3. My Spear and Distaff sides

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SPEAR SIDE

As I have said earlier, my grandfather was Dinanath Das and great grandfather Brojanath Das, none of whom I had the good fortune to see live. I did not also see my grandmother nor do I know her name. Besides my father, I had seen only his elder brother, about whom I have dealt at length on the page of my birth and migration from the homeland. But I learnt from my sister quite some time after my retirement that my father had a younger brother and a sister, neither of whom I remember to have seen.

There was none on our spear side with whom we could develop any close connection. My uncle (father's elder brother) was a widower and had no offspring. Though he lived on the same premises as ours, he remained busy with his work, and we hardly met. I, and possibly my brother and sisters too, did not even know the whereabouts of my other uncle (father's younger brother) and his sister and who others were there in their respective families. I have no explanation for this. I had not seen any of them in my remembrance. Naturally, no relationship with them could gain ground.

DISTAFF SIDE

As I have said earlier, we were much attached to our maternal side, more so, because of practically none being there on the paternal side. Our maternal house was at Dariapara in Sylhet Town (now a Metropolitan City). Our maternal grandfather Ramesh Chandra Das had two marriages. He had a daughter and two sons from the first marriage and three sons and a daughter from the second. My mother was the eldest of them all. My grandfather kept a good number of cows and personally looked after them. He was so attached to them that he would not have his food till the cows were fed. As I have siad eralier, he possibly used to sell milk. I did not have the luck to see my mother’s own mother. I had heard from my mother that her own mother had died when she (my mother) was very young and her siblings were just kids. It was my mother who had brought up her brothers with the love and care of a mother. My maternal uncles, too, had great love and respect for my mother. Apart from losing her mother in her childhood, she also lost four children early in her married life. Further, she had suffered the pangs of poverty in various ways once we became refugees. But I never found her complaining. She was more or less an epitome of endurance.

I had a good lot of maternal uncles. The eldest was Ramakanta Das, our Bara Mama followed by Radhika Kanta Das (whom we called Kutu Mama), Rishikesh Das or Rishi Mama, Sunil Das or Sunil Mama, and, Ronu mama. The first two were my mother’s own brothers and the other three were her half-brothers. My mother had also a half-sister named Ganga. Aunt Ganga had migrated to India with her family and settled in Karimganj. In post-partition India, I had seen this aunt only once. That was when she came to see us at our place in Tikarbasti, Silchar, where we stayed after fleeing from Jorhat due to a linguistic disturbance. All the brothers and sisters maintained a very cordial relationship and had a mutual love for one another. All of them except Ganga aunt were equanimous by nature.

My maternal grandfather had three younger brothers Kiran, Kshitish, and Kalesh. Kiran too had two marriages. He had a son Kumud alias Bhutu (whom we called Bhutu mama) from his first wife and three sons Kanti Bhusan alias Pukan, Makhan, and Sailen, and three or four daughters, the eldest of whom was Prabha from his second wife. Of them, I remember to have seen Pukan Mama only once or twice and that too in pre-partition days. I might have seen Makhan and Sailen mama as well at that time but my memory about them is completely clouded. There was another of my mother's cousins named Badal who was the son of Kalesh. I was very close to Kutumama and Bhutu mama. None of these uncles is alive today. Of the maternal aunts, only Pukan Mamima (Satyabhama Das) is now alive. Mallika Mamima (SunilMama's widow) expired recently (February 2022), leaving behind two daughters and a son. If my memory fails me not, I met Pukan Mamima (a widow then) for the first time during one of my many trips to Assam (March 2014).

We had another couple of maternal uncles from my mother's maternal side. They were Runumama and Jhunumama, the sons of our mother's maternal uncle Manindra Chandra Das. Manindra Chandra Das whom we called "Baradada" had migrated to India leaving behind his family in Sylhet. I had met him several times at Silchar after the partition in Kutumama's house. Bara Dada, face covered in beard and moustache, holding a hooka by hand, would sit on a chair in the space outside Kutumama's house. I still remember that picture. He was not a likeable personality, and we did not like him. His sons, Runumama, and Jhunumama had stayed back in Sylhet, and I have only a faint memory of them. Both of them are dead now. There was a younger brother of Manindra Das, the younger maternal uncle of our mother. His name was Nripendra Nath Das. We called him "Sadhudada", though he was not a sadhu nor had denounced domestic ties. I am also not aware of the reason for which he came to be known as such. He was a bachelor and came to stay at Jorhat sometime after we had shifted there. In contrast to his elder brother, he was a likable personality. I was quite close to him. He stayed at a place different from ours at Jorhat and visited us often. Sadhudada used to do the varnishing work in a furniture shop. He had developed a severe kind of eczema on his palm and fingers towards the later part of his life; this could have been due to his varnishing activity. He died at Jorhat after we had left the place. Much late in life he had married the woman, a widow, who used to look after him and had, as far as my knowledge goes, a son from her.

