One of our members, Mrs Malabika Ghoshal narrates to Mousumi Gupta a chilling experience of an armed gherao during a visit to Parasnath temple in Bihar in the early-1990s when her ...
One of our members, Mrs Malabika Ghoshal narrates to Mousumi Gupta a chilling experience of an armed gherao during a visit to Parasnath temple in Bihar in the early-1990s when her husband was posted in Bokaro (now in Jharkhand).
The Ghoshals, along with their children, started off for the Shikharji temple atop the 1,350m-high Parasnath hill quite early in the morning. They decided to go for the darshan first and then have breakfast at the base of the hill on which the temple stands.
As planned, the family offered puja along with other pilgrims and came down the hill, wondering where to have the breakfast. By the time they traversed the distance between the foothill and the main road, they could feel a strange sense of unease pervading the air.
“Some men sporting red headbands and brandishing weapons were running around and were forcibly shutting down all roadside shops. The moment they caught glimpse of us, they started shouting at us and snatched the food we were carrying. The men threw away the food and herded us into the waiting cars. They even kept banging on the bonnets with metal rods in rage,” said Mrs Ghoshal, narrating the horror story.
“After some time, we could gather that one of their leaders had been killed in an encounter the previous day against which they were protesting.”
With no option left, everyone sat inside their respective cars praying to god. “The children started to cry in hunger after some time. But everyone was so panic-stricken that no one dared to alight from the safety of the vehicles. Morning turned to afternoon and then to evening, the torture seemed never-ending. Our only prayer was that we remained fine and alive,” recounted Mrs Ghoshal.
“When the tormentors grew a bit tired late in the evening, we started stepping out of the cars in search of food. Our son, along with the driver, went a distance to fetch some food. As we lost sight of them, a police van reached the spot and took control of the situation. The police personnel immediately ordered us to leave the place. They warned us that if we did not comply, it would be difficult for them to help us any further.”
“We started to panic as our son and driver were not there. Thankfully, just then, we could spot them in the distance running towards us, maybe they too had seen the approaching police van. In the blink of an eye, all vehicles stranded at the trouble spot dispersed and sped away. Thank god, all of us could come back unhurt and safe. That day will forever be etched in my mind,” said Mrs Ghoshal, with a sense of relief on her face, even after almost three decades.
Pic credit: https://www.google.com/search?q=parasnath+temple+shikharji+jharkhand&sa=X&biw=1366&bih=625&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=MjHWUyu3oiBs9M%253A%252CtdiIqrBHkQ8dOM%252C%252Fg%252F120ykn1k&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kSyPei2ZaLeRXSALS0ARvl-RmpRzg&ved=2ahUKEwi6uqHNiI7hAhVSi3AKHbLLBUMQ_B0wIHoECAQQBg#imgrc=MjHWUyu3oiBs9M:&vet=1
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Mrs Hannie Gupta's indomitable spirit helped her beat old age and ill-health and see life in new light.
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Mrs Hannie Gupta's indomitable spirit helped her beat old age and ill-health and see life in new light.
A nonagenarian getting her hairs streaked. Don’t be shocked! Smile. At the amazing spirit of Mrs Hannie Gupta, who celebrated her 92nd birthday on March 7 in style!
Mrs Gupta led a sickly existence. She used to be frequently hospitalised, that too in the ICCU of a reputable south Kolkata nursing home with a host of serious health complications till a couple of years back. Doctors there had even suggested once that a brain surgery was the only option left to keep Mrs Gupta alive. But since she was nearing 90 years of age, Mrs Gupta’s brother, Dr Maurice Gubbay, a retired family physician settled in Israel, decided against it. Mrs Gupta had then lost her speech, leave aside movement.
The funny or rather interesting part of Mrs Gupta, who stays alone, becoming a member of Support Elders was she set a precondition. She badly wanted to get her Aadhaar card done and sought help from Support Elders. When SEPL could successfully get Mrs Gupta’s Aadhaar card done, she gladly agreed to take our membership.
But life came a full circle in a positive way when our care manager came into the picture. She not only took entire responsibility of Mrs Gupta’s house management but also the financial and health management. Hannie was provided with an ayah and a nurse.
