1.Our house made of clay, mud and straw =Our village is in Hooghly district, about 20mile outskirts of the famous Lord Shiva shrine "Tarakeswar". The nearest bus stop is" kararia" which is 2 mile walk and still our village is really a village not a semi urban-rural chimera. Also for reference our village is only 1.5 hr drive to famous " kamarpukur-Jairambati" the home of "Shri Ramakrishna and Sarada devi".Our house is still standing for over last 75 years, baba, jethu, kaku, pisi all born there and spend a good amont of time of their life in this house. This house even has a upper floor and so cool in even brut summer and warm in winter for the materials used to bulit it. we have a tulsimancha, goal ghor where we have cows which gives fresh milk everyday and my kakima makes amazing ghee, kheer, misti from the milk. we have few ducks( fresh eggs everyday), a pukur where we fish punti, mourala, parshe, mirgel and katla mach, a rashmancha, Dhaner Gola( to keep the annual harvest) and lots of trees implanted by my chotopisi and sejokaku especially that famous shiuli gach, neem, belgach and gondhoraj lebu gach.when we were little kids we use to hear" siyaler dak" at night and no electricity, only harricane and oil lamps.This village still has no busstop and mud road still runs along the village with greeny fileds on the both side.
2. River damodar= This river was infamous for flooding when my baba, jethu was a kid, since the DVC dam projects the river is quiet now but can be reckless during the monsoon times. on the other side there is the muslim village "Baikunthapore" from where we can hear the melodious " AJAAN" especially in the early morning time.whenever i stayed at nachipore we always took the daily bath in this river with my cousin babul, himu, gopal, ramkrishna and other neighbor boys. we spend almost 2-3 hour playing kabaddi, football with batabi-lebu, then jump into the river and spend hours. soemtimes we use to go to the near by fields and gardens to steal green mangoes, jackfruit( kanthal) for a prebath snacks. There is a nice " Buddha temple on the deowlpara which is little far but visible from the middle of the river.we had several ghat's like Bamunder ghat, kunduder ghat and napit-der ghat of this river. napitder ghat was our favorite for the abundance of mango, peyara and jackfruit trees . during monsoon time we often request the tribal villager of the " Bagdi" tribe, bholada, neruda to give us a ride on their boat to catch fish. some of my very good friends of this tribal community are heblo, binoy, dinesh, chotu, Pili, biyai, votil and many others. They are so nice and innocent people that is hard to find these days in our modern life. I learned a lot of lesson in life from them especially in agriculture, fishing, climbling trees, swimming and all tips of surviving in a village which i will never forget.There are potato, paddy, jute and veg fields( jomi) as the soil is extremely fertile for the river and in winter with the mustard field the riverside looks divine.
3.Mela's in different season= we have " Rather Mela" in deowlpara in the football grond beside the river in june, then Poush sankrantir mela in Dibadpur and Kulbadpur in winter and Pirbabar mela during autumn time. I ride in my hercules bicycle and go there with my other cousins and village friends mainly babul, mamoni, munai, tulu and himu to enjoy it. Putul nach, bioscope, nagordola and enjoying all of them with hot paparbhaja, jilipi was just fabulous.
4. Nabanna= This is a ritual that every villager still perform when they have the new crops of winter especially dhan. Pujas, rituals and mainly preparing "payesh" with new rice, fresh cow milk and khejur gur was the special one.kakima always worship the cows during this time with tel-sindur and whole house decorated with debdaru pata and flowers.my kaku who is a farmer and music teacher also worship his tools of agricultre like langol, kaste, henso during this time.
5.Poush sankrantir Pithe utsav= we always waited for this , when push sankranti will come, ma, kakima, ashadi, pisi will make several types of Pithe with coconut, milk, fresh Nolen gur and rice flour, namely seddho pithe, aske pithe, gokul pithe, dudh puli, soru chakli and patishapta. all neighbors were welcomes and they bring their special pithe dish to our house. chandu, apan, babul and heblo were the champion in eating those, i gave up after 5-6 and watch them with curiosity how come 20-30 pithe is disappearing so quickly from their plate.