Eldest maternal uncle: Bara mama, mother's own younger brother

Our eldest maternal uncle, Ramakanta Das, whom we called Bara Mama, had a large family with 10 children. I remember having spent some time in my early childhood with some of those cousins (Baramama's children) before we had migrated. They were Rajat alias Manik, Chandan and Pradip. The others Chhanda alias Reba, Shankar, Ranjan alias Sekhar, Dipak alias Dipu, Pankaj @ Bachhu, Nandan and Gayotri alias Simu were not then born.

In later days when I came back to Calcutta in the course of my service, I had occasions to meet two of my cousin sisters Reba and Simu for the first time when they visited us.

In pre-partition days, Bara Mama and his younger brother Radhika Kanta Das (Kutu Mama) used to live together. They were affluent at the time I saw them. During those days and even for some time later, they used to run a furniture shop at Zindabazar in Sylhet named RK Brothers. They were affluent at that time. They had a beautiful house provided with all amenities for a comfortable life. It is here that I came across a radio for the first time in my life. But their condition was not the same all through. I feel obliged to narrate below a snapshot story of the life of my Baramama.

The life of my eldest maternal uncle has also passed through many ups and downs. He was socially sensitive and politically active from an early age. He was born in his maternal house in Baruipara in Sylhet Town on Tuesday, the tenth of December 1912 corresponding to Agrahayan 25, 1319 BS. He was ceremoniously initiated to learning (Haate-Khari) when he was five. When he was seven, he got admitted to Durgakumar Pathsala in Sylhet. After completing the curriculum of Durgakumar Pathsala, he was admitted to Raja Girish Chandra High School, Sylhet, at the age of ten. When Raja G C High School got burnt down sometime around, a public academy came up through the efforts of some people like Premsindu Das, Himangshu Bhattacherjee, Jaleswar Das and Ramakanta Das (our Boromama). Later, when Piyari Mohan Chaudhury of Dariapara, Sylhet, donated his dwelling house to the Academy, it was named Piyari Mohan Public Academy. After appearing for the Matriculation Examination from this Academy in 1930, Boromama came in contact with Masterda Surja Sen and joined the Revolutionaries.

Around that time, DPI, J R Cunningham, to keep the students off from the Civil Disobedience Movement, had issued a blanket circular banning the students from participating in any Swadeshi movement. A widespread student movement had started against that circular. Boromama had joined that movement. During that very year (1930), he got involved with his fellow revolutionaries in organizing a dacoity in Tinsukia to get funds for the revolutionary activities. He was arrested with five others. Of them, Umashankar and Sachin Das became approvers and were released. Boromama Ramakanta Das and others were sentenced to seven years imprisonment. Over time, there started a movement for their release. Ultimately, they were released on the 18th of December 1938.

Grand receptions were held for them after their release, first at Silchar, where the prominent Congress leader of those days, Arun Kumar Chanda, presided. Similar reception was later held in Sylhet. After release from jail, Boromama joined a job to tide over financial difficulties. He became a member of the Communist Party of India in 1939. As a labour representative, he also attended the Labour Conference at Nagpur. In 1943, on the night I was born, he married our Sadhana mamima, and the year after, he became the father of a son. In the course of time, he fathered ten children (eight sons and two daughters).

It was the time of the second world war, and Boromama started a wood factory. He had undertaken and completed the setting up of the physics laboratories in MC College, Sylhet, Karimganj College and Agartala College. Due to the partition of 1947, he suffered losses in business and had to live a life in financial distress till 1953. He joined the service of a business establishment in 1954. Afterwards, in 1959, he joined as the superintendent of the tea garden of Nirmal Chaudhury and successfully conducted business in both places. It was due to Boromama's efforts that both the establishments he worked in came out as successful units.

In 1980s, Baromama had worked as a consultant in a tea garden named Malini Chora in the outskirts of Sylhet city. He was out and out a political activist and was arrested during the Bangladesh movement too. Even before that, he had faced the wrath of the Govt. of Pakistan and Muslim hoodlums on different occasions. Once, his family members were hounded by Muslim fanatics and would have been annihilated if caught, but somehow, they managed to escape.

