Well I do not exactly remember if it was Class III or IV when we first came to know about Hatu Kotu and his family.
The tale seems to have had a long lasting impression and influence on my life.
Using my memories from the Pensieve(as Dumbledore often does :)) here is the gist of the tale: Hatu Kotu and his family were from a nomadic sect who had their cattle and every winter they would move on to greener pastures. However, the idea that struck my young mind was that while on the move they wore all the clothes that they had so that they will won't have to carry those :P .
My life in Hatu Kotu's shoes :
I was born in a very old house in Ballygunge. Two rooms, a cockroach infested kitchen adjacent to the terrace more like an extended "chilekothha" -an attic was my very first home. My mother later narrated to me that she felt exactly like Aparna - (Apu's Wife from Ray's Apu-r Sonsar) when she came in to this house to stay with my father immediately after marriage. She used to peep in through the hole in the curtain at the neighborhood just like the famous scene from the movie. I started my school from here and used to commute to school in "haathe-tana" rickshwas - the hand-drawn ones which do not exist any more for good reasons I believe.
After 5 years of staying in our humble home we moved to the upper floor of a two-storied house in GangulyBagan (further south Calcutta). Well it was a big leap and no doubt my mother was overjoyed with 3 big rooms , a clean and healthy spacious kitchen , 2 big balconies well a real home for the first time. My brother was born here. But our stay here was too short lived and we were again moving in a couple of years.
We moved absolutely to other side - the Northern part of Calcutta..on the crossing of the busy V.I.P. Bridge in Ultadanga as my father's organization came up with residential apartments for its employees. In spite of my mother's and my vehement protests that we will be moving far from my school and our friends and relatives my father found it the best option to move. So we moved.
This time it was what we call "Flat" /"Condo" . The balcony overlooked the busy VIP bridge and we saw Nelson Mandela(when he made his trip to Kolkata) stop there and wave to us. Our stay was quite extended this time and I gave my 10th Boards Exam "Madhyamik" from here. It was quite a nice stay apart from my daily commute to school. My brother meanwhile started off with his dose of education in my school.
We stayed in "Rohini"( thats how our apartment was named) for 8 straight years and made our childhood friends, learnt to ride bicycles and hummed our fist hindi songs :). Oooh quite a lot of memories. It was time to move again. This time it was for me or rather my upcoming 12th Boards (which according to parents is the biggest eve of your growing up phase :P). My parents decided to move closer to school so that I will be able to take up tuitions and still have some time to study if I cut down on my commute time. One of my uncles had the upper most floor in their apartment empty and we moved.
We moved to South Calcutta - Deshapriya Park and stayed there for a couple of years for my 12th Boards. This stay proved to be significant for me as I found my best friend and my life partner during our stay here. As we had moved close to school my friends could come over to "study" :P . But yeah it was fun. But the fun did not last long.
As the results of Joint Entrance was out I found I had a bit more fun that I should have had and had to move to Durgapur to study Computer Science and Engineering in B.C.Roy Engineering College. While my postal address shifted to Steel House Girl's Hostel my parents shifted again to "Neelachal" Housing close to Siemens in Bosepukur.
My stay at Durgapur was predefined for 4 years but my family kept on with their tradition. After a couple of years at Neelachal (most significant incident at this stay was "Bhnarer Thakur at Bosepukur Pujo Mandap" - The pandal decorations for goddess durga was created from earthen pots which are used for drinking tea in Eastern part of India") they moved for a permanent settlement to Shaheed Nagar - our very own apartment.
My mother was the one who was most relived at this settlement and till today gives our home the highest priority well I think it comes before us :P ( do not tell her). My life in Durgapur was fun filled hostel life with too many memories to be shared here, friends for life and a whole new perspective outside home for the very first time.
Well as my parents settled down I started with my very own nomadic life. After I passed out with a B.E. degree I first started working with Satyam Computer Services Ltd. at Hyderabad. I stayed in Hyderabad for about 1.5 years( of which 2 months I was at Bhubaneshwar ) with two change of residences intra city (which I did not bother about any longer) - now the challenge was intercity or intercontinental :P. I made quite a few friends and had lot of fun as we were earning for the very first time in our life and staying away from home :P.
After 1.5 years I moved to Bangalore and stayed there for about 6 months before I took my first flight to the "States".I stayed in Milford Connecticut for about six months. I made a very good friend in my roomie and we share a very strong rapport though my stay was not that long.I went back to Hyderabad and then came to Bangalore for good and joined Iflex Solutions. This phase of my stay in Bangalore was quite entertaining and fun. I had a lovely time with our friends mostly all weekends we played a marathon of games like cards, ludo,scrabble, dumb charades and so lived life :).
