Geeti Sen A Collage of Family Photos
Geeti Sen A Collage of Family Photos
Geeti Sen A Collage of Family Photos
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to India International Centre Quarterly
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GEETI SEN
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56 / India International Centre Quarterly
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GEETI SEN / 57
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58 / India International Centre Quarterly
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GEETISEN / 59
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60 / India International Centre Quarterly
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GEETISEN / 61
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62 / India International Centre Quarterly
prior to marriage; it endorses the custom which was still new and
which believed in consent to marriage even if it was arranged.
This portrait study which I now cherish may have played a crucial
role in the marriage of my grandparents.
Two more pictures in the family archives complete for me the
story of my grandparents—although their lives had only begun
its long saga of sixty-three years of marriage. In the "honeymoon
picture" taken in the same year of 1900, my grandfather wears a
three-piece suit and places carefully on his lap (for display only)
his top hat. He is seated while my grandmother stands beside
him, wearing an exquisite laced cloak over her saree and an
extraordinary hat that is the final give-away that tells you that this
is a display picture. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the
restraint with which they conducted their lives but it tells you
about the aspirations of this small and anglicized community in
Bengal. In the third and "after-marriage" study they have shed
these accessories and look more domiciled, but the aura about
them has not lessened.
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GEETISEN / 63
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64 / India International Centre Quarterly
My parents
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GEETISEN
My Grandparents
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66 / India International Centre Quarterly
was much worse for my son who was having a hard time adjust
ing to new spaces and new faces.
The inquisition began with the little boy next door, who put
to us certain questions of fundamental importance. Did we own
this flat into which we had just moved? Where was our ancestral
home? Was our car on its way to Delhi? Where was the television
set? Had I seen the picture of his parents in the last Illustrated
Weekly of India? And finally, where was the rest of the family?
Predictably, we failed the test on all scores. He slipped away
down the stairs, without downing the coke ordered for him—
without that encouraging nod of friendship. Packing cases were
still strewn about the room and my son went out to watch the
homing pigeons that were being trained on an adjoining terrace.
For the first time, he looked a lonely child.
In that moment I realised what had to be done, first of all,
before the books and paintings and bedlinen were unpacked.
With an artist friend who arrived for dinner, we worked feverish
ly through the evening on a new assignment. Fortunately, an
empty picture frame was found. The carton of family pictures was
opened, one envelope after another, and the pictures examined
and discarded, arranged and re-arranged on the picture frame
until we were satisfied.
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GEETI SEN / 67
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India International Centre Quarterly
Notes
1. For references to Durga Mohan Das, see Malavika Karlekar, Voices from Within
Early Personal Narratives of Bengali Women, Oxford University Press, New Delhi
1933, pp.86,141,167 and 172.
4. On P.K. Ray and Sarala Ray, see Borthwick, op.tit., pp.264, 285-6 and 334.
Other References
2. Kalidas Nag, ed. Bethune School and College Centenary Volume 1849-1949, Calcutta,
1949.
3. Sarala Ray Centenary Volume, Sarala Roy Centenary Committee, Calcutta, 1961.
4. Geeti Sen, Ed. The Calcutta Psyche, India International Centre and Rupa & Co.,
New Delhi, 1990-91.
5. Jo Spence and Patricia Holland, Eds., Family Snaps, The Meaning of Domestic
Photography, Virago Press Ltd, London, 1991.
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