NEW YEAR'S EVE BASH
Those interested in spending the first hours of the New Year with the hashers – the party is at my place on New Year’s Eve.
Food and booze at Rs.300.
I’m collecting on Thursday at the British Club so please be there to be persuaded by Nitish, Francois, Saw and me to join us! Address for party Block G 419 New Alipore, Calcutta 700058.
The New Year’s Bash is in Neela’s garden
Food, drinks and music or wine, women and song
Please specify your tipple of choice.
Neela
9830014934
We are expecting about 60 people (hashers, 20 members of the Jazz Club plus visitors from abroad)
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
RIVER FESTIVAL starts
Dear Hashers and friends,
After our Sunderbans trip here's another opportunity to go with the flow with Bonani:
"Come join the River Festival.
Celebrations begin with a Walk for the River
- December 27, 8.30 am, Prinsep Ghat to Millenium Park.
Organised by the CMDA - it's surprisingly fun."
Season's greetings,
Neela
Dear Hashers and friends,
After our Sunderbans trip here's another opportunity to go with the flow with Bonani:
"Come join the River Festival.
Celebrations begin with a Walk for the River
- December 27, 8.30 am, Prinsep Ghat to Millenium Park.
Organised by the CMDA - it's surprisingly fun."
Season's greetings,
Neela
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Last Hash of 2005, picnic and suchlike pandemonium near Park Circus Maidan
Meet: Park Circus Sun 18th December at 7:30am Park cars opp. Lady Brabourne College. By 8:30 in cars to artists Tandra Chandra & Pulak Ghosh’s res. a Sunday School for Art & Crafts @ 7/1 Asgar Mistry Lane. Left past Chittaranjan Hospital. Right turn opp. Ladies’ Park into lane next to Nepal Chandra Sweets. Past level crossing turn right, then left at the Adarsha Sangha Club. When we come to an open field the house is 2nd on left. Picnic breakfast with Tandra and also interaction with the kids.
On the last Sunday Hash of December 2005, we will visit the Park Circus that in our 5 years we have never visited as a hash walk. We will no doubt see lots of early morning walkers but not too sure about the birds.
We then go to visit the Sunday School for Art & Crafts for underprivileged children near Park Circus whose project this year is Rickshaws. Rajesh Nath, Gherdie, Sid, the Dutch and others had visisted the school last year when the theme was boats. Their artwork will be on display and Tandra, their teacher who is a stain glass expert and has renovated Bengali renaissance writer, social activist and educationist Vidyasagar's house will organise a picnic breakfast for us there. Tandra will offer us tea and sandwiches but those who are expert at cakes and cookies, this is your turn to shine. I can still taste Barbara’s delicious star shaped cookies and Sid’s fruit cake! Zoria and others can be counted on to bring fruits. It’s Francois Birthday this Sunday 18th december, and hopefully his mother will join us too so we’ll have one Birthday cake ;-D (Francois you’d better be reading this)
The art school kids get in at 9 and we’ll be able to see the display of their artwork. It was thrown open at the breakfast last Sunday that whatever hash cash is collected that day will be given to the School for art supplies for the kids. They can give us the receipts for our records. Next year when we go to Satragachi or the zoo we could take the Sunday school kids on an outing with us.
Met Peter, Rosie and their son Sam who reached the gate to the Park Circus Maidan opposite the Lady Brabourne college in Doc's car. I reached there with Francois, his mom and Wanja.
We saw the Ajanta Circus Big Top and the elephants. There were hundreds of early morning cricketers. Sam took loads of pictures. We then discovered a Traffic Park where drivers are taught traffic rules. We thought it might be an amusement park with miniature cars going around the tracks stopping at the zebra crossings and all. We took a walk around the perimeter of the park passing Don Bosco school and the statue of Don Bosco with kids in the middle of the road. Doc pointed out the Lady Brabourne college ladies hostel.
