Welcome to the 2nd part of this 3-part mini-series "Dude! Where's my weekend?"
In case you missed the 1st part here is the re-run (I'm kinda proud of this one).

Ok so,
one week later ...

Triin finally made it to Kolkata, after having braved a 7 hour bus-ride from Dhaka.
I wasn't about to SMS her again (hoo boy!) after her little "Maniac SMS" episode earlier that week, but had managed to be there to pick her up from the bus-stop along with Raksha from AIESEC India and Beyhan.

For you people out there who aren't familiar with Triin...

Meet Triin Noorkõiv. Estonian. Finally figured out from her blog that her birthday is Aug 27. A belated Happy birthday Triin! We first met in Singapore some time back and she was the main reason I wound up here in India. Since she was headed this way, I had thought I'ld show some Singaporean hospitality and host her for a weekend.

She has a lot more free time than I do, so she's written about her stay with us first. I like to take my time with these things. Since her description is a trifle short to say the least, I think you had better stick to my account.

Let's see, she arrived on a nice humid Saturday morning, I forgot what time exactly....
Like the wind she came and like the wind she went, silently leaving her invisible mark on those she passed. OMG, Purple Prose! Somebody shoot me please...

Weeell, it was true, kinda. I rather enjoyed her visit. I'm sure Beyhan, Maxim and Alvarro did too. Yes Triin, it's Beyhan, Maxime and Alvarro ;p. Not Marcus and his three house-mates.

We almost missed her pickup. Out here in deep kolkata, there are no bus-stop signs. Heck, there aren't even alot of street-signs (this is still better than Mumbai where there are NO street signs), and some buses don't even bother to stop. (You kinda have to run along side the bus, it slows down enough for you to make a running leap for the door. I don't advise missing.)

Anyhow, we found her (eventually) and took a cab back to our little pad to stow her gear. By some happy chance Alvarro had just left Kolkata for Mumbai on assignment for the weekend and we had some bedspace.

I have to admit that I was a little unused at first to the increase in the volume of conversation that was suddenly going on. Our house is, unlike the house upstairs, is a fairly quiet place. People from upstairs used to come down here to escape the maddening crowd.

Breakfast in the morning consisted of the four amigos sitting around a table communicating by grunts. So, you can imagine sparkling conversations are not really our forte. Triin could REALLY talk. I think she sensed an aural vacuum present in our group, and proceeded to single-handly fill the air with light-hearted banter.

Her optimism was like ... like a ray of sunlight piercing the darkness that shrouded me. Unfortunately, when a guy is sleeping comfortably in the gloomy dark, you DON'T shine a torchlight on his face. It was a little discomfitting to say the least. (Shucks, she talks even more than Alvarro, the lengendary amigo who can interrupt a group in conversation and proceed to convert a dialogue to a monologue.)

It took some time to get her settled. I can't quite remember why, but only Triin and I were left to decide what we wanted to do for the weekend. She wanted to see a temple mentioned in her lonely planet guide - Belur Math.

Belur Math was a temple which belonged to a very famous preacher. This fellow founded a religion (can I call it that?) that included elements from all the major religions of the world. This temple was in the northern regions of Kolkata. Actually, it was in another city entirely, Howrah. Howrah and Kolkata are joined to each other like a pair of siamese twins, their fates intertwined and sustained by their common umbilical cord that is River Hooghly.

We took the metro to a point close to the Howrah bridge which spanned the Hooghly. It was ...an interesting walk across the bridge. From the Howrah train station, a special train took us straight to Belur Math.

There, in front of the Howrah station, we had our first near-death encounter. A super-sized truck bore down on us and we noticed the truck only at the very last minute. Actually, Triin noticed the truck at the last minute. I would just have been so much pate on the road.

Darn...running out of time again.

Continue this sometime...