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Molina di

===============================uddalak banerjee

During my association with Mahila seva samity in government place in Kolkata Ihad met an elderly woman roughly 82 named Molina Mitra.As such there weremany old women in the old age homes in Kolkata .Some are troubled by theirsenility some with gross negligence of their children.Mahila seva samity wasfounded by MRs Ashoka Gupta in late 2000s that too in her nineties. I used tofrequent the place for some time because my own grandmother was stayingthere at that time.Old Age homes were not a great place to be in.From theoutside it looked to be a colourful two storied building but it was not so frominside.It was house of afflicted people in seething pain who desparately wantedsomeone from their own to look after them.

At that time helpage india had just provided a grant of a few lakh rs and the taskof renovation was being carried out.As such entertainment was carried out in theform of kirtans held at particular week days mostly Saturdays and Tuesdays .I met

malina di during one of these times.Most of the women who lived there were intheir age group around 60 to 80.Hospitality provided to them was as such goodwith timely meals and all.

My grand mother is a great lover of kirtanas and sung many a song herself.Sheoften at that time used to implore me to come on the Saturdays .She used to tellme stories of other women who stayed with her what they felt and how they

lived their lives.She also shred tears for them too.She told me about Mrs Daswhose son had deserted her and now leaves with his wife happily and they have ason too for whom she always goes to the temple and asks blessings.She also toldme how MR Aruna and Molina di were tricked by their own son and they took allher property by just telling them that they have brought a taxi which is waitingoutside and once they sign they would be taken back home.As I kept hearing

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these stories I developed a sense of pity for Molinadi ,poor woman,after all shedeserved a better treatment than that was provided.My grand mother had afantastic smile and was very good at heart.She had an inborn ability to win overpeople in very short time.She had been born in a royal family in Bangladesh andhad always loved the close and joint family structure ever since.Since hermarriage at an early age she had always dreamt of making more and more friendseven though she was only a 7 th pass student and never had enough knowledge tolook into others personilities or in other words sagaciously decipher who to friendwith and who not.When there was riots in 1972 she had seen many a house cometo dust and many a knight maimed.She too had passively made her way toKolkata silently along with my grandfather and as was the scheme of indiraGandhi in 1972 that laid down the rule that immigrants from Bangladesh wouldbe provided free land to establish their living here,they too started a dwelling.Shestill recounts all those episodes over and over again on phone and also manyother dramatic episodes of her eventful life .She still recounts the harisingh whohad taken her and my grandfather to safety once the fierce riots started .Living inKolkata then was not very easy either .Soon following the riots started theinfamous Nakshal movement and it was again a massacre of innocent youth thatlead to huge political uprising and an upheaval that saw an end of Congress era in

the state and like a phoenix a communist government took over reigns of thestate and which had ruled Bengal ever since. Nakshal movement was truly severeshe recounts in horror .Although I had never seen my grandfather she often talksof him and how while during the nakshal movements initial days people wererunning away to the fields and dozens of youth were burnt alive as massive arsonprevailed.Anyways that was history now.With age she has become lonely.She hadgrown thinner and feebler.She recounts of her father and the Bhagvad Gitawhich he had kept on his chest while dying and how in adolescence her father had

faced jury each time during numerous trials as a lawyer and how revered he usedto be during all the trials .They were all visages now,images that had lived on ininner recesses of the mind. My grand mother often asked me a quiz questionwhich I failed to answer the first time I heard it ,it was ,10 haath (pause)mukhepaach chidro(pause) chokhu karna nai ,kon jantu re bhai?.I never could readbetween the lines and hence failed to answer and each time she used to put up a

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smile and say ,Manush.I used to say ok I give up. My grandmother had beenalways a devout follower of Vishnu and had by hearted stories of Nimaisanyasin and often used to sing the song,BISHNU priya ghume rakhi..bole sathe jaibe naki?.

