Ramnagar Bungalow at night

liked the rural ambiance… huge expanse of paddy ground.. the sunflowers… trees everywhere.. the Magnolia tree in front of the small bungalow.  Huge play ground not far from the house.. smell of cooking of fresh chicken or hunted duck curry in the evening… the tube-well on the other side.. the blackberry and custard apple trees… the litchi tree, the olive and tamarind trees … the flowers.. the breeze.. the fresh air, clear moonlit sky far from the madding Calcutta crowd.

Papa told me that he would go somewhere a bit far from Ramnagar. I constantly went on requesting him that I would like to be with him. So, he tried to arrange some transport to accommodate me and finally managed to find a bicycle that has a small seat in the front. I was happy and took the ride with him on that little red baby-seat. I remember there were quite a few others those were in the group and all on bicycles. It was bumpy village road and a too long for me on that uncomfortable seat. Still I enjoyed the ride.. the only bicycle ride with my father!

I don’t clearly remember how Bado-Jatha [my uncle] joined us. Now I know that his presence was very important, he had to sign the gift-deed on behalf of Dadu [grandfather]. He transferred the land to Papa’s name.  I remember I saw Jatha [jathA]  at Chandpara. He was there at the Sub-Registrar’s office. Jatha possibly reached there directly by train from Calcutta on the same day. I remember Arekta-Jatha [another uncle] came to the office with us. He was among us in the Ramnagar bicycle group.

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Oh yes! I forgot to tell you what Ramnagar was.  This was a name of a place that my Dadu owned. This was not far from the then Pakistan border at Bangaon. This was about three miles from Chandpara and two and a half mile from Thakurnagar, the two close by railway stations. This is now under the post office Ramchandrapur.  Dadu [grandfather] purchased a piece of land during early 1940’s or late 1930’s. I hear that it was a stretch of 4000 bighas  [1322.4 Acres  or 532.2 hectare]. After Indian independence the government introduced land ceiling and he lost a large part of the land [He never received any compensation on that though!]. However, at one point the land area came to as little as around 6.5 acres and at that point Dadu decided to gift the land to my father.  Now I can imagine, that too was not too small an area..

Back to the story and making the long story short, the land got transferred to Papa after the legal formalities and we all came back to Ramnagar.

I discovered that Gift-deed today lying in an old worn-out packet… Today is the 2012 May Day (01 May]. I thought digitization of the document is a good idea. So, I scanned the document and here it is for you.. It feels good to lay my hands over these old pieces of paper that no more possess the symbol of ownership. The land is still there but not with us… but the memory is still fresh and alive.. Enjoying the old memories!

Some updates:

My Dada [Mahiruha Shekhar Banerjee] called me after looking at the draft post and pointed out that Dadu actually purchased 1600 bighas [526.96 acre or 214.08 hectare] of land in the year 1935.

The persons mentioned above:

“]

Raisaheb Rajendra Lal Banerjee [Dadu

Dadu: Raisahib Rajendra Lal Banerjee

L to R: Chitta Prasanna, Deba Prasanna and Peejush Prasanna

Bado Jatha: Chitta Prasanna Banerjee
Arekta-Jatha: Deb Prasanna Banerjee
Papa: Peejush Prasanna Banerjee [youngest brother of the three]

Zeiss Ikon Plate Camera

Photo credit:

• Photo of Ramnagar Bungalow at night and Raisaheb Rajendra Lal Banerjee were taken, processed and printed by Deba Prasanna Banerjee in his Zeiss Ikon plate camera. He himself developed the Photo Plates and printed at home.
• The photograph of three bothers was taken by Sanjoy Bandopadhyay in his less expensive camera around 1962. The name of the camera is forgotten [Ensonic??].. the only memory is, the camera was launched in Indian market before Agfa Click III. The camera did not stay long. It was kind of a toy-replica of single lens reflex camera Hasselblad 501C/M.
  

• A Rezakhani gat 
• Transcribed in Staff notation system
• Sthayee
• The .MUS file that can be opened in Finale.

• Manjha
• Click to get the .MUS file 

• Antara
• Click to get the .MUS file
• 

[Transcription to Staff Notation by Ranjan Ghosh.]

In the evening after playing a bit of Bihag I thought of the six notes.. I tuned my tarab strings and started strumming. Dilip immediately reacted.. “ Sajnjoyda, sundar lagchhe to! Ki raag?” [Sanjoyda, this is sounding beautiful! What is the raga?]”

Sanjoyda chose to play Anil-Madhyam during the 01 January 2012 evening concert to celebrate the birth-centenary of Acharya Anil Roychaudhury. Listen how he introduced the raga. He spoke in Bengali. Here is what he said…

Enjoy the rendering …

 Raga details

• Name of the raga: Anil-Madhyam
• Conceptualized by: Pt. Sanjoy Bandopadhyay on 24 December 2011
• First performed by Pt. Sanjoy Bandopadhyay on the sitar on 01 January 2012 in a concert organized by Vistar as a tribute to Acharya Anil Roychaudhury during his birth-cenetenary celebration.

Notation system
Shudh svaras in Caps: SRGMPDN
Vikrit svaras in smalls: r g m d n
Tar saptak : S’ R’ G’ M’ etc
Mandra saptak: N1 D1 P1 etc.

Raga: Anil-Madhyam

Arohan: S R g m P n S’

Avarohan: S’ n P m g R S

Pakad: R n1 S, RgPm

Important note focus: Tivra-m

Chalan:

1. R n1 S g S, R g P m
2. P1 n1 P1, m1 P1 S
3. P1 n1 g R n1  m1 P1 S
4. P1 n1 R, S g S, R n1 S, P1 m1
5. n1 S R g m, S g R n1 P1
6. S R g m P m
7. g m P n g,  R g m R, S g S, n1 g R, S R g P m
8. R n1 S R g m P n – P
9. m P S’, R’ S’ n – P
10. P n R’, P n g’ R’ S’
11. R g m P n S’ R’ g’ R’ S’
12. S’ n P m g R S

The Ascending, Descending and Chalan in Western Notations system… Download the .MUS file in Finale

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Ascending, Descending and Chalan

[Converted to Staff Notation System by Ranjan Ghosh.]