3. Kolkata fifth and sixth weeks
FIFTH WEEK
Wednesday 9 January 2019
Again visit to Tala Park, because Marie had problems with her computer, Banjul helped her to get it repaired.
Lunch at Romu’s place, excellent prepared. Cycle riksha from Tala Park, walking back.
Called Mattias Lindberg and could also talk to Karin, giving condolences.
Posted a collage with Staffan photos on Facebook.
Johanna Sommansson asked me for a text on Staffan’s life for SYDASIEN.
Thursday 10 January 2019
In the afternoon invited for tea and snacks at dear friend Champa’s flat on Broad Street. Bubu, Marie and myself went by Uber taxi, and had a great time with interesting discussions. Champas daughter (one of them) was also present and had a lot to tell abut her work in Nepal and most recently in Malaysia.
Friday 11 January 2019
Packed our bags for Varanasi trip tomorrow. Only hand luggage.
Saturday 12 January 2019
Spicejet flight to Varanasi, scheduled departure from Kolkata at 16.55, small propeller plane, in Varanasi 18.30. Boni and Rana with Bubu, Marie and myself. Rana’s eminent driver drove us to the airport in Kolkata.
Once in Varanasi we hired a large airport taxi for 1 000 rupees to take us to the fantastic heritage hotel Ganga View Hotel by Assi Ghat, the same hotel where I also stayed at my 2001 visit on recommendation from Karlstad researcher Marc Katz.
First class buffer dinner, and after that Bubu and I went out to experience Assi ghat by night. So many beggars, come specifically for the religious festibal Monday-Tuesday.
Sunday 13 January 2019
Varanasi. My sixth visit to this Hindu holy city of Kashi. First visit was in 1975, just an overnight stay in a cheap hotel om way from Delhi to Pokhara/Nepal. Then came a SASNET visit in 2001 when I had a chance to visit the ghats and see some sights, even though the main mission was to meet researchers at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and also Karlstad University’s study centre in the Ganga Mahal palace at Assi ghat. Third visit in late 2010 as tour guide for a group of Swedish tourists on an all-India tour, that turned into a nighmare for me in the end. Fourth visit in 2012 again on a SASNET mission, and then a fifth visit in 2017 when I was joining the Centre for Indian Languages and Culture (INLANSO) to develop its web pages.
Bubu and Marie + Boni and Rana visited the Viswanath Temple and the Hanuman temple, I waited outrside witgh the long line of pilgrims to Viswanath temple, but stayed home at hotel for Hanuman temple.
Monday 14 January 2019
Sankar Makranti festival first day of two. Coinciding with the Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj – from January 2019 the new name for the city of Allahabad (the name change reflects the strong Hindutva policy the Uttar Pradesh BJP state government stands for. Everything connected to the Muslim rule in India they try to eradicate.
Up before 6 along with Bubu watching the amazing events at Assi ghat with many people taking bath. (Same day in Prayagraj 22 million people bathed during Kumb Mela according to newspaper report.)
Morning beautiful boat ride. Bubu and Boni sang, and Bubu and Marie offered flowers. Passed Munshighat… Nice photos posted on Facebook.
Afternoon lunch at INLANSO with Miriyam and Dipak. He came to pick us up at the hotel with his car.
First day of the spring semester at INLANSO, a group of new students had arrived from Uppsala, Oslo and Aarhus, including Per Eliasson from Uppsala, whom I last met at the ECSAS conference in Paris last year.
Bubu coughed blood, we were worried, Reba Dey at INLANSO took her to doctor.
Evening interesting visit to Kabir Math with Dipak who drove us there, had a chance to meet the mahant.
Tuesday 15 January 2019
Flight back to Kolkata with Air India.
Early morning up with Marie to see the festival events, many more bathing people today.
SIXTH WEEK
Wednesday 16 January 2019
Visited homeopatic medical clinic, Dr Batra’s at Minto Park, to discuss alternative/complimentary medication for my Parkinson.
Evening dinner at Marco Polo with Marie.
Thursday 17 January 2019
Klar med artikeln om mina år med Staffan, kände mig nöjd med resultatet. Publicerades på nätet på kvällen svensk tid
Friday 18 January 2019
Väntade på Venkateshs synpunkter på affischen för Chennai-seminariet. Oroande avhopp av deltagande talare.
