When Maa was a little girl….!

Let us try to take the time leap…

Decades ago in a little tea garden where one Mr Sunil Chakraborty had settled with his wife, mother and family deity. Labours were called in from Orissa, Jharkhand to work in the colonial tea garden and a few babus were thrown in for the clerical support. The Saheb or the tea estate manager had a beautiful bungalow amidst the lush green garden, babus stayed in the quarters allotted to them, which were spacious as far as I remember, huge backyard, lots of open space in the front, a toilet which was almost hundred meters from the bathroom sharing its boundary with the wide expanses of tea garden.

I had no idea how the labours lived. They were termed as labours or Coolies, not taken much heed of, they were called for some works like cleaning the backyard, clipping trees etc. There was a siren that hooted three times, in the morning when it was time to work, during lunch and in the evening to call off the day. The labours returned home in the evening. Their banter, chat, laughs filled the air and the entire commotion was something to look out for. The entire group marched, chatting, smiling… I kind of remember the big nose pin ladies used to wear flashing their white teeth smiling to glory. The joy they radiated after the days toil was unparalleled and whatever conditions they lived in, it did not reflect in their demeanour. Such was my memory of them…the joie de vivre they generated…the banter and the laughs!

My Maa of course was from a privileged class, born to a Babu family. Second of the five siblings and eldest of the daughter born during Durga Puja, hence was named Bijoya. The tea garden was blissful where the sisters were growing up in a spacious house, with a garden and backyard, and running water but then there was no school for Mr Chakraborty’s kids for minimum education in that tea estate. The British sahabs had a school which had up to the fifth standard that too mostly for the labour children. So, all the babus tried to send their children here and there, no I don’t think they could afford hostels mostly to other relatives’ place as was the custom that times. In the case of Mr Chakraborty, the eldest son was sent away first to his uncle’s house in Alipur Duar to finish his studies. Though I don’t think Mr Chakraborty was very much keen on his daughters’ education, who were supposed to be married off anyway, he could foresee the demands of time and began sending his daughters as well.

Mr Chakraborty had a big radio where Maa listened to songs, Rabindra Sangeet, Bangla Adhunik and yes, Hindi film songs in Radio Ceylon.

‘You know Hindi songs were not allowed…your Nana hated. I used to switch on Radio Ceylon and listen…and with the afternoon siren I switched off lest your Nana would know!’ Maa told me

She did manage to hum and get the hang of a fair share of Hindi movie songs which ruled the charts then! She played with her friends in their backyard and told me the names of the games which were extinct gradually. I remember a photograph where my Nana was holding his two daughters on either side, the daughters were wearing coats and frocks. The photograph was clicked at Darjeeling. Must have been one of the fondest memories she had because once she went to Alipur Duar, her fond memories ceased gradually and life became tough…tough and intimidating.

Though her Chacha must have welcomed his elder brother’s kids with open arms, there was a Chachi too with her three children and endless chores and no help. So, there was no reason for her to be jubilant and welcome the other four from her brother-in-law’s pack. So though Mama got away being male who did not have anything to do with chores anyways, it was Maa and Masi who invited the wrath of her Chachi. No there wasn’t any kind of abuse, only her demeanour was so scary. The three sisters were clueless about how to please her.

‘When I saw her face grim and angry right in the morning, her expression I would squat and start grinding the masalas without even asking her, and would wait for her mood to be sane.’ My youngest Masi narrates, ‘I saw them wailing every holiday before they left home for Chacha’s at Alipur Duar, I was scared to death. When it was my turn, I threw a huge tantrum, and then your Nani and I shifted to a nearby town for my studies!’

Well! She was the rebel and harbinger of change in the Chakraborty family. It was in the nearby town Tangla where Nana built his house finally to settle after retirement. Though all things Maa say of her childhood do not put a gory picture, her friends in Alipur Duar who spoke in chaste Bangla and ridiculed Ma for her local tea garden Bangla accent, the Bengali songs she used to listen to in Anurodher Ashar, the radio request programme.

One incident when she hummed rather loudly in her class, ‘Main kya karu Raam mujhe Buddha mil gaya!!!’ Her class teacher was like, ‘Whaat…let’s see Bijoya ko kaun mil gaya!‘

In eleventh class, she bunked classes and went to watch Uttam Kumar starrer Nishi Padma with her friends, the Bengali version of Rajesh Khanna’s Amar Prem, rather the original version of Amar Prem. Another time she managed to convince her Chacha and Chachi for a sleepover sort in her friend’s place only to discover her naked mentally deranged brother staring and muttering nonsensically!! Maa was scared stiff and I think during the day only her Chacha popped there convinced Maa in a grim tone, Chachi was not well, he had come to take her along with him. Maa was more confused. The sleepover was not enticing but Chacha came to take her, anyways she followed suit. Back at home, Maa remembers Chachi laughing hysterically, no way she seemed unwell. Maa was mad at that time. Later, of course, she knew, Chacha finding out about the family was there to rescue her! Strange isn’t it…! However, they were her family, though she must have missed the love and affection of her parents, her Chacha and Chachi did shield her when needed and she was surrounded by a host of young cousins who loved and adored her!

It was a childhood of insecurities, fears yet a childhood of unabashed fun and memories!

‘All I ever wanted was to get married in a city like Guwahati, not spend my life in a tea garden!’ she told me once. I could not believe her at that time, like really Guwahati…? What was in here and this old house of ours!! Can this be someone’s dream! Well though she did crib at times, I guess more or less she was happy with her dream embracing reality!

When Maa was a little girl, she did not have anything I did and when I was a little girl I wasn’t bestowed with so many things as my daughter was! Yet it was a privilege maybe after all the hardships, Nana did send his children outside for studies, though it deprived her of her natural home yet he did the best for his child under those circumstances! So did my father. He put his daughter above all. We are raising our daughter to realise behind all comforts, all we could give her, there is the toil of her parents, her grandparents who had to let go of their land and memories in an erstwhile country and embrace a new India, struggle their way to normal life and give their children a firm footing in a refugee land from where they rose and gave her parents the vision and identity they sought.

Would my daughter know? Would she have a story for her mommy when she was a little girl…!

Soma Bhattacharjee