Who says residents of Salt Lake don’t know their neighbours? Youths of BL Block recently went on a treasure hunt, sniffing out clues around their block and performed so well that the game ended with — not one but — two teams as winners.
The first clue was about delicious food being on a “banner”. Teams had to decipher that the answer was one of the two food joints that had their advertisement banners splashed around the puja pandal.
Upon reaching the address, they found the next clue. This described the largest “box shape” in the block, except that the hand-drawn box was actually a cube. The block has 420 houses so the largest cube possible was that of 7 — BL 343. “Very young teams didn’t know about squares and cubes but I saw one of them chancing upon the house with the next clue stuck on it,” said mass communication student Aranyak Mojumder of team Black Lives Matter. He, along with teammates Kaustav Roy and Sukhan Kumar had all worn black T-shirts.
The next clue was about a frontline warrior at the forefront. This meant the home of physician Basab Bijoy Sarkar, who has been treating Covid patients, and whose house lies on the first lane of the block.
The budding Sherlocks were kicked to see a clue about Mrs Hudson seeking a tenant. They rushed to BL 221, reminiscent of 221 Baker Street, that landlady Mrs Hudson rents out to the original detective Sherlock Holmes.
“You cross this abode of beauty, grace and lustre heading to the new city,” read the next hint. The adjectives translate in Sanskrit to Lavana, a spa on the road to New Town. The sixth clue asked who one calls for any function. It was Muktodhara Decorators, who had even chipped in for this Kali puja celebration.
The final clue was tough. “The clue described heavenly happiness – bliss. BL155 reads like BLISS, doesn’t it?” asked Ruhani Chakrabarti of team R. She and Rwitika Sarkar, both of Class X, had cracked this one but ran out of time before reaching the address.
But then no team could crack this clue and the two closest teams — R and Black Lives Matter — were declared joint winners. “They didn’t even spilt the chocolate and Rs 500 prize money,” smiled Aranyak happily. “Both teams got them in full. We’re happy we know our neighbourhood well. That way we know where to head whether we need a doctor or a decorator.”
Shameek Dey Sannamath, secretary of Spectrum, the name of the event put up by BL Block Committee Youth Wing, said they had purposely set a tough clue this time. “Teams usually finish the game in half an hour but this time they were stuck on the last one for over an hour,” he said.
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