Art & Media

Kolkata: Rabindra Sangeeta

Meet the thirty–two–year–old man Ashok Mondol. Those who frequent Nandan must have seen him. From 2 pm till 8 pm, this gutsy man stands in front of the Academy of Fine Arts.

Ashok Da, as he is fondly called, is visually–challenged. He has been drawing customers to Chalantika, a food stall in front of Academy of Fine Arts for the past 13 years. Anyone who visits this place from 2 pm to 8 pm will come across Ashok shouting “tasty fish roll, fish cutlet, chicken pakora, veg chops” to woo customers. Chalantika is run by the Society for Comprehensive Rehabilitation Services for physically handicapped persons in India, an NGO.

Ashok is a good Rabindra Sangeet singer. He is a regular in some of the reputed choir groups of Kolkata. His job ends at 8 in the evening. And then his world of passion with music beckons him. An admirer of Paul Robson, Hemanga Biswas and Ruma Guha Thakurata, Ashok provides free music lessons to many boys and girls in Belanagar and Uttarpara, his home town.

He loves music and recitation. To him life would have been a drab desert without music. His job with Chalantika is a result of his passion. He was chosen for his job as he had a good voice and could recite well.

Ashok lost his sight when he was barely two–and–a–half years old. He lost his eyesight after suffering from chicken pox as he was a victim of a wrong treatment; He passed his Higher Secondary examination from Louis Braille Memorial School for the Sightless in Uttarpara, Howrah.

He has completed his fourth year in Indian Classical music from the same institute. Ashok's father, Amarnath Mondol, and twenty–five–year–old brother are factory workers. Fighting poverty was not easy with Ashok's physical disability as an added pressure which was the result of a wrong treatment.

He had to earn his living and support his family comprising of parents and siblings. Traveling a distance of 30 km from Belanagar to Kolkata is a tall order for a visually–challenged person like Ashok. His job at Chalantika is from 2 pm to 8 pm – the time when Nandan is most crowded.

It is difficult for a blind person like him to understand the presence of a customer. He can do so by sensing his nearness through his voice, Ashok has been working at Chalantika for the past four years. His colleagues, Dipak Moyra, Bablu Pradhan and Tapan Pradhan, call him the “customer service executive.”

For college students like Sumanta and Trishit, who are frequent visitors to Nandan, “Ashok Da” is an essential part of Nandan, as it were. “The mouth–watering fish rolls and fish chops of Chalantika are, to say the least, simply fabulous. But perhaps the best part of Chalantka is Ashok da. Sometimes we crowd around him to hear him sing,” says Debashis Biswas, a third–year student of Jadavpur University.

He has been in this place for four years. He has heard the performance of reputed singers and wishes to perform in Rabindra Sadan.

Source: The Pied Piper, The Indian Express, Kolkata, 17 February 2008.