Myself and Dipali visited Kolkata during 13 to 23 Feb, 2009 primarily to collect/ take photographs and interview possibly everybody at Barasat, Barrackpur, BaghaJatin(Jadavpur),Kolkata .Besides taking photographs, I came across one of the famous publications of Padmanath Saraswati ( Shrihatter Itibritto .. a hardcover with around 400 pages with chrological and graphical description of rulers of Sylhet starting from medieval ages ).We are trying to digitize it and upload for all to read it.
Another important outcome ... meeting with my aunt(Nani Devi, wife of Late Prahlad Chandra) at BaghaJatin.She is the last survivor of previous generation. She is slim., fit to move without any support at 89. It was a pleasure to gossip; her intelligent look and talks have not lost shine at this age.
1.Purna Chandra Shastri .. ..
... eldest son of Parmananda Kaviratna
Born in 1893, left for heavenly abode 30.12.1977; 'Shastri 'from Beneras Hindu University. MA (gold medal in Sanskrit) , Calcutta University. Having lost his father when he was a college student and being the eldest, he had to bring up his three brothers. All of them were educated at Calcutta as he began his career as a resident tutor to the grandsons of 'Maharaja of Putia' staying at a sprawling palatial house in Shyambazar.He brought his younger brother Promod Chandra from Baniachong who was younger to him by 8 years and admitted him in the Sanskrit Collegiate School , College Street-Calcutta (the school was established by Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar).
He taught at Murari Chand College-Sylhet,Sanskrit College,Maulavibazar College,at Govt.schools as Headmaster at Karimganj, Habiganj,Silchar,retired in April-1948 at the age of 55 .During British regime, that was the retirement age for Govt. officers. He and his brother Promod Chandra built a sprawling house in Habiganj in 1930( 20 miles from Baniachung) on the bank of river Khowai. Who knew that… they will lose all movable and immovable properties to the newly born East Pakistan in 1948 ? ....and they will have to flee their motherland due to communal clashes during partition of India (1947) ?. Otherwise Purna Chandra had planned (as said to me) to open a residential Sanskrit School in the premises of this house... to be named 'Uma Parananda Chatuspathi'
To be named after his parents.
The photograph was taken when he was around 80. With a sturdy frame in his youth ,he was a handsome man with a heavy personality. His uncompromising and relentless stand to stick to truth sometimes created problems in his service career. But he bravely faced odds.
He was not very tall(about 5ft.7 inches). He was dead against all types of luxury and indiscipline. He used to wear dhoti much above ankle .This exposed his adorable leg muscles. His left wrist lost its degrees of freedom due to a fatal fall from a tree in his boyhood. He was like a large banyan tree which sheltered whosoever wanted his help, whether material or otherwise. Children of poor near and far relations and friends , deprived of opportunity of schooling in villages , were sucked in his house during his entire service career. Recently in Shillong,I chanced upon a few of his thousands of students who fondly remembered "Purno Shastri".
He had seven sons and two daughters : Paramesh(Kanu), Bhanu (died at the age of 6 months),Paritosh(Bolu),Priyatosh(Bishu),Pranotosh(Bhola),Shibu, Haru; Ranu and Sarba.
I used to visit him when he was in a rented house with his sons and youngest daughter in Barrackpur( 18 Ghosepara Road) almost every weekend evenings during mid sixties. I was then studying at the Engineering college , Jadavpur. I was not bold enough to make eye contact with the head of the family and a living legend who brought up and gave shape to careers of all his brothers and near relations. Our discussion was often interrupted by the puffing and whistling of steam engines. Even tremor was felt every time a train passed by. Most noise was created by the 6-30 ‘East Bengal Express’ – a train with wooden compartments painted in green with a shining decorated engine which had very limited stoppages. It enjoyed a very special prestige like Rajdhani Express in India or Maglev in Europe today. The train used to deliberately give a long deafening whistle while crossing us. Through the window I could see one of the three red faced drivers shoveling coals from the tender to the hearth of the fire tube boiler of the engine. As the sound of the train subsided, he asked me to remind him of the last sentence he’d spoken before the interruption. Sometimes he smoked -- he was a mild smoker. He wanted to be alone during 8 PM news over All India Radio from a small transistor radio; this gave me some breather to gossip with my brothers .
