ON YOUR MARK GET SET, GO...

The Huntage 2017 group on WhatsApp came into being at half-past 11 on Saturday night. Our designated driver (DD) and Huntage pro (she has two years’ experience; two of us had done it once before and one was a newbie) proceeded to shoot instructions like a drill instructor. “Bring water and things to mop your face with because I know the AC will give out at some point”, “Sunglasses ’coz it’s raging hot”, “Nuts and snackables”. Carefully-timed pick-ups — even five extra minutes of zzz mattered when you had The Telegraph Food Guide Awards the night before and the reporting time at Eco Space, the starting point, was 8am! — were planned along Prince Anwar Shah Road Connector and the Bypass. Carrying a laptop was voted yes (because it is easy to search for clues on a Google page when you can Ctrl + F). Power banks were loaded up. We were set. Except, the first message from DD on the group, just as we were setting out for our pick-up points, was: “F**k can’t find my keys!” Apparently, “the bit** was hiding in my bag”.

DD missed her first pick-up and reached the second, so of course we had to go back to pick up  the leftover Huntmate. The last Huntmate had just got in at Ruby, when our Entertainment of the Day — the youngest in the team — exclaimed: “Look guys, the moon is out!” pointing to the sun, obscured by clouds. EOTD’s defence? “I am never up this early. How am I supposed to know what the sun looks like early in the morning?!”

We reached Ecospace, got our Huntage envelope and proceeded for the briefing. WhatsApp  from DD: “Preserve the envelope ’coz we hand it in at the end. So no bananas in there!” DD had tried to shove a few bananas and a boiled egg into the envelope for on-road snacking!

The minute we were handed the clue sheet, everyone in the car got busy. Our Queen of Google (QOG) fired up the laptop and got googling, and the Well-Connected One (WCO) went snap-snap and sent the clues to Team t2 and random family members. Here’s how it went down from there...

SPOT 1

QOG cracks the first clue for the first spot. “Oblation means blood sacrifice, guys,” she says, and the other clues just fall into place. “Isn’t there a saying in Hindi that goes ‘Charo khane chit kar diya’?” goes EOTD. “It has to be a dakat Kalibari in Chitpur,” says WCO, whipping out the phone and barking into it. “Is there a dakat Kalibari in Chitpur?” Phone-a-friend says yes, there is. Team t2 chimes in with their nods on WhatsApp. And we decide to head to Chitpur. “Which way do I drive?” is the only thing DD has to say about any of it. EOTD, who is also the navigator for the day, cues in Chitpur on Google Maps and we are suddenly on the longest, ever, route to north Calcutta from New Town.

Once in Chitpur, we get directed into narrow bylanes leading to nowhere and DD lets loose. Excerpts:

“Of course you will stop wherever you please! Have you never heard of an indicator?! Offload your entire family right on the corner of the road, why don’t you? Yes, yes, bend right over to look inside the car, just because a woman is driving, bloody idiot!”

Hits and misses 

QOG googles up Navaratna Temple in Chitpur, which has some legend about a famous bandit, so it fits. Except, once we reach Chitpur, it doesn’t seem to exist. 

QOG turns on Google Maps and there is a Kali temple on a Chitpur Strand Road. Soon we are driving through areas straight out of Gangs of Wasseypur. The road opens up into stunning views of the Hooghly, but the Kali temple turns out to be a Shiva temple! EOTD spoke for everyone when she suggested we forget Huntage (we were 90 minutes into it already), buy beer and sit and enjoy the view.

Eureka moment:

“We can’t find a Kalibari in Chitpur, guys,” is the dejected message from Team Huntage to Team t2. Former Huntage member and present super-hyper backroom support immediately comes back with a Wikipedia page grab. There is a Chitteshwari temple! We find it, and are on our way to the second!

Spot 2

We solved most of the clues for the second spot on the way to the first one (it was a very long drive). The first clue, and the fact that the first spot was in north Calcutta, convinces WCO that it is the Veterinary College and Hospital in Belgachhia. Even the initials BVC match. But what’s 11.08.08 Sarani? EOTD discovers it refers to Khudiram Bose.

Eureka moment:

A Khudiram Bose Sarani in Belgachhia? QOG confirms, and off we go! 

SPOT 3

This one’s been troubling us right from the start. The first clue — Stephen — wasn’t hard to get, and the ‘Messiah’, we guessed, referred to a church. But we are stuck on the second and fourth.

Hits and misses 

Team t2: “It will be Stephen” (yes, got it already) + “AJC Bose Road or APC Road”. (Umm... no, it isn’t)
QOG finds a St. Stephen’s Church... but on Diamond Harbour Road. That can’t be!
WCO’s mom, our Friendly Phone-a-Friend, comes back with: “Could be muni and chandra road.” (Thanks! As if we hadn’t tried that already)
Team t2: “There’s a HAZRAT Gora CHAND Shah BABA Road as in messiah moon and baba pix.”
Team t2: “There’s a Chitteshwari Kalibari in Chitpur.” (Good morning! Been there done that two clues ago)

That moment... 

