This was our first unofficial trip to Kolkata. We thankfully had one before while working on a project together in office way back in 2010, and wanted to make a personal trip ever since, and this is how it finally happened.
We got to Kolkata on Jan 23, Monday afternoon, a little too late for the fancy 6 Ballygunge lunch that Boka planned with everyone, and a little too early for the Sundown party with the to-be married couple.
So Geet and I caught lunch at a place called Malgudi, right opposite Relax Inn hotel where we stayed, and turned out to be just what the doctor ordered as we got hot Rasam, which was perfect for the sore throat I've been nursing.
By 'sundown', the boys got ready in their blacks with white shoes that we'd planned and headed to Nocturne.
I had prepared a video for Bangdu and Nocturne offered a nice big screen to show it, but that was the end of the benefits the club offered, as I went literally insane trying to get the video to actually play.
First it wouldn't work off my laptop as the DJ only had HDMI cables that my laptop wasn't compatible with. So we arranged another laptop, but then realised my office laptop screws up any pen drive I insert into it. So only option was to upload the file and then download on the other laptop. Now I had to do this twice coz our fancy DJ needed Audio and Video files separately.
Anyway, while in the process of transferring, the second laptop runs out of charge, so now I had to get a third laptop, and repeat the whole process again. By this time lots of people were trying to help, including Mihir who was risking his life holding the laptop charger within the socket given a loose connection to ensure the transfer happens.
After all of that, the DJ plays the files separately, introducing a lag that ruined the output. I anyway was too tired to care by then and just glad I got the video out of the way.
But then, I went and shot a mannequin after that, which actually turned out well, so there began my video editing work right again.
Anyway we sat up a bit at Relax Inn after that till Thakur went nuts and then called it a night, only to hear him break the door next to ours trying to get Kataria out to join him for a drink. What a seriously insane guy!
Next day we rushed to the venue for Baarat which was to start at 9am, but only after a mouth watering road side breakfast of Poori Bhajji and Jalebi.
Bangdu soon came on a Harley Fat Boy and we danced around till he wed Poonam.
Lots of photos later, we got back to Relax Inn as the last of the friends to leave the venue and Geet immediately left shopping with (thankfully) Ritika for company while I caught some shut eye and thankfully a slightly better situation to attend a very fancy reception at Calcutta Golf Club where we had to choose between cuisines rather than dishes that were on offer.
After much Japanese and Punjabi food with Bengali sweets and chaat, we called it a night to get back to work straight the next day. However, Bangdu dropped in to give us our return gifts which ensured I only slept 2 hours before work; but well worth the wait as he doled out some really fancy silverware.
Perfect finishing touches to an already perfect wedding.
We got to Kolkata on Jan 23, Monday afternoon, a little too late for the fancy 6 Ballygunge lunch that Boka planned with everyone, and a little too early for the Sundown party with the to-be married couple.
So Geet and I caught lunch at a place called Malgudi, right opposite Relax Inn hotel where we stayed, and turned out to be just what the doctor ordered as we got hot Rasam, which was perfect for the sore throat I've been nursing.
By 'sundown', the boys got ready in their blacks with white shoes that we'd planned and headed to Nocturne.
I had prepared a video for Bangdu and Nocturne offered a nice big screen to show it, but that was the end of the benefits the club offered, as I went literally insane trying to get the video to actually play.
First it wouldn't work off my laptop as the DJ only had HDMI cables that my laptop wasn't compatible with. So we arranged another laptop, but then realised my office laptop screws up any pen drive I insert into it. So only option was to upload the file and then download on the other laptop. Now I had to do this twice coz our fancy DJ needed Audio and Video files separately.
Anyway, while in the process of transferring, the second laptop runs out of charge, so now I had to get a third laptop, and repeat the whole process again. By this time lots of people were trying to help, including Mihir who was risking his life holding the laptop charger within the socket given a loose connection to ensure the transfer happens.
After all of that, the DJ plays the files separately, introducing a lag that ruined the output. I anyway was too tired to care by then and just glad I got the video out of the way.
But then, I went and shot a mannequin after that, which actually turned out well, so there began my video editing work right again.
Anyway we sat up a bit at Relax Inn after that till Thakur went nuts and then called it a night, only to hear him break the door next to ours trying to get Kataria out to join him for a drink. What a seriously insane guy!
Next day we rushed to the venue for Baarat which was to start at 9am, but only after a mouth watering road side breakfast of Poori Bhajji and Jalebi.
Bangdu soon came on a Harley Fat Boy and we danced around till he wed Poonam.
Lots of photos later, we got back to Relax Inn as the last of the friends to leave the venue and Geet immediately left shopping with (thankfully) Ritika for company while I caught some shut eye and thankfully a slightly better situation to attend a very fancy reception at Calcutta Golf Club where we had to choose between cuisines rather than dishes that were on offer.
After much Japanese and Punjabi food with Bengali sweets and chaat, we called it a night to get back to work straight the next day. However, Bangdu dropped in to give us our return gifts which ensured I only slept 2 hours before work; but well worth the wait as he doled out some really fancy silverware.
Perfect finishing touches to an already perfect wedding.
