His contribution to Durga Puja will never be forgotten

Here is the thirty first unforgettable character in my life …

Durga Puja is the largest festival of Bengalis wherever they may be and our township was no exception. When it started, those who were involved in it devoted their energies to make it a success from the very first day and managed to create a festive mood for not just the four days but the taste lingered on long after the immersion of the idols in the River Godavari.
The period was in the late seventies and the man responsible was an ex-Navy officer. He possessed a never-say-die attitude that is unique to anyone who has seen service in the armed forces. When the Bengalis decided to hold the first ever Durga Puja in the township, he led from the front and ensured that the festivities left a lasting impression on not only on the Bengali community but also the locals.

The biggest challenge was to organize entertainment packages for the four days. Since necessary funds were raised from donations and subscriptions, the donors expected to get their money’s worth. And - he took a decision to arrange programs of artistes from Mumbai and Pune. The tentative program for the four days were – inauguration, entertainment package by artistes of Mumbai or Pune, a program to the Marathi population, and an evening meant exclusively for local talents.
It was that stage in our lives when television was in its infancy and cable TV was unheard of and people would crowd to venues of entertainment to spend an evening and watch celebrities and renowned singers.
He had managed to bring famous artistes from Mumbai like Hema Malini, Manna Dey, Babla’s orchestra, Tun Tun, Sachin Shankar’s ballet and others to entrain the gatherings.
The idol of Goddess Durga and her retinue would be brought directly from Kolkata by train as would be the dhaki and there would be community lunch consisting of khichudi on all the four days that would be open to everybody, irrespective of caste, creed or religion.
However, all of a sudden, he passed away and others took off from where he left. Even today, he is remembered as the man who made things happen. The word ‘impossible’ was not in his dictionary.


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He was a boss who knew how to instill confidence in his subordinates

Here is the thirtieth unforgettable character in my life …

He was one of my bosses who made me realize the potential that I had in me. He was instrumental to get me transferred from a department where I had got bored stiff with routine work – I wanted a change and he allowed that to happen. He wanted me to set up a section and I was given a separate room and a team of four persons drawn from other departments. The day I took over charge, the first person to enter my section was the one who had been handling the work in the project group. He was beaming as he informed me that his transfer had materialized and he would be leaving for Bangalore in a couple of days. He also added that he was sending to me all the documents that he was holding. They came in a jeep followed by two steel Godrej almirahs and other furniture that he felt I would require.
I had never handled the procurement of engineering material, neither did I know the norms of provisioning, or the methods of following up with suppliers, and liaising with user departments to keep track of critical items. These were new areas to me and I was appalled at the volume of files and correspondences that he transferred gleefully to my section.

After I had settled down and was engrossed in trying to make sense out of the papers that I was in possession of, my boss phoned me and asked me to come over to his office. He offered me a cup of tea and, as we sipped the tea, he asked probing questions. Finally, he handed me a report and said that the report has to go to the Corporate office every month and would I check the correctness of the data?
I was shocked – as it is I was floundering and it would take me time to even think of vetting important information. My boss understood and asked bluntly – when can you vet this?
And I replied frankly – please give me at least six months.
Anything else? he asked.
I would like a personal computer, I replied.
Accordingly, he gave me a PC – it was one of the primitive models with two drives – you had to insert a floppy in one drive for booting and use the second drive for the floppy to store data and to generate reports.
True to his word, he gave me the six months – once I was confident, he gave the fresh report to me and I sat late into the night for vetting. It took me a couple of days since I had to get his clarifications on some discrepancies.
Finally, my version was ready. He signed it and sent it to Corporate office and told me – henceforth you will be responsible for this activity every month.
He was my Boss for the final period of my service and he taught me to be self-reliant. He would assign apparently impossible tasks to me and I would innovate to come up with solutions. It was a part of the growing up experience for me.
He has now retired as a Director at the Corporate level and, is an example of how delegation of work can build confidence in the subordinate as well as ease one’s own headaches.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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He was an out and out Bohemian

Here is the twenty ninth unforgettable character in my life …

There is hardly anyone who has not met at least one Bohemian in his lifetime. This Bohemian friend of mine was a freelancer – he had a small screen printing outfit and would go around collecting orders for visiting cards or marriage cards or labels. He was sincere to his profession but he had a drawback. He had never learnt cycling, therefore he could not ride any scooter and had to use his feet. When the distances were large, he would hire an auto rickshaw.

