Durga Puja At 41, Deblane

Green: The Different Aspects of Mother Nature & Her Nourishing Qualities :

Barda (Dr.Debesh Bhattacharyya), A Brother Who Loved One & All :

After Sejda's tragic demise in 1997, not even the most ardent well-wisher of late J. C. Bhattacharyya's family could have envisaged The Pujas taking place at 41, Deblane till 2023! Sejda was the most pious of the offspring of our parents. The only one who could have given Sejda a run for the money, so far as the most pious of the children of J. C. Bhattacharyya's are concerned, could be Bardi. 

His death in August 1997 must have been a cruel blow to Ma, his family and all his siblings. Sejda was a pragmatic man. He ensured the continuity of The Pujas at Deblane by remarking years before his death "Samsare keuee apariharjjyo noi." No one is indispensable in this world. Sejda or no Sejda; Barda, Mejda, Bardi, Mejdi, Mejda, Chhoto Da, Khokon Da - all these siblings have been gone for long. But The Pujas at 41 have been going on and go on The Pujas must. 

A brother, who played a heroic role in ensuring The Annual Event at 41, was none other than our late Barda. 

I was having lunch with Satyajit, my bro-in-law ( sister-in-law's husband) one day when he surprised me with a well-thought-out remark :

"Dada, next life a ami jeno chhoto chhele hoye janmate pari… " I want to be reborn as the youngest member of my family in my next. The ruthlessness, and vehemence behind the apparently innocuous remark, had me thinking. For your information, I happen to be the youngest of my late Baba's family. When Satyajit remarked like that I knew then that being the eldest child of the family is never easy.

Satyajit was lucky in one respect at least. He had just one younger brother! 

Barda will always remain a great bro for me. I was quite fond of reminding him of the line I used for him when in the olden, golden days he was videoing the inhabitants of 41.

"Proud to have a brother like you." Many moons must have appeared across the vast horizon since that blessed afternoon but my opinion about Barda hasn't changed. 

I was sure of one thing about him all through - that he loved the people of 41. I have seen him spending time with a nephew that most people wouldn't bother much about. 

He was the eldest son and he always acted as the eldest. Let me give you a couple of examples about how fair Barda was. 

One afternoon, I was in bed in Ma's room while Barda was reclining in Baba's easy chair. A Sister-in-law turned up right then. 

"Arey ------na, Ki khabor balo. Amar upor abhiman kore to asai bondho kore diyechho. (How goes the world, my sister? You've stopped visiting Deblane due to your annoyance with me.)

The Sister-in-law in question countered him in reply:

"Apnar mathai esob ke dhokachchhey, Barda?"

Who is putting all these ideas in your head, Barda? 

A Sister-in-law has every right to counter her elder bro-in-law in that manner. There was a problem though. As I was the only one staying with Barda at Baguihati at that time, I thought that my Sister-in-law was indirectly pointing a finger at me. 

Byash! That led to a bitter scene. Long after the situation was brought under control, while I was shedding crocodile tears still lying in bed, Barda got back to the room. I had to know him better if I was expecting his sympathy. He admonished me for quarrelling with the Sister-in-law the way I did it. He always acted fair, no matter what others might think about him.

The second incident shows his true colours even better. There was an issue going on regarding where the widow and the only child of a brother should stay at 41. The diseased bro, for your info, was everyone's favourite. 

As the eldest son, Barda gave first preference to this widowed Sister-in-law before talking to anyone else. He made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that she would have the final say regarding where she wanted to stay in the house in her husband's absence. 

The day before his departure for Australia, he waited for the wife of his dear, diseased brother to turn up till it was humanly possible for someone of his stature, to wait. 

When there was no sign or response from the widowed sister-in-law, he asked Somesh Da to bring the cot from Ma's room down to what has become our room since then. 

What a brother! If I ever had an eldest son, I'd have expected him to be this fair in his dealings with one and all. 

Despite Barda's good intentions, most people tried to besmear him and belittle his love for all. If he bought a radio for someone in 41, all the way from Australia, it had to be a second-hand one. When he started bringing sealed gifts from Bankok or other places on the way to Kolkata, there had to be some flaws even in those first-hand purchases! 

It's human nature, I guess. We rarely see any goodness in others!

I can go on writing about Barda page after page. The best thing about him was the fact that he was completely self-made. Having been born and bred in a family like my late Baba's, he realized the value of money from early on. I have my doubt, despite what Mejdi told me once about having lent Barda some money when he was leaving for England for the first time, that Barda could have borrowed a penny from anyone. And to think that he owned 3 houses in Australia! 

After Ma's death in 2006, Barda attended every single Puja at 41 till he became physically incapacitated. He was not young any more, mind you, and Australia is not some hours' journey from Calcutta. There were not many people to welcome him. He stayed in the flat he had purchased on the fifth floor of a house in Baguihati.

One night when we were getting back to his Nilanjana Apartment in Baguihati, short-sighted that he was, he nearly fell into the drain by the side of the road. But he got up as usual the next morning and having asked me to fetch a cab, headed home to 41 to attend the Puja! And no one was any wiser about the accident.

When he started staying at Mejdi's, the brother-sister duo would arrive at 41 by 11 am at the latest and punctual to a T, Barda would start pestering Mejdi to get back to her Salt Lake residence as soon as the clock struck 6 in the evening, secure in the knowledge that another day of The Pujas had passed off without a hitch. 

His own people criticised him and forgot about distant relatives but being the eldest, he learnt to put up with all those allegations and criticisms. 

I am sure that in the years to come, people, who have been blaming him needlessly, will have learnt their lessons and take a 'rethink' about one of the most jovial, friendly characters of 41.

I have had the good fortune of coming across a lot of quality people through Barda, i.e, Mr Ramgopal Agarwal, who became the Chairman of the World Bank; Dr Rudra Prasad Sengupta, the English Professor cum Theatre personality; Adhir Bagchi, the noted singer and musician; Dwijen Da, a close Presidensian friend; the strikingly good-looking lady with a First Class Degree in Economics from the Calcutta University, who kept visiting Barda at Baguihati so that Barda would recommend her for a P. Hd course in Economics in the Sidney University, just to name a few. All these people thought highly of Barda.

Even the lowest of the Low were not treated any differently by Barda. This was a unique characteristic considering that he was born in a pacca, Hindu, brahmin family. 

On the eve of This Puja, I want him to know, wherever he might be, that his presence is sorely missed at 41.

May The Almighty bless others with a brother like Barda. I am happy that I could tell him in that black-and-white video :

"Proud to have a brother like you, Barda."

God bless this one-in-a-million brother of mine wherever his soul might be.