One of our members, Ms Sukla Gupta, describes to Mousumi Gupta how the values her upbringing in Tagore’s abode, Santiniketan, imbibed in her helped her cope with the challenges ...
One of our members, Ms Sukla Gupta, describes to Mousumi Gupta how the values her upbringing in Tagore’s abode, Santiniketan, imbibed in her helped her cope with the challenges in life.
Ms Sukla Gupta was brought up in Santiniketan, in fact, in Sriniketan in the 1930s and 1940s.
“My father was first posted there with the agricultural development authority in 1932. But for some reason, he left the place and went on to work in some other city. He came back to Santiniketan in 1936 on a call from Rabindranath Tagore, who wanted him to develop the area,” said Ms Gupta. It was from then that the family started to live in Sriniketan, the twin city of Santiniketan.
“The area at that time was almost barren with very less rainfall and agriculture. The place started to develop during his time,” recalls the lady. She was taught in a co-education school in Sriniketan, and the interesting part of that school was all the teachers were women, her mother was also associated with that school.
“The school was till Class VI after which she was shifted to Santiniketan, where she came in contact with several well-known personalities as either teacher or schoolmate. One such big name, Amartya Sen, was two classes senior to me. The way they studied was typical Santiniketan style, classes under the trees, going barefoot, sitting on mats and moreover, no punishment in class and evaluation through grading. The unique part is the students used to shift from one place to another for their classes and not the teachers,” said Ms Gupta.
According to Tagore, children can’t sit at one place for long. There used to be classes, each of 40 minutes’ duration, and 5 minutes to shift with their mat from one place to other. The classes used to get over at 11am. For people belonging to the deprived sections of society, Tagore founded Shiksha Satra (free education). All the poor children from surrounding villages not only studied there free of cost but also got training in craft, tant-knitting, printing, painting, pottery, agriculture etc. in the evening from 5 every day.
"The thought behind was every child had to know and get training in their family’s main occupation, e.g. a farmer’s son had to know about farming, a tanti’s (weaver) son had to know about tant and so on, so that after completing the education they would go back to their respective villages and improve the village with their best educational training," said the lady.
She has also spoken about two important festivals of Halakarshan Utsav and Briksha Ropon Utsav. Briksha Ropon Utsav obviously was planting of saplings. This festival was initiated by Tagore regularly in 1936 and since then it is being continued as ritual of Santiniketan. It not only the festival but also has greeting meaning to save nature. This ceremony is preceded by Halakarshan Utsav.
"Halakarshan Utsav implies ploughing of fields during the end part of August. The ploughing ceremony is a symbolic tribute to the activity of ploughing the land. The ceremony aimed to provide the work of ploughing with the dignity, that was its due," explains Ms Gupta.
The important dignitaries were invited to drive the plough of which her father was one. They used to decorate a flat-topped block with different dals and made a colourful alpana and dressed up two big bullocks with garlands and bright clothes and a hal attached with the bullocks. As a child they were disheartened to see that beautifully decorated block being crushed with the hal.
“The upbringing in that peaceful area gave me the moral values and conduct I carry till now,” she said.
Pic credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kala_Bhavan,_Santiniketan.jpg
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Ms Pushpa Nag, one of our members, shares her childhood memories of Shillong with Mousumi Gupta.
More than speaking about bungalows with manicured lawns, crystal-clear water falls, lush green valleys and ...
Ms Pushpa Nag, one of our members, shares her childhood memories of Shillong with Mousumi Gupta.
More than speaking about bungalows with manicured lawns, crystal-clear water falls, lush green valleys and mountains surrounded by walking trails which they used to take to school, Ms Nag was more excited to speak about one of the most interesting tribes, the Khasis, who mainly inhabit the Khasi and Jaintia hills in Meghalaya.
“Khasis form the chunk of the population in Meghalaya. I felt proud when I saw women’s empowerment in its most effective form among them. The young generation is given the freedom to choose life partners. In their culture, the girls cannot be forced into marriage. Moreover, she may end the marriage at her will with no objection from the husbands. After marriage, the groom comes to live at the bride’s house,” said Ms Nag.
“Khasis follow a matrilineal system of inheritance and only the youngest daughter is eligible to inherit the ancestral property and is the custodian of the family property,” said Ms Nag.
