The Skype Agomoni
We came to Bangkok as Family on the 11th of July 2008. I was fortunate to be a part of Team Agomoni from 2009 onwards. The rehearsals were far more fun than the program itself and basically the sessions were more “Adda” and “Khawa Dawa” than the actual practice!!! That Norm has not changed even today – not only for Agomoni but for all other programs.
The Agomoni Team used to be led by Mom Bhramachari but the practice sessions were held by rotation amongst team member’s houses. Now, Mom used to prefer rehearsals at her place on Sunday Afternoon(Proper Siesta hours) and all of us half yawning half asleep used to reach her place at around 1600 hours and start our rehearsals bang on time and just after round 1, as if on cue, Niloy (Mom’s Hubby) used to emerge from the Kitchen, marshaling a tray with a beautiful tea pot and matching bone-China cups containing piping hot masala chai (served with so much attention, love and care by Niloy with his usual pleasant demeanor) and Atom Bomb Samosa(Literally they were so big) from Saras. Talk of Perfect Timing!!! Needless to add that the Second and successive rounds of practice obviously used to be runaway hits. This later earned Niloy the sobriquet of “Bharati’s Best Husband” – a tag unrivalled to this day. Since most team members were also participating in other programs, there were innumerable instances of multiple practice sessions of Agomoni, Natok and others on the same day and we used to run around from place to place.
I got transferred to Jamshedpur sometime in 2012 and obviously felt that I will be denied a chance to be a part of the Bharati Agomoni team. The Team had other ideas and since I was going to be physically present in Bangkok during Pujas, any which way, the team felt that I should be joining practice sessions on Skype!!!! It so happened that a rehearsal session was planned at Jay Shankar’s house followed by dinner and I joined on Skype. Those days the internet connections were not very robust and it so happened that I kept on singing on Skype whilst the others physically present in Bangkok were eating sumptuous mutton curry (Jay’s patented slow cooked dish). Talk about being dedicated!!!!
Bharati endears and embraces and we never went back to Kolkata for a single Durga Puja since 2008.
Soumen Bose is a chemical technologist, working for an Indian company and lives in Bangkok with his better half Joyeeta.