Boromama died on Monday, the 10th of February, 1997, at his home in Sylhet.

Long after the partition when I had settled in service, Bara Mama came to visit us in Calcutta twice, the last time being in the mid-1980s when we were in the Minto Park Govt. Housing Estate near Victoria Memorial in South Calcutta. My mother was alive then and was staying with me. The brother and the sister had met a long many years after. Bara mama had been working at that time as a Consultant at a tea garden in Bangladesh. That was the last time I had seen him. On the earlier occasion, he came to visit us when we were in a rented house at Cossipore in North Calcutta. My youngest sister-in-law Shanti had been living with us at that time. Shanti had taken Baramama along to show around the places.

We had very cordial relations with our maternal uncles, aunts, and cousins. Our eldest aunt (Baramama's wife) Sadhana mamima was the lady of the house and had to manage the affairs of a big family. So far as I could remember her, she was a motherly lady. I did not see her ever after we had migrated from Sylhet.

Below is a picture of Baramama and his family

My eldest maternal uncle with his family

Cousins: Rajat alias Manik

After long years with Manik in Calcutta, Dec 2004

The eldest of my cousins (the eldest son of Baramama) Rajat alias Manik was a few months younger than me. We were very close and friendly to each other. In our childhood, we even shared food from the same plate. The first time I met him after the partition was more than a decade after we had left Sylhet. He had come to visit us at Jorhat with Kutumama, my mother's own youngest brother. It was 1960, and I had just completed my Matriculation Examination. Manik then stayed with us for some time. We gleefully spent those few days and watched some good movies together. He had also attended my marriage at Mekliganj in March 1972. He had come with my elder brother from Silchar, where he had come on a visit from Bangladesh.

The next time I met him was three decades later when he came to Calcutta with his second wife Rita in December 2004. He telephoned me from a hotel where he had put up with his wife on arrival in Calcutta. I immediately rushed to the hotel and brought them to my house in Salt Lake. After a long time, we merrily spent a few days together. In 2007, at my invitation, he came all the way from Bangladesh to Calcutta to attend the marriage of my younger daughter and perform “kanyadan” ceremonies on my behalf. I was ill with jaundice at that time.

As ill luck could have it, he also died at my place in Kolkata on Apr 20, 2008, while recuperating after bypass surgery in a local hospital. Counting on me he came to Kolkata for treatment after having a severe heart attack in his native place in Bangladesh. It was a great shock to me when he died. I lost a brother and a great friend in him. Perhaps it was the will of the Providence that I should be by his side at his death. Manik was an advocate by profession and practised in Sylhet. It took me quite some time to be out of the grief caused by Manik's death.

Manik also had two marriages. His first wife Sumita having died, he married for the second time. He left behind two sons Suman & Sujak and a daughter Mitu from his first wife. He did not have any offspring from his second wife Rita. I did not have the opportunity to meet his first wife. Manik’s sons and daughter are all married. Eldest Suman has two sons and stays in Melbourne, Australia; second Sujak has a son and stays in Sylhet, Bangladesh. Daughter Mitu too has a son and stayed in Italy. She had since moved to London.

Manik attending my marriage in 1972

Manik performing Kanyadan in my daughter's Jhilmil's marriage, 2007

Manik with his first wife Sumita

Manik with his second wife Rita

During my visit to Sylhet in Dec 2019, I saw some of my nephews, nieces, and grandchildren from them, most of whom I had met for the first time. They were very cordial and loving. We got moved by the way they welcomed us.

During that visit, I saw for the first time my cousin-sister Simu's husband, Rajat Das Chowdhury, whom I found simple, well-meaning, and hearty.

Cousin: Chandan

Next to Manik, was my cousin Chandan, who had renounced domestic ties, turned a sadhu, and lived in an Ashram in Agartala. Lately (2019), due to illness, he had been brought to his paternal house in Sylhet and was living there since. I met him after decades in the course of my Sylhet visit. When we had migrated from Sylhet, he was a little more than a toddler, and I a child of 4-5 years. Next, we met here as two old men in the age group of 70-80. Chandan lived close to the temple of the family God Gopinath. He spent his day worshipping Lord Gopinath and making all arrangements for the same in the temple.

A picture of his is in the right panel.

