Page 108 - Sonbeel Utsab 2024

In winter, when Sonbeel water was the lowest, my elder brother, my father
and cousins worked in winter paddy (Boro) planting plots to earn an income. Again,
just before the onset of monsoon, they tried to eke out a living by working at the
harvesting paddy plots. Quite often, monsoon arrived prematurely; and in heavy
down pour the entire paddy got inundated wiping out any possibility of a harvest. But
in the year when monsoon arrived late, the crop was bumper giving reasons to
Sonbeelites to celebrate. Sometimes road to Kalibari remained inundated for weeks,
and boats and rafts made of bamboo and banana stems were used for communicating
with Kalibari bazar. Boats also used to provide communication with Fakua to enable
people attend courts and offices at Karimganj. I had many friends from the bank of
Sonbeel, I visited their homes by boats during monsoons, occasionally gossiping
with fishermen who returned after a day's sale of fish. Some door-to-door retailer
crisscrossed the villages and towns with flat bamboo baskets yelling 'maaaas
rakhtaain niii maaaaas, tazaa maaaas?' (Does anybody want to buy some fish?
Fresh ones?). People responded buying portioned delicious fishes, sometimes dry
fish, sometimes Bhujia (a variety of fish of very small size). In mornings, when I took
to buses to attend college, passengers dismayed with water dripping on them from
the flat bamboo baskets laden with fresh Sonbeel fish on the roofs.

I understand the settlers who came and settled in Sonebeel rim area after
partition, were men and women of fairly high cultural acumen and drive. Substantial
cultural and spiritual was fulfilled by Mukam Kalibari, a Kali temple on the eastern
bank of Sonbeel near dargah of probably a sufi saint Badshah Peer near Dargarband
bazar. I was told I was born after my elder brother prayed before the deity to give him
a younger brother to look after his parents when he goes to serve the country's army.
Every year in the month of Chaitra, families used to visit Mukam Kalibari and offer
puja to the Kali temple by the resounding chants of the Pujari “Gobindo
Gopinath…!” and families picnicking the entire day under the hijal trees dotting the
coast in front of Kalibari. People lighted candles at Dargah and received sacred
grains of sand from the Dargah to save them from adversity and to ward off any mis-
fortune. When anybody fell sick, these sacred grains of sand used to be rubbed on
foreheads and people would get well. So much faith on the place they had.

'Sonbeel'ites are a culturally powered people. Kalibari bazar, a village
market on eastern bank of Sonbeel, occupied a very important place in our life at that
time. It was the place where in winters, professional Jatras, were performed by
Operas from West Bengal. Electrification had not taken place yet, but people
watched them all night, buying tickets and sitting in the bamboo-and-thatch pandals,
where they were held. Occasionally, there were puppetry shows, which was enjoyed
by kids and elders all. Also, amateur folk plays of the region like 'Roopbaan' and
'Pushpmala' were performed. In the pre-social media and even TV days, these events
were so popular that almost the entire village flocked to the event site and sat through
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