OH 37 Indian-Americans in Corvallis, Oregon “Histories of Indian-American Community Members in Oregon” Oral History Project Date: July 21, 2018 Location: Corvallis, OR Length: 01:30:23 Interviewee: Sankar Chakrabarti Interviewer: Sravya Tadepalli Transcriber: Sravya Tadepalli ST: Sravya Tadepalli SC: Sankar Chakrabarti UC: Usha Chakrabarti [00:00:00] ST: So, can you tell me where and when you were born? SC: I was born in India in the state of West Bengal in a backward district called Murshidabad. The name of the village is Azamuganj. I’m around 74 years now, so some time in late 1944, 1943. You know, in our time, in those villages, there was no way of registering birth. So there’s no birth registration certificate It is how it came down from my parent’s memory and the school certificate. But that was the year of the great famine in Bengal. It is called...it is a great famine in Bengal, it is a manmade famine. It wasn’t that there was a shortage of grains, there were plenty of grains. It was because of the British policy to feed the soldiers while starving the people. And the famine—5 million people died in a year. So that was the backdrop—people were dying and I was born. ST: Why do you call it a backwards village? SC: I’ll tell you a little about my village and you’ll see why you call it backwards. The name of the village is Azimgunj. Azimgunj is a small village, but in India, even a small village will have several thousand people. Maybe eight, ten thousand people. In our village, there was no metal road. There was a brick road and one...I think was gravel road. There was no streetlight of any kind. Forget about electricity, no electricity, no streetlight. Not even a street corner lamp with keresone. That should give you an indication as to how backward it was. And actually, it was 120 miles away from Kolkata. Kolkata was the big city. And as you go away from Kolkata, north side, it is all backwardness, deeper and deeper. ST: And did the famine that happened in Bengal—did that influence your parents or did it influence your family in any way? OH 37 INDIAN-AMERICANS IN CORVALLIS, OREGON ~ SANKAR CHAKRABARTI 1 | P a g e SC: My parents have seen people dying, but none of my family got to starvation there because my father was a government employee. He used to work for the Indian railways—quite low-level, but still, there was steady money coming every month. That is why me and many other people in the village got spared of starvation. The village, by the quirk of the Indian railways, has two stations, just because the main line differentiated to go to two—one goes to the northern side, the other goes to the eastern side. And there, there were two stations. Azimgunj city and Azimgunj Chamshur. Now, most of the people in that village who’d live on the road which connects the two stations—now it is almost 70 years now—I do not remember—rather, I think, everyone who used to live their either used to work for the railways or support people, like running a grocery store. ST: What were your parents names and when were they born? SC: My father’s name is Madhusudan, Madhusudan Chakrabharti. And my mother is Shanti Chakrabharti. Madhusudan—my father—was born in 1895 in what is currently Bangladesh. It’s one of the eastern districts of Bangladesh, it’s name is Cumilla and the village where his parents lived and he lived for many years in his life is called Raipur. My mother is considerably younger because she is my father’s second wife. Shanti—she was born in Kolkata, the big city, and her parents were...her father was a lawyer. I don’t think he made much money at all. ST: How many siblings did you have? SC: From my mother, there are 6 brothers and 3 sisters. Just before our generation, big family was a treasure. In those days, the statistics were—for a man to have one adult son—one adult living son, he would like to have six kids all together. Because some will die, half of them are girls. That was the statistics. So though it looks pretty awful these days, from your point of view, that was the time when there was no birth control, girls were dying more in pregnancy, and of course, just the pressure of living, having an adult son survivor to help you in life—compared to that it is not a big number at all. ST: So how was it like growing up where you grew up? SC: Fantastic. If you want, I'll just tell you—the village part, where I lived up to my eight years, seven years—life was really a typical village—as I said, there were only two roads. In the evening the village was dark like anything. We had a nickname for the village, and this is how it was called in the village—I'll tell you because it was funny— the name of the village was Aadhar Damik. Aadhar means dark. Damik means jewel. So we were all jewels in the dark. Anyway, it had one primary school. I'll tell you about the primary school—you will see it both in its backwardness and in its beauty. My children still are very surprised. This primary school, I think it was up from 1-4, maybe 5, I cannot remember. But I was there up to 4. It was actually in a deserted cow shed of OH 37 INDIAN-AMERICANS IN CORVALLIS, OREGON ~ SANKAR CHAKRABARTI 2 | P a g e the local zamindar. He had lost his money as the country became independent, so he gave it up. He said, come on, this school can be here. And that place had only a shed, tin shed, but no wall. On four sides there would be class 1, 2, 3, 4, and in the middle a kind of courtyard. The classes would be here and there. Basically every class can see everyone else, and you talk and all that. But—somehow it educated us. It educated us to the extent it created such a foundation that we're still here today. It was not bad, it was just primitive. One of the most fun things in my school that I remember, it is still exciting you know—the whole village is on the bank of the river, and the river is Ganga. It was the minor stream of Ganga. Ganga is the mighty river in India. Somewhere 50, 60 miles north of our village, Ganga divided into two streams. The major stream entered what is now Bangladesh. We get the minor stream. That minor stream, as it goes down, it becomes bigger and bigger. But in our case it was pretty small. It used to be called Bhagirathi. The river is a major influence in our life. The school—cowshed, was really on the side of the river on the high ground. So one of the fun things is during the recess hour, we would open the door and we would go down the river. It was just one of the fun things to do. The teachers would tell, "no, no, don't go," but who cares? ST: So what was your high school education like? SC: I'll tell you a little bit more about this., because this is really, really useful. The river was a little—I mean, from our house, it was possibly a quarter mile. We often went to bathe in the river, but always with some elder brother because in the rainy season the river was big, more than half a mile. But in the winter, very small. So it was really very nice and two memorable experiences which relate to the river, it will really tell you how backward the place is. When we were in the fourth grade—in the fourth grade, you have to take a public exam to be able to be promoted to the fifth grade. And you cannot take the public exam in your village, there's no seat. So we'd all be hoarded in a boat and go some ten miles and there was a big school where we would have to take the exam. Just imagine! And then here, there is no school in Corvallis where you can take the exam, you have to take a boat to go to Albany! Can't imagine it. But that was also a very fun thing. One year, maybe I was five or six—there is—there is a festival in Bengal, it is called Rath Yatra, it is one of the festivals related to Lord Krishna. And there was a zamindar, again a landlord, devoid of land who was five miles away. And he would have a very big...what do you call mela? ST: Like carnival? SC: Carnival...but no machine. Only idols of many gods, goddess, Lord Krishna and his friends, depicting Lord Krishna's life. My brother used to take us there at night by boat, go watch, and come back. This is really happy memories. Although it was backward, it is not that it was blind or sad. It was very happy. About games; all games were just...run around. You have heard that there is the Indian village boys often play called gulli danda.