Nostalgia for a long lost world

Nilratan Halder | Published: October 15, 2021 20:28:14

Why do people in the advanced age get nostalgic? The memories that flash appear to be conversely of the earliest childhood in proportion to one's days are numbered. What is most intriguing is that some faces, incidents and characters one has not remembered, discussed about or even totally forgot suddenly occupy the mind for no reason. If memories are association of the thought process, where did those forgotten faces or incidents have a niche?
Sometimes very small incidents apparently of no significance appear so vividly as if those happened just yesterday. But a few faces that come cramming the mind are characters that stood out amid the crowd and had left an indelible impression on the mind of a child. Today after six decades, those people with their special trade mark ---some of them living a life different from the run of the mill, a few of them eccentric and still a few others living in the known world but belonging to a world beyond ---appear with their specialty quite vividly.
At the top of the list, there appears a man who used to visit his relations' home just next to ours at least once a year. In his advanced age, he used to carry a musical instrument called sarengi which had a beautifully curved bird on top of it. The black wooden instrument glazed like a shining metal. The shape of the instrument with the bird at the top had an irresistible attraction for a child who had no experience of any such wooden craft. The man used to spend quite sometime regularly to polish his instrument with a piece of rag and mustard oil. The man was also fascinating enough. In the evening, sitting on his bed, he sang soulfully one or two of his favourite songs. Did he have a small stock of songs? But one was common: "Nithur kalare…."
The next man who also had a charming presence used to visit wealthy families in the village immediately after each year's harvest when the farming community was busy storing their main crop paddy in their granaries. With his black and steely torso, he seemed to have emerged from the world of epics. His gray long hairs curling at the end enhanced his specialty. He carried with him a symbol about a foot long made most likely of brass. Addressing the lady of the house 'Mother' he announced his presence, "here comes the Gazi". He surely had a name but to everyone he was simply Gazi because what he did was half recitation and half song. If requested he performed a new tale. But he too would not perform more than three such pala or segments. One wonder how many he had in his repertoire.
The next man to have captivated childhood attention was a vendor with a difference. He had his shop on a boat and came from a different village about five miles away. His was a floating shop of assorted commodities ---grocery items, bangles, ribbon, snow, powder, toys and even sweetmeat. A short but affable man he talked eloquently and convincingly. Most of his customers were girls and women who crowded the landing spot where the man named 'Mathya' anchored his boat. It is still a puzzle why he was called so.
Another man who used to visit our home was a neatly dressed ---in all white ---sandhu. Known as Kodai Sandhu (saint), he was a very simple person. He abhorred pretension. But he was expert in traditional treatment of various diseases with herbal medicine. When he came, he used to stay a few days at our house. Clean shaven, with his white hair and in his white dress, he had a simple but respectable personality. Every year after harvest, he came to collect paddy. Affluent families voluntarily offered him paddy amounting 30-40 ser (26-37 kgs). With the collected paddy, the sandhu arranged a mass khichuri festival on the day before the full moon night of Falgun. He built an ashram where he resided and he was called in to treat patients from villages far and wide. The only blemish he had was his smoking of hookah, which he did not share with anyone and carried with him wherever he went.
There were people like a magician, a goyal who used to insert a hot iron inside the mouth of a cow up to the throat --- a kind of treatment for cattle developing anorexia, and a few others. But not all made a lasting impression. Before concluding, it would be an injustice if a lively mute young man is not given a due share of childhood nostalgic reminiscence. Without formal training, he could draw beautiful pictures and portraits. Whenever he came from the next village, a large following gathered around him. But he would not draw for all in the same way he would not accept invitation from anyone to have a meal.
All these are not successful people nor are they heroes like today's celebrities. But still they had something magnetic about them. However it is a reality that they were each a character belonging to a lost world and together they represent an era that will never return.