BISWAS FAMILY
Family gardien: Naba Kumar Bissas, 70
Subadra Bissas – 65
Manic Bissas – 40
Nayan Bissas, 35
Palab, 13
Papaye, 10
Mucto Bissas 37
Phulan, 30
Rakesh, 10
2 cows
2 young bulls
3 ducks
3 acres of fields.
Kanthal Beria, the 12th of February
“Get out of the way,” says the train’s whistle
5:00 This is not the first train but the morning express between Katwa and Kalyna wants to say it loud and clear: ” Get out of the way, I will not stop at your station Agradeep.” It is in a hurry to bring workers who will travel nearly six hours to and from their daily job in Kolkata, the state capital. Some say, this is better then trying to live in the city where you cannot afford a decent apartment. In the Biswas family, no one has moved. For generations, no one has gone anywhere; they have been farmers here as long as they remember.
A few more trains travelling north – south will pass before the cue for Manic to put the key into the big lock on the metal railing that protects them through the night. With daylight, comes more safety and trust.
The children’s tutor will be there at six
Manic and Mucto have spicy, puffed rice before they head for work. They have just finished planting the rice and mustard seed that will be harvested a little bit each day in the next week. This morning, Manic is employed at the brick factory and Mucto on another farmer’s land where he is needed to cut some wood. The three acres they own are not enough to provide financially for the three families sharing the courtyard.
It requires unity and harmony
The two Biswas brother have not divided their father’s land. To share land between brothers is a solution that requires unity and harmony. Many say that most of the time, it creates conflicts in the families. For the Biswas having to leave as legacy ,the few acres to their three sons is what worries them the most. If they are left with with one acre each, it will mean assured poverty. What they all agree to, is that the boys will not have that has the only choice in the future. They will be educated.
Their wives, Nayan and Phelan, have both finished their Grade 10 and are more educated then their husbands. They are the ones guiding the boys in their education. Morning and night, Nayan’s room is a place of study. They all share the desire for a better future and it is with this energy that they all begin their daily tasks. The students gather their schoolbooks, are joined by girl friend and neighbor and are ready when their teacher arrived.
Naba reflects contentment
Old Naba has cleaned the stable and is now sitting, cutting the rice paddy to feed the livestock. Naba is focused. His move is repetitive and the sound of the grass sliding on the curved knife is the yard’s morning mantra. His legs are stretched, his hurting knees relaxed, Naba reflects contentment.
Near the yard’s latrine and water pump, Subadra piles dry rice paddy and starts a fire, and pours water in the rectangular pan that sits over a small mud stove. When the water boils, Nayan joins her mother-in-law with the dirty clothes. Phulan boils the clothes before placing them near the water pump where the women, with strong and regular arm movements, will take turn at beating each piece on the cement floor of the washing area.
It’s better when it is Nayan who is at the stove
A friend comes in the yard, her young son on her left hip and brushing her teeth with her right hand. She talks a little and goes back to her home. Papaye is somewhere with friends in the village and Rakesh is copying a homework he needs to finish while Palab makes an errand for Phulan at the station, as the village of Agradeep is called. He is still the only one with a bike, is always willing and happy of the two-kilometer ride. He likes to be a part in the life of the busy crowd that gathers here from all the neighboring villages.
9:30 Phalan finishes preparing morning breakfast. “Every one eats better when it is Nayan who is at the stove” says her sister-in-law. Nayan is there to help in preparing the vegetables and doing the other tasks.
Muslim and Hindu children squeeze into the benches
10:30 The boys head for school. It will take five minutes through the field path on a bike. There is no electricity when they arrive but no one is worried, it is part of life. Palab enters the director’s office, grabs the keys and starts opening the classes’ doors all giving on the courtyard. He is always there to help. He places himself first in the rows when the bell rings, he is in the first bench in front of the class, and first in his class when the exams’ results arrive.
11:00 Children line up in the yard. The school serves six villages and with 60 children and more in each, classes are full. Boys on the left, girls on the right, Muslim and Hindu children squeeze into the benches as the teacher tries to brush the old blackboard but then let’s go without success. It has been so used that words of the past are there to stay, maybe reminding everyone that West Bengal’s history can never be erased. The school director is also there to remind them of the “partition.” His family, as many on this border state, was from East Bengal when nearly all Muslims were sent to Bangladesh and his Hindu family sent here. If the young students sit quietly, side by side, in the classes, each one’s inner peace comes from the secrets of the courtyards.
“School is from 11 to 4 o’clock to give children time to learn from their parents” explains the director. They are considered to be important educators for what a child needs to know to go through life. “Not everything can be learned at school” he says. “The first teacher, friend and guide are the parents” he says.
