A frantic Friday

Mamata Banerjee releasing the book at Writers' Buildings

September 30^th 2011: It was one of the busiest days for me. At 11:30 am I was at the Writers' Buildings conference room for the release of the book Moner Manush Chitranatya Ityadi by Hon'ble Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. 

The book, a Prabha Khaitan Foundation initiative, has been written by Nirmal Dhar.

Among those present were Prosenjit Chatterjee, Arpita Chatterjee, Haranath Chakraborty (picture) and Nirmal Dhar. 

Film maker Goutam Ghose could not make it as his train was stuck in Siliguri.

As soon as the function was over, I rushed to the Raj Bhavan for a banquet lunch hosted in honour of Prime Minister of Bhutan, His Excellency Jigme Yoser Thinley by the Governor of West Bengal M K Narayanan. 

It was a very small luncheon gathering and I again met the Chief Minister there (picture).

The others who were present on the occasion were Industry Minister Shri Partha Chatterjee, Police Commissioner Shri R K Pachnanda, Bhutanese minister, Mr Dasho Tshering Wangda, Lt Gen Bikram Singh, Shri Manish Gupta minister for Development & Planning, Mayor Shri Sovan Chattopadhyay, Chief Secretary Shri Samar Ghosh, DG Shri Naparajit Mukherjee, Ms Dekey Choden Gyaltshen, Shri Amit Mitra Finance Minister and Mr Dorji Tshering.

I sat at the table next to the Minister for Cultural Affairs, Bhutan, Mr Dasho. He invited me to visit Bhutan. Though Bhutan is one of those countries which is just 75 minutes via flight from Kolkata, I have never been to Bhutan in the last two decades during which I have visited over 60 countries.

From the Raj Bhavan I straight went to Chaltabagan for the inauguration of the Puja by the Governor of West Bengal and all the guests invited by me were present.

From Chaltabagan I went to Hotel Hyatt Regency to attend the National Day cocktails & dinner on the invitation of the Ambassador of Chile, Mr Cristian Barros, Mrs Poly Michell and Dr J K Saraf.

I also dropped in at the ITC Sonar for some time and even though I could not watch the play titled The Urge, directed and conceptualised by Aamir Raza Hussain and Virat Hussain at ITC Pala. I met the host.

ess bee