The Great '8' Outing!

Plan initiation in Whatsapp group Bokbok.
8 members; utter confusion over availability of all its member on a given day.

waiting for the union!

Atlast it was decided after 500 odd whatsapp messages that the 8 members would meet at Mani Square at around 11:30 on Sunday the 17th May 2015.
As usual Mithi(my sister) and I was late by an hour but on my defense neither Jhumpa di nor Guddu (Jhumpa Di's brother) had arrived yet. On the 3rd floor of Mani Square, at the food court, waiting for the rest of the members were Titli, Jeet(Titli's brother) and 'Sir' Sunny. Papai was at the multiplex watching Madmax so he too hadn't joined the gang.
After an hour(2hours from the scheduled meeting time) all 8 were together after nearly an year or more!
The topic of discussion was whether Mr.Sunny would give us the "treat" for his placement. But as always Sunny kept churning one lame excuse after another, one of which was his company didn't pay the salary before the 19th of any month. We were determined to get the treat after great persuasion and Guddu's agreement that he would pay half the bill bent"Sir"Sunny's resolute resolve and he agreed, much to our amazement.
Then started another debate over the choice of the restaurant. The ladies wanted to travel to half way across the city to Rajarhat to have lunch and then visit Eco park. The men were not willing barring Mr. Sunny. After an hour's debate we finally went out of the mall, caught a bus, and went to Aminia,  a restaurant serving Mughlai/Indian Cuisine.

At the restaurant, after much debate!

We placed our orders and it took forever for the food to arrive. There was something wrong with the staff--they would bring half the food and bring the other half after a considerable time lag--be it the starter, main course or dessert!
Well after all the drama we finished lunch(you can call it dinner) at 5 in the evening.
The whether Gods were kind so after all the disagreements the 8 headed towards Eco park.
It was a cool place to hang out and all of us had a nice time taking photographs and selfies and chatting away long lost memories  and obviously bullying Mr.Sunny without which the outing would be a disappointment.

Having a laugh at Eco park

After trodding around different themed gardens, neatly cobbled lanes, both soft and wet grass and witnessing a huge crowd of people around the lake it was decided to call it a day. Ofcourse not before we had gossip over the evening tea !

The meeting of the eight is not an usual affair which it once was. It carries great memories and moments which all of us hold very close to our hearts! The outing ended with the promise of another. It was a day well spent in the company of loved ones.
I hope the gang of 8 never splits and we can all decide on a day and venue atleast once in a year even after 30 years from now!

The crazy 8 moment!

Cheers!

Earthquake on 25th April 2015

My sleep was jolted at 11:45am IST when I felt a jolt and felt my bed shaking for over a minute. I realised it was an earthquake as I had already experienced tremors twice before. The magnitude in Kolkata, nearly 1000 km from the origin was a 4 on a scale of 12, thus not affecting human lives. 

The earthquake originated 34km ESE of Lamjung, Nepal i.e. 77km NW of Kathmandu.The epicenter is marked by a star in the map given below.

Epicenter marked with a star ; NW of Katmandu

The April 25, 2015 M 7.8 Nepal earthquake occurred as the result of thrust faulting on or near the main frontal thrust between the subducting India plate and the overriding Eurasia plate to the north. At the location of this earthquake, approximately 80 km to the northwest of the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu, the India plate is converging with Eurasia at a rate of 45 mm/yr towards the north-northeast, driving the uplift of the Himalayan mountain range. The preliminary location, size and focal mechanism of the April 25 earthquake are consistent with its occurrence on the main subduction thrust interface between the India and Eurasia plates.

The earthquake was a shallow focussed crustal earthquake having a depth of around 11km. Shallow focussed earthquakes generally cause the most damage to human lives and property as the waves propagate with greater magnitude on the surface. 

The question is often asked, "How many aftershocks will there be? "
Generally, an earthquake large enough to cause damage will produce several felt aftershocks within the first hour as with 25th April earthquake there were 14 aftershocks of magnitude 6-6.5 as per the Richter Scale. 
The rate of aftershocks dies off quickly with time so even the second day will have many less aftershocks than the first.

