Rudolf and the Bolsheviks; Gagarin; what was left

In discussing Wladimir Koppen, the POTUS sorts got worried, for within the Batanagar household, not everyone was as savvy about the US Vice President's office (historically, not merely the present incumbent) as Supriya Paul was.

If the discussion of the Wladimir Koppen angle was pursued and how he was pushed back by the US Vice Presidents, how he was betrayed, if it altered the narrative of the Bolshevik Revolution, then the ease with which Trump-Biden-Obama pursued Austria would come to an end.

"The conspiracies around Mayerling, that Austria had an heir living within the United States (Crown Prince Rudolf's heir), might come undone if evidence emerged of the close association between Supriya Paul and White House administrations."

As one would understand, the liberties the POTUSes had taken with the US economy, since the 1990s, had often been about Mayerling and the supposed Austrian heir residing in the US. 

The excitement would only increase, not subside.

The spectre of 19th century US Vice Presidents haunted Antara's maternal grandfather as well. When Antara had heard these stories in her childhood, she hadn't understood it was the US VP's office that was being discussed.

A surreal presence in the Bengal countryside, villagers discussing the regular 'visitation'. Antara's maternal grandfather laughing at them, walking back home from a late-night gathering, across the rice fields, gun in hand, till he witnessed the spectral being, taller than the surrounding palm trees.

"Who were you, what was your name, answer me, identify yourself?" he shouted in that moonlit night, then started firing at it, with no impact on that being, till it disappeared by itself.

There were enough shell casings recovered the next morning (and no human or animal reported injured) to prove Antara's maternal grandfather's narrative.

Do be careful. Before you indulge the 'too much lima beans in the diet' theory, Lima was indeed the name of one of the three female siblings in Assam entrusted with the above anecdote.

The Olympic-class liners, as a last resort.

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One of Lima's sibling sounded like Laika, the stray dog from Moscow who orbited the Earth in November 1957, aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft.

Was this an assertion about who went to space first (Gagarin) or that even Soviet dogs were smarter than us?

It was a good time to point out that the above events were tremendously disliked by Antara's maternal grandmother and her mother.

"Why were you bothering one of God's creations, one who couldn't protest," Antara's maternal grandmother would say.

"Gagarin travelled to space, came back home, he had dropped off his wife at the queue for loaves of bread, she was still standing there when he returned," Anjali would say, the ludicrousness of those who could afford space travel but not necessities.

Did it seem to anyone that there was a fear of eastern Europe, and the frantic dependence on Moscow's past achievements was meant to hide the fact?

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Apparently, the dorm at ACJ's Mylapore hostel in Chennai held the solving to the crisis emanating from the US.

The allusions person would lose her way in the mix of British intelligence (really???),

Indians would pursue and engage with the Tagores (wow!!),

the junior bureaucracy would be the most dependable (for what purpose?),

Assam would be a stalwart in financial matters (not Orissa?),

the Patanjali people would successfully manage both Berar's career and that of the Australian cricketer (now we were talking!!),

Garvi would play innocent,

and Infosys would keep denying its Palakkad Kerala connection.

Now what was left?

July 25, 2026.

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Mighty rivers; tariffs and WWII; those we had loved

The sibling stayed and studied at that north Bengal town till Class 4. 

Around 1980, she must have been in Class 3.

It was probably the reason people showed caution with the 'legit lease', except in certain provinces of India.

If the legit lease was irretrievably damaged, it might take away the history of the 21st century, its first two decades. That history was important to Communists and non-Communists alike.

Antara knew these things from the sibling. 

It was 1986, they had moved into the Housing flat, and during vacations, the two of them would lie down on the floor of their bedroom, on floor mats, the room darkened to beat the afternoon heat outside.

Antara would ask her sibling to tell her a story, and the latter would say, 

"Do you want to hear about river valley civilisations, for every mighty civilisation in the world was always next to a mighty river?"

When Antara agreed to hear that story, the sibling would begin, 

"It was in that north Bengal school, where I was a student of Class 3, that we got our first History books, and its first chapter was called the 'Indus Valley Civilisation', what in Bengali was called 'Sindhu Shabhyata', how a highly urbanised existence had once thrived along that river valley."