Saturday 19 January 2019 Mamata Bannerjee invited representatives of 28 opposition parties in a giant manifestation against Prime Minister Modi’s anti-popular policy. At Brigade Ground near Fort William. Power gathering for the parliamentary elections to take place this spring.
I took the subway to the city center, bought the ticket to the Esplanade for 10 rps. The train moderately full from Kalighat but from the Rabindra Sadan station it poured people into the train, people who participated in the demonstrations, and even more at the Maidan, and at Park Street I tried to get out just but the pressure from those who wanted to enter was for big, totally impossible to get out. The esplanade station, if possible, even worse, we were pressed as herring in the carriage, extremely unpleasant. At Chandni Chowk I finally came out.
Met large groups on their way home along Chittaranjan Avenue, I took the opportunity to go to a full-fledged Indian Coffee House and drank a coffee for 20 rps, then I walked fast and in a lovely Swedish summer weather down to Park Street. For a beer, I found that the Park Hotel opened a small bar that serves draft beer, although old ordinary dreary lager Kingfischer, but still a bit more delicious to get it from barrels than from bottle, the price 299 rps for a small glass though took too expensive!
Then I went all the way home to Sardar Sankar Rd, came home just in the sunset, and looked at my health app that I walked 12,700 steps, 7.5km.
Boni and Rana were at the wedding party in Barackpur on the floor, we sat in their apartment. Munjini and Buku came and greeted me, and to my delight Munjini ordered china food – chowmein and chili chicken from the simple restaurant in the ground floor of our house (a restaurant I never used, something my friend Lars Gerdmar did when he borrowed our apartment in December 2017). The food was delivered to the door and it was very good. As I misjudged that jam until now!
Sunday 20 January 2019
Programmet för Chennai spikat och Venkatesh skickade korr på mitt affischförslag så jag gjorde det färdigt och lade ut på Facebook.
På kvällen tog jag en 4 km promenad til Systembolaget vid Gariahat och köpte två flaskor kingfisher öl.
Bubu är dålig. Fortsatt blod i slemmet när hon hostar. Oroväckande.
Monday 21 January 2019
Bubu has got a strange medical problem, something called Bell’s Pallsy (Bells pares), a partial paralysis of the face. Harmless, probably caused by a virus but a major problem till it subsides. She went to a doctor known to Rana and next day to a neurological specialist and got some medications. Affects one side of the mouth, looking worse than it is, and she cannot sing! Marie helps with keeping control of her intake of medicines, and Bonie took her a physiotherapist.
My prepaid Jio internet device needs recharge, after 28 days with 5 GB per day I went to the Reliance store and its Jionet office and bought a long-term subscription 125 GB valid for 6 months. It will last some time for us. Cost 2000 rps.
Evening concert at ICCR Tagore Cnere Ho Chi Min hSarani. Kul svenska inslag i konsert med Odissi-dans. Filip Magnusson – i Kolkata för att lära sig spela tabla – spelade här läckert fiol i orkestern och Ulrika Larsen stod som gästartist från Stockholm för en ypperlig Durga-dansuppvisning.
Metron till Maidan, promenad hem till Lake Market, 7,5 km enligt min hälso-app. Öl och crispy chicken på enkel bar i Bhowanipur på vägen.
Dansskola i stan arrangerade evenemanget med superduktiga tjejer I 15-årsåldern som var proffsiga in o minsta detalj när de dansade Odissi. På väg ut efter en timme hör lag någon ropa mitt namn. Av en händelse är min journalisten Abhijit Ganguly också på konserten. Vi pratar lite innan jag börjar min långpromenad.
Hela dagen därutöver var jag hemma. Läste klart Ghoshs spännande roman om Sundarbans som särskilt tilltalade mig då jag och Kumkum rest just på de bebodda platser där entreprenören och välgöraren Hamilton anlade kooperativ för inflyttade fattiga småbönder, åkt med cykelvagnar över öarna ovh vi har övernattat i Hamilton Lodge i Gosaba. Och med Johny och Eva har vi åkt med liten båt i mangrovedeltats vindlande kanaler och i fjol reste vårt kompisgäng med Mridul, Johan och Lars G med tåget till Canning precis som romanens huvudpersoner och sedan med hyrd båt spanande efter tigrar, krokodiler och fåglar i nationalparken.
