somajm

Scanning the newspaper for tributes to the great Bengali Bard, Rabindranath Tagore , I came across a presentation by Sujoy Prasad Chatterjee . And my mind raced back to an evening in the past; an evening of recitations and songs I had experienced in Bengal Club .(please note the word experienced) a year back. A friend of ours had invited both of us, husband and wife, to this musical evening in honour of the Bard. Being used to spending the evening watching Himesh Reshmaiya snorting out popular numbers or watching with mounting disbelief the progression of the fast paced, nailbiting episodes of Indian Idol( we live very ordinary lives) , we were a bit apprehensive of what the evening had in store for us. Amongst the performers were Sujoy Prasad Chatterjee himself,singer Pramita Mullick , theatre personality Bijoylakshmi Burman , actors Arindam Sil, Chaitee Ghoshal, Parambratta Chatterjee amongst others. There were English renditions of various poems and plays. The English translations...

I literally sank into the sofa. I was trying to regain my composure. Three of us had ventured out to do some thing meaningful for society. We had heard of this place called “The Banyan ” a home for destitute, mentally imbalanced women . And all of us felt, due to some reason, that the time had come to go out and do something for the socially downtrodden. We drove ourselves to this place. With idealistic (or is it purely selfish motivation turned inside out) thoughts of spreading love and peace amongst the destitute, we entered the impressive gateways of the institution. Nothing had prepared me for what happened next. Hordes of women lost in their own worlds of heaven or hell sat staring at us. Some were smiling, some laughing, some muttering, some were utterly blank. To me it seemed that a common bond tied them together: they were totally cynical and were laughing at us. A knot of intense fear started growing in my tummy. Only the thought that I should not let my friends down kept me...