Victoria Memorial - Flury's - Marble Palace

We met at the Victoria Memorial and I waited with Yvonnick for Margarette, her friend Jennifer from Hyderabad here for the weekend, and Usha. Carl, Siddiqui, Zoria were already inside. Rajesh Nath was back from his holiday in Germany pre World Cup. This was Niti’s last hash before she moves to Bombay.
We walked around the Victoria Memorial and took pictures of the building, trees and early morning strollers in their various activities from frisbee to yoga. The sound and light show in English is at 7:45 p.m. but stops during the monsoons. This is not to be confused with the musical fountains outside.
The sky was darkening by 8 am when we reached back to the gate under the flyover and headed in various cars to Flury’s for breakfast. We needed to kill a couple of hours before the Marble Palace opened at 10 am and the slow service at Flury’s made it the obvious choice. The service was slow as usual, but breakfasters didn’t complain of the quality of food. Different dishes were tried out from almond croissants to ham and cheese croissants. Ritika even swears by the coffee at Flury’s. Flury’s also serves lunch and dinner and that’s lucky because what with the prices and slow service, the hashers may not be able to breakfast there too often. The T3 on the opposite pavement is the Hasher’s choice. By the time the food arrived and the rains stopped, Zoria had to run away in haste after breakfast and Usha went home with Carl to change into a sari for a memorial service and a birthday.
We went on to Marble Palace with Yvonnick surrounded by a harem, which from the Statesman house included Lilly and Seema. We walked around the gardens looking at the stone lions, the walking pelicans and the Giant squirrel. We enjoyed talking to Mr. Hirendro Mullick, and after our visit comparing Yvonnick's nose to Queen Victoria's, Ritika sang Rabindra Sangeet for the three generations of Mullicks while we sat on the steps enjoying the weather. We even had our fresh coconut water outside the gate.

TARATALA NATURE PARK - TAJ

Taratala Nature Park is also known as The Mudiali Fisherman's Cooperative. Gherdie came after a long absence and was welcomed as was newcomer Simar, Tony's daughter who has joined the hash and will hash with us whenever she is in town. She left the next day for Bangalore with tel. nos. of the hash groups in the South. Yvonnick and I were delayed reaching at the level crossing where we waited on his bike beside the fisherman carrying fresh fish in a pot behind their bicycles.

Chef Yvonnick was shown some of the fish and verified that they were indeed fresh.

We reached to find the hash group, visible thanks to Tony's orange Taj Hash T shirt, being given a talk by a Nature Park warden in their green shirts.

Usha and Doc were listening intently. Zoria and Natalie were happy to lead the pack at a brisk pace all around the park, passing the swings, the bamboo benches and restaurant area and the fisher folk catching fish in their nets wading through the water.


George would have been tickled to see the large water snake that climbed out onto the bank towrads the hashers because the waters were being agitated byy the fishermen and fish were flying everywhere!

We saw birds, tamarind flowers, and bel, champa and frangipani trees. But the most interesting animals were the dromedaries beside the deer cage.

We hadn't been to the park for a while as the Flyover was in progress and the changes there were many.
The sign outside the Nature Park and Cooperative, Rs.10 entrance, says that it has generated employment for about 800 people at an investment of Rs.5 lakhs from the government and Rs.5.4 lakhs from the cooperative society of Mudiali fishermen.
Yvonnick took tons of pictures and some will be put up on the blogspot.

Belgachia Jain Temple - Chennai Kitchen

7 hashers met in front of Statesman House and took two cabs to the Belgachia Jain Temple. As it was Buddha Purnima on Saturday, there was some festival at the temple with a shamiana outside with many saffron dhoti clad priests and many men and women inside the temple reading scriptures and making offerings of rice.
The main offerings were almonds and I think peeled Musambi oranges tho some of us wondered whether they were mangoes or potatoes as they were covered in saffron or turmeric.

There were a number of structures and four gates. We had a leisurely stroll around and were finally joined by Yvonnick who brought along his camera. Then the 8 of us, Yvonnick, Lilly, Francois, Sid, carl, Usha and I along with guest Seema boarded a slow tram at the depot, back towards Lal Bazaar.

We took lots of pictures in the compound of the Jain temple and Yvonnick took lots of pictures on the tram ride.
We then walked back from Lal Bazaar to Bentink Street and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at Chennai Kitchen where the foreigners and I were able to sample, some for the first time, rawa dosas, Pao Bhajis (favourite), aloo puri along with mango juices, lassis and coffee.
Yvonnick had a long chat with Usha about their hobby photography and Francois, back in town for a short stint to collect his first hash t shirt, had us in stitches.

Neela 9830014934

BOTANICS - TAJ BENGAL
The hashers met at 7am in front of the main gate of the Botanical Gardens. We found it without getting lost. Once inside we all got lost in various directions. Nishant accompanied Nitish and Rachna. Priyanka brought a guest. Niti waited for the Poddars at the circle. We still managed to converge at the gate at 8 am sharp to pile into cars to head back to The Taj for breakfast in our new Taj T Shirts.

Next week we've decided to do something cultural for new hashers Lilly, Priyanka, Sunita and Niti who are all keen to discover North Calcutta.