Tuesday 22 January
Bought a new phone, replacing my 9 years old one. Now a Samsung J6 smart phone for 11 000 rps. At Reliance store. Learnt the new things with the phone but problem with downloading apps. Tried and tried in vain. On Internet common question how to solve this problem. No recommendations worked until I finally got hold of a youtube instruction film providing the one extra solution.
Evening, down to ground floor Chopstick restaurant and ate a delicious Indian pizza with chicken. Wow. 169 rps only.
4. Seventh and eight weeks Kolkata
SEVENTH WEEEK
Wednesday 24 January 2019
INA’s fighting songs are now sounding out loudspeakers on our street and all day long.
In the afternoon home to Bumbi (Abanti) and her husband at Salt Lake BH block, still a little peaceful area, like the whole of Salt Lake (Bidhan Nagar) was like in 1982. Excellent Bengali lunch and a relaxing afternoon, watching photos from their beautiful summer house in Himalayas. Boni and rana with us, Tutu and Tuki were also there.
Thursday 24 January
Resting day
Friday 25 January
Oxford Book shop visit by Marie and me. Bought two books, Wlliam Dalrymple’s Return of a King. An Indian Army in Afghanistan, about the Anglo-Afghan war in 1839-40, and the second book Cory Taylor’s How Hitler Was Made, about the period 1914-1923.
Saturday 26 January
Republic Day. At 8 AM Republic Day celebrations at Loreto House Convent school in Kolkata. Marie and I went there on invitation by the proud dance teacher Munjini. The theme for the programme: Indian Army.
Rest of the day visiting relatives. Wonderful lunch at Munjini’s house and equally delicious dinner at Bouddhu’s house at Dhakuria, celebrating Rikhia’s birthday.
Sunday 27 January
Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet 2019. Six days of extraordinary events with leading Indian writers and intellectuals present, interesting book seminars, film shows, music concerts, most of it taking place around Victoria Memorial. And me ignorant fool did not know about it until today, last day…A few glimpses here.
The two brothers Nandy, Ashis and Pritish, in conversation with Rajdeep Sardesai.
Kishwar Desai’s book Jallianwala Bagh, 1919: The Real Story discussed by Professor Sugata Bose in conversation with Priyadarshanee Guha.Seminar held in front of Warren Hastings statue which gave a weird impression. Even if the statue tries to show that he was an enlightened colonial British administrator adviced by both Hindu and Muslim wise men his main mission as first Governor General was to secure British control over India.
Professor Rudrangshu Mukherjee, chancellor for Ashoka University, presented his new book Twilight Falls on Liberalism in a discussion with Ashis Nandy, moderated by Dr. Krishnan Srinivasan with Swedish connections – he has been research fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS) in Uppsala and in 2013 i invited him for a SASNET seminar in Lund.
Before that meeting with two Swedish friends currently in Kolkata. Susanne filmmaker from Malmö, working with Talat, and the violinist Filip .They both came to our house at 10 AM and we had tea with Bubu. Then I took them for a nice walk down to the lake, Rabindra Sarovar. Nice discussions. Finally lunch at Marco Polo restaurant at Sarat Bose Road.
Monday 28 January
Lunch visit at Suranjana Ghosh’s place in Patuli. First time I meet Suranjana, the well-known excellent Tabla performer based in Uppsala but with her roots here in Kolkata. Wintertime she often brings students from Sweden, and now it is Filip who gets a chance to learn the art of Tabla playing in a traditional manner in his guru’s house.
Taxi from home, but took the metro back since the station was only a few hudred meters from her house.
Also met her husband Kishore, and enjoyed a nice lunch.
Tuesday 29 January
Finally a chance to again meet my friend Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhuri, Vice Chancellor at Rabindra Bharati University. Last year we organised a seminar for Lars Gerdmar on Iconic Art at the university’s BT Road campus, now we met at the original Jorasanko downtown campus, where Bubu once studied Music. Sabyasachhi had a wish to meet both me and Bubu and invited us to see the daily sound and light show outdoors the old Tagore family palace. The excellent show started at sunset after 17.45, but till then we were sitting in the VC’s office drinking tea from clay mugs and I was updated on the latest news regarding the university. Most interesting is the fact that a new campus will open in New Town.