He used to remind me of our talents as scholars through generations. “Do you have any idea of contribution by your forefathers to education?” – was his pet question. I used answer in the negative. He repented that his younger brother (my father) wasted his talent by branching out to the profession of lawyer, though he was the most gifted in his generation and one of the best in the university in Mathematics and Science. He used to study the least , but came out best in school and college.
After my return from Europe in 1972, I went to see him. He asked me whether I had taken a dip in the Ganges on my return. He did not allow me to touch his feet till I took a dip.
2. Promod Chandra Bhattacharjya …. Second son of Paramananda Kaviratna
1901 - 2 April,1966 1919 (?) - 2 Dec,1996
My father was exceptionally modest and a soft spoken man. From him I heard many stories of the then Calcutta, the capital of British India, where he had his school and university education. He was brought to Calcutta by his elder brother on his completion of middle school in Baniachong. On the lines of the freedom fighters, his priorities were character building and good physique. He joined Gym . At 6ft.2inches,he had a robust frame and a muscular body. Each of his long fingers were strong and artistic as each was tapered almost to a point at the tip; one can not but kept on looking at those talking fingers. His mother had dark and his father had very fair complexion; he got his complexion from his mother.
Not to forget that he saw the golden period of Calcutta when the all time greats of world fame were alive …Tagore, Sir JCBose, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy, Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee ( the royal Bengal tiger), subhas Chandra Bose, Sharat Ch. Bose, C.R Das, CVRaman,Satyen Bose, Meghnad Saha, Ramendra Sunder Trivedi … to name a few.
He was the very first man in the entire family tree who took up science instead of sanskrit. With almost record marks at his back, he got admitted at the law college. With his degrees in science and law, he began his career as a faculty in National Council of Bengal( now Jadavpur University) in Chemistry Department in 1926 (?).Dr. Triguna Charan Sen , who later on became the Vice Chancellor of Jadavpur University, Mayor of Calcutta and then the union Education Minister (1968 – 70), was his one of his friends and contemporary lecturers in the NCE. Had he settled at Jadavpur at that time ,he could have a glorious future. But destiny and call of motherland brought him back to Baniachong… the family wanted him to practice law at Habiganj Court to earn his livelihood as well as to look after the ancestral property in the form of agricultural land, plots of land , ancestral house with orchards, etc. He and his elder brother built a new house at Habiganj (20 miles from Baniachong ) , raised children and practiced law for nearly 20 years …. when suddenly in 1947 partition and communal riots .. everything was blown off…property, aspirations and dream. I was then only five. But I have in my memory graphic details of the build-up of riot clouds, house burning scenes among thunderous communal slogans by people armed with flashing swords, .. and finally our escape in the thick of darkness to Shayestaganj Railway station.
…. Thanks to the clever political leaders and demigods of those days and of today who are very good in speeches and assurances and are ever ready to sacrifice their lives to uphold secularism from a safe distance.… Newspapers were busy in printing their speeches and photos of crowds traveling on the roofs of more than overcrowded trains. Then, what happened to Promod Chandra ?
He stayed with his youngest brother Paresh Chandra who was then an officer with Indian Railways at Calcutta for sometime. Got job as school teacher readily, but in remote areas of West Bengal. Like Pandavas the family moved from one place to another in this process ; villages thus visited were - Lokenathpur( near Tarakeshwar) infested with deadly snakes and hundreds of langurs, Rajivpur, Shibhati (near Itindaghat) where tigers sometimes strike during night, Hingalganj where salt water river Ichamati infested with sharks used to flood the habitation every year… outbreak of cholera and small pox was no surprise, Taki -- where fear of wild animals were not there but the school had no money to pay teachers. Ultimately he found a better place in Jhargram among long spreads of thick sal and teak forests and population of simple and lovable people of Santhal tribe. Promod Chandra’s background in science became an asset to K.K.Institution, the famous local school as the then Intermediate science entered the West Bengal school curriculum at class XI stage. He now found some solace after years of distress. The popular ‘Sir’ was the talk of the town as an ideal teacher and advocate of man-making education. Jhargram , with its number of boys’ schools, girls’ schools, basic training institute, polytechnic, junior polytechnic, Ramkrishna Sevayatan, Sharada vidyapeeth, college, agriculture college, B.Ed college continues to be a good destination for students.