...when we decide to give up on a clue, for the first time since Team t2 has been participating in Huntage. Because wasting more time on this means further delay. 

SPOT 4

WCO thinks it’s a school because the first clue reads like it’s referring to Montessori, Primary, Secondary and Higher Secondary. But that’s as far as we could make it because our Friendly Phone-a-Friend had called in with the answer even before we could locate the first stop! 

“BCP Founder is Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray, Abala Bose was Jagadish Chandra Bose’s wife, she was the secretary of Brahmo Girls’ School, the third clue is the school’s motto.” 

Hold on, take a breath! 

SPOT 5

We hate the Huntage guys for that Khelat Ghosh clue! It’s pointing to one place, and one place only — Pathuriaghata. But what in Pathuriaghata? 

Hits and misses 

WCO: “Is it a palace? Is there a Marble Palace in other states?” (Nope.)
EOTD: “Three states could mean gas, solid and liquid, it could mean water!”
QOG: “There is no waterbody in Pathuriaghata.”
Team t2: “There is! Rabindra Kanan. (That’s a marketplace) There is a Ghosh Bari in Pathuriaghata. (All there is at Ghosh Bari is an angry guard at the gate shooing away misguided Huntagers on a lazy Sunday)
One t2 boy to another: “Shudhu north Calcutta te thaklei hobe? Kichhu bolo!”

Eureka moment:

We have almost given up hope when we remember that we get a lifeline! If we call that number, we’ll be given another clue for any one spot. We call. The clue? “If you translate ‘lock’ to Hindi, you’ll get your spot and the place.” Tallah Pumping Station?! QOG confirms it holds nine million gallons of water. Phew! 

As we drive past the tank to the next spot, EOTD points to the tank and goes: “Guys, there is a leak in the tank. Drive faster. We don’t want to be washed away by nine million gallons of water!” *eyes rolling*

SPOT 6

We had solved this before reaching the fourth spot! Thanks to our Friendly Phone-a-Friend. Except that DD is having to drive through the same route twice, which she isn’t happy about at all. “If you have to overtake, do it right. Don’t just stick your paw out and then crawl along!” she yells at a bus driver. All for our ears only since the windows are rolled up!

Hits and misses

Former Huntage member: “Chiria More. It has to be.” (We love you!)
Phone-a-Friend: “Theta and quadrilateral, all have to do with measurement.”
Former Huntage member: “8,848 above sea-level is Mount Everest’s height.” (Genius!)
Phone-a-Friend: “There is a trigonometry tower after Chuni Babur Bazaar which measured the height of Everest.” (How do you do that?!)

Eureka moment:

QOG taps on her laptop and up comes the Great Trigonometrical Survey Tower. 

We have done it! But we are already half-an-hour over our time limit. A win is out of the question, so we decide to pop into a CCD and down a couple of lemonades. 

Text: Chandreyee Chatterjee, Karo Christine Kumar, Ramona Sen, Deborima Ganguly

WE THE ROADIES: TEAM HUNTAGE FESS UP

Name: Designated Driver (DD)

I was up early enough to check on some vitals. Bandana to keep hair off the eyes, so as to not miss child or puppy crawling across road. Check. Stepney with jack. Check (but no idea how to use it). Mechanic on speed dial. Check (but it’s Sunday). Car keys. Che… WHERE ARE MY CAR KEYS? Not in key bowl, not in pocket. Is it inside he-on-four-legs-who-swallows-everything? Oh, it’s in my bag. Oh heck, the others will all be waiting along the Bypass… must not be late… reverse out of driveway recklessly, shoot down lane and swerve on to main road, scowl at morning walkers springing out of the way, dash down Bypass connector, miss Huntmate 2 and pick up Huntmate 3, race back for Huntmate 2. Huntmate 4 is tanking up at a roadside tea stall. Good. 

As someone apparently ‘a bit like Mad Max’ (huh!), I made sure to have the car serviced just before Huntage season 6, so the air-conditioning wouldn’t give up like it did last year, even if my temper did. Not that my dubious sense of direction made me feel benevolent towards the GPS lady with an accent, who insisted on taking the longest routes to our given spots. Who pays her to be so idiotic?! 

If you’ve driven down north Calcutta, you’ll know how hard it is not to wipe out a whole section of the population as your car inches forward, all but grazing against the houses flanking the lanes, scraping by old men out for a stroll, vegetable vendors whose wares are laid out in the middle of the road and children bouncing about within an inch of their lives. 
If you’ve driven down Calcutta, you’ll know how Matadors will screech to a halt just when you’re about to turn, cabbies will simply stick out a paw to indicate they want to change lanes at a glacial pace, that no amount of honking is going to make the next person hurry up, slow down or change direction. If you’re a woman driving in Calcutta, you might have been tempted to hop out and box a few male ears for doubling over to get a better glimpse of the unfathomable sight of a woman at the wheel. 

