GOILA ...... OUR SOIL

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 amma, my grandmother , also. I was , of course, not looking for the money ☺but was hopeful I could find some..........

Our first stop was the Manasa Mandir. The people in the village had gathered for the Puja. Someone at the market had told us that the priest would be able to tell us where the houses we were looking for were.

The priest was busy with the proceedings of the puja but we were able to get  a rough idea of the location of the houses from his brother. The first search was for Bakshi Bari, ma's original house. The roads of Goila are so narrow that cars can't travel and even if they do one has to move to the edge of the road to let another rickshaw pass through.

The greenery was infectious  Finally we stopped the car at a place and decided to continue on foot. Out first house to be located was Bakshi Bari. No one could give us an idea till i met this young girl who was keen to help. 

She took me to the eldest lady in that area who told me where the house was. She even gave me a phone number of the neighbour. But the house was taken over by one Jehangir who was not a very good man, she added. 

It was while returning from her place that i met the son of Kajal Sengupta , also from Kalupara Sen er bari. So he was my cousin !!! He took us home to meet his parents. This family also lived in the same premises of Kalu para Sen er Bari which had become the health centre , they said. But they soon had to move and had set up the current place. The lady was only very eager to make something for us. They were not very well off but the feelings were genuine.

  

The next stop was Dui Sen er bari, the ancestral home of my cousin's in laws. Again this house has been taken over by a local person who has broken the old house and rebuilt a new one. 

Amma's house , Bankim Chandra Dasgupta's house has been broken down and the place has become a beetle nut tree garden. So there went our hopes of getting the money which was buried there !!!

Kalu para Sen er bari had turned into the health centre. The original structure was broken down. What remained was the paved ghats of the pond. As i walked in there i felt a strange sense of belongingness for the place. This place, which was once my own, was something i could not even claim. i stood there for sometime and tried imagining my grandma and grandpa living there and my baba and boudima playing.......

Has the partition done us any good? The answer was waiting for me .....
We returned to Barisal not before buying mishti from Goila... desh er mishti... taste will be different......