Transcript in English

Part-I.

00:00- 08:15

Question: What is your name?

Answer: My name? Geethapriya Bhattacharya.

Question: What do you do? Profession?

Answer: I used to teach. I was a teacher of higher secondary school…

Question: What subject?

Answer: Philosophy.

Question: Oh! Where did you spend your childhood?

Answer: My childhood was spent… in (now) Bangladesh, then it was East Pakistan. In a tea garden in Sylhet district.

Question: Which year are you talking about?

Answer: I was born on 8th December 1951. I was born there. Father worked in tea garden. Duncan Brothers garden… huge garden… there were two or three more branches in that garden… huge big garden.

Question: Who was the garden under? The British?

Answer: The British. Sahebs and all. But by then India was independent. But still, Sahibs were in charge of managing the garden.

Question: Wasn’t it still called Sahib?

Answer: Yes, there was a manager, there was an assistant manager. They were all sahibs. And the staff were all Bengalis.

Question: I heard there are different communities? Such as the Munda community?

Answer: Yes they were the labour class. Kurmi, Parsi, Bauri, Goala… there were many such communities.

Question: Everyone lived together?

Answer: Yes, yes.

Question: Everyone used to participate in everyone’s festival?

Answer: Yes, everyone did. There was Tusu festival, several times we also went. Their lines were different. There was a separate house for them, there was a mud house and my father had quarters.

Question: How did it feel then?

Answer: It was a very happy childhood. And then there were no nuclear families like nowadays. There were eight or ten people in each house. We were also ten brothers and sisters.

Question: Everyone here now? In India?

Answer: Yes, yes.

Question: Everyone?

Answer: Yes.

Question: When did you come over here?

Answer: We came in ’65.

Question: Well. All ten of you together or in batches?

Answer: No, we all came together.

Question: Settling here all together must have been terrible!

Answer: Ten siblings…

Question: How old were you then?

Answer: I was young then.

Question: Were you the eldest?

Answer: No no. I’m not eldest. I am number four among my sisters. And number eight among all the siblings in total.

Question: You were quite young then. Must have grown up being adored by the others?

Answer: Yes, yes.

Question: Then tell me the story, how did you get from there to here?

Answer: It was a happy life there. I have also written a book on tea plantations, greenery and those things.

Question: Well. Now you write books. I’ll come to that later.

Answer: Okay.

Question: Tell me your childhood story.

Answer: My childhood was very happy because there were many children like us in every house. We didn’t have that feeling of loneliness like today’s children, who stay alone at home. We used to make noise all day. We used to play hide-and-seek in the tea gardens, we used to play Ekka Dokka in the backyard, and we used to be a group of people in the same yard. I used to pick flowers, I would get up early in the morning and everyone would go with me to pick flowers and play.

Question: All together – eating, dancing, singing…

Answer: Yes, we used to dance and sing and do Durga Puja in the tea garden, we all had a lot of fun there. The fair was crowded. Big sacrifices were also held there. There was a big festival, a big fair, I was very happy. These are all about childhood.

Question: Are you talking about the year ’65?

Answer: Yes.

Question: How did you get here?

Answer: I came from there after my father’s retirement. Our home was in Burunga Village, Lower Burunga Village in Srihatta District. The headquarters were in Sylhet.

Question: What happened to that house?

Answer: I have also written about that house in my book.

Question: In which book?

Answer: In my book “Tea Garden Green”. I also wrote about that house in the tea garden there. That house was once a huge house. Father had six or seven brothers, there were many people. But, I think everyone moved to India after partition.

Question: Did you come over out of fear?

Answer: Must be because of fear. He must not have felt safe.

