Thursday, July 5, 2012

memories of mamarbari

I always remember a short lullaby that my ma use to sing to me when i was a little kid" tai tai tai, mamarbari jai, mamarbarite bhari moja kil-chor nai", well that's very much true, our mamarbari was indeed a place for fun and joy and i miss those sweet days up to the most.i wanted to write about our mamarbari for long time, but finally my schedule spared me some time. well there's should be always some prioretized time to look back our good old days no matter how busy we are.so lets take a ride in the time machine to the golden days of our childhood. amader mamarbarir sobai" cholo Lets GO" back to those days!!

1. History and brief intro of our mamarbari = Name of my dadu is Late Mr. Gobardhan Bandyopadhyay and my dida Srimati Tarulata Debi/ Bandyopadhyay. They have 10 adorable kids, 5 boys and 5 girls. My ma Tapati chakrabarti is the 5th one in the team so i have 5 mamas and 4 masis along with 17 cousins ,no wonder a classic example of a happy bengali family. My dadu shifted from his ancestral home in Sikte-Belmuri village to a small room in  kolkata with his mom and wife in the early 50s i guess. He started working in a wood products manufacturing company, which he became a partner and later owner with his all hard work and vision, built 2 houses in kolkata first one in beleghata-kadapara in Shib krishna Dawn lane our old mamarbari and then later in the early 80s in Ultadanga opposite" Bidhan sishu Udyan".Dadu died in 2005  at the age of 89 just few month after my wedding, he was a very nice,simple family man.My last distinct memory with dadu was at our home, we watched the bengali movie " ABHOYA O SRIKANTA" together, then for the last time in 2004 a day before my wedding, when he was in his penultimate days of life blessed us with " benche thako amar" RAJSEKHAR" ( he use to call me with that name most of the time) ,we all miss him still very much.We are fortunate enough that our dida is still with us, she can sing still few lines of her favorite song " oi malotilata dole, piyal o torur kole" and cooks amazing aluposto and borir jhal.she is still beatiful and elegant at her age of 85. we all love you dida and miss you.


2. Kalipujo-Bhaifonta= we waited for this whole year, eagerly flipped the bengali calender  to know the exact date.when dadu informed us that " Gourmama gacche thakur ante" that's it, nothing can stop us to visit mamarbari.Dadu-dida fasted whole day for the puja,  dida, maima and masi ra busy with organizing ingredients for puja rituals, gourmama( he was Jack of all trade type of person) cooking food, mama ra busy with buying stuff for puja, samirmama and sejomama went to B.sarkar bazar to buy firecrackers, and we all spoiled nati-natni of mamarbari doing nothing but fun. playing cricket or soccer on the roof, trying to learn how to make " tubri" from chotomama-sanudada or taking updates about the midnight fireworks. baba and other mesomosai normally shows up at the evening after their work and then the real fun begins with arati when we felt ourselves extremely lucky to get a chance to play kansor-ghonta with arati.Madanmama use to come from sikte to play the DHAK and always volunteered to gave us few crash courses to play this instrument. Fireworks was the favorite event at night and " Burimar chocolate bomb" was the star attaraction among all of them beside " dodoma, charki, phuljhuri, rong mashal, tubri,sapbaji  and rocket.I remember Rumki once had an inflamed charki in her palm and got burnt badly. I still promptly remember it was the year 1995 when The "Total Solar Eclipse"  coencided with the kalipuja day. we all enjoyed it with our eclipse glasses and sanudada-chotomama went to Subhas sarobar to ebserve the changes in nature and birds.Coming back to puja, in the next day early morning shower  followed by  Pushpanjali and  bhog in which i loved the amazing payesh and chatni made by dida with khichuri-beguni  and she serve us that from a very distinct bowl made of black stone which i beleive she used only the day of pujas.whole day spent with serving guests with pujor prasad, antakshari, memory game( boromama was our chief coordinator for this game),playing karom and bagaduli, occassional pranks and teasing from chotomama and Arunmama invading our chotoder adda and then in the evening the " Pratima Bisorjon" or " BHASAN". Kaliprotima and us all overboarded together in dadau's karkhana truck( lowry) and then stroll to babughat or bagbazar ghat for vasan. During the journey we scream loudly with " BOLOKALI MAI KI JOY, ASCHHE BOCHOR ABAR HOBE", maimara-dida,masira doing final boron of the deity and it immersed in the ganges, i always observed tears in their eyes during this time.Mejomesomosai or someone else bought telebjaja and baloon for us while coming back. soon all started gearing up for " BHAIFONTA'  as it is the very next day and very little time to prepare, so queing up to buy " khaja" and other sweets from " Bonomali Mistanna bhandar" and ordering Galda chingri or good fish from beleghata market for the d-day. Next day bhaifonta was very enjoyable moment as well. all good wishes chanting the traditional bhaifonta mantra " bhaiyer kopal e dilam fonta jomer duare porlo kanta"  from our  cousin sisters like mou, mala, rumi, tatan, reshmi, tuli and others was very special.


