We woke up at around 8 in the morning. After the regular morning activities we left for Dakshineshwar at around 10-10:30. We had to stop for Breakfast at my Masi's place which was on the way. The breakfast was a typical Kolkata one with Radha Ballabi (a kind of Poori stuffed with Dal), Aloo Dum, Sandesh, Rabri and Mishti Doi.
After the hearty breakfast we headed towards the Dakshineshwar temple. We took two Autorickshaws to arrive at the temple. For those who are used to metered Autos, the Autos in Kolkata will surprise you. The Auto there do not run on meters and need to be shared with other people. There are fixed routes and one can get on and get down anywhere within the route. After the intial shock of having to share the Auto, Sreejith and Vinay finally got on to it. Our Auto had three people sitting on the rear seat and four on the front including the driver. One of the many firsts that Sreejith and Vinay will experience in these two days.
By the time we reached the temple the afternoon heat was at it's peak. Sreejith was too exhausted from the heat to see the temple. He waited in the shade outside while me and Vinay took a quick look around of the place. We met Sreejith outside and in his own words he was "getting steam cooked" and "melting away". To escape the heat we took a Taxi to my Nanihal (Mother's maternal home) at Beadon Street.
After taking some cool refreshing drinks there, we dozed off for a while to recharge ourselves. Our next stop was Golbari at Shyambazar Crossing. We took a Tram (another first for Vinay and Sreejith) to Shyambazar. Sreejith instantly took a liking to the Kassa Mangsho that this place is famous for. After filling in there we then took an Auto to the nearest Metro station and took a Metro to Park Street. We were to meet our Bhua who stays on Royd Street (close to Park St.). On the way we saw the Stephen's Building which was in news recently for the tragic fire that killed 43 people (and still counting).
At my Bhua's place we had some snacks, fruits and sweets and then headed to Flurry's where we would be meeting Gaurav, an old friend of mine. The original Flurry's is on the ground floor of Stephen's building and was closed down because the debris clearing work was in progress. The place we went was a temporary arrangement at Park Hotel. After having some cakes and sandwiches there we headed to Trincas right next to it.
Trinca's is an old and popular restaurant cum bar famous for the live band which is a regular feature there. We stayed there for a while and unwound listening to some old Hindi and English numbers that the band was playing that day.
After an hour there we dropped Gaurav to his place and headed back home. This was a close to our first full day in Kolkata. Sreejith and Vinay were getting a hang of this place. The plan for Day 11 is to take them to the (in) famous Burrabazar area, New Market and the Fort William Area. Come back here to see what's in store for Day 11.
PS: We have stopped uploading snaps as we are running short of time. We have a lot of pictures to share and will do so once we reach Bangalore.
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