Question: I heard that before the partition, Hindus and Muslims used to live together but then this sudden partition came this way…

Answer: Maybe they all came here before I was born. I can’t tell you the exact reason. But it seems that everyone was thinking that maybe they need to come thinking about the future, maybe they were feeling insecure, I don’t know if I am right… But Hindus and Muslims all used to live together. They all left, our house was completely empty… completely empty. I had a great-great-grandfather, about whom I have written in the book. That grandfather used to stay there sometimes. The rice was sold from the fields and land deposits there, the rice was cultivated by other people. They used to give half to us, and they would take half and they would come and give the money to my father once a year. This was out world. And when I was very young, I may have gone there once, but I don’t have even a vague memory. But the house is in a famous village. There is a freedom fighter of that village from Sylhet, Saratchandra Chowdhury. He was a freedom fighter. He wrote a book. I have that book too. After reading that book, the British government banned the book. Famous freedom fighter, Saratchandra Chowdhury.

Question: What was written in the book? That the book was declared banned?

Answer: It was written in the form of a metaphor. Devi-Juddha, meaning Goddess Durga and Asura, meaning battle with Asura. The British thought it was symbolic. The British were the asura and India the mother. I have read the book. They thought it was symbolic. That it will inspire a patriotic spirit in everyone, hence they banned the book. Moreover, Sushant Chowdhury, who was the principal of the MVP College there, was also from our village and lived in the house next to us. It was a very educated village. I heard that there was a high school on that side of the pond in front of the village, a hospital at that time, I heard stories. It was a developed village.

Question: Sylhet is quite developed.

Answer: Very advanced. Now it has improved. I have heard from people who go to Bangladesh.

Question: Have you ever been there after studying?

Answer: No no. Didn’t go anymore.

Question: Do you want to go?

Answer: Can you go, even if you want to? However, I would like to see.

(23:30 – 32:48)

Question: All your land is there?

Answer: Suddenly one day I came home after playing… I was talking about tea garden. We knew we had a home there. I don’t remember much but we had a home. But there is no one at home. Our eldest uncle, relatives had all moved to India. We didn’t have any close relatives there either. One or two pishis [aunts], Kaka – Jetha [uncles] – were all. They also worked in the tea garden. The two elder brothers worked in two gardens.

Question: Do you have contact with all of them?

Answer: Yes, yes. So we came home after playing one day and saw everyone very serious. Everyone was very upset… What’s the matter? Then I came to know that someone had occupied our house. The house has been taken… all of our land, taken by force. A telegram had just arrived.

Question: The place was in your name?

Answer: Yes, yes.

Question: So it was coercion … like this…?

Answer: Could be taken over by force. It used to be like this. Many houses had been occupied in this way.

Question: By Hindus or Muslims?

Answer: I don’t know. I don’t remember much. What else will the Hindus do! Hindus were all leaving… then there is no question of going to that house. Then after my father’s retirement we came to Kaila city.

Question: Ten people came together to Kaila city together…

Answer: No, not ten. Our eldest sister got married while still living in the garden.

Question: Married in India?

Answer: No, no, she got married in Bangladesh. He was a doctor, working in another tea garden. I have also written about him. So, my elder sister got married and our elder brother used to live in his [maternal] uncle’s house since childhood, in India, studying there. Mejodada [middle brother] also was given a job in the garden after my father’s retirement. In Chaklakandi garden. Dad got a job in the garden where he was. Then the father thought that the son was working when he would stay in that garden but father did not do it. What did father do… I don’t know why… They understood their thoughts and future better, we didn’t understand these things then. We knew we were going to leave. When we went to buy some good things, our mother used to say, “No, where will we leave the things we have? We will not stay here! We have no relatives here, we will go to India.” In this way we were mentally prepared that we would leave today or tomorrow. It didn’t occur to me why we should leave, there was no need, because we were fine there, we didn’t have any relatives there. Anyway, then we came here one fine morning.

Question: In what year?

Answer: In 1965.

Question: What month would that be?

Answer: I remember the Bengali month. Baisakh it would be. Then, dada [older brother] remained there. He got a job. The garden was near the city of Kaila but it was two different countries. One in East Pakistan and one in India. That dada stayed there and we left, and the sister who got married, they stayed there and we… and what happened in between! Our other sister, another brother, were also sent to their parents’ house. They got admission in college after passing matriculation. By doing this, father was sending us over one by one. And when we came to India, we four sisters and parents all came together. All the others remained, the rest had already arrived. So we bought a small house in Kaila town, that too on the word of the man who sold the house… He said one thing, later it turned out to be another. I mean it wasn’t up to the mark, we were still in that house, and then we had a little trouble, a lot of trouble. In fact, having stayed in a large house spread over a large area in the garden, we had a hard time here when we had a mud house with a tin roof. However, dada used to work, and the other brother also worked in the tea garden… So what if they were in two different nations, every month he could still send money! The financial condition wasn’t good though.