Boys can help their fathers in the fields and the girls their mother in the kitchen. The Biswas boys are exempted from hard physical. Work, sweat and mud houses, their parents and grandparents hope, will never exist after these boys graduate.
Every free minute is for the loom
The courtyard is quiet, the clothes hanged to dry and Nayan has assured that after her housework and every free minute she is down on her room’s floor, in front of her special loom, to progress in her work. For 50 rupees apiece paid by a nearby weaver, she cuts the threads on newly colorful hand made 6-meter saris. One a day,is her goal and each determined snip of scissors is her own mantra for better days.
3:00 The spirit is of celebrations and the children have come back early. Tomorrow is Vasant Panchami, the fifth day of spring. It is the special festival to Sawaswati, the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, arts, wisdom and learning. There will be celebrations at school and in the village.
Lunch is ready when the children return. Not long after, Mucto falls asleep in his chair as he watched television through the metal fence. He does not sit much and never for long. Everyone calls on him for job and his friends say that he is always there for those who need help. Not long after, he is off again to harvest the mustard plant and make one or two trips before dark. He piles it in the yard to let it dry and then collect the fallen seeds. Mustard seed is a basic element used in preparing food. The rest in the plant will go to feed the animals.
Paying jobs is what he and his brother want so they can finish the house they are building brick by brick. There will be two more rooms, two at the house entry that will be for the boys when they grow up and one near the barn to store more grains. The flat room is used to dry harvests.
When everyone has been served
As her role demands it’s only when everyone has been served that Phalan can now sit and eat her lunch. Then the courtyard empties to visit between sisters and friends. Today, they are particularly curious about how the preparation of tomorrow’s feast is going. There will be a Puja at the school in the morning and another one in the afternoon in the center of the village.
Two idols have been bought for the Puja
Nayan has a sister married in the village and her family is preparing a Puja. This means they will feed the entire village. The women are in the yard peeling and cutting food. Nayan sits and helps cleaning vegetables, joining in the chatter. A young men helps to stir the large pot of dal while the others are busy building a small temple just outside the house gate. They want it ready when the idol is delivered. Two idols have been bought for the event. One for the small village temple, a small covered area is used for the different Pujas throughout the year. The other is for the family organizing the Puja.
Tomorrow a Brahman will come to conduct a ceremony in both places. From cow dung to rice will be offered to the Goddess, prayers and request. Everyone will worship together and share food. It will be an occasion to dress up, for young girls to show their beauty.
Students are the ones who worship with the most intensity. They must ask for mercy as this is time of exam throughout India when Grades 10 and 12 students have much at stake. Papaye is happy. He will participate helping the Brahman with incense and smearing every one’s forehead with the sacred ash.
Hands that do not fear the heat
5:00 The boys are on the bed in Nayan’s room learning. All recite aloud their homework while her scissors are at work. When she sees that Papaye is having difficulties, she comes and sits beside him on the bed and helps him through it. Straining her weakening eyes, she bends down to see the words.
Then Subadra , Nayan and Phalan are back in the outdoor kitchen where they will stay until darkness has settled over the yard. Two neighbors come to use the traditional grinding stone with which they will beat the rice into flour to cook. Beside the fire, different cow dung pancakes are kept for Phalan to feed the fire. There are the cow dung pancakes that have dried on the walls or trees, the cow dung that has dried on the stem of the jute plant and the stem of jute plant alone. All these elements will give a different fire intensity demanded by the numerous dish cooked. When all the dishes are ready, Subadra and Nayan prepare the rotis that Phalan cooks quickly with hands that do not fear the heat.
The thieves are out, put the food away
It’s a busy moment in the yard, when the air is fresh and tasks must be accomplished before night. To his joy, Palab is sent again to the station to fetch a missing item in the kitchen. Manic goes to check the freshly planted rice fields. At this initial phase, the level of irrigation is important. Too much or too little can ruin the freshly planted crop. Mucto, brings his last mustard seed harvest of the day, washes and is off to the station to join the other men.
6:30 Monkeys appear on the trees looking into the courtyards. All food will be put away into one of Naba and Subadra’s rooms and doors will be locked before going to bed. There are human thieves, but those wild hooligans are the most fearless and daring of them all.
Nayan and Manic go to the station to see the doctor. Nayan has been having pain in her stomach and wants to know why. They sit in the chairs between the drug store and the doctor’s room. They wait and wait but the doctor does not come. Tired of waiting, they return saying they will try another day.
The streets are full, as all the stalls of the market place are busy with the owners waiting for clients, working and chatting with men friends or family who pass by or come to sit with them.
At home, Naba and Subadra are in the dark on their veranda while women and children watch television series Bollywood style until bed time.
9:00 Manic shuts the light of the yard latrine, closes the metal railing, puts the lock on his entry door keeping the key away from hand’s reach.