Dr Gubbay had refused to let his sister undergo the brain surgery around September 2017 and undertaken the risk to take Mrs Gupta home. He got Mrs Gupta treated at her own home.
With the treatment and with Support Elders becoming her pillar of support, Mrs Gupta is doing absolutely fine now. Every month, Mrs Gupta’s hairdresser is at her doorstep.
She celebrated her 92nd birthday on March 7 in style. Support Elders ordered a chocolate cake and savouries from Nahoum and Sons in New Market. Mrs Gupta happily cut the cake with nine candles and one extra candle to wish that she completes her 100th birthday! She joined in singing the “Happy Birthday” song along with her friends and guests at the small party. Mrs Gupta relished a small slice of her birthday cake. Her brother, Dr Gubbay, wished her over a video call and was very happy to see the way she Mrs Gupta was celebrating her birthday with her friends and the Support Elders family around. He thanked Support Elders for taking care of her sister so well.
Mrs Gupta watches BBC News every day and keeps herself updated about the surroundings. She moves around in her wheelchair but is very cautious about what is happening around.
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This Women’s Day, let’s celebrate the lives of some of our exceptional members, who have dared to break the shackles of convention and managed to create a niche of their own.
<...This Women’s Day, let’s celebrate the lives of some of our exceptional members, who have dared to break the shackles of convention and managed to create a niche of their own.
Freedom struggle, academics, human rights
Mrs Uma Ahmad embodies all the elements which probably one needs to be a true woman of substance. With the freedom struggle and a chance encounter with the Mahatma sowing the seeds of fighting for human rights in the young Uma, no wonder she emerged as one of its staunchest champions.
This Women’s Day, we celebrate our member Mrs Ahmad’s life, which she tries to encapsulate in a tête-à-tête with Mousumi Gupta.
Tracing her roots, Mrs Ahmad said: “My father was the head of the Geological Survey of undivided India, which was then under colonial rule. We first settled in Calcutta and then in Lahore. But we were forced to rush back to Calcutta in 1947 at the time of Partition. I secured admission in Loreto House, where I used to study before leaving for Lahore.”
Detailing her role in the freedom struggle, she said: “I must have been around 13 or 14 years old, when I joined a few others in publicly burning silk garments as a mark of protest against the British rule. In our school years, we even mustered the courage to cut our fingers with the divider in the geometry box and apply tilak in blood on our foreheads. We used to raise anti-British slogans too.”
“Though my father used to work with the British, we never feared to protest against the colonial rule. Nor did he forbid us from doing so.”
“The khadi we used to wear those days was much coarse than what we get now. Though it was a bit uncomfortable on the skin, it didn’t bother us.”
But the one fact which makes Mrs Ahmad feel most proud about school life was that theirs was the first Loreto batch to hoist the Tricolour at their school right after Independence.
She has fond recollections of her chance encounter with Mahatma Gandhi at her uncle’s (who was a freedom fighter) residence in Lahore. “There was a regular radio programme in the 4pm slot, which used to broadcast some of Gandhiji’s awe-inspiring speeches. All of us used to stay glued to the radio then.”
Mrs Ahmad completed her studies from Loreto College and served there as a teacher for several years. She went on to become the first woman member of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission (WBHRC) when it was formed in 1995 under the chairmanship of then Chief Justice Chittatosh Mookerjee of the Calcutta High Court.
Several important decisions were taken during her five-year tenure at the WBHRC. “There were allegations of prisoners being treated badly. I summoned a woman prison-in-charge and asked her to submit complaints from the jail inmates,” said Mrs Ahmad grimly.
“I could effectively manage to limit the tenure of jail guards to 3 years from almost a permanent one. It was a means to prevent them from exploiting the prison inmates.”
On another occasion, Mrs Ahmad helped rescue a few children from the clutches of people involved in human trafficking.
Mrs Ahmad was associated with different schools in Kolkata as their board member. Till a few years back, she remained active through her association with running the trained teacher’s certificate course (TTC) at a prominent college in Kolkata. Other than providing training programmes, Mrs Ahmad would tell the teachers there about the importance of women’s role in shaping the society.