My cousin Chandan Sadhu

Cousin: Shankar

Next in the row is Shankar, my fifth cousin from Baramama, who lives in Bangladesh and is a legal practitioner in Income Tax matters. He has a son Amit and a daughter Tumpa alias Anamika4, both married. He too was by the side of his elder brother when the latter died in Kolkata. I met Shankar again sometime after the death of Manik when he had come to Calcutta on his way to Delhi for treatment. He has since been blessed with a grandson from his son Amit and a granddaughter from daughter Tumpa. He has since shifted to the USA with his wife and commutes between that country and Bangladesh spending six months in each. He and his wife Alpana have since acquired American citizenship. He was in Bangladesh when I had visited Sylhet. I had met him and his wife Alpana there after 10 years.

Shankar with his wife Alpana at a younger age

Cousin: Pradip alias Pada

My third Cousin Pradip died long back. I don’t know much about him. He was hardly a year old when we had left Sylhet. His widow Hena now lives in Sylhet with two sons and a daughter-in-law in an extended portion of the original building. She was blessed with a grandson close to our visit to Sylhet. Hena and her two sons, all standing behind us, are in the picture in the right panel.

With cousin Pada's widow Hena (standing middle) with her two sons

My cousin sister: Chanda alias Reba

Cousin Reba was born after we had migrated. She is the fourth among the children of Bara mama. She has three daughters. She now lives in New York with one of her three married daughters. I had met Reba, her husband Nishit, and one of their daughters when they had come to visit us at Calcutta on two different occasions.

One of her daughters Rima is a Director of Music of Dacca University and lives in Dacca. She has a sweet voice and sings wonderfully well.

I had visited Reba's family house in Sylhet in the course of my Homeland visit in 2019 and met her brothers-in-law and their family members there. They were good people.

Reba @ Chhanda with her husband Nishit

My cousin sister: Gayatri alias Simu

Simu alias Gayatri, too, was born after we had migrated to India. She is the youngest of all the children of my eldest maternal uncle. I first met her when she came to Calcutta for treatment along with brother Shankar sometimes in 2002. She has a son who is a medical graduate. Her son got married in Dacca recently (as of 2019). She, too, now lives in New York with her son and husband.

Sister Simu was in Bangladesh when I had gone there in 2019. She came with her husband Rajat from her in-law's house in Maulvi Bazar to meet us in Sylhet. We had a nice time together in the midst of all other relations. I had met her husband Rajat for the first time then. I had found him nice, friendly, and social.

Gayatri & her husband

My cousin: Dipak alias Dipu

Dipu with his wife Jhuma, son Dipta and daughter Jhilik. A photograph taken long back.

Jhuma, Jhilik & Dipta when they came to India in 2013

Dipu is another cousin of mine from Bara mama. He had visited us in Calcutta a couple of times before his marriage and once after the marriage. He lives in New York with his wife Jhuma, daughter Jhilik and son Dipta. I met his son Dipta alias Devraj and daughter Jhilik alias Deepanwita for the first time when they came with their mother for a short trip to Calcutta in July 2013. We had a great time with them during their brief stay with us. Both the daughter and the son have been well-bred. I am very happy about that. We missed Dipu as he could not make it to India at that time due to his pre-occupations.

Dipu rings up from time to time to know about us. He is very close to my daughters also.

My niece Jhilik alias Deepanwita is now doing her residency in a teaching hospital after having graduated in Medical Science in 2022 from Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in the USA. Nephew Dipta too. is established.

ousin Dipu with his wife Jhuma & daughter Jhilik at the convocation of Stony Brook University.

Jhilik with brother Dipta & mother Jhuma at the convocation of Stony Brook University, USA

My other cousins from Baro mama

I would fail on facts and family ties if I did not mention other cousins from Baromama who live in the USA and whom I had never met. The cousins I did not meet were Ranjan (Sekhar), Pankaj (Bachhu) and Nandan. Ranjan had taken the initiative to establish contact with me. I was then on a stopover in Guwahati while on a trip to Assam. It took him a couple of attempts to get connected. I was happy to receive his call. I did not know much about him or his family. I learnt during my recent Sylhet visit (Dec 2019) that he had an accident sometime back. I would have been glad to get details of these cousins and their families to include here.

Following the partition of India, my maternal uncles had initially stayed back in Sylhet with their families. But later, excepting Baramama and his family and Runu mama and Jhunu mama, all migrated to India one by one and settled in Assam at Silchar and Guwahati. Even though Baramama had stayed back in Sylhet with his family, his seventh son Dipu had left Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) quite early and went to Dubai. Later, Dipu shifted to New York, where he acquired American citizenship and settled.