Although a major plate boundary with a history of large-to-great sized earthquakes, large earthquakes on the Himalayan thrust are rare in the documented historical era. Just four events of M6 or larger have occurred within 250 km of the April 25, 2015 earthquake over the past century. One, a M 6.9 earthquake in August 1988, 240 km to the southeast of the April 25 event, caused close to 1500 fatalities. The numbers on the rise.

The largest, an M 8.0 event known as the 1934 Nepal-Bihar earthquake, occurred in a similar location to the 1988 event. It severely damaged Kathmandu, and is thought to have caused around 10,600 fatalities. 

It takes an earthquake to remind us that we walk on the crust of an unfinished earth.

Sincere prayers go out to the victims of this calamity.

Australia vs India WC 2015

After a dream run in the World Cup, India finally exited the show piece event to a well balanced Australian side at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Australia played a near perfect match and outplayed Dhoni's men with both bat and bowl. Steven Smith continued his golden form from the summer piling more agony to the Indian players, scoring a superb century of just 89 balls.
The match was sided towards Australia as soon as they won the toss. India's best chance of winning was batting first and posting  300 on the board.

The toss was crucial giving Aussies the edge

With 18 overs to play Australia were cruising at 197/1 and a score of 350 was on the cards. India pulled it back somewhat but conceded too many in the final overs owing to a cameo from Mitchell Johnson-27*(9).
India were off to a flier-thanks to Dhawan and Rohit but after the southpaw was caught of Hazlewood by Maxwell at deep cover- India didn't recover. Kohli was caught trying to pull a Johnson delivery.
By the time MS came to the crease the captain had realised he needed to stay till the end as his departure would lead to an embarrassing defeat. Captain cool played a good knock of a run-a-ball 65 on what could be his last world cup match for India. The pressure of the chase and the occasion was too much for the India batsmen.
India was never in the fight and were bundled out for 233 in the 47th over losing the match by 95 runs to the Aussies.
India were unable to beat the hosts in a gruelling four and a half months in Australia.
All said and done we must congratulate MS Dhoni for the excellent turn around in our Indian side after the drubbing in the test series and triangular series, taking 77 wickets out of a possible 80.
India played flawless cricket in the World cup and one off day in the office came in the semi finals against the best team in the competition. It is indeed difficult to beat the Aussies in their home turf but one would have expected a better fight by the defending champions.

Could be Dhoni's last World Cup match for India

The youngsters must have gathered a truck load of experience and come back from the Southern hemisphere as better players and hopefully can apply them in the coming tournaments.
The final will be a cracker between the Black Caps and Aussies but Australia seems to be the clear favourites! Hope it turns out to be a cracker of a match.
Cheers!

Tea and Bengali- a never ending love story

Tea is the preferred beverage in most households in Bengal. I am a city born boy, brought up in Kolkata, the 'City of Joy'.

Normal Tea in a clay cup

Every nook and corner of Kolkata has a tea stall. Life without it is not possible here. The speciality is the variety of tea on offer along with the clay cups on which they are served- all at an extremely cheap price- the lowest in India and arguably the best in terms of quality.
Mostly they mix black tea and oolong tea which gives the Calcutta tea its distinct flavour.
The menu has black liquor tea, milk tea(normal), aada cha(tea with ginger), lebu cha(lemon tea).


Generally the tea stalls have a variety of biscuits, cakes to offer their customers. Some stalls have an elaborate platter including toast,omelette, boiled egg even noodles and kathi rolls and obviously the 10-15 brands of cigarettes.
Tea is had at regular intervals. Starting with the morning cup. A forenoon cup followed by tea after lunch around 3pm and a cup        after office/college around evening-the busiest time.



Myself a tea connoisseur, I can tell you that after visiting a lot of places in India Calcutta simply has the best tea to offer. With lot of benefits and hardly any side effects its the beverage that it will live on in this city forever.
The endless Adda sessions at the tea stalls and the countless tea cups are something that can never be taken out off any Bengali's heart. Tea provides an inner satisfaction to all Bengalis that cant be described in words but perhaps can be felt after taking the long first sip of cha after a
hard day's work.
After all,  has any other leaf influenced history, culture, lifestyle, and civilisation so much as tea?

