nailya patar ghido, shimer bichir dal, loti chocchoori...mukhi.

Strange names to those who never heard of them, but mouth-watering delicacies for those who have the same taste buds like mine. Nailya pata ba pat path is leaves from plants grown very commonly in Bengali households. The body of the plants is used for doing Yagna ( holy fire during different puja's). Those of us who are rooted originally in Bangladesh have lots of recipes using different leaves from different plants. Nailya Patar ghido/ geero was a special recipe made by my thakurma. She used to knot a few clean leaves together ( a great task of patience). after doing several, she used to boil them in mustard paste and add dried seeds of jackfruit to that. It was just amazing and Yummy!! The mixture of bitter and tangy effect...wow.and even when those leaves are dipped in pice and turmeric paste and deep-fried it taste great with warm rice. Shimer bichir dal..difficult to take out all the seeds from each shim. and after gathering all of them ( say around half kg), grandma used to roast them and then boil them. After they are soft yet intact she used to season it with brinjal fry and ghee. Loti chocchori, mukhi..all are similarly appealing. In Bengali, there is a proverb that there is gold in the soil. But that gold is nothing, but the fact that the soil itself is so fertile that it gives wonderful crops for any seed sown inside it. Plenty of rain is anyways offered by nature.

I sometimes wonder people get Nobel prize for so many this and that..but why there are no such big awards for the discovery of great recipes with great nutritional value. If there were something like this then there would have been an award showcased for almost all Grandma's like mine. With almost no infrastructure, no equipment, no gadgets, and least ingredients they used to cook some wonderful delicacies..everything homemade and garden-fresh. Trust me, they taste even better then food from a five-star hotel worth a thousand dollars.

mach niye gelo chile

Fish!! It is the sign of prosperity and good luck for we east Indians. We even have to carry a big fish when the groom goes to the brides house for getting married. And a bride is judged for her skll by how expert she is in scaling and cutting a fish after she comes to the new house after her marriage.The word itself bring back so many related memories. Right from my childhood I have seen how fishermans used to catch fishes from our pond. Above that my dad is an expert of fishing using fish rod which we call 'borshi'. He used to take out some old bread from fridge, soak it and convert that into dough, mix ant eggs and etc to make it more delicious and catchy for fishes and then used to use that as a trap. I have seen my dad catching 'telapia' fish with his hand while swimming. And not only catching fishes, he loves feeding people with good sumtous meal having different fish preparations.
So every evening that was his favourite passtime to fish for sometime. Even I used to go and sit beside him and observe his fondness and dedication towards this game. I have heard from thakurma that when our economic condition was not very good, and if we used to get surprise guests like my pishos ( husbad of my father's sisters), thakurma used to go to the pond and keep a fishing rod or used to ask my dad to catch a fish and she used to make a feast for the guest with those fishes. I heard from my grandmother that fishing was his passion right from his childhood. When he was very young, he used to spend afternoons catching fishes. It seems once it happened so that while catching fishes with a rod, the sharp iron hook attached to the thread got fixed in the skin of his head. And while trying to take it out, it got fixed making the whole thing worse. So the only way remaining to take it out was to cut it. So he came to boro jethu and boro jethu ( fully nervouse and tensed looking at the blood flowing out of his head) took him to the doctor. While the doctor was about to operate it out, to everybodies surprise he told the doctor, to take out the hook intact so that he can use that again . He also assured the doctor that for that if he get more hurt it is not a problem and he is ready to bear that.
Sometimes, when baba used to call fihserman to catch fishes, it used to be real fun. There were different techniques for that. One was by using small nets and trap around 10-12 fishes out of which one or two used t be big. But the other type was by using a special net called 'bera Jal' that used to almost cover the whole pond and thats why huge number of fishes used to get trapped. I used to spend the whole morning watching the whole activity and enjoying every moment about that. specially the small mishes that used to get caught along with big fishes and the shells were my main object of interest. Those sells which I learnt during my graduation , called unio were used to feed the ducks we used to have as pet then in our house.

Hmm, to this I remember, even I used to love the ducks house that used to be there in our house. feeding the ducks, making there room with Hays to keep it warm, putting them in there house every evening, checking early in the morning if egg is there was fact of curiosity for me.And believe me the taste of those duck eggs were just amazing.

There were some rules in our house like to make children's healthy, we were served with fishes like 'magur' and 'singh' macher jhol. Those anaerobic fishes have loads of bloods and hence are very healthy. Since I was not very healthy in my childhood my diet mostly used to include those fishes.

Still now we have the pond as it is in gopinath's house but the duck house is not there. baba still take some out almost every evening to take a stroll to that house and spend some time catching fishes. Even though I am far away, I can visualize every moment of it.

eksho bar korbo, hazar bar korbo!!

Can you guess what I want to do by screaming out "eksho bar korbo, hazar baar korbo", which means " will do it hundred times , will do it thousand times"!!!The funny part is that till date I don't know what we wanted to do! I have already mentioned about tutudadu or Hiralal Chakroborty who was our next door neighbour and Sonama's uncle as well. My mom and dad used to call him 'Mejda' and thakurma used to call him 'kanu'. He was a very jolly person and more the just a neighbour. We used to play with him, and visit his quite a few time a day when we are together. Sometimes we used to have music adda's or just adda's in his house. He even used to enjoy cooking a lot. So all of a sudden I think we did some meschief and he scolded us. Just to irritate him we started telling eksho baar korbo, hazar baar korbo..and he became angry and pretended to chase us. So from then on, whenever we used to see tutudadu, we just used to tell eksho bar korbo, hazar baar korbo and he used pretend as if he is chasing us. The thrill, the escape..everything was just great.

There was another game that we used to play frequently. 'ami ja dekhi, tumi ta dekho'? and 'name, place,animal...'.All these might funny but those were what we used to wait eagerly for throughout the year so that we can play them when Dadabhai and boney dada comes during there long vacation. Right from the time I remember, jethu ( Debu) was posted in a place called Shapotgram in assam, then Guahati, Shilchar and finally he was in Shillong when we were already grown up.

