অঙ্কুর - Ankur 2011 - BASC - Bengali Association of Southern ...

Ankur 2011 aк 2011
SPRING
Mohona Roy Ganguly
Age 8
Winter has gone by,
The clouds have left the beautiful sky
The flowers have burst into bloom
At this time no one wants to be in a room
The trees are bursting with flowers
Blooming, blooming in hours
The water has turned crystal clear
Everyone wants to go near
Thakurmar Jhuli - Duel with a Kapalik
Abiral Ganguly
Age 9
The year was 1939. One late, new moon night, my twenty-two year old grandfather,
Ananta, was traveling in an East Indian Railway train of the British Empire. Having just started
the first job of his life with the European gasoline company Burma Shell, the twenty-two year
old was the only passenger in his compartment. The iron-horse was chugging its way through
the densest and darkest forests towards Hazaribagh railway station. Hauled by a forty miles
an hour steam engine, it huffed, puffed and whistled along the Grand Chord. The British had
built this shortcut rail track to serve the southern parts of Bihar and to reduce the Delhi-
Calcutta travel time. The path connected small coal mining towns such as Dhanbad and Gaya.
Late in the night around 2AM, the train was rumbling through countless tunnels and
bridges. Through the open windows, coal dust repeatedly flew into Ananta’s eyes. Buttoned
up inside a black double-breasted coat, he seemed to enjoy the cold winter’s air. Off and on,
the iron-caged overhead lights flickered in Ananta’s coach. He looked up and said to himself:
“What is new.the dynamo that produces electricity in the train must be faulty.”
Suddenly, the train screamed to an unscheduled halt in the dark night. It was a still,
dense, hilly forest near Hazaribagh. A red signal had forced the passenger train to stop. A
handful Kapaliks lived in these woods. Worshippers of Goddess Kali, this subset of Tantrics
was addicted to violent rituals. These lone wanderers mostly lived in jungles and cremation
grounds. Their belief was that in order to break free from the suffering endured by living
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