Mail News Service
Jamshedpur, Oct 22: A septuagenarian sits on a cushioned chair in the corner of a large balcony, alone and pensive as he watches the crowd of excited puja shoppers rushing to stores and stalls in a last moment rush for replenishing Puja wardrobes and kitchens with spices of joy that will spread the festive spirit in four days of living. The septuagenarian stares down from the first floor balcony with hazy and unseeing eyes as his mind races to the days of growth from a boy to an adolescent. He recollects his two rupee worth of joy that took him around with friends to puja pandals at Ramkrishna Mission on L Road in Bistupur, Contractors� Area and then back to Ghasi Club where for him and his company lay the essence of Durgotsav � throbbing, vibrating and exciting. Chances of getting lost were remote as every elder knew everybody else and which child belonged to whose family. Biren Kaka, Robi Jethu, Atul Uncle, Manosh Mesho and so on and so forth. These elderly people were friendly but their hawk eyes were fixed on the reveling children sucking on ice-cream candy, eating two Anna plates of pakoras and ghugni and biting on delicious one Anna chops. Then there were the wooden merry-go-rounds with horses and cars for a 10 Naya paisa ride and wooden and creaking, wooden Ferris wheels (nagordola) reverberating with screams of excitement and fear. The toy shops were laden with cars and dolls and idols of gods and goddesses, finger rings, earrings for the childhood girlfriends and of course the perennial balloon shoots costing ten paise for five shots. The toys, costliest among them being the spring wound cars cost Rs 2 and 25 paise. By the time with all the food, toys and joy rides and of course that occasional purchase of Radha-Krishna clay models for one whole rupee, the two rupees seemed too huge to spend and some change was left even after the shops at Ghasi Club had packed up after the Vijaya Dashami sales. That was the world of Ghasi Club or Jamshedpur Puja Committee that lingers across the sands of time and into the septuagenarian�s memory album.
He saw the times changing with the passing years flitting across his mental screen. He saw the young, junior school kid growing into an adolescent, well bred and well read for his IQ status. He remained rooted to his favorite haunt, Ghasi Club, enjoying all that he did during his recent childhood and more by way of being taken by his mother to watch Jatras by Nabaranjan Opera, Natya Company and many others that started at a bit earlier than midnight and concluded at dawn. The warmth of the packed pandal and the cool of the early morning made returning home with mother a pleasant exercise and then hopping on to bed with no disturbance of being jerked awake over the four days beginning Sashthi. It was Durga Puja time at Ghasi Club. Dad had purchased for him an Atlas bicycle and he and his friends expanded the circumference of their tour grounds to Kadma Farm Area. But the climax had to be at the flavor grounds of Durgotsav � Ghasi Club where the world of fun and frolic lay.
Durga Puja was first celebrated in Jamshedpur under the aegis of Jamshedpur Puja Committee in 1919 in the verandah of Jogesh Chandra Ghosh�s Bistupur Q Road quarter. What began as a commitment of a few handful of people determined to keep tradition alive, the spirit has traversed 102 years and today, stands as a symbol of culture, excellently preserved and propagated with baton of management changing hands through generations. Jamshedpur Puja Committee, by some strange and yet undiscovered reason became popular as Ghasi Club and that is the label that makes Ma Durga the traditional Goddess of Bengalis and others in Jamshedpur. The d�cor has never been awe inspiring but the attraction is a bonding with tradition that has only grown stronger through generations. People have passed on to afterlife or, like the more recent septuagenarian on a balcony corner, relive the times with unbound joy that none will understand or appreciate.
In 1919, the idol of the Goddess was built by artistes from Krishnanagar and priests came in from Calcutta (now Kolkata). The initial committee comprised Dr Shantiram Chakraborty as president, Jogesh Chandra Ghosh as secretary. Venues changed with time but the spirit only grew. After many shifts the final stop from where generations have flocked to seep in the spirit of Durgotsav, Mother finally settled in the premises of Jamshedpur Association, yes, the guess is right, Ghasi Club.
As Ghasi Club Durgotsav enters the 103rd year of celebrations form October 22 (Shasthi), one cannot help but salute the dedication and determination through many stumbling blocks to hand the baton to the current runners expected to keep the trend alive and captivating as ever. The men who started and continued the spirit and devotion were Dr Shantiram Chakraborty, Jogesh Chandra Ghosh, Shailendra Kumar Chakraborty, Ajit Kumar Hazra, Upendra Lal Mukherjee, PK Mitra, Dr HN Chandra, Barada Kanta Chowdhury, Gouri Charan Bandyopadhyay, Satish Chandra Basu, Nirmal Chandra Chatterjee, Arup Kumar Bose, Basu Roychowdhury, Nirmal Kumar Guha, KC Chatterjee (Tenada), Dr SB Dutta, priest Nibaran Ganguly, priest Haripado Chakraborty, Nitya Gopal Dey, NN Moitra, Niroo Chatterjee, Khagendranath Sarkar, Parimal Dutta, SS Banerjee, idol maker Chandra Mohan Pal and many others who started, continued and upheld a tradition, the trade mark tradition of less gloss and more excitement � Ghasi Club Durgotsav.
The captains who will carry forward the tradition with aplomb and dedication include Tapas Ghosh (president), Bimal Ray (secretary), Arunava Das (working president) and Biswajit Basak (treasurer).
The septuagenarian continues to rummage the basket of memories of an exciting period that may not make a revisit. He may not hear the Dhak beats nor the puja mantras. They are all banned because of the prevailing COVID pandemic. But the Kash and Shiuli flowers will continue to bloom. Let him live from the time machine in the balcony corner and move back through an epoch to relive the times when it was a big, vast family with caring and love. For now, he may not be offered even that extra cup of tea as people may be busy fanning the flame of excitement designed to warm the hearts and homes for the four days. Leave the septuagenarian to his own world of joy where there is no yesterday.
