Across Seven Seas and Thirteen Rivers

 Tonight I speak in a voice unsteady and low. For on the thirteenth day of December, in the year 2025, I was wounded. Not by time, not by weather, but suddenly and grievously, in a manner I had never foreseen. Lionel Messi, the luminous pilgrim of the game, had stepped upon my soil, and the multitude poured into me like a river in spate, swollen by longing and devotion. When my galleries brim with bodies and breath, when human pulse becomes my rhythm and their murmur my wind, I am most alive. I was built for this communion. They are my purpose, my animating force, the breath within my concrete lungs. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, and West Bengal Governor Uma Shankar Dikshit inspect a model of the stadium in 1984 I am no ordinary amphitheatre. I was imagined with patience, shaped with reflection, raised with reverence. Concrete and steel are my skeleton and veins. In the 1980s, ships crossed seas from South Korea bearing cement for my making. R...

The Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan was refurbished during the period 2015-2017 to prepare it to host many matches, including the final and semi-final of the FIFA U17 2017. I was a member of the committee that oversaw that refurbishment.  Earlier, during the period 1978-1987, my firm, H K Sen and Associates, in collaboration with another consulting firm and other institutions, prepared the design for the three-tier stadium and managed its construction to ensure quality.   The Times of India, Kolkata Edition, dated 7th October 2017, published a three-quarter page story on my contribution to the design and construction of VYBK. Here is that story. 

Today, we bid farewell to Dipak Dutta , a cherished companion whose friendship graced my life for over four decades. In the quiet hours of this morning, he left us from his hospital bed, leaving behind not only memories but a legacy of joy, camaraderie, and integrity.  Dipak and I - Calcutta Club Nababarsha Evening 1991 Dipak was more than a neighbor and a friend—he was a man of substance. A distinguished chartered accountant , a passionate golfer , and above all, a consummate social being who brought people together with ease and grace. His leadership as Past President of the Calcutta Club remains etched in history, not merely for the title he held, but for the spirit of fellowship he embodied.  I recall that unforgettable evening vividly, decades ago, when Dipak triumphed in the presidential election of the Calcutta Club. Clad in a lemon-yellow T-shirt, he stood at the men’s bar, radiant with cheer, offering drinks with a smile that lit up the room. That moment captured the...