It was a few years back – 2014 to be precise – my father in law and I were sitting by the pool in our house in Atlanta listening to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan singing qaawalis and I was explaining the meaning of the Urdu words. Four years later in 2018 he transitioned.

A few weeks back, in Dec 2021, I was visiting my mother in law in Durgapur when I had to explain to her that I needed to leave early the next day to make it in time to buy some vinyl records from Free School Street in Kolkata.

That is when I learnt for the first time that my father in law was a big fan of vinyl records. Apparently, she had those old records saved somewhere. As you can imagine, I searched the whole house up and down. After looking at every corner she asked me to look at – and getting doused by more than my fair share of dust – eventually, I found a plastic bag sitting innocuously near one of the bathrooms. Sure enough! It had had some old classic Bengali rare-to-find records.

Tonight, I got a chance to open up the first one from that collection – this one is by Manna Dey. My favorite number? “Lalita Go Oke Aaj Chole Jete Bal Na“!!