UNFORGETTABLE - SEA, SAND AND SHADOWS!

End January 1970. Finally all theoretical papers, but one, of our M.Sc. examinations were over. The remaining paper had been deferred to a yet indefinite date and the practical would take place even later. So, for months together we would remain in a no man’s land. After all the tensions and tribulations of an exhausting M.Sc. examination, boredom set in rapidly. We all became rather fidgety and needed to do something soon to get back to life. But what to do?

One evening at our regular “adda” at “Cha-Ghar” near Deena Pharmacy on Rash Behari Avenue at its crossing with Hindusthan Road, someone suggested we make a trip to Digha. "Let’s go!" roared all in unison. Excitement rose only to fizzle out. Where’s the money? The small mini-van itself would cost us Rs.600/-, a heavenly sum in those days, plus there would be expenses for board and lodging. In the midst of feverish calculations regarding the possible expenses and the source of funds, Gongu came up with an idea. Dr. Satikanta Guha ( of South Point School fame ) lived in the locality. The general opinion about him was that the great educationist that he was, he was pretty gullible where young students were concerned and if we could come up with a “believable” story about our intentions for visiting Digha and “flatter” his ego, he could perhaps agree to let us use one of the School buses to take care of our transportation requirements. Voila! That would take care of our most major expense.

Suggestion translated into action immediately. Let’s go and approach Dr. Guha – after all there was NOTHING to lose. A quick team of 5 presenters was formed. Mohan, Udayan, Ranadhir, Amitava and I (Ranjan). Tarun backed out from this delegation in fear of his being from the same “para” and hence being identified as a “naughty boy”! Next evening, determined to accomplish our mission, we marched to Dr. Guha’s residence at 10 Hindusthan Road. The Security Guards confronted us. We requested an audience from Dr. Guha saying we were students from Presidency College (true) and came to seek his help. A little later an attendant escorted us upstairs and asked us to wait. We were busy appreciating the tastefully furnished and decorated drawing room when Surupa walked in and “froze” in surprise. Surupa was our batch mate in Presidency College having graduated in Chemistry. We had shared Maths and Physics classes in Presidency but had never got to be too well acquainted; on the contrary she could have had enough grudges against us. She was beautiful and like all the beautiful girls in our College she too had to bear her share of constant scrutiny and sometimes “interesting” comments from the boys. The thought as to what these “punks” were doing at her house must have perturbed her. She nevertheless held her composure and enquired whether any of us would care for some tea or coffee. We, too tensed up that we really were about what could be the possible outcome of our meeting with her father-in-law, chose a cup of coffee each, partly to ease our tensions and partly to have Surupa serve us coffee! Plus a cup of coffee was a pretty expensive proposition for us if we were to buy one and therefore always a welcome temptation!

A few minutes later (it seemed to be ages for us) the attendant came in again and switched on the lights one by one. And then Dr. Guha made a grand appearance. Impeccably dressed in evening attire complete with a jacket and a tie. Dr. Guha’s entrance was electrifying to say the least. On his cues, we introduced ourselves as students from Presidency College and on further encouragement stated our intentions of visiting Digha on a “Research” project in the interim between our theoretical and practical examinations. We hastened to add carefully that since the theoretical exams were over, we would need to fund the “project” ourselves. We had come to request Dr. Guha for his help with our transportation, knowing that he was always kind to students and to any endeavour to further education and that his generosity and contribution to the cause of education was endless and would he / could he be kind enough to let us avail of one of the School buses for 2/3 days so that we could undertake this “special” research project ?! Dr Guha listened to us with a "poker" face. There was no guessing what his reactions could be, till Udayan chipped in to say that his daughter-in-law, Surupa, had been a class-mate in Presidency. Dr Guha's face visibly softened and he appeared to have become more attentive then onwards.

“So, what’s your research project about? And why in Digha?” We had anticipated that question and had rehearsed the reply many times over but I responded before anyone else did and blurted out “Sir, we would study the recent geomorphological patterns with reference to sedimentology and living fossils”. Living fossils! Even if Dr. Guha had caught on to my blunderous faux pas, his attitude did not betray any adverse reaction; instead he called for his Manager for consultations. The Manager promptly pointed out that although the School would be closed for a few days on account of Saraswati Puja, the buses needed urgent maintenance work and should not preferably be spared for our trip. Trust the Manager to throw a spanner in our works! Our disappointment was palpable but we were cheered up immediately by Dr. Guha’s telling us that he was willing to fund us to the cost of a hired vehicle if we were to find one at a reasonable rate. Although we had earlier negotiated with the owner of a rather small minibus (not a monster like the minibuses of today) at Rs.600/- for the whole trip, we had to keep our pretence that our “research” tour depended on getting a bus from the School. After ten minutes of hemming and hawing, Ranadhir suggested that he could try and find out from a bus-owner in his “para” – Haltu. “Then why not go to ‘Faltu’ and see if you can get the bus”! Dr. Guha proceeded to allow us the use of one of his vehicles. We went all the way to Haltu and came back saying we HAD indeed found a suitable vehicle at Rs.600/- and had brought along the owner with us! No further discussions were needed – Dr. Guha instructed his Manager to pay the bus-owner what he wanted.