Well I again changed address in Bangalore got married and was preparing to settle down but you remember Hatu Kotu right :P. His influence on me was far from being over.My dear husband got an offer from a US university and in 4 months he flew out to start of with his Ph.D curriculum. I was again left to wonder :(.
Recession had hit big by that time and I was stuck with saving my job. A year later I flew for a couple of months in summer with my husband.In those two months we also enjoyed a vacation in Europe for a couple of weeks. I was revitalized to go back and again fight :P.
Finally persuasion and persistence and patience gave way :) .A year later I flew back to the States with my job but I was put up in Columbus, Ohio while my husband was staying in Evanston, Illinois.
We kept travelling back and forth on weekends for about 6 months when on a fateful day I returned from work to find my apartment in Columbus broken in :( . I was scared. I literally cried after ages. Called 911 ,waited for the maintenance to come and fix the door which was ripped apart badly. I stayed with a colleague of mine that night. Next morning I took the first flight out to Chiacgo.
Well I spoke to my manager and told him that I was too scared to go back and after a couple of months they let me know the officially that I could stay on in Chiacgo and Work From home :) :). Finally I was re united with my husband.
Amidst all these move ins and move outs the little girl who was struck with wonder that Hatu Kotu and his family wore all their clothes while moving came to understand the significance of it :P. All these years since my own nomadic life I have built up a huge variety of wardrobe ranging from Ethnic Indian to ballroom dresses to gypsy trinkets to loose pajamas and very many types of satchels and shoes and slip ins...you name the types and likely I will have one of its kind from some part of the world. Alas!! when the occasion arises I am completely lost as to where my dress is or where is that matching green earring and at times I have completely forgotten that I had something like that. And on a Saturday afternoon when I sit down to pack for a move again I have a big glee on my face at the sight of so many long lost precious knick-knacks and some exquisite shrug (which at the time of buying I had to have) with still its tag on it . I make it a point to remember each and every time as to which suitcase I am putting my purple cashmere or my green matching slip ins or the cross body "jhola" purses from Goa.If and only if I had a RAM to the order of GB to rise to the occasion :(. Hence the prudence of Hatu Kotu appeals to me and I wish I could do that. :P
But wait our story continues...we are heading west to Santa Clara for three months (my husband has an internship there) and then in September we are moving apartment in Evanston once we are back :P.
So long Hatu Kotu lives with me :)
The tale seems to have had a long lasting impression and influence on my life.
Using my memories from the Pensieve(as Dumbledore often does :)) here is the gist of the tale: Hatu Kotu and his family were from a nomadic sect who had their cattle and every winter they would move on to greener pastures. However, the idea that struck my young mind was that while on the move they wore all the clothes that they had so that they will won't have to carry those :P .
My life in Hatu Kotu's shoes :
I was born in a very old house in Ballygunge. Two rooms, a cockroach infested kitchen adjacent to the terrace more like an extended "chilekothha" -an attic was my very first home. My mother later narrated to me that she felt exactly like Aparna - (Apu's Wife from Ray's Apu-r Sonsar) when she came in to this house to stay with my father immediately after marriage. She used to peep in through the hole in the curtain at the neighborhood just like the famous scene from the movie. I started my school from here and used to commute to school in "haathe-tana" rickshwas - the hand-drawn ones which do not exist any more for good reasons I believe.
After 5 years of staying in our humble home we moved to the upper floor of a two-storied house in GangulyBagan (further south Calcutta). Well it was a big leap and no doubt my mother was overjoyed with 3 big rooms , a clean and healthy spacious kitchen , 2 big balconies well a real home for the first time. My brother was born here. But our stay here was too short lived and we were again moving in a couple of years.
We moved absolutely to other side - the Northern part of Calcutta..on the crossing of the busy V.I.P. Bridge in Ultadanga as my father's organization came up with residential apartments for its employees. In spite of my mother's and my vehement protests that we will be moving far from my school and our friends and relatives my father found it the best option to move. So we moved.
This time it was what we call "Flat" /"Condo" . The balcony overlooked the busy VIP bridge and we saw Nelson Mandela(when he made his trip to Kolkata) stop there and wave to us. Our stay was quite extended this time and I gave my 10th Boards Exam "Madhyamik" from here. It was quite a nice stay apart from my daily commute to school. My brother meanwhile started off with his dose of education in my school.
We stayed in "Rohini"( thats how our apartment was named) for 8 straight years and made our childhood friends, learnt to ride bicycles and hummed our fist hindi songs :). Oooh quite a lot of memories. It was time to move again. This time it was for me or rather my upcoming 12th Boards (which according to parents is the biggest eve of your growing up phase :P). My parents decided to move closer to school so that I will be able to take up tuitions and still have some time to study if I cut down on my commute time. One of my uncles had the upper most floor in their apartment empty and we moved.
