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

Part – I

(My best friend, Shubho, passed away on the 4th of this month. Through this article, I want to pay my gratitude to and admiration for him, his achievements; his vibrant nature that I ought to have shown him when he was still alive…)

My elder daughter, Akanksha, reminded me the other day that I start singing a different tune altogether of people, relatives, who are no more. She is right because I rarely see good in people when they are alive, and even if I do, I try keeping it to myself. One reason why I admire my late Maa so much. When the whole world was gloating about someone, be it a son; a daughter or a daughter-in-law, it was not in my late Maa’s scheme of things to go gaga over it. Maa was obviously an exceptional character. Naturally, to have earned a few words of praise from her was really like a breath of fresh air! I wish that there were more people like her!

Anyway, this write-up is about someone, who taught me the meaning of true friends and remained one till the very end. I don’t know when this bhagne ( the second son of my Bardi) of mine became such an important part of my life. In my childhood, I used to go to my Bardi’s ( actually, it belonged to her in-laws) every summer break or any other breaks. Till I landed up with a job in Bhutan, I must have visited Jiagang in Murshidabad more than forty times!

During those visits, neither my Jamai Babu (brother-in-law) nor my nephews ( Bardi had 3 sons) ever received me gloomy-faced! And for your information, none of those visits lasted less than ten days at least! Jiagang in those days, to me, signified eating, drinking, merry-making and back to eating again! Biriyani was yet to make its foray into the border towns of West Bengal in those days, but name any other choicest dish like polao, mutton curry, different items made of Ilsha fish (fried ones, curry and ambol), Bardi would offer it to her relatives as best as she could. And all her 3 sons, ensured that no one from Mama Bari ever had any discomfort during their stay at Bhatta Bari.

My Jamai Babu was possibly the most important advocate in Lalbagh Court. People respected him like you won’t believe. Naturally, in the spring of his career, he wanted his eldest son to keep up the family tradition. When his son, despite having a degree in L.Lb from Calcutta University, joined the SBI, he must have been heart-broken. As his eldest son, started thriving in his workplace, Jamai Babu shifted his attention to the second son, Shubhra or Shubho to most.

Inspite of being very bright, Subho started life very sedately untill his graduation. He opted for commerce and studied at Rani Dhannya Kumari College. He was a very popular student. Due to a great blunder of the college authorities, he was given a wrong paper in hand. Though he came out in flying colours subsequently, I guess, that’s when he decided to join Jogesh Choudhary College of Law in Calcutta.

As his bro, Krishna alias Gutu or Moni, had been staying in a rented house at Baghajatin in South Kolkata by then, Shubho started staying with his brother, while pursuing his L.Lb Degree. The love between the brothers was something to be seen to be believed! Gutuda was a family man and he instilled that value in Shubho. Let me tell you, in this context, that all three brothers, including the deceased, would strike anyone as handsome, stylist and friendly.

I will never forget those days when Shubho stayed at Baghajatin.

After college, he would get back to the apartment on the ground floor. Being a very jolly, friendly sort, just like his other brothers, he made lots of friends with people like Raja, Chandan and many other locals. Being their Mama ( maternal uncle), I became, by default, their friends as well. Gutuda, by then, had decided to shift to the rented apartment on the ground floor of the two-storied house facing Talpukur. Though the brothers stayed in different bedrooms from then on, their love for one another, was a sheer joy to watch.

I would often drop by in the afternoon and find Shubho sound asleep in his room. Unhesitatingly, I would wake him up and together we would hit the road within no time. Most of these sojourns would end up at our Kakas’ residence ( two brothers occupying two different wings of the same house) at Naktala, Garia.

Those were picture-perfect days and no amount of words can recapture their beauty and grace. We would go to Sunu Kaka’s first. Kakima was such a charming host. She would offer us muri mixed with fresh coconut slices and a cup of steaming tea. Let me also tell you in this connection that I never left their house without Kakima offering something for my Maa. 

After refreshment, Shubho and I would go to the nearby house of Sona. We liked her as she was a trained singer. We would request her Mother to permit us to take Sona to my Kaka’s house. We would never leave Kakas’ place without reaching Sona back to her house first.

Both my Kakas’ had a formidable reputation in that locality and Sona’s mother had no hesitation in letting her daughter accompany us to the Kakas’! After the initial greetings, we would all settle down on the bed and Sona would entertain us with her melodious voice :

Akash Pradip jwale durer tarar pane cheye,

Amar nayan duti sudhui tomare chahe

Byathar badole jai chheye…..

(The Evening Lamp, looking at the stars, keeps burning.

My eyes well up in clouds of sadness, for you alone, searching), or

Keno kichhu katha balona

Shudhu chokhe chokh rekhe

Ja kichhu chawar amar,

Nile sabee cheye …. Eki chhlona, eki chhalona..

(Why don’t you say anything?

Keeping your eyes like that on mine;

Grabbed everything you wanted

The height of deception!)

I must tell you that my bhagne, Shubho, introduced me to Lata Mangeshkar and her album, Akash Pradip Jwale.

The best thing about Shubho was he could sense opportunities from miles apart. Right after his L.Lb, he went back to Jiaganj and devoted himself, heart and soul, to his Babu’s (father’s) tutelage. Jamai Babu, let me tell you, was not only a strict disciplinarian but also a hard task-master, especially when it concerned the wellbeing and all round growth of his sons.

He would wake up at around 4.30 in the morning, go to the Bhatta Para Ghat nearby for a glorious bath and come back home to be done with his morning prayers.

He would be dictating important judgements, decisions to Subho first hand in the little time he had in the wee hours before taking his brunch and leaving for the court in Phatikda’s cycle rickshaw ( he financed it though) waiting outside. Shubho was smart enough to get up at 5 in the morning in order to accompany his father to the Court to have a first hand knowledge of the Life of a Lawyer that he was being groomed for. At Jamai Babu’s insistence, Shubho appeared at the State Judicial Examination and got through at the first attempt. The rest, they say, is history.

To be continued….