Jethu used to be the jackpot of all games. He always used to thrill us with his new ideas of new games. When power used to go off, we all used to sit in the courtyard of Gopinath bari with a Hurican litted in the front Varandah in front of Gopinath Ghor. We used to do recitations and sing songs. I still remember few lines of 'Maharaja bhoye thake poolish er thanate, ain banae joto pare na ta manate, take take chore chore sadho jodi chara thake, rokhha korite tare rakhe jail khanate. ' Boe esheche Biyer chade' was again my favourite. But I really used to admire dadabhai reciting 'Birpurush'. He used to get into the peom and I used to feel the charm of 'tumi jachho palki te Ma chore!'...We all used to sing 'Klanti amar khoma koro prabhu'. Then I never knew what is klanti at all. But while doing my masters in college, I really used to get fed up of endless examintions, submission of assignmets , tensions of scoring high, college politics...I just used to sit alone, being tired of the situation and used to sing that song from the depth of my heart. I really used to apologise to God to forgive me for all those tirdness.

I still remember everyting boron jethu or jethun after coming to agartala used to go to there maternal uncles house , fulda jethu, ranga jethu and manju jethu's house in Ramnagar road number 9. There again it was real fine to get pampered by everybody. What was a routine snack served to us there was grated milky tender coconut, with deep fried 'chira' and sprinkle of sugar on that. That just taste yummy with hot tea. We all use to go to Misti pishi and Nini pishi's house at Krishnanagar. All those were some routine activities that we always used to do with other activites like taking bath in the pond, roaming around the pond side, picking up flower for Puja ini the moring and e.t.c.

I still remember one incident. One day me and Boney dada just entered home after playing around in the locality. Boney dada used to love home made curd with lots of sugar in it. So though basically I never used to like that, but still used to have that along with him always. That day 'thakurma scream out our name and told she has kept two 'patil' full of curd in her kitchen. Both of us ran towards that immediately. And immediately looking at those boney dada understod what is wrong. But Like a fool inspite of stopped by him I put that in my mouth. That was nothing but 'chun'. I started crying immediately and I understood what I did was really foolish.

Those were really amazing, carefree days which are never going to come back in the same form. I miss those days.

Tei ka tei

My mom wanted to see all her childhood wishes getting fulfilled by me. It seems it was her wish to learn singing and dance. But due to different reasons all those could not happen. As well one of her big dream was that her daughter should study in Shishu bihar school. So the first one took shape as soon I cleared the admissiono test of nursery. To her the others were also not that tough as she put me to a dance school and my cousin mani didi became my music teacher. And she also appointed a lady to teach me paintings. Little did she knew that to appoint teacher is not the end of everything. The most difficult job was to manage her own little daughter who was according to her dad ' nonir putul lotor potor'. I mean even if anybody used to touch me without my wish, I used to start crying. I was so moody that, if anybody used to take my pillow and it used to get warm by touch, I used to start crying ' gororm kore niyecho, thanda kore deo'. So whenever I used to feel, it is not very interesting for the day to go to the dance class, which was in our neighbour only, I used to go and complain thakurma, that my legs are paining ans still ma is asking me to go for dance classes. And if further Ma used to force me to go there, thakurma used to scold Ma.
I specially used to hate all those classes when Dadabhai and Boney dada, Sona all used to come to agartala for there vacations. I still remember, when boney dada used to come, once in a while we both used to steal money from thakurma's bag ( and ofcourse we used to tell everything to het later) which used be there in one korner of thakurrma's alna in the store room. The amount we scold never used to exceed one or two rupees. We used to start planning right from the noon, and we used to get our operation done before evening. Then evening we used to eagerly wait when amulya kaku will open his shop. That tong dokan in the corner of ramnagar, was nothing less then a place of delight. the sight of the jars full of orange chocolates, melody chocolate, poppins, chatpat, hajmola, packets of maggie what not. I used to dream what more one can dream in life if one get all those inside the shop together for oneself as a gift.
So one day we stole or got money from somebody and as usual I started telling ma I will bunk my dance class that day. But somehow she managed to send me for the class. Now what she din't noticed is that Boney dada also followed me for the class and he hide himself somewhere there itself in the dance school. That day while dancing I was facing the window and my teacher, Ajanta aunty was sitting keeping her back to that window. She was teaching me a typical bharat natyam dance called 'tei ka tei'. During the first 'tei' u have to move your hand inwards moving your hand nine degree down fromthe axis if you keep your fore arm straight folded towards your shoulder, during 'ka' it will make an angle of 180 degree and go outside and during the last 'tei' you will have to again move the hand inwards with a reverse 180 degree angle. the legs will have movemnet accordingle. So now comming to the funniest part, that day, as soon I started practising the dance, boney dada stood behind the window and he was showing me that one rupee note. I felt like taking that and I was streching my hands towards the window instead of moving it on the sides. Ajanta aunty could not understand what is happening as it is impossible to make same mistake repeatedly. And everytime she was looking outside , Boney dada was hiding himself sitting below the window level. Atlast she started scolding me and might be boney dada felt bad and he screamed, Dona dont worry, i wont use the money without you and he came back home. To my much reliefe Ajanta aunty understood what happened and I started practicing with a free mind. Though I attenede those classes not for long, but I still remember, I really picked up dance with one song very nicely..'sheether hawae laglo nachon amloki roi dale dale'. I continued with music classes till mani didi got married and then all of a sudden somebody inculcated in my mom's head that it is important to learn classical. So she forced me to join a classical class. Due to my heavy voice and lazy nature to practise and take my voice to those curves wha really a difficult task for me. I wrot and cleared several years until finally one day she really gave up forcing me further., But I really used to enjoy and still enjoy singing Rabindra sangeet, though I pick them up listening to songs and I enjoy singing them. I dont know if at all what i sing is at all audible or not, but it is true I enjoy singing atleast for my own delight. And I really enjoy when Anka is around as we both have some common numbers that we like to sing together like ' ei monihar amay nahi shaaaaje', ' tomar khola hawae' and Kusume kusume charan chinho diye jao, seshe daao dao muche, ohe choncholoooo, bela na jete, khela keno tobo jae ghuche..haeeeee'.
And among all the three what I thoroughly enjoyed was my drawing classes. As I was lucky enough to get an ofbeat teacher. My early days of painting started with pencil sketches..just drawing perfect circles and straight lines. Slowly towards pencil figures based on those shapes. With time and year I became the favourite student of my art er aunty , 'Reena Aunty'. She even became a tenant of our gopinath bari. She used to call me 'Dunny'. With time I even started dreaming of making art my passion and to become an artist. I used to draw whole day, sittingin class, home everywhere. I hardly used to draw with colours and I myself could observe the maturity in my paintings based on shades and everything. My mom always used to repent that inspite of learning art for almost 10 to 11 years I don have certification. But ma, the prizes that I have won wherever I have participated till date( I hardly used to participate in compitetions in school) , the way I have got introduced to how to use right colour in right form, every nitty griity of painting..I a really thankfull to ma for taking me to Reena aunty instead of any general art school. And thanks to 'Reena aunty ' as well for teaching art to me with passion and so much of care. I still miss those sunday classes and long chat while making sketeches. That too in the room in the back side of gopinath bari....