Amazingly, we didn't get lost on the way to Tandra's house. Wanja had a blast pulling the Rickshaw in the garden that will find its way to a museum in Scotland. Everyone is welcome to go and see the song of the Rickshaw exhibition before it leaves for Scotland in February. The children's miniature rickshaws painted in vibrant colours are being assembled slowly and beautifully. Peter posed for photographs with the gaily painted umbrellas.
We were able to buy some of their craftwork such as Papier Mache masks, bowls, boxes and penstands for around Rs.30. They've made delightful Xmas presents for friends.
A sculptor in clay showed us his tableau of street sleepers of Calcutta - frogs in various reclining positions that can be bought for Rs.500 each.
Francois nearly bought a lovely scultpture for Rs.1500 but didn't have the cash on him.
Tandra then showed us her studio and all her stained glass work and Doc was keen to buy one of her owls or Lakhi Pecha. We also saw the view from the terrace while Tandra took out her paintings. We saw the muslim cemeteries which unfortunately though green and beautiful, is not open to hashers according to the Doc! We saw the leather drying and mistook them for Dhobi Ghats and laundry being hung out. Peter pointed out the new church on the Bypass and Doc pointed out the highrises of Saltlake and the new towns.
By this time, Francois and Wanja were dropping from sleep as we'd had a Saturday Barbecue Hash Bash on Saw's terrace and a late night Birthday party at H2O at The Park poolside where Yvonnick had organised the best chocolate cake ever and Himanshu came finally to finish the last piece and give us a hairraising ride home.
We took our leave and our parcels of handicrafts and promised Tandra that we would take the kids to santragachi or a Picnic.
Meet: Park Circus Sun 18th December at 7:30am Park cars opp. Lady Brabourne College. By 8:30 in cars to artists Tandra Chandra & Pulak Ghosh’s res. a Sunday School for Art & Crafts @ 7/1 Asgar Mistry Lane. Left past Chittaranjan Hospital. Right turn opp. Ladies’ Park into lane next to Nepal Chandra Sweets. Past level crossing turn right, then left at the Adarsha Sangha Club. When we come to an open field the house is 2nd on left. Picnic breakfast with Tandra and also interaction with the kids.
On the last Sunday Hash of December 2005, we will visit the Park Circus that in our 5 years we have never visited as a hash walk. We will no doubt see lots of early morning walkers but not too sure about the birds.
We then go to visit the Sunday School for Art & Crafts for underprivileged children near Park Circus whose project this year is Rickshaws. Rajesh Nath, Gherdie, Sid, the Dutch and others had visisted the school last year when the theme was boats. Their artwork will be on display and Tandra, their teacher who is a stain glass expert and has renovated Bengali renaissance writer, social activist and educationist Vidyasagar's house will organise a picnic breakfast for us there. Tandra will offer us tea and sandwiches but those who are expert at cakes and cookies, this is your turn to shine. I can still taste Barbara’s delicious star shaped cookies and Sid’s fruit cake! Zoria and others can be counted on to bring fruits. It’s Francois Birthday this Sunday 18th december, and hopefully his mother will join us too so we’ll have one Birthday cake ;-D (Francois you’d better be reading this)
The art school kids get in at 9 and we’ll be able to see the display of their artwork. It was thrown open at the breakfast last Sunday that whatever hash cash is collected that day will be given to the School for art supplies for the kids. They can give us the receipts for our records. Next year when we go to Satragachi or the zoo we could take the Sunday school kids on an outing with us.
Met Peter, Rosie and their son Sam who reached the gate to the Park Circus Maidan opposite the Lady Brabourne college in Doc's car. I reached there with Francois, his mom and Wanja.
We saw the Ajanta Circus Big Top and the elephants. There were hundreds of early morning cricketers. Sam took loads of pictures. We then discovered a Traffic Park where drivers are taught traffic rules. We thought it might be an amusement park with miniature cars going around the tracks stopping at the zebra crossings and all. We took a walk around the perimeter of the park passing Don Bosco school and the statue of Don Bosco with kids in the middle of the road. Doc pointed out the Lady Brabourne college ladies hostel.
