Six Stories – Bhagirath Mishra

About the Author

Bhagirath Mishra’s life has been diverse and eventful since childhood. He was born and raised in a remote village in Paschim Medinipur district in West Bengal. Surrounded by palm groves, paddy fields, and neighboring tribal settlements, his village also had The Baitarani River flowing through its center. However, in the eyes of the villagers, the river was just a canal—the Baita Canal. There was only one primary school and sub-post office and only two grocery and goldsmith shops in the entire village. Belda Bazaar, 9 kilometers to the east, and Keshiari Bazaar, 9 km to the west were the closest bigger markets that had a lot of traffic there for two days a week. The only hope for transportation is the path built by the feet of people for ages. There are no government-run roadways. Entertainment meant local folk and religious festivals such as Karam Puja, Jantal Puja, Manasa Puja, Shitala Puja, Cow Awakening Festival, Makar-Parab, Gajan-Parab, and Bhim-Ekadashi fairs. Those Puja-Parabs were mostly centered around folk theatre and musicals like Palagan, Kavigan, Yugi Yatra, Karma-Lach, Kathilach, Ran-Pa Lach of the tribals . . . Ghosts were rampant throughout the village—getting possessed by a spirit or getting “eaten” by witches were not uncommon at all. They said that a group of witches strolled the village, their feet turned upwards, holding burning lamps on their feet. Even the bravest would shrink with fear. The single well for drinking water could not provide for the entire village, so many went to the pond. There were no doctors—the only hope of the poor and the needy in diseases were chanted water, induced oil, and magic. And, of course, none but a witch doctor could save one from snake bites. Similar folk-supernatural remedies were sought after for other distresses as well. Mishra spent his childhood, adolescence, and youth in such a village. His father was a teacher in the only primary school. Being the son born after six daughters, he was supremely pampered and took full advantage of the privilege. He had a wild spirit within since childhood. Whenever he wanted to, he ran to the nearby forest without telling anyone. He would spend the entire afternoon with the trees, bushes, and birds. By the time he returned in the evening, divers would have been called to look into the water of three ponds for the boy’s body. He went to the nearby village with a master exorcist to learn the craft. He spent the night with him. He returned the next morning to find everyone in the house, including his parents, having had a sleepless night. At the age of just 9, due to a strong attraction to magic, he ran away from home with a village magician. He spent about a month with the man. When he returned, his parents and sisters were about to cry themselves blind. Meanwhile, not only everyone in the house but well-wishing neighbors also had promised sacrifices and treats to the gods for his return—from golden bael leaves to silver trinkets, copper coins and utensils to amulets. With his safe return, the promised treats and sacrifices continued for the next three months and he enjoyed all the meat, payasannas, and laddu to his heart’s content. He has been a soothsayer for a long time. It was during that time that he started learning numerous chanting and incantation techniques. In his youth, along with his studies, he also entered the world of acting. He worked as a professional actor for a long time in several famous professional opera troupes of Midnapore. He traveled with those troupes to the entire South Bengal, Assam, and the colliery belt. Despite all this, he passed his Higher Secondary from Belda Gangadhar Academy in 1964 and earned a master’s degree in geography from Calcutta University in 1970. After that, he taught in several other schools including Manmathanath High School in Barrackpore till 1974, passed the WBCS examination in 1974, and joined the post of Deputy Magistrate-Deputy Collector. Then, he worked for a long time in the posts of BDO, District Planning Officer, Deputy Director- Small Savings, Additional District Magistrate, Joint Secretary, etc., and retired in 2006. During his career, he spent some time in countries like England, France, Belgium, Holland, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, etc., and did a long research on the subject of “Potential and Future of Tourism Industry in India.” Mishra has written a memoir based on some of his long service experience. The publication of that memoir titled “Amalagachi,” has created a huge response among the readers. Currently, Shri Mishra is spending his entire retirement time writing literature. In order to write a novel about the magic practices of India from ancient times to the present day, Mr. Mishra learned magic from renowned magician S. Kumar from 1997 to 2010. He loves gardening, bonsai tending, magic, dog training, kutumkatam.

About The Translators

Amita Roy, a former associate professor in English, is based in Kolkata. She is a translator, short story writer, reviewer, and poet. She has four volumes of translations, a collection of short stories, and a book of poems to her credit. Her translation of Abanindranath Tagore’s Khirer Putul (The Doll of Condensed Milk) has been inducted into the postgraduate curriculum of English Literature at Burdwan University. This book was also shortlisted for the Sahitya Akademi Award for English Translation in 2022.

Subhashis Gangopadhyay (b.14 November 1958) is a poet, critic, essayist, and bilingual translator who writes in both Bengali and English and has several books of poetry and prose to his credit. A co-editor of the well-acclaimed Bengali poetry magazine Kabitapakshik, his poems, translations, and literary critiques have been published in different Bengali little magazines, in e-zines like Translators Black Robert Journal, Kaurab, Moria, and in the Indian Literature— the Sahitya Akademi’s (National Academy of Letters) bimonthly journal featuring original works in English and English translations of works in regional Indian languages. The author is a retired government officer and a Chartered Accountant by profession for whom writing is a passion.

Mrinal Kanti Dasgupta (b. Feb-25,1941) was an honorary Professor of Plant Pathology, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. He has authored/ edited numerous books and proceedings, many reviews, and research papers in history, theory, experimental, and technological fields, besides technical, semi-technical, and popular science articles and extension literature. He also supervised several students to PhD. Besides his professional field, he wrote essays on science, agriculture, tribal risings and their significance, and contemporary issues, as well as literary essays and poems in English and Bengali. He has propounded the concept of Ecosociology to study cooperation and conflict, pluralism, and separatism in society, as well as man-woman relations from the perspectives of evolution and ecology. He has done, since 2003, translations and transcreations between Bangla and English. He has published a book of English translations of short stories. A transcreated story has been included in the Oxford India Anthology of Bengali Literature (OUP, 2010).