My maternal uncle: Kutumama, mother's own youngest brother

I was very close to some of my maternal uncles, particularly Kutu Mama (Radhika Kanta Das) who was my mother’s own youngest brother and Bhutu Mama who was one of the cousin brothers of my mother. I had the opportunity of being with them for a considerable time after they had settled in India. Incidentally, the famous folk singer Nirmalendu Chaudhuri was a childhood friend of Kutumama.

Kutu mama had two marriages, the first one was a love marriage but Chhoto Mamima (maternal aunt) Shefali did not live long. I did not see her but had heard much about her from my mother. I had learnt that she was a very tidy and graceful lady. I had seen her photograph in Kutumama's bedroom during my childhood days in Sylhet, and it remained etched in my mind. Now when I visualise it, I feel it presented a face with a dignified look. That aunt of mine did not have any children.

Much later, Kutumama married for the second time. His second wife Manju mamima was much younger to him but died an early death. I have a feeling; she had suffered the most during the days of extreme poverty in the family and that finally ended her life. She left behind two daughters Sipra and Seema and two sons Babla alias Ramendu and Bapi alias Rupendu. The sons and the daughters are all married and settled now.

On migration to India, Kutumama, too, faced hard days, as my sisters did. He started a furniture shop in Silchar but couldn’t run it for long and found himself running from pillar to post, even for low-paid jobs, which, again, he failed to secure. The result was extreme poverty. I was deeply hurt to see the sad downfall of the once dainty and well-to-do person. He was yet another one of the thousands of sacrifices that the partition of India needed.

Kutumama (Radhika Kanta Das) and his 2nd wife Manju (Manju Mamima)

I and my wife with mother, Manju Mamima and her children Sipra, Babla & Bapi

My cousins from Kutumama & their families

My cousin Sipra (eldest amongst the four children of Kutumama) had been reading in a Junior High School in Silchar, where we had taken shelter during the Bongal Khedao Movement in the Brahmaputra Valley in 1960. She was good at her study and devoted to them. The economic condition of Kutumama at that time was also not that bad, and he had some additional dependents, too. In time, his condition deteriorated and reached its lowest ebb. Sipra passed the Higher Secondary in great pain. But, she had to forgo higher education which she intensely desired. She had to leave her studies and be on the lookout for a job to haul out the family from disaster. She managed to get a job as a telephone operator at the local Telephone Exchange. She had pulled up the family from disaster and helped it to get a footing at the cost of her career at a very young age.. Even now, she, with her younger sister Sima, who is in the teaching profession, is partly maintaining their brothers' families. No amount of praise is enough for Sipra. By nature, she is soft and sweet-talking.

I must also leave good words for Sipra's husband Manik and Sima's husband Barun, who have stood by their wives all along. They are good people; simple, warm, and friendly.

Sipra and her sister Sima and bother Babla from Kutumama all now live in Karimganj with their families. Sipra has two daughters Mumpi and Puja. The elder Mumpi has been studying Chartered Accountancy in Kolkata and has since passed Inter Examand one group for the final of that course. She has since passed the CA exam and is now a Chartered Accountant. Currently (2024), she works as a CA in a private company in Mumbai. The younger Puja completed her graduation and has been admitted to an MBA course at an institution in Agartala.

Sima's daughter, Sarnali, recently passed the School Leaving Examination in 2023 with good marks and is currently studying in a college in Karimganj.. Brother Babla, too, has a daughter named RIMA, who, after completing her BT is now (2024) working as a data entry operator in the Karimganj District office.

My other cousin Bapi had strayed away for some time but now is reportedly back on the path. He lives in Silchar. He has become a dancer and has recently acclaimed honours by dancing non-stop for 24 hours. Hde works in a private firm in Silchar (2023)

Here are pictures of my other cousins from Kutumama and their families on the right panel and below.

Cousin sister Sipra (3rd from right), her daughters Mumpi and Puja (On her two sides), Her husband Manik (extreme left), his niece to left and another cousin sister Seema's husband Barun (extreme right)

Another cousin sister from Kutumama, Seema with her husband Barun and daughter Sarnali

Cousin brother Babla @ Ramendu with his wife & daughter

Another cousin from Kutumama Rupendu @ Bapi with his son

Three sisters: Cousin sister Sipra's daughters Mumpi & Puja with their cousin Lucy

My maternal uncle: Bhutumama, my mother's cousin

Bhutu mama (Kumud Ranjan Das), was one of the cousins of my mother. He was handsome, a good sportsman, and possessed a very good physique. He too married late and did not have any offspring. Mamima had been a very nice woman. Both loved me. Mamima used to practise Homeopathy. Bhutu mama had been with the Indian Railways from pre-partition days but left the job on his own; the reasons are not known.