She had seen turn of umpires ,fall of british rule ,immergence of independentIndia,numerous movements all come and go as decades switched and centurieschanged.She was lonely today and I felt for her very much.She loved me and Ireciprocated .It was not that I used to love kirtanas but I usually acceded to mygrandmother and did not want to trouble her afflicted life any further and henceattended that particular kirtana.The kirtana was organized at the roof of thehouse with malina di sitting at the centre and the entire kirtana troupe sitting

close by.

Usually Kirtana is a singer/songwriter whose music has been described as new agevocal, devotional, "satsang," or music for awakening. Her songs celebrate divinelove and investigate the truth of who we are. Malina di used to sing vibrant songswith god gifted finesse and unparalleled grace and a mellifluent voice to go withit.At an age of 82 it is unimaginable for a woman to sing such beautiful songs asshe did .She was grossly talented and singly parented her two children byrigorously doing tution for 12 hours a day.On that day she,undaunted as ever,started Jogai Madhai and then boshe achi patho cheye...It was a peakperformance both in terms of tune as well as performance as a whole.Only fewdays back she was not taking food over the sad turn of events that she faced inher life with her own son who is now an engineer refusing to take her home whiletaking her signature in the will to grant him all that she had.It was an act thateven God cannot forgive and that was what others in the old age home often said.Later on while the performance ended I went upto her and told her how magicalher song sounded.She hardly smiled and said ,thank you.She had seen me comefor my grand mother many a time and often have compared me with hergrandson.She however did not say much that day.She was kind of in ashock.Hence inorder to alleviate her state of pain I said ,My grandmother is a

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grand fan of yours and all your songs..she sings it all the time..For the first timeshe smiled . I said,ok ..i have one thing more to hear since the act is over ..i wantyou to sing Shurer akashe tumi je go shukhtara and aaj duti path dudike gelo je ghure I have heard infinite many times these songs on my grandmotherslips.Please please please please do this for me .I dont know when again I wouldcome.I dont stay here .I stay at Raipur.It will be hard for me to come everytime.Iwant u to sing this for me .Please atleast once. She sat down and started to singeven though perhaps at heart she was not well.But then a sweet singing birdalways has its voice.She sung and sung and the song echoed thorough thebuilding.It was her last song because the next morning she was no more.Mygrandmother was badly affected by this.The old age home authorities did the lastrites by themselves and did not call her son.There was some feud on it later butthen that was overcome when all other mates testified in favour of thedecision.My grandmother was crying and crying hard on phone .My parents wentthere and took her back to our house.Actually it was she who volunteered to stayin old age home since both my mom and my maternal uncles are working and aremanagers in national banks and she was not getting any one to talk to .Shewanted to stay in old age home among peers in the beginning.Life today hasbecome hectic with nobody having much time to talk.Although we keep talking to

this day.But even now both she and me could never forget Molina di She wasthe best singer for any age that I had ever heard.She used to sing a song of Khudiram bose with which I would like to quote in the end which would be a fitingtribute to the super class which was peerless, brilliant,magical, prodigiously allconquering which she alone could parallel,

Ekbar biday de ma ghure aashi (2)hashi hashi porbo fanshi dekhbe bharot bashiaami hashi hashi porbo fanshi dekhbe bharot bashiEkbar biday de ma ghure aashi

Koler boma tuire koredariye chilam rastar dhaare maa-goboro lat-ke marte giye marlam aarek englond bashi

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Ekbar biday de ma ghure aashi

Shonibar bela doshtaar pore joj court-e lok nadhore maa-goholo oviraam-er deep na jalan ma khudi raam-er fanshiEkbar biday de ma ghure aashi

Baro lokkho tetrish kotiroylo ma tor betabeti maa-gotader niye ghor korish ma, oder korish dashiEkbar biday de ma ghure aashi

Dosh maash dosh din pore jonmo nibo mashir ghore ma gotokhon jodi na chinte parish dekhbi golay fanshio ma tokhon jodi na chinte parish dekhbi golay fanshiEkbar biday de ma ghure aashi.