tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60334823794215532432024-02-19T00:43:55.898-08:00Saswata's BlogSaswatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02985091271635584453noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033482379421553243.post-13176040134704639152018-12-01T08:40:00.001-08:002018-12-01T18:45:18.187-08:00Assam Revisited
A few days back Sailada asked me if I could come to Gowhati (or is it Guahati these days?) for a tournament in place of N P Kabiraj as he has fallen sick.
Imagine ! me in lieu of kabirajda ! Back in 1984 or 85, when I was trying desperately to learn this game, I remember reading in the newspaper that N P Kabiraj has been selected to represent India in some event. His surname Saswatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02985091271635584453noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033482379421553243.post-26246731841687953162017-12-08T22:00:00.001-08:002017-12-10T05:06:42.325-08:00Defaulter's Day Out
The Prelude:
Last saturday I broke my promise what I made to myself about 5 years back : Not to play in Calcutta till I felt like playing. Well I felt like playing & played in a one-day at Salt Lake. ( Promises are meant to be broken, isn't it?)
As a consequence, I was tempted to and agreed to , this time with Pinu, for yesterday's State championship.
I had a stiff neck and a Saswatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02985091271635584453noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033482379421553243.post-68692344604487643122016-09-17T18:28:00.001-07:002016-09-17T18:47:57.046-07:00In Assam It Rains
In Assam it rains. No, not mere water droplets from above ,but Hospitality (with a capital H) from within the hearts of the PMDBA members. Yes, that is Pandu Maligaon District Bridge Association.
As we stepped forth from Gowhati station,
( who cares if it is now Guahati or Guwahati , for me , it is always Gowhati as Madras is Madras and Bombay is Bombay), Ranada
(Saswatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02985091271635584453noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033482379421553243.post-19538314915695572292014-04-26T06:08:00.000-07:002014-04-26T06:08:15.135-07:00Flying a Pigeon: Revival of a lost passion
When this little piece of paper fell into my hands, I could not help sharing it. Any comment or Commentary will do injustice to this little piece of gem
Saswatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02985091271635584453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033482379421553243.post-40804216803459471362013-07-22T07:13:00.000-07:002013-07-24T06:50:47.076-07:00Yet another ID card
The other day I came across an ID card issued by our Bridge authority. A very nice looking card of the PAN card size with your picture in it. Nicely laminated too. That set me thinking. What is special in this card? Taking cue from the modern way of comparison ,I made this following chart.
Can open Bank a/c
Can book Tatkal Ticket
Can get entry fee discountSaswatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02985091271635584453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033482379421553243.post-83856735112488391772013-07-19T23:31:00.001-07:002013-07-24T06:42:14.510-07:00Debuda
দেবুদা চলে গেলেন .
He was carrying a razor sharp mind of 49 years in his 69 year old frail body. A typical Bhatpara Brahmin of বশিষ্ট lineage, his ancestors were proud Aryans of Kanauj (Kanpur) who migrated to this culturally fertile land of Bhatpara to hone their wit & intellect.
He did not disappoint his ancestors.
He had all the hallmark of a Saswatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02985091271635584453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033482379421553243.post-10555933051525673152012-06-10T01:16:00.001-07:002013-06-19T07:12:06.678-07:00
Raimatang & Lepchaka
The person who caused me to take up pen keyboard is Karna Bahadur Chhetri of Buxa... but , well, lets start from the beginning.
Son's summer vacation was preponed by the wish of G Mamata Banerjee ( & she did the right thing, didn't she?) & I tried desperately to prepone our journey ticket. But Mr. Tribedi must have left some Saswatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02985091271635584453noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033482379421553243.post-6308151788354239542011-04-04T07:41:00.000-07:002013-06-19T07:14:01.859-07:00Hmmm... not bad
free web counterSaswatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02985091271635584453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033482379421553243.post-10278090864848523012011-01-15T06:11:00.000-08:002011-02-12T06:52:27.228-08:00Revisiting the Land of God  DAY 9 Epilogue as a prologue The Cohin-Gauhati Express arrived at Chennai Central at 9.35AM,exactly 30 minutes after its scheduled arrival. It was to stop here for 25 minutes--so the printout from the timetable said. Myself & Bhaskar were the first to disembark & ran towards the outlets of AnanthBhavan,a reputed food joint, to buy our lunches & Saswatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02985091271635584453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033482379421553243.post-65141351441746966802010-02-10T07:47:00.000-08:002010-02-10T07:50:42.420-08:00curtsey: oopsie daisyLast night at my apartment...A Boy: Do you have a pair of pliers?Me: Yeah, I think so.I go to the closet and return with a brown and white striped Henri Bendel shopping bag that serves as my toolbox. After rifling through my collection of flimsy tools with blue plastic handles, I finally produce, with much flair, a pair of pliers. I hand them to A Boy and bat my eyelashes.Me: Aren't you proud of Saswatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02985091271635584453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033482379421553243.post-31030096896846884772010-02-10T07:34:00.000-08:002010-02-10T07:36:34.993-08:00Curtsey :A dollop of daisy "Co-worker: What? You don't have an alternative Twitter account where you spew hatred and vitriol just to get them out of your system?Me: Um... That's my normal Twitter account.Co-worker: Oh yeah. Right."Saswatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02985091271635584453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033482379421553243.post-83091517269607844612009-03-15T04:54:00.001-07:002009-03-17T07:08:37.003-07:00Bridge in Bengal---- through an opaque glassFor a long time I was thinking of writing on the Expert Bridge players as I saw them.My knowledge on them is very much limited to what I felt at the table- when I was fortunate or unfortunate enough to sit across them—so , in all probability, these will be a very