Relevance of Rabindranath Tagore to young generation–An open letter to a Bengali school boy.

                                   Rabindranath Tagore                                                           

To talk about the relevance of Tagore is to see him in the greater light of his personality and the time he walked the earth as we do today.  And to do this we need to see him beyond his literary achievements. We need to look into the essence of this man, the things he stood for and the legacy he left for us to follow.

He is an international figure widely respected—home and abroad, and has been inspiration to many a great man and woman—the poet Wilfred Owen, Scientist Albert Einstein might be taken as example. But if we talk about his relevance he is more relevant to us Bengalis than any other race in the world, because he with his life and action and with his conviction showed what a Bengali needs to be, and what we have really come to.

The time that is gone is gone forever and the time that is to come is a mere presumption and the same premise holds good in our life as well. People who have lived their lives contributing to the ethos, or people who have been simply demolishing what took ages to build have equal influence on all of us. So the future lies in our hand, the young generation, the students, on whose shoulders rest the world.

The life of Rabindranath was a multifaceted one that ideated the need of a questing mind something that is far above the muddle of pre-conceived familiarity we are so much given to now. Today we need to have this originality of thought and action in our day to day life. Over the years this sense of enquiry so vital to our ancestors has now indeed taken a beating. We have lost the legacy of being a rebel and poet, of being people of great courage and vitality and of original thinking.

Gopal Krishna Gokhale once said, “What Bengal thinks today, the rest of India thinks tomorrow.” The question is do we still have that conviction? Does the accolade still apply on us? Do we really deserve it in the present run of time?

Today our intellectual world is steeped in mediocrity and self complacency. But what we have really inculcated post independence is a pathetic snobbery that has made us incapable of seeing things worth seeing, somewhat robbing us of the very sense of pragmatic analyses. In the short story ‘Daakghar’, Tagore showed us the danger of losing our intrinsic judgement to half baked understanding of things around.

We live in a world where we have no respect for our language, and the world once glimmered with the likes of Sarat Chandra, Jibonananda Das, Shakti Chattopadhyay Bishnu Dey is crumbling to cheap and vulgar Bollywood mediocrity. And we see no offence!

Ergo, today we need to re-live Tagore, resurrect the Tagore that we all have in us because we need him to survive the world, to keep our name on the atlas of people and great nation and be proud of being a Bengali.

We cannot expect to change people who won’t change, but we, the young generation can as well gear up to imbibe those true qualities epitomised by our beloved Poet laureate that we might one day be the precursor to a great Nation of great people.

Future of Bengalis as a Linguistic Denomination...

       

                         Akhanda Bangla Anushilon Samiti

                                                  

I am not a great thinker, nor do I have great learning; but what I have is concern for my land—you may call it love for motherland—which I think does not call for anything of special significance. What if I have great wealth and my body is rotting? It’s sure enough that neither my body nor my wealth would be of any use.

Similarly what if I have great learning but the land under my feet is slipping away..or that my name doesn’t attribute to a place of my own... or that everywhere I am threatened overwhelmed by a majority that is hostile to my language, suspicious of my culture as if I were given to constant endeavour to sabotage to claim what is not mine or what is taken from me?

This is the life and the reality of a landless nation. And I am quite sure we, the Bengalis are coming to that... slowly but surely our destiny is being written much in the same way as that of the Jews centuries ago.

We all know to what they went through...what they lived...It was but for Hitler things took a turn and the Jews irrespective of place and standing  threw their arms to one another for universal Brotherhood. They were hated almost across the length and breadth of Europe, deprived of basic rights, exploited, prejudiced and discriminated and at the far end assaulted and nearly decimated.

With so many languages in a country that has no National Character, where the country is more of a concept than a nation, where people still reel under the subtle after-effect of colonial slavery in  culture, thoughts and actions, where Democracy is crumbling under a wicked  game of number, where people have no palpable alternative to injustice and exploitation, where there exist qualitative differences between the intellectual make-up of one region and that of the other in matters regard to culture and political outlook....Can we in any case survive with our Bangla language...can we survive as a linguistic race without making any compromise on the ethos that define our very existence? Do we have that economic capability to sustain ourselves as a race that has a distinct characteristic?

Today we need to ask ourselves only one question—‘Is there going to be anything as Bengali in the next 100 years should civilisation survive?’

Thus, you don’t need to be a pedant to foresee your survival on earth...

All you need is a little common sense, which I’m sure we are all amply bestowed with...!!!

Joy Bangadesh...!!!

Joy Matribhumi...!!!

Are You Still Alive.....!!!!

অবনী বাড়ি আছো?

দুয়ার এঁটে ঘুমিয়ে আছে পাড়া
কেবল শুনি রাতের কড়ানাড়া
'অবনী, বাড়ি আছো?'

