Tough as it is to say anything that has not been said in Swati’s marvelously evocative account of the May 16th blogmeet, here now I present my impressions.
Alighting at the gates of T3, the same place where we had been refused service two years ago at my last blogmeet, I was introduced to Pritam (sweetie-pie according to Swati and not to be confused with the bearded copycat with the mock intellectual look) who has to be the most unthreatening dentist I have ever met. A word about the shirt that swathed my “hefty” frame which seemed to have attracted some notice. It’s a blue beachshirt with pictures of dogs in sunglasses riding bikes: an apposite sartorial choice for a blogmeet I felt. I originally planned to wear knee length shorts to go with it but decided not to because 1) T3 with its anality may find me inappropriately dressed 2) I did not want people ogling my legs and make me feel like a sex object.
Anyhoo, Pritam and I started talking over 2 cups of tea like two lovers long separated and were delighted to discover a slew of common friends. We were joined presently by Rimi Chatterjee, [her account of the blogmeet] , the coolest professor I have seen from JU (a sharp contrast to the fossils we had to bow our heads to) who drives a Maruti Swift and is a storehouse of knowledge from pirates of Chittagong to the national character of Midnaporeans. Presently arrived the ebullient Swati, the queen of Ghatak para representing Kolkata suburbia, who in the best traditions of Bachchanian motherhood/wifeyhood was ordering take-homes for her husband and daughter before she came to the blog table.
Just when we thought that the average age of our table could no longer go up, in came the venerable JAP (whether he had the bottoms of his trousers rolled I know not) reflecting light off his luminous err personality. Swati in her account calls him huggable, an assessment I shall not comment on. My attention was presently diverted by Pritam, pleading with the utterly confused waiter to give him a cup of coffee that he had ordered with the earnestness of a school-kid asking for a pee-pee break —so whether hugs were exchanged between our corpulent seniors I cannot say.
Adda was on in full swing amidst puffs of exotic-smelling smoke which was not interrupted much by the arrival of Teleute, the broken-boned hottie of the blogworld, her extremely poetic-looking friend and then an agitated Arka who it seemed had been, quite unintentionally, given the wrong directions by JAP, an agitation he vented through the occasional use of the most perfectly accented English.
Swati was the first to leave with parcels of packed food. Somewhere in between, we heard JAP tell someone on the cellphone “Jail-e pathabo” (I shall send you to jail) with the sonorous seriousness of a civil servant. A telemarketer we were told. Many things of great importance were discussed and in the unwritten spirit of the blogmeet, the exact details of what they were will not be divulged.
With the departure of the JAP, the discussion winded down. Rimi C dropped many of us at convenient points and had it not been for the scenic route she took, we may never have witnessed a most satisfying street brawl between a taxi-wala and an autowala which was cut short by two of the most empathetic policemen I have seen, one of whom I saw gently patting the crying taxi-driver on his back. Rimi C drove away before I could see the consequent patting of his wallet.
In all, a very nice way to spend an evening. So nice in fact that one wishes to have another one.
[PS 1: Will be in Delhi from 29th to 2nd. How about 30th eveningish in a place close to CR Park for a blogmeet?]
[PS2: Thanks to all those asking for a Mumbai visit. Would love to do that next time I am around.]
The Greatbong Blog & Podcast 
The broken-boned hottie of the blogworld? Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. 🙂
Nice GB…
was trying to visualize the meet as I read through.
Teleute…u do look pretty….very pretty.
Ah yes, I’d quite forgotten the epic brawl. Pity the glass was too thick for us to hear the soundtrack. Better than Spiderman facing off to the Green Goblin, although James Franco is cuter when he cries. The policeman did a serviceable Aunt Mae.
If you get some time off from your in-laws, how about organising a get-together in Delhi?
Any more of your fans out here?
Plenty of GB fans in Delhi! What say, we book a stadium? 🙂
JAP thought public demand in kolkata would fill the Science City auditorium, only seven souls turned up.
Let’s see you dilliwallahs doing better.
I missed. Hmph.
@Teleute: 🙂
@Rishi: Waiting for Teleute to comment on the compliment.
@Rimi: Aunt Mae in a CP uniform—a disturbing image.
@Sayon: How about 30th? Saket also wants to do a mini blogmeet? How about someplace close to CR Park like GK?
@Rahul: Stadium? In Calcutta the assembled crowd would have struggled to fill a matchbox.
@Swati: Sigh…not too many people love me in Calcutta.
@Srin: Hmph.
hahaha gb….very nice read……
equally nice was Swati’s take on the meet….
missing adda..ohhhhhh
@Sayon
Do take photos of the proposed mini blogmeet . 🙂
@Arnab: How about the Cafe Coffee Day at GK-2 (opposite Savitri Cinema)? I’m Ok with any alternate location as well… Time – post 7:00 pm? Since it’s a working day and all…
@Rima: Will do, provided us Dilliwallahs can beat Kolkata by sheer number… 😀
@Sayon: Sounds good. 7:30 pm ?
HMPH. When is the next Kolkata blogmeet?
@Srin: HMPH HMPH. I have no idea. I am here till the 28th thats all.
@ Rishi: Thank you. But where have you seen me?
@ Arnab: 😛
Hmph. Bujhloom. Tzotto shob phaajil chNora-der kaarbaar !
Where is Swati’s account, eh? (‘HUGGABLE’? My sweet Lord, whatever happened to ‘formidable’? ‘Glowering’? ‘Intimidating’, even? I laugh that I may not weep!)
J.A.P.
@J.A.P.-kaku: All ‘formidable’, ‘glowering’, ‘intimidating’ etc went out of the window the moment it turned out that you are a decade younger than your cyber personality! 😀
Even if you send all the telemarketeers to jail! (Incidentally, please do!)
hi
c.r.park is good place for blogmeet. there is a place called “esplanade” for good bong food in front of market 2.
Otherwise there is costa coffee in ‘m’ block market (two minutes away) for a meet.
Option 3 is the sprawling and beautiful kali mandir lawns. (arrange for own chai and biscuits).
do let us know.
in case u guessed am in g block.
7:30 is a good idea
Swati’s account is a scream! Swati, please start a blog and join us oldies. And thank you for the kind comments, Greatbong. My students tell me they agree that I’m most entertaining at all times.
Should I be worried?
GB, Is Mumbai on your itinerary?
@teleute
Your picture on the blog was enough to evoke the response from me.
@ Arnab: Apologies for spamming your comment space. But Factusa allows me not to comment. Hence replying to Rishi here. Last time, I promise. 😉
@ Rishi: Ah, all right. Thank you. 🙂
@ J.Alfred Prufrock
Formidable’? ‘Glowering’? ‘Intimidating’?
Dear dear Elliot-ian, I am around 80kgs and more than four decades old.
It will take a lot to make my knees go atremble.
@ Rimi
Thanks, but no.
No time.
Too busy reading other people’s blogs and delighting in existing in Barrackpore.
Today — around noon, had to go to a number of shops and got scolded by one of the shopkeepers for being out in this heat (39 degrees centigrade).
“the coolest professor I have seen from JU”
She was the coolest at IIT KGP too!