Bryam Adams at Pune near Magarpatta City

Last evening as I was returning from office I saw the newly constructed Amanora Shopping Mall (which is just opposite the under construction Magarpatta Shopping Mall) very well lit with big sedans and SUVs entering the complex with eager eyes inside the cars waiting to have a glimpse of Bryan Adams inside the Shopping Mall. Young guys and girls and even middle aged people dressed in their best attires were flocking inside the mall to see him.

Yes, Bryam Adams was in Pune last evening at Amanora Shopping Mall opposite Magarpatta City Mall, just a stones throw away from the Kodre's place at Kirtane Baug in Mundhawa Village where I stay. Tickets were sold at 2K, 5K and 10K prices starting from one month before the event and people did not hesitate to buy tickets at such exorbitant prices to see their singing sensation of whom they have only read in newspapers and watched on television. I had heard about his arrival a month ago from Manish Chandra Malhotra a friend of mine who also stayed on the room beside my room at Mukta Chandra Hostel at Bhujbal Wasti near Hinjewadi-Wakad Bridge.

I waited outside the gates of the Shopping Mall for about 30 minutes to 1 hour to check out whether I can see the famous personality entering the complex but that did not happen instead I saw rich and filthy rich well dressed people arriving at their best cars with their families, friends and dates.

No doubt it was a great experience to see volunteers (young and old) and Maharashtra policemen working hard to keep the narrow stretch of the road traffic-jam free. In the process the police with their long sticks hit poor local people who flouted the traffic rules and were going through the wrong side of the road. That was correct but a bit cunning.

As I entered my room which is about half a kilometer away from the happening place, I heard loud cheering of people, music and voice of the legendary singing sensation's voice hitting my eardrum as it came faintly from far and there was a big halo effect on the sky over the place where the festival was taking place.

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Happy Diwali & Happy Kali Puja 2008

HAPPY DIWALI AND KALIPUJA 2008

 - VAIJAYANTA

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Villain Rain during Durga Puja

Every year in Kolkata and adjoining areas, rain acts as a villain and hampers the enjoyment of the Durga Puja. In the 4 days of the Puja, rain is bound to wash away the enjoyment of people by wetting the streets and the parks where Durga Puja is celebrated, thus raising the temperatue and making the atmosphere hot and humid. The parks where people gather to celebrate the Puja becomes muddy thus makng the new clothes of the worshippers muddy and sandy. Every year this is a major problem for the people who visits pandals to pandals to see the decoration and the Mother Goddess Durga.

To avoid such a phenomenon from taking place the philopsophers who proposes or calculates the date of the Puja must come with a solution to tackle the ever rising problem. They should postpone the Pujas to the beginning of December or any time in the month of December instead of October. Thus the advantage is cold climate that would add the beauty of the Puja as more people could walk from Pujas to Pujas to see the Mother Goddess Durga. Also there would be no rain so no hot and humid climate. Thus the new clothes can be safuguarded form mud and worn at will. More and more new dresses could be worn at that time. Also the fashion statement would be more prevalent in such a situation.

So keeping in mind the benefit of the people we should take measures to postpone the Durga Puja to December. This is a proposal from my end to all. What do you all say?

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First Ever Kolkata Blogger Meet

Scheduled for 21/09/2008 at 16:00 City: Kolkata

Description:

Kolkata's first ever Blogger Meet is going to happen! 

Bloggers all over India (and of course..Kolkata) are cordially invited to the Kolkata Blogger Meet, on September 21, 2008. 

Help us Spread the word about the meet too! You can use this short URL just in case: http://tinyurl.com/BloggerMeet

Venue:

Heera Hotel Inn

51 Elliot Road, (Adjacent Park Street)

Kolkata- 700016

West Bengal, India

PH: +91.033.40111642, +91.033.22291642

Landmark: Near Assembly of God Church School

Proposed by Archit T, a blogger from Kolkata

Website: http://www.indiblogger.in/bloggermeet.php?id=14

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Learn Bengali - Part 00001

To learn Bengali u need to know these Phonetic Romanizations (just pronounce them): -
Swarvarna:-
Aw, aa, hroshoi, dirghoi, hroshou, dirghou, ri, li, aye, oi, o, ou

Banjanvarna:-
Kaw, khaw, gaw, ghaw, ooaw,
Chaw, chhaw, jaw, jhaw, eaaw,
Ta, tha, daw, dhaw, moddhennaw,
Taw, thaw, da, dhaw, dontennaw,
Paw, phaw, baw, bhaw, maw,
Untushto-jaw, raw, law, baw, taliboshaw,
Pet-kata-moddhenno-shaw, donteshshaw, haw, untushto-aw,
Doy-shuno-raw, dhoy-shuno-raw, unnu-shar, bishargo, chandrabindu

For more details refer: -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengali_script

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Ganesh Chaturthi - Why is Lord Ganesha immersed?

