Reflections

The Black Panther as it rests before making its way back to Chandrakona We awoke early the next day and at 5.45 AM we were abroad the bus from Chandrakona Road to Jhargram. This was to take a circuitous route, but what did we care?   Our bus was called the Black Panther and I was glad to see that the tradition of naming buses is alive and well in rural Bengal. I remember when I was posted in The Bamangola health center in Malda way back in the late ’80s, we had two buses named after two, (I presume) pretty ladies and nobody ever talked about the 9 AM bus but always said: “ I am going to Malda on the Jayashree.“ My wife informs me that when she traveled to Kalimpong where her Dad was posted, from Siliguri in 1979, there were two buses, one of which was the prettily named Red Rose. The Black Panther lived up to its name, tearing down the not so wide highways at an impressive pitch and not bothering overmuch when the road was not of the best. Fortunately, we were in the fro...