I had two great intersection points from my trip to the Durga Puja in my old neighborhood. This is the first one.

There were these two young kids – much younger than me – that lived in a house absolutely opposite end of our street from us. We were the first house on the right. They were the last house on the left. Although we used to play soccer in a field next to their house, we never played together because they were much younger.

I also remember they were both students of my mother in the local primary school. During one of those phone conversations with old friends much later, I had found out that they still live in the same house!! And are a big part of the local Durga Puja arrangements.

After reaching the Puja “mandap”, I noticed four adults sitting in a chair by the adjoining pond. Tried to see if I could recognize any of them as Pintu or Sintu. No luck. So, I went ahead and asked them if there was a Pintu or a Sintu nearby.

Of course!!

They immediately pointed me to one gentleman inside the mandap. As you can imagine, one by one, I met the two brothers who instantly remembered us moment I gave them our names. The icing on the cake was to meet their mom – our Bhattacharya Kakima!! Kakima and I sat down and talked for a long time of the old days and what happened to the whole neighborhood folks.

That was an incredible walk down memory lane!