IFG meet in Kolkata

[slingshot]

The food I miss....
1. Chimney Pot soup at How Hua
2. Chello Kebab at Peter Kat
3. Hamburger Steak at Oly Pub
4. Aminia Biryani with the aloo
5. Mutton Rezala at Nizam
6. Smoked Hilsa at The Grand
7. Double Egg Double Chicken Roll at Hot Kati or Kusums
8. Chicken Bharta at Pepsi Dhaba
9. Chilas and the outstanding veg food at the Stock Exchange
10. Haleem in front of Chaplin Cinema
11. Phucchkas at New Market
12. Nahoums bakery
13. Tea and pastries at Flury's
14. Chinese breakfast North Calcutta
15. Tangra chinese food
16. Baked Pepper Crabs at Mocambo
17. The oversized drinks at Oly Pub
18. The Steak at Blue Fox

and so much more....

SIGH. XL_Target, Tirpassion, EssDee, TC....you just stared me on a calcutta food pine

[TC]

Thanks for the invite, Tirpassion and TC but it doesn't look like it will be in the cards anytime soon.
Things I really miss: Notun Doi, Patali Gur, a really well made Rossogolla.
Golda Chingri, Sorse bata illish,

XL,
I have no intention of torturing you.... but the lady cooked the last two items this evening and, as I told you once, she is a great cook. Will raise a toast tonight in your name....



By the way the countdown has begun.... IFGians meet in 15 hours

Cheers

TC

PS: XL, tomorrow we are having kosha mangsho and luchi for dinner... and nalen gurer sandesh in dessert ....
Wait... Whats that noise ?...Do I hear someone flipping through the planner ? !!

[TC]

Slingshot,

Plan a trip and we can have another IFG meet. This time, quite a few of our members have missed out.
Going by your list we could have the meet in phases over a week or so... I am game



TC

[TC]

And Finally..... we met....






The venue : City Centre at Salt Lake, a sprawling shopping mall built around large empty spaces.
None of us made it on time except Basu and Tirpasssion who live just two blocks away and walked down while the rest four had to cover anything between 15 and 30 km. I was lucky though. Swajan, who keeps a low profile on IFG but is actually a bundle of humour tucked inside a tough exterior (especially when he has those dark shades on !) had picked me up from a location close to my home. By the time we reached City Centre - "wait at the Horse's Mouth" was the code word for obvious reasons - it was 12.15... Not bad by Indian standards. Basu was waiting patiently. He immediately recognised me and waved. Tirpassion came forward introduced himself. It was not difficult to understand why this man is winning hearts across India

Tirpasssion, Swajan and Basu


In less than five minutes nobody seemed to be talking to strangers. Tirpassion was sharing his view on the LP series pistols. their pros and cons. Basu was telling us the price of .22 LR ammo in the 60s, Swajan was fuming at the babus and cops for acting funny with his application and I was looking for angles to freeze those moments. Suddenly Saptarshi called and said he was done with the assignment given by a lady he can't refuse.

+ Saptarshi




We kept chatting.... guns.. ammo.. babus... prices... et al.. At one point Basu, the eldest in the group, suggested a short break. So we bade farewell to the horse drawn tram car (actually a book store !) and went looking for some refreshments.









Realising that we were drawing too much attention and too many glances from bystanders with our references to "effective range", "muzzle velocity", "firepower", "barrel length" etc. we decided to move into a restaurant.... At this point gladiatorgarg arrived after offering puja with men in his unit. "It is Shivaratri and I have to be with my men," the major had told us the day before. With the group complete.. we hit a watering hole. We raised a toast... and we all thanked Brihaji for being with us all day... Yes, he had called thrice just to know how we were doing



hours passed and we kept talking .... adding to the delight of the chef, the bar tender and of course the guy at the cash register


It was past six when we realised it was time to leave... but how could we do so without a parting shot...


Its 2 am now ... My hands are shaking... Tirpasssion said he would take over from where I left ...



TC

[Moin.]

Ahaa. So finally. But where are you TcDa? ????

[Biren]

Thats G8. Aadaabazi. with like minded guys. nothing can beat..& thanks for posting such wonderfull pics... please add names as well

Cheers
Biren

[essdee1972]

Great going guys!! Looks like you had an amazing meeting...... And as Biren says, if you can do the name-face matching, would be great.

[brihacharan]

Hi Guys!
> Looks like the Kolkata IFG Meet was a grand success
> Lovely pictures TC - Where are U? - Good write-up though!
> Verily said "Strangers No More" - log-in names that became faces who continued their banter till the cows came home

Briha

[fantumfan2003]

Nice Locations, drink, food and folks.........Jolly Good.....

