Post  3 on my mother's life

Going back to her Economics teacher, Bibhuti Babu. He was a short man with a paunch. He would sometimes be late for class. He used to teach part-time in other colleges, too. And he would come walking.
So the girls would hang out in a common room kind of place in the college and one of the tallest girls in the class had been apportioned the duty of being on the lookout for Bibhuti Babu. When she spotted him coming, she would say, 'Bibhuti Babu ashchhen'. Then there would be a ritual chorus, 'Ke ashe/Bibhuti ashe/Bibhuti r aage ke ashe/Bhundi ashe'. This literally translates into, 'Who comes?/Bibhuti comes/Who comes before Bibhuti?/His paunch comes before Bibhuti.'

I asked Ma, 'How come you went into Philosophy?'

Ma: Well, I liked abstract thinking. I never read fiction.

Me: So you read a lot?

Ma: Yes

Me: Where did you get books in those days? I want specific details Ma. That will make this narrative rich and make it come historically alive. It is the specific context that brings a specific colour and shade to the narrative.
Do you remember the names of any of the books you read?

Ma: Oh, I never read stories. I liked serious writing.
Me; But Ma, around you most people were not interested in reading, isn't that so? At least the women around you? Your mother?
Your mother was only 16 years older to you. She was interested in cooking and needlework. So was there anything that you guys shared?

Ma; Not really.

Me: So you and your mother didn't communicate much did you? You were like equals? You were your Dad's daughter, who encouraged you in all your academic interests?

Ma: Yes, I owe all my academic excellence to my father. He enouraged everything. He encouraged inquiry, he encouraged independence of the mind, he did not mind 'difference'.

Me: So you were the odd one out in your family?

Ma: Yes.

[I should have asked her if she felt any pride/arrogance in being different. I will tomorrow. I think she did. I am positive]

She told me that Rilbong, where her father's joint family lived, had a good library. They had a separate establishment because her mother had been very beauty loving, aesthetic, neat and systematic and somehow those aspects were missing in the joint family which was always crowded with relatives. If someone wanted to do a job interview they came and stayed. I think people from Sylhet still came and certainly from other parts of Assam. Shillong was then the capital of Assam and certainly more vibrant, busy and in-demand than other places like Dibrugarh....

I remember my mother telling me that once someone laid out their clothes on one of the beds of the house before going to take a shower. He came back to find that someone else had worn them and already left the house!!