Fairlawn....

I did not mention Fairlawn Hotel in the ‘Banglar thhek’ post. Branding Fairlawn as a mere watering hole would be too dissatisfying for its/my ego. The 229 year old is much beyond that.

My brother took me there for the first time. Cheese chicken omelet and beer from the money he earned from his first paid-internship.  These things confuse me, actually. I fail to judge a place objectively when blood ties, love and/or things like first salary get involved.

So, I went there again. And again. Then again.  

Nah, I actually love that place. …way too much.

And, when I thought, I had loved it enough to last for a lifetime, came a box full of surprises. These surprises are like Matryoshka Dolls. You split the doll around its pregnant stomach and find a smaller one. Then, one after the other. Every time you think ‘this is the last one’, comes a tinier doll. Yesterday was a Russian Doll day! :)

The lawn is beautiful. It is also their oh-so-lovely drinking joint. Rice-lights, lush green, smell of beer and cigarettes and people speaking in 10 different languages. Yes, the place is packed with foreigners (like most Sudder Street cafes and pubs are) and you can gladly share tables with any random group you like. Other than the old English feel of the entire place, what I love most here is people-watching. Have you ever watched two people talking from a distance? And played “lets-make-an-imaginary-conversation-between-them” with a friend? Go to Fairlawn. You will not understand half of the languages the visitors are speaking and can play the game endlessly.

I asked the waiter if we could take a look around. He readily agreed. This was the foremost surprise. I had always thought that, except for boarders, they don’t allow you to enter the inside of the hotel.  But they did! One surprise nested into the belly of another. You open one, follows the other.

I choose to make this one a photo-post. There are times (even in my life!!!) when words fall short. Take a look, why!

Stairway to heaven :)

 Prizes and accolades adorn the wall (they have won six National Awards for excellence in tourism)

  The fair lawn :)

 The Reception

 Waiting area and lounge

 The dinning hall (a full English breakfast is served from 7.30 AM till 10.30 AM every morning). For long, I knew it was a breakfast joint only. Try it. Please?

 The corridor and the rooms

  The drawing room for guests

Same caption as above

 The waiting room (tell me, honestly, wouldn’t you have longed to wait forever if the waiting room was this cute?)

 And the Reading room..

Footnotes and words of wisdom:

1.      Snail mail address: 13/A, Sudder Street, Kolkata - 700 016. (2 and a half minutes from the New Market, 2 minutes from Indian Museum…walking)

2.      They serve beer only. No other alcoholic beverage.

3.      Don’t commit the sin of not trying their omelets.

4.      Go with a camera and a lot of time (these images are hijacked from the internet) :(

5.      Make sure that the friend you are taking along isn’t an hour late.

6.      Trust me, even if he/she is, Fairlawn will make up for it.