Amazingly, we didn't get lost on the way to Tandra's house. Wanja had a blast pulling the Rickshaw in the garden that will find its way to a museum in Scotland. Everyone is welcome to go and see the song of the Rickshaw exhibition before it leaves for Scotland in February. The children's miniature rickshaws painted in vibrant colours are being assembled slowly and beautifully. Peter posed for photographs with the gaily painted umbrellas.
We had lots of sandwiches and Peter had brought a fruitcake for Francois' birthday. Over tea we saw the children's artwork.
A sculptor in clay showed us his tableau of street sleepers of Calcutta - frogs in various reclining positions that can be bought for Rs.500 each.
Francois nearly bought a lovely scultpture for Rs.1500 but didn't have the cash on him.
Tandra then showed us her studio and all her stained glass work and Doc was keen to buy one of her owls or Lakhi Pecha. We also saw the view from the terrace while Tandra took out her paintings. We saw the muslim cemeteries which unfortunately though green and beautiful, is not open to hashers according to the Doc! We saw the leather drying and mistook them for Dhobi Ghats and laundry being hung out. Peter pointed out the new church on the Bypass and Doc pointed out the highrises of Saltlake and the new towns.
By this time, Francois and Wanja were dropping from sleep as we'd had a Saturday Barbecue Hash Bash on Saw's terrace and a late night Birthday party at H2O at The Park poolside where Yvonnick had organised the best chocolate cake ever and Himanshu came finally to finish the last piece and give us a hairraising ride home.
We took our leave and our parcels of handicrafts and promised Tandra that we would take the kids to santragachi or a Picnic.
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Central Park
Salt Lake central Park is rather far away and by the time we coordinated to arrive in convoy with Shelley and Andy riding with him, it was around 7:45. Himanshu, a long lost brother of Kartikeyan, zipped me, Francois, Wanja and Pete down from Ranchi, there. We would have made it in record time, but Shelley being from Chandigarh and not familiar with Salt Lake wasn’t able to keep up with us after we took off from rv point at ITC. I was on mobile duty with Andy and Nil who decided to walk across from his house across the road leaving Dev enjoying his birthday sleep! Sid and Tony were also there.
Nil was able to give us a guided tour starting from the map of Central Park marked with every Japanese lamp and Pagoda. We walked over the bridge past the fishermen who have to pay Rs.150 if they catch fish upto 15 kg. We saw them making the bait with ants eggs and sweets! The artificial lake, in which Nil used to swim up till 7 years ago, isn’t too deep. We didn’t see any umbrellas or love birds! There were egrets but there were so many cement pandas and crocs that we nearly mistook them for more artificial animals! We saw an elephant slide in the Children’s park and Wanja and the others were most distressed to see an 8 legged elephant that had been carved in two. Sid and Wanja fled from the topiary dinosaur and Andy took more Jurassic Park pictures. We posed in an evolutionary pyramid where normally flowerpots are placed! By 8:30 Sid was shooing us out of the garden and though we walked under the pergola we couldn’t get out that way. We doubled back and swapped passengers. Andy came in our car and Wanja went with Sid and Tony.
We were 9 for breakfast at the Taj and sat at a smaller table closer to the pool. Zoria, visiting the Taj to take her friends staying there to Chandernagore, brought 3 T shirts from Pradeep. These were given to Tony, Andy and Wanja (Yvonnick’s African bride). Yvonnick wasn’t able to join us on Sunday and on Tuesday he was busy posing for wedding photos with Ruth in a borrowed wedding gown from Mother Teresa’s and orange make up! I’ll leave you with that picture.
