Ms M. Das had been brought up in Bowbazar, a bustling area of Kolkata, erstwhile Calcutta. So, life brought her way quite a few surprises when she married an officer from the Indian Airforce, who hailed from Nirakarpur, a remote village in Khardah district. Her sister accompanied her on her first trip to her husband’s ancestral home in Nirakarpur. She had been advised by her mother-in-law to cover her head till the nose and she had obediently done so. After getting down from the bus, both the sisters boarded a rickshaw which was entirely covered with a blanket, so that no passer-by could see them. The seemingly never-ending ride finally ended when the blanket was suddenly removed. One of her sisters-in-law, who came to receive them, helped her get down from the rickshaw. “It was extremely difficult for me to move an inch with that ghunghat (head cover) and I could not see anyone. That’s how I met my extended in-laws. And it was there that I first tasted ’Chalta’ (Elephant apple), a sapling of which, brought from there aeons ago, has grown into a tree which still thrives in my garden, reminding me of that time.
After 15 days, Ms Das set off with her husband for her very first plane journey. They were to go to Jorhat from Dumdum airport. She was rather excited to go to an unknown place with a not-so-known person. When they landed in Jorhat, she found that her husband’s scooter was parked at the airport. Much to her surprise, her husband tied all their belongings to the scooter, and with her as the pillion rider, started for their home. Her husband took her first to a dairy farm, home to around 45 cows, each in a separate shed, that were well-lit and properly maintained. He started calling them by their names and introduced her to them. The cows had unique and elaborate names like ‘Aradhana’, ‘Kadambini’, ‘Mousumi’ and so on. Ms Das was shocked and bewildered. She could not imagine why she was standing in a dairy farm getting introduced to cows when her parents had said that her husband was an Airforce pilot!
Soon, however, she met some airmen, who saluted them. Her husband in turn asked whether the cows had been given their injections on time, during his absence. He even injected one of the cows leaving Ms Das completely flummoxed and very homesick as she remembered her very different life in her Bowbazar home. After spending some time there, they went to a house owned by some of her husband’s colleagues, who had specially reserved a room for them.
She later came to know that the dairy farm had been set up to provide nourishment to the airmen’s children. Her husband had been given the responsibility of looking after the farm, as he had a PhD in Agriculture and he diligently managed all the responsibilities of his airfield.
Ms Das still cherishes the eventful early years of her married life. The bike, which had taken her from the airport to the farm, now stands in her garden as a memento of her husband

Our member, Ms G. Mitra Ghosh, writes about an amazing incident that happened during her trip to Varanasi, 25 years ago. About 25 years back, we visited one of the holiest and oldest cities of India, Varanasi. As it is mainly a temple city, our main purpose was to visit the different temples. After visiting the Kashi Vishwanath temple and some of the other temples, we went to the Annapurna temple, one of the most beautiful temples in Varanasi. The deity here is named Annapurna Devi, who is said to be an incarnation of Goddess Parvati and is worshipped as the provider of food. The gorgeous idol was seated on a silver throne.
I, like the other devotees, offered puja and was extremely happy and satisfied with the way I got a good darshan of Goddess Annapurna. Then, suddenly, a niggling question began to bother me—’I have offered puja with full devotion and purity, but how could I know that the Goddess had accepted my puja?’ Almost immediately, a thought came to me—‘If some unknown person offers me something in the temple, I will think that the Goddess has accepted my offerings.’ I decided to wait there. I waited for quite some time, but nothing happened. Disappointed, I decided to leave.
However, the moment I turned to leave, I felt a touch on my shoulder. I turned around to find a very fair, wide-eyed old lady smiling at me. She took out a guava from her silk bag and said, “I am fasting the whole day today. I want you to have this guava.” I told her, “But I did not fast today, how can I take it?” She said, “So what? You can still have it.” She asked my name and told me that she lived in Varanasi. When I tried to bend and touch her feet, she said that I should not touch her feet inside the temple. Then, she went off with a smile and almost immediately got lost in the crowd. I looked and looked for her, but could not find her in the crowd. With the belief that the guava was a god-sent gift, I kept it with me for quite a long time. I felt at peace that my offering had been accepted by the Goddess. Many years have passed and though I have been to many other places, this incident is still fresh in my mind and whenever I recall it, I feel overwhelmed.