There is a story behind the immersion of Ganesha. It is said that Mata Parvati wanted to go her home land. Lord Shiva allowed Her to visit her parents. Just after 1 day after allowing Mata Parvati to visit her home, Lord Shiva sent Ganesha to bring Her back to Kailash. On the day before the Ganesh Chaturthi, Mata Parvati comes to Her home land to visit Her parents. The immersion of Ganesha is the sending back of Mata Parvati and Lord Ganesha to Kailash as there is route from Patala to Kailash.

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Baghbazar Sarbojanin Durgotsav & Exhibition

Website: http://bsde.org/

About the Puja: -

If we talk about festivals then we talk about love and togetherness we think about prosper and an overspread joy around. Once again if we talk about festival we think about some of the flashing moments around the world like; Rio, Paris and our very own KOLKATA and in Kolkata its definitely DURGA-PUJA , and when it comes about the Durga-Puja of Kolkata it ultimately comes to BAGHBAZAR SARBOJONIN DURGOTSAB AND EXHIBITION !!!

The history of human civilization says, people wanted to be together for protection for togetherness and for celebration. Baghbazar Sarbojonin Durgotsab and Exhibition has been with these primal facts for last 88 years with its tradition of synchronizing different ages ideas and people.

In this glorious past it has came through enormous challenges but in the dream of a better world with love and unity; prosperity and happiness it has celebrated Durgotsab the biggest carnival of the country along with other social and cultural activities. Though according to Hindu mythology Devi(Goddess) Durga is the power of defeating the evils and the constructor of peace but the celebration of Durga Puja in this very time is not only a festival or a carnival not even it's a time to strengthen your bond with the people around you and that is being done by this auspicious organization and it will just go on.

NOTE: - This article has been published on the request of Mr. Mihir Kundu of the Puja Committee.

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Rath Yatra 2008 - Bowbazar, Central Kolkata, India

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Bengali Brides at Bengali Marriage Ceremony

Bengali Brides at Bengali Marriage Ceremony

Yesterday, I had the good opportunity of visiting a Grand Wedding Party and there I had clicked some of the pictures of the beautiful women and girls (with their permission) and after clicking each picture, I had showed them how they looked in that snap through my Camers's LCD. Thus I was very happy (in fact for the first time) to click such good pictures. But due to limited space in my flickr and picasa account I could not upload them. But we should keep in mind that "Something is Always Better Than Nothing".

Hope you also enjoy this picture. I am looking forward to get all your feedback in my mail id vaichatt@gmail.com or in the comment section just after this post.

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Front View of South City Mall

Front View of South City Mall

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I had taken many pictures of South City Mall earlier but I had always forgotten to take the front view of the Mall. Today I got it from one of my friend named Paramita who had gone to the Mall yesterday with her hubby for their Marriage Anniversary and she took the photo from the front. Thus I borrowed the pic from her. Thank You Paramita.

If you look carefully, you can see the top portion of one of the towers of South City Towers on the top right hand side of the picture.

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A Grand Walk on Shubho Nabobarsho

Gaurav and I made a Grand Walk from our home at Bowbazar to the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's Statue at Shyambazar 5 point crossing on 14th April, 2008 on the occassion of Bangla Shubho Nabobarsho. I had taken many pictures while walking through Amherst Street, Surjya Sen Street, College Street and Bidhan Sarani.

One of the snap is given above. If you click it you will navigate to my photo blog where all the 25 pictures are kept. Do visit the blog and click the photos individually to see a large image. Also please do comment on the photos taken.

If you directly wanna visit the blog click here: - http://www.flickr.com/photos/vaijayanta/

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Post No: 99th post

Bengali Year 1415 on 2008 - 2009

This Nabobarsho (Bengali Year 1415), we (Gaurav and me) had planned a long walk from my Home to Shyambazar. We did as planned. We started off from my home at 10.30am and as we walked through Amherst Street, Surjya Sen Street, Bankim Chatterjee Street and finally Bidhan Sarani. As we arrived at Bidhan Sarani, I took a snap of Presidency College Gate. After that as we walked towards Shyambazar, we took pictures of all the Heritage Buildings on that road (I am going to post these pics later here) like the existing portion of College Street Market, Lahabari, , Arya Samaj Hall, Hardinge Hall, House of Swami Vivekananda, Bethune College, Scottish Church School and many more.

There was a big mela (fair) going on at Beadon Street. We had a good time there at the mela. Again we took Bidhan Sarani and proceeded towards Shyambazar. At Hatibagan we took a snap of Star Theatre and I charged up myself with a Thumbs Up with Gaurav sitting idle because of his sore throat. At the Citi Mart, I bought myself a Bermuda short and Gaurav helped me with the payment as I was short of money. Finally we took a snap of the Shyambazar tram depot before taking two big snaps of Netaji on a horse at Shyambazar Crossing. With our long journey by walk coming to an end, we took a bus to Bank of India at 1.30pm.

