Reflections

The Famous Poster  The febrile excitement caused by the release of the Netaji files has now died down. The excited yelping that had accompanied the release of some of the files seems to be over; the (distant) relatives of Netaji are no longer in the news and all is quiet until the next episode of Netajiitis. Perhaps today’s celebrations will set off another bout. The centenary of the commencement of First World War spawned a large number of books, some of which I have read with fascinated interest. One historical parallel which had earlier escaped my notice may be of interest. As soon as the War started, by public demand and acclaim, Lord Kitchener of Khartoum was appointed the War Secretary. On hindsight, it seems clear that while he was public relations dream (remember the posters showing him pointing to the public saying “the country needs you!” probably the most famous poster in history); he was a military disaster. He was used to colonial wars of the 19 th century when

Samuel Hahnemann  Dr Venkatraman Ramakrishnan was in India. Just as we ordinary garden NRIs do, great men also like to spend the winter in India. Anyway while he was here, he was invited to opine on many things, and among many things, he mentioned that homeopathy is bogus. Venkatraman Radhakrishnan This is something that I believe. I have no great passion or am not passionate in my denunciation of homeopathy; if anything, I have a sneaking sympathy for the art as my Dad was a passionate believer. After his retirement, he got himself an online qualification, studied large numbers of texts and had quite a clientele for his Free Homeo clinic that he ran from home. In deference to his views and to avoid volcanic eruptions for which both he and I are well known, I used to lie low and say nothing when he proclaimed its benefits. My wife and some doctor friends, who could not get away had to listen to him declaiming the merits of homeopathy. Be that as it may, this blog post

Bread and circuses were the raison d'etre of the Roman empire, particularly when it was in its long inexorable decline. The Roman citizens could be diverted from anything if they were fed and were provided the entertainment that wiled away the hours of leisure. Bengal, particularly during the Vishwakarma Puja to Saraswati Puja season increasingly resembles the Roman polity. The industrial landscape remains desolate. This is not to say that other regions of India  are flourishing notwithstanding the accha din rhetoric : a recent visit to Nagpur revealed long stretches of defunct “industrial” zones and empty real estate. However, the industrial scene seems especially desolate when viewed form a North Bengal prism: The tea industry seems to be in terminal decline, there is nothing to take its place.  I am not going into the statistics that were being bandied about in the newspaper advertisements and hoardings in late December and early January: the ones that showed Bengal’s