After 15 years in power Mamata Banerjee, the colourful leader of the state of West Bengal in India, the first woman to ever lead it, lost in the elections this month. The nationalist BJP which rules India from Delhi has now rolled into power in Kolkata as well, in a state where it was almost a nonentity a decade ago.
This is Sandip Roy in Kolkata
But politics aside, one of things people will need to get used to is a cultural shift. Mamata was a big believer in Bengali culture, a culture that produced Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore and filmmaker Satyajit Ray.
And Mamata who liked to paint, sing and write verse.
MAMATA POEM
While the merits of her verse and poetry might be up for debate what one can never deny is she understood the strange nuances of Bengali culture.
Like its love for the paash baalish translated wholly inadequately as “side-pillow” or bolster. Neither word has the emotional heft of paash baalish or captures its singular cultural significance in Bengali cultural life.
In the middle of the covid pandemic, as Corona numbers were shooting up she famously said “It is not in my hands anymore. There is nothing I can do. You can sleep with corona by your side. Make it your paash baalish.”
That evoked great national confusion, mocking tweets and chortling memes. But those who mock do not understand the mystical power of the paash baalish. Bengalis are attached to the cord of their paash baalish the way others are attached to umbilical cords.
A classic Bengali paash baalish follows strict guidelines. It must have real cotton stuffing, none of this polyester nonsense. It should have black cotton seeds embedded in the stuffing, that can be rolled between the fingers like prayer beads cum pacifiers before falling asleep. A proper paash baalish must have a plain white cotton cover pulled together with a draw string. Nowadays there are paash baalish covers with printed patterns, even Disney figures, but there is nothing as classic as a plain white 100% cotton paash baalish. It is the sleeping Bengali’s version of the little black dress - simple, elegant and not to be messed with.
Bengalis start early with their paash baalish indoctrination. The baby sleeps boxed in by two small sausage-like paash baalishes. They act as guardian angels preventing the young Bengali from falling off the bed. In time that paash baalish becomes a practice dummy for budding romances and the repository for tears for failed romances, best friend, therapist and nursemaid rolled into one.
I had an aunt who sometimes rolled off the bed in her sleep. Someone found her hanging half off the bed entangled in the mosquito net still clutching her paash baalish. The real point to note is that she was still fast asleep. It proves that as long as she is clutching the paash baalish the Bengali can sleep on contentedly, reassured that the world is not ending.
Novelist Diksha Basu has spoken up for the humble paash baalish. She tweeted that the Bengali invention of the paash baalish is “greater than the invention of the wheel”.
I do not know if a Bengali did indeed invent the paash baalish. The pillow as far as we know might have Mesopotamian origins. But at that time they were made of stone The side pillow exists in other forms in Asia. Koreans have a jukbuin or bamboo wife which they can wrap their arms and legs around while sleeping. Indonesians call side pillows Dutch wives, a nod to Dutch East India Company traders separated from flesh-and-blood wives.
But Bengal has taken the paash baalish to a different level of cultural significance. The Bengali band Chandrabindoo has an entire song devoted to the paash baalish and its inter-generational appeal, the “darling pillow” passing from father to son.
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In the classic 1968 film Chowringhee, the comedian Bhanu Banerjee plays a rather swadeshi-minded hotel butler who wreaks revenge on British guests by placing paash baalishes on their bed and getting them “addicted” to the comfort of one before they have to leave and return to their paash-baalish-less First World.
I too remember sleepless nights as a new student in a small town in the American midwest, separated from friends, family, home-cooked meals and my paash baalish. When I came back to India nothing spelled home as much as the paash baalish on the bed. They say you cannot ever go home again but as long as there is a paash baalish you can come pretty close.
I hope Mamata Banerjee will find comfort in her paash banish in these friendless days out of power
This is Sandip Roy in Kolkata for KALW