Yes, I was talking about my IAS B-i-L's visit to KGP...this is becoming a nested series of tales like Panchatantra.
It so happened that in January 1994 he was sponsored for a one-week Management Training Course at IIM, Calcutta...with full hospitality and airfare. And he offered to go to Cal via KGP halting with us for 3 days en route. But on condition that I will escort him from KGP to Cal and see him settled down in the Guest House at IIM.
I said ok.
Govt rules being what they are, he was allowed flight on his onward trip if and only if he travels one day before his Training started...every such blessed thing in the Govt had to be an emergency...but since he took leave for four days before the Training started so he could visit us, he could only travel by the Coromandel Express...funny rule isn't it...reminds one of Catch-22.
I don't know if you read the book by Joseph Heller of that name. There are several Catches in it but the most famous one goes like this:
The book is set in the midst of WW II in the European Theater. This guy was sent to Europe to fly bombers in the USAF. And he fell terribly home sick and wanted to go home for a few days to look up his wife and kids. The only leave allowed was sick-leave. And there was a good Air Force Hospital where he was posted and so any disease is cured there...other than psychiatric. So, anyone wanting home leave should demonstrate that he was mentally ill. But it had to be certified by the Chief Medical Officer of his Unit. And when he says he wants to go home away from the War Theater because of mental illness, the CMO says:
"No one wanting to return home during war is insane"
...Catch-22!
***************************************************************************************************************
So, myself and my good friend N received my B-i-L at the KGP Railway Station and impressed upon him that it finds a rare place in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the Longest Railway Platform in the World. He couldn't care less. Indeed when he came to know this feat of KGP from me, Edwin Taylor remarked:
"What kind of crazy things enter Guinness nowadays!!!"
No one seems to appreciate KGP!
Indeed, when a decade before he arrived at KGP, I happened to tell my B-i-L that the Coromandel Express doesn't halt at KGP (during its initial ego trips), he remarked at once: "That means there is none in KGP worth its halt"...he meant IAS Officers...yes indeed, the only IAS Officers around were all posted in the District Head Quarters at Midnapore. This slur on KGP would have wounded our Director who is supposed to have First Class Magisterial Powers over IIT, but that is for a later story...of VGSOM's inauguration...
It was a small problem how to engage my B-i-L for three long days in the God-forsaken Campus of IIT KGP. My friend N who was the HoD of the nascent VGSOM invited my B-i-L to give a Lecture for his MBM students...that went on swell...he talked about Management of Change...a very burning issue then what with all those new sorts of Reservations coming up.
And the next day happened to be my son's Birthday and so there was a biggish party at our home and he was the Chief Guest, offering to sponsor the Birthday Cake from the newfangled Little Sisters. All my friends came to the Bash and he was impressed with RSS and his cute family and was invited for Tea next day at their home a short distance away.
In that Tea Party Mrs RSS offered him a sweet dish which looked new to him. He liked it so much he wanted to know what it is called. I told him it is the famous Rosogolla and he rebuked me saying: "Come on...I know everything of Rosogollas...but this one is brownish". I had to tell him it is Khejur-Gud-Rosogolla made of Date Palm Molasses available only in the winter months. He loved it so much he had one more...lucky for him his wife was safely away at Madras, 1500 km away...
Anyway, I did escort him to Joka and saw him settled down safely and comfortably there. He returned my service by offering me a sumptuous lunch at IIM's Guest House. And then I told him bye bye and was about to board my bus to the far-off Howrah Station via Esplanade. It was 3 in the afternoon and since he didn't have much to do at IIM that Sunday, he offered to accompany me till Esplanade if I promise to see him off by a return bus...even IAS Officers were scared of the City of Joy and its unpredictable buses whose destinations were written only in Bengali.
So, we dropped down at Esplanade and I wanted to settle him and see him off in a return bus to Joka since it was time for me to catch the Down Steel Express.
And then, the cat was out of the bag...he asked shyly like a child of five:
"Can I have one more Khejur-Gud-Rosogolla somewhere around, please?"
And I said: "No problem, we are right in front of K C Das who split milk much before we split the atom"
So, he had a couple more of the same and he was as happy as million dollars and went back to his Joka...
And we are back to where we started...Sweet India at Gole Bazaar-1960s..
Postscript
Saswat sends me this link about the Pahala Rasgullas:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasgulla
===========================================================================
No comments:
Post a Comment