6.Ghentu utsav= this is a rural version of halloween "trick or treat", village boys and girls will go to every house and sing this song" Ghentu gai, ghentu gai, aire ghentu nore, sosti thakur chore" and carry the stem of banana tree and decorating it with candle light inside it, in response the household will give rice, dal, vegetable and fish and then later they will have a feast with those.
7. our picnic beside damodar river every winter = we use to persuade jethu, baba and kaku for some money and then went to gramer hat in kararia or in Gouribati to buy Murgi and Balam chal and then had our feast beside the river and if the weather is bad in the khamarbari of chobipisi. all other bagdiparar boys joined us always. I didn't know that time to cook, so himu was our master chef always, we help him as side hand. Heblo was the champion eater and chotu was always instrumental cutting kalapata, managing gondhoraj lebu from kundu der garden, Pili was the best boy in our group who always mamage to catch a bata or mirgel or some parshe fish from river for a last minute surprise fish item.
8. Fishing = this was always my star attraction, babul my cousin and Pili was maestro making the fishing rod from " Talta bamboo", then we make " char" with piprer deem( ant eggs), khol( a biogenic fertilizer) and flour. Then mainly in our pond and sometimes when the weather and water permits in river. The main catch of pond was ruhu, katla, mirgel and puti fish wheras the river catches were Parshe, Lote, vetki and chanda fish. Here i learned amazing techniques of catching fish mainly, " Jaola" and " chonga".catching Koi, magur and singi fish was a different art as they stays deep down in the wet mud of pond. several times we encountered snakes and vicious insects, but that was the time when we hardly give a damn about anything for fun.
9. village foods = this is very different from our modern urbal cuisine, morning starts with muri- alur torkari,beguni,kumro fuler bora, fresh cucumber, narkel and mistis like rosogolla, sondesh, danadar, chanar goja made by our beloved Bolo-moira kaku.In Lunch we always ahd rice from our khet, sometimes redish " dhenki chata chaler vat", ghee on top of it, then fresh vegetables, and fish which was always fresh catch of the day from pond or river. The tase of the food was just heaven for few reason as ma, kakima always cook on mud oven with patkati, wood or ghunte and spices were freshly ground in sil and everthing was fresh never frozen and we always eat on Kolapata with sitting on floor never on chair-table. i first tried in the house of the tribal people made " duck meat, Pigeon meat, geri-guglir jhal( like mussels) and some rare fish like Ban mach, kechki macher jhal.dinner time was always special as baba or jethu always comes back home at night with "gorom gorom nolengurer rosogolla" from the local village sweet shop, we gratefully fisnish them in minutes with luchi and torkari.
10. some memorable incidents and people: our village is boring, wuite and never comes to attention of any outsider and nothing major happens here which is capable enough to grab a headline. But in 1985 the whole country knew our place when " Dalai Lama" came to inaugurate the Buddha Mandir, not exactly in our village in Deulpara close to our village.But apart from this i encountered several people n incidents which will be vividly living in my memory for ever. Like " Boroginni" of Napit family, who was a legend of our village, she can climb trees, swim across damodar in wild inclement weather, can eat 50 luchis and 30 rosogollas, she once fought against dacoits and lived without a pacemaker for about 5 years ignoring critical cardiac problem!! Boroginni died on 2010, she will be in our mind for ever. Badal jethu, Dhosha jethu, Keshto jethu( our Priest aka bamun for our Pujas), Mohini dawn, kamakhya Josh, Bej jethima of napitbari, Bamon jethu( chandu-apan's dad), Madan Hati who was a very helpful person and a brilliant organizer of marriage and other household ceremonies ; were very well known faces of that area who left us for ever but will remain in our thoughts for sure.Amar baba Dr. Nabakumar chakrabarti an extremely popular doctor who is highly respected and most cherished doctor for his tirelss service for the community especially for the poor people for last 35 years. My jethu Dr. Amiya Chakrabarti through his long standing effort and hard work and with the help of several other kind generous donors and International Rotary Club built an old age home and a school for spastic children named " Manab Seba Mission" for which the people in that area will be immensely benefited in the long run for sure.Beside them, Honda jethu, Neruda of the bagdi community, Bhoja of napitbari, Gopal-partho of kundubari,rekha jethima,Lakkhi jethu( very close friend of my jethu),Mr.Sushil banerjee and Ganapati kundu my baba's classmate and school teacher, Ganesh kaku and NH kaku( my baba's 2 close assistants for last 35 years) are very nice people who loves are our family so much. I know i'm missing a lot others but this list in non exhaustive as so many good human being i have came across in here.