[brihacharan]

The food I miss....
1. Chimney Pot soup at How Hua
2. Chello Kebab at Peter Kat
3. Hamburger Steak at Oly Pub
4. Aminia Biryani with the aloo
5. Mutton Rezala at Nizam
6. Smoked Hilsa at The Grand
7. Double Egg Double Chicken Roll at Hot Kati or Kusums
8. Chicken Bharta at Pepsi Dhaba
9. Chilas and the outstanding veg food at the Stock Exchange
10. Haleem in front of Chaplin Cinema
11. Phucchkas at New Market
12. Nahoums bakery
13. Tea and pastries at Flury's
14. Chinese breakfast North Calcutta
15. Tangra chinese food
16. Baked Pepper Crabs at Mocambo
17. The oversized drinks at Oly Pub
18. The Steak at Blue Fox

and so much more....

SIGH. XL_Target, Tirpassion, EssDee, TC....you just stared me on a Calcutta food pine

Slingshot,
> You left out My Favorites
1. Posto Chor Chori
2. Nuton Gude Payas
3. Aloo Dum
4. Doi Mach
> The Steak I relished at the "Boat / Rowing Club" still lingers in my palate
Briha

[swajan]

It was indeed a great experience and above all, each one has added stock of good friends.

[TC]

Hi
Moin, Biren, Essdee, fantumfan and Brihaji....

Thank you so much gentlemen. Yes, it was a wonderful day and we had a great time. In fact, after Basu and Saptarshi left for the day, Gladiatorgarg, Swajan, Tirpassion and I went for some mouthwatering pao bhaji after eating and drinking the whole day... and we tasted some hot jelebi too... But by then we were too lazy to take snaps

Ethically, I should not reveal the actual identity of members unless they want so.
Here is an identification chart with avatar names...

From Left to Right... Tirpassion, Saptarshi, Swajan, Basu (the eldest in the group) and TC (Tanmay Chatterjee)


Here from Lef to Right... TC, Basu, Gladiatorgarg (the major) Saptarshi and (Swajan but he can barely be seen in this photo after the upload)


Tirpassion had taken a lot of snaps but I have no clue when he is going to upload them... the guy must be busy packing for his return trip.



TC

[gladiatorgarg]

TC daa thanks it was really great meeting you all infact im not doing justice to my emotion...after a long time i really felt at home hope to turn it into a habit...lets plan to meet more often so that we can share our common interest more frequently..

[tirpassion]

At last here is TCda!!! Oooooof what a relief!!!!!! I thought the memory loss factor caught up with him. But thankfully he stayed back in the memory card .

Wow TCda, what terrific & devastating shots from your Canon!!!
And what a write-up!!!
Now what else can I add after such a great presentation? I found and rediscovered myself in a huge, widely spread out family, beyond any taboos/barriers of any kind; I felt and I feel that I can count on these fellows as they can, without any hesitation, one me!

TCda; I admire your knowledge and experience in various fields packed with the ultimate; your humility. And as rightly said, you are the BOND of Kolkata. The super strong binding agent (made of I do not know what resin; epoxy....) which makes that unbreakable bond of friendship mixed with the right dose of that ever watchful 'Dada' .
Gladiatorgarg; Your anecdotes of the army and your lively narrations will reverberate in my ears for a long long time!!!
Swajanda; What a genius you are!!!! A small nuclear bomb of subtle humour We would really appreciate more contributions from you on RKBA, in your own words and style obviously .
Saptarshi; You came out to be a great surprise for me. Young gun and what knowledge of weapons! My regards Sir!!! Are all the Graduates of Defence Studies same as you are???
Basuda; the doyen of our group with that commanding voice to reckon with!!!! You were the cool composed blissful figure, yet giggling like a child in admiration to the narrations of the others. I salute your elegant simplicity!

I missed out on the others who could not make it yesterday. But as I said, you can count on me!!!

Now on a lighter note; the batteries in the remote control of my cherished lady might have run out of life without my knowledge and I found her along with the children in City Centre. Was she trying to find out what her husband was up to really or was she missing me for tooooo long.... . Given an option, I will choose the later one for sure .
It was a real pleasure for me to introduce my family to you and I thank you for the gift for my children. Later in the evening, when I was cherishing the memories of the day, my wife told me 'You have great friends; now you need to keep it living. That is more important'.

Since, I am an obedient husband, I will stick to her words .

best regards
tirpassion

[airgun_novice]

Well done guys - y'all look too cool. tirpassion - this is one India Trip you ain't gonna forget or regret.