In his later life, he served for some time as the Manager of a Hotel in Shillong. There he stayed with his wife, in the accommodation provided by the hotel. I was in Shillong doing my graduation at that time. I have mentioned this later in the page on Academic Career. Bhutumama had left that job and came back to Silchar sometime after I had left Shillong. He stayed at Silchar till death. I last met him in 19725 when I visited Silchar with my wife after my marriage. Both Bhutumama and Mamima were very happy to see us and entertained us with lunch. Bhutumama died in 1995.

Since then Mamima lived alone in a flat of her own in Silchar. She had come all the way from Silchar to attend the marriage of my elder daughter in 2000. She had been accompanied by another cousin of mine, Tablu (son of a half-brother of Bhutumama, named Pukan).

She used to ring me up if she did not get any call from me for a few days (as of 2012 and before). For the last couple of years of her life, she had been suffering from various ailments and later became bedridden. On the 28th of October 2014 at 06-30 am she breathed her last.

I visited her for the last time in Feb 2010 when I had been to Silchar to attend the last rites of my brother. She had no offspring. Pukan Mama's younger son Pradip alias Tablu, who stayed with and looked after her, did the last rites.

Kumud Ranjan Das (Bhutu mama) with wife Usha Rani Das (Bhutu Mamima)

My other maternal uncles: mother's half-brothers

Rishi mama alias Rishikesh Das

Risi mama was the eldest amongst the half-brothers of my mother. He used to work in the furniture shop that Kutumama had run for some time in Silchar and stayed with him (Kutumama). I don't know what job he used to do after the closure of Kutumama's furniture shop. But he continued to stay with Kutumamma and died there of cancer.

Sunil Mama alias Sunil Das

Sunil mama, one of my mother's half-brothers, worked in a printing press (Assam Tribune) in Gauhati after he had migrated from East Pakistan. According to the then report of the paper where he worked as a compositor, he died in Gauhati only at the age of 43 leaving behind a son and two daughters besides his wife. The elder daughter works in Gauhati in the office of the Assam Tribune, a widely circulated English Daily of Assam. I had stayed with Sunil Mama and the aunt once when in transit from Silchar to my workplace at Mekliganj after my marriage in 1972. His elder daughter was a mere child at that time and others possibly were not born. I have recently found in the leftover papers of my deceased mother a picture of Sunil Mama with his son in arms which I reproduce here on the right panel.

Ronu mama:

He was the youngest half-brother of my mother. He lived in their paternal house in Dariapara. He was, to some extent, mentally retarded. He, too, died a bachelor. I don't know how and when he died.

Sunil Mama with his son in arms

Ronu Mama

Maternal Aunt

My maternal aunt, my mother's half-sister, named Ganga, and her family had migrated to and settled in Karimganj, Assam. Her husband Bhupendra Nath Roy had negotiated my brother’s first marriage. Post-partition, my aunt had once come to our Silchar house in Tikarbasti. She had a daughter, whose present whereabouts are not known. Both the uncle and the aunt had died long past. No photograph of this aunt or her family is available to me.

Maternal uncle: Pukun mama, my mother's another cousin & his family

Pukan Mama (good name Kanti Bhusan Das), was one other cousin of my mother who had settled in Guwahati post-partition. I don’t remember to have seen him after we had left Sylhet though I had passed through Gauhati a number of times, since my college days. I had no contact with my uncles in Guwahati at that time. Pukan Mama once came to meet us when on my way back from Silchar after my marriage, I had stopped over in Sunil mama's house in Gauhati. Unfortunately, we did not meet. I and my wife had been away to Shillong at that time. As I was due to leave for my workplace the next day, I could not also make it to visit his place to see him. One of Pukan Mama’s sons Kabindra nicknamed Dipu now stays in Guwahati with his family consisting of his wife and two sons. Mamima also stays with him. Dipu worked in the office of the Accountant General, Assam from where he had since retired. When I was in Guwahati in the course of my visit to Assam in March 2014, Dipu took me to his house where I met his wife Mina, younger son Krishanu and Pukan Mamima. Dipu’s elder son Kaushik was away.

The younger son of Pukan Mama nick-named Tablu now works in a private firm at Aizawl, Mizoram. He got married in 2013.

Some related photographs are posted on the right panel.