day 6: faridpur - bhATdi

bhATdi

we arrived at faridbpur around 3 pm. the driver of the bus was an well-informed man, he had recommended the hotel rAjasthAn. some other passengers recommended the hotel raffles, one or two others the hotel luxury. we went to the new looking hotel rajasthan which turned out to be an excellent place. they wanted to give us some rooms on the top floor at rs1200 each, but there was no lift. we found in their ratelist that there was a four-person room on the 1st floor for rs 1200 - so we took it. the hotel was very neat and clean, but we immediately left for bhATdi. people on the bus had said we would need to go via kAnAipur, and we shd take an auto. a worker at the hotel gave directions - that we should take the bus to boAlmAri and get off at a certain market past kAnAipur.

in the end, a electric tricycle driver told us that it would be best if we go by an auto. here the autos were larger vehicles capable of holding 8 people or so. one man among the autos seemed confident about how to get there; he quoted rs 800 for the return trip but eventually agreed at tk. 600. the journey took nearly an hour - later we found that the distance was about 27km x 2 or 54km, so the fare - about Rs 400 - was more than reasonable, (see map below).

click on +/- to zoom. drag to move map. view in google maps
A=faridpur town; B = kAnAipur; C = our old house at bhATdi.

our driver was able to bring us to bangeswardi-bhATdi bAjAr; after that we had to ask a couple of times for the "bAbubARi" but it wasn't very difficult at all to reach the rAy chaudhuri's house. the entire route from kAnAipur to bhATdi bAjAr to sadAnanda mAster's house (right next to our old house) and then to the rAy chaudhuri's - everyone talked of these roads being mud paths which one walked for an whole day to cover... but today the entire stretch is a series of metalled roads.

we got off at a point where there were two ruined temples beside the road; ajaydA remembered these as the mangal-chaNDI temple. right next to this was a new building which was the 20 no. bhATdi sarkArI prAthamik bidyAlay ("established 1938, rebuilt 2011-2012, execution: L.G.E.D boyAlmArI, faridpur"). to the left of the road was a dAlAn for dUrgA pUja; the frame for starting a pratimA could be seen inside. the walls of this structure had two marble plaques on them, in the memory of sukumAr rAy chaudhuri and nitya gopAl rAy chaudhuri. a short lane by this dAlAn led us to a courtyard where the rAy chaudhuris lived.

the rAy chaudhuris were effusive in their welcome. we first met pAkhi's son prahlAd - about 30, teaches sociology in a high school nearby - and his daughter. we then met bhogludA and his wife dipAlidi, whom people seemed to be calling benu-di. she is the daughter of shubha-kAku's didi buli. they had heard from their son shibu that ajayda and we were coming. prahlAd's wife made some tea and served us, with some very nice local biscuits.

everyone kept asking us to stay the night - indeed, the default assumption was that we would obviously be staying, possibly for several days. benu was completely overwhelmed and kept asking us to at least have some DAl-bhAt. that we would have come for such a short visit, and even kept a vehicle waiting was completely unthinkable, and by their standards, quite uncivilized. in private, we also discussed whether we could agree to have a meal, but they would also have been inconvenienced considerably, and in the end we declined.

benu-di talked of kAlumAmA, so i called pApA in delhi from there, and benu had a effusive conversation with "kAlumAmA". there was a lot of conversation amongst many subsets of us. prahlad's brother arrived by bicycle at one point. he has finished college and is looking for a job.

my impression from talking to pApA was that this was a very rich and powerful family - the zamindars of the village. but the household today seemed rather typical. prahlAd kept saying how things were going great. they told us how the annual durga puja continues to be held in the new dAlAn by the road, and how many muslims will come and take prasad, and visits by the local MP and other dignitaries. but on the whole conditions there did not strike us as one of great affluence. benu-di also mentioned a dacoity a dozen years ago, since when she had developed a heart condition. but it seems the family still holds a lot of land, and benu-di was talking of sending some rice and guR - but in the end this also couldn't happen.

there is no electricity still, though it IS available 1km away, and prahlAd said that they were actively petitioning and it should be coming soon.

then we went to see the site of our old house with benu-di and prahlAd. we went about half a km by the auto. from the road, we walked some 50m or so, through someone's house, and we reached the baRo pukur, and ajaydA pointed out the spot where there the pancha-baTi trees had been (amlaki, hartuki, etc. - we actually didn't have the five kinds but only four). there were no trees left. nor were any of the fruit trees that used to be there by the baRo pukur. we went along a courtyard with a muslim lady and some kids watching us - and went to the chhoTo pukur. by now it had gotten dark, and we took some flash pictures. fortunately i was able to record the lat-long of the place via GIS on my tab2, which is how the satellite image below was possible.

even as we left, benu-di was sulking because we were not staying. she refused a ride back on the auto, and said they would walk back. ajaydA pacified her, but they walked back the short distance anyhow, and we put-putted off into our other lives.

the next morning we left at 0600 on a direct bus to benApole. here i walked across an international border (the second time in my life), and after some train misadventures, reached kolkAtA by about four in the afternoon.

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* day 1: getting to bangladesh
* day 2-3: DhAkA
* day 4-5: chittagong / cox's bazar

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