Aunt Bea's wonderland

Okay, it was a bad situation. 

Antara had actually believed that the Ajit-Anjali household was her home.

Even when they shifted to Purulia, in April 1996, she didn't have any doubts.

Government officials were transferred, Ajit had requested for a posting in Purulia (his home district), Antara didn't have her narrative, how would she know that it implied 'Austria was comfortable with The Return (presumably of Palestinian refugees)'?

Antara was not there when they shifted to Purulia, she was at her junior college/Brabourne hostel. Anjali had described the situation over the phone, "Surely people have shifted before but the sibling was bringing the House down, burning garbage, it was ash all around".

(This was a couple of years after India's successful streak in global beauty pageants began, which brought it closer to Donald Trump and the Sun City-luxury resort-South Africa value system.)

Antara talked to Anjali once the latter had shifted into govt accommodations in Purulia. "Large, spacious rooms, you'd like it, nothing like where we've been before."

Why would Antara like such things? Was she an Indian girl of high intellect, on her charpoy, gazing into the skies and planning celestial journeys? Antara was a humble, law-abiding citizen, wrote short stories, hoping it would be considered good enough for the high literary skills of the Indian publishing industry.

It followed that the television with its cable line, in that spacious living room, was also for the Ajit-Anjali household, not meant for Antara, the cable offered unlimited channels, especially foreign ones, what Asansol didn't have, was it Purulia or Utopia or Perfectia?

Berlin Tunnel? Washington DC? Moscow? The world at their feet? Austria too? What happened on Sept 11, 2001? How did that dream run end? Who did it to them?

No, not the sportspersons, the Palestinian soccer team had been recognised by FIFA in 1998. 

Not Bollywood, which closely followed Swedish music group ABBA's songs, trying to understand how Antara would falter and fail under Tagore excesses, as her generation of females led lives beyond her ability to achieve ('Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! A Man after Midnight').

Not even the world of business, it wouldn't have allowed ESPN Magazine to be launched on March 11, 1998, good heavens, it was the first issue, its cover said 'NEXT', it was no longer a puzzle.

An asset management firm, global leaders attend the inauguration of the Palestinian State in the late 1990s, and they would have walked away to glory, leaving Antara in India.

Antara wouldn't have been surprised, she had heard all her life, "You were not related to us, you were not even adopted, we just picked you up from the streets and fed you."

A British OTT firm was offering hints, formed by the merger of Premium TV and Inform Group, now called 'Perform'. 

"It was important that Antara's academic studies continue, that it was not disrupted while she was an undergraduate at Brabourne. Her allusions would later serve a purpose." 

April 20, 2026

****

Aunt Bea, we know we had a Jane Doe problem

One of the problems arising from the 'replacement' scenario was that Antara would become 'Jane Doe' in any litigation.

Earlier on April 17, 2026, the BT-Pratibha marriage had apparently been described as "a reaction to how Communists had surrounded Europe's Jews in the 1930s...thereby a marriage whose descendants were irrelevant and couldn't be considered". 

The statement had probably emerged from London, Kolkata and Beijing.

Thus, Antara was at the receiving end of the classic "Boroline treatment" or so she had heard in Bengal, Boroline was a perfumed antiseptic cream.

"Put thick slabs of Boroline on the eyelids, climb on to the nearest British railroad and fall asleep," Antara had heard Bengalis tell each other, and in such a case, Antara would become the 'Jane Doe', for she was born and grew up in West Bengal, and they were readying for slumber. 

The blogpost was meant for the weekend, to check how the Asian/Far Eastern stock markets reacted on April 20, 2026/Monday morning. 

Thus, as in 'Rose vs Royal College of Physicians' (known as The Rose Case) of 1703-1704, if John Seale (or the US military) complained about the 'replacement', the British wouldn't rule in favour of 'Jane Doe'/Antara.

In fact, such publicity might legitimise what NS Road had done, 'replacement' might become the norm, what these intelligence operatives needed. 

And keeping in mind that the Carnegies and the Rockefellers had not made their stances clear on the RMS Titanic, whether they supported American tycoons or Bengal's towns and villages, any mention of 'replacement' by the US military would turn it into a 'secret society'.

"It was a Circassian female refugee, at the most, why was the US military getting involved? Must be connected by some secret cult or society, hence the need to avoid interaction, otherwise her batchmates had been touring India all through."

And it was 2026, not 1703-1704, the sibling might even say, "Were discussions of 'replacement' allowed on the blog? Wasn't AAP supposed to be derived from 'Know-Nothings' of the United States, why should it have access to information?"

