nearby, and strolled over to Rabindra Sadan / Nandan complex. We saw Victoria Memorial, and then went to Park Street once again. Had tea at T3 (The Tea Table) and then went to the highly anticipated (by RT) Someplace Else - a pub. A few drinks later, we came out and had rolls from a local vendor and came back home.

On Sunday, we got ready early and then went over to young blogger Sinjini Sengupta a.k.a Butterfly's home. Sayantani and her brother - Aritro also came there (Sayantani and Sinjini are first cousins). We took a cab and went to Vedic Village, a resort in the outskirts (technically outskirts, looked outside) of Kolkata. While going there, we revised our discussion of the remake of Sholay that RT and Manasi are supposedly making, with all the meaty roles going to them and people they like. Meaning, I am reduced to the minor villainous role of Kalia, and Sayantani is Samba. Watch out for this movie, as this is going to be the first time that Veeru (played by RT himself) is going be be beaten (badly) by Kalia.

Anyway, so we reached the middle of nowhere Vedic Village. The resort is nice with spa facilities, conference facilities and nice restaurants. We chose Bhoomi, the bengali restaurant, and enjoyed the lunch (not sure about how much RT enjoyed it) there. Here is Butterfly's version of our day at Vedic Village.

As Rohit's flight was later that evening, we came out soon after lunch. Dropped the Dasguptas and the Sengupta at Salt Lake, came back to my place at Bhawanipur, quickly packed and went to the airport to see off RT. A very enjoyable weekend came to an end with a tired me reading Haruki Murakami's Underground, a gift from RT, just before going to sleep.

P.S: The title should really read "Bloggers of India, united", but then, Sayantani does stay in the US these days. Some photographs to go with the text will be published as soon as RT sends me his set, or Sayantani uploads pictures taken from her pink Nikon Coolpix.