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| Chhutki's aai budo bhaat |
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| Aai budo bhaat |
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| Gaaye Holud ceremony |
They needn`t have bothered. Chhutki had already found out all that was necessary to know about her nuptials, her elder sister had married just the year before and had just returned home after her first delivery. Just as they were sitting down to the ritual meal, with all the ladies of the family gathered together outside the 'rannaghar' [3] on the roof, there began the loud noise of arguing and somebody violently shaking the padlocked gate and demanding to be let inside : “Aami tomarderkey bhalo bhabe bolcchi…”. (“Look, I¨m asking you in a gentlemanly way…”). All the ladies on the roof knew what the shouting was about, but refused to let it interrupt their rituals, leaving it to the men in the house to cope with the nuisance.
Chhutki`s wedding had been announced rather suddenly. She was still in Class X, but to many, especially to close family and friends, the decision to announce her wedding didn`t come as a surprise. Nor was the choice of the groom: a forest officer posted in Santhal Parganas.[4] For quite some time now, Chhutki`s family had become increasingly perturbed by the tide of slander that had been floating around in the para. Tongues had been set wagging when Chhutki was allegedly seen at the Paddapukur Durga Puja in the company of “someone much older than her”. Then somebody spotted her coming out after the noon show of 'Raater Rajanigandha' [5] at Indira cinema when she should have been at school; she then allegedly took a rickshaw home, while the same “much older person” followed by a separate rickshaw. The irony wasn`t lost on those who knew the plot of the movie: a young woman (played by Aparna Sen) runs away from home, wishing to escape an oppressive paternalistic environment. She then falls for the man who helps her family to track her down (the rôle played by Uttam Kumar).
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| Uttam Kumar in 'Rater Rajanigandha' |
In fact, Chhutki seemed to take rickshaws whenever she pleased. It was almost as if somebody had left standing instructions with Radhesham and his brotherhood of rickshawallas at Teen Number Gate to pick her up and drop her whenever they spotted her, and somebody would pick up the tab. The same applied to the jhaalmuri walla at The Park and the 'Magnolia' ice-cream wallah who came in the afternoons. Chhutki suddenly seemed to have credit wherever she pleased. But much to their puzzlement, Chhutki`s best friends noticed that far from sharing her newly-found wealth, she was becoming remote. She always seemed to have money in her purse. She was wearing 'kajol' [6] and 'aangtis' [7] which they hadn`t seen before. But to their disappointment, she would avoid her friends, not even offering to give a lift to one of them when she passed them on the rickshaw.
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| Radhesham and his rickshaw |
[1] The pre-wedding ceremony at which the bride-to-be is fêted by her
female relatives.
[2] Paternal
aunt.
[3] Cooking shed.
[4] At the time of the story, a district in Bihar state of India, today
a division in Jharkhand state.
[5] 1973,
starring Uttam Kumar, Aparna Sen and Pahari Sanyal, dir. Ajit Gangopadhyay.
[6] Kohl.
[7] Rings, usually with carefully selected gemstones, to bring the
wearer good fortune.
II As is often the case, word was
slow to reach Chhutki`s father, a school-teacher of limited means and modest
imagination. But her mamu[1] had
sharp ears in the para and had
already tired of the constant stream of rumour and innuendo in the locality.
One day, he was “doing bazaar”[2] when he
overheard two bhadralok who were
total strangers shaking their heads in disbelief at that “lucky rascal Kanai.” “Bhalobashar nouka pahar boie jaye”, (The
vessel of love can scale mountains”), one
was saying to the other, as they both roared with laughter.
Chhutki`s mamu realised that things had indeed got out of hand. Unlike her father, Chhutki`s mamu was also a man of modest means but he was unwilling to sit and watch passively as his niece`s reputation was being shredded by the residents of the para. He had his contacts, being the holder of Fair Price Shop license number 12246 i.e. he was the para`s ration shop owner. He went home and quietly dialed a number to Lalbazaar.[3]
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| Kanaida the para "bachelor" |
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| 4711 eau de Cologne |
He was a hit with us kids. On Sunday mornings, we would gather outside the little Kali shrine outside the CSTC depot [9] and he would treat us to 'bataasa' [10] and 'daab' [11] after the 'arati' [12]. He was always generous, and needed very little persuading to help us replace our 'campis' [13] ball or buy us some shuttle-cocks in winter. Some of the kids said that he would take them to Rabindra Saravor stadium and buy them toffee and even 'thanda'. [14] Afterwards, one or two of the boys came back and told their friends that Kanaida had given them small flowers, but nobody knew what this meant, it never became anything important, and nobody thought this was something we should mention to our parents.
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| Weaver at his loom in Santipur |
Since then, there had been indirect meetings between the “man from Lalbazaar”, and Kanaida and his closest friends. But to no avail ; Kanaida was in no mood to relent. Prodded by her mamu, the “man from Lalbazaar” offered Chhutki`s father two alternatives: either let me take care of him, or take care of your daughter. Being a bhadralok and “a genuine person”, Chhutki`s father was horrified by the first option. He chose the latter way out.
“Shaak diye maachh dhaka hochhe.”, (“Covering fish with greens” i.e. trying to hush up what is widely known) was the reaction of the more senior members of the para on their morning walks in The Park, when Chhutki`s upcoming wedding to the forest officer became known.
But after the incident on the evening of the 'aai budo bhaat' Chhutki`s mamu was left with no option. A few hours later, a jeep pulled up outside Kanaida`s house next to 'Sisu Niketan Nursery School'. In the dead of night, two men in plain clothes knocked on the front door and curtly asked Kanaida to pack enough clothes for three days. The same jeep dropped him back the following Tuesday. Kanaida looked tired, and his customary fragrance of lavender talc had deserted him.
As for Chhutki, she was making preparations for “bou bhaat” at her in-laws' home in Belgachia.
Text by Shankar A. Narayan Photo credits: Shounak Roy, Moni Basu, Somdatta Roychowdhuri, Arman Aziz, Anjan Dutt, Ajit Ganguly, Koyeli Chakraborty.
[1] Maternal
uncle.
[2] Part of every Bengali householder’s routine – the daily visit to
the fish and vegetable markets.
[3] Famous as the site of Calcutta Police h.q.
[4] A district of West Bengal state, adjacent to Calcutta and famous
for its clay pottery and textiles.
[5] The Santipur sari is legendary; although after 1947, the town is more
famous for its fine dhotis.
[6] A traditional country house.
[7] Traditional cotton shirt, with a round collar and often delicately
embroidered or hand-printed. Often worn in combination with the traditional
Indian trousers, called “payjamas”.
[8] A decorative cloth worn over the shoulder on special occasions, in
combination with a traditional long-sleeved shirt or “panjabi”.
[9] The CSTC depot at Lake Gardens was the largest in south Calcutta
and the base for buses which plied from Gol Park, Garia, Jodhpur Park etc.
[10] Hard-boiled toffees made of sugar and a staple offering at temples.
[11] Tender coconut, full of sweet water.
[12] The ritual obeiscence using a flame offered to the deity at Hindu
temples.
[13] Tennis balls, the preferred ones for playing cricket on the para`s
lanes.
[14] Cold soft drinks, expensive at 75 paise a bottle.
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