Question: How did you get from there to here? Checkpost…

Answer: No checkpost or anything. Maybe there was… but many people came to India in groups in the garden and many came to stay in our house. People we didn’t even know, we gave them rice. How they used to come? The border between the Chaklataru tea garden and that of Kaila city was Murthijhora. On one side of Murthyjhora—Kaila city border was Pakistan and that side was India. Perhaps they moved towards that direction, I don’t remember that much, and I think that, the military in Bangladesh, they helped too. They came with…

Question: Well, they helped and sent them?

Answer: Yes, yes. Then we left. For a few days, like a month, we stayed in a rented house in Kaila city. Then it was registered and we moved to our house. Then we joined the school.

Question: No year loss?

Answer: No, no.

Question: You studied in Bangladesh, with those papers…?

Answer: No papers were needed. We didn’t even have to pay anything. Got admitted to the girls’ school, took the admission test. We were four sisters, there was a primary school near our house, two sisters got admission there and me and my younger sister got admitted to girls’ school. I was in nine, and she was in seven. I studied there. There, two sisters passed five and four sisters studied together in the girls’ school. Eleven, Nine, Eight, and Six. Thus, we read … all of us four sisters together and each one of us achieved good results. Dada got admitted too, he came with aunty. Dada went to college, they came and enrolled in Kaila city. Our house was ready, so why stay in Mama–bari. And that dada who worked there, he used to work and send us money. Then father asked the dada that remained in the garden, that you should come over too. He left his job, and came to India and he also got a job in the Assam Govt. There was not much demand for jobs then.

Question: Where is he working now?

Answer: He is no more. Died a few days ago. It has been five or six months. Dada also worked in the revenue department of the Assam government. Again, Didi had a job too, Didi got her job in Kaila city. Was posted in Ambasa. The next generation took the family forward, essentially.

 Part 2

Gitapriya Bhattacharjee: You see, the Sankranti that is coming up…it will be celebrated with much pomp and splendour and many will be invited over to feast on chunga pitha.

Gitapriya: Mhmmm… Chunga pitha, cooked in their houses, requires a type of bamboo which one can avail of, especially for this dish. I cannot recall its name right now. This…this particular thing can be found sized up into portions. The joints are placed on the lower side of the bamboo.

Question: Right. The lower portion is split.

Answer: The upper portion of the bamboo stem has incisions. There…hmmm…birun chal or binni chal, as we refer to it in Sylhet, is stuffed inside the chunga, letting it to be soaked. The chal remains soaked a night before the preparation. Then, with the help of fodder—kher as per Sylhet’s dialect—the openings of the chungas are tied up and roasted over fire. However, given that the bamboo stems are unripe, they don’t get singed in the heat. As it gets blackened, the bamboo stems are then peeled off, almost like peeling a banana. Once you peel it off, out comes the chunga, shaped like a tubelight.

Question: What do you eat it with?

Answer: Cut up the pitha into pieces and have it with kheer—they, mainly, used to have it that way. Sankranti is coming right up and many, many people will come over to their place to have chunga pitha. At times other than Sankranti, when special guests arrive, they cook this food as well. You can have it with kheer, pigeon meat—kaboutorer mangsho—cooked in a spicy gravy, as well as with an assortment of fries. However, kheer is what their staple is, and a lot many people are invited.

Question: Is this Sylhet’s specialty?

Answer: Chunga pitha is Sylhet’s specialty.

[The following minutes of conversation between 7:08—7:11, between Gitapriya and the interviewer overlap. For purposes of clearer understanding, it has been presented as separate units]

Question: Tell me, does this tradition continue till date?

Answer: Yes! Till date…till date it persists.

Question: Even, the practice of eating this item together, as a community, that too remains?

