The D day: Fund handover

On the eve:

The carnival spread over last few months was poised to enter its moment of truth. As I was updating the list and amounts at Santacruz airport in Mumbai, thanks to the usual delays by the airline, Avijit’s email a few days ago sounded so true. Beyond the noble objective of supporting RKM in its various social efforts, the Fund has found a profound collective joy in all of us. It’s like an annual summer festival that mobilizes the dormant child inside us. Sei bhavan janmodiner preparatory din gulor moton. Raat jege kagojer chain, stars, jhalor banano... The artistes in work; warring blocks trying to dig up each others assets and preparations; plans being made and re-made to accommodate more incoming materials… much like those days. hundreds of calls by co-ordinators like hungry paonadars consolidating money trails; frantic mails and appeals -- poking dormant heads and causing irritations to many J; exhaustive online tracking (thanks to online spreadsheets); countless updations and consolidations; flaring emotions and counter-punches; all of those would finally sum up to feed a larger cause – and the day was inching closer every minute.

The D Day:

So, it was decided that the Admiral (Deboo), and his sepoys and support crews would meet at ndp latest by eleven in the morning, BST. Determined to hold on the bongo punctuality, I set out at quarter to eleven, braving the scorching sun and dripping sweat. I and Deboo quickly updated the final documents in a cramped cyber-café at Behala chowrasta before Rudra came in, and we finally headed towards narendrapur only to be frequently abused in every 10 mins over the phone by other waiting sepoys, who breached our trust on Bengal Standard Time!!

Needless to say, the mouthful came at us like giant tidal waves as soon as we got down. There they were – the ethereal shri poga with his ‘Happydent’ smile and colorful personality; the legendary ABP reporter Shri Chasha who is believed to be a Bartoman spy on a mission to shut-down ABP like he did with Khaas-Khabar; agitated but smiling Dhruba with a receding hairline, anxious to depart even before the story started; the next-to-be-domesticated shri Aniruddha with tension all over his face; a healthy looking shri ‘chakka’ aka Maity with a bright yellow shirt like a shining coal – except for the JK (Jammu-Kanyakumari) express, who was as usual running pretty late. Shri Kali was very eager to join the team, but alas, he was getting prepared to wear that tri-shonku topor with dual jhola bichi. [Kastha had his glowing smiles captured here]

After a round of tea at Gopal da’s dokan outside the main gate, Dhruba handed over his baton to JK, who finally arrived on the scene with muchki muchki haasi that blew away all khistis reserved for him. So, it was time for a heavy lunch at Karmi bhavan with Mridula-da before we would hand over the fund to Bishnu-da at his guest-house. An elusive cellular negligence on the spreadsheet got us entangled in a lengthy battle of calculations and re-calculations, which finally proved to be a sweetener as the amount suddenly swelled up by a fat 4K. With a jaw-dropping amount of 1,90,287 INR, our Admiral saab and his battalion reached the final moment. Bishnu-da lauded the effort put up by the batch, conveyed his blessings with a tinge of emotion for this bunch of guys, who were the only ones to have returned to the mission in its history of 50 years with “water and sunshine for all its leaves”. The joy and happiness were too big to have them scripted here, as we walked past the blind boys working hard at the field, trying to enter into a world that has only darkness for them.

After a couple of sessions with Sunil-da (Blind Boys academy) and Bhanu Maharaj (Loksiksha), we embarked on a journey into the memory lane. It was where we spent those magical years… TWENTY years ago!