Antara studied History and Geography in college (Brabourne) for her sibling, not for Wladimir Koppen (of Koppen climate classification).

"She (the sibling) had studied the Sciences to stay with her generation, but I'd study History and Geography at college, so that I could be useful as well."

For her BA first year annual exams, when Antara had gone to find out how much she had scored, the departmental head for History, an elderly lady, had said, "Why, you were the History topper, you scored 72 out of 100, well done", and had thumped Antara's back.

Koppen was important for Crimea, Russia, Austria and Germany.

Koppen was important for Antara and the sibling.

****

Topics like Wladimir Koppen didn't suggest themselves to the POTUS sorts.

These were assignments decided by the Paris bankers, the POTUS sorts pursued them with great zeal.

Such topics were useful both within Washington DC and among the Tagores. Because Antara had grown up in India familiar with both realities, she often understood POTUSes better than most people.

It was not about wealth, not about gender but about tenacity, what Kolkata might describe as "dhonyi chheler odhyaboshay", meaning 'one had to wonder at the tenacity of the boy'.

The 'tenacity' implied that there were recurring problems that required one to be tenacious, 'the political violence of West Bengal was coming from the disorderliness of Washington DC and a muted press corps in the US would cure West Bengal', well, not many people in Kolkata would agree with such a sentiment.

"Let's not sign the legit lease," Kolkata would say, "lest Bengal became just a symptom of what ailed the American media scene and newsrooms."

Of all the instances of denying WWII history in recent times, the one involving the American media had been the most worrying.

****

It was early 2009. 

From a bookstore in Delhi's Khan Market, Antara had picked up a copy of Joan Didion's 'The Year of Magical Thinking', of the sudden loss of Didion's husband, who had collapsed at the dinner table and couldn't be brought around, and the challenges of loss, of not being able to throw away his belongings, lest he needed them when he returned.

Or of not being able to close the book he was reading, what if he suddenly needed to look it up?

That was the 'magical thinking', a realm where we believe our loved ones would return to us.

When Kedar-da collapsed at his dining table in 2011, 

when Cousin Tamal collapsed at the dining table while having a meal in 2014,

Antara understood things had taken a strange turn indeed. She gradually moved away from the hustle of life and began her decade of thinking, and of trying to live.

July 24, 2026.

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Houses of Dispute; Ukraine's war leadership and Gurkhas; what 'baigs' wanted

That Washington DC institutions often had Houses propping them up had become clear to Ajit-Anjali during their north Bengal stint.

"There were roadside stalls and kiosks. selling cooked meals etc, the shop was the 'front', a door at the back of the shop led to living quarters, where the shopkeeper usually lived, sometimes with spouse and children," Anjali would say.

Because of the proximity of the civilian airport, butchers were not allowed, since the way meat was culled and sold in India, it would attract scavenger birds, these disrupted flights during take-off and landing.

The stress of US defence firms on Washington DC had also become evident.

"The locals in these north Bengal towns were sturdy, quite westernised. During road repair, men and women worked together, laying/levelling the tar, both gender wore denim pants and jackets, it didn't seem like India."

With a certain level of awareness, one ought to have realised that if US defence firms were 'shaping' the allusions work, then it would be tough for Antara to grow up in a western country, she'd have to stay in India to be closer to reality.

While the fruit orchard was at the back of the north Bengal house, the front was a flower garden, a gravel path neatly dividing it into two halves.

It was a lush garden, roses and seasonal flowers aplenty, but its top drawing was the 'Night Queen', which bloomed occasionally, probably once a month. 

The 'Night Queen' was large and white, it bloomed towards midnight, Ajit-Anjali apparently waited with the girls, staying up to see it bloom at that unearthly hour. 

It withered in a day or two, its majesty was of the night.

"We want to take it to south Bengal, when we got transferred out of the north Bengal town," Ajit had said.

"It wouldn't bloom, it wasn't for your climes," the gardener had replied.

****

By the mid-1990s, Antara came across the consequences of what Ajit-Anjali had found out in north Bengal of the late 1970s.

For reasons not known to her, it became her burden, her parents and sibling either disliked discussing the Brabourne Junior College dorm or they had processed north Bengal in their own terms, for themselves, and left Antara out of it.

