Life to Life, by Antara Raychaudhuri, Project Associate, Kolkata

By Antara Raychaudhuri, Kolkata

I had been working from home for the past two decades, so during the lock-down, I hardly complained. With my store’s transactions going online, my “Lockdown Short” selected for online film festivals, and me creating ‘healing dance’ videos, I was content in my own locked-up world.

In the world outside, humans were engulfed in helpless, impermeable vacuums.

I never speculated we’d get a phone call at 3 am, dropping a shocking message. Never apprehended that I would traverse that wintry, lonesome night with my mother to reach the place where my uncle had just committed suicide. Never imagined I would have to hear my little sister’s howl. Never believed that my strong aunty would ever lament. How could an introverted, low-profile man jump off the terrace?

With wide eyes, I watched the night pass to let the red sun rise, sitting on that cursed terrace.

Then came inescapable visits to a local councillor, the borough office, police stations, the morgue, and the remnants of a life ended in the crematorium, the very next day. 

My store’s publicity tale for the year 2020 was Bishe Bishe Bishokhoy. “Bish,” in Bengali, means twenty. It also means poison. The proverb states that the sum total of two negatives will always be positive. I clung to the idea that these double doses of poison too would come with a silver lining.  

After such a blow, I’m desperate to rejoice in the momentary happiness that life can provide … to go on adding “life” to life.

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Antara was one of the leaders of our amazing team of Project Associates based in Kolkata, who assisted with all aspects of the online storytelling workshops, from recruitment to facilitation.