Dudher chachhi khaa sorger nagal pa

Dudh is a terrible word for most of the children. I was not an exception, and as usual forcing yourself to drink a HUGE glass full of milk, twice a day used to be a common torture for me. Right from my childhood I used to hate drinking milk and especially used puke it out immediately if the cream has not been removed completely. But one thing I surely used to enjoy is to take the milk from Saraswati Pishi who used to own a cow in our locality. She or her mom, Saraswati'r ma used to get the milk in a copper glass or sometime in a aluminium measuring can with a handle. pachsher, or adha litre, ek pa those were some terms used by them. And sometime when she used to get late I used to go to there house with some elders and she used to milk the cow. That milk used to worm. And everything related to those cows, there rooms were a amtter of delight for me.

Something I used to do without anybodies notice is to take milk in two small gasses and pou them together to unite. I used to think doing so will turn them into CADBARY chocolate as it used to come in the advertisement of dairy Milk chocolate.

And something I really used to enjoy is when thakurma used to make sondesh after thikenning and tightening the milk in the copper kadai ( malsha). Right from chilhood she made me an expert to pull out sandesh using saj ( stone blockes of diferent designs). The smell just used to be yummy..and in that form I think milk is also Yummy.

Chana or cottage cheese, that is another way I used to get tortured with. Ma and thakurma used to tell Baba is so strong because dadubhai used to feed him with a spoonfull of chana every evening. But I used to hate the smell. specially once when I caught Jaundice, ma replaced my glass of milk with chana.

But I still remember, that Ma and Rangama used to steal milk from thakurma's ranna ghor and sometimes batasha from thakurghor and have there great treat in afternoons. It seems I used to complain thakurma bout those as I used to keep an eye on everything and keep thakurma informed about everything going around.

The quality of that milk was gradually degrading. So finally didibhai ( sonama's ma) was al set give away her cow. and baba asked one of his worker Subhas kaku to take incharge of that. only he need to do is to give us a litre or so of nice pure milk and he can do anything with the rest. So we really enjoyed nice pure milk for sometime, but I really used to hate drinking that every evening. BUt what to do..dudher chachhi kha..sarger nagal pa..means if you drink milk, you can grow so tall that u will be able to touch heaven..and everybody dreams to be like that!!!

I really laugh at myself when I look back at those sweet milky days..after all the colour of my dreams were also white the..clouded with white wonders.

Bashanta panchami and Hatekori

"Nama Sharada, Nama Sharada, Nama Sharada mata- Ma Veena Pustaka dharini- Ma Vidya gyana pradayini, Bhava banjani, manoranjani..gyana pradayini ma. ....Brahma sanatani ma.."

'Bashanta panchami' or 'Sree panchami' is the day of worship for the deity of learning Godesses Saraswati. It is festival for students and those involved in the world of knowledge, art, eloquence e.t.c. It is celebrated almost in all the houses as well as schools. For me that used to be double retreat. First of course because it was a festival and holds excitement. Second because on that day officially we were not allowed to study since we used to keep our books in front of the deity so that she can shower all her blessings on them. We used to fast whole day and used to break out fast only after offering pushpanjali to Devi Saraswati. There are some special chants that I still do recite for describing teh beauty of saraswat and to offer her prayers-" Jaya jaya devi, Chorachoro Share, kuchojugo shovita, moni mukta hare. Bina ronjito Pustaka hashte, Bhagabati, Bharati Devi namastute." The pranam mantra was like this-" Saraswati mahabhabe, Bidya, komololochane, Bishwarupe, Vishalakshmi, Bidyang dehi, Namastute." I remmber one more that I was asked to recite every time before starting with studies-" Saraswati Nomostavyam, borode kama rupini. Bidya arombhomkaraswamy, siddhi bhabatu meshwada".

