Antara was not going to write on the topic she was asked to, "We all have our own Jeremies".
Antara was not trying to understand the world that emerged after she wrote on cricketer Polly Umrigar (Class Act, 'An impromptu discussion of Jordan...Antara couldn't afford Taj Hotels', April 16, 2026).
'Polly-put-the-kettle-on' was one of the better memories she had of school, what was the problem in recounting it?
Antara had worked at newsrooms where cricket historians (and their close relations) were columnists, she had often communicated with them, even interviewed them in New Delhi's hotels, she was not trying to usurp their positions, the blog was about her life, not about cricket, what would go wrong if she mentioned cricket once in a while?
The sibling had told her, in the 1980s, that Asansol AG Church had elaborate cricketing apparatus, "the entire set, from wickets to the regulation-weight batting equipment, as well as the cricketing gear the players needed to wear but it was never taken out."
It turned out to be true, in the little more than a decade that Antara studied at Asansol AG, she never saw any cricket gear leave the store-room.
Antara never played cricket, she disliked bowling, because of the run-up, both spin and pace, was it always intended that she'd be flung in the middle of things?
She had tried picking up the batting gear, one could manage those meant for the small boys but the actual batting equipment had proved too heavy for her, she wasn't physically sturdy enough.
Thus, if Abanindranath had wanted Antara to be an 'appurtenance', something subordinate to a bigger entity, if he had wanted so from 1857-1858, it could not be relevant to Antara the individual, who had proven herself useful and popular in categories applicable to individuals.
Antara had helped others when necessary, she had been part of a larger society.
Abanindranath's ideas of what was bigger, what was an accessory, were best not considered, given the hundreds of millions of people who had died in the 20th century to preserve a world order.
Antara didn't want to 'discuss the Jeremies' because she didn't know whether Jeremy was close to Abanindranath, but was that a way to treat people?
Brabourne Hostel had a room on the second floor, beneath the stairs, apart and separate from the rooms along the corridor, it was supposedly haunted.
Chand-ki-beti chand-ki-beti took that room, convincing the Alamo Girl who had warned her against taking it.
"Alamo Girl," she had said, "It was the wind that shook the door at night, it rattled on its hinges, I've stayed in that room, no former Brabourne student had died there as the gossip claimed. As the door shook through the night, it seemed that someone was persistently knocking."
Introduce the concept of Lavasa through the unused cricketing gear of Asansol AG. It implied Navassa Island on the Caribbean Sea.
Introduce the concept of Windward Passage using the Brabourne hostel room. The Caribbean island of Navassa was located in the Windward Passage.
Next take Antara to a Kolkata female getting married, 2000-2001, that girl would move to Hong Kong and later to Canada, her mother kept shouting, "My son-in-law/jamai was the best." Navassa Island was to the east of Jamaica.
Antara tried to draw a diagram. She got Bangladesh (east of Kolkata), Canada of 'Friends' sitcom and Navassa Island, an island disputed between the US and Haiti.
If the Abanindranath loyalists in Bangladesh wanted Navassa Island, why did it prevent Antara from earning a living, why was it tormenting for everyone?
Because the last episode of any discussion of German intelligence was the cricketers, it could be used for 'Austrian severance'? (Class Act, 'Antara didn't want any emails from Austria', June 1, 2026)
June 2, 2026.
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