3. PICNIC AT SIKTE= every winter we  use to do this annual family picnic at dadu, mamader ancestral home in Sikte,which is a small village on the cordline and i beleive it's in district hooghly but not to far from burdwan as well.we all wake up very early in the morning to catch the cord line train from ultadanga. boromama, sumon, tatan and maima coordinates with us with the same local train from sealdah station. dolonl, reshmi, chotomasira from bally/uttorpara.others show up mostly on the same train and sometimes on the very next train. we step down a station named " BELMURI" and then mornign winter sun and fresh breeze from the agriculture field welcomed us. Then an elaborated grocery part in the station market where  boromama always stop by in a local sweet vendor to grab few kachuri with cholar dal, we always bought some fresh vegetables and chicken for lunch and then  started walking  through the village mud road often juniors chorusing a good song from a recent hindi movie. after reaching sikter bari  the whole day spend with fun and fun and fun. cricket, badminton with dolon, sumon, tublu, and mama ra, a quick lesson in doing fishing from local boys, visiting kana river, eating delicious sikter " chanar goja" with telebhaja and muri for breakfast, then in the lunch we had pipping hot " murigir mangsher Jhol", bhat and salad, the taste was just heaven, i guess more for the ambience than the food itself!!  I rememeber one nice  lady " Aloker Ma" from this village who always use to visit us and help us out in few cleaning  and cooking  who was instrumental for organizing a last moment surprise dish like " chuno macher jhal" or "Sojne fuler torkari".Local boys of that village use to join us in our cricket game also.As the dusk started showing up,we started packing stuff and heading back to our city dens catching an evening local train, tired but very much enthralled talking about how good the day was spent.


4. Bijoya = getting together at our kadapara mamarbari for bijoya was an auspicious event to remember. dadu gave us a new  big khata with red binding on outside to write name " Sri Sri durgamata sohai" 51 times, we found this very interesting and challenging game  at that age more than religious reason. Doing pronam to all our eleder ones and also doing " KOLAKULI" with mama and meso. ,Gourmama use to make" SIDDHI'  and we kids get a chance to have a one small sip of that not more for health reason and to avoid an euphoric condition i guess. Al palatable sweets like rosogolla, chomchom, rabri, ledikeni from local stores. chotomasi shows up sometimes with " JONAIER MONOHORA'  and mejomasi with bagbazar r " NOBIN MOYRAR ROSOGOLLA", No wonder we didn;t wasted any time to do proper use of them always:) my baba-always bring  famous makha sondesh from tarakeswar for this day.


5. Biyebari and other family occassions= well, i am little behind in this part since i started living abroad in 2001, i missed almost all the shaadi occassions, we normally are winter migratory bird so when we visit India during winter time that always overlaps,poushs a month when bengali marriage calender prohibits any biye. still from the good old days, i remember from sejomama biye in which i was a " nitbor" then in rintudidir biye in 1989; it took place in mejomasi's house in Bagbazar and it was so much fun. Sumitda our jamaibabu  is a nice person , has tons of jokes in his repository which he shared with us, about food i remember a person from Orissa named " Narasingha babu" caterted the food and then he continued to do so for next zilion years i guess:), i also remeber it was the first time when i tried expresso cappucciono and mocha, during " Aiburo" vat mejomesomosai arranged " doi Ilish" which was outstanding in taste. I also remember Rintudidi's biye because it oevrlapped with the debut series of Sachin tendulkar as i remember my seniors kept talking about a 15 yr old boy who played a gutsy innings with a broken jaw resulted from an another debutant waqar Younis!! Though i was a little boy but still it is vivid in my mind about meeting Sumitda's dad Mr. Ganguly who was perfect gentleman and  a very nice person. He left us last year leaving all good memories for us.During this marriage our beloved " ROHINI DADU" died at home in Ariadaha. Hewas a very nice person with all his pranks and jokes and unique sense of humor that we still talk about. Then i remember the marriage of Namama with Elora maima in 1990 or 91, it took place in beleghata mamarbari. i was a teen ager and promoted to serve guests with food which was a quite prestigious rank among my juniors:), then chotomama's biye in 1995, mou's biye in 1999, dolon's and sumon's poite, then sumon's biye in 2011( after a long  i attended a wedding of our family!!), babi's poite in 2005( son of rintudidi-sumitda) and  sanudada's biye in 1997 i guess. Me, sumon, dolon and sometimes tublu, ankan hang out  during these occassions, we use to do eating competition during the dinner time and used the codeword " innings and batting" to denote how good one is eating. we were simply exceled in this art. Our gastronomic passion was so high that often the caterer got fed up and scared for our appetite. Our driver Bisuda and Nmama was the two rock solid batsmen for the team. I still remember some of the cuisine as they were sooooo damn good!! especially Fish tandoori from sumon's wedding, mutton biriyani from sanudada's biye and the majestic wedding ceremony of chotomama- nandidni maima which we still remember for the fabulous arrangement in a club in south calcutta.while our parents were preoccupied with socializing with other relatives and guests we had enormous freedom and no study for few days,those days really still swells in my mind. I still remember some other people from these occassion who were not directly related to our mamarbari but some sort of thread is there, like Bhendulmama whom i enjoyed discussing art and literature, Debidas pesamosai( rumi's pisemosai) who with his jokes and funny stories become as close as our own pisemosai, Gulipisi, subrotomama( tublu's own mama) a smart looking nice guy and many others.I miss these occassions from my core especially when i hear from my parents about the menu of the wedding. well you got to give back something for  your career, unfortunately that something is a big big thing for me:) :)


