Letter from Asonsol ( West Bengal) 1981

 A shower after celebrating holi day in Asonsol



According to the Indians, the building of the railway lines which connects the whole of the country from North to South and from East to West is the best piece of treasure the British Raj has left behind.

Travelling to Asonsol , ( a stone throw away from Calcutta) was my first experience of the Indian steam railway which lived up to my expectation!! It was all there, what I had seen in the movies, bigger then life it self, acting on a vast stage set up on the Delhi railway station. The coolies fighting over my luggage to earn few rupees, the clatter of chai-wallas( tea sellers) and the food sellers and numerous books and magazine stalls and not forgetting the crowd of people from all walks of life wanted to get into the carriage at the same time as little me. The journey from Delhi to Asonsol was an overnight stay in the 2nd class carriage, which contained long wooden benches to sleep on. All the necessary bedding for a comfortable sleep on the plank, together with the food and trunk full of belongings was what most travellers had carried with them. I watched with interest how the little coolie would  balance the whole family kitchen sink on his small head and  dart towards the carriage and made sure he got to the carriage before anybody else, to claim the pre booked seats!!! Was he doing this for extra tip, maybe?

My heart missed few beats every time I saw a European face on the platform, they were rare in my part of India I lived in.

My stay in Asonsol was very different from the other places of my stay. The large family I was staying with was educated, professional and ran iron foundry. Do I know anything about iron foundry? No, was my answer; so off I went for a day trip to the bottom of the earth to see how the iron was extracted!! The conditions were so primitive, that I questioned if the travel insurance I was carrying around with me would have covered if I came to any harm? Anyway the trip to the bottom of the earth crust was not what I had in mind in Asonsol, but that was all, what was available in a town with dusty tracks for roads, poverty surrounding the big house I found myself locked in most of the times and according to my host, rape and robbery was common pass time hobby amongst most male species of Asonsol. This meant I could not walk out of the house without an escort!!! I did once found myself in a company of a male admirer, knew his family and had a motor cycle ride with him and even a cup of tea at his place to pass my time. To my horror, I was told that he had recently been paraded on a donkey with his face blackened, it was his punishment for raping a local girl !! Trust me to pick a wrong man for a bit of fun !

Throughout my stay in this big house, I had lots of good food to eat in the company of very hospitable  people who watched Western porn to get their kicks and drank whisky to keep up with what the British Raj had left behind for them to treasure! I was for ever invited to dinner parties and picnics by the high society of Asonsol.

 The high light of my stay in the town was to celebrate the coming of spring season, 'holi' ,  On 'holi' day I wore white clothes and so did the rest of the town and at the end of the day, everyone took on this new  multi-coloured look as the whole day was spent throwing coloured powder at each other. Throughout the day there was  good food to eat and soft drugs to take to give a feeling of reaching for the sky!! Finally, at the end of the day the curtains came down and an open air showers were taken to wash off all the colour from the bodies!!  That was fun.