Answer: Yes, yes, yes…this item is extremely special. In fact, I have heard that once, though I cannot recall where exactly, Jawaharlal Nehru had eaten this pitha.

Question: Oh!

Answer: Yes, I think he had said something along the lines of ‘chungus, chungus’—he could not get the pronunciation right. It is not occurring to me right now where I had read it, but I did read it somewhere. Jawaharlal Nehru had come to Sylhet, eaten chunga pitha…our traditional food. In fact, this food is not to be found everywhere. In my house, in Dharmanagor—my younger sister’s house, born next after I, that is—Gayatri, this pitha is made.

[As Gitapriya speaks, the interviewer is heard assenting, with cues like “yes”, “right” to what she says]

Question: Okay…So did Jawaharlal Nehru come to Sylhet?

Answer: Yes! He did come to Sylhet. He came here at the time of independence, didn’t he?

Question: Do you mean to say that this is around ’47 or so?

Answer: This must be sometime long back.

Question: Then, after ’47…?

Answer: This too I cannot say with any certainty, I had read it in a book. Now, where did I come across it that I cannot remember…should have kept it in mind, probably [an audible sigh] Chunga pitha, that is, is our traditional food, the food of Sylhet.

Question: That’s wonderful!

 Part 3

(11:31 – 15:00)

Question: Then, what was written? What did you find in his writing?

Answer: No, I saw in his writings that at that time Bangladesh was home and then…

Question: Where was his home in Bangladesh?

Answer: I forgot where it was. Somewhere in Comilla. There I saw his very struggling life. He has reached this place after a lot of struggle. They came to Kamalapur and made it their home. Then the house burned down. Then when he went to study, his brother worked in Indian Airlines… he knows something about planes. He died suddenly in a plane accident. Their only earning member was his younger brother. He first worked in MVP College. Then when he went to study MSc…

Question: What year is that?

Answer: I can’t remember that, it was a long time ago.

Question: After partition?

Answer: Yes, after partition.

Question: Well, well.

Answer: So he was the only earning member while studying there. He was married then. He had all his sons and daughters. He passed his MSc with great difficulty and then came here and got a job in the college and finally became a principal. His journey was not easy. It really moved me.

Question: Did he also see Partition?

Answer: Yes, yes, he saw it from Kolkata.

Question: What did you write about freedom?

Answer: That… he wrote about riot…

Question: What kind of riot?

Answer: Saw a lot of riots. Then saw the famine.

Question: What did he write in the book?

Answer: Whatever would come to his mind? “Fyan De” [Give us rice starch] shouts of the women. Once he was in Dhaka, how a Muslim boy brought him to India – he wrote these. These are very important texts. I have serialized and edited them.

Question: Had he seen the famine? Which year do you mean?

Answer: Yes, he wrote about the famine before the Partition.

Question: What other tragic events do you remember from his writings?

Answer: When he was in Dhaka, his family did not hear from him for three or four days. There was no telephone then… and the people of the house did not think that he would survive. And then, a Muslim boy brought him home.

Question: You mean, brought him from Dhaka to Tripura?

Answer: Yes, he wrote these.

Question: And the famine story?

Answer: Wrote about the pre-partition famine.

(16:04 – 25:00)

Geetapriya: I was in college then. People started coming in groups then, I saw in Kaila town. Offices and schools were filled with so many refugees. And the most interesting thing was that my father’s colleagues who were in Chatlapur Bagan had all come to Kaila town with their families. I met many of my childhood friends. Then some of them went to their relatives’ houses, some went to school, then to refugee camps. They then went to the camp.

Question: What was the name of the camp?

Answer: No no, just ‘Refugee camp’. That was the name. And we became closer to those who came to know us. They often came to our house. In the morning, he actually went in the afternoon. Even after coming from the refugee camp, we stayed here. It was a joy for us that we were able to get along with everyone even though we were in college.

Question: Was it difficult for them to stay there?

Answer: No, we went there. I went to the refugee camp. I also have an article about this. One wanted to publish, I gave them. All the details are there.

Question: For example, why don’t you highlight a few incidents?

