The idea came to me after reading a book from Deb
Sahitya Kutir. During the late 60's and early 70's after the success of
Sukhalata Rao and Satyajit Ray's Shandesh, other kids books and stories were
being written. Some of those stories were originals …..and some were
translations.
My Dida (Grandmother) was my source of all stories
before I even started to read. On
Sunday mornings my Maa and I used
to go to my Dida's house near Park Circus. We used to hop on to the No. 10 bus
from Ballygunj station. The advantage was I could go sit in the front seat on
the double decker. Even in the summer heat of Kolkata, it allowed me to feel
the breeze as the bus waddled through Gariahat, Singhi House, The Cricket
ground next to Gurusaday Dutta Road, The Skating Rink, Modern High, the Circle
to Park Circus, Lady Brabourne College to my Dida's house near Linton Street.
Off I jumped from the bus with my Maa as she held my hands to cross the road
...but before I reached the opposite pavement, I used to run to my Dida's home
to meet my Mamas and Dida. It was my abode for love.
Our home in Ballygunj was more conservative.... we
were expected to put studies first, but my Baba also believed in sports. So
unlike my older cousins, I got the freedom to play cricket and football.
However my uncles were very strict and routine was given precedence over fun. I
remember my uncle's rooms never had even a radio and listening to Bibidh
Bharati was almost criminal. That didnt mean we cousins did not have fun
sometimes. We played Dark room sometimes especially when our cousins from
Burdwan visited or during the weddings. But it was not a free and open
environment. So every Sunday was special.
My Dida's family had escaped from Dhaka in 1946-47
with my Maa and Mashi (Aunt) dressed as men to avoid getting entrapped in the
riots. They stayed at my Dida's elder sister's home until my Grandfather was
able to escape with one of my Mamas ….but that is a different story. Finally my
Dida was able to get a flat near Linton street. Since my Grandfather could not
work anymore, the burden of educating the younger brothers and sisters came
upon my Maa. She found a tuition while she was doing her BA and was able to
contribute to her family.
Every Sunday we had lunch at my Dida's home. I was fascinated by
the large kaNsha plates where my Dida used to serve warm rice in a upturned
bowl. Then as they poured the dal with alu bhaja, my Mama (who had me share
from his big plate) used to dig tunnels in that warm rice hillock....it just
tasted heavenly. After lunch was story and nap time and my Dida used to tell me
stories of all the classics. From Three Musketeers to Count of Monte Cristo, I
heard all of these classics first from my Dida. In the evening my Baba used to
come to pick us up after chaa and jolkhabar.
So naturally reading story books naturally became a
habit. Every Pujo my Maa used to buy me the big fat books and those became my
haven. One day I read about how the steam locomotive was built. Sometime before
that I had been fascinated by the airplane and always played with a toy
airplane. When I read about the Steam locomotive, my imagination ran wild. I
imagined our Tea kettle in the kitchen being able to supply steam when heated
by a oil lamp I had seen in a put put boat. I said to myself ….I can do this.
So one day I built up the guts to go sell my idea to
my Mom. She asked me how I would build the body of this “engine”. By this time
my imaginative spirit was running amok. I told her I would build the body out
of cardboard and shape it like a car. She even offered me the black kettle from
her kitchen.
So she gave me a budget of Rs 10. and we started going
from shop to shop in Gariahat market. The kite shops had the glue but no
card-board....only tissue paper. Finally we found a photo framing shop that had
hard but flexible card-boards and sold us six sheets.
I got the kettle from my mom and wanted to build this
steam generator. I had of course no idea of the drive train and transmission
…..so my mom said first build the body.
So I started building the body in the shape of a
car.....Maa made me additional glue with flour and mashed rice. I put the whole
shape in our roof and pasted everything together. The car was about 4 feet wide
and 2 feet high.....and I left it to dry in the sun.
I woke up in the evening after my afternoon nap and to
my dismay found that the card-boards had all fallen apart. The stress from
bending the card-boards was too high for the glue to keep them stuck together.
The whole experiment was a colossal disaster.
To my surprise my Mom appreciated what I had tried to
do. It was my first lesson where I learnt to dream big and that failure is
acceptable.
The incident made a difference on how encouragement
from supporting parents could set their children to try new experiments, learn
from it and apply to their next endeavors. For me this single incident removed
my fear of failure.....of course I needed to be careful not to waste
money...but it gave me immense confidence throughout my school life to build
new things. Today I am thinking, did my Dida and her family's hardships, my
Mom's entrepreneurship have anything to do with her encouragement? Today I see
many parents who do not want to face failure in their kids. I hope more parents
teach their kids to imagine big......it certainly made me do bigger and better
experiments in my life....
[ARUP GUPTA]
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