It was customary for the Banerjees to append the name of their workplace at formal occasions or during family meetings when sternness was the mood-in-operation or if a stranger was at the door asking for one of the Banerjees. There was a Postal Banerjee and a Railway Banerjee. For the younger ones, pet names sufficed for both formal and informal occasions. It was rare for members of the family to leave Calcutta, although there were exceptions like Dibu or Chewing Gum Banerjee, who cared for things beyond tea and gossip. These birds who had flown the nest, lived in a limbo between ethics, doing something and nothing, in between beliefs of fate and agency, and in between feelings, of envy and relief. When they visited home, their families often did not retain basic politeness even and conversations would be glued with abrasive sarcasm.

The Banerjee family was essentially conservative. A fringe group had begun to read communist material. Fortunately for the elders, they were the ‘talking-communists’ not the ‘walking’ ones and their enthusiasm was restricted to healthy and rotund debates around afternoon tea.