Pre-teen years

Ma was #5 of six sisters with one brother at each end of the line. Ma lived in Bhowanipore for a few years with her parents and her younger brother and sister #4 Sheela and #6 Chitra, and youngest brother Amitava. Dadu enrolled all daughters and his youngest son at Beltola Girls High School. Ma remembers dadu instructed them to not just learn in class but also pay attention to how teachers talked softly, and walked, and conducted themselves. He'd point out how when 'memsahibs' talked you could see their lips move but not hear what they were saying.

Amitava found himself in kindergarten in an all girls school. On the playground, he asked one of his girl classmates for the ball. Preetisudha refused. In response, he spun her around by her two pigtails. When Preetisudha complained to ma about this, she defended him, 'why didn't you give him the ball when he asked for it?'