Didimar Jhuli

When I was kid,we had all these fairy tales to amaze our kiddish imagination......it may be Cinderella for some it may be even the good old "thakumar Jhuli"(which is on the road to extinction now) for a few others.I had spent most of my childhood in my Didima's home(our dear old didima whom we lovingly call"Namma").And my Namma had this amazingly stock of stories to tell........starting from mythological stories to ghost stories even the stories of "Rajputtur and Swadagarputtur".Every evening after our studies were over, Namma is done with her "thakur puja" n the rest........me, my cousin brother Tutuda n sometimes even my elder sister used to snuggle near Namma and ask her to tell us stories.After the usual cajoling she would finally give up and then start a story.Our hot favourite was that of "Neelkamal and Lalkamal" and another Upendrakishore Roychoudhury story"Cheel ma".While telling us the story of "Neelkamal and Lalkamal",whenever she used to tell us about the incident when the "Khakhos" would ask Lalkamal "Who is awake in the house?"......we used to shiver in fear and anticiaption of what would happen next.And every now and then we would interrupt her by saying-"Tar por?"

She used to love that undivided attention and adulation.Sometimes she used to tell us jokingly"If love to hear my stories so much then record my stories so that you will be able to hear it even when I won't be there!"At this inevitably we used to protest by arguing that she would have to stay with us forever and tell us those amazing stories everyday.

Years have passed.Obviously we don't need anyone now to tell us stories now.We now can read more intellectual and more purposeful books ourselves.A Neelkamal or a Lalkamal isn't so interesting enough now to amaze us, grown ups!And the amazing Namma who introduced us to the world of childhood fantasy is now herself recovering from a brain tumor operation and suffering from chronic lack of sodium and potassium!She,who can't even remember whether it's day or night or whether she really had her bath,has lost her ability to mesmerise us with any of her stories.Like the good old "Thakumar Jhuli" her "Jhuli" is empty now and on the road to extinction.

Thus every fantasy would turn into hard core Realism,Imagination would be loathed by Intellect.Peter Pan won't be able to remain a happy boy in his Neverland...........he will finally grow up!!!!