We had found out about the sibling's British associates, and they were okay with these discussions, the blogposts were keeping people secure.

April 17, 2026.

****

An impromptu discussion of Jordan, for Chhondo and Aunt Bea, Antara couldn't afford Taj Hotels

Many of the Tagore plans, including the supposed 'annexation of Jordan', to influence Ukraine's fate, took place during the Bombay Tournament, also called the 'Bombay Pentangular'. 

It was an "annual cricket competition held in British India from 1892 to 1946".

One could imagine the weight of responsibility that was descending on the US Govt, consider the significance of the above decades leading to the rise of Adolf Hitler, and how the US Govt would rather listen to Aunt Bea when it came to international politics.

Did no one think within the US Govt? These cricket matches were held in the Gymkhana Ground in Bombay. The Israeli woman Antara and her spouse had met in early 2024 had often mentioned the Gymkhana Club. 

These cricket matches were also held in the Deccan Gymkhana Ground in Poona, didn't the US Govt know that Aunt Bea had married in Pune?

Later, these matches were held at the Brabourne Stadium in Bombay, so at least let Antara write freely about Lady Brabourne College, Kolkata?

"Heh Antara, it was only about the Tagores and their intrigues from the Bombay Tournament, and in case the legit lease family got involved as well, it was not your worry, your parents didn't share the narrative with you, they kept it to themselves, their elder daughter and NS Road. Even if BT had known/had interactions with the Bombay Tournament, Antara would always be excluded from it."

Well, Antara went to Lady Brabourne College in Kolkata, on her own, why couldn't she and the former students discuss their own narrative, even as her relatives jealously guarded the Bombay Tournament/Pentangular and whatever happened there?

You'd think the Parsis were to blame, but no! 

At school, one of the Asansol AG teachers had provided the right allusion, "Polly put the kettle on", the teacher would frequently say, referring to a classmate who went by that name. 

Next, at Brabourne hostel in Kolkata, there was a huge and sinister kettle put out during dinner time, to collect hot water for the thermos. 

Those from Asansol AG Church (like Antara and a few others) were supposed to connect these two, "So Polly Umrigar, the Parsi cricketer, could apparently set Britain on the boil, in a complicated way, which implied India needed to head the ICC (International Cricket Council), else it would turn into a race riot."

The Indian Govt didn't consult Antara, those it consulted had surely solved the allusion for Polly Umrigar.

It was getting strange, Umrigar had studied at St Xavier's College in Bombay, Barack Obama had addressed its students during a US Presidential visit to India. 

Had Obama not been alerted about Umrigar? Or had Obama been alerted yet Brabourne Kolkata's students were still being harassed?

Was Umrigar capable of seeing through the legit lease, given the propaganda department of NS Road? (Really, Foochoo, you went with Emma as well, and Mads, not Tubul of childhood? Or was there no Tubul in your childhood, what was the Bengal scene saying?)

Umrigar's father had a clothing store, and Anjali's obsession with 'suiting-shirting' in the 1980s meant the US intelligence community would be provided new outfits by NS Road, Umrigar wouldn't have a say, that was the level at which Britain was operating.

(We should drop anchor somewhere, not a good thing to float so far away from reality.)

There had arisen a chance for MI5 and Umrigar to assist the legit lease once Antara got married to a family that the British knew. However, Umrigar passed away in November 2006, Antara's marriage was formalised a few days later, in December 2006. 

It worked out well for the British.

So, tell us now, why so uncomfortable with Sarawak and Singapore, dear Brit?

You didn't lose to NS Road on your way back to Britain in 1963, did you?

April 16, 2026.

****

Why couldn't you let go of either Japan or the War on Terror, Aunt Bea?

As long as we were with Aunt Bea's restrictions, the sibling could have visited Delhi after 2014, she could have come several times every year, locals wouldn't have complained.

The Delhi citizenry apparently feared a Washington DC-based female professional soccer player, one of the reasons the Alamo Girl had been brought to Delhi, because the Alamo Girl had once played soccer (in high school, good grief!)

It should have been obvious to Antara, "Layers would look really nice on you," a senior hair stylist had told her in Delhi around 2014-2015. Antara ended up looking like someone else (obviously the dark-haired female soccer player) through those years, she didn't have her narrative, what a waste!!!

However, it was a good thing she didn't 'investigate' it, as you might understand.

