Events galore!
The last five or six days there were many events, parties, functions and annual programs in the city that kept me busy. In public life, prior commitments always get the better of personal choice when it comes to attending functions and events. So some of the last hour invitations that I get and badly want to attend – I have no choice but to miss out.
On December 21st there was a program organised by Sanjay Budhia at The Oberoi Grand to felicitate the Golden Peacock Awardees which I could not attend but on 22nd December I did attend the quiz programme organised by Ananda Bazar Patrika and enjoyed it very much. Though it was a freezing cold evening by Kolkata standards as it was an open air program at the RCGC, the guests stayed on till the last.
This was a first-of-its-kind program in the city. All the six teams were a mix of directors, actors and actresses. The team of Rituporno Ghosh and Indronil came second but there was little doubt that they were the favourite of the audience. Rituporno is an encyclopedia of Bengali cinema.
After the Quiz I attended the post quiz party of Ananda Bazar Patrika but missed out on the inaugural party of the ITC Fortune hosted by Bipin Vohra.
On December 23rd I missed the lunch at the Legislative Assembly but did attend the premier of Aar Ekti Premer Golpo at the Priya Cinema. I met Sandip Ray, Anjan Dutta (pictures), Kaushik Ganguly and other stalwarts of Tollywood who were there to see this much talked about and controversial film in which Rituporno has acted an the film is directed by Kaushik. The word going around is that this is the first film that is based on the life story of a person who is alive i.e., Chapal Bhaduri, who himself was present at the premier.
After this program I attended the 41st Anniversary party of Hotel Hindustan International hosted by Dilip Jaiswal. The same evening I breezed through two other private parties.
On December 24th, I missed my appointment with Lok Sabha Speaker Meera Kumar at the Raj Bhawan since the tentative time for the meeting given to me by her office clashed with my other event at the State Legislative Assembly.
I duly informed her office about my inability to attend.
The Flower Show is an annual affair at the State Assembly and this year it was inaugurated by the Governor of West Bengal in the presence of Speaker Hashim Abdul Halim, deputy speaker, Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta, Roopa Ganguly and others. I took a round seeing the award winnng flowers pots with Amala Shankar (picture).
On the eve of 24th I attended the event conceptualised by Idea Creations, the company of cine star couple Arpita and Prasenjit at The Park. I am also a board member of this company. I met Chiranjeet after a long time there in the post event party at the Hotel. I had a dinner at The Oberoi poolside that evening.
I missed out on the polo ball at The Oberoi Grand on the 25th evening and hardly watched any of the matches properly. I am very fond of watching polo matches and make it a point every year to do so either in Delhi or Jaipur.
My list of missing events included two events organised by the Chambers of Commerce, one with Pranab Mukherjee and another with Meera Kumar. But no regrets, as I have never attended any Chamber of Commerce function till date except of the Prabha Khaitan Puraskar at the Calcutta Chamber of Commerce as I as directly associated with the Prabha Khaitan Puraskar. I did make plans for a Christmas lunch but was in office till late noon and finally ended up having tea at the Flurry’s.
Yesterday evening I went to DKS Club to listen to Jagjit Singh, something that I had planned a month in advance, but a religious event at the Netaji Indoor Stadium, organised by my close associates, compelled me to make an early exit. Alas! I could not be at Jagjit Singh’s till the last though I wanted to sit through the entire program.
I also gave the SKM Annual program yesterday, where Kailash Kher performed, a miss. Another great performance that I missed was that of Hari Prasad Chourasia a couple of days back.
ess bee