Since our city had an abundance of small scale industries, he was never short of orders. He faced problems when he bagged large orders – at that time he would recruit temporary hands, mostly girls. Their relationships were always master-servant types, nothing closer than that.
Our paths crossed when we decided to print Bengali books and magazines from Nashik through computers. He arranged for the Bengali fonts through his contact and also the facilities of data entry. We used to meet in his room – it was always in a mess. We would suggest that he get married and settle down to a regular life but he would laugh it all off.
He did have a try tried at writing stories but the results were not that great – he wanted to be a rebel and would insist on his special style of spelling. It was a style that no one accepted in those days but is gradually coming into vogue today!
Anyway, when circumstances forced our magazine, our paths parted – our meetings became less frequent and, one day, we came to know that he had finally got married. Only – she was a divorcee with a kid. She used to help him in his freelancing business and had trouble with her husband. They would fight and, finally, she took the extreme step of separation. My friend gladly accepted her.
We met after a long time during one of the Durga pujas – both he and his wife had come to the puja pandal. He had purchased a brand new car and had a driver – he has not yet learnt driving the car.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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He is a Bengali and translates Marathi literature

Here is the twenty eighth unforgettable character in my life …

There is hardly any Bengali who does not fancy himself as another poet worthy of recognition, he is no exception. A writer in his own right – he writes poetry as well as short stories and essays but has made a name for himself in translating works of Marathi authors. He has recently completed a work for the Sahitya Academy and, in his spare time, both in office and home, he writes and writes – it is a hobby for him. He subscribes to umpteen small magazines and has seen his name in print several hundred times. This passion of his brought us together – he was the architect of printing Bengali magazines from Nashik, first it was cyclostyled and later printed.

When we decided to print the magazine, we had to generate funds – getting ads was the best way because, once you were able to convince the opposite side, you got more than your money’s worth. I have written elsewhere about the way we would get the matter into computer language and get the magazines printed- I will not dwell on that again, but the struggle to get ads was something that took its toll – we forgot all about our domestic lives.
Throughout the whole week we would take it in turns to do the data entry and setting of the pages, and the Sundays were reserved for ad drives. The industrial area was a good twenty five kilometers away and, on Sunday mornings, we would leave the house after breakfast – his scooter was the means of propulsion. He would drive and together we would go from one company to another – we would meet with success but failures were more.
Still, thanks to his determination, we did manage to generate adequate funds for as many as eight quarterly issues. We would have tea and snacks on roadside eateries and never faced any ill effects. However, when he was detected as being a patient of diabetes, we had to control our outdoor activities. Gradually, we had to close the project.
He is now a retired man and lives with his writings, his racks are overcrowded with complimentary copies – he gets these in abundance rather than honorariums. He travels to various destinations to participate in annual get together of writers and of literary associations and societies. He has not received any great recognition but is happy to contribute his bit towards Bengali literature with his translations of Marathi literature.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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He was a Chinese and his assistant was a Muslim

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He was my first boss and be taught me the basics


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He loved a game of contract bridge

Here is the twenty seventh unforgettable character in my life …

In those days, there were young men who married by giving information that was not true – it was sad because, after the marriage, it broke many homes. I have seen it happen. Anyway, the person I will now write about did no such thing – he handled the electrical aspects of the fighter aircraft and he got married to a girl who had a wonderful voice. She could render Rabindasangeet like any well-known singer.

He was also a footballer and an acknowledged player of bridge – he and his partner had participated in many national bridge tournaments and rubbed shoulders with the likes of bridge maestro Jimmy Mehta.
The wife was a calm lady, busy in her household activities and came on stage whenever requested to do so to sing Rabindra sangeet – either solo or in a group. In order to assist his wife, my friend learnt how to play the tabla and would accompany his wife on stage. None of them believed in creating problems.
As per traditions of those who live in a place for a very long time, he purchased a plot of land with the intention of building his own house and living there after retirement. The fact that his younger brother also stayed in the city and had a small business of his own added to his desire of staying on here. But, events willed otherwise.
His small family was complete with the only child, a son – he had little or no interest in either games or music. He was a studious boy and moved from one class to the next with honors. He finally became a Doctor and is currently in Pune. There is no certainty of his returning to Nashik. Therefore, my friend has sold off the land and shifted over to Pune to be with his son.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