Answer: I went to the refugee camp…like a long train car. Houses on both sides and a loft for each. You know a loft? A makeshift bed…like a place to sleep. There were cooking utensils.

Question: Food was given by the government?

Answer: Everything was given. A lot of help came from abroad. Milk, blanket, dal, rice came. Very good rations were provided. I stayed in the refugee camp for two days. Then only in the evening, the sound of cannons could be heard from the house. Once a splinter came and fell in our house, the Kaila town house. Our Kaila town house was near the border, Nayanmuiza village could be seen. Even greater reason for our happiness was that Nayanmuza village was in Pakistan, we had no contact there. At that time, the border was opened. Those who used to study in Shamser Nagar School, my grandfather’s friend Tandhu… They came to Nayanmuiza… They were working in Dhaka then. Then they came to Nayanmuza and on arrival they found out that that was our house. We used to walk straight through the paddy field in the afternoon. We got in touch a lot with this grandfather’s childhood friends, their families…many families, childhood acquaintances. It is a very happy thing in the midst of so much sadness.

Question: Then where did you settle from the camp?

Answer: Those who came to Nayanmuiza are in Bangladesh.

Question: Where are those who lived in the refugee camp now?

Answer: They have gone back to their place.

Question: You mean in Bangladesh?

Answer: Yes, yes.

Question: Well, have they returned after the war?

Answer: Yes, they all went to Bangladesh after the war. Back then many people used to come to our house. Today two or three people would come… all of a sudden someone would be coming. But it’s a sad thing, even though I understood a little, I mixed with everyone, went there with everyone. Three or four planes arrived at Shamser Nagar in Pakistan and then turned around again.

Question: Do you know anyone who participated in the war?

Answer: I had a classmate. He used to study with me in Chatlapur Bagan. The master who taught us, Falguni Singh, and his son Rabindrakumar Singh, used to study with me. He was very good at studies. I would be first, he would be second.

Question: Oh!

Answer: In my childhood, pathshala school, I met him too. They came to Kaila city. It was then that we met. Then I heard that he went to the Liberation War to take training. After training, he went to join the Liberation War. He got a big post in Dhaka. Then one day I got the news of how he was shot dead by an assailant. I don’t know what the matter was, I was very hurt by it. That is it. There are many other incidents, too many to mention.

Question: Please tell us a few!

Answer: Tell me what else to say! I saw that there were many tea garden owners, there were small tea gardens, right? The owners also became refugees. I also saw them standing in line and collecting rations.

Question: Ration was not given to everyone, only those who had cards?

Answer: No, not everyone. It was given to everyone who went to the refugee camp. Children were given rice, pulses and peas.

Question: Was it given daily?

Answer: No no. But there was no problem in eating them from what I understood. I stayed with them there. India handled it well then.

Question: Isn’t this the story of ’71?

Answer: And “Amar Sonar Bangla, Ami Tomay Bhalobashi“, this song was on everyone’s lips. Another chant could be heard, “Bicharpati, tomar bichaar korbe jara, aaj jegechhe oi jonota“. These songs were thrilling back then. And “Amar Sonar Bangla”, we used to sing it all the time. Then the war ended. At that time, transistors had not come to every house. The day Mujib came free, my sister was working in Ambasa. She bought a transistor radio to listen to Mujib’s speech.

Question: The first speech of independent Bangladesh?

Answer: I had heard Mujib’s previous speeches, “We will not let you be kept under suppression.” They were played on the radio. Then “this struggle is a struggle for liberation, this struggle is a struggle for freedom”, “you can’t keep us in check!” At the end, Mujib said what Rabindranath Tagore had written, “O enchanted mother of seven crore children, you have kept us Bengalis and not made us into Humans” has become a lie today. Today, Bengalis have become people, they have become independent. These were thrilling speeches, it was good to hear. There was a frenzy then. I wrote an essay. I went to Assam then, one of my older brothers came and told me to write the essay. Then I was a member of that war. I wrote about it for a magazine in 1971.

Question: And your sister bought the transistor. Then everyone sat there together…

Answer: Yes, yes. Many people gathered around.

