Page 107 - Sonbeel Utsab 2024

My childhood memories of Sonbeel and some dreams
Angshuman Dey

Sonbeel had always been a mysterious water body to me during my
childhood. I was born and brought up in Gamaria, a village two and a half kilometres
from Sonbeel Kalibari, a prominent village market on the eastern coast of the vast
seasonal water body. In my childhood I used to accompany my elderly uncle to sell
vegetables and plants in the Kalibari bazaar. I used to be terrified by the sight of the
approach road leading to Kalibari bazaar getting inundated in monsoon. This
continued till the year its embankment was raised a bit. Communication used to be a
nightmare. In normal time, a few buses used to halt at night at Kalibari bazar and take
passengers to Karimganj by a circuitous travel all around the bank via
Ramkrishnanagar, Anipur, Kanaibazar and Neelambazar.

All through my student life first in Netajinagar High School and then at
Srikishan Sarda College Hailakandi, and later at Delhi University, the road
conditions leading to Sonbeel had been pitiably indescribable. Occasionally, a
labourer could be seen draining away the pooled water from potholes and deep ruts
of roads. Wooden bridges had missing slippers, that buses barely could cross making
loud noise which could be heard from miles away. Buses getting stuck in the clay on
the roads were common. Cyclists had their Hercules cycles carried more on their
shoulders than actually riding them. Drivers ended up honing their artistic driving
skills, passengers developed expertise on squeezing as much as in the little space,
their muscles worked out as they balanced their bodies, developing extreme
tolerance to hardship. Buses packed beyond its capacity swang, tossed, twirled and
creaked our way through to the small towns.

During my childhood I awed at the vast waters of Sonbeel. Many a times, in
occasional adda with my friends from Subhash High School, I gazed for hours sitting
on the benches at Kali temple's end, sipping tea and chewing betel leaves. I often saw
people from distant almost marooned villages alight from boats at Kalibari bazar to
get their provisions and confectionaries and occasionally sell homegrown
vegetables. In monsoon, its vast mass of accumulated water often reached our home
a couple of kilometers away. Occasionally, I heard of sad incidents of drownings of
boats caught in storms locally called 'aafaal's. Even then we awed at it, feared it,
revered it, loved it- but yet did not know much about it! Probably Sonbeel is one of
the few nature's treasure as well as a unique ecosystems not understood. So, when I
attempted to write a blog on Sonbeel way back in 2006, I had little data, and had to be
contended uploading a few mesmerizing photographs! Sonbeel is woefully data
deficient! Over the years, with the advent of social media, reports, videos and
photographs became available and re-kindled my old memories.

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