Ritayan Chatterjee also came to Jorasanko, and after the show he followed us back to our home, took a Uber taxi from the congested area round Jorasanko.
EIGHTH WEEK
Wednedsday 30 January
Flight Kolkata-Chennai at 15.05 by Spicejet and got some preferential treatment since we had paid a little extra for Spicemax service. Received by car belonging to M S Swaminathan Research Foundation Institute and were driven to its guest house in an area full of institutions. Including IIT Madras.
Venkatesh Athreya arrived after some time and since the guest house restaurant was closed he took us to the neighbouring UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Centre for South Asian Journalism 5 minutes away, where we were served South Indian vegetarian dinner.
Thursday 31 January
Met Sucha Singh Gill who arrived late last night, and being the only other Memorial invitee staying at the guest house. When Venkatesh arrived we jointly went to the same place as where we had dinner yesterday. Met a nice British journalist from BBC in London who is teaching at the Madanjeet Centre, coming to Chennai regularly.
Relaxed day before the event. Amala, Göran, Miriya and Dipak arrived shortly before the Memorial, came to see us in our room.
The Memorial took place in the Institute’s main building.
Staffan Memorial at M S Swaminathan research foundation at 15.00.
After an introduction by Venkatesh, first speaker was N Ram, editor-in-chief for the Hindu newspaper, and a long time admirer of Staffan’s research work in Tamil Nadu.
Then followed by Prof. Sucha Singh Gill from Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development, Chandigarh in Punjab, research colleague and a close friend of Staffan.
After him followed speeches by Staffan’s Tamil Nadu research colleagues, among then naturally Venkatesh but also R Vidyasagar, A Rajagopal and Dr. Kasturi who knew Staffan ever since the 1960s.
Venkatesh also read out written condolences from the Lindberg family in Lund, from Barbara Harriss-White in Oxford, Partha Mukherjee in Delhi, Göran Djurfeldt in Lund and Judith Heyer in Oxford
Prof Dipak Malik and Dr. Miriya Malik from Centre for the Study of Indian Languages and Society, Varanasi., also attended the event, and Dipak held an emotional speech on Staffans great personality.
I read out my article on Staffan’s life and our years of collaboration, focusing on Staffan’s great work with SYDASIEN magazine and Swedish South Asian Studies network (SASNET).
Our friends from Helsingborg, Amala and Göran Frankel also came for the memorial, from their winter house in Mamallapuram, south of Chennai. Göran held a speech on Staffan’s unending energy.
An emotional Tagore song performed by Bubu put an end to the great memorial meet.
Friday 1 February
Sucha left back for Punjab in the morning. We had breakfast all on our own and in our own guest house, since the kitchen opened today.
The Memorial was covered as a news article in today’s The Hindu, short but quite good.
After lunch we hired a car and went for a limited sightseeing tour of Chennai,, first to an amazing clothes supermarket in 12 floors, ground floor dedicated to ordinary sarees. Next floor exclusive wedding sarees. One floor for men’s shirts. Bought a few sarees and shirts, including a beautiful blue shirt for me.
Then to Marina Beach, Chennai’s pride. Nice as usual to dip our feet in the Ocean water.
Saturday 2 February
Return flight from Chennai to Kolkata 9.30-11.30. Stay at Tala Park overnight. Took an Uber taxi straight from airport and enjoyed good food, both lunch and dinner. Marie arrived from Lake Market.
Sunday 3 February
Slept in the main room at Tala Park like som many times before. Stayed till about 3 PM. Took a nice walk in the park.
Invited to a concert with Subrata Manna and Sudokshina in Behala, but declined to go.
Monday 4 February
Johan arrived from Samtse by train in morning. That time I had already been to blood test at Southern Avenue with Marie (as preparation for a CT scan on Thursday). I last met Johan in Gothenburg in the fall. Thereafter it turned out to be impossible for him to invite me, Bubu and Daniel for a visit to Bhutan during the national day celebrations/50 years anniversary of SCE in December, as originally planned for, due to the vist of the king and his entourage then. However, Johan promises to try for a new invitation in the coming year.
Because of the king’s visit and the great interest he put in Johan being a foreign music teacher speaking the language and knowing the Bhutanese folk songs, Johan’s position has been strenghtened.