He breathed his last in Jhargram among the whispering of tall trees ,twittering of hundreds of birds and cooing of a lone cuckoo from the nearby mango tree in the early hours of 2nd April. Those days healthy persons like him did not go to the doctor nor cared for regular BP or blood sugar check up. On his deathbed ,we came to know that he had high BP and had a severe stroke.
At marriage my mother Labonya Prova was twelve and my
father thirty . At Habiganj she was the only
mother of the joint family of the first and second
brothers having nine children , since the
premature demise of Purna Chandra’s wife. Before my birth she spent a few years first in Baniachong and then Sylhet where Purna Chandra used to teach in the Murari Chand College. Prahlad Chandra and Paresh Chandra were then college students in the joint family. Since then her day started in the kitchen in the early morning and ended at midnight, cooking and feeding hungry mouths four times a day. In Habiganj, the three family members of the servant who stayed in the outhouse helped her , besides milking the cow, washing clothes and cleaning the house. She was fair, pretty and famous among friends and relations for her witty jokes and her superb skills in innovative cooking. Yet she found time to teach children who used to sit around her with books in the big kitchen; sat at the harmonium with Ranu, the eldest daughter of Purna Chandra.
Needless to say that , subsequent to partition of India, moving to village after village with children , protect them, feed them and educate them properly was difficult enough to describe in words. As a child I saw her reading out loudly Anandamath ( Bankim Chandra) to a congregation of illiterate village women. I was born in her parental house at a village called Betal in Mymensingh district.
My mother was actually a goddess who came to earth to rescue others from distress and to share others’ sufferings. Her three sons and three daughters did their best to give her their best . She came to Delhi to stay with me and my younger brother. At least her last days had been happier among sons and their wives , daughters and their husbands, her most beloved grand daughters and grandsons, before she went back to heaven without much suffering. She left behind three sons and three daughters: Pravakar(Kajol), Anima (Anu), Prosanto (kanchan),Aparna(Shukla),Pronab(Ranju),Anjana(Khuku)
3. Prahlad Chandra Bhattacharjya…third son of late Parmananda Kaviratna
.. ..long live sejokakima,89Prahlad Chandra
Bhattacharjya
2 October1904 – 4 April,1989
That’s how Kaku looked like when he was in his forties. Above photo of Sejokakima was taken a month ago. At 89 she is so fit and witty. The house at A/129 Bagha Jatin was almost a make-shift shelter in early fifties, where Sejokakima spent most of the time in the kitchen cooking and feeding husband and five children: Haimanti(Minu), Basanti(Khuku), Phalguni ( Khoka), Partha Sarathi(Pintu) and Jayanti(Jhunu). The colony then did not have civic facilities like sewage or sanitation. Today all houses there speak of affluence .
Prahlad Chandra joined teaching after his graduation in Science. He was also M.Ed ( Master of Education) from Calcutta University. Like brothers he was also well-built ; he was around 5 ft 8 inches tall. Though I saw him many times, I did not know how he looked like till I crossed twenty; as a child I was so afraid of him due to his gravity that I did not dare to look at him. I used to always find him engrossed in reading. He taught at Chetla Boys’ school, Calcutta, Rajivpur High school, Bapujinagar Sammilito Udvastu Vidyalaya,and finally at Mukul Bose memorial Institute - Baghajatin
( 1959 – 1970) from where he retired as Headmaster.
His sons and daughter should mail me more information about him.