When I was small , I used to go to Durga chowmuni bazar on the eve of Saraswati puja along with baba or bishum ( a place very nearby) to choose and buy the idol of saraswati and do other shoppings as well. That used to be something, that used to really excite me. There were certain things related to saraswati puja like polash fool, gada fool, amer mookool( mango buds),kul and boroi ( berry). On the day of the ouja I used to get up early, take shower after applying a paste of turmeric and neem that thakurma used to make in the haman dista. then after shower I used to help elders in preparing for the puja and used to wait eagerly for the preist. We used to stand in our gate to observe small guys and guls going to the schools in our neighbour wearing sarees. After Puja we used to eat those mango buds ( bashanta manjari- it was believed if you have this on that day immersed in chandan, it will keep away all seasonal diseases away) and prasad. Then just like others used to go to school. Everybody used to wear saree on that specially of bashanti rang or yellow colour. When I was small I used to wear saree too. But later I stopped wearing that as I used to feel shy and only again when I was in 10th standard I started wearing that. Evening We used to go to mamar bari in bhatta pukur. That day I used to wear TV for long, watch movies as there was no studies officially that day. Next day Ma used to wake me up early in the morning and We used to write the name of Saraswat"shree shree saraswati devi nama namaha" for several times in a banana leaf with milk using a shoot of jute 'doat'. And then we used to float that leaf in the pond after touching that in Saraswati's feet and then used to take her blessing and books kept at het feet and start studying for another year with lots of new hopes that probably this year she have blessed me enough so that I can top even with minimum effort.
One of the tradition of our house is to give 'Hatekori' to a child before he actually starts with his studies. Hatekori is to do a Saraswati Puja especially praying to make the child knowledgable and then to make the child write for the first time on a stone plate in front of god( Gopinatha and all). Previously the ideal age of a child for becoming eligible for the occasion used to be 5 years. But now since, we start our education much before that, the age comes down or mostly that is not the first time a child writes.

For me that was exactly at the age of five. Thakurma always used to tell me that I will have my Hatekori. On the day of the Hatekori, everything was ready. Kanudada started with the Puja write from the morning. Even pishi's and all came down. I still remember I was wearing a white new frock on that day. So though that was not for the first time wrote, but still I got to know that I am being formally eligible for studies.

Later I saw my other siblings also getting there hatekori just like that.........

Magh masher bagher shinni

My Ma never visited Ramnagar before her marriage. She had an idea that Ramnagar is not a very pleasant locality as there are frequent dacoit attacks and all, besides ongoing regular thefts . So she came to our house with such an idea after marriage.
In those days Thakurma used to go to meet her friends, kuttir ma (dida), Joyer ma (dida) and few more every evening. Dadubhai was still there and he used to sit in his chair in the varanda with a hooka and sometime he used to be inside the room only in the late evenings. Ma used keep everything ready for dinner like chop vegetables and all.
One day evening, it was load shedding ( no power for a long time) and Ma was just on her way from kitchen towards the main room, when a group of people came inside the house stamping big sticks on the ground and screaminmg "magh mashe bagher shinni magere!!". Ma thought surely these are dacoits and she screamed loudly and went inside her room. Suhe was almost in the verge of scrying. Then tutu dadu ( kanu, sonama's uncle who used to stay in our adjacent house and ma, baba calls him mejhda) came to our house hearing ma scream. Those people were still there and creamimg loudly stamping there sticks. Tutudau could presume something and ask ma not to get scared and come out. So trusting his words she came out. Tutu dadu then asked ma to give them some money and grains and that they will go away. Some of them was also holding fire in there hand.
After they left Tutudadu told ma not to get scared of them. As these are poor people who collects moneylike this in magh mash(feb-march) and then they do feast with that end of the month. That they called as bagher shinni. They will colllect all the monet, and keep them gathering infront of the picture of a tiger. Later thakurma told me, the reason behind that was perhaps, due to cold, to take warmth, tiger used to come out of Jungle. So to protect the villagers from tiger attackes theyused to collect money and keep a gaurd on village throughout winter nights. So the whole village used to contribute for that.
Even when I was small I saw them coming quite a few time during winters but gradually all those stopped and they are just in my memories. I can very well relate those with the woolen red and blach check shawl that ma used to wear during winters, the warmth of hurrican or kupi, bagher shinni, the sound of the mosquito during power offs, the warmth of the quilt and e.t.c everything together. Some sweet yet memories which used to thrill me during those time.

Ikir mikir chamchikir

"Ikir mikir cham chikir,chamer kata mazumdar, de elo damodar, damodarer hari kuri, deoale bose chal kuri, chal kurte holo bela, bhat khae se dupur bela, bhate porlo machi, kodal diye chachi, kodal holo bhota,khek sheyal er matha."...hurray I still could recollect the lines. I played this 'ikir mikir' with my siblings Boney dada, dadabhai, sona, pupudidi, sumandada, abhidada and all. Then there were some other games like hide and seek, lock and key, kumir danga and how can I forget agun dey! That was a very stupid game where you kick each other with your feets and keep on reciting agun de agun de. Playing hide and seek was real fun as then many of us used to play it together. Behind our kitchen of Gopinath bari, there used to be a passage and drain. There used to be one Jackfruit tree. Sometimes we used to go and hide there. And while in a hurry, by chance if somebody used to step in the drain, he or she used to become shochi for that day. Nobody used to touch him before he takes a shower.
When I was in fourth Standard, Anka once came to Agratal for one month along with Keyama and Robi. Boney dada, dadabhai all were there then. We were introduced to another new game called Golla chor. That was really a nice game and most of our winter evening used to get heated up by the excitement in the game. Ludo is again something that we sued to play beside carrom. But I used to hate to playing carrom as mostly my fingers were not strong enough to aim the stricker properly. And so I used to score minumum and loose terribly. me and Mam even used to play another game called Keet-keet. Even we used to play cricket sometime with small bat and teniss ball.
It seems even before my birth , long time back in gopinath house everybody used to play volley or basketball and badmintons. Baba, Jethu, Bishum,Anka, Bhaida pisho, prashanta pisho, there friends everybody used to join for the gamein the courtyard in front of gopinath ghor and sometimes they used to get so serious over the game, that even used to stop talking to each other. Though there were other financial tension, tensions of struggle to get established in life, but still happiness used to flow all around and even though I dont belong to that saga I can think of the warmth that use to spread around.

Baro masher tero parban-introduction.

