Travellogue

The same evening we went to look for the roots of Nagendranath Sen  Sharma who once lived in Kirtipasha , a small village near Jhalokathi, famous for its guavas and the house of Kabi Jeebonanando Das.  All we knew was the name of the person and that the house had a lichi tree!!! not enough at all but we ventured out with confidence oozing out after the morning success.  But unfortunately we were not able to locate the house. The place Kirtipasha was quite developed and even had a nursing college under construction. We were redirected to the house of the zaminders which was in ruins. We walked through it and tried to rebuild stories of the family who lived there. We bid farewell to Hasan Bhai who walked with us in our search and helped us out. The same evening as i was using the gym at the club I came across this professor of history at B M College. He was intrigued as no lady there uses the gym. Talks revealed as to how the...

We moved out of B M College and moved towards Goila. Goila , like Barisal is full of rivers and canals. It is a village around an hours drive from Barisal. THe roads started becoming more picturesque. The different shades of green caught my fancy. We crossed the 'Jora Bridge' on two rivers side by side and then took a left turn to go to the village. At the village market we asked a few people about where the houses would be. We were basically looking for Bankim Dasgupta's house, Kalupara Sen er bari, Dui Sen er Bari and Bakshi Bari. We were also looking for the Manasa Mandir where Bijoy Gupta had written the famous Manasa Mangal which is still read widely by a lot of Bengalis. Now here came the catch. My Boudima had told me a lot of stories about her mamabari, Bankim Das Gupta's house. She also said that while they were leaving the country the huge amount of money from the chest was buried somewhere within the premises of the house. I have heard this from a...

1st April and 2nd April...... The previous evening Didi and I spent a lot of time on the deck of the steamer looking at the water pass by and the distant lights.  We were on river Buriganga and would hit Padma soon. Post that it would be Meghna and then Kirtankhola. The cool breeze and the feeling of being in the middle of no where got both us thinking about our childhood. To add here, since we have both seen death very closely life excites us and we live every bit of it.  We reached the steamer ghat at Barisal at 4 am but left the launch on around 7 am. This river Kirtankhola is much cleaner than Buriganga. Hasan Bhai, our driver for the day, was waiting for us. We checked into Barisal Club, a decent and simple place and were warmly welcomed by the staff with a hearty breakfast. It was going to be a long day and so we got ready fast. Our first destination was B M School. This was where my mamas studied. They were scholars of that time. Infact my Mejomama stood first...