Over a second round of coffee, now tasting all the more delicious, Dr. Guha expounded to us his broad vision for education for all and his intentions of turning the School in to a Public Institution that could compete with the best in the world. We listened mesmerized and really felt his desires going to our heart. After about half an hour we begged his leave but not before Dr. Guha wished us luck for our project.

We, particularly I, could not stop gloating. I had done most of the talking and could not congratulate myself enough for the glib talking that yielded such good results; this despite Ranadhir and Udayan repeatedly chiding me on my faux pas on ‘LIVING’ fossils. What if Dr. Guha had caught on to the yarn spun by me? The entire exercise would have been futile. But who cared now that our mission was successfully accomplished and we continued to gloat about how we had beguiled Dr. Guha with unabashed flattery and playing up to his ego!

The next task was to make sure we had enough participants. We were very few in number with even fewer resources. The great debate arose as to how much money each one of us had to mobilize. Finally, Rs.20/-, yes, Rupees Twenty only was the princely sum that each of us needed to garner! Mantu was willing but he had only Rs.15/-. Never mind, join us. The balance you can make up by winning at limpu (a unique card-game!) A big disappointment for us was Gautam Ghosh. At the last moment he opted out on grounds of ill-health. Typical of Gautam G!

The two days in Digha were unmitigated fun. Kaleidoscopic fun images that persist till today are:

    Seventeen persons squeezed in like sardines inside a small mini-van, no one willing even once to get down to answer to nature's call or for a quick smoke and even for a cup of tea for fear of losing one's occupied seat - a prized possession for hours!

    Rabi enthralling all, playing lilting music with a make-shift mouth-organ being essentially a combination of a comb and an aluminum foil from a cigarette packet! Unbelievable!
   
    Gongu sitting at the feet of a lodge owner in Digha and despite being a staunch “Ghoti” carrying on with him an unending dialogue in “Bangaal” dialect, agreeing with him at every step – even when it came to describing the neighboring lodge as a haunt for “Froses”, and finally winning over his heart and head to agree to letting us the use of a house with two large rooms at only Rs.50/-! Unbelievable!

    Endless hours of swimming in the sea and playing beach cricket followed generous helpings of bhat-daal-maachh and by sleepless nights of never-ending bouts of drinking rum-and-daab. Not enough glasses – try earthen/clay pots, where all the drink got soaked up and then abandons these and pour rum straight into the shell of the green coconut. Heavenly concoction matched only by the “heavenly” khisties – innovative and invective language at its foulest – easily a prize topic for a researcher working on the evolution of foul language in Bengali! Listeners’ envy, speakers’ pride!

    Long walks along the beach, all the way up to and beyond the Mohana, occasionally stopping by the fishermen’s boats, examining the catch of the day. A longer scrutiny of a baby shark that had washed up on the beach. Was this the "Living Fossil" then?

    Walking amongst the dense groves of casurina trees, Udayan dropped his gold ring. Looking for a small gold ring in the golden sands proved no less a difficult task than looking for a needle in a haystack. Believe me – I know. After an arduous search, where we retraced every step we had taken and focused on a concentrated search, Ranadhir finally retrieved the ring sticking out of a sandy clump under a casurina tree.

    But the single most significant image that has remained indelibly burnt into my memory is that of the beautiful groves of casurina trees not far off from the beach itself. This Casurina forest was so dense in places that sunlight hardly filtered through, and where it did, there was a magical display of light and shadows cast by the trees. We went for long walks and while walking among these casurina groves, and, with our bodies casting shadows on the sand to mingle with those by the trees, one felt rather surreal as if re-enacting scenes from Satyajit Ray’s classic film – “Aranyer Deen Ratri”.

It would be good to have ended my story here. But once beyond my youthful exuberance, a burning question has plagued me for years together. Was Dr. Guha really that gullible and prone to flattery that he appeared to be? As years have passed by and I myself have approached the ripe and mature age of 65, I have progressively learnt to believe that the real truth was far from what Dr. Guha really was. His undisputed intelligence had definitely made him see through our ploy in no time – aided to an extent by my folly (living fossils!) but the great educationist that he was, in his overwhelming fondness for students in general, and for those from Presidency College in particular, he had allowed his immensely generous heart to over-ride his intelligent head in our favor. Only he wasn’t sure about how we would behave on the trip – hence the little act of consulting his Manager on the school-bus issue and decide in favor of funding our transportation expenses instead. The more I mull over the incident the more I admire his generosity. He was no fool – actually we turned out to be the fools at our own game! Dr. Guha has long left this world but the student community at large has only been left poorer at the departure of this benevolent educationist. May his soul rest in peace.