My tryst with the Goddess of Learning
I read somewhere that while two Britishers meet they form a club and while two Bengalees meet they initiate a Puja.Now I understand that Gurudas,my elder ,aged 10 years then and me,8 year old were gifted with both the traits.We initiated a club way back in 1956 with an ulterior motive to organise a Saraswati Puja.
The Goddess used to be worshiped in our household in most humble way but we looked for something more gorgeous.The nearby club in the locality, "Dilip Smriti Sangha", used to perform Puja with usual pomp and gay but we were not much accepted in the group as we were fairly new to the locality.
We felt neglected.
Neglect of this kind, sometimes, ignite a spark within the mind of persons who are creative by nature. I heard that Sir Jamshedji Tata came up with the famous Taj Mahal Hotel as he was not treated favorably in some British five star hotel.Unknowingly we followed suit and decided to establish a club.
Space was not much of a problem as the roof of our house at Kalighat was big enough to provide required privacy.It needed to be private affair as we were much aware that our elders ,excepting our mother of course , were not of the type to appreciate this type of creativity.Next we broke our head to find a suitable name for our club.
We had a ready reference with the nearby club.We just adopted the style and came out with an innovative name.We named our club "Balak Smriti Sangha". Once named we got into action and painted the name in black on a prominent place at the roof.Though we had apprehensions of the reactions of our guardians, the matter was overlooked for the first few days.But at the weekend our Mejda,Debdas, who was in his 2nd year MA class called us.He sternly asked us to explain the meaning of the name.It was most unexpected onslaught .We found nothing wrong with the name and never expected that valid meaning was a pre requisite to name club. We puzzlingly looked at each other.We were not learned enough to take a clue from Shakespear and ask in return "What's in a name'? Mejda was a formidable opposition and in a foul mood then.We preferred to keep mum. In anger,he called us young bullocks ( Balad to be exact),donkeys and what not.He cursed himself finding that his younger s had nothing but cow dung in their brain.At last, he explained what the word "Smriti" means and we undrestood that the whole community of boys can not be "Smriti" just like that.We changed the name of our club to "Netaji Sangha" and had to overwrite on the previous one.
Once formed we went out to recruit members for our club.We could manage quite a few from the neighborhood. Gurudas,my sonada, was accepted as the undisputed leader.
Then came the proposal of Saraswati Puja and this too was accepted by the members.Among the elders we took our mother into confidence.She was obviously elated.She was a religious lady and a sincere patronizer of every noble efforts of the persons nearby.Further, she perhaps felt relieved that her boys are not moving far away from home to join a club.She assured us to go ahead.
We, then,started collecting subscription.Charity begun at home from ma once more and could not go much beyond the boundaries of home.Our next target was our newly acquired brother-in-law.He was more than glad to help us.Besides,there were friends of my elder brothers and close door neighbors. The venue of our Puja was meter room of our house located at the ground floor.We found a distinct advantage with the place.The meter room had a separate door opening to the street and our Puja could be viewed by people going through the street.After all,ultimate success of a Puja was decided by the number of people who visited the pandal.
We went out to procure the idol on the day before the Puja.As advised by Ma,we preferred a Pater thakur. It was made from a print of Raja Ravi Verma's painting of the deity, sitting with her musical instrument and books, on a lotus floating in a decorated pond and accompanied by a smiling swan.The picture is pasted on a nicely cut cardboard.The shopkeeper asked for six annans and we bargained hard.Ultimately,the old man took piety on the group of enthusiastic kids and we paid four annas.Till mid night,we toiled to decorate the place.We took the guidance of one senior dada,Arun da, a multi talented elder with the knack of painting.Under his stewardship we could manage to turn the place beautiful.
This being our inaugural venture,Ma agreed to sponsor the rest of the materials,like fruits,sweetmeats etc.My father agreed to act the priest of our Puja.We only had to wait till the completion of our Puja to perform the anjali on our part and break the fast.Through out the day and till late at night we remained glued at our pandal(as we called it).Even we counted how many had minutely visited our place.Most of the elders appreciated the effort by uttering " Khub sundar hoyeche!" The praise gave us immense satisfaction.We religiously observed all the rituals but could not perform immersion as Pater thakur needed to be preserved. With our surplus collection we arranged a feast among the members and our first puja ended in a sweet note.
Subsequently,Netaji Sangha got involved in to several cultural activities besides the Puja.We staged dramas and cultural functions every year at Rabindra Jayanti.Those were small functions with limited spectators but memorable no doubt.
The Puja which was initiated in 1956 had been observed for around 15 years without break.Afterwards,it found no youngsters to take charge.
The Goddess used to be worshiped in our household in most humble way but we looked for something more gorgeous.The nearby club in the locality, "Dilip Smriti Sangha", used to perform Puja with usual pomp and gay but we were not much accepted in the group as we were fairly new to the locality.
