Consuls and Christman cocktails

December 18, 2014: Yesterday was one busy evening. Around 8 PM I reached the residence of Scott and Elizabeth Furssedonn Wood, British Deputy High Commissioner in Kolkata for Christmas cocktails, dinner and festive cheer. It was a nice select gathering and I wish I could have spent some more time there. I left around 8:45 PM to attend a social event at The Taj Ballroom but when I saw the traffic on the road in front of Taj Bengal, I took the Babughat road and went to The Oberoi Grand which I had planned to go there last.

At The Oberoi I went to witness the conferring of the insignia of Chevalier de l’ordre National du Merite (Knight of the National Order of Merit) on Mr Umesh Chowdhary, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Titagarh Group of Companies, followed by a reception at The Ballroom on the invitation from The Ambassador of France to India, Mr Francois Richier. After congratulating Umesh, I met the French Ambassador whom I have met before a couple of times in Delhi. He had hosted the inaugural dinner of “Treasures of Rajasthan: A Lifestyle Exhibition” at his Residence of France, New Delhi, on November 20, 2014, which I had missed.

I chatted with him about the possibilities of spreading the work of Alliance Francaise in Jaipur as well. From The Oberoi Grand I again went to The Taj Bengal. By this time the traffic was better.

I had not accepted any of the other invitations this week due to pending desk work. In fact, on December 16, I also missed the invitation from the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission to celebrate their Victory Day at the premises of the Deputy High Commission and also the official inauguration followed by cocktails of the new premises of the Alliance Francaise du Bengale at The Park Mansions by the Ambassador of France to India, Mr Francois Richier.

I was supposed to have been there, since Prabha Khaitan Foundation has a formalunderstanding with them, and witness the conferring of the insignia of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) on Mrs Kanchana Mukhopadhyay, Mr Naveen Kishore and Mr Chinmoy Guha.

I, however, dropped by at an industrialist friend’s residence for a get-together which was in honour of a leading Industrial Group from South India. In fact, after a long time, I have attended and missed, quite a few diplomatic events.

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