![\"\"](\"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/12\/3-Cigarettes-Soumitra-Chatterjee-Murmurs-by-Amitava-Nag.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
![\"1](\"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/11\/1-TREE-Soumitra-Chatterjee-Memoirs-by-Amitava-Nag.jpg\")
<\/a>Standing tall, from the private collection of the author<\/p><\/div>\n
Giving up any addiction is always a question of belief and a solace of the nonbeliever. In the Granada series Sherlock Holmes, Jeremy Brett as the famous detective proclaims profoundly in his most laconic way, \u2018My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants.\u2019 I guess most of us who are addicted, in some form or the other, crave for the mental exaltation lacking otherwise.<\/p>\n
On the many times that I left smoking, I tried thinking what it gave me. Why is it so inanimately personal then, at least till the time mobile phones took over?<\/p>\n
To me, smoking is never a crutch. Leaving it never made me feel like a martyr nor a sacrificial lamb. Whenever I return, I tend to think if it is a slaver.<\/p>\n
\u2018I left it overnight, almost, after doctors advised me post my illness,\u2019\u00a0he<\/em>\u00a0is referring to\u00a0his<\/em>\u00a0malignant phase. A heavy smoker in\u00a0his<\/em>\u00a0days\u00a0he<\/em>\u00a0would turn packets into smoke. Rather burn them.<\/p>\n \u2018I tried cigars for some time when I was young. I was told that smoke of cigar makes the voice slightly coarse, a bit heavy,\u2019 Soumitra-babu reclines in\u00a0his<\/em>\u00a0wooden chair.\u00a0He<\/em>\u00a0did have a light voice in\u00a0his<\/em>\u00a0youth, sweet and melodious.<\/p>\n He<\/em>\u00a0once told me earlier how\u00a0he<\/em>\u00a0would do voice training with basic classical vocal rendition, to keep\u00a0his<\/em>\u00a0voice in tune.<\/p>\n \u2018For an actor, it is important that his voice is trained and tuned. Whatever base it is, a controlled voice is a harnessed harpoon. You may throw it at different depths as the need be.\u2019<\/p>\n I have been contemplating switching over to smoking pipes. I will then, like my array of fountain pens, possess a fleet of smoking pipes. All feel different, look unique and if I wish, smell varied.<\/p>\n \u2018I did have pipes as well. My father-in-law gave me one, and a few friends. I loved smoking pipes.\u2019\u00a0He\u00a0<\/em>pauses to take\u00a0his<\/em>\u00a0glasses off and wipes them slowly.<\/p>\n \u2018But, maintaining a pipe is an arduous task. Quite time consuming. And where do I have that?\u2019 the question is to the vacant air in the room.<\/p>\n I try to visualize the on-screen heroes dangling a pipe or a cigarette with effortless ooze \u2013 from Bogart to Cooper to the Clint Eastwoods or our own Uttam Kumar and Rajesh Khanna. All look suave, prim, gorgeous.<\/p>\n \u2018Now, I can\u2019t stand the smell of anyone smoking before me. I would leave the place or ask the person to leave.\u2019<\/p>\n This is quite true. Not only for ex-smokers or non-smokers, the active ones as well don\u2019t like another people\u2019s smoke. That is why smoking lounges in airports become so claustrophobic, almost unbearable.<\/p>\n He<\/em>\u00a0has seen me smoke a few times, outside\u00a0his<\/em>\u00a0house, before coming in. Afterwards I take in mints so that my breath resumes freshness.<\/p>\n \u2018How long have you been smoking?\u2019\u00a0he<\/em>\u00a0asks.<\/p>\n \u2018A long while now. More than twenty-five years,\u2019 I don\u2019t believe it is that long already. Most of my friends, who were die-hard smokers, strongly devoted to the white stick with whom we pledged never to be separated with have first scattered out all over the globe, and now successfully moved on to the \u201cnon-smoker\u201d terrain \u2013one with false hopes and drowsy dreams.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t make me happy that the group of long-time smokers in the world is sharply diminishing much to the glee of pharmaceutical companies. But I presume that is more nostalgia than any logic.<\/p>\n \u2018You know Amitava, cigarettes understand better than lovers. You need not say a thing, the stick knows it all. And most importantly, it doesn\u2019t demand an answer, and never questions as well,\u2019\u00a0he\u00a0<\/em>twinkles at me.<\/p>\n \u2018But poems do as well. Don\u2019t they? But unfortunately, they elude when we look for them, don\u2019t they?\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018Yes, but do you need anyone to know you more than yourself?\u2019\u00a0he<\/em>\u00a0is throwing questions that are gruelling.<\/p>\n \u2018After a time, you will not need it,\u2019\u00a0he<\/em>\u00a0smiles nondeviantly, \u2018not for any health problems or anything. You may be bored of it. The same smell, the same habit, the same repetition of monotony.\u2019<\/p>\n I have been to\u00a0him<\/em>\u00a0after the Durga Puja. To offer my wishes and seek blessings. It is festive time in Kolkata. The festivals \u2013 religious, social, cultural, all mingle at this time of the year.<\/p>\n There is a silent breeze that hangs emotions with the aggression of a wild cat.<\/p>\n I stand outside\u00a0his<\/em>\u00a0house. Outside of me. And, light a cigarette.<\/p>\n This is a preview collection of interactions that is set to release as the book Murmurs: Moments with Soumitra Chatterjee<\/a><\/em> by Amitava Nag, on 19th January 2021 to celebrate the legend\u2019s 87th birthday.<\/h3>\n
![\"MURMURS](\"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/12\/MURMURS-SILENT-STEALS-WITH-SOUMITRA-CHATTERJEE.png\")
<\/a>
\n <\/p>\nClick here to read all published episodes of Murmurs: Moments with Soumitra Chatterjee<\/a>.<\/h3>\n
\n Catherine Berge’s Gaach<\/em><\/strong> (The Tree, 1998) is a rare documentary on Soumitra Chatterjee. Silhouette is grateful to Catherine and producer James Ivory for providing permission to make it available to the Silhouette readers.<\/span><\/p>\n