বৃষ্টি পড়ে এখানে বারোমাস
এখানে মেঘ গাভীর মতো চরে
পরান্মুখ সবুজ নালিঘাস
দুয়ার চেপে ধরে--
'অবনী, বাড়ি আছো?'

আধেকলীন-- হৃদয়ে দূরগামী
ব্যথার মাঝে ঘুমিয় পড়ি আমি
সহসা শুনি রাতের কড়ানাড়া
'অবনী, বাড়ি আছো?'

Shakti Chattopadhyay

Remember this poem? Many of us might have read this. But how many lived through it? This was an iconic poem that is said to have influenced the entire school of modern Bengali Poetry as also life that followed in the wake of it.

....................'অবনী, বাড়ি আছো?'......................

Over the years this one-liner has become as much of a haunting line as an understatement that celebrates the beginning of an end, i.e. the herald of a Dark Age in the History of modern Bengal, the cloud of which still overcast our mindscape, our ignominious life and things we do.

 An entire generation of gifted mind was liquidated almost under the great system of so called Democracy, about which we so proudly brag before the western world and forget that in return of Freedom it has claimed the very essence of our life, i.e. Freedom itself.

It has given us the freedom to cower, to turn a blind eye to our destruction, to live in complete segregation like a toothless lion whose roar is nothing but an artefact to its people and to the rest of the world. We win accolades and honour but actually starving to annihilation.

Day in and day out as we look on with the eyes of an impotent spectator, we find what we have lost, what price we have paid against this phony liberty and claims of development.

It is rightly said that India is a country of gods, beggars and snake charmers not because we find them in plenty but should one be here one is sure to repose faith in God. It is so because if I happen to close my eyes enough with the evils of today and wake up to that of another to trust to tomorrow again, it is a sheer Miracle.

From the massacre of Sai family through the orchestrated genocide of bright young minds in the wake of Naxalbari uprising to our very own Nandigram and Netai, what have we inherited? Complete destruction of Bengali progressive Bourgeoisie if not the deliberate sterilisation of the remaining progressive minds so much that today they make but a marginalised  group of yellers making encouraging noises so much necessary for a great Democracy as ours.

That I am alive and breathing is the greatest Miracle of my life and of our time and as such I can’t help believing God above me for a platter of rice on my table.

‘Are you home, Abani?’ may as well be ‘Are you still alive, Abani....? Are you still breathing?

The Owl--Philip Edward Thomas.(3 March 1878 – 9 April 1917)

Edward Thomas

The Owl

Downhill I came, hungry, and yet not starved;

Cold, yet had heat within me that was proof

Against the North wind; tired, yet so that rest

Had seemed the sweetest thing under a roof.

Then at the inn I had food, fire, and rest,

Knowing how hungry, cold, and tired was I.

All of the night was quite barred out except

An owl's cry, a most melancholy cry

Shaken out long and clear upon the hill,

No merry note, nor cause of merriment,

But one telling me plain what I escaped

And others could not, that night, as in I went.

And salted was my food, and my repose,

Salted and sobered, too, by the bird's voice

Speaking for all who lay under the stars,

Soldiers and poor, unable to rejoice. 

Textual Analysis

1. ‘Downhill I came, hungry, yet not starved...’ who says this? Why does the speaker contrast hungry with starved?

The speaker here is the poet himself.

This poem is a true representation of a man’s inner conflict. The speaker under certain condition came down laden with hunger and fatigue, while his comrades were on the hill. He wanted food and rest but felt penitent for his desires, which he thought were selfish because he was not so hungry that he would have died that night.

    

2. ‘But one telling me plain ....escaped....’ who was the one referred to here? Explain what was told by the ‘one’?

The ‘one’ referred to here is the cry of the Owl.

The cry of the owl reverberated across the hill and spoke on behalf of the poet’s comrades. The poet in its melancholy and piercing cry found himself penitent for his coming down to a shelter leaving his comrades on the hill. He felt that for the time being he had escaped the clutches of death while the poor soldiers waited their imminent fate.

3. ‘All of the night was quite barred out...’ what is the meaning of ‘All of the night’? To whom was it barred out and why?

The poet by this expression wanted to convey the intensity of suffering and eventual death that night could have brought on him. ‘All of the night’ stood for hunger, cold, fatigue and death that night.

He had come down and procured himself food and rest in an inn. He had paid for those amenities and so the suffering of that night was restricted from reaching him.

4. ‘...Except an Owl’s cry...’ Why wasn’t the owl’s cry barred out?

Amidst his frugal amenities, which he thought the sweetest thing under a roof, the poet found that the owl’s cry couldn’t be barred out. He, being a sensitive poet, took its cry as the call of his own conscience that seemed reproaching him for being so weak and selfish.

5.  ‘And salted was my food...by the bird’s voice.’ In what sense does the poet use the word ‘salted’? How was his food ‘salted’ by the bird’s voice?

