Reflections

Ramkinkar's " The Santhal Family " at Santiniketan. Creativity is a blessing that is given to only some lucky ones. There are people who can create art, sculpture and write sublime prose and poetry. They say that all Bengalis have written poems at least sometime in their lives. I certainly have, but on re reading some of the bilge that I have created, I blanch in fear that my daughter will come across these scribbling. But those who are favoured by the Goddess Saraswati are in another league altogether. The process of creation is like giving birth. From a mixture of earth and some water, the sculptor fashions a figurine that can give pleasure to millions. When I see great paintings, or read a book of great poetry, I never fail to be awed at the creator. How do they create? I wonder. There is a marvelous description of Ramkinkar in the process of creating in a book by Samir Sengupta. He was a friend of the great Bengali poet Shakti Chattopadhaya, who was a regular ...

Image courtesy: Google Images I never thought I would live to see the day, but I am beginning to have a sneaking felling of sympathy for the political class nowadays. The last straw was our Army Chief’s claim that he was offered a bribe and that he told the Defense Minister who reportedly hit his head with his hands ( link ). This is not to say that the incident did not happen,. Most likely it did and the bribe offer came from one of his ex colleagues in the Army who, having safely retired was working the network for his new company. In other words, this individual, who must have been at least a 3 star general in order to have access to the Army Chief was one of those men who was one of the band of men and women , we are assured repeatedly, who are the only thing that stands between us and chaos: The Indian Army. It has been apparent for quite some time that the Indian Army, while definitely a lot better than most institutions, has its share of crooks, just like anywhere else. Unfort...

Rally on 21.02.1954 by Moulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman marching barefoot to pay their tributes. Source: Banagabandhu Foundation. From February 11 onwards, scattered processions and street meetings were organized at regular intervals. Workers of the Committee were busy pinning badges to passersby. The badges bore the slogan -- "Proclaim Bengali as a State Language"-- written in red letters. Every part of the town was covered with posters. The workers of the Committee used to write thousands of posters overnight. Amplifiers were an unknown in those days, so metal horns were used instead for publicity. 21st February : Innumberable processions began to converge at Aswinikumar Town Hall ground from early morning. Students of schools and colleges brought out processions, they chanted various slogans and joined the mass rally. Then the main procession began. The dominant slogans were "We demand Bengali as a state language", "Release pol...

Rally of female students in front of DMC on 4.02.1952 ( This photograph, courtesy Prof Rafiqul Islam is from the Amar Ekushe website.) I recently wrote a blog post on the Ekushe February Movement. My young friend Subir drew my attention to this article which was originally published in Bengali by the Bangla Academy in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It was translated by Shaft Ahmed for the Amar Ekushe website which brings together documents, writings and memoirs of the historic movement and it ramifications. I am reproducing the article with their permission and I am sure that this important document will be interesting to you all. As it is a fairly long document, I will publish it in two parts. The History of the Observance of Ekushey by Hayat Mamud Translated from the Bengali by Shaft Ahmed. The history of the observance of Ekushey February has not followed any planned or straight path. It can be compared with a musical heptachord, the strings of which sometimes produce very loud mus...

David Bowman works in the University Of Tasmania, Australia. He is the Professor of Environment Change Biology of the School for Plant Sciences there. He published a comment in Nature on the 2nd February issue that has raised a storm of controversy and led to many comments from his critics. “Nutty professor” is one of the more polite ones. What is this proposal that has raised this tornado of comment? Let us put it in context. On the 7th February, 2009, now dubbed as Black Saturday, 400,000 hectares of forest burned down in Southern Australia. It caused the death of 173 people who were trying to run form the fire, prevent it from burning their homes or seeking shelter at what they thought were safe spots. Such fires are commonplace in Australia. According to the Nature article, 5% of the Continent burned down in 2011. This, according to Prof. Bowman is not the only issue. There is, in addition, the question of feral species of mammals and reptiles as well as by populations of pig...

This article was published in Pragati, The Indian National Interest Review. http://pragati.nationalinterest.in/ This free magazine discusses strategic issues related to India. The articles are often very thought provokimg. This article is from its latest edition. The original artilce can be read here. Calcutta, it bears repetition, was once the second city of the British Empire. In formal terms, its decline began in1912, when the Raj moved its capital to Delhi. Exactly, a hundred years later, the West has symbolically snapped its last link with the city, with Lufthansa, the only remaining western carrier to service it, announcing the discontinuation of its Calcutta-Frankfurt flight. In 1959, Calcutta became the first Indian destination for Lufthansa, ahead of Delhi and Bombay. In 2006, the German carrier re-asserted its faith in the city by starting a Calcutta-Frankfurt non-stop flight, declaring that the city had been identified as a “high growth area with immense potential.” The p...