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.
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.
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/
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