Debuda

দেবুদা  চলে  গেলেন .

 He was carrying a razor sharp mind of 49 years in his 69 year old frail body. A typical Bhatpara Brahmin of বশিষ্ট  lineage, his ancestors were proud Aryans of Kanauj (Kanpur) who migrated to this culturally fertile land of Bhatpara to hone their wit & intellect. 

He did not disappoint his ancestors.

He had all the hallmark of a Bhatpara Brahmin. Tall, fair, long nose, sharp face & a pair of bright mischievous eyes. 

I first met him in the year 1987. He, perhaps, became aware of my existence after a couple of years when we played together, for the first time, in a team at a  Durgapur tournament. He was , then, a renowned player of my district.

This is no place to describe his bridge prowess. He , so far I know, read a book on kaplan sheinwold system. But he had what is very uncommon in a player..the commonsense. Whenever I used to discuss the merits of a new system or conventions, his skepticism became evident. He would not advance any solution either.

He was a man of many questions & few answers in the field of bridge.  I do not know what demon possessed him in his last months.. he started learning systems from a few bona fide morons.

He fascinated many & had many admirers. And true to the spirit of a Bhatpara Brahmin, he hurt them all. But no one seemed to mind. Such was the mysterious charm he exuded.

He was very polite & civilized with people he did not like. He tried his best to keep any request asked by such people & blunt in rejecting requests from his well wishers. One must be well versed in his study of Bhatpara gene to understand it. Otherwise chances of misinterpretation remains. 

Every time is Tea time for him.

He had an ego of the size of Empire State Building. Many a times seemingly innocuous action of me hurt his ego & it took months or some times years to normalize.  He demanded attention & small favors only from a few selected people he loved , cared for, and insulted . He knew all the details of their families. A very inquisitive man. A very frank man too. He was a self appointed guardian to his loved ones. And sometimes this created problem. 


His sarcastic remarks ,designed to hurt people, stemmed from his unusually high sense of humor. But No body got hurt as his nature did not allow him to inject sufficient venom in those remarks to work.

Inquisitiveness  does not spare even a Bhutanese

No one was more shocked when Khokada transferred his mantle to his in-law to continue the legacy of Nanda's rossogolla. He briefly transferred his allegiance to Mansa , but he was not happy at this  decadence  which essentially strikes at the very root of Paanchmandir's  cultural foundation.

I have spent nearly hundred nights with him while playing

when I was young...as for him, he was always young

outstation tournaments. He preferred to stay with me as I do not snore. Among the multitude of topics he discussed , he never told me whether he believed in God or not. I have a strong suspicion that he was an atheist. During the last couple of years, perhaps, he showed a trace of weakness in this regard. ( I remember bringing বটুক ভৈরভের ছাই  for him, or maybe, it was for বৌদি )

 with debudajethu

Paresda (Pal) was with me when I last  saw him alive. Paresda , went back home in a hurry. Didn't want to face his daughter.

with Siddharthada 

Siddharthada (Roychudhury) saw him just after he died. He was a genuine Debuda admirer & a highly unusual &  remarkable man himself. I wish I had  recorded some of their conversations. They were not a dialogue actually, rather a monologue of Siddharthada who ripped apart the veil of excuse Debuda usually hides behind.The language he used is a treat to any Bengali ear. I'll try to write more about it some other time.






Debuda knew he was dying. Asked me to take him back home. I just could not do that. Only time I didn't meet his demand. Acted like a Bhatpara Brahmin myself. And why not? I carry the same gene.


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