*BANAGRAM MEMORIES*_(42)

[My second visit to Banagram Ashram.] This was the second time-the journey to Banagram. I and Chinu were on the train from Howrah to Memari. From there, we went to Paharhati by bus, then we took another bus from Paharhati to Jabuidanga. Getting down at Jabuidanga, we began to walk from Jabuidanga-stand to Banagram. [The road from Jabuidanga to (Via_ Bhandul) Samanti was about to be paved at that time. Because in a few days it could be reached at Bhandul by bus or rickshaw from Jabuidanga and from there to Banagram Ashram on foot.) We arrived at the Ashram in the evening just before the ‘Falgun Sankranti’. Then it was seen that a large oven was dug on the vacant paddy land, with a temporary tent over the head. [The building that is being used as Charibeti office or the school building now – it was all paddy land then. Probably these were the lands of Swapan khuro (Goswami) of Banagram. Later the lands were bought by the Ashram. Swapan Khuro was a good man, he took reasonable price for the land, he did not demand much. Swapan Khuro was also highly respected in the Ashram, as I saw . The main reason for this was that from the very beginning of Banagram Ashram (Paramananda Mission), Swapan Khuro was associated with all the good and bad situations of the Ashram. Murari Maharaj said that when he (Murari Maharaj) first came to Banagram, he thought that Swapan Khuro was a member of the house of N’kaka. They were always together about the Ashram. There could be another reason for that____ Once the then local CPM party called Trishanda (Swami Parameshwarananda Maharaj) for some reasons in the party meeting and started saying rude words. At that time no one dared to open his mouth against the local CPM leaders. However, Swapan Khuro stood up during the meeting and protested, even he took Trishanda away from there.] Murari Maharaj, some young villagers, Madan Banerjee of Durgapur and two or three of his assistants(one of them was Somenone whose title was Jha, who worked at Burra-bazar in Calcutta) were in the supervision of where the oven to be dug or where the hotchpotch to be poured. Some young people were in the charge of water supply, fuel supply (wood) etc. And when we went beneath the banyan tree, we saw that many women or mothers came from the village with their belongings(vegetable cutter, utensils etc.) from home. They were cutting vegetables together on some date mats under a big tarpaulin. One group was cutting just potatoes, another group was cutting just pumpkins etc. I saw a pile of cut pumpkin pieces touching the banyan branches. I had never seen so much vegetables chopped. Then, at least 20/25 people were cutting vegetables. In the evening, the women of the village went their homes, and there was a pile of cut vegetables under the banyan tree left. Lots of big brass bowls had been brought from the village people. Potatoes and pumpkins had to be washed in water and taken to the temporary kitchen, which was 40/50 meters away (almost _now where the school building is). Chinu and I with Nagen also got involved in that work. Nagen along with many others, already started washing and carrying the vegetables to the kitchen-place from Battala ( the area beneath the banyan tree)! At that time I was young (23/24 years old). And though I was not used to this kind of work, I took a lot of enthusiasms to do that work !! There was a reason to remember this fact clearly_ once when I was going to lift a brass bowl filled with sliced vegetables on Chinu’s head it slipped and the skin under my eyebrows to the tip of my nose was pealed. That ‘Tilak’-type (a mark of sandal-paste on the forehead or upon the bridge of the nose as a symbol of religious sect) cut had stained there for a long time and it faded away gradually. But I can remember that in spite of the incident, that day I didn’t stop my work. Then after eating at night, we threw our tired body on a date-mat in the empty space under the banyan tree. At the start of the next day(falgun sankranti), many people began to gather. There was huge arrangement of khichuri(hotchpotch) prasad with cooked vegetables for the incoming people ! A stage was set between the banyan tree and Murari Maharaj’s office, where local artists began to sing. Announcer was Nagen with microphone in hand ! The folk song would be started from evening and it would continue till about midnight. As far as I can remember, many folk artists would come to sing – because one artist would not be allowed to sing in much more numbers. Due to the fact that this programme was held every year, the villagers of Banagram or the adjoining villages got the experience of listening to the songs of almost all the famous and expensive Baul artists of West Bengal at that time. [Translated by Rajarsi Basak, a student of class Ten and corrected by Ramprasad, a former student of Banagram Ashram.]