Memoires of another day - XII - by Arun Roy Mukherjee

XII : During this period, we visited Jalpaiguri and Bachchulala was born at that time. A separate structure was made in a place in between the kitchen and the outer rooms where there was also a Lichi tree. The place is somewhere between Bachchulala’s and Rana’s present separate buildings. Our house was completely different at that time. As you enter the compound of our house from the street, there were gardens on both the sides of a narrow path which took us to a long varanda covering the two outer rooms. The rooms were facing the street and the east. There were two jackfruit trees on each of these gardens. There was a big courtyard in the middle and rooms were constructed on all sides of this courtyard. In the east were the outer rooms. Two more rooms were on the west. This was known as "Natun Ghar". On the north was our favourite room which was made of wooden planks like a bugalow and the kitchen was on the south. The original kitchen at that time was a single big room with mud flooring with bamboo planks for the sides and tin on the roof. Later, this kitchen was demolished and another structure came in its place with two separate kitchens, one for the vegetarians only and two more rooms, one of which was quite big. A wide varanda covered the entire structure. The water supply of the household was from a well situated just beside the kitchen. There were a few more fruit trees of different varieties surrounding the rooms and haphazardly here and there. One day my Dadu brought an elephant to take me for a ride on the elephant’s back. Finchumama helped by the mahut immediately rode on its back, but I started crying and refused to ride on the back of the elephant. Finchumama all along encouraged me to take the ride, but I did not relent. So, after getting tired and failing to persuade me to take the ride, the elephant was sent back.