Meanwhile somewhere in sub urban Kolkata my mother’s father was having a very prosperous life. He had become a very rich business man. He owned a major part of land (almost an entire locality) and was a very polite and soft spoken businessman. He had several sweet meat shops and quite a large number of fishing boats.
For him business flourished too quickly and he could not handle pressures and took to smoking bidi. On most of his expeditions in the sea he brought tons of fishes and made quick profits. On one of his days at sea he got caught up with high tides and yet survived on some lone islands off Diamond Harbor just to be rescued by another fisherman whom he befriended very quickly. That man is still live today and is well recognized by the family. My grandfather gifted him a handsomely and even offered him a job as a manager in one of his sweetmeat shops. But his home sentiments did not allow him to take the job.
There was also a story of how my grandfather managed to escape some goons at gunpoint. That day my grandfather carried a lot of cash and was returning home from sea. How he managed to escape still remains a mystery because no one questioned him due to his bad mood. Also he is not alive now so I cannot narrate that part.
My father’s remaining family had moved from Bangladesh soon after my father’s business began to flourish in the rice trade. My father had been living in a rented house that had a comparable residential neighborhood and a small town feel. My father had some fancy with electronics had bought the first gramophone in that locality.
Tracing back to when East Pakistan was being named to Bangladesh, it had got its independence from Pakistan. There was a state of uncertainty in Bangladesh and for nearly three months easy entry was facilitated between West Bengal and Bangladesh. So anyone who had property disputes could easily visit the other country and go for settlement. It was at this time my mother’s father made huge profits by fishing for Hilsha fish in the Padma River and selling it in Kolkata. In some of his journeys he was in contact with my father’s parents.
It was these three or four months of chaos that changed the live of many people. Some more had become rich by purchasing land at low prices and later selling it at a higher price. Some had taken advance payments but never delivered their goods to the other country because they thought that India and Bangladesh would continue this relation. It was a case of forgive and forget situation. Bengalis being timid and forgiving by nature let go of their misery they were already in and decided to continue again from start. It was these few months that my parents’ parents got to meet each other.
After my parents’ marriage my father moved on in the transportation business due to some market situation. He started with a truck and ended with purchasing a total of eleven vehicles. Some were public transportation vehicles while some were goods carrier. As a kid I always saw my father angry and depressed when he returned home. It was because it was getting increasing difficult to handle all these vehicles. The drivers and his helpers (known as khalashis) would often do trade with my father’s truck on their own without the consent of my father. It became more complex when they would steal the vehicle and drive away to some other place. There had been cases when one of my father’s truck met with an accident and the mob had tore the entire truck to pieces.
My father quit some of the trucks and buses to build a new house, our own house. At that time a nearby forest was being cleared for residential facility. My father did not think twice before purchasing land there.
My father’s craze for electronics grew. He purchased a television set and installed a telephone line. Our entire locality came to visit our home to watch a program that was very popular those days, ”Chandrakanta” .After sometime he purchased a Video Cassette Player and we would watch movies after inviting all the kids my age. Along with the kids came their parents and our house looked very packed.
to be continued........... read chapter 4
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