i miss nachipore always since i started living abroad, my baba still works in his medical profession in those villages, my kaka-kakima, cousins are still there and whenever i go to India me, payel my inlaws and full family reunite there again. I love this place so much , it always rejuvinates me from the chaos of the big city, it's so soothing. Posting few pics, hope my readers will love them.
2. River damodar= This river was infamous for flooding when my baba, jethu was a kid, since the DVC dam projects the river is quiet now but can be reckless during the monsoon times. on the other side there is the muslim village "Baikunthapore" from where we can hear the melodious " AJAAN" especially in the early morning time.whenever i stayed at nachipore we always took the daily bath in this river with my cousin babul, himu, gopal, ramkrishna and other neighbor boys. we spend almost 2-3 hour playing kabaddi, football with batabi-lebu, then jump into the river and spend hours. soemtimes we use to go to the near by fields and gardens to steal green mangoes, jackfruit( kanthal) for a prebath snacks. There is a nice " Buddha temple on the deowlpara which is little far but visible from the middle of the river.we had several ghat's like Bamunder ghat, kunduder ghat and napit-der ghat of this river. napitder ghat was our favorite for the abundance of mango, peyara and jackfruit trees . during monsoon time we often request the tribal villager of the " Bagdi" tribe, bholada, neruda to give us a ride on their boat to catch fish. some of my very good friends of this tribal community are heblo, binoy, dinesh, chotu, Pili, biyai, votil and many others. They are so nice and innocent people that is hard to find these days in our modern life. I learned a lot of lesson in life from them especially in agriculture, fishing, climbling trees, swimming and all tips of surviving in a village which i will never forget.There are potato, paddy, jute and veg fields( jomi) as the soil is extremely fertile for the river and in winter with the mustard field the riverside looks divine.
3.Mela's in different season= we have " Rather Mela" in deowlpara in the football grond beside the river in june, then Poush sankrantir mela in Dibadpur and Kulbadpur in winter and Pirbabar mela during autumn time. I ride in my hercules bicycle and go there with my other cousins and village friends mainly babul, mamoni, munai, tulu and himu to enjoy it. Putul nach, bioscope, nagordola and enjoying all of them with hot paparbhaja, jilipi was just fabulous.
4. Nabanna= This is a ritual that every villager still perform when they have the new crops of winter especially dhan. Pujas, rituals and mainly preparing "payesh" with new rice, fresh cow milk and khejur gur was the special one.kakima always worship the cows during this time with tel-sindur and whole house decorated with debdaru pata and flowers.my kaku who is a farmer and music teacher also worship his tools of agricultre like langol, kaste, henso during this time.
5.Poush sankrantir Pithe utsav= we always waited for this , when push sankranti will come, ma, kakima, ashadi, pisi will make several types of Pithe with coconut, milk, fresh Nolen gur and rice flour, namely seddho pithe, aske pithe, gokul pithe, dudh puli, soru chakli and patishapta. all neighbors were welcomes and they bring their special pithe dish to our house. chandu, apan, babul and heblo were the champion in eating those, i gave up after 5-6 and watch them with curiosity how come 20-30 pithe is disappearing so quickly from their plate.
6.Ghentu utsav= this is a rural version of halloween "trick or treat", village boys and girls will go to every house and sing this song" Ghentu gai, ghentu gai, aire ghentu nore, sosti thakur chore" and carry the stem of banana tree and decorating it with candle light inside it, in response the household will give rice, dal, vegetable and fish and then later they will have a feast with those.
