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.

Visitors till this post: 43112 visitors

MEGHLA KOLKATA - EASTERN SKY

I took this photo on Sunday the 17th of July, 2009 on the eastern sky from our terrace. The pic shows a rare cloud formation with Sealdah Court below it, a new construction of a shopping mall beside it and 2 water tanks at Sealdah Station area, a real estate construction behind it and Muchipara Thana (Police Station in red colour) on the below right hand side.

Visitors till this post: 19766 visitors

Home Town Mall - New Town - Rajarhat - Kolkata - Block by Block

Home Town Mall - New Town - Rajarhat - Kolkata

Largest city store to open in New Town

SUBHRO SAHA

Calcutta is set to welcome its biggest retail outlet, a 200,000sq ft answer to international giants Ikea and Home Depot, at a time when a clutch of large-format shop stops have downed shutters or are on the brink of closure. HomeTown, the “first-of-its-kind home improvement retail format in India”, will unveil its largest store this week at Bengal Shrachi’s Block by Block mall in New Town. The store will be as big as the entire Forum mall. “We have always shared a special emotional connect with Calcutta and this HomeTown store is an affirmation of our faith in this city,” Kishore Biyani, the CEO of the Future Group, told Metro. The HomeTown chain is owned by Home Solutions (India) Ltd, a part of the Future Group. The Rajarhat shop stop, to be inaugurated on June 20, will be the seventh in the chain after Noida, Ahmedabad, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Lucknow. The store will be divided into three sections — exhibitions, markets and services, with over 150 rooms designed and fitted out on display. It will also provide design-and-build services to customers, with a team of designers on the rolls. The markets section will feature products for living room, dining room, bedroom, kids’ room, kitchen, bathroom, home furnishings, mattresses, eZone (consumer durables and electronics) and Depot (books, music etc). The services section will offer options such as Mr Carpenter, Mr Plumber, Mr Electrician, Mr Painter, door delivery and installation. “This will do wonders for Rajarhat’s sagging public image, which has seen negative perception amplify in recent months over infrastructure issues. A huge destination retail address like HomeTown has the power to draw footfalls from far and wide,” said Rahul Todi, the managing director of Bengal Shrachi. Consumers will also get professional advice on various home-related issues, ranging from interiors, carpentry, plumbing and painting to even grihapravesh puja. Future Group is targeting revenues of Rs 1,800 crore from the chain of HomeTown stores. The Rajarhat address is twice the average size of the other outlets and is expected to generate “substantially higher” revenues than the template target of Rs 200 crore from each store. “Such a gigantic store is an emphatic renewal of faith in Calcutta’s retail climate and will go a long way in boosting investor confidence in these troubled times. The Rajarhat HomeTown will have a large catchment area and a home-solutions format like this will always have takers, boom or bust,” said Abhijit Das of retail and property consultants Lemongrass Advisors. Future Group is also rolling out seven large-format stores in and around the city over the next few months — four Big Bazaar outlets in Salt Lake and Lake Mall (45,000sq ft each), Sealdah (50,000sq ft), Birati (21,000sq ft), a Pantaloons store in City Centre 2 (40,000sq ft) and two outlets in Mani Square — Fashion @ Big Bazaar and Planet Sports. Source: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090617/jsp/calcutta/story_11118687.jsp Visitors till this post: 19325 visitors

Rising Commodity Prices

Impressed by the new advertisement on television AEGON Religare Pension Plan (see above) starring Irfan Khan, I thought of writing this post in my blog. 

First of all, let me write the prices of commodities that have been shown in the ad. It has been made to appear as if it has been fully shot at Kolkata and Irfan Khan’s impressive way of speaking made the ad really popular among masses.

In the ad, the price of Cooking Gas is Rs 1248/-, the cobbler charges Rs 60/- for a shoe polish, a tablet for headache is Rs 144/-. No it is not a joke. It will happen after twenty years and believe me it is really going to happen. Research has proved that cost of daily commodities have increased 20 times in the last 20 years.

So, the amount has been projected 20 times in 20 years. Deliberately the cost of cooking gas has been kept low because of the plan of massive use of the cooking gas in the next 2 decades.

What else might happen is: -

1) You board a bus the conductor might charge you Rs 80/- for a fare that costs Rs 4/- now.

2) You go to the multiplex cinema hall. They will charge you Rs 4000/- for a ticket that now costs Rs 200/- now.

3) You go to your office by cab which charges say Rs 300/- now will take Rs 6000/- after 20 years.

4) You go to the Amusement Park (Nicco Park); they charge you Rs 100/- for 5 rides now. After 20 years they will charge you Rs 2000/- for the same number of rides.

5) You pay for your son Rs 4000/- his school fees per month now, your son will need to pay for his son Rs 80,000 per month for his school fees.

6) You buy a trouser for Rs 1200/- now, it will cost Rs 24,000/- after 20 years and your Rs 1500/- official shirt will cost Rs 30,000/- then.

7) You go to the disc now and pay Rs 500/- per night dance for you and your partner. Then you will need to pay Rs 10,000/- per night for the same no of people.

8) You pay Rs 3000/- bill for a dinner at the most expensive restaurant at Park Street now for say 4 people. After 20 years, it would amount to Rs 60,000 for 4 people.

9) You pay Rs 2400/- for your electricity bills now. Then you will be paying Rs 48,000/- for your electricity bills.

10) Your post paid monthly bill for your cell phone amounts to Rs 800/- now and that would be amount to Rs 16,000/- then.

After reading this post, one question is bound strike your mind. Will my salary increase 20 times in the next 20 years? No one knows. It is only for time to answer.

