Happy Birthday Baba

 Baba was a big fan of Tintin and he was successful in passing on that love to me quite early in my childhood. I started with a generous dosage of ‘Tuntunir Boi’, ‘Bnatul the Great’ and ‘Thakumar Jhuli’ but one day Baba started to tell me the story of this young boy who roams around different places with his little white dog. And that’s how Tintin entered my life.

At some stage, Baba started to tell me the story from one Tintin book which he had in his possession. They obviously had the full set in our ancestral place in Munger but at that time (it was around 1987-88) he only had one Tintin book with him. The Bengali ones were just coming out but the one he had with him was an English copy of ‘The Broken Ear’.

As a 4-years old, I used to go through the images of the book, and then at some point in time Baba started to tell me the story. It was fascinating for me at that time. Those two killers trying to kill Tintin and every time missing it by just a few inches, the talking parrot of the artist Balthazar, the plot to put Tintin in jail and the escape, the Arumbayas and the Rumbabas, and of course General Alcazar!

General Alcazar was Baba’s favorite character in the book and soon he became my favorite character too. The Eccentric president of San Theodoros, an imaginary country in South America, Alcazar was a friend of Tintin and provided multiple comic moments in the book, including telling Tintin how one of the previous aids had jaundice when he played a prank on him with his gun. Soon enough the General himself had jaundice from the shock of another blast in his garden!

At that time only, Baba told me about General Alcazar becoming a knife thrower in a later book (The Seven Crystal Balls) and the leader of the rebels in ‘Tintin and the Picaros’. Soon I got my first Bengali Tintin book from my Pisu, a translation of ‘Red Sea Sharks’ where the story started with a chance meeting between Tintin, Captain Haddock, and General Alcazar.

Baba’s love for Tintin remained till his last days. Till the time he could read comfortably very often he used to sit with Tintins from my collections. Whenever a new Tintin book was added to the collection, Baba was the first to read it, even before me.

In later years, I started my collections of Tintin figurines and other TIntin-related accessories and he was always very interested. He had a keyring with one of the Thompsons, another favorite character of his and we used to have an identical mask with a fallen Captain Haddock on it which he was very fond of using whenever he had to go to hospital during the pandemic.

Today is Baba’s 80^th birthday. This is the first time I am writing a Facebook post to celebrate his birthday as I can not wish him face-to-face. However, I hope wherever he is now, he is getting a regular supply of all his favorite books, Tintin, Asterix, Shibram, Sharadindu, and many more! I also hope he would love this figurine which I gifted to myself to celebrate his birthday! 

Baba

 Baba enjoyed telling me this one story. This was from Dec 1983. The day after my birth. Baba visited the hospital and went to the section where all the newborn babies were kept. Apparently, there were quite a few but for Baba, it was easy to find me as I was the tallest baby in that group. This was one of Baba’s earliest memories of me.

My earliest memory of Baba which I can recollect was from sometime in the year 1986. I was later told that it was my first long-distance train journey. My parents were taking me to Banaras for some religious ceremony which included among other things to let go of all my hairs. I was two and half years old. I still remember that fun I had on the night train and how I kept asking questions for all of which Baba had an answer. Maybe, it was the excitement of a two and half years old to be on a moving train and see all these new things. And I can still faintly remember my father’s smile from that night. My earliest memory with Baba which I can remember.
Another of my earliest memories was from that trip when my father took me to the ghats of Banaras in the night and show me the lights coming from those boats far from the shore. I visited Banaras second time in 2017 and I could picture and almost identify the place where my father used to take me.
From then on there were countless memories. And memories are flooding back to me. Late 80’s and Baba taking me in his lap to my Pre-primary school. Baba taking me to so many different Puja pandals during Durga Puja. Baba telling me stories of Tintin and Bantul The Great, Baba coming from office early one afternoon and proudly telling us the story of how he went to check the admission list in Ballygunge Govt. High School and finding to his surprise that I not only got the chance but stood second in the admission test. Baba taking me to the local library and getting me a card as the youngest member of the library and so on.
Somehow most of my cherished memories with Baba were from my pre-teen days. Baba was in Patna from 1993 to 2000 as his Kolkata office was shifted to Patna. He used to come during few holidays, and I also have memories of how I used to greet him as soon as I can see him on a cycle-rickshaw entering our lane. By the time, he retired and returned to Kolkata, I was in my last years of school and already busy with my studies and the outside world. Still, there are memories. Baba was a serious man but with typical wit which made him a great man to talk to. His tall handsome frame always made him someone whom you will notice even from a crowd.
I know I am blabbering, but this is my Facebook profile, and this was my Baba.
He was not doing well for the last couple of years, and I have spent some really anxious times for him and with him. My last memory of Baba was from 24th June morning, and I will remember the date. Like last few days, Baba was getting support by Bi-PAP machine with a host of wires connected to his body. In my previous two days visits Baba was not in enough sense to respond. On 24th, when I called Baba he opened his eyes, something more than what he could do last two days. Then he raised his right hand like a wave. Every day I used to go and stand on the left side of Baba as his right eye was damaged from his childhood. Yesterday, I went to his right, hold his hand. He reciprocated and then very gently, maybe almost absentmindedly just brushed his fingers against my palm for the next few seconds, maybe a minute. Then I left him, I had to arrange a transfer for him from that hospital to another hospital and I wanted to do it at the earliest.
Baba left us on 24th June afternoon and my last memory of baba was that gentle stroking of his fingers on my hand. almost like he was trying to feel my presence by touching me.
I am not sure what was Baba’s last memory of me, but I can hope that he was happy and he was proud of what we have achieved as a family.
Thank you Baba for making me a reader, thank you for shaping me into a methodical person, and thanks for the Sharadindu connection.