Had the sibling visited Delhi between 2014 to 2024, she'd have realised that the Washington DC-based female soccer player was five days younger than her, born in the same year, the same month. 

She would have also realised that if she was indulged on the Communist side, it was nothing but that, for the mood that STAVKA had apparently shown in dissolving/disintegrating the Soviet Union in 1991 had been beaten when China hosted the inaugural FIFA Women's World Cup in 1991, the same year.

"Anjali played ping-pong in college, the Nixon-Kissinger ping-pong diplomacy followed a decade later? Well, there's a free kick to oblivion, from China."

If that was not bad enough, the second FIFA Women's World Cup (1995) was held in Sweden and won by Norway.

Sweden was not even a WWII country!!

Let's go back to the situation as it existed in 1995, Antara and the sibling were standing on the terrace of their Pologround Housing flat, it was around March-April 1995, the sibling lecturing, "From here on, our paths would diverge, we'd go our separate ways, our closeness would come under strain."

Whereas, the sibling ought to have said, "Quick, Sweden was hosting the FIFA Women's World Cup, we'd tell each other everything. Goodness, at least in a WWII country it would have meant the Tagores, this was someone else altogether."

The finals of the FIFA Women's World Cup was held on June 18, 1995, a few months after the above conversation, at the Rasunda Stadium. 

Antara remembered a Bengali comic story, quite derogatory about those who "smelled of onions and garlic on bus and train journeys". (It was called 'pyanj-rasun' in the Bengali story.)

That was the problem with Softbank, Aunt Bea, no one was convinced that Ray Cave (CLASS ACT blogpost, April 14, 2026, 'We couldn't always stop for Aunt Bea') didn't get Softbank interested in Afghanistan, through such a lengthy tenure of the Bidens.

Otherwise, good work Germans, you did know how to endanger women like Antara and those around her by gathering around Ray Cave and those that worked with him.

April 15, 2026.

****

We couldn't always stop for Aunt Bea

Did Antara have an idol? No.

Did she have a writing idol? No.

Did she idolise her parents? No.

Did she criticise everyone? Almost yes.

How did her parents react to the above? They pleaded, "you have to tolerate some people".

These were the stringent demands made of Antara since her childhood, they'd never change, the sheer number of people who died in the two World Wars of the 20th century meant she didn't focus on any byline except her own. 

When Antara read foreign publications, she skipped the bylines, the names of whoever had written the news reports.

When Remnick etc came to JLF in 2012, she had to search online for who Remnick was, she had never looked at the names of the staffers of a magazine nor would she ever do such a thing.

Thus, the importance of Ray Cave to Afghanistan or even to Indian tycoons was not the same as Ray Cave's insignificance to Antara. He had passed away in Aug 2020, during the pandemic lockdown.

Certain bosses at various newsrooms had tried to alert Antara about Ray Cave, was he a danger to Indians in some way?

For example, Ray Cave was supposed to have a "keen sense of design". 

A senior colleague at HT (not Hazra) had taken a foreign magazine (business mag), showed Antara page after page of that magazine, its astounding design skills. 

"You think we could do it here (in India), with our design teams, what did you think?" he had said.

"It would be difficult," Antara had said, wondering if anyone would ever go home if pages had to look like that.

"Think about it, one might need it someday," he had told Antara, the latter had sincerely promised she'd do so.

In designing her own apparatus, Antara was now close enough to those intricate designs shown to her at HT in early 2012, it meant it could be done in India but she'd have to do it alone, the allusions were hers, what would others do? Follow up on what she was doing? Discuss it with common Indian folks? Report on their narratives? Would NRIs and Silicon Valley allow that?

Another boss in a different newsroom had brought up Ray Cave's "sharp eye for writing talent" which meant Antara would be attacked with Nazi Holocaust denial, Numbers blackmail, Weimar Republic intrigues, the last one was being discussed as people would know.

Ray Cave's "use of colour photography"...well, at HT, Antara and her departmental head had once spent Rs 10,000/- on a single lead photo for the Book review page (you had to buy it from Getty etc), and then, they took it on a greyscale, think of that, such expense and then to get rid of the colour.

[In Kolkata and its suburbs, many wives still thought that Nazi Holocaust research could be thwarted by using defence firms to control the photos from the Nazi camps. Think of that, what those wives had done to Antara.]

April 14, 2026

****

ADA, Brussels, Libya

The blogpost ('Learn about the railways, then discuss Federal Reserve, Pirosh', Dec 28) had apparently elicited furious response from Kolkata. 