That evening I sat idle before our television talking cute snaps of beauties on television. Mummy had gone to fetch Bui from her friend Gouri’s house and daddy had gone to give his tutorial classes. Mummy even treated us with momo and chow from Momo-Hut, Salt Lake for dinner. It was a wonderful Nabobarsho 2008 for me and was the best Nabobarsho till date. Shubho Nababarsho to You All.

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Post No: 97th post

Shubho Nabobarsho All My Readers

I wish a very very very big Shubho Nabobarsho to all my Readers. May this Bengali New Year bring all around Prosperity and Happiness to All.

I would like to start the year by dedicating the famous Rabindrasangeet to all of you.
"Esho esho, hey boishakh, esho esho"

Have a mishti (sweet), shundor (beautiful) and boro (great) year ahead.
from
Vaijayanta.
CHATTORAJ

Some info about Poila Boishakh (Nabobarsho)
Some info about Bengali Calendar

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Post No: 96th post

My school days

This is what I had written in Anirudh Saria's http://www.dbpc2000.com/ in 2005.

WHAT I MISS MOST?

I miss those classes from 8am to 2pm, tiffin breaks, exams, masti we all had, cricket matches, hand cricket, hand tennis, fests where all the boys knew which girls school is coming and which is not, self composed national anthems, bawaalis, free periods, classes of Mr.Raghunath, Mr.Sambhu Charan Dey, Mr.Kapadia, and so on, intra school competitions, passes for Bosco Beat, Bosco Raag, young moms (our boudis) of junior class kids, Mr.Vanjo and Mr. Crouch's Devdas style, Mr. Peter's puns, our unity during bad times(like the one when Father questioned us who banged the desk), "ohms" sessions by Kalyan, Tristan, Abhiroop, Shaon, etc, jharis at every girl outside the school, momo at Krishnaarpan, functions at our field, sports, panus (thanks to P-kaku), baba-baba cry, giving nicknames to all, "Its a game" boy-Sayan Banerjee, kaoramis, Mr. Ranjit Egg-roll sorry Edward Biswas and Mrs.Chitralekha Gupta(who said "Ai Kalyan tumi hashcho kano?"), Somak Sen's erotic incidents that he did at hi s home and there are many more to the list. But above all I miss you all guys who were all great friends in my school days. The url of my group is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DBPCYear2000Passout/

MY MEMORABLE MOMENTS

1. That Chocolate Bomb Explosion that made every body proud to be a student of Batch 2000. And for that we did not get Farewell.

2. Once Mrs Mukherjee said to me "Vaijayanta what are you doing under the desk?" I said " Maam, my pen-is lost" and there was a huge laughter in the History class.

3. Once I got very poor marks in Chemistry exam and Mr.Dey asked all the boys who did badly to solve the question paper. As ever I did not solve it and when asked I said that " Sir, my question paper is lost." by making a sign which is usually made by the umpires in a cricket field to pass the judgement to the third umpire. Seeing this the whole class laughed away.

4. After all the boys were suspended I with Rajarshi Bhattacharya and Soumyadipta went to Shiraz and had Biriyani and Chiken Chaap.

5. Talent contests where I used emulated the voice of Kumar Sanu and bagged the 1st,2nd or 3rd prizes and a boy thought I got the prize because of my dads influence. Which was not true. I also used to sing in each and every class even when the teacher took classes. People listened to me even if they did not like it.

6. Every one asked me that as my daddy is teaching in the same school where I am studying, how could I manage it. They all stared at my beard thinking that I would one day look like daddy. There are many more.

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Gouri Sen - The Ultimate Bengali

“Lagey Taka Debey Gouri Sen”, is a famous aphorism among we Bengalis. Gouri Sen is a disposition that has come down along with the day-to-day dealings of Bengalis. Gouri Sen might be some affluent personality, who is dead long time back, but he is immortal among those who speak the axiom “Lagey Taka Debey Gouri Sen”.

Gouri Sen’s soul finds its place inside every wealthy man/woman. Whenever an underprivileged man is in need of funds, he finds Gouri Sen inside the well-off man. The affluent man becomes Gouri Sen to him, it does not matter whether he ultimately gets the aid or not.

*** USA becomes Gouri Sen to countries like Pakistan, which suffers downfall of their economy every now and then.

*** The Centre (Delhi) becomes Gouri Sen to those states of India, which are struck with flood, famine, earthquake or any other catastrophe.

*** Charity Shows where Filmstars join their hands to donate funds for a social cause also identify Gouri Sen in their own might.

*** At the opening ceremony of Durga Puja, Political Leaders become instant Gouri Sen, who donate a piece of cloth/shawl to every beggar, who stand with their hands folded to receive it from their Gouri Sen.

*** Sometimes wealthy businessmen also become Gouri Sen to the poor family of their daughters’ lovers, when their reputation is at stake among their rich society.

*** Every parent identifies themselves with Gouri Sen when the demands of their kids reach ultimate heights.

So as I have said before, getting funds from Gouri Sen is the secret aspiration of every human being. On the other side of the coin, every human being would like to be a Gouri Sen and help the needy for self-satisfaction or social recognition.