Asked about the unique feature of the Khasis, Ms Nag explained: “The descendants are recognised from the mother and not the father. According to their laws and tradition, the mother inherits the children and property but not the father. The property rights are given to women and all the decisions in a family occur under the senior-most female member.”
“The men in the society cannot have a house of their own; they have to either live in the house of their mother, sister, wife or daughter. Even the most efficient male members of the clan cannot do anything on his own and are considered second only after the women.”
“They are very hardworking in nature and their respect for any type of job is something to learn from them. There was a maid in our house, who belonged to the Khasi community. The maid’s daughter used to come after school to our house to help her mother in work without any hesitation. The girl used to study in a reputed school.”
Sealing her respect and fondness for the Khasis, Ms Nag said: “I salute this music-loving tribe who are warm-hearted, simple, devoid of complex doctrines of any kind and still guard their heritage.”
Pic credit: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Khasi_Girls.jpg
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One of our members, Ms Champa Rani Das, narrates how she coped with a critical medical emergency while raising her daughter more than 50 years ago. The remarkable courage and composure she showed ...
One of our members, Ms Champa Rani Das, narrates how she coped with a critical medical emergency while raising her daughter more than 50 years ago. The remarkable courage and composure she showed at that point of time was commendable.
“A shrill cry of our one-and-a-half-year-old daughter startled us, and we found that she had accidentally swallowed the ampoule cutter while playing. We were in Amla, Madhya Pradesh, as my husband (an Air Force officer) was posted there then,” recalled Ms Das.
“After being dumbstruck for a moment, I regained my courage and rushed her to the nearby defence hospital. An X-ray showed that the cutter made of iron was somewhere lodged near her lungs, which needed surgery. They referred to the nearest air force hospital in Jabalpur as they didn’t have any arrangements to carry out such complicated surgery."
Narrating about the turn of events, Ms Das said: “I, along with one of the soldiers, booked two tickets for Jabalpur and my husband stayed back with our nine-year-old son. The overnight journey reached us to Jabalpur and a pre-arranged ambulance took us to the hospital without wasting time. The doctors suggested another X-ray the next morning just to find out the location of the cutter. We had no choice but to stay in the hospital.”
“The next morning my daughter started to cry uncontrollably, and I found that the cutter was coming out with the stool. I immediately called the nurse and with little effort, it came out. Thinking that the trauma was over, we came back,” she recalled with relief.
"My daughter started to be in her usual jovial mood. Then one day, when I was busy preparing breakfast for the family, I noticed that she started to bend down. As I rushed towards her, I found that she was running a high temperature. Sensing danger, I took her to the air force hospital again and Benz, who was a very reputable doctor in the hospital, attended to her immediately, leaving all patients."
"The fever was beyond control, so the doctors kept her covered with ice leaving the face out. The agonising wait continued throughout the night and the next morning, the doctor came out relaxed and informed me that she was out of danger. The doctor then narrated me about how a panel of doctors had fought death throughout the night to save her because she had acute septicaemia and the fluid in her backbone had also got infected. I got my daughter back from sure death and she is hale and hearty now."
"It was the sheer power of endurance of my brave daughter and definitely because of doctors’ efforts that imminent death could be avoided," said Ms Das with pride.
Pic credit: https://pixabay.com/photos/medical-ampoules-injections-538430/
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One of our members, Mrs Malabika Ghoshal narrates to Mousumi Gupta a chilling experience of an armed gherao during a visit to Parasnath temple in Bihar in the early-1990s when her ...
One of our members, Mrs Malabika Ghoshal narrates to Mousumi Gupta a chilling experience of an armed gherao during a visit to Parasnath temple in Bihar in the early-1990s when her husband was posted in Bokaro (now in Jharkhand).
The Ghoshals, along with their children, started off for the Shikharji temple atop the 1,350m-high Parasnath hill quite early in the morning. They decided to go for the darshan first and then have breakfast at the base of the hill on which the temple stands.
As planned, the family offered puja along with other pilgrims and came down the hill, wondering where to have the breakfast. By the time they traversed the distance between the foothill and the main road, they could feel a strange sense of unease pervading the air.
