Bina di,are you viewing?

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While you grow up in a multimember middle class bengali family among umpteen number of relatives you as a child seldom assess the exact relations.Distant cousins often come closer than your own brothers and sisters depending on the situation.

I was born in a remote town named Basirhat now falls under the District of North 24 parganas in West Bengal. As I came to know Bina di, a cousin,happened to stay with the family at that time. My mother used to remain very busy with the domestic chores of the big family and hardly find enough time for the ne born.Bina di, on her own, filled the gap. She was a girl of fifteen then.I happened to be always in her lap and preferred to remain so.

Subsequently, my father got transfered to Kolkata while I was barely 6 months old and Bina di went back to Pabna in erswhile East Bengal,now called Bangladesh.We came to Kalighat,grew up and started going to school. Bina di came once more to our house. She was with our family for around a year this time .This time I remained the most preferred brother for Bina di. By natuere.she was very polite and quite.She never used to talk much but found all the time to tell me stories of her childhood ,of her village at East Bengal, of the relatives and the cousins I did not know.Then Bina di's marriage was arranged and she went to Sodepur, her in-law house.My little world suddendly become absolutely void. I became so restless that I was sent to Sodepur to stay in her company during my puja vaccation.

Now I am about to reach sixty.Bina di is quite old a lady with poor eyesight. Still,whenever I visit her she gives her brightest smile and welcome me as if I am a gift of God.She put her frail on my head and instantly the fragnance of my long lost child hood reaches me.

Comments

Unknown said…
hi dadu...wonderful blog. as soon i read it i asked my mom if i had ever seen "bina di".... mom said i must have seen her when i was small..... anyways let me read all the blogs....
May 13, 2008 at 7:04 PM
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