Salt Lake central Park is rather far away and by the time we coordinated to arrive in convoy with Shelley and Andy riding with him, it was around 7:45. Himanshu, a long lost brother of Kartikeyan, zipped me, Francois, Wanja and Pete down from Ranchi, there. We would have made it in record time, but Shelley being from Chandigarh and not familiar with Salt Lake wasn’t able to keep up with us after we took off from rv point at ITC. I was on mobile duty with Andy and Nil who decided to walk across from his house across the road leaving Dev enjoying his birthday sleep! Sid and Tony were also there.
Nil was able to give us a guided tour starting from the map of Central Park marked with every Japanese lamp and Pagoda. We walked over the bridge past the fishermen who have to pay Rs.150 if they catch fish upto 15 kg. We saw them making the bait with ants eggs and sweets! The artificial lake, in which Nil used to swim up till 7 years ago, isn’t too deep. We didn’t see any umbrellas or love birds! There were egrets but there were so many cement pandas and crocs that we nearly mistook them for more artificial animals! We saw an elephant slide in the Children’s park and Wanja and the others were most distressed to see an 8 legged elephant that had been carved in two. Sid and Wanja fled from the topiary dinosaur and Andy took more Jurassic Park pictures. We posed in an evolutionary pyramid where normally flowerpots are placed! By 8:30 Sid was shooing us out of the garden and though we walked under the pergola we couldn’t get out that way. We doubled back and swapped passengers. Andy came in our car and Wanja went with Sid and Tony.
We were 9 for breakfast at the Taj and sat at a smaller table closer to the pool. Zoria, visiting the Taj to take her friends staying there to Chandernagore, brought 3 T shirts from Pradeep. These were given to Tony, Andy and Wanja (Yvonnick’s African bride). Yvonnick wasn’t able to join us on Sunday and on Tuesday he was busy posing for wedding photos with Ruth in a borrowed wedding gown from Mother Teresa’s and orange make up! I’ll leave you with that picture.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Sunderbans Boat Cruise
We were 32 on the Boat to the Sunderbans and 32 waiting for George early in the morning in front of the Parcomat. The Bus was delayed so we flagged a passing newspaper vendor and bought The Telegraph etc. to while away the time early in the morning so as not to spend all our time cursing, complaining and whining for having to be there at 6 and then only leaving just before 7am. I called Hasher Nil and Dev whose picture was in the papers. Why shouldn’t he be awake too at 6:30 to hear that their names and Yvonnick’s was in the Page 3!
We still reached at 9 after stopping for our traditional Bengali sweet “nikhuti” and tea on the run. Lots of fruits and chicken sandwiches were also passed around. Andy and I were having intensive Spanish lessons and driving Afroz, Manish and their friends from last Thursday at the British Club quite crazy with our giggle fest. Francois became the butt of all the Spanish insults and Yvonnick or el queso grande or Big cheese got all the compliments. Although they wanted to stop and take pictures of the prawn farms and other scenery, we drove right through just stopping for the pit stop to refuel with mineral water! No one hid Doc’s pillow on this trip. However our traditional game of scoop the hat out of the Ganga happened when my bamboo and batik hat that Zoria was using to cover her face while sunbathing near the prow of the boat fell into the water. Pradeep managed to keep his cap on and Aditi managed to keep her hat on too. The poles were taken out and the hat retrieved and flung on my head giving me an even worse hair day.
