The Lives of Others (80 page)

When at last they are done, they put the fishplate away in a shoulder bag, first swaddling it tightly in clothes. Then they try to wedge a jack in the tiny gap between the two rail ends, but this defeats them. They are not surprised; they had discussed this during training. They had decided not to leave anything to chance, which is why they are taking out fishplates at more than one point along the same track; one of them is bound to work; the average speed of the train is between 70 to 80 kilometres per hour on their chosen stretch. They strain a little bit more and ultimately leave the end of a curved machete wedged in the crack. They pick up their instruments and turn off the torch. Then they cross the tracks and disappear into the night and into the forest, these new children of the trees. Their work here is over. They will leave the forest now and never return to this region again.

In three hours, well before dawn breaks, the Ajmer–Kolkata Express, carrying approximately 1,500 people, is going to hurtle down these tracks.

A NOTE ON NAMES AND RELATIONS

In any Bengali family the members address each other relationally. Only children’s first names are used; also, a husband addresses his wife by her first name (but not the other way around). These four prefixes show the relative seniority of a person being addressed:

Boro-: eldest

Mejo-: middle

Shejo-: between middle and youngest

Chhoto-: youngest
So if your father has three older brothers, you would call the eldest Boro-jyethu (jyethu being the term for father’s older brother); the next one, Mejo-jyethu; and the youngest, Chhoto-jyethu. The prefixes can be added to all the relational terms listed below:

Bhai: younger brother

Boüdi: brother’s wife

Dada: older brother, often shortened to –da

Didi: older sister, often shortened to -di

Jaa: husband’s older sister

Jyethima: Jyethu’s wife; sometimes abbreviated to ‘Jyethi’

Jyethu: the older brother of your father

Kaka: the younger brother of your father

Kakima: Kaka’s wife; sometimes abbreviated to simply ‘Kaki’

Mama: maternal uncle, brother of your mother. The same term is used of uncles older and younger than your mother, unlike paternal uncles, who are classified as Jyethu and Kaka based on their ages relative to your father.

Mami: Mama’s wife

Mashi: mother’s sister

Pishi: father’s sister.

The relational terms can also be appended to names outside the family, thus: Mala-mashi, Namita-di, Rupa-boüdi, Sunil-mama.

These are some other terms used in the book:

Boro-boü: the eldest daughter-in-law of a large, extended family Thakuma: paternal grandmother.

GLOSSARY

aanchol
= The ‘n’ is nasal. An entire cultural complex resides in this part of the sari, the endpiece, which hangs over the shoulder at the back (mostly; it can sometimes hang from the front, depending on the way in which it is worn). Because it can be used to cover the back, arms and shoulder, it is the ‘display area’ of the sari, its peacock’s tail, as it were, for which the craftsman or mass-manufacturer reserves the showiest of embellishments. Its uses are legion, from wiping tears to drying plates; from tying keys to draping it around the arms and shoulders to feel less exposed; from covering the mouth and/or nose to fanning oneself in the humid heat.

ablush
= Ebony.

achchha
= Literally ‘well’ (ejaculative, not adjective), ‘okay’, ‘right’ or ‘I see’, the word can denote assent or stand as just a filler.

adda
= A Bengali institution. It consists of long sessions of aimless conversation, mostly between men. Bengalis try to give it a high intellectual gloss, believing that it is the soul of life and productive of great breakthroughs in the arts, sciences, politics, etc., but don’t be fooled – it’s classic Bengali idleness, a way of wasting, cumulatively, months and years of one’s life in procrastination and ridiculous self-importance.

anjali
= Prayer.

aparajita
=
Clitoria ternatea
, or butterfly-pea, or blue-pea. A perennial climber that bears strikingly blue flowers singly (white variants obtain, too). The fruit resembles a smaller, narrower, flatter, downier sugar-snap.

arrey
= Very difficult to translate, this could mean ‘Hey’, or express surprise, or simply act as a filler, a kind of cultural verbal tic.

ashad
= The first Bengali month of the monsoon season, usually mid-June to mid-July.

ashirbad
= Literally, ‘blessing’. In the context in which it is used in the story, it is the formalisation of a nuptial match by the visit of the groom’s parents to the bride’s home to bless her, usually with a piece of gold ornament.

ashtami
= The third, and grandest, of the five days of Durga Puja.

ashwattha
=
Ficus religiosa
, or peepal tree – an iconic tree, because the Buddha obtained enlightenment under one.

bahurupi
= An itinerant folk performer with a wide repertoire of roles and corresponding disguises. He assumes several forms and wholly inhabits the identities, which are dizzying: gods, goddesses, demons, tradesmen, conmen, animals, children, professionals – nothing is potentially outside his reach. An endangered species now. For an adequate overview, see www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20080308/saturday/main1.htm.

baju
= An ornament for the upper arm; a gold armband.

bargadar
= Sharecropper.

bat
=
Ficus benghalensis
, the iconic Indian banyan tree. Enough said.

benarasi
= A type of silk sari, named after the city, Banaras (or Varanasi), which is the centre of India’s
zari
figured-silk weaving industry (
zari
is gold-wrapped thread). Benarasi saris are rich, gorgeous and usually feature intricate floral and foliate patterns. Considered de rigueur for Bengali weddings.

bene
= A class of trader who deals exclusively in jewellery.

bhari
(weight) = Generally used of gold, 1 bhari is 11.664 grams.

bheesti
= Water carrier. A person, not an object.

