Rajdeep Opera’s ‘Shabdhan Aschhe Toofan’ (Beware, a Storm is Coming) had neither Didi nor Modi at its centre, when the troupe came to Bonpas village last December. The hero in this sold-out ‘jatra’, or pop theatre, was Premjit.
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Premjit Mukherjee, a.k.a. Premjit never made it in the Bengali film industry in an era of superstars like Prosenjit Chatterjee a.k.a. Prosenjit. But in the jatra circuit, he remains a big draw across rural Bengal. The poster on a wall in a defunct library building in nearby Gramdihi village has Premjit in shades, a tight black vest with a chain hanging from his neck, carrying a metal rod across his shoulder. He can be seen alongside Miss Pinky–described on the poster in Bengali as a ‘blowhot’ actress. It still elicits excitable memories of one of Bhatar’s most momentous recent events.
The poster certainly would have been prophetic prior to May 20, 2011, when a storm did arrive in the form of election results that uprooted Left Front rule of over 30 years rule. Eastern Bardhaman-then the ‘Red Fort’ of Bardhaman district, undivided until 2017-was the weathervane that swivelled to announce TMC-Toofan-ned ‘poriborton’ (change). What holds in store this time? A peek into storage could be helpful.
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Chill or Chill-Out?Bardhaman is a relatively rich, rice-growing district, which over the years became Bengal’s potato-growing dabba. The closer you get to district HQ Bardhaman town from Kolkata on the smooth-as-basmati National Highway-2, the more you encounter giant cold storage buildings interspersed in the middle of chlorophyll-bursting green rice fields.
Away from the highway, at Guskara Himghar, one of Bhatar’s oldest cold storages, you can see the giant motor for refrigeration running with a surprisingly gentle hum. ‘Bengal’s potato industry is under severe strain,’ technician Gautam Mondol says next to a Hanuman mandir inside the gated precincts. Other states like UP, Jharkhand, even Odisha, where potatoes would be exported from Bardhaman, have provided many more incentives for farmers and the whole supply chain. ‘Because she wanted a cap on potato prices, from 2023, Mamata has not only stopped us from selling our stock to these places, but other states have surpassed us,’ he adds.
Mondol opens a pair of metal doors. There are rows and rows of carefully marked red and green nettings full of potatoes lying on wooden racks in the spreading sub-zero cavernous interiors lit by a line of LED bulbs. After listening to more of Mondol’s chilling story, the storage does give vibes of a place where potatoes come to never go anywhere.
Aloo pe charcha continues less than a kilometre down the road where a line of farmers are sitting and shooting the breeze at Joy Baba Ponchanon Tea Stall at Shibbati village in Ausgram-1 block. Would they be willing if private F&B companies like PepsiCo, ITC, or McCain directly source potatoes from them?
‘Absolutely,’ says Jatin Majhi. ‘Here, the market is barely able to give us a livelihood. Most of our youngsters have not only left farming, but left Bardhaman.’ His pal next to him, though, reminds Jatin that his son does help him in the field.
The question is no longer whether Bardhaman’s potato-tariat are upset with the ruling TMC dispensation, but whether they feel peeled to try a different prep. Going by what’s above ground, however, TMC still seems the most entrenched crop–at least in Purba Bardhaman’s diminishing aloo-vial plains.
