Ma's first moments at the University of Calcutta in 1953:
In her words (obviously told in Bangla) :
My observations, interventions are included in brackets:
I wasn't fazed or anything by the fact that I had to go to the university. Or by Kolkata, as a matter of fact. I was from Shillong [with pride] and hence smart. In Shillong I studied with Garo, Khasi, Nepali, Assamese and Bengali girls. Everyone spoke English.
[ what a fascinating picture we get of Shillong which is pretty decrepit and forgotten, now. I went in the summer of 2006. Dull and faded with memories and nostalgia of past vibrancy and vitality. I have Ma's and mine too of course, relatives ( all Sylheti) living there. Sylhetis also have a particular accent that they speak which in a way seems to shut out outsiders to the community. But people of my mother's family? I have the greatest respect for them. Kind, gentle, moderate, well behaved, which my father's family very definitely are not. Descendants of Sri Chaitanya, is what they proudly claim. I don't really know about this. Moved to Shillong during the 1905 Partition of Bengal. My Sylheti Mama, Salil Mama, who was Ma's cousin brother, had given me away in marriage because I was getting married within the same Mukhopadhyay gotra. They always seemed a little ill at ease in my family in Kolkata. Wonder why? Oh, my father's family were so full of themselves. Intolerable, really. I think my Mama felt a little out of place].
Ma continues;
So I went alone to the university. Nobody would talk to me. The Bethune girls clustered together. The Brabourne girls clustered together. They shut out anyone who was not one of them.
Me: Did you feel like the outsider? Did you feel bad, Ma ?[ I felt bad to hear this because I know that like me she is full of a childish kind of enthusiasm. I would hate for her to feel slighted and unwanted. I would hate that].
Ma: No, not at all. I didn't care for people's opinions in those days. I ignored them too. And scoffed at them within [ new picture of my mother]. The guys all sat at the furthest end of the room. Girls and boys never talked. Dadi was there. Dadi later became professor at Shantiniketan [ more on this later]. [Dadi 'beard' was so called because he had a beard].
Ma; But all this changed when Dr Gopeshwar Pal came to teach us. Gopeshwar Babu had checked my scripts when I took my undergraduate examination at Guwahati.
Me: Really, Ma?? This is a revelation to me. So scripts from Guwahati travelled to Kolkata to be checked. Then your degree from Guwahati has great value?
[First in the university she was. I know I am showing off, but I feel this very important worldly detail needs to be incorporated out of respect for her achievements which she later destroyed by thinking so poorly of herself. This is when my father's family discounted her achievements or turned a blind eye to them and kept emphasizing all that she couldn't do--cook and sew and boil a perfect egg. I feel outraged when I remember all this]
Ma: Yes. Gopeshwar Babu said to the other students ( he knew my name, Bharati Bhattacharya, from the attendance register. In those days attendance was always called out. I don't know if it still is), 'ami lakkhya korechhi tomra or shonge katha bolo na. O tomader sakaler theke bhalo. Ami or khhata dekhechhi. ' This translates into, "Oh, so you guys don't talk to her? I've noticed that you don't . Let me tell you one thing. She is better than all of you. I have evaluated her scripts' .
[ In all these years that I have known my mother, I didn't know this very wonderful detail about her life. Today when I feel that I haven't given her enough attention or have drifted away from her and writing about her is one way of honouring her, I come to know this warm, radiant, invaluable moment of her life. Like a priceless ray of golden light , this moment is. Rich in validation ].
Ma: Gopeshwar Babu was very kind and affectionate to me. It made a world of difference.
In her words (obviously told in Bangla) :
My observations, interventions are included in brackets:
I wasn't fazed or anything by the fact that I had to go to the university. Or by Kolkata, as a matter of fact. I was from Shillong [with pride] and hence smart. In Shillong I studied with Garo, Khasi, Nepali, Assamese and Bengali girls. Everyone spoke English.
[ what a fascinating picture we get of Shillong which is pretty decrepit and forgotten, now. I went in the summer of 2006. Dull and faded with memories and nostalgia of past vibrancy and vitality. I have Ma's and mine too of course, relatives ( all Sylheti) living there. Sylhetis also have a particular accent that they speak which in a way seems to shut out outsiders to the community. But people of my mother's family? I have the greatest respect for them. Kind, gentle, moderate, well behaved, which my father's family very definitely are not. Descendants of Sri Chaitanya, is what they proudly claim. I don't really know about this. Moved to Shillong during the 1905 Partition of Bengal. My Sylheti Mama, Salil Mama, who was Ma's cousin brother, had given me away in marriage because I was getting married within the same Mukhopadhyay gotra. They always seemed a little ill at ease in my family in Kolkata. Wonder why? Oh, my father's family were so full of themselves. Intolerable, really. I think my Mama felt a little out of place].
Ma continues;
So I went alone to the university. Nobody would talk to me. The Bethune girls clustered together. The Brabourne girls clustered together. They shut out anyone who was not one of them.
Me: Did you feel like the outsider? Did you feel bad, Ma ?[ I felt bad to hear this because I know that like me she is full of a childish kind of enthusiasm. I would hate for her to feel slighted and unwanted. I would hate that].
Ma: No, not at all. I didn't care for people's opinions in those days. I ignored them too. And scoffed at them within [ new picture of my mother]. The guys all sat at the furthest end of the room. Girls and boys never talked. Dadi was there. Dadi later became professor at Shantiniketan [ more on this later]. [Dadi 'beard' was so called because he had a beard].
Ma; But all this changed when Dr Gopeshwar Pal came to teach us. Gopeshwar Babu had checked my scripts when I took my undergraduate examination at Guwahati.
Me: Really, Ma?? This is a revelation to me. So scripts from Guwahati travelled to Kolkata to be checked. Then your degree from Guwahati has great value?
[First in the university she was. I know I am showing off, but I feel this very important worldly detail needs to be incorporated out of respect for her achievements which she later destroyed by thinking so poorly of herself. This is when my father's family discounted her achievements or turned a blind eye to them and kept emphasizing all that she couldn't do--cook and sew and boil a perfect egg. I feel outraged when I remember all this]
Ma: Yes. Gopeshwar Babu said to the other students ( he knew my name, Bharati Bhattacharya, from the attendance register. In those days attendance was always called out. I don't know if it still is), 'ami lakkhya korechhi tomra or shonge katha bolo na. O tomader sakaler theke bhalo. Ami or khhata dekhechhi. ' This translates into, "Oh, so you guys don't talk to her? I've noticed that you don't . Let me tell you one thing. She is better than all of you. I have evaluated her scripts' .
[ In all these years that I have known my mother, I didn't know this very wonderful detail about her life. Today when I feel that I haven't given her enough attention or have drifted away from her and writing about her is one way of honouring her, I come to know this warm, radiant, invaluable moment of her life. Like a priceless ray of golden light , this moment is. Rich in validation ].
Ma: Gopeshwar Babu was very kind and affectionate to me. It made a world of difference.
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