Brabourne Junior College dorm had two rows of beds on either side of the aisle, it was a cavernous hall, it accommodated around 22-25 girls at any given time.

Across the aisle from Antara was a Nepali girl from Darjeeling, her father was a West Bengal govt officer, they used the same govt circuit house in Kolkata that Ajit did.

Darjeeling's best friend shared the bed next to her, another Nepali girl but from Kathmandu, initially mistaken to be a royal till she explained that her father owned a candy/confectionery factory. 

She brought and shared candies from home, the ones made in their factory, she also kept loads of dried noodles, of various kinds, in a duffel bag, where Antara discovered Wai-Wai for the first time, what they snacked on. 

Both the Nepali girls had trouble eating Brabourne's Bengali meals, so they snacked quite a lot.

Another pair of girls that spoke in Nepali with Darjeeling-Kathmandu were two sisters, not twins but studying in the same class. They came from Siliguri, both had cleared their ICSE exam from the Matigara school that the sibling had attended in her childhood. 

Thus, the presence of four Nepali or Nepali-speaking girls in Brabourne's Junior College dorm, all studying the Arts, didn't create the frenzy in Antara's parents that it should have.

Why had they come down to the plains, who had sent them, why take so much trouble for a Brabourne Junior College course, only to return, they were so loathe to stay in Kolkata?

It was a mystery that would never be solved.

****

Thus, individuals seemed focused on topics of relevance, of imminent importance, they didn't care whether Antara spoke with an Anglicised accent or if she looked down upon the Bengali dialect of Purulia.

At Brabourne Junior College, English texts studied and discussed spoke of dialects as "provincial mud worn on the boots", would you want to carry the mud of your province/hometown all over the world?

Or would you rather discuss what was important about Asansol or Purulia, what gave those towns character, what an outsider wouldn't understand during a weekend getaway?

In all the women Antara met in her life, from all over India, she never noticed any awareness or consciousness of their own accent/dialect or an attempt to correct Antara's.

It was true that Antara was distant, they were not afraid of physical contact, Kashmiri girls held Antara's hand as they chatted, Jamshedpur girls held her by the ears and shook her head from side to side. The Midnapore girls would stand by her bedside merely to see her wake up, "There, there, Antara-di was waking up, a plate of roshogolla."

Those like Naz... referred to their bags as 'baigs', such was their accent, and when Antara laughed, she'd protest, "No, Antara, it was a 'baig', that was correct, 'baig', not 'byaag' as you all say."

July 22, 2026.

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A ride-along; Germany; cold coffee

Ajit-Anjali stayed at their north Bengal house for three years. 

For those three years, the sibling attended a private school, English medium in instruction, at nearby Matigara, in Siliguri.

During the first year, the sibling travelled to school on a school bus, Antara was not yet born. 

The school bus services were withdrawn after Antara was born, the students were left to their own devices.

Ajit and Anjali moved to public transport/buses to take the sibling to school, these were crowded but went all the way to Siliguri.

In the morning, Ajit took the sibling to school, around 7 am, in any of these buses.

In the afternoon, Anjali went to fetch her, leaving the infant Antara with a maid/governess.

Anjali was unhappy, 

"I barely knew Bina (the maid-governess), and Bina barely knew India, having recently crossed the border from Bangladesh, with her uncle. As I'd walk down the wooden stairs, your father's office downstairs would be crowded with the locals, Bengalis and Nepalis and Marwaris. I'd wonder, what life was I leading? My elder daughter was at a Siliguri school, my newborn with a stranger, your father cornered and tense."

The bus stop was right outside the front gate of the house. It was called 'Airport More', because the domestic civilian airport was close by.

"Thankfully, all buses, short and long-distances, stopped at Airport More."

As far as Antara knew, the school uniform for the sibling was white tunic/pinafore with green cardigan vest, "one needed to wear the cardigan even during the summer months, one splash of rain and it would suddenly cool down."

****

That the torture-surveillance was Christian in nature had not been obvious to Antara.

A former journalist colleague who 'ran' the torture against Antara had studied at St Stephen's College, New Delhi, there were endless masonry structures within Europe that called themselves St Stephen's (they claimed religiosity as well), but these seemed random facts.

