Welcome 2016

January 5, 2016, Kolkata: The New Year has set in and thankfully I shall be in Kolkata during the first week of the month. The year 2015 has been one of the busiest years of my life as evident from the media coverage.

I have spent more than 230 nights in hotels outside Kolkata, availed two domestic flights per week on an average and add on an overseas trip each month. In fact, I landed in Kolkata on New Year eve and the only scheduled travel is on January 18 and prior to that a couple of days to the Far East. This is the first time in the last one year that I am staying put in Kolkata for some time. For sure, I miss the city more than the city misses me.

After landing from Delhi on December 31st evening I went to three private parties including the residence of Naresh and Sunita Kumar and was back home before the New Year celebrations started.

With Daniella at the ITC poolside brunch

On January 1, 2016, I attended the brunch hosted by Daniella and Ranvir Bhandari at the poolside of ITC Sonar. Ranvir is known for his taste and he hosted the brunch in style. After a long time, I enjoyed the food at the ITC Sonar. 

In fact, I also enjoyed the food at ITC Sonar recently at a barbeque hosted by Kangan and Atul Bhalla, the present General Manager of ITC Sonar in early winter in Kolkata. It was an ITC week for me as I have shifted my Delhi address to ITC Maurya again and was in ITC Maurya on December 29 and 30. The whole of these two days I was busy in meetings and even had one English media and TV channel interview.

On December 30, after attending few meetings also attended a dinner reception hosted by Shashi Tharoor to celebrate the wedding of his son, Kanishk Tharoor to Amanda Marie Calderon at his residence in New Delhi.

From Kolkata I left for Jaipur on the morning of December 19 and was there till December 26. Saturday-to-Saturday it was a quite a busy week in Jaipur as I was away from this city for quite some time now. 

With Dr Samin K Sharma

In a week's time I hosted the Write Circle with Jai Arjun Singh, Desert Storm with Dr Samin K Sharma, had meetings with the teams of two English media houses. Attended seven private get togethers, including dinner with Lt Gen Arun Kumar Sahni, who retired on December 31 from services, and I have seen one of the most beautiful bonfire arrangement at his house in Command area at dinner.

With Saurabh Kakkar

I also attended a religious gathering hosted by Vinnie and Saurabh Kakkar, attended my London-based friend Shivani Sethia’s 40th Birthday party. I also hosted a dinner at hotel ITC Rajputana for Mr Sunil Gupta and his wife Anamika Gupta who has taken over as the CEO of ITC’s Welcome Heritage hotels. 

I also had a number of meetings with all my event partners and had a very good meeting with Mr Raghunathan Murali, the new General Manager of ITC Rajaputana. Besides hosting the dinner, I also attended the dinner hosted by Apra and Kunal Kuchhal and Maharaj Narendra Singh for me.

From Jaipur I landed in Kolkata on Saturday December 26 evening and attended the brunch hosted by Madhu and Harsh Neotia and again went to Delhi on December 29 morning. I wish this New Year will bring some more days for me in Kolkata and in office.

ess bee