  

The endless adda and Cha

Seeking Happiness!

Life is what we make of it!
What we really seek throughout our lives? Money ,fame, health, peace and it varies for every soul as every star in the galaxy varies from one another.

But there is a common denominator that binds us all together!
It's the search for happiness in life! The state of Happiness we all seek before all of us face the inevitable. The death of a star is much similar to a man. The birth, the radiant youth and then the dimming to our twilight and finally succumbing to the Black Hole.

Every soul in its lifetime should live life for a few days without any help whatsoever- living in the wilderness.

Seek and you shall find!

Self sufficiency you may call it only then will one realise one's inside completely. Understanding of self is a key. Most souls unable to find it in a lifetime.

Appreciating all the small things and having the vision that all that's happening in our lives is insignificant to the universe are the stepping stones towards eternal happiness.

But there is a small twist to all this. Happiness no matter how you find it can only be felt by the human soul when shared with other souls.

Here's praying for happiness for all.

Concert: Czech piano sensation Jana Chaudhuri

Early January evening at Kolkata is expected to be chilly but the winter has been off colour this season. 

But the New Year Concert at the prestigious Sandre Hall was filled with such brilliance it left the audience more for Jana, a young pianist from Czech Republic.

All the seats were filled  at the Sandre Hall and among the audience was present the Ambassador of Czech Republic who had come to Kolkata for a business meet but squeezed time out of his busy schedule to listen to Jana.

So it started..

The Special pianist weaving pure music for the Soul

Jana blew such freshness into the audience with her opening B-flat minor Chopin piece the hall started reverberating. Followed by Preludes by Chopin which was mesmerising.

The style and warmth in her performance was something which really infects you wanting more.

The complete Moonlight Sonata was a pleasant surprise and Jana played it to perfection filling our souls with  Beethoven's much loved piece.

She played two more beautiful pieces (Italian and Czech composers respectively) and finished off with a Dussek Dumka which was stunning. The piece influenced by Czech folk music made the audience come alive and bid farewell with cheerful hearts with promise of more such superb performances from Yana Chaudhuri in the future.

It was a privilege that I could witness this piano concert and it was my sister to whom I am grateful.

I look forward to be mesmerised again by your piano, Yana. Thank you for making this dull early January evening a special one.

Thank you for such a fabulous evening

Mesmerising Zakir Hussain

The phone rang at 5:30p.m. IST. It was Dad. He told us to scurry to Nazrul mancha within an hour as he had managed to get hold of tickets to the Zakir Hussain solo performance to be held there that evening.

Zakir Hussain Program, Nazrul Mancha

A surge of adrenaline ran through my blood. My mother, sister and me were ready in 15 minutes and we hit the road. We reached just in time. The gates opened and we were in Nazrul Mancha.The view perfect. As Ustad Zakir Hussain walked upon stage the audience gave a standing ovation to the maestro. He was awarded the Ustad Karamatulla Khan Music Award 2014.

After the speeches of the dignitaries Ustad ji dawned the stage. To accompany him was present Sabir Khan from the Sikar Gharana School of Music playing the Sarangi. What followed cannot be expressed by words..
It was mesmerising to hear the Tabla played by the best Tabla player in the world. The magic he created with the tabla was nothing short of miracles.

While playing certain 'Boles' the way he painted the stories were amazing. While playing a certain 'Bol' he compared the slower beats and the faster beats with our solar system. The slower beats signified the outer planets which move slower around the sun while the inner planets move faster around the Sun signifying the faster beat. It seemed Ustad Ji is from another galaxy altogether.
The audience was captivated and spell bound by music at its purest and best form.

The program ended five hours back but as I write about it I still hear the deep bass and mind blowing tabla playing in my ear.

Zakir Hussain ji thank you for enthralling us and make us believe with your humility and genius the beauty of Indian Classical Music.