Three Weekends in October

It has never been quite an October such as this. I have been undergoing an intense weekend routine- and the intensity only increases with every passing week. The first weekend was a family of four, ours to be exact, flying out to India to attend my parent’s 50 th marriage anniversary. I had insisted that we do something for this and not just let it slide by like another day. It is never easy for me to insist on something like this. I never have any energy to push for an event let alone be bothered about organising it. But with each passing year one’s mortality was beginning to reveal itself bit by bit- and it was time to make memories by marking everything that needed to be marked. Often in the past, it always seemed that this could be done another time as there would be time for everything. As far as I am concerned I had summarily stopped believing this. So whatever needed to be done had to be done- and now not later. “Kal ho na ho” was suddenly a bit more than a tacky line from bollywood.

I had to fly out for just two days and be back in time to go to work on Monday morning. It was envisaged to be gruelling- and it was. The graveyard flight was followed by a 6 hr drive- no sleep to speak of between the four of us except for small patches. It got us to Jamshedpur on friday late afternoon. We had some lunch at home and then headed out to beldih club to our rooms. The rooms were not great and there was a lot of construction as we unfortunately timed this event at this venue during a period of renovation. However, it was passable and it was just for 2 nights anyway. On friday my cousin Panchali di and her husband Subir da arrived to attend the event all the ogway from kathgodam in Uttaranchal province They were picked up from the railway station by Dana, my sister. That evening we had dinner together at beldih club i cafe. The following day we had all the other out station guests arrive in batches. I was up early and met Neel da and Betty di who arrived from Varanasi. This was followed by the arrival of my inlaws from Kolkata by train- so P and I made a trip to the railway station to pick them up. The afternoon was a lunch party at my parent’s flat- this to celebrate my father -in - law’s birthday. October 14 th was such a special day - there was simply such a lot going on. My parent’s anniversary, my father in law’s birthday. And last but not least, there was the blockbuster India vs Pakistan world cup encounter in Ahmedabad. As it happened everything went according to plan. The anniversary party occasion in the evening was in the main hall. It was not too crowded and overall there were about 90 people. I kicked things off with some words on the microphone- and passed it to others. Later I also performed 2 songs- shokhi bhabonare and rhododendron. One rabindra sangeet and one Mohiner Ghoraguli. Both performed with the guitar rather than my comfort zone instrument- the synthesizer. Everyone seemed to enjoy the event and many had a lot to drink- especially my cousins from kolkata. I didnt realise it then but this was the first time I performed with the guitar in front of a live audience. The only thing I had done before was put some videos on youtube- which by the way I had not done in a while. Finally, India thrashed Pakistan in cricket. The following day was a routine of everyone leaving to return to their homes or onward destinations. We left in a taxi at 11 AM straight for the airport. It was another long drive- we stopped at the new 6 Ballygunge Place restaurant in Kolaghat. P and I had a “bhapa elish” - which was not bad. The only bit of drama we had was during the security check in kolkata airport- which ofcourse had always been a source of stress for decades. Too many people passing through very few machines- and customary chaos. My bags set off an alarm amidst the throng of people hovering around the area- some waiting for the bags to come thru the x ray machine which seemed to spitting out one bag every 5 weeks or so. Lots of bags were “flagged” the first time following which they were passed through this excruciating process a second time. Mine was too. And it was flagged yet again so now I was asked to open it and pour everything out. The offender happened to be my instrument cable. They wanted me to go all the way out and check into my luggage. Because it resembled a rope - and hence might be used as a weapon on board. Needless to say all the coaxing and cajoling didnt work- nor did I expect it to. When you see the security staff at kolkata airport in action- which I had done for decades- it leaves little hope to have a sensible conversation. So I decided to gift the imbecile of an officer my cable. He could shove it up an orifice of choice, as far as I was concerned. P and some other folks noticed my dispelasure and tried to ask me to calm down and just check the cable in. But I’d be damned if I would go all the way out and go through this ordeal yet again. It did bot help that I was extremely exhausted on this whirlwind trip. Aside of this, it was a smooth flight back albeit a bit of a late arrival. But on Monday everyone went to work or school as was meant to be- that was no mean feat following the intense travel of the weekend.