8. Fishing = this was always my star attraction, babul my cousin and Pili was maestro making the fishing rod from " Talta bamboo", then we make " char" with piprer deem( ant eggs), khol( a biogenic fertilizer) and flour. Then mainly in our pond and sometimes when the weather and water permits in river. The main catch of pond was ruhu, katla, mirgel and puti fish wheras the river catches were Parshe, Lote, vetki and chanda fish. Here i learned amazing techniques of catching fish mainly, " Jaola" and " chonga".catching Koi, magur and singi fish was a different art as they stays deep down in the wet mud of pond. several times we encountered snakes and vicious insects, but that was the time when we hardly give a damn about anything for fun.
9. village foods = this is very different from our modern urbal cuisine, morning starts with muri- alur torkari,beguni,kumro fuler bora, fresh cucumber, narkel and mistis like rosogolla, sondesh, danadar, chanar goja made by our beloved Bolo-moira kaku.In Lunch we always ahd rice from our khet, sometimes redish " dhenki chata chaler vat", ghee on top of it, then fresh vegetables, and fish which was always fresh catch of the day from pond or river. The tase of the food was just heaven for few reason as ma, kakima always cook on mud oven with patkati, wood or ghunte and spices were freshly ground in sil and everthing was fresh never frozen and we always eat on Kolapata with sitting on floor never on chair-table. i first tried in the house of the tribal people made " duck meat, Pigeon meat, geri-guglir jhal( like mussels) and some rare fish like Ban mach, kechki macher jhal.dinner time was always special as baba or jethu always comes back home at night with "gorom gorom nolengurer rosogolla" from the local village sweet shop, we gratefully fisnish them in minutes with luchi and torkari.
10. some memorable incidents and people: our village is boring, wuite and never comes to attention of any outsider and nothing major happens here which is capable enough to grab a headline. But in 1985 the whole country knew our place when " Dalai Lama" came to inaugurate the Buddha Mandir, not exactly in our village in Deulpara close to our village.But apart from this i encountered several people n incidents which will be vividly living in my memory for ever. Like " Boroginni" of Napit family, who was a legend of our village, she can climb trees, swim across damodar in wild inclement weather, can eat 50 luchis and 30 rosogollas, she once fought against dacoits and lived without a pacemaker for about 5 years ignoring critical cardiac problem!! Boroginni died on 2010, she will be in our mind for ever. Badal jethu, Dhosha jethu, Keshto jethu( our Priest aka bamun for our Pujas), Mohini dawn, kamakhya Josh, Bej jethima of napitbari, Bamon jethu( chandu-apan's dad), Madan Hati who was a very helpful person and a brilliant organizer of marriage and other household ceremonies ; were very well known faces of that area who left us for ever but will remain in our thoughts for sure.Amar baba Dr. Nabakumar chakrabarti an extremely popular doctor who is highly respected and most cherished doctor for his tirelss service for the community especially for the poor people for last 35 years. My jethu Dr. Amiya Chakrabarti through his long standing effort and hard work and with the help of several other kind generous donors and International Rotary Club built an old age home and a school for spastic children named " Manab Seba Mission" for which the people in that area will be immensely benefited in the long run for sure.Beside them, Honda jethu, Neruda of the bagdi community, Bhoja of napitbari, Gopal-partho of kundubari,rekha jethima,Lakkhi jethu( very close friend of my jethu),Mr.Sushil banerjee and Ganapati kundu my baba's classmate and school teacher, Ganesh kaku and NH kaku( my baba's 2 close assistants for last 35 years) are very nice people who loves are our family so much. I know i'm missing a lot others but this list in non exhaustive as so many good human being i have came across in here.
Nice flash..can we have it for the next generation ? Hopefully "Yes"
ReplyDeletegood question kallolda..hard to predict about the next generation as it's too early...lets hope for the best...r ki bolbo bolo??
Deletebhishone bhalo laaglo.. awesome writing.. r pics gulo o khub sundor.. ei blog ta virtual museum puro :)
ReplyDeleteThanks...this place is so close to my heart always....
DeleteHoom. Nice writing indeed. Though I havent net you ever but trying to guess your identity. Last para I found it. I live very near of your village house. Thanks for your lovely writing.
ReplyDeleteVery nice representation. Nicely written. Nice pictures.
ReplyDelete