The poet was too hungry to differentiate between tasty and vile food. He was also fatigued and desperately needed rest. At such an hour the cry of the bird raised a storm inside his sensitive mind.

He felt that at his food and rest were salted in the sense that they became obnoxious to him. He could neither fulfil his hunger nor lie down on the couch, as he suffered scruples which left him utterly disappointed and broken.

6.  How does the call of the owl affect the poet? OR What is the significance of the title ‘The Owl’?

The owl being nocturnal has long been considered a sinister creature that calls upon misery, adversity and death. These symbols work upon the poet as the mirror of his conscience, as he realised that his needs were the reflection of a weak and selfish mind rather than of a sensitive poet. He felt that he had betrayed his comrades by coming down to the comfort of a secured place, while they awaited their imminent doom.

   

7. Describe the situation in the poem ‘The Owl’.

The poet, Edward Thomas, came down the hill in search of food and rest, being utterly fatigued and hungry. He got what he needed in an inn and all that stood for agony that night were restricted. However, an owl’s cry penetrated the numb darkness and hit him hard on his conscience. It spoke on behalf of the unfortunate soldiers who had no comfort that night but to fight in the cold and die. The poet could neither eat nor sleep as his soul fell apart in remorse.

OUR TRIBUTE TO RAJEEV DAS...!!!

We firmly believe that Barasat resident, Rajeev Das, could have been saved had the District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police, 24 North Parganas been BENGALIS.

We therefore Protest yet again against induction of Non-Bengalis into Administration.

We demand that the Officers concerned be immediately Show-caused and Removed from Office.

We ideologically maintain that Outsiders as Administrators cannot empathise  with the feelings and aspirations of people with whom they share little common touch because they as individuals are Career Bureaucrats, whose allegiance and loyalties rest with different interests, and who are far removed from the decorum of Public Service.

Political Harakiri....!!!!

[It reads that the Govt. of West Bengal is mulling over the issue to include Hindi as a medium of education in North Bengal University. We the progressive people of Bengal strongly protest against this move and request Bengalis all over the world to support us in our agitation.]
This is what we call political suicide...! At a time when we, the Bengalis, are trying our best to alleviate our      socio-economic and cultural position and trying to rope in like-minded Bengalis to be a part of a movement to further the cause of  our self determination and the right to protect our language and our traditional                progressive humane identity, such myopic acts by a section of our own community put us on back foot or from where  we had begun. they do not see the danger lurking in the guise of nationalism that tends to betray the very  concept on which it was built with many parts of India rising to assert their political identity. There was a time when people from Bengal settled and travelled across the length and breadth of India and spread the message of freedom and education and the value of modern thinking, they also spread the light of this beautiful language Bengali. However in recent times if we really spare a moment and cast a cursory look over the scenario, we will certainly find that Bengali is no longer a part of education anywhere in the rest of India All the Schools in  Bihar and Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh, where once Bengali was taught as a subject have been  deliberately done away with or on the brink of closure due to lack of funds (?). It's a darn lie, which even a child can understand.                                                                                                                                

It's high time we understood that if we are to save ourselves we need to protect our language on our land and make all possible efforts to restore it to a height of glory which in turn would ensure us a place in History and on the demographic Atlas of the earth...!!                                                                                                                                                                                  

Remember a linguistic denomination is no Community if it has no land under its feet...!!!.                                A Community commands no respect if it taboos its own language and denigrates its ethos to another..!!                                                             

If Bengalis still prefer to sleep and afford to overlook...!!!

The Telegraph

Kolkata

Friday , January 21 , 2011

The City Diary

Held for assault on HC judge’s guard

Ajit Kulkarni, a Pune resident, was arrested for allegedly beating up the guard of a Calcutta High Court judge when the latter protested Ajit’s spitting on the road. The incident occurred when the judge’s car was passing through Karaya on Thursday morning.

When Kulkarni was confronted by Alok Kole, a constable of Calcutta police reserve force, he allegedly started abusing the cop and slapped him before trying to snatch his service revolver. Kulkarni was overpowered and later arrested.

Kulkarni has come to Calcutta on an official trip, police said.

It is not just an incident but a manifestation of a mindset that is very much instinctive and may not be racially or any way motivated for that matter. if an outsider just stepping into the state can show such aplomb, one can quite as well imagine what other non-Bengalis are capable of doing should there be a need at all.

the question is 'WHITHER BENGALIS...? Do we yet learn to read the writing on the wall? Are we reading at all? One Kulkarni was arrested. What about the thousands of Kulkarnis,Todis, Shaus,Singhs,etc, etc swarming about like cockroaches ready to and even eating up our resources to the extent of denuding us to paupers.

We are on the verge of becoming a minority. Wake up before it is too late...!!!