The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey

by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar

In 1956, India was reorganized along linguistic lines. Everyone was bothered about who spoke Bihari, who spoke Bengali and who spoke Oriya. Bidhan Chandra Roy took Manbhum, the forest-rich, limestone- and iron-rich, Bengali-speaking Puruliya, away from Bihar and attached it to West Bengal. He also had his eyes on Jamshedpur, Chaibasa and Ghatshila. However, shrewd and speedy thinking by Shri Krishna Sinha kept the mineral- and forest-rich, industrialized Singhbhum from going to West Bengal. When such big barters were taking place, why would anyone bother to see who or how many spoke Santhali, Mundari, Ho or Kurukh?

She wished the train could move backwards. She wanted to see the Subarnarekha again. The River of Gold. She had heard stories about it, about the gold nuggets in its bed. She stuck her face between the bars on the window, willing the train to retrace its tracks, willing the Subarnarekha to return.