Antara believed in Christianity for "love and forgiveness", she didn't read the gospels, she practiced what she had learnt at school, that a torturer would try to establish his Christian credentials was so mind-boggling, she didn't know how to outrage.

However, the torturer was affiliated to IC/Independents' Consolidation at Kolkata's Presidency College, and we knew "notun chhoto IC boro mojar jinish", implying Presidency College was important for the planned military redistricting of Germany, apparently proceeding at a furious pace within Kolkata.

"A combination of New Deal blackmails, British Smileys, George Sand as global arms dealer, would be enough to defeat both France and Germany."

****

Was the fracas that Kolkata and its suburbs created over Antara avoidable?

Despite obvious Russian and German influence, why should anyone be romping around on their own?

Not an attitude redolent of WTO's 'free movement of peoples and goods and services' but we knew WTO had failed.

It was an 'I see everything through an NS Road/Prussian prism' situation, why everyone got furious at NS Road, "probably their fake cult of Damodar Chandra (family deity) was under attack, why they were being so obnoxious".

We could have said Washington DC had different measures for different individuals, a measure used for Harris's province (Tamil Nadu) would not be used for Antara. That Antara would get research opportunities others didn't.

In the end, it was decided that since it was proven that the musicians of Kolkata didn't care for "cold coffee"/cold cases from Austria, that would be Antara's purpose, somewhat supported by the long-forgotten Houses of Dhaka. 

July 20, 2026.

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Whose US was it?

Antara would like to describe a recurring nightmare of the last decade, coinciding with the torture-surveillance.

How many times did Antara have that nightmare, four or five times, more than that?

In it, Antara had been avoiding classes at Brabourne, she was quite all right in terms of health but neither attended the Bengali (Language and Literature classes) nor the Mathematics classes. 

So, it seemed to be Junior College Brabourne,

"When was the last time I went to attend these classes, I couldn't even remember, I wonder what they were teaching now?" Antara was seen thinking.

Accurately enough, Antara knew that she needed 75 percent attendance (as per Brabourne rules) to write the exams. 

In reality, she always scored above 90 percent in attendance, since if she was in Kolkata and staying at the hostel, she didn't miss any classes. 

However, in the nightmare, it was dipping towards 20 percent.

As the storm clouds loomed over the Brabourne campus, as the high wind started rising among its trees, Antara could be seen walking towards the college notice board, next to the Brabourne cafetaria. She had been allowed to sit for the exams, no questions asked.

In the distance, what looked like an IITian living as an NJ wife, the IRIS Shahid Bagheri individual, was walking past, though she had never been a Brabourne student.

The forces of Tripura were coming closer, even if it called itself Aga something-or-the-other. 

July 3, 2026.

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Whose US was it? (Not Fortune, nor Favour, nor Bold)

The 'London Station' arrangement couldn't be revisited. It had been ascertained that certain relatives of Antara were not getting any help at all. 

However, on July 2, 2026, Antara did get some scallions which she had "not paid for", Antara had never travelled to China so what was Assam indicating?

One possibility was that the "wintry day" of 1994 (Durgapur's Kumarmangalam Park visit) had reaped great benefits for Assam. 

Antara wrote up those allusions in 2021, by 2024, "wintry day", who had faced life threat for decades, was 'outed' as both Chinese and Russian agent.

Now was that a serious breach or was it still less than the horse-with-wings violation of privacy? 

What kind of Big Data workplaces helped us understand which public personality was actually being harassed and who were merely Europeans who deserved no less?

One way to look at it was to find out if your close associates had fallen/perished in similar Big Data investigations. "Wintry Day" might say he lost several of his sort between 2002 to 2004. Fortune didn't always find favour. 

You could have read what Antara was writing. 

In her early childhood, they lived close to Nepal and "Nepal had casinos, which India didn't", as Anjali would often say. The enthusiasm you felt around the 'Kathmandu arrangement' would have been less.

But then, Morocco was fielding an 'excellent team', so there was no way you, Assam, could keep the 'London Station' out of it.

(Except the last one, all photos from online sources.)

July 2, 2026.

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Whose US was it?

 Free, at last!

July 1, 2026.

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