The last time Modi had come to Calcutta, we were all out on the streets, protesting. Like all things in Cal, things has eventually devolved in a hilarious and confusing TMC vs CPM fight with no one being allowed to go even near Modi and Mamata had suddenly apparated in a

makeshift stage near the Shahid Minar barricades, in the flesh, just a metre away scolding ppl for wanting to go near Raj Bhavan. There was huge police presence in full riot gear but to their credit they just stood their calmly watching it all devolve into CPM vs TMC lol.

I remember I had physio that day (it was going so well, my leg hardly hurt, sigh) so I arrived way late. All the roads were closed but the cabbie that drove me made it his personal mission to get me to the protest site as soon as he heard I was going to protest Modi and the CAA

and NRC. It was still the Christmas/New Year's holiday so EVERYone was back in town and so I go there and see EVERYONE is there, the entire old JU gang, including @SpinSpinSpin, L, D--some of whom I hadn't seen in years and of course ppl I knew would be there like @saichukan

and @beralertalibosh and both of @bongeats and people I met for the first time that night like @adilhossain. This was also the day I realised S as S were I fact TWO separate ppl because its the first time I saw the two of them together. We spent hours drinking and eating after

in that amazing old bar (damn it ki naam?) till the kindly old waiters were like ok khana bhi khatam how gaya hain ab jao and then ended up in Ds place for more drinking and shocked the zoomers with our knowledge of 90s pop music. I remember cracking jokes like

"Why does Feluda avoid family functions--because they have e too many Mitros" and badly singing my Bela Bose CAA song and realising that Anjan Dutta was singing the spiel for the 5th time cause he says "teenchar bar wrong number lege" cause clearly he never waits for the other

person in the line to speak and confirm they were Bela or Bela s dad before going odd. @SpinSpinSpin provided some top tier mataal public fun involving a lighter and an upturned glass. Things were completely shit then of course and we spent hours talking about that but I don't

think any of us realised how much worse than even that it would get and how soon. This was before the pogrom in Delhi and I don't think any of us had even heard of the coronavirus yet. Anyway there there is no point to this except I have woken up in the middle of the night and

saw I had network again so thought might as well sad boi post. That was the last time so many of us had been all together at the same place and nothing was normal but at least we could be all together in how not normal it was. Now there is a pandemic

anti CAA protestors are in jail on sedition and my city and state has been flattened by a super cyclone. Damn.

Oh haha like late LATE into the night basically when it was already morning @SpinSpinSpin casually went oh no I have to go home because I think I left my house gate open. Which I dunno why i still think is hilarious. @adilhossain had to go home early because ma bokbe so we teased

him, "haha Comrade in the streets Complan in the sheets" which in our drunkenness everyone thought was hilarious but obviously makes no sense now. Oh @Topshe5 was also there though I don't know him that well so not sure if he'd appreciate being tagged in this silly thread. =)

Also @saichukan discovered a aamshotto wala at Shahid Minar at that hour like only she can and we sat in the bar eating that surprise almost anachronistic aamshotto as dessert but the waiters were all anti CAA so didn't say anything

Also I just realised someone owes me money from that night hahahha. Eta bad debt