My troika trips

Jaipur, September 30, 2013: Kolkata-Delhi-Jaipur or Kolkata-Jaipur-Delhi has emerged as a very common troika trip for me in the past few years. Hopping from one city to another in close succession often many times a month.

I arrived in Delhi on Saturday. I had plans to avail the afternoon flight to Delhi since I had just one function to attend in the evening. However, there weren’t any options available from Kolkata in the afternoon and I had to book the 9 am flight only.

When I got up in the morning, there was a text message that the flight would leave at 2:30 pm which meant my flight was delayed by almost five hours. I wasn’t really complaining since this suited me well I landed in Delhi in the evening.

I went to the Taj Mansingh for the award distribution ceremony of the Corporate Bridge Associations’ 2nd Bridge Event. I went to the hotel with Sharmila Tagore who was the Chief Guest of the event. She spoke about her family’s association with Bridge especially her sister Tinku and her husband, Late Nawab Pataudi, who was popular as “Tiger”.

Yesterday evening I took a flight from Delhi to Jaipur. Today there were two events in Kolkata where I should have been. One was An Author’s Afternoon series with Tanya Medonca and the other a scheduled luncheon meeting with UNIC Director, Kiran Mehra Kerpelman. Because of some unavoidable family commitment I have to be in Churu tomorrow morning. That’s the reason for my staying in Jaipur today. Iconveyed my apologies to the UNIC Director Kiran, Tanya and also Nilanjana Sengupta who honoured my request to sit in conversation with Tanya.

In fact, today evening there was another programme scheduled at The Park Hotel for Soha Ali Khan which, however, got cancelled last week. Today I shall attended a dinner which was long due here in Jaipur at a private residence. ess bee