Sonamukhi

June 15th-21st , 2011,

Here i am in Sonamukhi village in Bankura, West Bengal bravely fighting the sad lunches and chilly dinners and training young girls to be able to design jute products for themselves.Their progress everyday makes me happier and happier. the food makes me sicker and sicker. we pass our time trying to figure out what to do after 4 in the evening. we have walked till 3 ends of the village. one which ends at the dry shali river, the other ends with the railway track which we walked to hunt patterned stones. the third we walked in search of phuchka and failed. we are surprised at the absence of phuchka walas and wonder about the girls here.
we have found a tea stall where we sit rest of the evening and talk to the old man who owns it. we have found the potter's den and shopped enough. we have seen the market and bought a bland watermelon, which however the ants found sweet. we have eaten bad rolls and noodles. i have woken up 5 in the morning to vomit and passed out in the bathroom without being to call for help. we have finally bought a set of ludo and played every evening on the marble bench outside. we have spent other times taking pictures of funny bengali shop hoardings and posting them on Facebook to draw attention. we have heard stories of wild elephants and how they snore. we have finally sworn to be back only when have enough packs of cup noodles and an electric kettle.
while all these thoughts, functions and struggle to fall into their own little space the pictures that i have posted draw the attention of my father and he comments-

"tor sonamukhir chobi gulo khub bhalo laglo. ami 1954 e sonamukhi tey chilam. tokhon sonamukhi gram chilo. ami bankura theke train e korey betola hoye sonamukhi jetam"

(i loved your sonamukhi photos. i was there in 1954. it was a village then. i used come by a train from bankura via betola)

My jaws dropped.

Almost 60 years ago my father came to the same place where i am. he came here with his local guardian, a Sikh man, when he was a student at the bankura christian college. now we exchanged notes about
1. horrible food
2. the immense capacity of people to be able to survive on muri four times a day

3. the obsession with all kind of chops that are fried .this discovery simply beat all my ideas about sonamukhi