In bengali there is a proberb called "baro masher tero parban", which means thirteen festivals in twelve months. But for us it was even more. Bashanti Durga puja, Manasha puja, Kartik puja, Laksmi puja, Saraswati puja, Shivratri, Shashthi (where thakurma used to tell a story sitting with all ma's while preparing the yellow threads or nile deoa according to her that they used to tie in our hand and the collection of sixety durba's, karamchar bud stuck in a stick, flower sa dn e.t.c tied together that she our mother used to give each of us after scaring away all our enemies with the boti da or knife moving it seven times around us and telling shyte shyte while fanning us as a part of that ritual), Bhai phota, Durga puja of october( the one celebrated by all bengalies around the globe),Akshay Tritiya, Noborsho,Poush shonkranti,Tulsi of boishakh mash, Borto's of garai shankranti ( which traditionally all daughter in laws does after there mother in law considering a mother in law as lakshmi herself. They especially makes a thing call 'toga' with chalta leaves. that is done by folding the leaves and putting a knot with some thin plant fibre and finally putting a red dot on that with vermillon or sindoor. Those who don't know what chalta is must be wondering by now. Well, Chalta is elephant apple which is wild fruit and is used for making excellent delicacies . So they will leave those toga's in different corner of the house and will make a dal with some specific vegetables without oil. And Garai is always on the last day of asshwin mash. So a portion of that dal is kept overnight and next day we have to eat a bit of that and recite this line a keep a wish. "Ashwin e randhe kartik e khae, je bor mange se bor pae". It means cooked in ashwin, eaten in kartik, whatever boon you ask you will get. That used to be my special attraction.) . Besides this there was one festival my thakurma used to do called 'shonkotar borto'. The special attraction for me was teh atta bhaja that she used to make along with some other powders. and as per as i remember, the tag line of that borto was line that my dad keep on using whenever he gain something which he don't expect-'hara dhone e ghor loy, kata matha jora loy' means lost wealth coming back to home, the head separated by cutting getting attached to the body.

Besides this there were small festivals like lighting diya's in dipawali and putting 14 lights in the pond for the ancestors of past fourteen generation and lighting candle in the tulsi bedi every evening for one month, dol purnima, janmasthami and so many more. There were some special events like burning of an idol called 'bhula ar bhuli', kaktarua like bhut in the garden made out of Hay and sticks , face made of a patil and eyes and nose drawn with chalk. Bishum was a master in making that and he even used to make that wear an old shirt. Most probably that was burnt on the evening of kartik puja.

I was priviledge enough to get the flavour of each and every one of those for many years of my childhood. The 'koti bhog' or million offerings in one big sized black and white stone plate, pancha nobid, all are fresh in my mind. The ghritokorma made during the Durga puja, abali that we used to get as prashad the day after Saraswati puja, the smell of taler bara during manasha puja....the list will go on and on. During any big puja's my pishi's and there daughters mani didi and komli didi before they got married used to join thakurma and ma for preparation a day or two ahead. Baba and Bishum used get the fruits, vegetables and grocerries from the market and thakurma used to collect them in thakurghor and boro ghor. One or two days before this Basanti Durga puja which used to be celebrated during march or april, we used to go and invite ou neighbours and close family friends. I used to go for shopping with ma or Rangama and Shonama sometimes to buy the yellow tanter saree , gamcha or indian towel , those white and red bangles of elephant task , shidoor, alta and e.t.c for Durga Ma. Thakurma used to make bujhhiwhere she used to put pulses, grains in small small mil packets cleaned and dreid and oil in a small glass container along with vegetables and spices nicely decorated in a tray dedicated for Durga ma which the purohit used to collect the day after puja.

There used to be an aluminium stove in which thakurma used to make pitha's and sometimes tea during Durga Puja. There was a copper container called malsha which she used to use for making sandesh. I will later another chapter separately regarding those sandesh.

The puja used to start early in the morning there used to be jagya or holi fire after that. Bricks were kept ready after washing and drying ( around 12-16 in number), and branches of mango trees also used be ready nicely drien stored in a shelf on the top pf the thakur ghar. There used to be khak, that were used to put border in the sand over the layed bricks in the baranda. On top of that Purohit, kanu kaku used to draw a small rangoli, and then keep a banana , those branches and then ghee. finally reciting something he used to lit the fire and used to put 108 bel pata , flowers, curd, ghee and e.t.c. A very nice , sweet used to spread around and the warmth and smoke around. Later kanu kakku whom I used to called dada used to put jagger traish on our head which is nothing but the ashes of the holi fire mixed with ghee on our forehead reciting some prayers. late he used to read the holi book of Chandi siting in front of Durga ma. along with the normal bell we used to ring another heavy coper bell and kartal on that special day during arai time both in the morning and evening. Afternoon everybody used to come for lunch with bhog prashad. evening also people who were woking used to comoe to take prashad. there were shandha arai with panch pradeep, shankha, roomal, ghrito prodeep , the fan made from peacock feathers and etc. We used to sleep very tired in the night and morning again kanu dada used to get back for ghat bishorjon. He used to give us shantir jol and then after eating abali used to tell thakurma, 'kakima abar agami bochor'. I used to feel equally sad every time as that used to be the end of all the excitement and preparation for that particular year. The same infact used to happen to me after every celebration. So now that I can't be a part of all these, you can easily imagine how much those memories are important to me, as I almost live on them.

This whole writing you might find a bit hapazard. But I have so much to tell that it is impossible to pen down everything. But I will surely like to share maximum nitty gritties in the coming days regarding all those.

Abol tabol , the red book and my uncles

Most probably that was my fourth or fifth birthday. Bishum came home that afternoon with a bunch of books and told those were my birthday present. They were hard bound books with blue back side and a coloured glossy cover. The inside papers used to have animated representations and that is how I first got introduced to shukumar roy's collection. Pagla dashu was my most favourite characer throughout and even now when I read the same, I just cannot ontrol my laughter. Thanks to Bishum for introdcing to such a nice collection. Infact Bishum was the one who used to take me to school and I still remember the reband golden threaded round bag he got for me, my first tiffin box and water bottle for going to school, his and rangama's excitement for taking me to school for the first time, there frustation when I used to make them feel ashamed for crying in the school. He used to infact scare me telling he will throw me in the drain if I cry after reaching school. But the same story used to repeat everyday.

