2011 : A Flashback !

2011 : A Flashback !

Hello Guys,

Long time ha! Busy times ! :D Anyways here I am back with the best and worsts of 2011, a year quite forgettable for the loss of eminent personalities across the globe. Let's do a recap !

BEST Moment:
India's ISRO launching the PSLV, PSLV - XL and PSLV - CA satellites also carrying foreign satellites


WORST Moments:

• Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami (Japan) Disaster
• Thailand Floods
• Fatehpur Train Disaster
• Kolkata's AMRI Hospital Fire

DEFINING Moments:

• Osama Bin Laden killed in a special encounter
• End of NASA's Space Shuttle's era
• Steve Jobs, M.F. Hussain, Shammi Kapoor, Jagjit Singh, Muammar Gaddafi, Dev Anand's deaths
• India's $35 Tablet "Aakash"

BEST Film (Bollywood):
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara


BEST Film (Hollywood):
X-Men : First Class


BEST Movie Sequel:
Kung Fu Panda 2


BEST Actor:
Alan Rickman (Character : Severus Snape, Movie: Harry Potter 7.2)



BEST Director:
Luv Ranjan (Pyaar Ka Punchnama)


BEST Song:

• Hum Main Hai Hero (A.R. Rahman) -- (Hindi)

BEST Sportspersons:

• Novak Djokovic (Australian Open, Wimbledon, US Open and 5 Masters Titles with a 70-6 win-loss record)
• Lionel Messi
• Cristiano Ronaldo
• Sebastian Vettel (F1)

EMERGING Sportspersons:

• Phil Jones (Manchester United)
• Deepika Kumari (Archery World Runner Up)
• Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa (Badminton)

BEST Sporting Moments:

• India lifting the ODI Cricket World Cup after 28 years (and hence Sachin's dream)
• Japan Women's Soccer Team (Winning World Cup)
• Virender Sehwag's demolishing 219 runs
• Indian Football Team lifting the SAFF Cup for 4th time
• Indian F1 Grand Prix's inaugural success

WORST Sporting Moment:
Deaths of Marco Simoncelli and Dan Wheldon (Motorsports)


BEST TEAMS:

• Manchester United (Record 19th Premier League Title)
• Barcelona (Soccer)
• Indian Cricket Team
• Red Bull Racing (F1)

BEST Indian ENTREPRENEUR:
Rahul Bhatia ( For establishing and operating Indigo, India’s only profitable low cost airline, in a turbulent industry environment )


BEST Indian POLITICIAN:
Mamata Banerjee (Crushing victory at the Legislative Elections)


BEST in ENTERTAINMENT (Indian):
Team KBC and Amitabh Bachchan


CAR of the Year:
Audi RS5


PERSON of the Year:

Vinod Rai (Comptroller & Auditor General Of India)

(For being a rare bureaucrat who stuck to an audit report which highlighted unprecedented government corruption.)

Cellphone of the Year:
Samsung Galaxy S II


WORD of the Year:
Pragmatic


DISCOVERY of the Year:
World's First Organ Transplant achieved

Social Network of the Year:

Google Plus

3 States

It was the 14th of July, when my Chote Mamaji had come for his official work at Rail Bhavan, Calcutta. He had been telling me to come to CKP (Chakradharpur, Jharkhand) for a very long time, and I was very eager to pay him and Mamiji and the kids a visit!

I left Cal on 14th night with him, and reached CKP at 8 in the morning. The kids had gone to school, and were very excited to see me when they returned. I have a strong affinity towards kids, they just get attached to me instantly (fevicol ka jod hai na :P). My mamaji is a Senior DEN (Railways) and hence he has a quarter at CKP. Full of fauna and flora!

Monsoon Magic

We roamed about CKP the same day and mamiji prepared mutton curry for me and the kids, which was awesome! The next day I had to help Anshul prepare a story for his school competition, while mamiji spent the entire time trying to make him remember the story of "Tikker the Tiger" :P

We all left through a train to Rourkela, where we took an alternative route to Mandira Dam (bulit on the Sankh river). Our car had a brake fail and we had to wait at a petrol pump for about an hour to get the car fixed !

Since we had come to the dam through the opposite route, we were lucky to click some snaps, while CISF personnel requested us to leave immediately, though we had the permit.

After visiting a temple on the Dam, we then made our way back through the highway to a restaurant called "7AM" where I and Mamaji played Air Hockey (which i won 7-4 :D).

Brake fail repair!

Mandira Dam

Later after a bit of shopping from Mamiji, we made our way back to the station. Mamaji wanted me to travel in the engine of the South Bihar express, but there was no seat in the engine, and he had to do inspection, so I had to travel with Mamiji and the kids in 2AC.

After reaching CKP, we went with samosas and chai to "S" more, which is a picnic spot on way to Chaibasa. It is said a "bhootni" visits that spot everyday 12am and 12pm! It started drizzling and we made our way back home. On the way, we narrowly escaped certain death, when an electric pole gave way and fell just 2 seconds after we crossed the spot!

