Puja ramblings.. Bohu din dhore, bohu crosh dure Bohu byay kori, bahu desh ghure Dekhite giyachi parbat-mala Dekhite giyachi Sindhu Dekha hoi nai chokhkhu meliya Ghor hote shudhu dui pa pheliya Ekti dhaaner sheesher upor Ekti shishir bindu.... I have travelled for many days, over many miles Spending a lot of money, travelling around many countries Have been to see the mountains, have been to see the Indus But missed out looking At a little droplet of dew on a blade of grass Just two steps away from my home.... (Apologies for the terrible translation of the Tagore original quoted above) Tired of deadlines and an economy which has been on the downslide for years now - aggravated by pathetic administration and infrastructure - decided to take it easy and go back to a place where I had spent some of my teen years. Autumn was uncharacteristically hot and sultry, but I did manage to go down memory lane. Like a visit to the pond 100 meters from our grandma’s house where we, as kids, used to play with paper boats. The water is no longer inviting, the shores are no longer loamy, buildings by unscrupulous contractors are casting loony shadows on the water, kids do not play here anymore, and the road to the pond has been ruefully cut off by a construction implying that you need to travel over 500 meters to reach the place. The lotus and the greenery was however, inviting. A walk down the road took me to Christian College, which is now closed to commuters except for hours earmarked for morning and evening walks. I was desperate to enter the grounds, but decided against it as it was almost 10 AM. Next time maybe I would make it for the morning walk. Went on a Puja partikrama in the evening on a rickshaw with Kalyan Samanta. Awareness came in many forms; first that we were too wide now to fit into a rickshaw :D , second - that the population in the town had mushroomed badly due to the Maobadi issues nearby, third - that urbanization (which unfortunately is equated with development) was limited to paddy fields and the ever inviting gangways making way for uncouth buildings. Most of the fields where we used to play cricket and football are now memory. We stopped for tea at Bhairavsthaan, and discovered that the tea shops I used to frequent as a student were no longer there. Most have been either converted into misnthir dokaans which resembled the sets of 1970s Hindi films made in Madras or into clubs. Could spot only one shop which had remained the same for the last 30-35 years. The owner is no longer there, but his son Bablu now runs the place. Needless to say, tea was served and sipped with great nostalgia :) Album - Puja for me this year
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 05:13:27 +0000
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