In our house, Anka ( Bachhu or Subrata, my youngest Uncle) was somebody whom I have not met till then after I grew up ( as he left for USA for his MS when I was about to come to this world , next visited when I was around one and half year old and after that when I was in first standard. So I remember him from the time when I was in first standard and that was jsut after bhai's ( Bubun) birth. But by that time I aleady have a picture of him always in my mind as I grew up listening stories as how brilliant he is. I heard how he used to teach maths to Dadabhai (Kankan) and make him count from hundred to one. How horrified dadabhai used to take shelter under dadubhai's chair to get saved from Anka's tarchar of making Vidya sagarr out of him. But still I used to think dadabhai was lucky enough to have Anka around in his childhood and I used to eagerly wait for the time when I will get to meet Anka. He was already a Hero for my by then. I used to wait for those small colourful post cards with nice pictures in one side and some lines scribbled by him on the other side of it with black ink or jet blue ink. That was infact my interaction with Anka. Whenever the postman used to come I used to wait eagerly if there is something from him. One fine day he send for me a red book with some pictures of nicely dressed mouse along with a picture of himself in which he is wearing the graduation black robe and hat. In that special red book for me it was written in the first yellow page with a red pen, 'To Dona with love, Anka". Though I couldn't read properly, somebody explained me the story based on the pictures and I started repeating that. That book was again really special for me. The most treasurable gift from Anka probably which already has its existance only in my memory perhaps.

Chobite Ramayan ar Thakurmar jhuli

Books are valuable treasures in true sense. They give new dimensions to our thinking. Just like other kids, my friendship with books are right from the time when I couldn't even read. Ma first introduced me to those bengali rhymes books. She used to read me those rhymes when I was around 1 years. One day Bishum asked Ma out of curiosity,"Boudi what is the use of reading those to her?'.
Ma just turned and asked me,"Dona please tell bishum something.' And it seems I started reciting one after another

poem. It started with poems and it went on. I still remember just like other kids, Chobite Ramayan was one of my favourite books and the picture where the God of Fire was giving the bowl of Payesha to Raja dasharatha to serve all his wifes was my favourite. I literraly used to live on those pictures. But slowly with time more variety started gathering in my list of books. Whenever I used to get hold of any family members I just used to catch hold of them and make them read a story or two to me. Thakurmar Jhuli, Bishher shresto roop katha. Specially baba used to read them during afternoon lying in the bed. Even at night sometimes I used to request baba or thakurma to read them to me. In bookfairs those kind of books used to be my point of attraction. I used to relate them to people in real life around me and fantasize about them. To me every newly wed brides are like Sita. Well decked mom's were like koushalya or Sumitra. I used to think how will they look being bejwelled like those queens. Grand chairs opr Sofa's were like throne. I used to wonder if I was born as a princess, how different my life would have been. When television soaps for Ramayana started, that added spice to the fire of my mind. I used to eagerly wait for Sunday just for that. The big epic of Ramayana that thakurma used to read used to look sodull to me. As there were bunches of pages without any picture. But slowly, that small Dona came out of them and got shifted to other inetersting books. That comes next....

Duktar Gura ba Sadar gura

A wooden hollow base ( similar to a sand clock, but hollow only in the upper serface), around 50 cm in height, and 30 cm in breadth. The crusher was a solid wodden cylidrical stand of around 10cm diameter and 100cm length with iron base. both this togethr is called guyl chaka. And sadar gura or dukhtar gura is nothing else but tobacco powdered with different other ingredients like ajwain, snoff and etc to give a strong flavour which is taken along with Paan.
I can never imagine thakurma without her Paner bata. That was a copper container . In that in small small steel containers she used to store chun, supari and shadar gura. The paan used to be in other packets. Initially it was washed packet of milk which later got replaced with yellow chocolate packets of m&m, that Anka used to get from USA. And there was a shorta made of iron with which she used to slide the supari or beetle nuts. Baba every day used to get Paan from the market along with vegetables. Thakurma used to wash them and keep them inside the packet. Infact there used to be a creeper of paan in the backyard of gopinath baari near the Chalta tree. I used to believe when a person reaches a good position, he or she have to eat paan. And for all the paan lovers, that shadar gura prepared by thakurma used to be not less then any delicacy. The day she used to make that powder, she used to start collecting the ingredient from three four days ahead. My aunties used to asisst her in doing so as well.
I started believeing that after growing up even I will have to eat paan to get respected by people. And still the smell of that shadar gura is fresh in my mind. The sound of the guyl chaka where the roasted tobacco leaves and oter ingredients used to get crushed and mixed in right proportion was something really watchable. Though I have left those moments, smell far away they are still fresh in my memory.
Slowly with time those sadar gura got replaced with Zarda ( readymade tobacco leaves) and e.t.c. But still I can hear the khut-khut sound of the sarta with which thakurma used to slice beetle nuts in almost every ideal afternoon and keep them ready for my dad and other relatives and guests.

Gopinath bari

In Ramnagar road no 4 we have our original house which we call Gopinath bari. Dadubhai bought that before partition and Ninipishi or Leena and Bhai jethun take the possesion as both of them were in India then, Bhai jethun was doing his graduation in commerece in Maharaja Bir Bikram College and Ninipishi was a school teacher. The owner of the house was a shopkeeper and even after selling the house ninipishi had few sleepless night as the shopkeeper used to come drunk and used to ask them to vacate the house.

Later everybody came down to that house from bangladesh and gradually Ninipishi, chottopishi also got married. Misti pishi got married in India itself from their maternal uncles house or rather my thakurma's house of Ramnagar road no 9 long before that .