distorted view.Also, I don’t often get to be their opponent. Usually they play at a higher table.But elimination rounds at matchpoint Saswatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02985091271635584453noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033482379421553243.post-71077900845170720212008-01-12T00:18:00.000-08:002008-05-08T06:31:31.137-07:00Hustling Kaushik.For a loooooong time I was thinking of spending a few quiet days in the Dooars alone.. well, not exactly alone, but with the company of one or two who would not disturb every now & then with sundry requests/orders/problems.A view of Mangpoo from the Bungalow of the Director of Sinkona Plantation(Now Abandonned)After searching a lot I finally zeroed on Kaushik.He, being an internee, can manageSaswatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02985091271635584453noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033482379421553243.post-30185997761768462642007-10-10T05:51:00.000-07:002008-01-25T23:41:26.496-08:00Operation BhilaiThe time was most auspicious. All good players were tired from their trip from Nainital playing the beautiful tournament there & coming by a not so beautiful Amritasar Mail.And the specialists had gone to Shanghai for Bermuda Bowl ( Judging from their result, one can wonder whether Denny Sakul's coaching was that effective- but it's a different story).So, it was in the hope of getting an easySaswatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02985091271635584453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033482379421553243.post-87523305070724650502007-06-05T06:56:00.000-07:002009-06-25T05:33:03.771-07:00A Visit to Tea Gardens at DooarsOn a bright summer afternoon I had the misfortune to be hoaxed by my brother in law Parikshit into believing that there exists a juice shop near Baker Hostel where one can have a big glassful of juice for 5 bucks.A cab got us there for Rs.30/- & when , after drinking that juice for Rs.10/- (no, not Rs.5/-) I pointed out that everywhere we can have better & more juice at the same rate, he Saswatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02985091271635584453noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033482379421553243.post-66427156886347636582007-06-04T21:58:00.000-07:002009-06-25T05:35:42.549-07:00At sealdah stationAs the days passed by, possibilities of spending a nice vacation in some Manager's Bungalow in the midst of a tea garden began to raise excitement in me. Little did I have any inkling about the way we'd have to spend our nights!Somebody was arranging our tickets to Dooars (course, there was no Rly station named Dooars--but nobody was sure of the exact railway station we gotta get down, let alone Saswatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02985091271635584453noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033482379421553243.post-64403704253518221402007-06-03T21:58:00.000-07:002009-06-25T06:07:36.785-07:00The Mysterious MadhudaAs the train approached New Jalpaiguri, cellphone activity increased. Priyanka was discussing about our destination to some Madhuda who was to come to the station to receive us.We had to go to New Alipurduar.For that here was a beautiful train from Sealdah- Kanchyankanya Exp. or Uttarbanga Exp that goes upto New Coochbehar.Why didn't we come by that train?Of course there were reasons-- I can't Saswatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02985091271635584453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033482379421553243.post-22693687337108995682007-06-02T21:58:00.000-07:002009-06-25T06:31:25.873-07:00Medical Camp at Srinathpur & ....the chickenI forgot to mention (can't blame me after the mosquito net episode) that last night, before we slept or tried to sleep, Sumanda (Sumon Goswamy), a serious social worker with in depth knowledge of the Tea Gardens, came to meet us. He encouraged us a lot & put refinements to our program after consultation with Chanchalda. (Incidentally we didn't get to meet Chanchalda again-he was busy with Saswatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02985091271635584453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033482379421553243.post-15274795727427698602007-06-01T21:58:00.000-07:002009-06-25T05:59:56.098-07:00Climax of IB story at Srinathpur/(Shinkata?)Everything set in places nicely. Except that Jayanta still didn't get his room. Poor Jayanta didn't get to sleep last night. After he dropped us at Alipurduar from Mathura, he had to go to Siliguri driving an ambulance & from there he came straight to pick us up in the morning.The chowkidars made our beds, arranged mosquito nets, blankets & everything.3 nice rooms were all ready. I even Saswatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02985091271635584453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033482379421553243.post-19741597655218624512007-05-31T21:58:00.003-07:002012-02-25T17:17:57.769-08:00Raimatang & ChinchulaNext morning was no different from the previous one. But Sumanda was with us & we had the very same breakfast at Neelkamal.At Kalchini we tried to get some bread for lunch- but there wasn't any.We went to Raimatang first.A very special person named Sankarbabu was waiting for us.He is/was the pharmacist of the garden hospital.Now it is his hospital ( a doctor visits once a week though).The Saswatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02985091271635584453noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033482379421553243.post-39865285684789671742007-05-30T21:58:00.000-07:002009-06-25T06:23:23.675-07:00The Bharnobari, at lastNext & last day for us.The famous or infamous, much publicised,the biggest of the Dooars gardens & according to many, the most affected of all gardens lay ahead for us .This was a sunday- sunday is the day when relief comes here from Siliguri.Siliguri Welfare Association has been organising relief in a grand scale for the past two weeks & this is the 3rd consecutive week Saswatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02985091271635584453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033482379421553243.post-60833974790586298282007-05-29T07:26:00.000-07:002009-06-25T06:13:55.172-07:00back to calcuttaWe left Bharnobari around 1.30pm & reached coochbehar around 4.There was much excitement near Buxa range office when we saw a couple of elephants by the roadside jungle.Thinking that they were wild ones we spend a few minutes as well as camera exposures.However the excitement didn't last long.(The garden Hospital at Malanga)-looks nice, eh?The roadside joint at Coochbehar Chow-matha deservesSaswatahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02985091271635584453noreply@blogger.com0