6.Dolkhela= though i mostly enjoyed this at my own neighborhood in salt lake, i been to  3-4 dolkhela in mamarbari especially in Bidhan sishuudyan mamarbari. After playing holi for almost 2 hour we always decided to invade other masi's house especially amader bari or majomasi's bari, dadu had this old colonial period car " Hillman" which looks elegant but volatile and unpredictable like the english weather. chotomama or nomama not a solid driver at that time gave us a ride in the calcutta road and it was so much fun to invade masi's house with colors and then treated with misti, lassi and other snacks.


7.Bidhan Sishu Udyan house= dadu choose to built this house in the 80s and what a place he has chosen , right opposite of the childrens amusemant park "Bidhan sishuudyan ". It was always my other class mates envy at that age of 7-8 that i have a mamarbari opposite to this park. whenever i go there i took all the rides of this park, play soccer, watch the aquareum fish, ride the trees by ropes, visit the library, it even had a jymnasium, basketball court, swimming pool and an archery training center.we have seen many VVIP on Dr.Bidhan Roy's birthday in Bidhan Sishuudyan, like Mrs. Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and our ex Governor Mr. AP Sharma(i remember him as i breached the security barricade to get an autograph, i was 8 probably, so not clear why i did that:) In Bidhan Sishu udyan  afternoontime was like a carnival time , crowded with little kids with their parents, all food vendors like Phuchka, alukabli, bhelpuri and ghugni. This park long ago lost it's stature and all glamor, for  sheer negligiency of our west bengal govt and the other park authorities. In this house,dadu-dida use to live on the top floor , gourmama use to  maintain a nice flower garden with seasonal flowers like rose, dahlia, marygold and Hibiscus on the roof and 2-3 white rabbits which was our prime attraction to climb the roof top wooden stairs avoiding the red eyes of our parents.I remember once mamara organized a cricket match in the Bidhan sishu Udyan with our other tenants like Jhawar, baity and ganga uncle during the day of holi.Chotomama-n-mama and sanudaad were three musketters of this house and they often organize " Ganer lorai", movie show in VCR( yes at that time it was a big thing!), special cuisine request to dida or gourmama or just good long adda. we occassionally got permitted for an entry to those sessions as was too young.  In the winter beside the neighbor Mr. Chakraborty's house we made courts and put on some lights to play badminton at night, mejomama and chotomama was very good in this sport so was chotomama's friend " Guruda"( he was Governor's bodyguard as well).I also remember few friends of mama who use to come often in this house occassionally chocolates in their pockets for us, like Probalmama,tapasmama who were sejomama's friend and then Suparnomama who was a close friend of chotomama.


8. kadapara-Beleghata house = This house named " Rajani Kuthir" after dadu's father, old type architecture, red floor and thick walls, very comfortable in all season. Th is is house where my mom and all her 9 siblings grew up. The place is very close from Salt lake stadium, Subhas sarobar and " Jogodyan Moth". Bolumama's house was just opposite to mamarbari and dadu once told us that famous Bodybuilder Mr. Manohar Aich  came to this house, dadu had a brief chat with Mr. Aich as well. Then i also remember the stationary good store owner " Pothik mama and electrician " Sudhir-mama", i really liked both of them especially Pothik-mama who sometimes offered us free candies and chanachur. Beside this house there was a small ground named " kalikoler math" and  kakadadu-arunmama's house  and bakery   also very close. Gourmama installed a swing( dolna) for us in the roof and it had several nice flower trees like togor, dopati, and bel. There was a Rongon tree probably on the ground floor from which dadu everyday early morning picks up flowers while doing his "sanskrit mantras".dadu's other tenant were also pretty good gentleman type of people namely, Sailen-babu, Mr. Bhogendra and his 3 children,Chandan, kundan and madhu whom i still remember quite well. we had a very good telebhaja shop close to the bus stop and an amazing roadside ghugni-alurdom vendor which probalby used all the red peppers in this world. Ohh there was a dingy, horrible looking movie theatre "SUKTARA' which was well famed in that area for many reasons:)