I spent the rest of the journey covering up my spiky hair with a Bibi Russell scarf tied like a turban by Tony being called sardarni and Negrita Neela when Andy tied it on me like in the Caribbean. Uppal, Tony and Shelley’s friend gave me his detachable turban to pose in as Shelley was with camera taking loads of pictures of the hashers considering that that was the extent of all the wild animals we spotted. We saw a monitor lizard, deer and monkeys, and crocs in the reserves. We visited the museum and took pictures of a real bat that was part of the diorama. Some bought bottles of honey for Rs.50 and Rs.100. and Breakfast was lutchis, pickles and chhola, omelettes, and fruit. Lunch was chicken curry, kurkure alu bhaja, papad, tomato chutney, etc. Tea was some sort of fried snacks and salad. Kevin and Sana were thrilled with the visit in the creeks where we saw Kingfishers and sand pipers, parakeets and butterflies! Andy was convinced it was the same kingfisher following us around! So we were happy to just enjoy the cruise and the scrabble and crossword. I got stuck on the clue fish but Aditi came up with sardine and we were able to complete the crossword. The singing was disappointing as The French contingent only sang one song and tho’ Andy comes from Puerto Rico, the land of Ricky Martin, he really can’t carry a tune to save his life. But hey nobody’s perfect. Carl and The sardars had a bar on the side of the boat and Pradeep enjoyed his Kingfishers. The cruise back was cold and luckily I had extra shawls for the guys. We nearly had a titanic experience as there were sand bars too but we reached without incident. We got back before ten to Cal. Juned hatched an Indo Bangaldesh Hash on the Saraswati Puja weekend but more on that later!
We were 32 on the Boat to the Sunderbans and 32 waiting for George early in the morning in front of the Parcomat. The Bus was delayed so we flagged a passing newspaper vendor and bought The Telegraph etc. to while away the time early in the morning so as not to spend all our time cursing, complaining and whining for having to be there at 6 and then only leaving just before 7am. I called Hasher Nil and Dev whose picture was in the papers. Why shouldn’t he be awake too at 6:30 to hear that their names and Yvonnick’s was in the Page 3!
We still reached at 9 after stopping for our traditional Bengali sweet “nikhuti” and tea on the run. Lots of fruits and chicken sandwiches were also passed around. Andy and I were having intensive Spanish lessons and driving Afroz, Manish and their friends from last Thursday at the British Club quite crazy with our giggle fest. Francois became the butt of all the Spanish insults and Yvonnick or el queso grande or Big cheese got all the compliments. Although they wanted to stop and take pictures of the prawn farms and other scenery, we drove right through just stopping for the pit stop to refuel with mineral water! No one hid Doc’s pillow on this trip. However our traditional game of scoop the hat out of the Ganga happened when my bamboo and batik hat that Zoria was using to cover her face while sunbathing near the prow of the boat fell into the water. Pradeep managed to keep his cap on and Aditi managed to keep her hat on too. The poles were taken out and the hat retrieved and flung on my head giving me an even worse hair day.
I spent the rest of the journey covering up my spiky hair with a Bibi Russell scarf tied like a turban by Tony being called sardarni and Negrita Neela when Andy tied it on me like in the Caribbean. Uppal, Tony and Shelley’s friend gave me his detachable turban to pose in as Shelley was with camera taking loads of pictures of the hashers considering that that was the extent of all the wild animals we spotted. We saw a monitor lizard, deer and monkeys, and crocs in the reserves. We visited the museum and took pictures of a real bat that was part of the diorama. Some bought bottles of honey for Rs.50 and Rs.100. and Breakfast was lutchis, pickles and chhola, omelettes, and fruit. Lunch was chicken curry, kurkure alu bhaja, papad, tomato chutney, etc. Tea was some sort of fried snacks and salad. Kevin and Sana were thrilled with the visit in the creeks where we saw Kingfishers and sand pipers, parakeets and butterflies! Andy was convinced it was the same kingfisher following us around! So we were happy to just enjoy the cruise and the scrabble and crossword. I got stuck on the clue fish but Aditi came up with sardine and we were able to complete the crossword. The singing was disappointing as The French contingent only sang one song and tho’ Andy comes from Puerto Rico, the land of Ricky Martin, he really can’t carry a tune to save his life. But hey nobody’s perfect. Carl and The sardars had a bar on the side of the boat and Pradeep enjoyed his Kingfishers. The cruise back was cold and luckily I had extra shawls for the guys. We nearly had a titanic experience as there were sand bars too but we reached without incident. We got back before ten to Cal. Juned hatched an Indo Bangaldesh Hash on the Saraswati Puja weekend but more on that later!
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