my childhood

I was born in Asansol,district Burdwan in the state of West Bengal. When I was four year old we moved to Kurseong in the Dist of Darjeeling. My father was govt. officer and had a transferable job. He loved mountains,so he opted for this posting.Kurseong was a beautiful little town in the lap of Himalayan range. Soon after we moved in, an old devoted bengali lady known as Sudhadi, was trying to open a school for little bengali boys. Since there were very few Bengali families in the town ,she went to door to door to find student for her school. Unable to refuse her, my mother agreed to send me to her school. School was located very close to our house ,my transportation to and from the school was on the lap of our servant.
We were approx six to eight student in our class. We were asked to pick up cut out of different bengali alphabets from a box ,if we do it correctly, we will get a candy as a prize. In the noon time I used fall sleep.Sudhadi will very gently carry me to her very clean and well decorated room, she will place me in the center of her soft white bed. Even today if I close my eye I can view that white soft bed.

I was chubby,local people used call me mote babu(fat boy).Our next door neighbour had two young girls,they loved to play ,with me, I was their toy doll.They used to dress me like a little girl with make up, I used to enjoy all there attention.

My brother and sister used go to junior school,which was quite far from our house, so after two year we moved to house close to their school ,and I also got admitted to their school.

Our house was very beautiful,located on a mountain surrounded by tea garden,form our veranda we had a nice view of balasun river and Kanchenjunga mountain range. Owner of our house was a retired military major.We used share the house with him, he was a plant lover, we had a beautiful garden around our house.We had a wind rooster on our roof ,that was how people will find our house.There were only few bengali families in Kurseong those days. Durga puja was celebrated with very little enthusiasm. Mom used to tell us stories about how big way puja is done in Asansol/Kolkata.We used to go to a T.B. Sanatorium to see Durga puja, it was high in the a hill, we have to climb lots of stares. Each year they had same decoration, images will seat in between the cotton mountain, people will say those are used cotton of the patients. I used to think if they give me a chance I can do the decoration different ways.The people over there had a very lonely life, families used to drop them off when they got the disease tuberculosis, then after recovery many times family will not come to take them back ,so these cured patients will stay at that place as a volunteer workers and they are the one who used to organize the puja. This is only time outside people will come to visit them. They were very courteous always smiling with some strange kind of sadness underneath. They used give us 'prosad' of cut fruits from God's offering, we will take them, but we knew we are not supposed to eat them. Everyone will come out of the building and through them in a jungle, which create a big pile. I remember one time I was throwing them in the jungle and turned an saw the smiling sad face of the person who gave that to us few minutes ago.People who handled the prosad are cured tuberculosis patient but no body believed them.

a place for pujas

Since majority people of our community lived in Queens. Durga puja celebration moved from Manhattan to Queens.The problem was to find a hall. All schools has a auditoriam and halls,so very ideal for pujas. But the problem was they not supposed to use for any religious purpose,that was the state law. So we changed the name , we told them we want the hall to celebrate our 'Autum Festival'. School usually encourages diverse ethinic activity, so now they agreed to let us rent the place. But there was problem. They had a complain we don't clean the place properly after our use , they were not happy with our cleaning job. Our smelly food was a factor.So after few times they declined our request to rent the hall. And we moved to another school, we were concerned very soon we will run out of available schools.. So we promised ourself we will more careful this time, but we failed again in our cleanliness. Some people were very creative in finding a new hall each time we needed.

There was another problem. It is said , 'if there are two bengalis , there will be a club, if there four, there will be a another club.' As much as we loved to meet our own people in these social gatherings in the name of Durga puja etc. Soon we developed disliking among ourselves also. One year on the second day of Durga puja , someone told the school authority, what we are doing is not a 'Autum Festival', its a religious event. So in the middle of the puja we got a notice from school authority, immediately we have to leave the place, those days we were little fearful to fight with authority forcefully. And we moved to someone's garage to complete our puja rituals.

To find a place to practice our religious and social activities was a problem for all Indian/Asian communities. A group of gujratis came for our rescue, they saw the opartunity. Few of them together bought a abondoned pottato storage place, did some renovation to make a hall, and named it 'Gujrati Samaj building'. This solved our problem. This was a tremendous service to our community.

Since then for years this place became a permanent address for celebration of many events , by our Indian community.

coming to America

Few months after I reached to America, I was invited to go to a meeting of Bengali community. Name of the person who hosting the meeting is Jahar Bhattacharya, agenda how to build a community center/temple for bengali in New York. I was very surprised to see so many Bengali in one room. Before this I had no idea that so many Bengali lived in New York. Subsequently I saw more Bengali when I went to Durga puja celebration at Manhattan.This helped me a lot to get over the homesickness I was suffering from since I left Kolkata.

Soon after my arrival to New York I was dying to see Manhattan . I heard so many stories about the place. I wanted to visit the place called Times Square.
So with lots of instructions and caution notes from my well wishers one day I took no. 7 subway to Manhattan.The subway station I felt very heartless, so much steel and metallic noises I didn't like. Peoples were not very friendly either.Manhattan really took my breath out . So many tall building so close to each other I never seen before. I felt very small. It took me a while to get used to this tall buildings, in times Square I saw those adult stores. My ears got red ,I felt nervous,scared if some one may see me near this place. Knowing very well all people I know lives on the other side of the world.
 

When I left for America from Dumdum airport(now they call it Netaji Subhash Ch. Bose international airport) ,that was my first plane ride. I was so excited,fortunately got a window seat. Felt sad as my city got gradually small then disappeared under the clouds. In Delhi I have change plan ,this time it was bigger plane Boeing 735. Again I got a window seat . I was tired fell sleep then with a jerking suddenly I woke up. It was early morning. Outside view was so amazing I was thrilled. Our plane is gliding over layers of pink clouds. Again i felt sadness I wanted my mom,dad,my brother, sisters to share this beauty with me.