9. Karkhana= dadu had this pretty big wood factory beside beleghata khalpar. we nati-nathni's invade here occassionally. I love to go here riding infront of a bike mainly two of dadu's employees of this factory " kochimama and Samirmama" especially on Biswakarma Puja day. mejomama or sejomama was always happy to see us here, they bought cake for us from a small roadside shop i think " DHIREN-MAMA" was the owner of this shop.Then kite flying and later eating lunch coming back to mamarbari with others. This factory had a small pond as well inside the premises and once dadu gave us a stick of sandlewood which my mom still kept in her thakughar in kolkata.






10.Miscellany = well this bag is full with scattered pieces here n there, like ,Gourmama can fix anything from" alpin to elephant" and can cook about 1000 dishes from chowmein to chochhori, but at the end they all taste same(quoting sanudada here:) , bisumama never gets angry nomatter how pissed of other people are, boromasi's voice has quite outstanding resemblance with singer Sandhya Mukhopadhyay,chotomasi can cook amazing chicken chanp, N-mesomosai excelled in math and stat ( i particularly was very scared about this as was very weak in it!),sejomama calls me "Bonomali",i always enjoyed the company of boromama as we had quiz,film, music,art and lots of common topics to share about, mejomama an ardent Mohunbagan supporter and we spend tirelss discussion about old maidan football ,chotomama and sanudada can do brilliant caricature of bengali movie comedians esp Nabadwip halder and Bhanu banerjee,mejomesomosai was a renowned Indian weightlifter,n-mama with his bagna-vagnis loves to talk about traveling and foods,regarding my maima's they are all good cooks and always welcomed us to their home, during any family occassion giving adda with all maima's was a special moment always for us, sanudada is a gifted director who once directed a short documentary " sangeet porichalonai porichalok" which i put in quite a good level for it's nice composure,babi and dodo loves cars and computers,rumki can speak french and loves to travel, tublu loves to eat biriyani and a blind man utd supporter,dipankar is a computer genius, sumon-swagata loves to drive to scenic places,Tatan is an outstanding Odissi dancer( she was a disciple of " Guru Giridhari Nayek"),reshmi speaks nonstop and very funny,Rintudidi is always busy with his two son and sumitda but still keeps in good touch with all of us,bumbada loves to listen ghazal music and other eastern classical concerts, Gudlu,Arka and coco are very naughtly but sooooo cute( well gudlu has quite grown up now),Arkya can paint very well at his age and quite promising in this aspect,dolon whom i call by "mama" and he calls me back as "vagne" was very close to me,we went to watch several good test match series at The eden gardens together ending up with a late dinner at shiraz, tuli is a promising journalist ,ankan is a very serious type of person but if you spend enough time with him you will know he is a good guy at heart and yes he also smiles if your jokes are good,dibyu is a very naive simple guy and loves to teach math and eat luchi-rosogolla,,mou can sing pretty well and lot of us doesn't know that she was a good swimmer and won few medals at annual swimming competition at Subhas sarobar,mala is pretty good on home decoration and loves her cell phone, boromesomosai knows palmistry pretty well, chotomesomosai loves his parar adda and always looked busy when he comes to mamarbari to catch the 5.53 up dankuni local to go back home for his evening adda  with his buddies:), and finally my dad can sleep anytime anywhere, that includes " parking lot to soshanghat":) and my mom can cook  five sourse dinner for 20 people in less than an hour:)...well i consider that all people of our mamarbari are gifted in some sort of way . It's a wonderful world indeed!!i don't want to bring their success stories in their professional life as it feels very trivial to talk.
I can write relentless, as for all our bhai-bon's mamarbari has a very very special place in our heart. Now for our own career and life we are scattered on different parts of this world but all these priceless memories will always bind us together for sure.Attaching few pics, archiving from good old days n i am sure my cousins, mama, masira and others will like reading this blog for sure.

2 comments:

  1. aare ayanda, aamar maa rao 5 bhai, 5 bon.. aar maa choto.. :)

    btw, ei belmuri station er naam ta oneke ney na.. bole ota naki opoya naam :P.. majher gaon na ki ekta name dake beshir bhag lokjon.

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    1. thik bolechis jaigata r nam kore na keo....

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