I had to make a second blood test two hours after breakfast and this time Johan accompanied me. And we continued to walk along the Lakes, passing the Buddhist temple, crossing Dhakuria Bridge and all up to Jadavpur University and Professor Mridul Bose, my old friend ever since Staffans and my visit to Jadavpur in 2005, as part of a successful month-long SASNET contact journey to Northeast India, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh.
Mridul invited us for lunch in the university restaurant, and took us for a tour around campus, well-known to me but first time experience for Johan. Mridul also demonstrated his plasma research at his office.
Tuesday 5 February
Expedition Colonial Towns in Hoogly district. 2019 friends tour to the colonial heritage towns along the Hooghly River + Bansberia Hindu Temple inspired by Russian architecture. Portuguese Bandel with church and Imambara; Danish Serampore; Dutch Chinsurah; and French Chandernagore. Staying at Aquatic Hotel in Kalyani. Train from Sealdah station at 08.30 (Johan and I arrived three minutes before the train was supposed to depart, due to congestion in traffic, but Mridul and Ritayan had bought tickets and reserved seats), and at destination after one hour continued by electric scoter 2 km to the hotel, and enjoyed a light lunch before we went on Hooghly tour.
Participants: Professor Mridul Bose, Dept. of Physics, Jadavpur University, Dr. Johan Westman, Samtse College of Education, Bhutan, Dr. Ritayan Chatterjee, Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata, and myself ex-Lund University employee.
First stop Bansberia town close to Hooghly river with the impressive Hanseshwari Kali Temple from 1818 reminding of a Russian Orthodox church, and beside this the Ananta Basudeba terracotta temple reminding of a Georgian church.
Second stop: The Basilica of the Holy Rosary commonly known as Bandel Church from 1599, built by the Portugese. In 1988, Pope John Paul II declared the sanctuary a minor basilica. Around the middle of the 16th century, the Portuguese began using Bandel as a port. During or around 1571, they were given permission by Akbar, the Mughal emperor, to build a town in Hooghly.
The legend then tells of the siege of Hooghly, how the resident Portugese were taken prisoners by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan and they were supposed to be killed by elephants, but how they miraculously survived and were allowed to return to Bandel.
Third stop: The spectacular Hooghly Imambara close to Bandel, a Shia Muslim congregation hall and mosque from 1861, located just by the riverside.
Fourth stop: A Dutch monument in Chinsurah. In 1656 the Dutch erected a factory here, used as a base for the Dutch intra-Asian trade in commodities such as saltpetre, spices, cotton and indigo. In 1825, the Dutch ceded Chinsurah and other possession in India to the British, in exchange for the British possessions in Sumatra.
Fifth stop: Chandernagore. French East India Company bought this place from the Mughal subahdar in 1688 to build a factory. It was a French colony administered from Pondicherry till 1951 when the charming city was officially ceded to India, and de jure transferred into the state of West Bengal in 1954. With a broad riverfront footpath so typical of the French Riviera.
Final stop: Serampore or Srirampur, part of Danish India under the name Frederiksnagore from 1755 to 1845. Famous for Serampore College. I was here with Bubu, Miriya and Dipak in December but it was nice to revisit. And have some food at the the Danish Taverna. Unfortunately St Olavs church, renovated by a team of Indian and Danish architects, was not open today.
From Serampore quick return by our hired car (3 200 rupees for a day) to our Aquatic Palace Hotel in Kalyani after seven hours of sightseeing tour along the Hooghly Time for beer, dinner and nice evening together. I showed the others photos from m previous visits to Bandel in 1988, and to Serampore in December 2018. All among my collection of 70 000 photos lying in the Cloud.
5. Kolkata final ninth week
NINTH WEEK
Wednesday 6 February Back to Kolkata. Uber taxi from Kalyani to Kolkata Book Fair at Central Park in Salt Lake, 825 rupees. Ritayan jumped off when we were near to DumDum, whereas Mridul joined me and Johan for a walk around the book fair. As usual a wide mix of exhibitors from ultra left Marxist-Leninists to HIndutva forces in the shape go Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). Johan was happy to find books on Lepcha culture both at the Sahitya Akademi’s stall and in a separate stall manned by ethnic Lepchas (which is a people living in northeastern India and in Bhutan. I bought a new English-Bengali dictionary for 245 rupees. Yellow taxi to Sardar Sankar Road. Quite hot today, the northern cold wind has been replaced by southern winds from the Indian Ocean. Johan went to Lake Mall to do some shopping, he bought a toaster and some other things to bring back too Samtse, as a well as vegetables and spices. Johan took a night train back to Bhutan, leaving Sardar Sankar Rd at 7 PM.
