An unscheduled trip to Kolkata

With Hartosh Singh Bal at the Write Circle in Jaipur

December 31, 2013: I arrived in Kolkata last night from Jaipur. Till the evening of December 29, I was in the forests of Ranthambore and really had amazing number of sightings. In fact, we had more than a dozen sightings of tigers in the tiger land – Ranthambore.

Before going to Ranthambore, I attended yet another very interesting series of the Write Circle event at the ITC Rajputana, Jaipur. This time it was with the author and journalist Hartosh Singh Bal who was till very recently the political editor of OPEN magazine and the author of Waters Close Over Us: A Journey Along Narmada.

I made an unscheduled return visit to Kolkata as lots of invites had piled up. Christmas onward Kolkata is full of events during the wintry months.

I shall again travel from 2nd or 3rd January. I had no plans to come to Kolkata but I had to make this short trip as the President of India has confirmed to formally present the “Sunil Gangopadhyay Memorial Award” to eminent poets Sri Nirendranath Chakraborty for 2012 and Sri Sankha Ghosh for 2013 - at an Award function on January 11, 2014, at the Raj Bhawan, Kolkata. Much remains to be done.

“The Sunil Gangopadhyay Memorial Award” was instituted by The Bengal in memory of Late Sunil Gangopadhyay who was also the immediate past President of The Bengal.

The President’s function calls for a lot of protocols to be complied with and I was in office doing just that for most of the time.

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