👭Sisters Day out

By Asmita Basu (Toto):

Here is my favourite story of MM (Moon Maashi aka Dr. Monisha Choudhury) for your collection. 

I can’t remember the year exactly, it would have been 2005 or 06, with Diwali a few days away. The Metro had just started. Ma and Baba were visiting me in Delhi. There was excitement in the air as I got ready for work in the morning. ‘Moon’ was taking Ma (Atreyi Basu) out for the day. Of the many delights planned (and related repeatedly… in great detail…), a Metro ride was the main attraction!! I rolled my eyes and said ‘have fun’ before I left. I returned to Netaji Nagar late in the evening to the news of the bomb blasts in Sarojini Nagar. I was greeted by two giggling and slightly hysterical sisters. So this is how their day went—

Before boarding the metro to Darya Gunj, Ma decided to take photos, as was her wont. MM posed obligingly. All this INSIDE the Metro station. I doubt if even Metro promos have such extensive and joyous clicks. Unfortunately, the Metro officials didn’t take this ‘security breach’ too kindly. Ma’s camera was confiscated and they were marched off to the Metro office. Unfazed by her captivity, MM had long chats with the security personnel and everyone else around. They discovered that the halwai that supplied samosas to Lady Hardinge, was also favored by the Metro personnel. Much praise was heaped on the halwai and a consensus reached on the superiority of his samosas. Before letting the geriatric threats go, said samosas were ordered. They were fed, gently rebuked and made to promise that they will never take photos inside Metro stations again. You’d think that the sisters had learnt their lesson. But no. 

After getting to Daryagunj and spending happy hours shopping and gorging, MM decided to buy firecrackers for Rupesh (who was still a notun jamai, and took Diwali very seriously). So they went back to the Metro station, with a bagful of crackers… or explosives as the Metro prefers to call them. They didn’t make it past the x-ray machine. They beat a hasty retreat before being declared bona fide security threats. It was a sheepish auto ride home. And just as they settled down, the news of the Sarojini Nagar blasts broke!!

Author notes:

- Lady Hardinge Medical College - LHMC - was where she worked for over 35 years till retirement in 2018

- The Sarojini Nagar blasts occurred on 29th October, 2005 (Wikipedia), 2 days before Diwali. 

- Rupesh and I shifted to Gurgaon from Mumbai in the summer of 2005, to be closer to my parents. That was our first Diwali together in the same city. 

- Recent picture of the sisters, brother Biswajit Basu and family. Sep 22, 2020 video meeting in lockdown times. Pic Credit to Prajna Sen (Taddy Maashi)