[Reader-list] Posting No. 6: "'Do We Stay Inside the Mess?': Ventriloquism of the Speaking Domestics in the Mess-Houses"

[Bodhisattva Kar]

One can hardly forget Madan the mess-attendant in the film Sare Chuattar. Even if we put the inimitably stylized performance of Nabadwip Haldar in that seriocomic role behind us, the dazzling articulacy of the character - Madan's sheer eloquence - is absolutely unforgettable. Having quite a nose for the gossips and awkward details of the personal lives of the mess-residents, Madan proudly declares to the newcomers, "If Madan is dysfunctional, the mess is dysfunctional." He can, and does, enter everybody's room, even Suchitra Sen's. He tactfully mediates between the quarrelling parties in the mess. He passes news from one to another; in fact, he being the original matchmaker, without him, Rampriti (Uttam) could hardly send love letters to his fiancé (Suchitra). This centrality of the domestics in the mess-life can again be found in the characters of Rambhuj and Banowari, in the stories of Ghanada, written by Premendra Mitra. All the Ghanada fictions - consisting of 65 short stories, 4
 novels, 1 play and even a rhyme - are narrated in an imagined mess-house of 72 Banamali Naskar Lane of central Calcutta. Be it the regular fight between the four boarders of that mess, or their concerted conspiracy against the pleasurable defaulter, Ghanada, the cook Rambhuj and the attendant Banowari are always seen as the unavoidable, even necessary, kingpin in everyday strategies of the vibrant community life. Without Rambhuj's delicacies or Banowari's crucial mediations, the stories cannot proceed. They are quite central and internal to the mess-life in that sense. And although we always recognized this to be a part of the bhadralok strategy of representation of urban community life, our experience as interviewers really shook our residual expectations. There are still two mess-houses in 35/5 and 35/6 Beniatola Lane in central Calcutta, quite closely visually resembling the Sare Chuattar or the Ghanada stories' description. As we managed to wrest an interview with the sixty-two
 years old cook Madhu Das and the seventy years old attendant Natabar Das in the large kitchen of 35/5 Beniatola Lane, we discovered that the gaps between the mess seats and the kitchen was much wider than we could imagine. It was our very first interview for the project and we felt almost posing like colonial interrogators, with our usual dose of Spivakian guilt. The disturbing realization that we are not ethically entitled to crush their unstated resistance to our superficial questionnaire made us nervous in the course of conversation, we guess. Later, while talking to other domestics in other mess-houses, we actually gathered quite some 'materials', gleaned some important 'facts' and even exchanged cigarettes or had cups of tea together. But we think it is best to put on record our failures to make them speak about their intimate details, i.e., their success in laughing at our stupidity and superficiality. Extracts from the interviews follow. First, with Madhu Das and then with
 Natabar Das.
....
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "For how many years are you serving in 35/5?"
Madhu Das: "Twenty-five years"
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "Where are you from?"
Madhu Das: "From Orissa"
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "Which area of Orissa?"
Madhu Das: "Baleswar"
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "What did you do in Baleswar? Did you have land there?"
Madhu Das: "Some agricultural work. We have very little land."
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "How did you arrive here?"
Madhu Das: "For hardship, what else?"
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "Was this job your first employment in Calcutta? Or were you engaged somewhere else before?"
Madhu Das: "I was in a household. One doesn't get the first job in a mess-house. One has to learn the work. I learned the work at a household."
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "Who gave you the contact of this mess-house?"
Madhu Das: "There are so many country people in this area. I got the information in an [Oriya] adda."
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "What is your daily job here?"
Madhu Das: "Cooking two meals a day."
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "And going to the bazaar?"
Madhu Das: "Yes, occasionally."
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "Do you sense any change over these twenty-five years? For example, the people who used to stay in this mess-house, the earlier generation
"
Madhu Das: "They have left."
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "Exactly. And now there are new people, the young generation. Is there a difference, or is it the same?"
Madhu Das: "How would I know?"
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "Who would know better than you?"
Madhu Das: "Do we stay inside the mess? How can we say about that world?"
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "Still
"
Madhu Das: (Remains silent)
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "You go to the bazaar, to the shop. Aren't people changing there?"
Madhu Das: "Everywhere people are changing. Does it remain the same?"
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "Yes. But how are they changing? If you could tell us a little about that."
Madhu Das: "Nothing much to say about that. In the mess, some people are good, and some people are bad."
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "But that must have been the case earlier as well."
Madhu Das: "Exactly."
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "Has the neighborhood changed?"
Madhu Das: "Not really. It's the same shop and the same shop-owner." 
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "Your friends in the locality
" 
Madhu Das: "Friends? I work in a mess-house. I know some people here. But they are not from my area [desh]. There is no need to make friendship with them."
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "What do you do when you are through with your work?"
Madhu Das: "I sleep."
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "Do you watch TV?"
Madhu Das: "Yes, at times, these days."
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "What would you prefer? - Working in the mess, or going back to the village [desh]?"
Madhu Das: "It is only for hardship that we are here. This is a dirty job. To wash other people's soiled dishes is not a preferable job. But for hardship we have to do this. Nobody honors the dish-washer. There is no land in the village [desh]. Had we have any land, we wouldn't have come. So you understand what our situation is."
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "Who else are there in your family?"
Madhu Das: "Two sons and two daughters."
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "What are your sons doing?"
Madhu Das: "They are working in the Bombay port."
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "Daughters?"
Madhu Das: "Stay at home. They're married."
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "So what is your plan? Are you going to go back home? How many more years here?"
Madhu Das: "No. I am going back. My days here are over."
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "Yes, now that your sons have become self-reliant
"
Madhu Das: "Once I am back home, I don't work much. I lie down and relax."
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "How much has your salary increased in these twenty-five years?"
Madhu Das: "When I joined this mess, I used to get 100 rupees per month. Now it is 700 rupees."
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "Hasn't really increased much. Does it cause some row with the mess-residents?"
Madhu Das: "That of course happens. We shall always ask them to raise the money. They will do according to their ability."
....
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "Where are you from?"
Natabar Das: "Puri district, Orissa."
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "When did you join the mess?"
Natabar Das: "About forty years ago."
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "This same mess?"
Natabar Das: "Yes."
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "How did you get this job?"
Natabar Das: "I was working in the Khidirpur Ward, in the 'Assam' ship. The cook of that ship told me that this job was available."
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "What was your joining salary?"
Natabar Das: "Fifteen rupees a month."
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "And now?"
Natabar Das: "Madhu told you, seven hundred"
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "As I was asking him [Madhu], do you sense any change in these forty years?"
Natabar Das: "Calcutta was not like this forty years before. Number of people has greatly increased."
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "Of course. But there's been no increase in the number of seats in this mess."
Natabar Das: "No. That is true."
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "Any other change? In the neighborhood? (After a pause) Increase of shops, for instance?"
Natabar Das: "Yes. Bookshops have increased [in this area adjacent to College Street]. Earlier there were not so many bookshops. Otherwise it is the same."
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "People's attitude? Behavior? Has it changed from the earlier generation? Or is it the same?"
Natabar Das: "Remains the same. If I abuse you, you will abuse me in turn."
Subhalakshmi Roy and Bodhisattva Kar: "Do you do any other work apart from this mess-work?"
Natabar Das: "No. How can I? In the evening, I've to work here from six o'clock to twelve in the night, and in the morning it is again six to twelve. It's heavy workload."

		
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