“Some men sporting red headbands and brandishing weapons were running around and were forcibly shutting down all roadside shops. The moment they caught glimpse of us, they started shouting at us and snatched the food we were carrying. The men threw away the food and herded us into the waiting cars. They even kept banging on the bonnets with metal rods in rage,” said Mrs Ghoshal, narrating the horror story.
“After some time, we could gather that one of their leaders had been killed in an encounter the previous day against which they were protesting.”
With no option left, everyone sat inside their respective cars praying to god. “The children started to cry in hunger after some time. But everyone was so panic-stricken that no one dared to alight from the safety of the vehicles. Morning turned to afternoon and then to evening, the torture seemed never-ending. Our only prayer was that we remained fine and alive,” recounted Mrs Ghoshal.
“When the tormentors grew a bit tired late in the evening, we started stepping out of the cars in search of food. Our son, along with the driver, went a distance to fetch some food. As we lost sight of them, a police van reached the spot and took control of the situation. The police personnel immediately ordered us to leave the place. They warned us that if we did not comply, it would be difficult for them to help us any further.”
“We started to panic as our son and driver were not there. Thankfully, just then, we could spot them in the distance running towards us, maybe they too had seen the approaching police van. In the blink of an eye, all vehicles stranded at the trouble spot dispersed and sped away. Thank god, all of us could come back unhurt and safe. That day will forever be etched in my mind,” said Mrs Ghoshal, with a sense of relief on her face, even after almost three decades.
Pic credit: https://www.google.com/search?q=parasnath+temple+shikharji+jharkhand&sa=X&biw=1366&bih=625&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=MjHWUyu3oiBs9M%253A%252CtdiIqrBHkQ8dOM%252C%252Fg%252F120ykn1k&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kSyPei2ZaLeRXSALS0ARvl-RmpRzg&ved=2ahUKEwi6uqHNiI7hAhVSi3AKHbLLBUMQ_B0wIHoECAQQBg#imgrc=MjHWUyu3oiBs9M:&vet=1
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Mrs Hannie Gupta's indomitable spirit helped her beat old age and ill-health and see life in new light.
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Mrs Hannie Gupta's indomitable spirit helped her beat old age and ill-health and see life in new light.
A nonagenarian getting her hairs streaked. Don’t be shocked! Smile. At the amazing spirit of Mrs Hannie Gupta, who celebrated her 92nd birthday on March 7 in style!
Mrs Gupta led a sickly existence. She used to be frequently hospitalised, that too in the ICCU of a reputable south Kolkata nursing home with a host of serious health complications till a couple of years back. Doctors there had even suggested once that a brain surgery was the only option left to keep Mrs Gupta alive. But since she was nearing 90 years of age, Mrs Gupta’s brother, Dr Maurice Gubbay, a retired family physician settled in Israel, decided against it. Mrs Gupta had then lost her speech, leave aside movement.
The funny or rather interesting part of Mrs Gupta, who stays alone, becoming a member of Support Elders was she set a precondition. She badly wanted to get her Aadhaar card done and sought help from Support Elders. When SEPL could successfully get Mrs Gupta’s Aadhaar card done, she gladly agreed to take our membership.
But life came a full circle in a positive way when our care manager came into the picture. She not only took entire responsibility of Mrs Gupta’s house management but also the financial and health management. Hannie was provided with an ayah and a nurse.
Dr Gubbay had refused to let his sister undergo the brain surgery around September 2017 and undertaken the risk to take Mrs Gupta home. He got Mrs Gupta treated at her own home.
With the treatment and with Support Elders becoming her pillar of support, Mrs Gupta is doing absolutely fine now. Every month, Mrs Gupta’s hairdresser is at her doorstep.
She celebrated her 92nd birthday on March 7 in style. Support Elders ordered a chocolate cake and savouries from Nahoum and Sons in New Market. Mrs Gupta happily cut the cake with nine candles and one extra candle to wish that she completes her 100th birthday! She joined in singing the “Happy Birthday” song along with her friends and guests at the small party. Mrs Gupta relished a small slice of her birthday cake. Her brother, Dr Gubbay, wished her over a video call and was very happy to see the way she Mrs Gupta was celebrating her birthday with her friends and the Support Elders family around. He thanked Support Elders for taking care of her sister so well.
Mrs Gupta watches BBC News every day and keeps herself updated about the surroundings. She moves around in her wheelchair but is very cautious about what is happening around.
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