In the morning we did some marketing at M G Road and surrounding area. I had lunch Ganesh Bhojanalaya, a Marwari Basa, where they serve marwari food in Thalis.
For the first time in a week I was satisfied with my meal.
As Napoleon had said, an army marches on its stomach and for one whole week I was not satisfied with what I ate.
Mind you, K K Rai and his family had gone out of their way to give me a very wholesome and rich vegetarian meal but marwari food is marwari food. You can't beat it no matter how many animals you slaughter.
Tempo, the Sikkim Assembly Speaker was slightly delayed for personal reasons and our visit to the Assembly which was to have been at 12.00 noon, finally took place at 3.00 pm.
Tempo and his staff explained the working of the Assembly and the significance of the Spiritual symbol which is hung behind the Speaker's Chair and all important places in Sikkim.
It seems Tempo and his family have a long association with the Sikkim Government.
After the assembly visit the more energetic amongst us visited the Flower Show and the Rope way.
Some of us, me included, decided to have a bit of rest before going to the party in the evening.
A very big party was given by Tempo for all the GMS boys at “The Royal Plaza”, the best hotel in Gangtok.
A group photo session was held before the party started.
All those present came into the photo, which I have attached.
This is what I liked about Tempo.
The group photo was taken even before the party started because later on it becomes difficult to collect everybody at one place, for obvious reasons.
Then a board, paper and pen was passed around so that everybody could put down his name, Tel No, Year of passing. Thus in one stroke we had all the details with photographs of all the attendees. I suppose we should have also put down our email IDs, then the data would have been complete.
The party was great.
All the ladies and the lads introduced themselves.
Old songs were sung.
The memory in my digital camera became exhausted and I had to use only my movie camera.
These were taken and I hope to be able to make it available after suitable editing.
Since I could not eat with the rest for the odour of meat all round became unbearable, Tempo arranged for me to have my dinner outside.
It was very thoughtful of him.
It was a beautiful evening which went right up to 11 o’clock.
We returned tired but happy for the return journey to Kolkata, the next day.
The return journey was uneventful until I reached home.
AK Roy, J K Ghosh and I had got down hurriedly at Ultadanga when the train made an unscheduled stop.
The rest of the boys went on to Sealdah, which was the terminus.
From Ultadanga,AK took a Taxi to his flat at Salt Lake.
JK and I boarded a single taxi which dropped me at Bangur Avenue and he went on to his home at Madhyamgram
I am by nature forgetful and everyday my wife had been following up by phone to check that I had put back everything properly.
When I reached home, my wife asked whether I had brought back everything.
I checked my luggage and found that one bag was missing.
I had boarded at NJP with 4 items and now there were three.
Now, I could not remember whether I had got down from the train with 4 or 3 items.
I immediately called up JK to confirm whether I had left a bag in the Taxi.
His line was not available.
I telephoned Ranjan and the others to just check my compartment to see if any bag had been left behind.
Of course the train had reached Sealdah by then and had started emptying and I did not have any hope of getting back the bag, if I had left it on the train.
I then phoned AK to confirm if the bag had been left on the train since he was the last to get down at Ultadanga.
He confirmed that nothing was left behind in the train, when he got down.
I was slightly assured and hoped now that the bag would be with JK.
JK telephoned me after about 10 minutes, informing me that I had forgotten to unload the bag from the taxi at Bangur Avenue and it was now with him
I breathed easily.
My wife said, "I told you so. Whenever, I don't go with you, you leave something behind"
I agree with her.
But then these Non-veg people do not allow her to go with me on these tours.
Anthony Gasper being felicitated
Ratnankar Roychowdhury being felicitated
Rudra Roychowdhury being felicitated
Ranjan Mazumdar being felicitated
K K Rai and Dorji Dadul
Dorji Dadul
A group photograph of all those who attended with their wives
K T Gyaltsen (Tempo) explaining the inticacies of the work of the Speaker
Security officers inside the Sikkim Assembly
The spiritual symbol of Sikkim
Manos Chowdhury, K T Gyaltsen and Mrs Ranjan Mazumdar
Kamal Kallani and Rudra Roychowdhury
A K Roy, K D Gupta, Ratnankar Roychowdhury
Ranja Mazumdar, Arun Oberoi,Amarnath Banerjee, J K Ghosh, Anthony Gasper
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