TALE OF A CHAIR

By Mr P B Chakrabarty

(An article from the Tenacius  magazine of  1977 )

A jejune title, you would say, for a tale. There are, of course ,numerous tales of mystery and imagination, strange happenings, nightmarish tales, tales of apparition a s well as of haunted houses. This is a simple tale of an old fashioned, a slightly bulky wooden armchair , with a cane seat and faded blue cushion.

The chair may not have the streamlined look of chairs people choose to rest their you-know-what on, these days, it certainly has character-- dramatic character. A dying Falstaff......

I don't know in which year the chair was brought to the Academy (then T.N. High School). When I joined the school in 1950, I saw the chair in the headmaster's office. Two headmasters used the chair till 1954. Then for about a year, Late B. N. Singh occupied the chair as the officiating Headmaster. He was , by nature an affable person. He seemed quiet comfortable in the chair. But after sometime he showed signs of uneasiness. One day I came to know from him that he was bitten by mysterious bugs whenever he sat on the chair. All the same he used the chair during the tenure of his office.

Mr V.N. Langer became the principal in early 1956. For 16 years he used the chair and never complained of bugs. The school was provided with lots of new furniture, and old dilapidated furniture was removed , but, strangely enough, the Principal's chair remained in its position; and with time seemed to have attained timeless static repose.

In 1971 Dr. Fanthome became the principal of the Academy and for nearly five years used the chair. Even on Sundays and holidays Dr. Fanthome would sit on the chair and work for hours. If the chair could speak , it would certainly tell us the secret of Dr. Fanthome's sincerest laughter and saddest thought.'

When Mr Madhusudan Singh took over as Principal after Dr. Fanthome's departure he sat on the chair for two months and kept it aside in an exclusive corner of the principal's room. Perhaps he felt he could work harder , seated on an armless , uncomfortable chair than on a comfortable armchair with faded cushion. We have heard of broken legged chairs , but who has heard of a heart -broken chair!

The exclusive corner which the chair occupies in the principal's room now is a mini-museum of sorts. Behind the chair is the old school flag. On the wall behind the chair is the old school badge and the new school badge ; the first school tie ,the second school tie  and the third school tie. The chair seems to preside over the evidence of historical change in the school. The one time repose of timelessness of the chair seems transformed into surrealistic historical stoicism !