Jharkhand to become plastic free, ban on polybags less than 50 micron thick

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Gurgaon to get environment friendly electric buses


He was a Chinese and his assistant was a Muslim

He was framed for a crime he did not commit

He was my first boss and be taught me the basics


Clint Eastwood's upcoming film "The 15:17 to Paris"

Work on superhero film "Deadpool 2" begins

'Spider-Man: Homecoming' brings back the teenage crime fighter


Two Americans gored by bulls in the San Fermin bull running festival

At least 15 killed in shootout in Mexico between police and drug gangs

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He was a great help in the Kolkata Book Fair

Here is the twenty sixth unforgettable character in my life …

When we attended the Calcutta Book Fair for the first time in 1992, we had innumerable first-time experiences. The most memorable was the setting up of the stall. We had requested for the smallest space and were accordingly allotted a ten feet by ten feet area with tarpaulin roof. That was the normal practice – whoever rented the stalls had to get the decorations done by themselves.

Immediately we arrived at the venue to identify our location and take over the stall, we were besieged by hordes of people. They were decorators who wanted to take our contract. They explained their ideas and we listened and asked for rough financial estimates. In between, we rested in the makeshift tea stalls and pondered over the pros and cons. Our budget was literally a shoestring one. We had scraped together the minimum finance necessary to book the stalls and had vague estimates but the estimates of the field decorators floored us. It was at this point of time that the cousin of one of my partners came to our rescue.
He assured us that he would get the stall set up and would see that the expenses were kept to the barest minimum. He was experienced in such work because he had a couple of friends who built the local Saraswati puja pandals. They were in the know of things and, since the fair was being held during the Saraswati pujas, we heaved a sigh of relief. He arranged to shift bamboos and plywood to the venue and he and his team stayed up three nights to erect the structure.
When the fair doors were thrown open, ours was one of the stalls that was complete in all respects. He was our savior in the two subsequent years 1993 and 1995 that we participated in the Calcutta Book fair.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

Jharkhand to become plastic free, ban on polybags less than 50 micron thick

Conflict between man and elephants on the rise in Odisha

Gurgaon to get environment friendly electric buses


He was a Chinese and his assistant was a Muslim

He was framed for a crime he did not commit

He was my first boss and be taught me the basics


Clint Eastwood's upcoming film "The 15:17 to Paris"

Work on superhero film "Deadpool 2" begins

'Spider-Man: Homecoming' brings back the teenage crime fighter


Two Americans gored by bulls in the San Fermin bull running festival

At least 15 killed in shootout in Mexico between police and drug gangs

Suicide bomber kills at least 15 in Mosul

He was a Chinese and his assistant was a Muslim

Here is the twenty fifth unforgettable character in my life …

I knew him in my school days – he was the in-charge of a Chinese laundry that had rented a space on the main road in the same building in which my family and I stayed on rent. It was in Shyambazar – the time was in the mid-fifties. There was a shooting by the police on agitators who were protesting the hike in the price of tram tickets by one paisa. One of the bullets lodged in the wooden frame of our flat and, the next day, police came to retrieve the bullet and checkup for other damages.

The Chinese laundry was huge – it catered to special clothes and garments especially woolen ones. The in-charge had regular customers and did a reasonably good business. The clothes ready for delivery would be hung in closets that were located overhead. When someone came to take delivery, the in-charge would see the number on the receipt and with a long wooden rod move the sliding closet door to search for the respective item.
Once he found it, he would use the same wooden rod to lower it – the rod had a hook at one end. Some of the clothes would be in glass cases behind the large table that separated the business area. The clothes meant for washing would be taken in a van to the central agency – the van was a modified version of the cycle rickshaw with the enclosed box positioned in front of the cyclist. The cyclist was a Muslim.
The dry cleaners were well known in the locality and, in order to attract more customers, the in-charge had a novel idea. He installed a huge aquarium in the front show case – there would be a flock of young and old watching the fish in the evenings when he would switch on the illumination. After some months, he added another attraction – a stuffed mongoose fighting with a snake. Even though he was much older than me, we were good friends and he was a helpful neighbor as well. We lost contact when my family shifted over to our own house. However, after the Chinese aggression, the cleaners closed down and I lost track of him.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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