Thurday 7 February Staffan’s funeral in Allhelgonakyrkan in Lund. Sad to miss. But I have re-edited the English translation of my article in SYDASIEN, and made a page on my private web site. CT brain X-ray in Kolkata at 09.10. Marie had made this appointment, for Dr. Batra’s doctors. Took the metro to Rabindra Sadan and walked five minutes to the Eko X-Ray enterprise. One and half hours waiting before I was admitted to the scan room, and got contrast fluid injected in my right hand. The results to be collected tomorrow. After completed scan Marie and I went to Haldiram close by and had some snacks (phutshka for Marie, cheese pizza for me), and then metro back to Kalighat. Amazingly low price for metro ride, 5 rupees (same price also for daily newspapers).
Friday 8 February Collected the CT scan photos and then reported to Dr. Batra clinic at Minto Park. The scan photos showed no damages at all, my brain is totally normal, which is good considering my Parkinson. Went along with Marie with metro at 4 PM and returned home at 8 PM. That time Tutu and Tuki were there at Bonis flat, bringing some readymade food for us. Very hot day, spent most time starting to read Dalrymple’s book on the Anglo-Afghan war of 1839-42, very good reading.
Saturday 9 February Pleasant mild weather because of another change in weather. Took a walk in the morning, and sent out some Kolkata photos from december–february on Facebook. Otherwise as usual I woke up at 5.30, downloading today‘s Sydsvenskan and checked my mail and Facebook plus Datorbanken. Breakfast on the verandah at 8 AM. Marie does her yoga and meditation before. Thinking about our return journey on Tuesday, on how to pack. Marie will fly to Mumbai same morning and she she wants Bubu and me to travel together to the airport even though our Delhi/Copenhagen flight are 2,5 hours later than her. Time is 22.10, time to sleep, it has rained during the evening if only for a short time. Now the hot watcher gradually comes back, I reflect upon the coming difference, 29-30 degrees here to 6-8 in Lund on Tuesday. After waiting for relatives to visit, in vain it turned out, Marie and i went by metro at 5 PM to Esplanade and the tram depot, because I wanted to see the tram museum, in a converted carriage from 1938. Interesting to read about the history, first horse-drawn tram in 1873, and first electric one ran i 1902. After this we again went by metro to Rabindra Sadan, and from there walk to Minto Park and Dr Batra. As always in the metro nowadays i always is given a seat in the senior citizens department in the front of every carriage. At Dr Batra, Marie was given her medicine to cure her loss of hair, and I got Parkinson medicine for the coming 12 month. Uber taxi back home, at 8 PM, dinner prepared by Rana anGHood food (prasad) was served agterwaurds.d Bonnie..
Sunday 10 February Visiting Sudipta Bhattacharya, ICCR guest professor at Copenhagen Business School (CBS) 2011, invited to Lund for SASNET seminar and inspired us to ask Government of India for a ICCR professorship also at Lund, which we were given for four years. Uber taxi there at 6 PM with a reckless driver who dropped us at wrong address, that made us have to walk extra distance. Once there we had a nice evening with delicious food and intellectual talk on politics. Sudipta is still working as professor in Economics at Vishwa Bharati University in Shantiniketan, and his sweet wife works as a teacher in Jhargram whereas their daughter studies English at Presidency Universitity. The day was Saraswati puja, the yearly feast to the goddess of learning and culture, therefore extremely popular in Bengal. I bought an image last year, and that Rana used for a ceremony on the terrace outside our flat. In late morning,. Then we went by yellow taxi to Munjinis place near Hazra bridge, and experienced a communal puja organised by the neighbours. Lot of good food was served as prasad. home at 3 and after a vie whose we entertained guests, first an old friend of Bubu, and then Koka and his wife, from village Bagnan. Long time since we met last time. I created good mood by finding photos from their wedding in 1991 in my Cloud collection, and also photos of Koka at picnics during the 1990s.
Monday 11 February Final full day in Kolkata
Tuesday 12 February Air India flight Kolkata-Delhi at 10.25