Reunion

Stretching Time.....

23hrs  more to 23^rd

My check list for The 23^rd NDA, Eastern Getaway was almost ticked, except for the air bookings. The Calcutta what’s app group of these senior –teenagers was abuzz with a kind of excitement which was contagious and the plans were made and unmade on the roll. If  truth be told we  had almost given a miss to Kolkata, if it was not for our  friends Mohan and  Sushma , who were very persuasive to say the least. They more or less  read out the riot act to us.  The tackle worked and we were on board. Today in a retrospect we are sincerely appreciative that we did not have to rue the day if we had given Kolkata a skip.

The reunion timetable from 23^rd to 26^th February   Kolkata trip, was  back to back prearranged, as a consequence I could not figure out a time to dwadle around, browse history,  chase sunset over the river and sneak and spy river Dolphins.

Time, was my most precious commodity ….there was so much fun ready to happen. … all we  wanted wee  window of time.

If only, time were a rubber-band we could stretch time!

But then metaphorically speaking it could be an adjustable  methodology, and  why ever not ! Thus came the idea to add a day…. And 23 hours were added to our 23^rd plan

At this point of time in life  I have come to realise that  if we were to wish for something , go ahead and do it   and  be happy  and  find happiness in all  that we do…. be it alone  or  its playtime at home with  dogs or  travel  with friends. A mid night call to Magie & Minoo Panthaki, our Bangalore based mates,  and we became co-conspirators in stretching time to explore the timeless  aura of Calcutta .

T3    and  The  courteous Buggy Girl

22^nd Feb   morning our appropriated 23 hours began at T3 terminal and we were going to make the most of them. Sitting with a cup of coffee in the lounge, while we waited for the our boarding call, I overheard  snatches of conversation that gtabbed my attention. Surf boarders in animated chatter on tides, catching a wave in Hooghly and  something called  baan…. Put a note to self to check on it  later.

Terminal T 3  departure ,   IGI Airport 

As it often happens , unplanned meet ups spontaneously  fall in place, Panthaki’s  flight from Banglore  landed just twenty  minutes ahead of our Jet airways from Delhi at Kolkata airport.   Just as we landed a smiley message from Minoo whooshed in, 'We are here, Magie is waiting for you on  baggage Belt 8'. And that is where we were overwhelmed by a warm bear hug and her beaming smile. And so began the joyous extra time. It may sound incredulous, but even an Uber ride to the HHI became an adventure and a bright gem of memory with a colourful persona of the cabbie.

Belt number 8   at    Kolkata Airport 

Welcome drink, and warm smiles greeted us at HHI, being the first of the  youthful geriatrics to arrive , the choice of  the floor, rooms or  suites  were all ours to take,  without a thought Magie and I opted for a family suite, with an interconnected door to ensure that every spare moment was a value add.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson had said , “Guard well your spare moments.  They are like uncut diamonds.  Discard them and their value will never be known.  Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.”

I remember that day we stood agog as dumb struck teenagers. That was way back  in Indira Bhawan, our hostel in MGD.  Had we heard it right , Shashi,  our school mate was  engaged!
 Soon after she got married and moved to Ballygunj,  Calcutta and had  been coaxing us for decades to  plan a trip, but that never happened . Capricious time as usual brought me  to Calcutta, paradoxically a month after she had moved to Jaipur. However we had her car and driver, Shastri ji. Shastri ji was a man of monosyllabic disposition when he first met us at HHI, but as the day wore on he became a mine of information on the way to go.

Gates of MGD ,Jaipur   and  My Friend Shashi Rathi Jhawaar with her husband

 Calcutta was founded in 1690 when the Aurangzeb agreed to let the East India Company establish a settlement on the banks of the Hooghly River in Bengal near a village called Kalikata. The name was anglicized into Calcutta and the settlement grew rapidly with as did its vibrant reputation as a happening place.

Fort William  Built by East India Company 1781

Our first stop had to be  Calcutta of the Raj era, and it had to be militarily relevant for the two veterans of 23^rd NDA. Thus we began with Fort William. It was from here that 200 odd British officers controlled  trade and territory of  over 200 million Indians,   Even though it is  inaccessible to the public  for us it was Indian OG land…. OG for less initiated reads, Olive Green

 From the moment we drove past the gates of   Fort William, the meticulous security checks followed by crisp salutes was a wistful  return for me , to the childhood  days  of  tranquil verdant Cantonment in this 180 acres of Fort William  on the bank of River Hooghly, near the Vidyasagar River Bridge.

                         Fort William ,Maidan ,on the banks of Hooghly                 Gates of Fort William                                                          

The  Fort William , Maidan, Victoria Memorial and many relics of the Raj are the soul of the city of Kolkata. It is one of the few cities to have an Army cantonment at the heart of the city. It is not known for sure whether there are secret tunnels that lead to Victoria. But it used to be widely talked amongst the ‘Sahibs’ and the Brown Sahibs that there are tunnels connecting Fort Williams to other army areas.

Fort William is a melting pot of Military history of both the era of past and present. Be it from the advent of British as traders of East India Company, to the reinforcement garrison sent by the Crown to protect the trade routes to British India Army and finally the HQ of the Eastern Command Indian Armed as it stands today.

So what could be better than to begin our extra time from where it all began hundreds of years ago  at Fort William. In a way it becomes so germane to the reunion celebration of the the seventy  plus year old 23^rd  NDA  veterans  of the Indian Armed Forces and their 'Lady Wives' as the inexplicable term goes. This 'Lady Wife'  lexis has always  perplexed me.  Where did this term come from ? 

Perhaps this could be a dig up subject  for another blog .....