Childhood -I

In the rest of my narration, I shall address Shri Sarit Kumar Sen as Baba (Father).

After Baba lost his Mother, his Maternal Grandfather, Shri Jnanendranath Ray, a Lawyer by profession, expressed his desire to my Grandfather, Shri Ajit Kumar Sen, that he along with his widowed sister-in-law and son Shri Prashant Kumar Ray would take care of his grandson.

Baba would spend the entire day with Didi, his Grandaunt and he would anxiously wait for his Grandfather and Uncle to return home in the evening. When Grandfather would return home from work, Baba would rush into his Grandfather's office room and clamber up on the work desk.

Often Grandfather would return home with a client from the court, or he would find a client already waiting for him in the office room. At that very moment Baba, his grandchild, in sheer excitement, would rush into his office to greet him. In the heat of legal discussions, occasionally, Grandfather would snub the child to remain silent.

Baba, as his Grandfather's precious child, was not used to chiding and rebukes from him. Whenever his Grandfather would snub him he would clamber under his Grandfather's work desk and sulk there until his Grandfather would embrace and cuddle him.

Every evening, toddler Baba's Nurse(Care Giver) would take Baba for a ride in a pram. Pram rides fascinated Baba so much that he was loath to give it up and go for evening walks in nearby parks. During one such ride, he heard the whistle of a steam engine for the first time. He wanted to see the steam engine and his Nurse assured him of a visit to the train the following evening only if Baba would walk up to the railway station.

After a long and anxious wait, "the evening" finally arrived and Baba walked briskly along with his Nurse to the railway station. He saw the train and people unloading garbage from the garbage trucks into the train's open wagons. The stench of the garbage was not too strong to deter Baba's curiosity about the steam engine. It's thunderous sound, with white smoke belching out of a nozzle on top of the engine; awestruck Baba approached the loco driver and asked him to blow its whistle. The amused loco pilot helped Baba into the engine to satiate his curiosity and helped him blow the coal engine's whistle.

During one such evening walks Baba saw a strange sight. He saw something tied in a wet white muslin cloth pressed between two large stone slabs. When he took a close look at the bundle, he saw white watery fluid ooze out of it making a faint moaning sound. Baba asked his Nurse what it was; to which his Nurse replied: "Baba, it is Chhana." (Chhana is Bengali of Cottage Cheese and in Bengali, young one of any animal is also called "Chhana") Young Baba rushed to the bundled crying out, asking the people to help the "Chhana" (young one of an animal) being squeezed to death between two stone slabs!

There was a sweetmeat shop close to the park where Baba used to go for the evening walk. He would see the display of delicious sweets. One evening he asked his Grandfather (Dadi) for money to buy sweets from the shop. Next evening Dadi gave money to the Nurse for the sweets. After spending a long time gazing at the display, he finally bought a Sandesh (Bengali sweet made from cottage cheese).

Baba stepped out of the sweetmeat shop with the sweet in his hand. Before he could savour the sweet a kite swooped down clawing the sweet out of his hand and perched on the rooftop of a nearby building crying out triumphantly at its gain.

Baba used to sit in front of the kitchen and taste each and every dish the cook would prepare for the day. Those deliciously cherishable moments.

Additional Information about Dhapa:

 The Calcutta Municipal Railway (Dhappa Train): https://wiki.fibis.org/w/Calcutta_Municipal_Railway

About Dhapa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhapa,_India

Dhapa In News:


https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/kolkata-chokes-as-dhapa-fire-rages-unchecked-for-five-years/articleshow/67402725.cms

https://swachhindia.ndtv.com/kolkatas-landfill-crisis-the-citys-dependency-on-the-sole-landfill-of-dhapa-may-soon-result-in-an-unresolvable-crisis-11618/

The Beginning

This blog is dedicated to my Father, Shri Sarit Kumar Sen. He was a self-taught artist but did not make it his profession. He was blessed with vivid memory which helped him recall his life's experience in the form of people, beings, events and incidents that became the subject of his anecdotal memory sketches and paintings.
In this sketch, Shri Sarit Kumar Sen has depicted his childhood standing face-to-face with himself after a remarkable unique experience of his life's journey.

This blog will present his sketches and paintings in the form of his pictorial biography. the blog posts will present his life's vignettes, an integral part of his life's journey.

No. 106 Parsee Bagan Lane, Calcutta. West Bengal, Shri Sarit Kumar Sen's birthplace.

Shri Sarit Kumar Sen's cousin brother and role model, Shri Shishir Ray was a highly skilled amateur photographer. After their wedding, when my parents, Shri Sarit Sen and Smt. Sharmila Sen visited Shri Shishir Ray he blessed my Mother and said he would gift her with something that no one else could. He then presented her with the first photograph he had clicked of his baby cousin brother, Shri Sarit Kumar Sen.

A rare photograph from Shri Prashant Kumar Ray's invaluable collection of photographs. He photographed his sister, Smt. Sailabala Sen with her son, Shri Sarit Kumar Sen. Smt. Sailabala Sen had nursed her husband, Shri Ajit Kumar Sen back to health, saving him from Typhoid, that was then a malicious disease. Unfortunately, she contracted Typhoid and succumbed to it after putting a brave fight. Shri Sarit  Kumar Sen was a year and a half old when he lost his Mother.

 The mother-figure in child Sarit Kumar Sen's life was his widowed Grand Aunt whom he called "Didi".

Didi was a pious person. She religiously lived an austere life of a widow and introduced her grand nephew to the vegetarian Bengali cuisine.

Shri Sarit Kumar Sen on his first birthday.