Monday 8 September 2014

Memories & Memorabilia - Some bits of history.

My father as a newcomer.

It is a shame really, what am I doing?  First I deleted my replies to some of the comments and now I went and deleted an entire post. I thought I had learnt a lesson that 'Haste makes Waste' but it appears I have obviously not. In my defence all I can say is that shortage of time and the constant drumming in my area (it is festival time after all)  has led me to commit such a mistake. A weak excuse I know, but frankly I have no other excuse.


I now have unearthed more memoriabilia so I think it would be a good idea to redo my last post in a different way, I would like to make the best of  the terrible situation that I find myself in right now.

In my post Unlocking Memories I had narrated how my father was offered a film by Bimal Roy. Here is the


letter written by Asit Sen (Apradhi Kaun's director) asking my father to report for shooting and a wonderful piece of history (below) -  the telegram asking him to report for work. I call it a wonderful piece of history because telegrams have now gone out of our lives.


Below is my father's reply to the letter and telegram. I have been wondering if this letter was written by my father to Bimal Roy, what is this letter doing in our home? Shouldn't it have been at Bimal Roy Productions? Did my father later pick it up from the office and just to have it as sort of a keepsake? I guess I will never know the answer to that that one.


Before joining films my father kept a diary, some pages of one of his diaries were lying around at home. There is this page, for instance, where he has noted down the time and date of his elder brother's untimely demise. This loss was huge for my father, he had no other sibling.

Here is another page where he put on record his shooting for his first film Apradhi Kaun.

He later discontinued this habit of maintaining a diary, my brother and I never saw him doing it.

On second thoughts redoing the post does not seem to be such a bad idea after all, because now I am following a proper order and it seems to be an improvement over the one I deleted earlier. My only regret I lost the wonderful comments of my readers.

 If you would like to read the letters, all you have to do is right click on the image, click on View Image and then magnify it.

Memories & Memorabilia will continue in my next post.

21 comments:

  1. So Bimal Roy wrote to your father 16 years to the day before I was born! (Yes, the '8th January' mentioned in your father's letter sprang out at me, Shilpi). I love reading old letters and telegrams, and especially such historic ones - oh, these are priceless, Shilpi. Keep them very carefully. And thank you so much for sharing these.

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    1. Well Madhu in my future posts I will write about how this number 8 kept creeping up in our lives. I am not superstitious but the coincidence is quite something.

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    2. Now I'm very curious! (by the way, it's also uncanny, how many coincidences there seem to be between your life and mine. Have I ever mentioned what my husband's name is? Tarun).

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    3. Yes I do know your husband's name is Tarun, and truly we do have some connection. As for the number 8, I thought I had seen it all when I just found something else. I will write about it in my future posts.

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  2. Such a good collection of memorabilia!
    Wonderful! Enjoyed going thorugh it. Sorry for the mess before.
    Hope to see more such posts!

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    1. Thanks Harvey, I have really put myself in an embarrassing situation.

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  3. Ages since I've seen these pages. And am I so glad I get the same happiness. Hopefully I will visit these pages more often

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    1. Welcome back Shashi, please do visit again.

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    2. Sure, Shilpiji. Neki aur pooch pooch :-)

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  4. Poor you, Shilpi. But oh, how wonderful to see the additions to the post! As for why your father's reply was in your house, I could provide a reasonable explanation - both my grandfathers, my father-in-law, a couple of my uncles all kept copies of their replies to every single letter they wrote.

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    1. Yes Anu, my brother too told me the same, he said it was probably a copy.

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  5. Actually u have done a more better job as u could up load the letters, telegrams etc which we would have otherwise missed. Njoyed going thru each of the posts, oh how well it has all been written and how proper they are , we need to learn from all of these.Keep posting more.

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    1. Hello Rajee, This is Shilpi's brother. you will surely remember me. I am not sure if you know that Shilpi passed away on September 9, 2021. This was the only way I could inform you. My email: aroopbose.bombay@gmail.com

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  6. Thank you very much Rajee, I really do mess up sometimes but now I am going to be careful and now I have also dug up more memorabilia.

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  7. Hello I would love more information About Actor Tarun Bose! He has acted in Bandini a film in which Veteran Ashok Kumar my Uncle acted and since I am in Nagpur, a lot of people want information about him. The journalists here are proud of him and have asked me to find out about his family and all. I want to know your Mother's name and your brothers too and where and what you are doing.Could you be in toucch Shilpi please. It is important for a Veteran Tarun Bose.

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    1. Whatever I wanted to say to the world is right here in this blog. I am pleased to see that people in Nagpur still remember him, however beyond what I have written in this blog, I have nothing more to share. I hope all of you understand that I would like to keep our personal life private.

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  8. Hello once again Shipli, I hope this finds you well. Not sure if you or your fathers fans would like to know this, but that Plane he stepped out of and in to in the movie Gumnaam still exists in India . I started looking for it after I found out what happened to the plane my Father used to crew in the US Air force stationed in France. One thing led to another ( watching Gumnaam again to see the planes tail number) and another fall down the Goodle Rabbit hole and there it was . I hope you find it remotely interesting, iknow I did !
    Dan Knoll Jr., California

    https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/48535/what-is-that-decommissioned-plane-near-nadirgul-airfield

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    1. Thank you for sharing this interesting piece of information. I wish to inform you that Shilpi Bose, my dear sister, and the author of this blog passed away on September 9, 2021. Thank you once again.

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    2. Hello Aroop.... I am deeply saddened by this news.... I had a nice email chat with your sister about Gumnaam and your father . I am wondering if it was covid, but no matter how, Your sister was so generous to chat with this non-hindi speaking fan of Gumnaam and your father . I just watched it again for probably the tenth time. Please accept my condolences .

      Dan Knoll, Santa Cruz, CA, USA

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    3. Thank you for your condolences. Sorry for the delay in replying. No it was not Covid, Shilpi had a blockage in her blood vessel. I did not expect it at all, it just happened one day. Life is very different without her. She loved to talk, that is have a good conversation. I am sure if you had met her personally she would have had a nice chat with you, she loved to connect with people; that was her nature. Well nothing can be done now but I believe she is always with me in spirit.

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  9. No apologies necessary for any delay . I posted on https://memsaabstory.com/ to Greta, the lady who is responsible for that wonderful web site, and she expressed her sadness and sympathies to you also, she had had a whole dialog with your sister and "Guest appearance" by her , with her writing about your father . Thank you for telling us about your sister , she was wonderful to share with us her stories about your father .
    Life is too short and we never know when our time will come . Take care and stay well ... your sister's memories of your father and ours of her will remain with us always .

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