My Best Friend :Dedicated to my late Bhagne-cum-friend, Honorable District Magistrate & Session Judge, Shubhra Shankar Bhatta.

Part – IV

Shubho got married in February, 1990 and exactly a month later, I left for Bhutan, having finally landed up with a teaching job there.

Shubho’s wedding was all fun, frolic and bhuri-bhojan. The days seem long gone but I do remember how we two, Bhaiya, Gutuda’s shala ( bro-in-law) and I were treated like royals during our stay in Rita’s two-storied parental house in Baharampor during the occasion.

On the night of Shubho’s marriage, Shubho introduced me to one of Rita’s cousins called Shampa. We chit-chatted about this and that and I really enjoyed her company. Shubho, took me to her place in Shulekha a year or so after his marriage. Later, this very good looking and decent girl, Shampa got admitted in the famed Presidency College of Kolkata but that is another story.

Shubho’s in-laws were quite well-to-do and very nice people and at the time of our departure, we both were gifted with pants and shirts pieces.

Anyway, to come back to the concluding episode of Shubho’s wedding. Both Bhaiya and I came back to Jiagang along with Shubho and his newly-wedded wife. The days rolled by like a dream and soon it was time for me to get back to Kolkata. Bhutan was beckoning. As I was ready to depart for the station, Shubho entered Bardi’s room quietly.

“Dekh Bappa, biyete ami anekgulo ghari peyechhi. Ami tai chai, tui amar pachonder ei gharita ekhon theke par…” Having said this, he took the black-belted watch he had bought for himself and put it on my wrist.

I tried objecting, knowing how much the watch meant to him. But Shubho was adamant and so was Bardi. “Ki hoyechhe? Toke bhalo bese diyechhe to? Tachhara O to anekgulo ghari peyechhey….!” (What’s the harm? Hasn’t he offered it to you out of love? Besides, he has got a lot of watches as gifts on his wedding.)

I had to take the watch finally. This incident shows why Shubho reached where he did in the end and why I will always be an ordinary human. People like Shubho will prosper and thrive in life because of their genuinely generous nature.

I will also cherish how Bhaiya, Shubho and I cried on each other’s shoulders at the time of my departure. Those days were full of the love, innocence, friendship of the youth and of Life itself.

Shubho was very generous and I have been to all the places except Katwa, where Shubho got posted as a Session Judge. My first experience of visiting Shubho was when he got transferred to Baripur, not very far away from Kolkata proper. He stayed in the spacious Officer’s quarters near the station.

That winter break, along with my Maa and family, we spent nearly a week at the place. Both Shubho and Rita were a happy couple and treated us all to some quality time. I remember a few incidents that left me profoundly impacted during that visit. Like, one evening after, Shubho, Rita and I had had a very enjoyable time, Shubho’s younger daughter, Sucheta, got inside the room. I pulled her closer to me and asked her, out of curiosity, what she wanted to be in life.

The girl, most probably in Class-VI at that time, surprised me no ends by remarking :

“Ami amar Babar moton lawyer habo.” I’d be a lawyer like my father. There was no hesitation and only determination in little Sucheta’s tone. You will find it really amazing, dear reader, that Sucheta proved true to her words and did turn out to be a lawyer in the end!

From Baruipur to Alipuduar to Jalpaiguri to Sheuri, we had been to most of the places that Shubho got posted to. Nothing wrong with that, I reckon. The other day I overheard a conversation between my bro, Gobindada and my wife. Gobindada had the same view that Shubho and Rita were perfect hosts and went out of their way to make life comfortable for the people who visited them.

“Tara pithe je bhabhe Subho amader Mayer darshan koriyechhilo. Pechhoner darwaja diye amader aat-nai jon ke O je bhabe dhukiyechhilo! District Judge hawar subade Or shubidhe anek chhilo…. Oi jatrayai amra Mayer paye hanth diye sparsho korechhilam…” ( The way Shubho enabled us have a darshan of Tara Ma at Tarapith was unbelievable! The way his body-guards made us enter the temple through the back door was all possible because of Shubho. Agreed that he had lots of advantages being the District Magistrate. We could touch the image of the Goddess on that trip.) Gobindada was heard reminiscing.

“Oi jatrayai to apnar khub sharir kharap hoyechhilo?” My wife reminded him of how he fell seriously sick on that trip.

Whatever, there are a lot of memories for us to be thankful to Shubho and Rita for.

I have heard it more than once from Sweta, Shubho’s elder daughter, an advocate like her father and grandfather, that “Baba tomake khub bhalo basto…” ( My father loved you a lot).

I know though that I couldn’t do anything for either Shubho or his family. I will conclude today’s narration by stating an incident about Shubho’s love for me. I have already told you about the watch that Shubho took off his hand after his marriage and made me wear the day I was to return to Kolkata.

A couple of weeks before Shubho’s sudden demise, I had to go to the Webel Building in Sector-V, Salt Lake for an interview for the post of an Academic Counselor ( I got through, had the offer letter sent to me but I turned it down at the last moment). I called my Sis and told her that I’d like to meet her just before the interview.

Muna, had the whole eatables of a shop ordered for lunch. Starting with the very delicious drink, aampana to Chicken Momo to mixed chowmin topped by a cup of the most mouth-watering icecream. As I had had my fill, I couldn’t take the chowmin. Muna had it parcelled and put in my bag for dinner.

So far so good. I remembered just before leaving her PG Hostel that I had left my watch back in Deblane. Muna had a solution to that too. She forced me into wearing a watch that Shubho had presented her on her last visit to his house. Muna also informed me that Shubho wanted me to have it but changed his mind at the last moment thinking that I might not find it all that costly!

I have the watch now and I am thinking of my late Bhagne, a fun-loving guy who inherited the quality of giving from his late mother, Bardi and lived life to the utmost.

To be continued ….