I had an unique experience in Kalyani a few days back that I have to tell my FB friends especially if you are not from Bengal.
And it is about catching a burglar.
Evidently, there was a burglar that was slinking from boundary wall to boundary wall near my dad’s apartment building. And the security guy in his building (coincidentally he is also called Rajib – but certainly with a lot more courage than me) spotted him, kept yelling that there is a thief nearby and then chased him down and caught him.
Now comes the best part. “Chor dhara” has a few salient points to it regardless of where in Bengal it happens.
First, once a thief is caught, it becomes a spectator show. If you yell that there is a thief in the neighborhood – other than young males, everybody locks themselves up. But if somebody yells that the thief has been caught, people of all ages and gender pour out from their houses like ants spotting a sugar hill.
Second, there is total “instant justice”. There is scant respect for the police and the judicial system. Everybody just keeps beating up the burglar. As an example, my brother went there and joined the melee. No sooner had he spotted the guy who was obviously the target of attention, he just walked up and slapped him twice!! I asked him if we were sure he was actually stealing or had stolen before. I got a long lecture back from my brother!!!
Third, the stories of what the accused has done and how he was caught gets bloated and embellished with every minute. If you join the show thirty minutes later with the usual “Ki hoyeche dada/didi”?, the impression you will gather is that there was a gang involved, most escaped however three guys (it will surely include at least one of the sons of the narrator) managed to fight back bare handed the gangs’ weapons and caught the head guy!! 🙂
Fourth, all the bravado escapes moment they have to take any responsibility. As an example, the cops eventually came. They heard everything and then picked a couple of folks who were yelling the most about what the accused has done and then asked them to come to the police station to make a formal complaint. Suddenly all those “dadas” were nowhere to be found!! Some crap about “night shift duty aachhe” or something like that!!!! 🙂

Here I am sitting in the Business Lounge in the new beautiful Kolkata airport. Flight leaves at 4:10 AM (ugh 🙁 ) and the Lounge is pretty deserted. In fact two more passengers other than me.
One of them is an old gentleman (I figured a little younger than my dad) sitting not too far from me. He suddenly walked up to me and asked me “I know you are very busy but can I ask you for a help? Can you keep an eye on my luggage – I need to go to the toilet”. I, of course did not tell him that I am not really busy – just blogging.
When he came back, just so that I remain confident that I have not lost the art of irritating my wife and kids by making friends with complete strangers, I decided to take some interest in his story. Boy, am I glad I did.
He asked me if I have come on business – I told him about my parents and their health and why I travel to India for personal reasons not business. He seemed concerned and asked me about my dad’s age. I said 75. He asked me if I could guess his age. I figured a little less than my dad – he is traveling internationally by himself – so I pegged it around 65-68. He said 87 !!! I was like WHAT? a 87 year old Indian, by definition should be in a wheelchair in any airport. Or that is the impression I have gathered watching elderly Indians traveling at various airports.
Evidently, he has four daughters – in SFO, Houston, Philly and London. He visits them one by one once a year. So, I asked him what does he do when he is not visiting his daughters. He fished out his business card and said “I practice”. From the business card, looks like he is a tax lawyer. I was just floored by this.
So, I asked him – “Help me understand this. You do not need money. You are 87. Why are you working???”. He said his wife left him many moons back. And when his daughters left the country, he just was too lost to know what to do. So, he went back to the one thing he knew – practicing law!!
Fascinating!!
I wonder if forty years from now, even if I wanted to, can I possibly work in my domain? Also, will I be strong enough to travel internationally all by myself?
There is something to be learnt from Mr. Mahapatra from Bankura – you are only as old as you think you are!!!

The curiosity of that grill outside the AC unit (see post from a couple of days back) eventually got the better of me and I decided to walk into a stranger’s house to get the story straight from the horse’s mouth.
Against my brother-in-law’s advice (who is anything but adventurous), a couple of days back I walked into the house and rang the bell. An elderly gentleman (slightly younger than my dad, perhaps) opened the door. All I told him is that my dad lives in the building behind and without any further questions, he invited me in. I was a little uncomfortable accepting so much hospitality, so I suggested that we sit in the balcony – since I had a simple question for him.
He opened by asking after my dad’s health. One thing led to the other and I was struck by his kindness, hospitality and intellectual curiosity. Before I knew it, we were talking about his time spent in Kashmir during two wars (he is an ex-Air Force pilot), about his dad who was posted in Assam in tea estates and how his dad built the house 52 years back. Found out his two sons and daughter are all spread out far and wide (including abroad); his brother lives upstairs and he lives with his wife downstairs.
Our deep discussion on why war is simply a matter of political policy was going great guns (in between, his wife had already given us a cup of tea) when I was rudely awakened by a call from my sister saying it was lunch time and I need to come home soon.
I thanked him and walked back home marveling at his career and experience. I had almost entered our building when I realized something. So, I ran back (it was only thirty seconds) and again rang the bell. This time I told him that I completely forgot to ask him the question for which I had come the first time to begin with!!
He seemed to believe that his brother put in the grill (the AC is on second floor) to protect the AC from sunlight. He thought that direct sunlight would harm the compressor. When I pointed out that why not go for a solid structure instead of a grill with holes, he answered the grill diffuses the light enough. I thanked him again and came back.
I now think Kuntal was right. Some overzealous sales guy made some quick bucks from an ignorant customer.

Got this email today (the sender obviously mistyped the gmail address and I received it). But this is “Bangreji” (Bengali English) at its best…

“Dear,
Rajib Da, as per our telephonic discussion, I am giving you the details of accident….

When we were moving towards siliguri from Guwahati, near about 8.35 pm we were crossing Nalbari, at that time we headed a divider bolder to take diversion to other road. Then I called to maruti customer care help line, they given me the local maruti authorised dealer phone no. after that I called to the respective person ( Mr. Bikash), he told me to take the Car to their point, then we hire a car (Paid By Me Rs. 1500/-) for pulling our car and reached the dealer point. After that they told accident insurance claim facility is not available at their Dealer point. If I have to do the claim then I have to take my car to Guwahati dealer point. And they arrange a car ( for pulling our car) which took my car to Guwahati Bimal Showroom. ( Paid by Me Rs. 2000/-)

After That all story you know very well…

Regards

Dipak Mukherjee.
”
🙂

It is almost time to take leave…

And I finally managed to meet the guy who was one of my earliest friends in life – Arghya Sengupta!! We went to nursery (pre-kg) school together. In 1971. I was not five years yet!!! His son in the picture here is one year older than when Arghya and I started our friendship!!
His late dad used to give me company after school if my dad was late in picking me up! His dad passed away a few years later. That was my first real life understanding that if someone dies, I am not going to see him/her again ever! His mom was my sister’s as well as my wife’s teacher in primary school!!
After years and years of trying thru technology, social media and even running to his old neighborhood and then going door to door to see if anybody knew where he was – I had a couple of lucky breaks last year (including running into his late dad’s elder brother’s daughter’s husband !!!). Finally, today on my way from Durgapur to Kalyani, I was able to go to his home and see him (and his family and mom).
It was a very emotional 45 minutes. We meant a lot to each other early in our childhood. We caught up on so many of our old friends. It was simply surreal to be with somebody with whom a relationship started 42 years back!!!

Note the big black plug. It obviously did not fit either in the upper two holes in the socket or in the lower two holes. Somebody had the presence of mind to think out of the box and come up with a third solution – a diagonal fit!!!!!

Many an aspiring journey in my life started from this point…