Visitors till this post: 16970 visitors

Release Dates of Films - Bollywood Film Industry

I am listing 5 sites that will give us information about the Release Dates of Films from the Bollywood Film Industry.

• http://www.bollyclips.com/bollywood_release_dates/
  

• http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/trade/releasedates/index.html
  

• http://www.bollywoodworld.com/releasedates/
  

• http://www.123bollywood.net/release-dates.html
  

• http://www.indiatarget.com/movies/release_dates.shtml
  

NOTE: - If any webmaster of any site wants to name their site in the space above, regarding this topic, then they can contact me at vaichatt@gmail.com. It is free of any kind of cost.

Visitors till this post: 15128 visitors 

Front View of South City Mall

Front View of South City Mall

-

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.

Visitors till this post: 9839 visitors

Bus No 240 - Bagbazar to Jodhpur Park - Best Bus of Kolkata

Bus No 240 that ply from Baghbazar in North Kolkata to Jodhpur Park in South Kolkata is the best bus I have ever seen in my life. As you read through the post, you will come to know about why I am awarding this bus the "Best Bus of the Century Award".

This bus starts from Jodhpur Park which is a very colourful locality among the South Kolkata Localities. It travels through the most colourful areas of Kolkata, like Jodhpur Park (Jadavpur University), Selimpur (Jodhpur Park Girls' High School), Dhakuria (Murlidhar College), Golpark (South City College), Gariahat (Basanti Devi College, CMC Gariahat), Ballygunge (South Point School, Ballygunge Siksha Sadan, South Calcutta Law College, Calcutta Girls Academy, Hazra Law College, Ballygunge Science College, Modern High School), Park Circus (Our Lady Queen of the Missions School, Lady Brabourne College), CIT Road (National Medical College, Holy Child School for Girls, Loreto Day School Entally), northern part of AJC Bose Road (Rafi Ahmed Dental College, Loreto Day School Sealdah, Nilratan Sarkar Medical COllege), APC Road (George Telegraph College, Sealdah, CMC Sealdah, Victoria College), MG Road (Surendranth College for Women, Chittaranjan College, Seth Soorajmall Jalan Girls College), College Street (Presidency College, University of Calcutta, IISWBM), Bidhan Sarani (Vidyasagar College for Women, Rabindra Bharati University, Bethune College, Scottish Church College), Hatibagan (Khudiram College), Shyambazar (Raja Manindra College), Sovabajar (Seth Anandaram Jaipuria college), Baghbazar. In each of this locality some or other Womens' College is located. So you can imagine the amount of colour the bus is treated with, during peak hours. The last stoppage is Baghbazar, which is an example of a posh/affluent Bengali Locality which has seen Kolkata emerge from a village to a city for over 400 years.

Sometimes during peak hours, one is sure to find the bus filled with more female population than male and that too between 18 to 30 as the bus passes Gariahat Junction and proceeds towards north. All of them well dressed, having a pleasing personality, they hail from good families. If you are a smart guy, you can ever choose your soul mate for life in this bus.

This bus has gained more importance as the South City Mall has come up. It is one of the few buses which lead us to South City Mall as the bus stand at Jodhpur Park is a few minutes walk from the mall.

My friend Gaurav has helped me a lot in gathering these data from the Internet. Kudos to him too.

Visitors till this post: 3057 visitors.

South City Mall, Kolkata

Last Saturday, that is on 19th January, Gaurav, My Shonata and I went to the South City Mall. (click here to see the location of South City Mall through www.wikimapia.org) It was an amazing experience to visit the largest mall in East India.

I have never seen a bigger mall here in Kolkata. It is about 3 times bigger than the City Centre of Salt Lake. The mall opened only 2 days back and there was a huge rush on the 3rd day.

I have taken many pictures of the mall and I am going to upload them here in my future posts. This mall is going to be a landmark of Kolkata just like City Centre and Forum. I am going to visit this mall quite often from now on as it has captured by heart.

Some information about the mall: -

The largest shopping mall in India. At arm's length.

Imagine a mall that is spread across 6,00,000 sq. ft. With exclusive zones for shopping, entertainment and food. Boasting of the finest international features. And designed to take one’s breath away.

The mall has been designed after an exhaustive research of the best shopping malls around the world to create one that has it all. Situated on Prince Anwar Shah Road, just opposite Jodhpur Park, it will be a magnate, drawing everyone just by its sheer presence.

No wonder then, that South City Mall is something Kolkata is waiting for with bated breath. The mall is an international experience, which promises to change the way people perceive shopping and entertainment in Kolkata! After the exterior, it’s the interior design that impresses. A luxuriant atrium with a beautiful skylight, mirror-polished floor, plants, fountains and all of 14,000 sq ft! With 1,50,000 sq.ft. on each floor, it will have more space than any other mall in Kolkata.

The mall’s spread will help shoppers shop on one floor longer, rather than shifting up and down. Continuous corridors, free of dead-ends, make sure there are no sudden halts for shoppers. Stores laid out to make browsing easier. So things like clothes, shoes and accessories will be available in one area. There is also a 4 storied parking space for cars which is situated just behind the mall. You can park you car on 4th floor and get inside the mall from the 4th floor itself.

It brings together the biggest brands under one roof. - Shoppers’ Stop, already a favourite in the city. - Giant, one of the biggest hypermarket chains in India. - A mega 6-screen multiplex, by Shringar Films, known for Fame Adlabs in Mumbai. - Options for a great meal, with high-quality restaurants and even a fast-food court!

Visitors till this post: 1896 visitors