The funny thing is, it’s all worth it... just to be able to stop at a yellow umbrella with Huntage marshalls waiting to have the clue sheet stamped. 

Huntmates 3 and 4, in the back seat, swore they would check into a spa to recover from flying over speed-breakers, but it was all for a good cause, wasn’t it? 

Name: Entertainment of the Day (EotD)

I’ve been a night owl all my life and one of the main reasons why I love my job is that I have to report to office on most days at 1pm i.e. afternoon. Not that Sunday. After running around for The Telegraph Food Guide Awards the night before, waking up at 6.30am was even tougher than it should have been. I woke up to a barrage of messages on the WhatsApp group, enquiring about my silence. I replied: “I’m awake. Reluctantly.” I got ready in 15 minutes, but the journey to my pick-up spot took longer, thanks to the slow (and possibly sleepy) rickshaw-wala. Once in the car , I tried my best to ignore my stinging eyes and my plodding brain, but throughout the day I kept making gaffe after gaffe, much to the delight of the other Huntmates. Whether it’s the moon comment (I should really stop thinking out loud) or entering someone else’s car thinking it to be ours, I’m glad I brought on the giggles this season of Huntage (even long after it was over). 

Name: Queen of Google (QOG)

It was my first time at Huntage. I had heard wild stories about the last two outings from the t2 girls and couldn’t wait to add a few of my own! The food from the previous night at #TTFG fuelled me sufficiently to wake up right on time! I was ready in a jiffy because I conveniently skipped the morning shower, because the last time I showered at 6am was never-’o-clock. 

At the venue, I followed my colleagues on their heels as this was all new to me. They darted about like pros — knowing just where the assembly would happen, when the clue kit would be given, and even guessed what would be in the breakfast box! I took in the sights and sounds and rubbed my hands in glee, waiting for the ride to begin. This was like a picnic! Along with a poorly-powered juice pack (portable charger), I had packed in real orange juice and some snacks. And was hoping we would pass some cafes on the way where maybe we could stop and chill! 

But once we started, time just sped by! The clue sheet in hand meant non-stop googling on the laptop, till that drained out and I moved to the mobile phone. This was the fastest crash course in the history of history! 

Name: well-connected one (WCO)

I had been excited about Huntage 2017 ever since Huntage 2016 ended. What I brought to the team this year? My mother, our Friendly Phone-a-Friend. Yup, she was up at 6am on a Sunday to make sure I wasn’t late. By the time it was 9am, I already got two calls from her asking if we had the clues yet, and we hadn’t even started. So the minute I had the clues, I WhatsApped them to her and what happened next has convinced me that she is going to be a permanent Team t2 Huntage member. 

Her first call came 15 minutes after I sent her the clues. “There is a very famous Dakat Kalibari in Chitpur. The second one is probably a Veterinary Hospital. The third one is a school….” I barked at her that we were trying to find the first place, so I’d call her back. I found out later that she did mention that the temple was called Chitteshwari, I was just too impatient to hear it. So much time we could have saved! 

While we had already guessed the second spot by the time she named it, she solved the clues for the fourth and the sixth spots! She doesn’t do Google, so how did she do it? She just knew! And if she didn’t, she called other people who did. For example, my father, the engineer, figured that theta and quadrilateral referred to measurement. So my mother called one of our relatives who lives near Chiria More to find out if there’s anything there that measured mountains, and voila! I offered my mom a spot in the team on the next Huntage, she said: “Orey baba! I won’t be able to handle the tension. I’ll just be backroom support.” Deal! 

THE WINNERS

(Above) Vineet Kaul, chief manager, branding, Indian Oil Corporation, flagged off Huntage 6 — along with (inset) Abhijit Sen Roy, SRSM (L), WBSO, Indian Oil — at Ecospace Business Park. “We’re happy to be involved in events that involve automobiles. We hope to see The Telegraph Huntage getting bigger and better in the coming years,” said Kaul.

HUNTAGE 2017

Servo presents Ecospace The Telegraph Huntage 6, held on March 26, had 18 routes and 18 spots with two sets of clues leading to each spot, so your clues didn’t overlap even if you were headed in the same direction. Each route had to crack six spots. 

The other 12 spots on the Huntage trail were: 

1. Afghan War Memorial
2. Bamondas Thakurbari
3. GTS Tower
4. Rammohan Library
5. Carey Baptist Church
6. Navratna Shiv Temple
7. Gwalior Monument
8. Maulana Azad Museum
9. Sadharan Brahmo Samaj
10. BITM – Birla Industrial & Technological Museum
11. Paramount Juice Centre 
12. Calcutta Polo Club (Stable)

“I feel Huntage has yet again showed that part of Calcutta which is unseen and unheard of by many. The feedback was overwhelming and it will indeed help us make this event even bigger and more memorable in future,” said Rehan Waris of Voiceworx Events, the organisers of The Telegraph Huntage.

SNAPSHOTS FROM THE CHASE

Pictures: Shuvo Roychaudhury