A 70-Year Journey Through Passports
We all have our own journeys. We navigate the world through our unique lens of experiences.
My father navigated his by being a traveler. The best times of his life were when he was on a flight to a city
The Deoliwallahs: The untold account of the Chinese-Indians
Just after the Sino-Indian War of 1962, about 3,000 Chinese-Indians were interned in a disused World War II POW camp in Deoli, Rajasthan, marking the beginning of a painful five-year-long internment for some without resolution. At a time of India’s … Read the rest
The Couple Who Built Sreenibas
Sreenibas, the house on Morabadi Hills in Ranchi, was built by my parents-in law, Dr. Woopendra Chowdhry and Sreemati Asoka Devi Chaudhurani.
My father-in-law belonged to the village Bhowanipur in the Jagannathpur district of Sylhet, a province now in Bangladesh. … Read the rest
The Assamese Connection: Bishnupriya, Gunabhiram and Swarnalata
I was around 9 or 10 when I first learnt that my mother’s thakurma (paternal grandmother) hailed from Assam, not Bengal as I had assumed, and that she shared a name with my mother’s maternal grandmother – Swarnalata. That information … Read the rest
Daddy: A Man of Many Moods
I wasn’t the midnight’s child, arriving three weeks later in 1947 when India was in the cusp of transition; many things had changed while some hadn’t. Politics was relatively straightforward; feelings and allegiances of ordinary men and women were far … Read the rest
The Turn of the Wheel: Suprobhat’s Story
Following is Suprobhat Bhattacharya’s story about what she had to endure while her husband was incarcerated:
In 1961 we were staying in No. 1 Ballygunge Maidan Camp. On April 4, I asked him to buy tickets for a cinema show … Read the rest
The Adventures of a Portrait
My parents were married in December 1934. As a wedding present they received a portrait of my mother from my Father’s Aunt Amy & Uncle Edwin.
Amy Durell who painted the watercolour portrait was a Royal Academician and an … Read the rest
The House I Was Born In
I often reminisce about my childhood, full of happy memories, not unusual for someone in her twilight years.
In December 2019 I had an occasion to visit the house where I was born. The changes made in the last two … Read the rest
He Died Young …
He was my younger brother, the youngest amongst all our cousins. But the one with the largest heart and the greatest generosity of spirit. His loving and affectionate nature won him friends everywhere. My late husband, Tridib, started his eulogy … Read the rest