Gopinath bari always have its own charm. The pond, Gopinath ghor, the open Varanda, the coutyard, the old rooms have there own attachment. I grew up in that house till 4th standard. We had scarecity of rooms, water , proper planning but still most of my sweet memories are centred in that house. I have memories of plucking flowers after getting up early in the morning with baba, the pond, the duck house, the grandfather clock ( that eventually became bad and got replaced with a white Ajanta wall clock even before bhai was born), the store room where thakurma used to store her groceries inside the main Boro ghor(Hall) which was made using a wooden and flowry fabric frame (eventually gifted by chotto pisho) every thing have some memories attached to them. Some special cups which were stored inside thakurma's glass and wooden almirah were kept and used only when my new brother in law or somebody really special used to visit our house. There were special dishes of china clay and glass bowls stored in another glass and wooden showcase in that room itself which were used in special occasions like bhai phota. I still rememeber the semaier payesh and Luchi served in them. Besides those there were books ( most of them were presented during marriages of my dad and uncles), cups, medals and pictures won by any of the Bhattacharjee's. I still remember the old black gown that dadubhai used to wear in court and that was kept in one corner of the almirah wheer all big big copper vessels were kept and used for cooking Khichuri and Payesh during Durga 9basanti) Puja , manasha puja and e.t.c ( which got cut by Rat and I was really disappointed to see that)and his wooden stick ( slightly broken handle) and his 'Hooko' which baba got for him. The Chair where he used to sit was also there kept in the Varanda. When everybody( dadabhai, boneydada, Sona, pupudidi, sumandada) used to come home during summer vacation and there were shortage of chairs in the dining table, those chairs were added up to increase number of sits and we used to fight to sit and have food sitting in dadur chair.

In the main hall and the room where me, my ma ,baba and bhai used to stay was tin roofed and there were fence ceiling. So during afternoon, the sun rays used to come through those small holes and I used to count them lying down with thakurma. I specially miss the wonderful sound that rain used to make while splashing in the 'tin er chal' . We even had a matir chula ( Mud oven) in the kitchen cum dinning room where Ma initially used to cook after marriage. According to thakurma food cooked in a mud oven tastes really nice. Later I have seen only rice being cooked in that and rest every thing used to get cooked in the gas oven.
I used to swing in the front gate of Gopinath's house and used to fantasize. Our room was adjacent to the entrence and so whenever there used to be any sound in the gate I used to look through the window eagerly if any guest had come.

There used to be one garden next to the pond where thakurma used to do gardenning in the evening. Every afternoon I used to lie down beside ma and pretend sleeping and count till the clock strikes four so that I can go for gardening with thakurma. I still remember her 'khupri' and the scpecial 'chaku ' she used to use. There were magic in them. And there were Rajmohan da who used to come once in a while to clean the house and to take out coconut and beatle nuts from the trees.

I also remember Pratimar ma and pratima who used to work in our house. They were there right from the time of Daubhai . Pratima got married and went to Teliamura when I was small . There was a white coloured amall cup with e broken handle in chich she was served tea and a aluminium plate in chich food was served to her. I always used to fantasize having food in those.

Shoroshpoa

Tomorrow is sankranti. The last day of the month Poush ( a bengali month). They used to harvest on that day and give offerings to god with the harvest.

It bring back so many old glimpses of sweet moments in my mind. Moments related to Pitha's , malpoas, patishapta's, stories related to burning of house made up of collection of fallen barks and branches of tree and sheded dry leaves ( concept behind this is to clear garbages, as during winter most decidious trees shed there leaves and barks). Now you all must be wondering why I named this post Shoroshpoa..well, that was my favourite sweet meat or pitha prepared by my thakurma. It was made by mixing grated coconut, ghee, milk, sugar, flour and sujhi. and then making oval shape out of the mixture, frying them lightly and then dryingng that after putting a sugar coat. I can bet that nobody can make it like my thakurma. All these delicacies were prepared and kept ready for sankranti and then offered to god as thanksgiving on that day.

Thakurma along with ma and Rangama used to prepare all these and then misti pishi, nini pishi and all used to come home to have a sweet delight. They used to clean the Tulsi bedi in the coutyard of our Gopinath house and that was nicely decorated with Rangoli. Young boys with khol and kortal used to come, sing song and then ma used to give them a plate full of delicacies. Oh, I forgot to mention, Gurr or jaggery of different variety ( from sugarcane, dates and e.t.c.) and another sweet delite called Tillai was something must in the servings. They were given all this in one plate and after the song ( generally for the God- hare Krishna , hare ramo) , they used to toss all these goodies. And whoever can take a better catch used to get the main share and they used to gather them in there respective bags full of collection from different houses. We used to wait throughout the day as how many such groups will come to visit our house.

Whenever Sankranti used to come, specially my baba used to get very excited. It seems they used to have picnic with pitha's and tea inside that shade that they used to make out of the bark, branches, hay and dried leaves ( BURIR GHOR) and early in the morning after taking a dip in the chilling cold water of the pond, they used to put fire into the house and used to take the warmth of that fire. Then after praying in there own house they used to go out singing in groups along with friends to different houses. It seems my baba used to have collection of maximum goodies and the heaviest bag at the end of the day among all his friends and brothers ( since he was the naughtiest kid among all). I spend all those shankranti's of my childhood imagining the way my dad and uncles have enjoyed as most of the fun were already missing in our time. But now looking back at all those days, I atleast feel happy that I have so many memories compared to others who must be completely unaware of even what shakrati means.

