Finchu Mama

Finchu Mama was just three months my senior. He was very simple at heart and relied on my judgement in many matters. He was an average student like us but had the unique talent in acting in school days. He was also very good at recitation of poems and every year participated at the "Kala Protiyogita" held at Arya Natya Samaj and earned prizes. I still remember his acting in the role of villain in a drama on the life of Maharaj Nanda Kumar enacted by the students at Zilla School. He was possibly a student of class V or Vi at that time. It was so good that everybody appreciated it. Our friend Gora (brother of Left Front minister and Forward Bloc leader Late Nirmal Bose, our beloved Badal Da.) was Nanda Kumar and another boy did Warren Hastings. Finch Mama's role was comparatively very small as a witness in the case against Nanda Kumar. But he did a wonderful job. In later years, however, he did not persue this line. In fact he never persued those points where he had a talent. There was a time when he started wrting short stories and those were really something wonderful. He became very popular as a story writer, particularly among the girls and ladies. I do not know whether any of his stories have been preserved. Those were mostly published in the magazine published by Danpiteder Ashar and edited by Dr. Sarajit Bagchi. (More on Finch Mama...to follow).

Busy.

I was otherwise busy and could not post anything for quite sometime. I will now try to come back again.

Memoirs of another day - A. Roy Mukherjee.

The other most exciting event of this period was the 1942 movement. We were then at Rampurhat, a small town in the Birbhum district. One day a procession was passing through the street in front of our house. I was standing at the gate of our house. Bhola Da, my father’s official orderly was also standing beside me. There were a number of Santhal adibashis joining the procession and shouting slogans. Suddenly a very tall and stout person from those people took me away on his shoulder and started dancing and chanting slogans. I enjoyed it very much. Bhola Da was running side by side and urging the person to leave me alone. The procession halted near the local Police Station. The agitation increased to a crescendo. Bhola Da, somehow, managed to take me away from that person and we came back home. But we could see everything clearly from our house, as the Police Station was not very far. However, nothing much happened that day and after sometime the procession passed peacefully.

Memoirs of another day - Arun Roy Mukherjee

During this period the most exciting news was the sudden disappearance of Subhas Chandra Bose from their house in Calcutta where he was under surveillance of the British Government Police. I was only amazed by the news that he simply vanished and nobody could find any clue about it. My parents were however very agitated and often discussed the matter in hushed tones. There were so many stories running. Some people said that he went to have some fresh air near the Outram Ghat accompanied by the Prime Minister of Bengal and then suddenly jumped into a Japanese submarine anchoring in the Ganges and the submarine immediately vanished from the scene. Another story was that a sadhu came to visit him and after talking to him for some minutes left. When the people went to his room to serve him food after about a few hours, he was not there and the sadhu was also not there. I remember having seen Subhas Chandra from quite a distance when he came to Jalpaiguri to address a meeting. I do not remember the exact date or the year. But it must be either in 1938 or 1939. My mother along with me accompanied by a few of the family members went to see him. I faintly remember his appearance.

Memoirs of another day - Arun Roy Mukherjee

The world war broke out sometime in September, 1939. In the next two years it spread into Asia and almost covered the entire world. When at Rampurhat, my father was contributing to two daily newspapers of which one was in English and the other in vernacular. The news of the war which included the description of war zones and movement of opposite forces covered most of the pages. These also included maps of those areas. I developed a liking for study of the Maps. My father bought me a very good atlas which had detailed maps of all the countries and of India and Bengal in particular. I spent a good amount of my time, after school and studies in those pages of the newspapers and the atlas. Within a very short span of time I knew almost all the big towns, rivers, deserts and mountains of the world in the maps. I also learnt to relate the maps printed in the newspapers to the country/countries shown there to the maps in the atlas and where those are in the world. My interest in physical geography grew from that time of my life and it is continuing in the same fervor till date.

Memoirs of another day - Arun Roy Mukherjee

XXIV : While in this school at Rampurhat, a fuuny incident happened and I still enjoy a hearty laugh whenever it come up in my mind. I was then a student of class IV. A notice was circulated that a high government official was coming to visit our school. So the Headmaster and the teachers started preparing for the impending visit by the official. The Headmaster, who knew my father and also knew that my mother can sing songs, requested that a few boys be trained by my mother in singing a good song of welcome. My mother accepted the proposal and started training four of us, all students of the school. My mother selected “ Swagato, Swagato he aji atithi”, a Bengali song of Rabindranath for the occasion. It so happened that the said government official was also to visit some other institutions also. The organizers and officials of those institutions got the message of our music training and approached my mother to allow the boys to sing the same song at their functions when the government official visited their places. My mother told them to take up the matter with the school headmaster for such permission. Any way, permission was granted. It was so arranged that we, the four of us, would first attend the school when the officer arrives and after completing the song, shall immediately leave for the next venue of his visit and so on. On the appointed day, the officer arrived at our school first. We sang the song and then was almost snatched away for the next venue. We arrived and sang our song and so completed three such places one after the other. The incident happened at the forth spot. The officer arrived, was welcomed and garlanded and took his chair on the temporary dias. We were all ready with our harmonium et all. As soon as we started to sing, the officer jumped on his fit. He was in state of fury. He raised a finger at us and shouted in chaste Bengali “Ei chorara, tora tham to. Sei sakal theke jekhane jachchi, seikhanei ei choraguno amar pechon pechon giye suru korch Hagoto, Hagoto. Jathesto hoyeche. Ar noy.” (You boys, just stop your music. From early morning wherever I am going these boys are following me and starting their song “defecate, defecate”. I had had enough of that.)

Memoirs

I thought of writing something on a current issue. I now do not remember what it is all about. I have become old. I shall surely come back the moment my memory helps me.