Pic credit: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/women-s-day-8-march-8-march-woman-2110802/
Want to share your experience? Please mail your story to writetous@supportelders.com with your name
This Women’s Day, let’s celebrate the lives of some of our exceptional members, who have dared to break the shackles of convention and managed to create a niche of their own.
<...This Women’s Day, let’s celebrate the lives of some of our exceptional members, who have dared to break the shackles of convention and managed to create a niche of their own.
Social service
One of our members, Mrs Indrani Paul, shares with Mousumi Gupta how the streak of social service in her drives her to rebuild the lives of destitute girls and women for almost 40 years.
“I have been pitching in with voluntary service at the All Bengal Women’s Union for more than 36 years. I still go there to their Elliot Road campus in central Kolkata twice a week,” said Mrs Paul, with distinct pride in her voice.
Briefing about the history of the ABWU, she said: “The organisation was set up in 1933 to help helpless and exploited women. We work with the varied age groups, right from newborn girls to elderly women. Abandoned, abused or orphaned children are often brought home by government /non-government agencies. Even the elderly, who have lost their families or been abandoned by their families, live our organisation peacefully and with dignity.”
The modest Mrs Paul was the secretary of the All Bengal Women’s Union for quite a long time.
The organisation also provides shelter and security to women, who have been victims of abuse, trafficking, etc. It provides them medical attention and trauma therapy.
“Once the women are mentally and physically fine, we train them in cooking, knitting and stitching to make them self-reliant and bring them back to the mainstream. There are old-age homes, working women’s hostels and children’s home on the campus,” said Mrs Paul.
The All Bengal Women’s Union launched Suruchi, the first home-cooked self-help Bengali restaurant in Kolkata, run by all women members way back in 1969.
Many women, after completing the training, joined different workplaces and now have their own houses and live independently.
On a pleasant note, Mrs Paul recalled: “Once my husband and I had stopped at a petrol pump for refuelling, when a woman attendant walked up to our car and introduced herself as one of the boarders at the All Bengal Women’s Union whom the organisation trained.”
“It’s looking at girls and women like her, who are well settled in life and are earning independently that gives me an immense of pride and satisfaction about ABWU’s success.”
Pic credit: https://pixabay.com/photos/commercial-street-ppt-background-2579034/
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By Anujit Mitter
Chickens cackling in a barn, Just like this one! Remember this one line sang by phonetics professor Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) in the 1964 Hollywood musical ...
By Anujit Mitter
Chickens cackling in a barn, Just like this one! Remember this one line sang by phonetics professor Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) in the 1964 Hollywood musical comedy My Fair Lady?
Or recall the exchange between Kashibai (enacted by Lalita Pawar) and bus conductor Khanna (Mehmood), when she boards the long-distance bus with a hidden chicken in the Bollywood classic comedy Bombay to Goa (1972)?
For our member Mrs Roshan Ara Gani, a graceful pearls-and-chiffon lady with a distinct coiffure, a nightmarish bus ride a few years ago was a cruel reminder of both the movie situations.
To start with, Mrs Gani’s acquaintance, somehow, convinced her to hitch a ‘joyride’ on a public bus with him from Baruipur on Kolkata’s southern fringes to the innards of New Town on the eastern fringes. They somehow managed to board an overcrowded bus bound for their destination on the fateful day.
Somehow pushing their way inside, Mrs Gani and her male acquaintance, to their horror, found that the bus was teeming with rustic co-passengers carrying big cane baskets cackling with country chickens. Worse, bleating goats were tied around the seats and the support iron rods, giving the resemblance of an actual barn! To compound things, all the birds and animals gave off a nauseating stench.
Before Mrs Gani could recover from the shock, her relative had quietly slipped away and taken refuge in a faraway corner of the bus, afraid to face the wrath of Mrs Gani.
The best that Mrs Gani could do for the rest of the journey was to cast angry glances at him from a distance and pray to the Almighty for the 'torture' to end fast.
Years later, Mrs Gani laughs at the mirth of the situation but the bitter taste lingers in her memories.
Pic credit: https://pixabay.com/vectors/bus-yellow-cartoon-transportation-304220/
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