Dadubhai

Dadubhai…though I have not seen him just like many of my siblings, but still I feel I know him quite a lot. I grew up listening to stories about his strong personality, his fondness for knowledge and his special encouragement for those who like to study. He was indeed like a strong pillar of strength behind all the next generation of Bhattacharjees. Though mostly we listen to stories of how strictly he used to control all his children , scold them, punish them but there are many a stories that tells how soft he was as a person.
Well may be you know this that dadubhai killed a tiger . So let me share that story first as thakuma used to tell me when I was a kid. In the beginning of his career dadubhai used to work in forest department . So at that time tigers used to create lots of disturbances. People in those areas became literally bugged up. So the government declared a prize on shooting down the tigers. Many people tried but nobody succeeded. So ultimately dadubhai decided to take a try. He along with two attendants of the forest department went out for the venture one fine evening. They tied a goat in a tree and climbed up the tree before it becomes dark . They tied up themselves with rope along with the tree so that they don't fall down incase they fall asleep in the long process of waiting. It was around midnight when they suddenly heard some sort of heavy footsteps approaching the tree. They became alert and after sometime they heard the roar of the tiger. Listening to that roar only it was enough for the two attendants to loose there sencse. But dadubhai with his strong determination shoot the gun for three to four times targeting the forehead of the tiger. And it fall dead. People from the village came running with great excitement and found the tiger lying dead. They all started celebrating carrying dadubhai in there shoulder. And those two attendants were still lying unconscious. Dadubhai was then rewarded by the government for his bravery.
Dadubhai was a lawyer by profession in his later life. So whenever he used to come back from high court everybody in our house who used to lie down or relax at that hour used to get up and start reading . Sometimes they used to even pretend reading books upside down. But for dadubhai to find everybody with a book or newspaper was what that used to matter. Since my baba, your mejda jethu used to be very mischievous naughty , dadubhai used to bit him and punish him the most. But still he used to feed mejda jethu with an extra spoon of cottage cheese that thakurma used to prepare for dadubhai every evening.
Dadubhai even used to participate in dramas. It seems he even used to look great because of he was very handsome. He was a great actor. He used to preside over all important conferences and meetings and he was very good in giving lectures. Dadubhai used to love Kankan dada a lot. One day Kankan dada spilled a can of oil that thakurma kept near the kitchen. Immediately he became aware that now he will get nicely from thakurma. So to save himself with his small feet he walked down to Dadubhai's bed and lied down under Dadubhai's blanket hugging dadubhai tightly. Now as soon thakurma saw the spilled oil she started screaming at Kankan Dada. And dadubhai also pretended as if he don't know where Kankan dada is and was telling thakurma that she should really find out Kankan dada and punish him. Infact Dadubhai always used to shelter Kankan dada when Anka used to make him solve maths. Actually there are a lot more about dadubhai…

The Family Tree

I just don't want to confuse everybody by simply drawing a charecter . So to keep you in track I am drawing a family tree. My grandfather Jyotindra Chandra Bhattacharjee was the third son of Jagat Chandra Bhattacharjee and Kamodamoyee Bhattacharjee. And my Grandmother Kusum Rani Devi was the eldest daughter of Amar kinkor Bhattacherjee and Sukhodamoyee Bhattacharjee. They got married when my Grandfather was in his twenties and my granmother in her teens. They have four daughters and then five sons. The daughters are Minati (Meena), Niyati (Heena), Amiya (Leena) and Shelly according to order. And the sons are Shibabrata(Shibu), Debabrata(Debu), Biswabrata(Bivu), Jayabrata (Bishu) and Subrata (Bachhu).
Minati whom I called Boro Pishi got married to Nani Bhattacharjee and is permanently settled in Silchar of Assam had three children Nanda Dulal ( Dulan), Rinti and Jhuma ( I am not very sure about there good name). Niyati got married to Prashanta Ch. Bhattacharjee and had three children who are all married and settled by now. her childrens are Devjani (Mani), jayanta (Bappa), and Sumanta(suman). Amiya is married to Dr. Swapan kumar Mukherjee and have two sons Saibal (Papu) and saikat(Piplu). Shelly the youngest daughter is married to Ashotosh Bhattacharjee and again have three childrens. They are Arpita ( komola or komli), Satyabrata (Bile) and Sidhhartha (Abhi). I fondly called Niyati as Misti Pishi, amiya as NiniPishi and Shelly as Chotto pishi as they are Mistidi, Didibhai and Chotto for the Bhattacharjee brothers. I have many sweet memories related to Misti Pishi's and Ninipishi's houses (adjacent) in Krishnanagar.

So now coming to the brothers , Shibu or my boro jethu Got married to Gouri ( I call her Gourima) are are setlled in Bombay. They have two daughters Suchismita (Pupu), the eldest in the side of the brothers and Suchayita ( Sona). The next brother Debu is married to Bharati (Futu) and have two sons Kankan and Ankur (Boney). I called them Jethun , sonama dadabhai and dada(Boney). Next is my father Bivu married to my ma Minati ( Meenu / Geeta). I am Tanuka (Dona) and I have a brother Jyotibrata (Bubun) whom I called Bhai. Then The fourth brother Bishum is married to Sumitra ( Babli) and I have a sister Jagreeta ( Mam or Mona). My youngest uncle bachhu whom we fondle called Anka (since he is genius in maths) is married to Keya ( Keoung , she is Korean , the only international member of our family) and I have three siblings Robi, sarah and Neil.
I want to mention about Jaideep Bhattacharjee (Babu), son of Jagadish Ch. Bhattacharjee and Kajal Bhattacharjee. Jagadish or Borda jethu was the only son of the eldest brother of my Dadubhai. Since Borda Jethu lost his mother at his childhood, my thakurma brought him up just like her own son. He used to call my thakurma, Kakima. Right from childhood Jaideep was our Hero and we used to call him Borda. He was infact the eldest among all the Gen next Bhattacharjees.
So this is in short about the spreaded branches of my Family tree.

I got an idea

Bhattacharjee's of ramnagar road no 4. That is how I feel proud to think about myself. I am proud to be a Bhattacharjee and belong to a family where I am nourished with love and care and was brought up in a childhood rich with heritage and tradition. I have seen different colours of life which I fondly recollect . I was pampered by my thakurma and again got the most valuable lessons of life from her only.
All of a sudden today morning I got an idea. I want to pen down some memories that I share with all the members of my family. I think my experiene is worthy to share with my other siblings so that they get to know about Bhattacharjee's or Bhatta's from my view.