YDN- 3

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good Morning!

At the outset, let me wish all of you and your family members "Shubho Bijoya 2006" and a prosperous future ahead. This year's pujas are over. But its memories will last long in the minds of atleast nine (plus one) in the Department for many years to come.

On saptami day, nine enthusiastic, young, excited and 'brave' men and women decided to leave office with a mission. To cover all the hip and happening puja pandals of South Calcutta. We set out accordingly and boarded a metro train for destination Kalighat. Only, when we got down, did we realised the (plus one) was missing.! Mr. Baheti, the modern and suave Prabhu Deva, had decided to head to a dandiaotsav instead! But we did not let his absence dent our spirits in any way. The train was full....with men, kids, girls, women and aunties. (By the way, the difference between the last three is very subtle. Girls talk a lot. Women talk more. Aunties only complain!). Thankfully, our group had only two girls. Meenakshi, does that make you feel good? Everyone on the train had brought something for their fellow passengers. No, it was not good wishes for the festive spirit. It was the lovely smell of ladies perfume and AXE deoderant mixed with the natural smell of human perspiration! In fact, a young girl in her teens also had to change her sitting place because our macho Satish was literally standing on her head. And holding the handle of the train!

The first mind blowing pandal of the evening was Badam Tala on Rashbehari Crossing. It was very unique, very different and very colourful. Just like the shirts Saurav wears to office these days. All of us were short of words. Not one proper adjective came to anyone's minds to explain its beauty and the sheer innovation. The only words Vinit and Sharad were using amongst themselves were ' wow' and ' bindaas'. But there was one guy amidst us who had just, all of a sudden become quiet. Rather speechless. Triyog had only decided to let his Nokia N Series do the difficult task of encapsulating the beauty of the Kolkata Pujo. To the extent that by the time, he had finished taking his pictures, he realised he was in the middle of nowhere and that his trusted comrades in command were all missing! Had it not been for the height of Vinit, the voice of Meenakshi and the double tyre of Satish, I am afraid, Triyog today would have been in some 'lost and found' department of the 'Sarbajannan Pujo Committee, 2006'.

Our next big target for the evening was Mudiali. We had decided to take two taxis from Kalighat after we were done with the visits of the nearby pujas of Rashbehari and Southern Avenue. But, thanks to our cheer leader and her deputy, we kept on walking. Till we bumped into one pandal after another. We thought the only way to remain cheerful and not become aunties (remember the definition?), we should sing aloud songs of motivation. And encourage others also to join in. I had initially thought these songs would either be Bengali Rabindra Sangeet or Hindi Bhajans. But my friend Satish had something else in his mind. He held my hand, counted 1...2....3.....4 and began aloud............tu hi meri shab hai jahan hai.........ooo....ooooooooooooooooooooooo......oooo........ooooooooooooooooooo

All of a sudden from nowhere, we were surrounded by old, dhoti clad men with the puja samity worker id cards hung around their necks. They were staring at us. Just like Shakti Kapoor does to his next teenage target. Even before anyone of us could exchange pleasantries with these men, one oldie started shouting at the top of his voice. Trembling, shivering and shaking all the while. But how Satish reacted could have won him many aunty hearts! He gently patted the back of the oldie shouting at him, wished him namaste and smiled. By now, things were under control and the volunteer had cooled down. All of us started applauding. Gandhigiri had worked! It took us only two more minutes to realise that the ' budha' had disappeared to get in some young blood for help. It was time to say 'Salaam Namaste' now and escape to better pastures!

For those of you in the department who were not a part of this gang, Triyog has promised to not let anyone miss out on the wonderful pictures he has taken. Including that of the Muri wala on Lake View Road using 'ITC Annual Report 2006' as his 'thongas'!

Cheers and God Bless!

Abhishek Gupta.