J.Ghosh was my great grandfather.He lived at 23,Harish Mukherjee street,Kolkata-53. He had been in the British Indian Army and then in the INA, but post independence he had been a stenographer at Hindusthan Communications. He died on 24th November 1996.This was all I knew when I entered my ancestral house after a gap of 3 years for that much time it had me taken to get possession of the place from the other claimants of the property.I wasn't very inclined to have it back but my father's last wish that I should atleast get the house and all its belongings, if not stay there made me have it. My lawyer friend Chirayato Banerjee had fought tooth and nail for this and even with all his knowledge of Indian law, had taken him 3 years. Nonetheless with this new property in hand I wished to have a look at this place the way it was before everything was shifted to make way for its renovation.
I unlocked the 4 locks at the outer metal gate which had been put up to replace the wooden door when my grandfather had died.Then i went through the musty smelling alley that lead to the front door of the house.The path was covered with fallen leaves, empty plastic pouches,moss and of course cobwebs.When I reached the wooden front door i found it smeared with dust and in the dust i found a gigantic heart and inside it lay the words "SUDIPTO and SUMITA forever". Reading it i remembered the caretaker's words "Sahib, people climb the walls and go inside. Who knows what they do". Back then I had felt scared about it and this re-doubled my efforts to complete the litigation and secure the place for myself. But now I found it amusing. I remembered that when I was in college I used to do the same on the dust smeared car windows. I remembered holding Srijeeta and writing with my index finger " LOVE YOU FOREVER".
As I climbed the stairs all my past came back. My father while dying had held me close and asked me to get this house.I had'nt thought of it much then. A sick father in Belle Vue was more important and I had said "yes" almost instantly.Later his body was brought here and taken up to the room where my grandfather used to stay. That was the first time I had entered his room as a grown man. As I went up to that same room and unbolted it, a gust of stale air greeted me. It was the welcome of the prodigal son who after spending all his money returns back to his family.
As I worked my way through the stuffs in the room I chanced upon the key to my grandfather's old rusty Almirah. I had never seen what was inside it. I had'nt bothered much . Opening it I found an ecosystem which was in complete harmony until a few moments ago when the entire earth gave way. A swarm of spiders, insects, a few lizards and several other creeps rushed out. There inside the almirah I saw whatever remained of my grandfather's possessions. As is the nature of the prodigal son ,I went straight for the locker. Inside it I saw 4 rusted bangles( my grandmother's perhaps) , a ring( dnt know who's) , "Lt. J GHOSH" engraved in on an old metal rectangle, lots of yellow unreadable documents, a couple of almost half eaten leather bound covers which was further covered with polythene and having books in them ( he must have wanted to protect them )and a dusty and an eroded breast badge on which was written "Azad Hind" with an embedded animal which I could not decipher. Outside the locker were the remnants of his uniform and coats, lots of photographs which now were more paper than anything, old plastic files, yellowed bills, death certificates and several other objects very neatly stacked but not protected from the insects. Looking at all these, for the first time I felt a sense of awe about the man that was once Lieutenant Jogeshwar Ghosh of the INA.
I unlocked the 4 locks at the outer metal gate which had been put up to replace the wooden door when my grandfather had died.Then i went through the musty smelling alley that lead to the front door of the house.The path was covered with fallen leaves, empty plastic pouches,moss and of course cobwebs.When I reached the wooden front door i found it smeared with dust and in the dust i found a gigantic heart and inside it lay the words "SUDIPTO and SUMITA forever". Reading it i remembered the caretaker's words "Sahib, people climb the walls and go inside. Who knows what they do". Back then I had felt scared about it and this re-doubled my efforts to complete the litigation and secure the place for myself. But now I found it amusing. I remembered that when I was in college I used to do the same on the dust smeared car windows. I remembered holding Srijeeta and writing with my index finger " LOVE YOU FOREVER".
As I climbed the stairs all my past came back. My father while dying had held me close and asked me to get this house.I had'nt thought of it much then. A sick father in Belle Vue was more important and I had said "yes" almost instantly.Later his body was brought here and taken up to the room where my grandfather used to stay. That was the first time I had entered his room as a grown man. As I went up to that same room and unbolted it, a gust of stale air greeted me. It was the welcome of the prodigal son who after spending all his money returns back to his family.
As I worked my way through the stuffs in the room I chanced upon the key to my grandfather's old rusty Almirah. I had never seen what was inside it. I had'nt bothered much . Opening it I found an ecosystem which was in complete harmony until a few moments ago when the entire earth gave way. A swarm of spiders, insects, a few lizards and several other creeps rushed out. There inside the almirah I saw whatever remained of my grandfather's possessions. As is the nature of the prodigal son ,I went straight for the locker. Inside it I saw 4 rusted bangles( my grandmother's perhaps) , a ring( dnt know who's) , "Lt. J GHOSH" engraved in on an old metal rectangle, lots of yellow unreadable documents, a couple of almost half eaten leather bound covers which was further covered with polythene and having books in them ( he must have wanted to protect them )and a dusty and an eroded breast badge on which was written "Azad Hind" with an embedded animal which I could not decipher. Outside the locker were the remnants of his uniform and coats, lots of photographs which now were more paper than anything, old plastic files, yellowed bills, death certificates and several other objects very neatly stacked but not protected from the insects. Looking at all these, for the first time I felt a sense of awe about the man that was once Lieutenant Jogeshwar Ghosh of the INA.
WE WANT MORE IN THE SERIES!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteAwesome post bro.. loved every bit of it and specially the ECOSYSTEM part... beautifully described... :)
beautiful details.i felt like i was there...sniffing the dust, taking in the musty smell, listening to old bricks whispering tales.
ReplyDelete