bidi
= The native Indian cigarette, small and thin, made of tobacco wrapped in kendu leaves and tied at one end with a string. Very cheap, it is considered the poor man’s cigarette.

bigha
= A measure of land. In West Bengal, the bigha was standardised under British colonial rule at 1,600 square yards (0.1338 hectare or 0.3306 acre); this is often interpreted as being one-third of an acre (it is precisely
acre). In metric units, a bigha is hence 1333.33 square metres. See also
katha
.

bijaya
= The last day of Durga Puja, the conceit being that after her sojourn in her parents’ home, Durga returns to her husband, Shiva.

bonti
= A sharp, curved blade, fixed perpendicularly to a horizontal wooden stand, and used in the kitchen for cutting fish and vegetables.

boü-bhaat
= Literally, ‘bride-rice’. The wedding proper – that is, the rituals that bind bride and groom together as man and wife – is held in the bride’s home, after which she leaves her father’s house and comes to her in-laws’. The man’s family now throws a reception, a complement to the wedding, if you will; mass feeding invariably characterises it. The new bride is supposed to cook for her husband’s family and serve rice to her in-laws and the guests on this day, hence the name.

Brahmo
= This entry is going to be kept deliberately short. Interested readers can go to www.thebrahmosamaj.net. Brahmoism is an early nineteenth-century reformist movement within the Hindu religion that tried to free itself from cant, rituals, superstition, idolatry and all kinds of social ills that had come to plague the practice of Hinduism. Socially and doctrinally progressive, Brahmos had a central role in the Bengal Renaissance of the nineteenth century. The starriest of the two Bengali families, the Tagores and the Rays (Upendrakishore, Sukumar, Satyajit), were Brahmos. In some current, colloquial usage of the word, ‘brahmo’ can mean, slightly pejoratively, over-refined creatures floating a few inches above the vulgar, unwashed masses. As with all such colloquial usage, there is a small grain of truth in it.

chador
= A length of cloth, usually to cover oneself at night. The same word is used of bedsheets or cotton shawls.

challan
= Invoice for goods sent.

charas
= Hashish.

chhatu
= Flour made from roasted chickpeas or barley. Can be eaten uncooked and usually is, kneaded rigorously into a dough with oil, water, green chillies, salt, chopped onions, etc. Considered to be the poor man’s food.

chhee
= This is the exclamatory word to express shame mostly, but also sometimes distaste or disgust.

chhillum
= A small, simple, trumpet-shaped clay pipe for smoking marijuana. Often called chhilim.

chik
= Vernacular for choker.

chur
= A flat decorative bracelet of varying width, usually in filigree, but also in floral chasing; mainly a marriage ornament.

crore
= Ten million.

dhaak
= A kind of drum slung over the shoulders in a sling and played with sticks. The man who plays it is a dhaaki.

eeesh
= One of the most eloquent words in Bengali, it can express – depending on context and the tone in which it is said – disgust, distaste, wonder, regret, sympathy, revulsion, and no doubt a few more feelings.

fatua
= A short-sleeved, shorter version of the
panjabi
(q.v.).

gamchha
= The poor man’s towel, very thin, coarse, and invariably chequered red-and-white.

ghaghra
= Long, flared skirt, colourfully, often garishly, decorated, common in north-western parts of India.

gherao
= The practice of aggrieved labourers surrounding members of the management (or the owners) and creating a wall of humans through which the encircled persons could not escape until the workers’ demands were met.

gola
= Barn for storage of grain.

hanshuli
= A stiff sickle-shaped hinged necklace that derives its form from tribal Indian jewellery; the equivalent of a collar.

harijan
= Literally, ‘people of god’; this was Gandhi’s term for the class of people considered as untouchables in caste-based Indian society.

hartal
= Strike.

hashua
= A knife with a curved, crescent-shaped blade, not unlike a sickle.

horbola
= A professional performer who mimics all kinds of sounds, chiefly bird calls and animal cries. The horbola used to be a regular fixture in village fairs, but is now an endangered species.

hyan
= Yes; okay. Often an interjection standing for ‘What?’

jah
= Yet another eloquent ejaculation, this is an intensifier that can denote regret, contempt, dismissal or disbelief.

jamdani
= The most exclusive and expensive of Bengali muslin saris (or Dhaka muslins, as they are called), jamdanis feature a distinctive style of supplementary-weft work woven into the fabric.

jhalmuri
= A spicy snack made with puffed rice, finely-chopped onions, spices, peanuts, mustard oil, chillies etc.

kaajol
= Kohl.

kaan
= Literally ‘ear’, this is a formal, dressy genre of earring, which covers the entire ear, hence the name.

kaash phul
= The flowers of
Saccharum spontaneum
, a perennial grass, which grows up to three metres tall.

kadam
=
Neolamarckia cadamba
. A large deciduous tree, capable of growing over 30 metres tall, bearing the most amazing flowers during the monsoon, which resemble perfectly round, dusty-orange or yellow woollen balls. They are fragrant, too.

kaliya
= A gem from Bengali cuisine, this is a rich, fragrant, spiced fish or meat dish. The basic spicing is bay leaves, ground onions, ginger paste, yoghurt and Bengali garam masala (a mixture of equal amounts of cardamom, cloves and cinnamon).

kankan
= An elegant conical bangle of repetitive motifs, once obligatory for married women.

katha
=
of a
bigha
(q.v.), so, in metric terms, 66.66 square metres.