Kolkata Meetups

somnath

I am very excited to share my first IM meetup experience with you all! It was on 8th Jan 2005, “TorryQueen” (the user ID) and her husband Mr. Donald were in Calcutta. Their rout was Delhi – Agra – Dibrugarh (Assam) – Shilong (Meghalaya) – Sikkim – Darjeeling – Calcutta - Chennai. They had to change their schedule to Chennai and left for Dibrugarh once again; due to this sudden change and shortage of time, their Calcutta tour remains incomplete. Still she didn’t forget to give me a call and we spent the evening in a nice manner, by sharing our travel experiences, memorable incidents of life, laughter, sharing some un-told stories of tourist destinations. TorryQueen and the “King” told me that though they are not able to implement their planning but they are enjoying the trip (she will share the experience letter on).
Ohhhh…... Such a wonderful evening it was! In a very short span of a time we have covered a lot of topics you know, from politics, religion, cricket, food habit, social and cultural characteristics of both the countries, the pictures posted by Rob_The_Pom, the thread – “Why were the British asked to quit India?” Ha Ha…. Yes, she was also asking about the latest activities and the new posts of other members of IM as we all are a part of a family and they are not in touch right now! We are thankful to “IndiaMike” for helping travelers and providing the new way to find out good friends too.
Let the Queen back to her Kingdom, the meetup picture will be posted and we will be able to read another beautiful travel experience post .


Thanks ,
Somnath

sudheer poppa

That was a great account of your meetup. As beach says, welcome to the addiction

The first meetup itself looked so much like our standard meetups that in turn proves that we are all the same

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ashish0608

Thats great somnath....

Do they still serve beer in the cinema halls in Calcutta?

natasha chanda acharya

hey, good meet up, Somnath.
I had a meetup with Douglas (Chicago) and Sudheer last weekend.
i guess, sudheer and me have such frequent meetups now that both of us have become too lazy to write about them.
It is always wonderful to meet up with so many different people.
hail IM!!!

phantom

gr8 somnath. Should be thankful to IndiaMike to give all of us a platform to meet different ppl from around the world.

Cheers

somnath

Yes Sudheer, you are right – “we are all the same” at least our thoughts – our feelings are same. But Ashish, beer in the cinema halls in Calcutta? I am a bit confused; rather I can say that I didn’t know this! There are some bars in the same buildings (like New Empire, Lighthouse etc.) but is it allowed in the cinema halls? If you know this, please let me know, I’ll try the same hall next time (though I am not a regular visitor).
You are lucky Natasha! You are enjoying frequent meetups! Just another point – generally we get the chance to meet different people (both Indian and foreigners) due to our professional need but this IM meetup is something else. No professional relationship, nothing related to ‘tangible’ profits. We use to make new friends during traveling but then we do not know anything about him / her but here, after reading our posts, PMs we are not exactly ‘new’ to each other so, what I found , this IM meet up has got a different dimension, isn’t it? Natasha and Sudheer please do not become soooo lazy and let us know about meetups OK? Phantom, I’m thankful to IndiaMike and all the members. Cheers.

- Somnath

ashish0608

I am sorry to have wrongly worded tha question...yes you are right, inside the same building where you can get out of the hall take a shot and go back to enjoy the movie or come back for another shot if you are still not enjoying ... the bar actually is one of the Snack food counters.

Natasha, the same is the case of me and Vinay meeting up, I am sure most of you will kill yourself reading posts on Ashish/Viany meeting every week..we were to meet yesterday (I had to take excuse due to some guests at my place). We will meet today Oh! I will call-up Vinay to confirm the place

Bengal Tiger

lmao ashish.... i do not think they do that..... or ever did.

guess some rumours about calcutta arnt too bad after all !!!

vinayverma

Nice to read about the meetup in Cal. Good going Somnath.
I'm sure this is just the starting....many more to come.

Hey Natasha, nice to read about the meetups in B'Lore..BTW did you manage to suspend Sudheer in the mid-air and did he try any alcohol recently..yes I do remember his B'Day mid day party..after which he had to walk 7Kms to digest that food and non threatening clear water like drink.

About Delhi..yes we (I & Ashish) do meet up once a week. We met yesterday this time with Shimla. We went out to celebrate Radz's B'Day by having dinner at one of her fav. eating joint...wow food was yummy.
Before that I & Ashish went round of CP while waiting for Shimla. We checked out the narrow bylanes behind the large Shops. These bylanes have their own life and pace. I feel thats where the real CP lives. We had great Vegetable-cheese sandwich with 'special' illaichi Chai..which was good. we checked out the ol book shop near Plaza cinema..but this guy has got pricy in years and especially after he got mentioned in few travel guides.
Anyway..a nice evening..which had all the ingrediants of a great meetup...including Sardarji jokes, shayari, Gazals, discussion around Mouse is mightier than Sword and Ofcourse IM....

Normally my idea of meetups with our IM friends tavelling to India is to show/tell them about some views of India which normally they cannot see or make out. Make them feel relax as they can share with someone who is not after their money. And depending on the person, how adventureous one is..maybe a trip to the hidden or local life of Delhi.