We moved to South Calcutta - Deshapriya Park and stayed there for a couple of years for my 12th Boards. This stay proved to be significant for me as I found my best friend and my life partner during our stay here. As we had moved close to school my friends could come over to "study" :P . But yeah it was fun. But the fun did not last long.
As the results of Joint Entrance was out I found I had a bit more fun that I should have had and had to move to Durgapur to study Computer Science and Engineering in B.C.Roy Engineering College. While my postal address shifted to Steel House Girl's Hostel my parents shifted again to "Neelachal" Housing close to Siemens in Bosepukur.
My stay at Durgapur was predefined for 4 years but my family kept on with their tradition. After a couple of years at Neelachal (most significant incident at this stay was "Bhnarer Thakur at Bosepukur Pujo Mandap" - The pandal decorations for goddess durga was created from earthen pots which are used for drinking tea in Eastern part of India") they moved for a permanent settlement to Shaheed Nagar - our very own apartment.
My mother was the one who was most relived at this settlement and till today gives our home the highest priority well I think it comes before us :P ( do not tell her). My life in Durgapur was fun filled hostel life with too many memories to be shared here, friends for life and a whole new perspective outside home for the very first time.
Well as my parents settled down I started with my very own nomadic life. After I passed out with a B.E. degree I first started working with Satyam Computer Services Ltd. at Hyderabad. I stayed in Hyderabad for about 1.5 years( of which 2 months I was at Bhubaneshwar ) with two change of residences intra city (which I did not bother about any longer) - now the challenge was intercity or intercontinental :P. I made quite a few friends and had lot of fun as we were earning for the very first time in our life and staying away from home :P.
After 1.5 years I moved to Bangalore and stayed there for about 6 months before I took my first flight to the "States".I stayed in Milford Connecticut for about six months. I made a very good friend in my roomie and we share a very strong rapport though my stay was not that long.I went back to Hyderabad and then came to Bangalore for good and joined Iflex Solutions. This phase of my stay in Bangalore was quite entertaining and fun. I had a lovely time with our friends mostly all weekends we played a marathon of games like cards, ludo,scrabble, dumb charades and so lived life :).
Well I again changed address in Bangalore got married and was preparing to settle down but you remember Hatu Kotu right :P. His influence on me was far from being over.My dear husband got an offer from a US university and in 4 months he flew out to start of with his Ph.D curriculum. I was again left to wonder :(.
Recession had hit big by that time and I was stuck with saving my job. A year later I flew for a couple of months in summer with my husband.In those two months we also enjoyed a vacation in Europe for a couple of weeks. I was revitalized to go back and again fight :P.
Finally persuasion and persistence and patience gave way :) .A year later I flew back to the States with my job but I was put up in Columbus, Ohio while my husband was staying in Evanston, Illinois.
We kept travelling back and forth on weekends for about 6 months when on a fateful day I returned from work to find my apartment in Columbus broken in :( . I was scared. I literally cried after ages. Called 911 ,waited for the maintenance to come and fix the door which was ripped apart badly. I stayed with a colleague of mine that night. Next morning I took the first flight out to Chiacgo.
Well I spoke to my manager and told him that I was too scared to go back and after a couple of months they let me know the officially that I could stay on in Chiacgo and Work From home :) :). Finally I was re united with my husband.
Amidst all these move ins and move outs the little girl who was struck with wonder that Hatu Kotu and his family wore all their clothes while moving came to understand the significance of it :P. All these years since my own nomadic life I have built up a huge variety of wardrobe ranging from Ethnic Indian to ballroom dresses to gypsy trinkets to loose pajamas and very many types of satchels and shoes and slip ins...you name the types and likely I will have one of its kind from some part of the world. Alas!! when the occasion arises I am completely lost as to where my dress is or where is that matching green earring and at times I have completely forgotten that I had something like that. And on a Saturday afternoon when I sit down to pack for a move again I have a big glee on my face at the sight of so many long lost precious knick-knacks and some exquisite shrug (which at the time of buying I had to have) with still its tag on it . I make it a point to remember each and every time as to which suitcase I am putting my purple cashmere or my green matching slip ins or the cross body "jhola" purses from Goa.If and only if I had a RAM to the order of GB to rise to the occasion :(. Hence the prudence of Hatu Kotu appeals to me and I wish I could do that. :P
But wait our story continues...we are heading west to Santa Clara for three months (my husband has an internship there) and then in September we are moving apartment in Evanston once we are back :P.
So long Hatu Kotu lives with me :)
Really nice memoir...you could have squeezed in your multiple transcontinental flights last summer too :)
ReplyDelete@Srijeeta: :) yup, thank you for reminding me.
ReplyDeletekoto kichu likhechis...eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....koto kichu mne pore gelo....:)
ReplyDelete