Question: Where is your sister now?

Answer: She is dead.

 Part 4:

(04:44 – 10:14)

 Geetapriya: I know the Silheti Ramayana too. I have it memorized.

Question: Can you recite it?

Answer: It will take a long time.

Question: Tell me briefly!

Answer: How can I say it in brief?

Question: Just recite as much as you like.

Answer: It is in Sylheti. It will take five to seven minutes.

Question: Let it!

Answer: Sylheti language is spoken there. Some are not able to speak it. Even though they are Sylheti they can’t. I can speak in Sylheti. I could also read it. The girl who wrote Sylheti Ramayana, her name was Rakhi Bhattacharya. The girl gave it to a magazine. I again submitted the Sylheti Ramayana to the Srihatta Sammelan magazine. Well let me say it.

[The Ramayana Narrative in Sylheti]

Geetipriya: How was it?

Question: Wonderful!

(14:35-21:19)

Question: Tell me about some incidents?

Answer: I did not know that the movement took place, that there were so many freedom fighters in Srihatta and that there was such a large movement. I would not have known if I had not studied this book. One person, Asit Bhattacharya, was also hanged in Srihatta Jail at that time

Question: What year was it?

Answer: It was before partition. Before 1947, I mean. About the anti-British movement, not Bangladesh. So many women jumped into the movement, including Sunitabala, Swarnabala and many Muslims too. Thousands of people were incarcerated, suffering a lot of torture in prison. About these… torture details… one of the tortures was “Salam Sahib.” It meant that someone really had to stand up and say Salam Saheb to everyone. These freedom fighters are protesting inside the jail and saying, “Why should we salute you? We are protesting against you. They have protested inside the jail. Many have died in the jail. Many have gone on hunger strike in the jail. If the book is published before the book fair, I will give it to you, you will know a lot. How many freedom fighters… Many, two boys, three boys inspired everyone to jump into the freedom struggle. Dropped out of college, dropped out of school, dropped out of studies.

Question: Are any of them now in Tripura or Assam or West Bengal?

Answer: Yes there are. A freedom fighter used to come to my house. He is not there now, their children. Another was my Mesomshai, Krishnapada Goswami. He was a freedom fighter, used to come to our house but I was so young that I didn’t understand these things. Otherwise I could have heard many stories from him. I have seen many other freedom fighters but I didn’t show any interest in hearing anything from them back then. There was not the same interest then as there is now.

Question: Are they alive now?

Answer: No, mostly not. Very few are, although they have become very old. In my book, I have given a list of the freedom fighters who came to Kaila town and Kumarghat and built their houses and became refugees. There are like thirty six people. And I don’t know how many are in Agartala, I haven’t been to Agartala, I couldn’t.

Question: How do you know about them?

Answer: Through Anupam. Those who are in the city of Kaila, I heard of them through Anupam. Anupam is my sister’s son, a journalist. And the freedom fighter who is my cousin, his son has given a lot of details. And my younger sister’s son, his father gave a lot. There have been like thirty-six people like this. I wrote of them in the book. If everyone likes the book, they will know a lot. I can tell you the conclusion of the book. Half of the book is about the freedom fighters of Sylhet… there are personal contacts of freedom fighters. Seventy-five years have passed since independence, it takes another twenty years to fight for independence, and so what will they do? I have seen many of them.

Question: And this story of Sylhet is about the “Sylhet Referendum” whether Sylhet would join Bangladesh or India….

Answer: About that… it’s unfortunate that it happened but a lot of it is controversial.

Question: Well, like?

Anaswer: As in the matter of votes. I have not discussed this matter as writing these would make the matter politically controversial. I will do it another time if I can. “Finally we got freedom, but it was the independence of partition. Due to this partition, thousands of families of Sylhet were displaced in very painful conditions. They migrated and settled in Tripura, Assam, West Bengal and other parts of India. So that their next generation can know that thousands of people in Srihatta joined the anti-British movement and were humiliated, tortured and imprisoned. This is my small effort so that they can feel the attraction of the roots, the attraction of the pulse even a little.”