29 December
2013
28 December
2013
Prized find!!
As I posted in my last blog, my brother and I dragged my mom and my sister to visit my mom’s second youngest sister (“masi”) and her husband (“meso”). The village that they live in – Kakgachhi – is barely 26 miles away. It took us two hours one way to drive there!!! We surely encountered more square feet of potholes than that of road surface!!
But it was great to see my mom so happy to see her sister after decades. And I scored an invaluable prize too!
On a hunch, I asked “meso” if he still had his wedding pictures. Not knowing my ultimate interest, he was overjoyed by my interest in seeing his wedding pictures. This goes back to 1980. He brought in an old dusty album!
Ultimately, my Machiavellian scheme worked out!! After painstakingly going thru pages and pages of photos, I found one that I was hoping to find!!
That is me in the row behind with the glasses on. The girl next to me is my sister. The lady in front of her left hand is my mom! And the lady on her left is the “masi” who we visited today!!!!
That is me in 1980!!!!
28 December
2013
Mom’s second youngest sister!!
28 December
2013
We are still young!!
After visiting my birthplace and my great aunt, we were exhausted having had to deal with three hours of potholes 🙁 Brother and I had shower and lunch and lay down to take some rest once we reached home.
Within five minutes of laying down, we agreed that forties is too young to be cowed down by three hours of potholes. So we decided to take my mom to a sister of hers that she has seen only twice in the last thirty years. Got her and sister to get ready hurriedly and then hit the road again!!
Back to google map, gps and potholes again!!!
28 December
2013
One more reason why I run…
28 December
2013
My great aunt!!
28 December
2013
My birthplace again…
28 December
2013
The highwaymen!!!
Yesterday, my brother was driving his family and myself down Durgapur Expressway (“hurtling down the highway” is a more appropriate way of describing his driving 🙂 ) when we realized that my brother in law was driving his family on the same highway going the other way round about 80 kms down the road. (In his case, “plodding along” would describe the driving with reasonable accuracy).
Under most circumstances, spotting each other would be no issue. But this highway is one of the rare bright spots of transportation around this region. It is Western-style four lane highway with a big median in the middle complete with bushes and such. Because it avoids all crowded places – and therefore pedestrians, stray dogs etc and the unidirectional movement of traffic, most vehicles hit 100 kmph. With a relative velocity doubled and the median blocking our view, chances were very little we would spot them.
To increase our chances, we adopted a carpet bombing strategy. Every time we saw what looked remotely like a white car, my nephews and I would stick our heads and hands out and start gesticulating frantically. Eventually our efforts paid off. Sudden recognition, pulling over, driving in reverse gear on the shoulder half a km and then a few illegal moves later, we are able to meet by the highway!!!
There was nothing to sit down on. In fact, save all the speeding cars and trucks and one solitary cow, that was not much of a meeting spot. However, we could not care less. We thoroughly enjoyed a first time experience – a “standing room only” “adda” by the highway about ten feet away from getting crushed to a pulp. The adda was thirty minutes of pure joy. Did I mention that this was a Bengali adda in Bengal? Sure enough, somebody fished out a big packet of “kalakaand”!!! (a very tasty Bengali sweet).
Btw, you will notice my animal-loving brother making friends with that otherwise lonesome cow in the pictures!!
27 December
2013
Technology is way overrated
Sometimes when all modern technologies like social media, Google maps and GPS fail, you resort to manual labor. Had a surprising outcome today trying to do that.
Having failed to track down Anindya – my friend from my very early childhood days, today I went to the house that he used to live in the mid seventies (that I could best recollect).
A middle aged person came out, rather amused by my look (clean shaven heads are not that common in North Avenue of Durgapur). “Kaakey chai”? (“Who are you looking for”?)
I tried my best to explain the situation – “Dekhoon, prai chollis bochor aage, ei baaritey Babu boley ekta chhele thakto. Bhalo naam Anindya Sarkar. Kothay ekhon thakey jaanen? Ba ke boltey paarbey jaanen”?. (“You see, forty years back, there used to be a friend of mine called Babu who lived in this house. Also called Anindya Sarkar. Would you know where he is now? Or would you know who might know his whereabouts”?
You can only imagine my reaction when the gentleman replied “Aarey Bachchu, amakey chintey paarli na? Babuda rey!!! (“Bachchu, can you not recognize me? I AM that Babuda”)
He has lived in the same house for nearly fifty years. And I had been looking for him all over social media!!!!
27 December
2013
Intersection points. Times two.
Thanks to modern technologies like FB and GPS and not so modern technologies like stopping a pedestrian and asking for directions, my brother and I last evening traced down another friend of mine from the early eighties – Kaushik Chatterjee!! I was fortunate to meet his parents as well as his sister who was visiting him. (His sister was all of five or six years when I left town).
Again, so many memorable moments of yesteryears were remembered in one evening that I cannot possibly jot them down.
However, the most enjoyed one was not about all those soccer games, cricket games, “pochisey boisakh” street drama events but a really hapless, sick streetdog was called “Tilka”. Kind of half adopted by a few neighbors – and by that, I mean the neighbors would yell for Tilka from the streets to eat some leftover food from lunch and dinner – this mutt was a common feature on the field during our games. And every winter around this time, she would have a litter of puppies that we – at that age – used to find to be the cutest thing ever!! Kaushik’s mom used to be very supportive of those puppies – offering rags, milk etc etc.
Speaking of playing cricket, uncle (Kaushik’s dad) had taken great sympathy towards us watching us play cricket with a bat that had outlived itself by a thousand years (those days parents buying us a bat was a rare luxury – there were way too many family priorities at every house before we could buy a bat) and unbelievably enough had actually carved a bat and three stumps out of a block of wood.
That “segun gaachher kaather” bat outlasted us and the next generation of kids from my neighborhood.
Thirty two years later, I am mature enough to understand his depths of empathy to prioritize our needs in the field over so many other things he had to do. Thirty two years later I got a chance to meet him face to face and thank him. I let him know I still think of that event as an example if why I should step back and create some enriching experience for kids!!!