Would love to hear from others (both local Indians and IM friends) why do want/like to have Meetups?

All the best for the furutre meetups and thanks to Mike for giving us IM.

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somnath

Thanks Vinay , for sharing it with us. And it will be an interesting stuff – “would love to hear from others (both local Indians and IM friends) why do want/like to have Meetups?”

But Ashish, a real bad news is that this lovely facility (out of the hall take a shot and go back to enjoy the movie) is no more available in Lighthouse (cinema hall & bar under the same roof) and some ‘City Mart’ like thing has occupied the place. This Lighthouse, New Empire, Metro, Globe these all were our ‘Major Destinations’ during our school/college life, Ha Ha…. lots of memories are attached to these, today when we see these places are forced to be closed, this is something awful. Though multiplex culture (which is more gorgeous, more planned, more organized) is slowly changing the scenario, still we feel something is missing! We came to know (rumor) that another cinema hall – Globe is also facing a massive loss and they are thinking not to continue. BT, guess some rumors about Calcutta ARE too bad after all !!!

There are some other places those are renowned for meetups, gossiping, spending some leisure time with friends (like Indian Coffee House at Collage Street) and these are a part of Calcutta and its people. Similarly, I think there are such traditional meetup places in your city too (Nariman Point in Mimbai, Hussain Sagar (Band Stand?) in Hyderabad, Banglore? Chennai? Delhi?).

May be there is no great piece of architectural beauty or scenic beauty, a hotel or not even a temple but the place for the folks. This could be a place for IM meetups and the traveler could experience something different. Any suggestion / info from your city?

- Somnath

ashish0608

Its Nice somnath to get an update not so nice to hear that Malls etc are taking over the much loved places...another place in calcutta where I would go for morning stroll and found people engrossed in un-ending discussions has been "Robindra Sarobar" does that gossiping adda still exist.

You are right the meet-up places are diminishing and so is the 'time available'.In delhi we have couple of such places left but at such places also the new joinees/out-siders are not very welcomed ...like Lodhi garden has made a "Lodhi Garden Walkers Association" etc.

ddutta

Yes ashish . The Robindra Sarobar , commonly known as "LAKE " still exists with all its features & beauty. Still very popular among the young couples during the day & to all morning walkers in the south Kolkata.

rockyS

ashish ,some of the cinema halls do still serve beer and other liquors within the premises ,new empire, globe are the the two i know for sure.

natasha chanda acharya

hey aLL!!

I'm back!!! And by the looks of it have been missing all the fun at IM.
I had gone to Ranchi for my nephew's "mukhebhat"!!! Had a really good time.

Just so i say something relevant for IM... Godavari was beautiful as usual. Krishna, unfortunately was dry. and i'll go and check out kavery and tungabhadra, if you want me to.!! Train travel - Jindabaad!!! (When is Deccan going to introduce a flight from Bangalore to Calcutta!!! Don't they know there are 3 lak Bengalees in Bangalore!!??)

Ashish and Vinay, don't you have demanding wives at home???? There has to be some other "dimention" to all these meet ups! Come on, out with it. Vinay, "Aap aise to na the!!!" (typically with this dialogue, my right hand goes up to my forehead in total dramatic filmi style!)

And to answer your question, Vinay, no i did not hang Sudheer upside down.
I did something much more terrible. I do not want all kinds of activists on my back by relating what i did. Lets just say, by the end of the last meet up, his beautiful three year old daughter (Daya) pointed to the wine bottle and said "i like that. Can i have some more, aunty natasha?" What was the father doing? He was busy hogging the prawn malai-curry I'd cooked. needless to say, i'm the best prawn malai-curry "cooker" in the world. After which he soaked his "rosogolla" in the same wine and finished his meal in royal style!! And all this while a very shocked Douglas was suffering from a tummy upset and didn't know east from west. But he did burn holes in the carpet going to and fro the toilet!! Hey, Douglas, in case you're reading this, hope you're feeling better enough to find it funny!!

Poor Douglas (who is incidentally, a really sweet decent nice and quiet guy - unlike Sudheer) has been having a really bad time in India. He went to Pushkar first and fell sick with pnemonia. Then he went to Chennai and the Tsunami hit. Then he came to Bangalore and his money got stolen. Then i took him out to eat on his birthday and he got a tummy upset! But he maintains that he still loves Indians! So from all IMers here, "Three cheers for Douglas!"

Somnath, no complains now that i have told you about our last meetup.

As for Beer in the cimena halls.... Of course, they serve beer in the halls and they serve complementry kebabs with the beer. And the seats are like those in the airplanes. They not only recline, but even the foot rest goes up so it's almost like a bed. and they have little coffe tables beside each chair, so you can have a home like atmosphere, and of course, you are waited on by beautiful bengali girls in sarees............

Inspite of how it must appear, i do have work to do.

rockyS

natasha was nice to read ur IM meetup, was just curious which cinema hall serves kebabs and has reclining seats and all in cal,must have been to most halls ,never seen thats.