We felt neglected.
Neglect of this kind, sometimes, ignite a spark within the mind of persons who are creative by nature. I heard that Sir Jamshedji Tata came up with the famous Taj Mahal Hotel as he was not treated favorably in some British five star hotel.Unknowingly we followed suit and decided to establish a club.
Space was not much of a problem as the roof of our house at Kalighat was big enough to provide required privacy.It needed to be private affair as we were much aware that our elders ,excepting our mother of course , were not of the type to appreciate this type of creativity.Next we broke our head to find a suitable name for our club.
We had a ready reference with the nearby club.We just adopted the style and came out with an innovative name.We named our club "Balak Smriti Sangha". Once named we got into action and painted the name in black on a prominent place at the roof.Though we had apprehensions of the reactions of our guardians, the matter was overlooked for the first few days.But at the weekend our Mejda,Debdas, who was in his 2nd year MA class called us.He sternly asked us to explain the meaning of the name.It was most unexpected onslaught .We found nothing wrong with the name and never expected that valid meaning was a pre requisite to name club. We puzzlingly looked at each other.We were not learned enough to take a clue from Shakespear and ask in return "What's in a name'? Mejda was a formidable opposition and in a foul mood then.We preferred to keep mum. In anger,he called us young bullocks ( Balad to be exact),donkeys and what not.He cursed himself finding that his younger s had nothing but cow dung in their brain.At last, he explained what the word "Smriti" means and we undrestood that the whole community of boys can not be "Smriti" just like that.We changed the name of our club to "Netaji Sangha" and had to overwrite on the previous one.
Once formed we went out to recruit members for our club.We could manage quite a few from the neighborhood. Gurudas,my sonada, was accepted as the undisputed leader.
Then came the proposal of Saraswati Puja and this too was accepted by the members.Among the elders we took our mother into confidence.She was obviously elated.She was a religious lady and a sincere patronizer of every noble efforts of the persons nearby.Further, she perhaps felt relieved that her boys are not moving far away from home to join a club.She assured us to go ahead.
We, then,started collecting subscription.Charity begun at home from ma once more and could not go much beyond the boundaries of home.Our next target was our newly acquired brother-in-law.He was more than glad to help us.Besides,there were friends of my elder brothers and close door neighbors. The venue of our Puja was meter room of our house located at the ground floor.We found a distinct advantage with the place.The meter room had a separate door opening to the street and our Puja could be viewed by people going through the street.After all,ultimate success of a Puja was decided by the number of people who visited the pandal.
We went out to procure the idol on the day before the Puja.As advised by Ma,we preferred a Pater thakur. It was made from a print of Raja Ravi Verma's painting of the deity, sitting with her musical instrument and books, on a lotus floating in a decorated pond and accompanied by a smiling swan.The picture is pasted on a nicely cut cardboard.The shopkeeper asked for six annans and we bargained hard.Ultimately,the old man took piety on the group of enthusiastic kids and we paid four annas.Till mid night,we toiled to decorate the place.We took the guidance of one senior dada,Arun da, a multi talented elder with the knack of painting.Under his stewardship we could manage to turn the place beautiful.
This being our inaugural venture,Ma agreed to sponsor the rest of the materials,like fruits,sweetmeats etc.My father agreed to act the priest of our Puja.We only had to wait till the completion of our Puja to perform the anjali on our part and break the fast.Through out the day and till late at night we remained glued at our pandal(as we called it).Even we counted how many had minutely visited our place.Most of the elders appreciated the effort by uttering " Khub sundar hoyeche!" The praise gave us immense satisfaction.We religiously observed all the rituals but could not perform immersion as Pater thakur needed to be preserved. With our surplus collection we arranged a feast among the members and our first puja ended in a sweet note.
Subsequently,Netaji Sangha got involved in to several cultural activities besides the Puja.We staged dramas and cultural functions every year at Rabindra Jayanti.Those were small functions with limited spectators but memorable no doubt.
The Puja which was initiated in 1956 had been observed for around 15 years without break.Afterwards,it found no youngsters to take charge.
Comments
Isn't it sad that we, the so-called educated people of Kolkata are denying our children such innocent pleasures? It is time to save the child from the interminable cycle of studies, "tuitions" and exams.
In our house, we had all elder sisters, and mother were more inclined to keep all of us engaged with cultural affairs within the four walls. One of our sisters was a gifted writer and one a gifted singer. And as it always happen, they could extract all talents from other brothers and sisters. So we too organised puja, and celebrated nababarsho, Tagore's and Nazrul's birthday etc.
Your flair of writing is good even in English. But such stories in Bengali could add more flavor. I , certainly , am not discouraging you to write in English, as I know Rudrababu will be appreciating if written in English.