User:Gooshtee

Gooshtee is the Bengali word for clan. The choice of the title for this wiki is partly due to the fact that the movement was initiated in Calcutta, West Bengal and partly because the idea comes from the a typical collaborator - a quintessential Bengali family gooshtee, i.e. clan, with a 300 year old history, spread across West Bengal, East Bengal (now Bangladesh) and right up the Ganges till close to its source in the Himalayas.

Gooshtee on wikipedia is one of the collaborative platforms of family clans which have not only survived, but also largely retained, or even grown, their identity, culture, values, pride, social stature, traditions and locations over at least 100 years. It is here that they capture what they have preserved, even as their contemporaries, and a lot of what they stood for, that made them prominent died, or were forever altered by war, technology and the relentless ravages of time.

Such clans are typically the anti-thesis of the nouveau-riche; often their bete-noire as well. Elegance, under-stated wealth, humility, old-world charm and, above all, character underscores the behavior and attitudes of these clans. In the mad rush of today's high-tech, atomized and degraded environment, ordinary folks can be forgiven for believing that such families don't exist any more. But they do. They are the living history, quietly, unobtrusively influencing the course of modern events.

Such families are iconic brands in their respective societies. Like iconic brands they demonstrate extraordinary genes, riding the vicissitudes of time to remain relevant and prominent in their society over vastly different eras.

One such family is the Roy family of Bhagyakul.

The Roy Family of Bhagyakul, earlier known as the Kundu Family of Bhagyakul, has its roots near Dacca in East Bengal of undivided India, now Bangladesh. The Roy gooshtee has a 250 year old history, beginning with the enterprise and charisma of its founder Krishna Jibon Roy, the architect of its fortune, and his only grandson Ganga Prosad Roy with whom starts the real history of the Roy gooshtee of Bhagyakul.

It was Krishna Jibon Roy who first established the worship of God Lakshminarayan at his country residence in the village of Nurpur. Since the establishment of the "sheva" of God Lakshminarayan fortune smiled on the family and its prosperity went on increasing gradually. It was Ganga Prosad Roy who built the first big fortune as partner of the then richest man in East Bengal, one Jibon Babu, while trading in salt and banking business at Naraingange. The salt trade was the way Bengali rich men made their fortunes in the early days of British Government.