Tag: Kolkata

Friends.

If yesterday, I had an opportunity to write about siblings, today, I write about friends.

The first story starts with my daughter in love’s mother who is a Bengali calling me to wish me a happy new year on Bengali New Year day on the 15th inst. She regretted that she had to do so late in the day as she was under the impression that it was on the 16th inst. It was only when her relatives called her that she realised that it was on the 15th. She regretted not having a Bengali Calendar.

I decided to surprise her and requested a friend MLB in Kolkata, to obtain one and send to me which he promptly did. It arrived yesterday and when I get the next opportunity, I shall present it to K. In the meanwhile I have sent her a PDF version to her on WhatsApp.

The second story starts with my daughter in love getting me some palm fruit. While talking to my cousin in Navi Mumbai I shared this news with him and both of us went very nostalgic for it as, it used to be available in plenty during the summers in our childhood at the place where he grew up and where we used to go for our vacations.

He had not had it for over six decades and I decided to surprise him with some through the good offices of a friend of mine SST,  who lives close to him in Navi Mumbai. I rang my friend up for help and he promptly went shopping for it in the morning and got a dozen delivered at my cousin’s place at 11.00 am. My cousin was zapped and over the moon and I was happy that I was able to do that for him.

The next story goes back to last June when I wrote about Jack Fruit Seeds. The same friend KVP, from Kerala who features in that post sent me about a kilogram of the seeds which arrived this morning , thanks to the restrictions on movement of goods being less stringent now,  than they were last year this time. I am now set for the next couple of weeks till our own season for the fruit starts when I will be able to get as much of the fruit and the seeds as I want.

So, three friends from three different places helped me give some joy to others and myself thanks to modern communication methods and courier services.

Explanation.

A friend of mine from Kolkata had been ill for a while and was discharged from hospital a few days ago. I had spoken to him immediately after his discharge and earlier this afternoon, I rang him up again to enquire about his recovery and progress.

He answered the call with a ‘good morning” despite it being 4.30 pm and I responded with my usual Hari Om.

We spoke about his recovery and disconnected after a few moments of other usual chats.

Half an hour later he called me back to explain that he was fast asleep when I had called, it was cloudy and dark and he thought that it was early morning. After the call, he got up washed up and discovered that it was afternoon and he called to explain his “good morning” greeting!

I had a good laugh, wished him many more such deep sleeping binges and also promised to start my future conversations with him with an announcement of the time of day of my call.

I wish that I can sleep like that! Can you?

Relocating.

My fellow 2 on 1 Friday blogger Shackman has recently relocated to California and I was inspired to suggest this topic by that move. Please go over to Shackman’s blog to see how he tackles the topic.

My pre-marriage and the first year after that was life living out of a suitcase from the age of 16 for me. I had relocated a few times between Hyderabd and Chennai/Mumbai and also Ahmedabad before my marriage in November 1968. Relocating was simply a matter of packing my suitcase and moving to a hotel, hostel or paying guest accommodation and did not make for much effort or difficulty.

The first home we set up after marriage was in Delhi and since it was for a stay of just a few months, we had taken a barsati on rent and hired furniture and bare minimum utensils and a stove but both of us lived off suitcases.

The first proper home that we lived in was in Mumbai between 1970 and mid 1973 when we acquired furniture, cooking utensils, linen, etc and when we had to move to Kolkata, we were exposed for the first time to relocating with major packing, discarding etc but, the redeeming feature of the exercise was that we could hire professional packers and movers who did the dirty work, stored the stuff till we found accommodation at Kolkata and unpacked for us too.

From that first move, we relocated to Kerala, back to Mumbai on three occasions, Delhi and Bengaluru and finally to Pune in 1990 where we bought our home where I continue to live till date. During these relocations we moved and set up new homes on eight separate occasions till we put in our final roots.

I had to relocate on two separate occasions afterwards to Tirupur but since it was to furnished accommodation on both occasions I simply had to pack a suitcase. Whenever Urmeela came to stay with me there, she too simply had to come with a packed suitcase. So those two relocations were not really relocations in the true sense.

The only major disruption that we experienced during the relocations was in the schooling of our son Ranjan which, we once even had to solve by admitting him to a boarding school for three years. In retrospect, those three years were also the most disturbing for both of us despite frequent meetings with him at his school as well as his coming home for his vacations. Another experience that I would not wish on anyone.

I can therefore confidently assert that I am a seasoned and well-experienced relocator. I would not like to do that again though as I am now too well ensconced in my comfort zone in Pune where it will be three decades next year, since we relocated.

Return To Chaos.

When I returned from my sabbatical, the dust had settled down somewhat but my bedroom was still used to store many things that could not be shifted for a few more days due to some more work, essentially finishing coats of paint being applied in the drawing room.

Since I could not use the bedroom, I moved into a Serviced Apartment hotel facility just behind our home which we use to accommodate visiting guests. I spent day times at home or doing other things, but spent five nights at the hotel. Since the facility offered free breakfast, I had to just have lunch at home and it was quite an adventure for those five days to have kind of picnic lunches at home. Since I do not have cooked meals for dinner, eating fruits in the evenings at the hotel was quite simple and so, for simply the cost of the rental, I was able to spend five nights in that facility.

It was however quite a relief to be able to return home after those five days despite the kitchen still not having been equipped with windows. The windows and the exhaust fan for the kitchen were finally installed last Friday/Saturday and now we have to wait for a couple of weeks before the modular furniture for the kitchen can be installed. In the meanwhile make do storage arrangements for utensils and other kitchen material is the order of the day but Mangal, our resident expert is quite cheerfully adapting to such ad hoc arrangements on the belief that eventually she would get a dream kitchen.

In the process of redoing the drawing dining area, Ranjan has moved the inverter to below the staircase and I find that the existing console housing it is not sturdy enough for pulling out and pushing back into to its assigned space. I have therefore designed a wooden unit which will be made to my specifications tomorrow by a carpenter specially hired for the job. The material has been ordered and the carpenter is on call to arrive as soon as the material is delivered.

In the meanwhile, Manjiree’s family has a wedding coming up in Kolkata and so she and Ranjan left earlier this afternoon for Kolkata and will return only on Friday late evening. So, after many years, yours truly is living in solitary splendour in his own palace with only Chutki for company in the nights.

My old library has been removed and a brand new more accessible shelving system has been put in place. I am using the opportunity of re -shelving my collection to cull it to reduce the number to be more manageable. Ranjan’s colleague Rahul will come in the day time to help me cull tomorrow and the day after and we have lined up two interested people to take away the books that I will be discarding.

Other bits and pieces of work keep cropping up and coming Saturday will also see some fabricators come to instal overhangs on top of the windows of the kitchen on the outside. A new shelving system for the TV/DVD unit is also on the drawing board and all in all the first half of March also would appear to offer quite a bit of work to be managed before we can say “phew!”