4. Paresh Chandra Bhattacharjee… 4th son of Paramananda Kaviratna
( 1907 - 1978 )
This photograph was taken in December 1941 0n the occasion of his marriage. This rare photo has been made available to me by Basanti(Khuku) and Jayanti(Jhunu). He graduated in Mechanical Engineering from Bengal Engineering college, Shibpur. During British period , getting an officers’ position in Indian Railways demanded exceptional merit which he had. He used to talk of those days when he had cross Hoogly river( Ganges) by walking along boats lined up across the river; Howrah bridge was under construction then. He had to commute from Calcutta to his workshop at Howrah. I still remember his huge staff quarter (Kolvin Courts) near Howah Maidan , and then at 15 Belvedere Park, Alipur. During those post- partition days he sheltered innumerable relations and friends. Provided employment to at least 300 men. He was really handsome; one might mistake him for the then popular film hero Ashok Kumar. He was very fair and about 6 feet tall. He was posted at various important places like Kurseong, Malogaon, Guwahati and finally Delhi. When cars were rare, he had bought his first car in early fifties.
He was the very first man in the family tree who went to London on a training program way back in 1950 … an event so rare and prestigious to the family.
I stayed for two months with him at his Bunglow at 6 State Entry Road, Connaught Place, New Delhi on my joining as a Lecturer at NCERT, New Delhi in 1969. He was then the Chief Engineer, Northern Railways. He retired from the Railways in 1971.
Soon after that he built a house at Salt Lake, Calcutta. He suddenly fell ill in 1976 due to prostrate trouble. He breathed his last in 1978 in Chandigarh .
Our Kakima Roma Bhattacharjya was the pride of the family. She was highly educated ,very pretty and an accomplished singer over All India Radio. Some of her songs are available on gramophone discs. She was also a teacher at Dakshini , the famous institute for teaching Rabindra sangeet in Calcutta. She was the daughter of Kalipada Mukherjee, the then Public Prosecutor. Kakima went to stay with her daughter in the USA where she breathed her last.
They left behind : Nandita (Nanda), twins - Joyashree (Jaya) ang Monjushree(Monju).
5. Dr. Pudarikaksha Bhattacharya,M.Sc. M.B. DTM.DPH… eldest son of Padmanath Saraswati
(1904 – 1980) 
H e was one of the meritorious students of the Presidency college and Medical college of Calcutta. According to his famous economist friend Bhabatosh Dutta, he is perhaps the first M.Sc. MB in India. He stood first in Physiology and was being groomed to become heart specialist to the extent that the British Principal of the Medical college asked him to proceed to London for higher studies with scholarship. But his father Padmanath Saraswati did not allow him to cross Kalapani lest his son lose character and qualities of a pure Brahmin by mixing with Europeans. He was in service in Calcutta and retired as Health Officer, Calcutta corporation.
Sushama Devi in her youth(photo)
I had special love and respect for daktarkaka due to his frankness and strong sense of humour. Look at his photograph, don’t you find a special radiance of perfection and talent from the extremely sharp feature ?. He was well built but not tall. His height is comparable to that of Napoleon Bonaparte.
My daktarkakima Sushama Bhattacharjya was a benovalent woman with leadership qualities. She was generous in helping whosoever wanted her help to the extent of rehabilitating some of them with land in Calcutta. Extending medical help to elderly people was her routine job.
They have left behind one son and four daughters : Shaktiprosad (Photo), Kalyani (Dolli), Dipali (Lili), Shephali (Shefu), Anjali (Oli)
5. Birupaksha Bhattacharjya…. Second son of Padmanath Saraswati
( 1905 ? -- 1978)
Out of six brothers , he is the only one who did not flee Baniachong even in the face of riots. He was B Sc, DMS. He was a student of Surendra nath college, Calcutta. Once when his father visited him in the college hostel, he was playing sitar. Though the father did not appreciate this, the boy who had a strong musical intelligence could play almost all instruments; harmonium, flute, tabla, violin,etc. He had close association with Sachin Dev Burman who was a rising star musician that time. He persued music as an integral part of his life. As per the wish of his father he used to practice homeopathy and treat poor villagers free of cost. He left behind one daughter and seven sons : Annapurna (Joly),Debiprosad (Ganesh),Ramaprosad(Sontu),Debaprosad(Tapan), Haraprosad(died young),Kaliprosad(Arun),Baniprosad(Bishnu),Satiprosad(Binu).
