My Best Friend (3) : Dedicated to my late Bhagne-cum-friend, Honorable District Magistrate & Session Judge, Shubhra Shankar Bhatta.
19.8.24
Part – III
When you like someone, s/he is in your thoughts 24×7. You try to see to her/his comfort; spend as much time as you can in her/his close proximity and my bhagne, Shubho exemplifies this. My Bhagnes always wanted me to be happy in the long run. The day of my grihapravesh, he remarked : …Kintu tui to sab dikei bhalo korchhis?” ( You seem to be doing fairly well on all counts.)
My happiness mattered to him.
During my trips to Jiagang, the most celebrated beauties of the place had to be befriended by me! Didn’t matter that I was a nobody!
That’s how Manu, Tapa and a host of other girls came to be my friends. Talking about Manu. She was the elder daughter of one Ambuj Bhatta, a distant relative of Jamai Babu. She was an extremely graceful, beautiful girl but like most of her breed, had a reputation.
I remember that afternoon when I found myself locked in Bardi’s room in Jamaibabu’s ancestral home with this begum like beauty. We talked for nearly an hour while the friends of my Bhagnes, having locked us in from outside, giggled and gimmicked outside.
That was the day I realised that reputation doesn’t always reflect one’s true character. Manu and I became friends in due course. She was beautiful both outside and in. That encounter with her must have helped me grow as a human and helped me at a most critical point of my life, later on.
Shubho took me to a lot of his relatives (from the paternal side) places. It is pointless trying to write about all of them. Let me limit my experience to one such relative’s place at Alipore.
“Bappa, ami toke Shibram er Massir barite niye jabo. Dekhbi, tor khub bhalo lagbe other…” (I’ll take you to Shibram’s Massi. You’ll really enjoy their company.)
Shubho told me after coming back from Jiagang that fall. He was so impressed with the beauty and brain of the twins that he could hardly stop talking about them.
So, as intimated upon on telephone, we found ourself boarding a route 33-Bus from Deblane and getting off at Chetla. From there we took another to Ajanta Cinema. The relatives of Shibram, Sibho’s cousin, lived just a few blokes away from there.
We enjoyed that night a lot. The sister of Shubho’s jethima was a very homey lady, totally unsuspicious. Naturally, we gappoed (gossiped); got to know each other better and finally got treated to a sumptuous dinner. Her two daughters, Beli and Jui, especially the later, had a very soothing impact on me.
Why don’t some of these acquaintances and relationships last for a lifetime? One reason may be that these momentary acquaintances bring a lot of joy to your heart when those of the more permanent nature, seem to loose their charm.
Shubho must have introduced me to at least dozen girls and I prefer to mention few of them here.
The night he took me to Justice Amar Saha’s residence at Salt Lake. His only child, Mithu, outgrew our idea of a good friend till Shubho became a Judge himself. I remember the room stacked with those heavy-set, gilt-edged legal books and Mithu singing some popular gazals of the day.
Music played its role in Subho and I making some choicest friends with the fairer sex in those days. During our trip to Ranchi (in Jharkhand now), we had songs uniting us with the Lata Mangeshkar of Bihar, Nilima Thakur, who lived on the floor beneath the apartment of Prakash Babu (Gutuda’s father-in-law).
On the way back, we spent a day or two at Purulia and made friends with Bubi and Rintu. Bubi, studying at Shantiniketan at that time, impressed us with her rendition of some of Lara’s most popular songs at that time:
Ogo ar kichhu to nai, and
Aaj tabe ei tuku thak,
Baki katha pare habe…..( Let’s keep this bit for today. The rest of the talk, we’ll have later.) The Aikats were extremely rich and had 17 of their buses plying on the Purulia-Ranchi highway!
Whenever we two visited my brother-in-law Arunda’s house at Maniktala, our arrival would be greeted by his bubbly, beautiful sister, Bulbuli, who, on finding us at the door from their window above, would come charging down to open the door of 46 Karbala Tank Lane. We would sit in my sister’s spacious room on the second floor and spend the rest of the afternoon in fun-talking. At Shubho’s request, Bulbuli would go out on the adjoining roof and call her best friend, Mitali to come over. She was a good singer and that was another attraction of our frequent visits to Arunda’s place.
Those were the days of my life and how much I want them to be back, I know that they are best remembered as ‘the days long gone and cherished’, if you know what I mean.
I realise now that most girls liked Subho – his smartness, his fun-loving nature and dream to make something worthwhile with his life. Let me conclude today’s writing with how Shubho introduced Rita, his wife of over 34 years to me.
That summer in 1989, on his return from Jiagang, Subho looked a bit more excited, preoccupied than usual. I heard it from grapevine that Bardi had found someone from Berhampore and asked Subho to get to know that girl better. While trying to write about Shubho’s first description of Rita to me, I find words are failing me. It seems to have happened at such a distant time, concerned such adorable, amazing people!
“Biswas kar, Bappa, Rita annyo sabar theke ektu different. Or mukhe ekta namaniyata achhe ja tor bhal lagbe. Okey niye ekta din ghure beralam, katha bollam, phuchka khelam…Ami nishchit je ei meye kei ami biye korchhi. Satti ki janish, meyeta ke amar khub bhalo legechhe……” (Rita, believe me Bappa, is different from others. You’ll get to like her, the serenity on her face. I spent one whole afternoon with her, chit chatting, eating phuchka together. I’ve no doubts whatsoever that she is the one for me. Truth to tell, I like the girl a hell of a lot.)
That was huge, coming from a guy like Shubho. But he was serious. And his idea of his wife never changed till his dying breath. I remember what he told me as he, along with his family, drove us to New Alipore Station to see us, my family and me, off. Shubho and I had just climbed down the bridge to get to the platform on the other side, when Shubho told me :
“Amar bolte kono dwidha nei re. Ami aaj ja kichhu tar pechhone sab theke baro abodan Ritar….” ( I have no qualms about saying that whatever I am today, my wife, Rita is the one behind my success.)
Shubho couldn’t be moved an inch from this viewpoint all his waking and married life!
To be continued …..
