Memoirs of another day - Arun Roy Mukherjee

XXIII : My father was transferred to Rampurhat, a small town then in Birbhum. Initially we put up at a mud-built two storied house in a locality near the “Chal-dhowani” pond. This was a very big pond and was the source of water for drinking and cooking for all the residents of the locality. Our first acquaitance there was with the Ganguly family who lived very near to the “Chal-dhowani” pond. The family consisted of an elderly couple and their only son who was my name-sake “Arun”. After a few months we shifted to a new brick-built house near the local police station. A mosque was just beside our house and a very big pond was also there at the back of our house. This is for the first time that I was admitted to a school. I became a student of Rampurhat High School and was admitted into Class IV. The school was very near to the local court house, Sub-division jail and the Railway station. The Town Hall and Club and the local football ground were also not very far. Initially Bhola Da used to take me to school everyday but after a few days I could make it all by myself. Bhola Da used to bring my daily tiffin consisting of a few sweetmeats and a glass of milk. My father became a member of the Town Hall club and used to visit the club every evening. The club organised to stage two drama. The members of the club played the different charecters in the drama. One was “Tatinir Bichar” and the other was a historical drama consisting a period of Aurangazeb’s rule. In “Tatinir Bichar” my father enacted the female role of “Tatini’s Pishima”.and in the other as the Rajput king Jay Singha. Mukunda Babu was the rector of our school. Much later in life I came to know that the rector of our Rampurhat School Mukunda Babu was the disciple of none other than Sri M (Mahendra Nath Gupta) the famous writer of “Sri RamaKrishna Kathamrita”.

Memoirs of another day - Arun Roy 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. (Posted)

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.

Sickness

I am not well yet and am unable to post any.