A lifelong pain.![]()
It goes further than you think. There were at least three names in common between the families. Indrajit Gupta's elder brother was named Ranjit Gupta, the ICS Chief Secretary, also my father's name; his sister in law, Ronu Gupta's wife, shared a name with my mother (the lady is still alive, close to her 90s). We used to get their Lloyds' Bank bank statement every now and then, and pretty demoralising it was too.
At the time Sonny Gupta died, he owned a nice large house on Deodar Street.
That was inherited property, in trust form, if I remember correctly, so that it couldn't be given away to the party. He was a very straight and honest man; OTOH, about J. Basu, you probably remember the doggerel verse:
"Opore bhara, niche bhara,
Majh-khanete
shorbohara!"
Our CPI connection comes from my father having been one of Sushobhan Sarkar's favourite students at Presidency; since most of his classmates joined the CPI, it was difficult to keep them at arm's length. Mohit Sen was a family friend; my father and his brothers went to deadly rival schools in Dhaka, Pogose and St. Gregory's respectively, and the legendary Sen girth was used to devastating effect by making them the goalkeepers. His anecdote about my dad in his autobiography was completely born out of his imagination. I heard Muzaffar Ahmed speak about the Kanpur Conspiracy case at the Marx Club, which Sushobhan Babu used to let me attend from time to time, probably out of his fondness for my father. Odd, that, considering that my old man was one of the most hated of policemen among the far Left, the Naxals. You can still see faded signs on Calcutta walls: "Ranjit Gupter mundu chai."
If you want
to hear more stories, write to me off-list.
Abhishek Hazra <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
just in passing
mr. bonobashi,
how does it feel to share your name with a great commie boss?
:-)
mr. bonobashi,
how does it feel to share your name with a great commie boss?
:-)
On 12/5/05, Indrajit Gupta <[EMAIL PROTECTED] > wrote:???I thought they weren't making the Baleno Estate, that is, the Altura. It had a great engine and could then, two years ago, pull away easily from anything else on the roads in its class.Must go back and check; thanks for the hint.For the rest, I DO mind the price of the Octabhia (the 'h', dear 'eart, the 'h'; the essence is in the 'h'), but my boss is playing mine-is-bigger-than-yours with his peers, using my car as a marker.What's wrong with the back seat? Tell, no.The Tata Marina drove well, and has a nice price; I'm planning to roam around a lot, and this car needs to last only three years, so I thought it appropriate.The surprise was the Ford Fiesta, both the 1.4 as well as the diesel. The petrol version was so quiet that at the Nandanam stop, I suffered deep humiliation by assuming it had stalled and trying to re-start the engine. The diesel pulled away almost as well as the petrol versions, and was amazingly quiet as well. Can't ignore it.I suppose you're right about the FIAT. Pity, though. It's such a lovely brute.Will keep you posted on the outcome (in private mail henceforth, to avoid attacks of spleen among other list members).On 05/12/05, Indrajit Gupta wrote:
> As it happens, I've just finished test-driving the Tata Marina, and have
> appointments this evening for the FIAT Adventure Sport and the Skoda Octavia
> (Octabhia?) Combi.
ig,
some uninvited, not-so-humble, opinions:
* if you don't mind the price, go for the Octabia -- unless you intend
to sit in the backseat a lot.
* The FIAT is a good car but you don't want to be saddled with an
albatross if they go out of business -- like me and my Matiz.
* I'm pretty happy with my Indigo -- but I do have to make allowances
for the fact that it is a Tata.
* You may want to evaluate the Baleno Estate too.
-- bIndrajit Gupta'Ramsharan', 396, TT Krishnamachari Road,Teynampet,Chennai 600 018.+914455511138+919884375777
Enjoy this Diwali with Y! India Click here
Indrajit Gupta
'Ramsharan', 396, TT Krishnamachari Road,
Teynampet,
Chennai 600 018.
+914455511138
+919884375777
Enjoy this Diwali with Y! India Click here
