MEMOIRES OF ANOTHER DAY -XXII -Arun Rou Mukherjee

XXII : Sejomama in those days was staying at Belakoba. Belakoba was a remote village and very few people lived there. Sejomama lived in a house the walls of which were made of bamboo. One local man used to attend to Sejomama’s all personal needs. The man had the habit of taking opium. He used to boil some milk with his dose of opium every evening and drink it and keep the vessel somewhere outside the kitchen. One night a tiger came to that place and somehow had a taste of the remains in the vessel. From then on the tiger would come every night and taste the opium-milk left in the vessel. One day the attendant took leave and went somewhere else. There was no opium-milk that night. The tiger came and having not found the opium-milk started howling and roamed around the place till morning. Sejomama was very much afraid and left the place at the first opportunity and came back to Jalpaiguri and did not go back to Belakoba again In winter tigers used to come even to Jalpaiguri town almost every other night.