How and where it all started

I vividly remember the day when I was told I was going to come to the Maersk project. Strangely (or perhaps not so strangely) enough, I greeted the news with a fair dose of sadness. So I will no longer be a ArcoBaleno I thought - that's a big big loss! (for those of you to whom the word 'ArcoBaleno' sounds like Martian spaggetti soup deep fried in mild resin flavoured chilly sauce, suggest you schedule a 4 hour meeting with me to clarify the details). Moreover 'trade winds from the west' bore the news that I was going to be the baby in the Maersk project - that was a project teeming with people who were 'very senior'. Then my arrival in the project was delayed several times - all in all, the signs looked ominous. Last but definitely not the least - this was going to be the first time I would leave the cosy shelter of home and step into the big, bad world (Late start on the long journey from boy to man - but better late than never!).

So after several cycles of packing & unpacking my suitcase and with a heavy and apprehensive heart I arrived in Copenhagen on a fine summer's day on June 02, 2004.

I had a reservation in a hotel called 'Phoenix Copenhagen'. The hotel reservation confirmation that I clutched on to suggested that I had to go to a place called Bredgade (which I pronounced as Bread-gaa-de to the taxidriver). That brought a fairly blank look in his eyes. So I realised that it would be much easier to tell him the name of the hotel instead. After hearing the name of the hotel it was apparent that the taxi driver was inclined to go to some place that sounded like Braille-Gale. So after all the confusion, I was fairly relieved when after half an hour, the taxi actually stopped in front of a hotel that bore the same name as that in my confirmation. Later I was to learn that it was Danish I was trying to speak. That is a realm into which a non-Danish should never attempt to step into unless he has some hot potatoes ready to put into his mouth to ease the pain. It was around 10 o' clock in the night and I was greeted with bright daylight all around - welcome to Denmark!

Next day Sanjay-da came to pick me up and took me to the project office. It was a dark, dreary and solumn office - a far cry from the well-lighted & airy offices IBM has in Calcutta. I was assigned to a module in the project called 'Lookup Table Management' - which was awfully boring and so the project had got off to a not-so-good start for me.

Slowly I settled down to life in Copenhagen - picked up all the tricks of the trade from Arya-da - how to move about, where to shop, where to eat etc. First few weekends were spent in his apartment at Henrik Ibsens Vej where all the rest of the gang lived.

Then I got myself a new apartment after much negotiations with Ricki of Q-Management. The place looked pretty well furnished and had a large balcony. So in absence of a vacant apartment at Henrik Ibsens Vej (which was THE place that I wanted to stay always) - I decided to move in here.

This where I first started cooking - initially I found it to be quite a interesting and creative pursuit. Now of course it has become a drab chore and I hardly ever cook (except when guests are coming over of course!)

The apartment seemed to be infested with ghosts of all tastes and demeanors. Some preferred to walk around at night and some who would sometimes switch on the music system in the middle of the night. Ghosts seemed to be pretty much the only souls around so evenings and weekends always posed challenges with regards to killing idle time. But there were many nice memories in this phase too, some of which you can see below.

On a hot summers day on August 07, 2004 we all went together to Belle Vue Beach in Klampenborg - that's one big happy bangali poribaar!

Then in September, Koushik-da and I had back to back birthdays on 24th and 25th. That was on a weekend and we celebrated with one big party. The cake was cut exactly at midnight of the 24th!

October 10, 2004 - our first project party - the entire IGSI team then. Probably the first and last time we all went out all together. Note that the restaurant is called aptly called 'Mama Rosa' - after all thats mama and his 'bhagne's and 'bhagni's you see in the pic !