Women there had been raging all through the day, "how could anything within BT's family pass from generation to generation, it was all prohibited by US law? Kolkata had been especially careful when it came to railroads, so that no one understood the mistake it made in ignoring railroad families, not trying to establish relations with them, and thereby missing out on crucial information."

"It was the 1960s and 70s, DSE had not considered that anyone would want to ride a train, who'd let go of airlines?" others had pointed out. 

The 'prohibited by US law' set off controversies elsewhere. What was prohibited, that BT might have a granddaughter? Familial ties? Which legislations were being referred to? Who had agreed to such strictures?

It turned out that Kolkata implied the Americans with Disabilities Act 1990, that it was meant to make sure that Antara would not have any independent investigative responsibilities of her own, "it was like she was a dependent of her classmates at Asansol AG Church, as a weak and pathetic individual. Unless they were assisting her, her allusions work would not be considered, it wouldn't be able to stop the NRIs, they could do whatever they wanted to. The Germans knew all about it."

Antara was immediately asked to find out if ADA, as it was known, had any provision which enabled discrimination against her. From whatever was available online on ADA, it didn't seem to indicate that she was "dependent on the Class of 1995 for even leading her daily life". 

However, there seemed to be instances when its provisions had been used to harass Antara and her classmates, both at Asansol AG Church and later at Brabourne. Antara didn't want to share these details right away, without knowing at whose instigation she had been described as a "dependent", that neither did she have any liberties nor was the Class of 1995 particularly free.

The ADA information did reveal the name of Tom Foley, who had been Speaker of the House of Representatives when ADA came about in 1990. Antara's work had earlier stated that Tom Foley was always criticised for ignoring Brussels when it came to American Civil War blackmails, "so Delhi media would always remain in Delhi, because of Foley, it would never get its Brussels offices?"

ii. Why was Kolkata invoking ADA, merely to stop Antara's allusions work? Or was it specifically about Kolkata having no rivalry or competition when it came to railroad blackmails, where Kolkata had done shoddy work?

Several years ago, Antara had been advised to focus on the Wheelus Air Base/Mellaha in Libya. "After all, it was always about Wheelus and American corporations, it was not Antara's burden alone, given documentation had been held back from her."

What could Antara do about Wheelus? "What was being called ADA 1990 was only about Wheelus, to make sure no one could do railroad research while living in a country with extensive railway networks like India. Documents and livelihood would not be available so no way of leaving India, hence railroad research would stop, endless reserve currencies could be floated out of DSE."

What about Antara's allusions work till date? It was done without the assistance of the Class of 1995, Antara always did well at school, no batchmate of her would provide assistance in intellectual matters.

"These were north Kolkata families, so they'd settle in their own way."

In Delhi, when people bought apartments, they often started renovations by boarding up all windows, doors, leaving only a single entrance available. 

December 29, 2025. 

Learn about the railways, then discuss Federal Reserve, Pirosh

Robert Pirosh was a US Army infantryman during WWII, he later worked in Hollywood. 

Pirosh died on Christmas Day in 1989, when Antara's batchmates were in Class 5.

Strange, when Antara was told several months ago, "they/the Class of 1995 didn't immigrate to the United States because of you, they wouldn't leave you in India", Antara didn't believe it. She'd become unwell from the torture, she couldn't believe such things anymore.

Now NRIs were discussing, "well, we'd always have Pirosh against the Class of 1995", it was not a problem. 

Not a problem for what? Independence of the Federal Reserve, apparently, that way NRIs could altogether avoid the US Govt.

What had NRIs made of Pirosh? They had apparently found out that only when all railroad families have been exposed would the legit lease be allowed to take off. 

It was used against HT in 2012, "Don't believe the Class of 1995 if it requests that Antara continue in her job, they were all Pirosh agents."

What a strange argument, how did people share such misinformation?

Antara remembered the late 1990s, waiting at Purulia railway station to take the overnight train to Kolkata, where she studied at Brabourne, Ajit accompanying her. The train would often be late, they'd stand on the railway platform as the lights came on, discussing things.

"A long time ago, on this same platform, my father (BT) would come to see me off, take the same train as you were taking to Kolkata, I had started working by then," Ajit would say. "As the train left, I'd see from the window, BT standing there, a tall man but so alone, on the deserted platform, no one around him. It wrenched my insides, what could I do for him?"

The legit lease didn't take off when railways or railroad families stopped, it waited alone so that railways could run. 

It did so generation after generation, waiting alone.

December 28, 2025.