On 1 July, we had quite a crowd at the Botanics. We had an hour longwalk with newcomers Marco brought by Francesca, Tuna brought by me,and Chi brought by Vineet. A lot of amateur photography of flowers andof course of the Banyan tree ensures good turnout at the Botanics.Good to see Gherda and Rajesh Nath after a long break. We've sortedout the next venues so please note or look up on our websitewww.calcuttahashgroup.blogspot.com
*8th July Victoria Memorial ticket entrance below the Flyover wherethere is also Parking. Breakfast at Chat Junction on Camac Street
*15th July Horticultural Gardens entrance on Belvedere road near theTicket counter. Breakfast at Taj Bengal
22 July Swabhumi Lakes Breakfast at Rajesh Nath's
29th July Trip to Chandernagore and if we can get extra bus we can take the art school children on their long promised trip.

Hash fees:
Guest hashers : 200
Hashers: 100
To join 500
Subscription Rs.1000 starts 1st July. Valid till end 2007
P.S. Please renew your membership to the French Association. Allmembers are invited to the 14th July celebrations at the Hyatt and Ihave inside news that Pascale of Bollywood will be belting outbollywood numbers so please wear disco colours
;-D Neela

Botanic Gardens & Taj, Shankarpur and Shantiniketan and Alcha

While some regulars and newcomers went to the Botanics and the Taj for breakfast, others were away on a weekend out of town. Siddiqui and Kristina and her kids enjoyed their beach outing to Shankarpur. A bus that leaves at 6:30am costs Rs.90 and takes 4 hours to reach. Hotels like the Ashoka charge Rs.375 for a double room. You can slide down the sand dunes to reach the beach. There's swimming or rather wading as the Indians are used to on the empty and clean beach. Siddiqui says one can buy lots of large shells at Rs.15 while the smaller ones are Rs.2-3. You can see millions of red crabs on the lonely stretches of the beach. They had lovely prawns (Rs.20 each) in malai curry and basic Indian fare of daal, jhurjhure alubhaja and phulkas. Another trip had better be planned soon, as my mouth is watering already.
Jennifer came down from Hyderabad and with Padminie's pal Benoit a documentary maker and an ex DJ with Radio Nova and Dusty Tape blogger, we took the Shantiniketan Express on Saturday to Shantiniketan for theSaturday haat and Nandan Mela student's campus art show where along with the art installations like the Korean giant fish there was an international food fest organized by the students where we ate fried flowers and bhanrer chai. We ate breakfast and dinner at Alcha and met with old friends who are potters, artists and musicians there and Nayana's mom with whom we had cocktails and mua. It's always a treat to go back to the peace and quiet of Shantiniketan. Abhishek who will host us on Sunday at his residence Basu Bati was in Shantiniketan with his family who pointed out to me where pati shaptas– pancakes were available at the haat. Chiru had given Benoit and Jen a tour of the Santal village dropping them to the haat before heading back to Cal. for a wedding reception. Benoit sang lots of our favourite French songs and we penned Alcha postcards to old hashers like Andy, Francois and Padminie. Bappa Ganguly, Nayana's cousin who goes to Shantiniketan every Saturday, took the Ganadevta trainback with us. On the 3 hour train journey back we ate things like jhaal muri, chiki, shon papri which were explained to Benoit as muesli, rice crispies and cotton candy!
Looking forward to seeing a large group at Statesman House on 10th Dec at 7:30 am to go to Basu Bati and walk around North Calcutta. Monica Positano tells me there is an Italian DJ performing at Fusion, Golden Park on Saturday night and we have to go and meet him. The Revolutionary Saturday Hash is on, on so look out for email from the krh3. krh3.blogspot.com Please confirm whether you are joining us on Sunday by calling to wishme on my birthday tomorrow!
Cheers,
Neela
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