Stranger no more

When he was young he wanted to be a singer-cum-song writer a la Paul Simon. Reckless dream it was. For seldom do the Bengali middle-class and lower middle-class families allow such a luxury. Tamal went to the extent of forming a rock band. The Strangers 8212;the name of the band 8212; performed at college fests in the early 1990s. But as years went by, a job became the need of the hour. Guitar had to take a backseat for the moment.

There is nothing special so far. But the real story begins here.

In 1994, Tamal got a job with the State Bank of India and was posted at Kalagachia 8212; then a non-electrified area, a few kilometres off Nandigram.

8220;I was not very well received initially. Maybe they didn8217;t like an urbanite coming into their territory with a guitar in his hands. But I saw them shed tears when I left after seven years,8221; Tamal reminisces.

The reception was cold. But Tamal turned his collar to the cold and damp and embraced adversities. For the villagers, he was a nouveau riche. So, it became a journey through the cobbled stones before they opened their hearts and hearth to a Kolkatan.

Communication was the key. It was important to send out the right message 8212; that he wanted to make friends. Tamal started to drop in at their huts, first to give them some idea about banking and then, as the veneer of cultural cross-currents started to get thin, to help out the kids in their studies.

8220;They are very serious about their studies. They know that is the only key to prosperity. But they didn8217;t have too many teachers around. I thought I should give it a try.8221;

8220;There was no electricity, so there was no television or movie shows. Those young kids and the guitar were my sole companions after sundown.8221;

8220;I used to strum the guitar and sing Simon and Garfunkel and Lobo numbers. They started calling me a Firangi. Two years on, a group of youngsters started to come to my quarters to take guitar lessons.8221;

By then, Tamal had become a popular figure in the village, happy to help everybody in their needs.

8220;There was a boy, Amit. He was struggling to cross the ninth standard. He failed twice. The rules at the Kalagachia High School were pretty strict. They wouldn8217;t allow another failure. One day his parents came to me and asked for help. It was not easy at all. Patience was the key. The boy cleared the Madhyamik in first division and from there on life became very easy for me at Kalagachia.8221;

Back to Kolkata and life started to follow a routine.

8220;Banking jobs don8217;t allow you to go beyond the boundary. Music does. In the evenings, I get a chance to get rid of the monotony. Maybe this is the reason why darkness has become my friend. The silence has its own tenor. I like that. It gives me a scope of soul searching.8221;

Tamal believes that everybody must do something to make the world a better place to live in. This is the commitment that drives him to contribute to the society in his own way. And his way of doing it is to give free guitar lessons to those who don8217;t have the means to buy a musical instrument but have dreams in their eyes.

Banking duties are boring enough to make a man wizened. Tamal stays chirpy, for he has something more to do than just go through the deadpan ledgers and clear cheques.