Dear Participants,

As we are only a week away, a few necessary information
are given here which you may kindly print and keep with you.

(a) In case you want us to pick you from the airport, we must have
your arrival departure information as early as possible so as to
find out how many cars we need to arrange. We request that you 
may kindly let us know the times by Tuesday, the 5th, February.
It would be nice just to write 'I do not need' just to remove any 
uncertainties.

(b) In case you miss our receiving cars, please give calls
to one of the followings for the instruction. (In odd hours,
these could even if 'switched off'!) 

i) S. K. Chakrabarti  (Mobile: +919903120700)
ii) A. Majumdar       (Mobile: +919830123393)
iii) V. Yadav         (Mobile: +919831083243)

In the worst case, if you do not see anyone holding our banner,
please go to the Pre-paid Taxi stand inside the Terminal 
(West Bengal Pre-Paid Taxi Asociation) and purchase
a prepaid taxi ticket for the Vedic Village (less than Rs. 200 =  5). 
This will be reimbursed only if we are convinced that you 
could not be picked up due to our fault. The distance
from the Airport to Vedic Village is around 12km (north east). The S.N. Bose
Centre is around  14km (south).

Kolkata Domestic and International terminals are side by side (100 meters). So in case
there is confusion, and the driver calls us back for not arrival, he may have to come to
International or domestic, so wait at least ten minutes after you sense
you may have been missed.

We will do our best to ensure that you are picked up by our car. We may send another
note to update. But if we do not receive anything by late Tuesday, we will assume you 
do not need our assistance.

(c) Please keep the emergency local phone numbers:

S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences (2335-5706/08; ext. 200
for Sandip Chakrabarti; extention 400 for security; 456 is for guest house)

(d) Vedic Village number is 2280 2071 / 7552 ; helpline 0 98300 25900 (24 hours)

(e) If any of you want to travel there by yourself, there is NO PUBLIC TRANSPORT
to Vedic Village. You need to be on VIP road somehow (~ 1km from airport
terminal at Airport gates or Ultadanga or anywhere in between) and take a Taxi.
It should cost no more than 150 rupees.

The Old meter of the Taxi starts at 5 rupees. They should charge
you roughly 4 times the amount shown on the meter. Actual amount
is less by a few rupees.

The New Meter of the Taxi (electronic) starts at 10 rupees. The
driver should charge roughly twice (actual amount is less). Keep
Indian currencies if necessary.

In other words, 20 rupees (=half a dollar) is the minimum cost for the
first two kilometers.

(f) Those who need to stay before the 10th night, we will bring you to
S.N. Bose Centre guest house and you will come to Vedic Village on the
10th morning ~10am with our car.

(g) The entire presentation will be by Laptop/LCD projectors. One OHP
will be kept just in case, but we will discourage you to use it
to save time. The time schedule is VERY TIGHT. Everyone needs to keep their time.

(h) The power supply is 50Hz at 220volts. The plugs of Indian system
are of different size. We will have a bunch of universal adaptors, but
bring your own for greater freedom.

(i) Blackberry type handsets should function without problem for 
your e-mail needs.

(j) Kolkata would be reasonably warm (about 14 degree Centigrade at night
and may be 22-25C in the day). So unless you are planning to go to
Himalayas (one hour flight to North and then 4 hours of drive to Darjeeling;
famous for Tea plantetions) or stay in Delhi (a couple of degrees
cooler at night and warmer in the day than Kolkata), no point in 
bringing VERY HEAVY DUTY winter gears. This is because
we need to move from Vedic Village to Radisson Ffort to Sundar Ban
to S.N. Bose and lighter luggages would be encouraged.

(k) Do not talk much to 'friendly' strangers. Kolkata is generally very safe 
but no harm done keeping an eye of the surroundings.

Have a safe trip to Kolkata.


Sandip Chakrabarti