Tired, we went to sleep, and next afternoon I caught the train back to Cal, where again Mutton Curry awaited me, this time Mummy ke haath ka bana :) It was a hectic yet totally enjoyable trip, with 4 trains in 3 days and covering 3 states!

Sagar Island

Woh kehte hai na, sab teerth baar baar Gangasagar ek baar.

Having lived in Calcutta for almost 21 years, we had never been to the Sagar Island and hence Gangasagar, the southernmost tip of Bengal, one of the islands of the largest delta in the world (Sunderbans) where the Holy river Ganges flows into the Bay of Bengal (Ganga and Sagar).

We left early on the 2nd of Jan, 2011, at 0730 hrs in a TATA Sumo. Reaching Gangasagar is a tough job. You need to take a bus/hired vehicle that'll take you to the Lot No. 8, also known as Harwood Point, which is about 75-80 kms from Kolkata. As it was an early Sunday morning of a fresh new year, the car was cruising blindly past Ganguly's home, IIM-C, Diamond Harbour among other places. The morning chill was hitting the face squarely and I was feeling the goosebumps.

After a duration of 2:25 hrs, we finally reached Harwood Point, a jetty on the Hooghly river through which one ferries across to the Sagar Island. The ferry operates every hour starting from 0500 hrs in the morning, though timings change frequently due to change in tides. The Hooghly river at this point is about 3.3 kms in length and at present there is no rail or road bridge connecting the two sides. The West Bengal Government, though, is planning to connect it with a road bridge at an estimated cost of about Rs 6000 million.

From the mainland

The ferry takes Rs 6.50 per person, but charges rocket up to Rs 50 during Mela time (which occurs in Mid January on Makar Sankranti). About 6-8 lakh pilgrims reach the Sagar to take a dip in the holy waters during the mela every year. We got ourselves three tickets and started to proceed towards the ferry. The freezing chill winds of the Ganges was enough to produce reverberations in the body and sent a chill down the spine every second.

On the island

We scrambled for seats and got them luckily. The ferry takes about 25 minutes to cross the river and the flow of the river made us zoom to the other side. We reached the other side, where only buses or small vans carry people to the Gangasagar. We shared an ACE Magic with another family. There is only one road that cuts through the heart of the island and there are a lot (and I mean lots of) of bumpers along the way. We reached Sagar in 45 minutes thanks to the sheer flying of the ACE Magic van (It's a pretty fantastic van, I must admit).

We then walked to the sea to take a dip. There are 5 roads at present leading to the shores, to accommodate the lakhs of pilgrims during the Mela. We were at Road No. 3, where the famous Kapil Muni Temple rests. It is about a km from the shore, and it is said that during the Mela, the waters of the ocean touches the feet of the temple, submerging everything else in and around the temple. The only source of electricity is from the four windmills constructed specially for the Mela.

Kapil Muni Temple

After taking the dip in the chill waters, and praying in the temple, we sat at a small hut for tea and lunch. Refreshing ourselves, we then left the Sagar. Sagar consists of lots of hungry dogs (and they are seriously very hungry), lots of beggars, and lots of bumpers along the road. On our return trip the ACE Magic was literally flying on the road, only just kissing the ground barely. It took us around 35 minutes to reach the jetty, where we boarded the ferry back to the mainland.

Crowd in ferry

The ferry was overloaded with almost 300 passengers, and we couldn't get a seat this time. The ferry was battling the opposite flow of the river and we could see a couple of oil rigs in the midst of it.

Oil Rig

As soon as we were reaching the shore, the ferry stopped and it was due to the sudden low tide that the ferry was unable to dock into the shore. Frantic people helplessly started talking and we couldn't do much than wait. Even though we could see the jetty at 50 meters from where we were and we could do nothing. There is no emergency evacuation measures there, and one has to wait only till the high tide comes.

Mighty Hooghly

All weird sorts of ideas kept coming in my mind, like sending a S.O.S Morse Code through the bells of the ferry, sending a S.O.S. through the smoke of the ferry, calling 911, praying the moon to affect the tides, updating my Facebook status (which I did), throwing ropes to the shore and asking pulling people to pull the ferry, among others.

Low Tide

Finally after a wait of almost 1:35 hrs, the tide did rise, and the ferry was shoved against another one, which was docked. Finally, we climbed through the other ferry and reached the jetty. Had a hot adrakh-ki-chai and finally was on our way back to our home ! The adventure didn't end there. The National Highway 117 is a single lane highway, which can hardly occupy two buses at the same time. There was a hell of a traffic jam, and we were caught in the jam for about 2 hrs. We finally reached home at 2100 hrs and had some garma-garam soup and finally slept off to a very tiring journey.

Directions

Even though the trip was physically and mentally very tiring, I and my parents enjoyed every moment of it and it is very rightly said sab teerth baar baar, Gangasagar ek baar !