Prodyot recounts a memorable incident
:
The year Feb 1963. We the students of Std. X were in charge of all
activities connected with Saraswati
Puja. The first day's Puja in the
morning and Cultural Programme
in the evening were a grand success.
The ‘Dadhikarma ‘ on
the second day morning went off very well.
Then came the afternoon, the time
for immersion.
Daooda asked for volunteers. Bijon,
Prabir, Swapan, Dileep, Barin,
Subrata and myself responded. (
Please let me know if I have missed
out some friends). Other than Daooda,
only Bijon was an expert swimmer. Myself and Dileep knew bit of
swimming. Others were just walkers!
The afternoon was a high tide time.
Daooda and us volunteers dutifully
carried Ma Saraswati to the Shivaji
Park sea and after the customery ‘pradakshina’ carried
out the immersion in chest high water.
We were about to come back ashore.
Then comes suddenly a high wave and hell breaks loose. We are
in neck deep water!
Most of the boys who did not know
swimming held on the Ma Saraswati’s bamboo frame to stay
afloat. In come Daooda.
with his enormous reach and awesome
power; grab one by one and pushed them towards shore. When I was about to swim back to shore I find a lone friend panicky, stranded in neck deep
water and did not know what to do. I don’t know what happened to me. With all my might of a lean 47 kg frame, I kind of dragged the guy by his upper arm a few yards towards the shore, and he managed
to scamper on the safety of sands. Thus all's well that finally
ended well.
Are you interested to know,
who was the friend was stranded in neck deep water.
He is none other than our own Subrata!
Prodyot remembers annual sports day :
Every year annual sports day used to be a special event with Hindi Sir’s
announcement booming on the mike and Daooda on his toes the whole day and students vying for honours. You will remember the achievements of our Ajay ( Milkha ) Biswas on sports day. Ajay’a mother
used to come to the Purandare stadium
with a Tholi ( cloth bag ) to carry a dozon prizes
won by Ajay, Arun, Shefali and the youngest brother. I take the pride to the fact that in X std I beat Ajay in long jump to the second place. That
was my only prize in sports field
in school. Also innumerable number of prizes was won by Binoy. Who will forget the unforgettable GAMLA i.e. Shymal Naha blazing the track in 400 metres race and running like a stallion in his spikes.
There is an interesting incident involving Shymal.
It was year 1961 Annual Sports day. Shymal Naha was hot fa vourite to win the 400 m dash. But there is a new guy to be contended with.
Sananth Mukherjee has come from Calcutta and joined Shymal’s
class.
Though Sanath him self was a good athlete but did not know the prowess
of Shymal. It so happened he too joined the 400m fray.
Daooda flags off 400 m dash. Shymal as usual took to medium speed upto
200 m mark with an intension of galloping away next 200m mark to overtake his opponents his usual strategy. But Sanath had different ideas. At the flag
off Sanath raced off to his best possible
speed and kept going that way. When Shymal was at
200 m mark, Sananth was nearing 300 m mark. Then Shymal took off like a bullet for his next 200 metres. But Sanath kept going at such a steady pace such that, Shymal could never overcome him and he finished a
close second.
This is one race that Shyamal must have
regretted throughout his life!
Prodyot remembers :
You know Binoy as a sportsman
and footballer in the Purandare field. But how many
of you know Binoy’s culinary skills? Let me
take you back to school days. Possibly it was IX Std.
Some of us classmates decided to have a private picnic to
Powai lake. Myself, Binoy, Prabir, Dileep and Samir ( Dileep managed to rope in Samir who had left school by then ) and few others reported to Atindra’s cottage at Vikroli early morning
of the picnic day. Some guy suggested instead of
going by bus to Powai why not take a short cut and
trek through the adjoining hill. So we started with our
ration of raw Rice, Dal , condiments etc. for preparation of lunch Halfway through the hills, huffing and puffing we were cursing the guy who suggested the short cut to Powai lake. Well, finally we made it to the wrong side of Powai lake. In Dileep’s words we discovered the Powai lake. The picnic spot was on the other bank of the lake. All the same, the lake water was inviting so we decided to take a swim. While we were frolicking in the muddy water of Powai lake, Binoy quietly collected some dry
branches and leaves and kept the fire going. And
he cooked a delicious ‘Bhuna Khichuri’ on the spot. After swim it was lunch time and we were all terribly hungry. And I swear I have not tasted better Khichuri in my life and gobbled it down as much as possible.
