SATYANESWAN

Badal da was never considered a responsible person. While in school he preferred to avoid first few benches. He loved to read a lot but not the text books for which he developed a strong aversion since he was a kid. He had a keen interest for anything printed on paper anything beyond his syllabus be it a book ,magazine or newspaper. Though he was never a dull boy he hardly got good marks in examinations and lagged behind his contemporaries as a consequence, He was neither strong nor aggressive enough to bully others of his age. His acumen in sports was limited to the game of caroms where he felt comfortable. His not-so-affluent family possessed a cycle and Badal da was mostly available on wheels. His other preferred mode of movement was walking. He was compelled to walk long distances and that way came to know even the corners of Kolkata streets, lanes and bye-lanes. He was gifted with a powerful memory and he memorized all the bus routes, destination of trams and places, e

--> We met the octogenarian and his wife in the train on our way back to Kolkata from Puri on his eighty second birthday. I and my wife, both suffering from problems in flexing knee joints, were allotted upper berths. While purchasing the tickets, I agreed with an expectation that we would find at least some one younger at one of lower berths who might be requested to exchange. But on board we found none and started exploring the best possible ways to go up .. The elderly couple occupying the lower berths was the patient listeners to our discussion. The gentleman smilingly appreciated our apprehension and informed us that he would prefer to help if he were just ten years younger. His brave declaration prompted me to ask his age and we were introduced. Shri.Kalidas Ghosh, born on August, 7, 1927 and got his Masters Degree in Bengali Literature from the University of Calcutta in 1950 and took teaching as his profession. He had been with Bramhananda Keshab Chandra (po

Kolkata and West Bengal suffered a devastating cyclone on May 25, 2009. As reported, at least 80 people were killed and over one lakh people rendered homeless. The storm which is named Aila had a wind speed of 100 kilometers per hour hit the city at around 2 p.m and, thereafter, blew through Howrah, Hoogly and Burdwan districts and moved towards further north into the hills. The scale of devastation were so severe that the Army was deployed for rescue operations in affected parts of North and South 24-Parganas.Several thousands of houses washed away in tidal waves in the coastal areas. The city witnessed uprooting of hundreds of trees which blocked roads for hours dislocating traffics for the day. Air, train and tram services got disrupted for hours. Ananda Bazar Patrika, the Bengali daily, informs from the available records that this city witnessed cyclonic devastation of this extent only on September 30,1737 and October 5,1864.I observed that the report had overlooked the incidence

Years back, the founding fathers of Indian Democracy in a bid to ensure good governance drafted the constitution. The historical document was meant to let the people of India understand their rights and limitations to sustain a true democratic set up Looking back now after decades, we may comment that the noble intention of the initiators was only partly fulfilled. Why partly? While the people of India have by and large understood the importance of their mandate in electing successive Governments in power, they could hardly contribute much beyond that. Politicians, irrespective of their color and creed, taking advantage of absence of mass awareness and abject poverty of majority developed the habit of thinking themselves rulers instead of entrusted public servants. Once in position of power they have taken the people of India, who have given them the mandate to govern, for granted. Transparency and accountability which are the true ingredients of a democratic government remained hidde

This photograph which came out in a daily recently reminds that we have less than couple of weeks left to witness the polling to elect the people's representatives for the 15th Lok Sabha.Seasoned politicians are too busy to campaign and hell bent on convincing that they are best suited to do the best for the people.The photograph portrays a well known politician,presently a senior cabinet minister, asking for votes with folded hands from a "Common Man." We can not make out the face of the "Common Man." in the photograph. During the last five years the "Common Man" was not much in the limelight but it is different now.The election is at the doorstep and he is forming major part of the electorate.After all,the democracy is that form of government which is of the people,by the people and of course for the people.From time immemorial, this common man is all that the people means. Since the beginning of the general election in 1952, the politicians approac

My last post was written in Bengali. I would prefer to write the same in normal fashion straightway on the blog. I tried but Bengali script could not be written straightway as the required font is not available. This has created a problem for the readers as they found it impossible to read. I shall seek advice from the persons who know better and sure to try to overcome this problem. Meanwhile,I would request you all to take further trouble and just click once on the paragraphs ( there are two paragraphs).The image shall instantly be bigger for you to read comfortably. I sincerely apologize for the inconvinience caused due to my paucity of knowledge regarding the use of scripts.

Since morning on the fourth day of our hunger strike, guardians and relatives of the students started arriving at the college campus. They were worried and excited. They formed groups among themselves and were engaged in agitated discussions. Me and Barun, one of my closest friends, were sitting near the first lobby and witnessing the progress of what was going on. During the last four days we had no visitors from our respective families. Barun belonged to a family of musclemen. Perhaps, expression of affection was not much in vogue there. As for myself, being a fugitive, I did not expect that barring my mother others in the family would be too keen to enquire about me. While on the first lobby, we were spotted by one of our senior professors, who incidentally came out from his office. He found no students nearby other than us. He called us both and started rebuking us for joining the hunger strike. Like all the conservative teachers, he found no virtue in our movement.

It all happened during summer of 1967. It is more than four decades now and I do not remember the exact date and month . To attend some occasion at home I extended my weekend and remained away from my Hostel.Yes. I am talking about our days at BE College. I was then a student of second year class and staying in hostel number 10.In the evening, while I was all set to start for hostel, my father summoned me.All India Radio just announced that a student agitation in BE College against police atrocities had started right then. He promptly rang up and talked to the Proctor,Shri.SK Chakravorty at length.The Proctor advised my father to keep me confined at home till the situation was controlled by the authorities.My father summarily instructed me to stay back and not to start for hostel. It never was a custom in my family to ask father much about his decisions.He,too,being a busy doctor,never found much time for explanation .In effect, I swallowed his words but just could not digest. From th

Rao Bahadur (also Raobahadur and Rai Bahadur; abbreviated R.B) is a title of honor issued in India to individuals who have performed great service to the nation. Literally translated "Rao" implies "prince" and "Bahadur" means "most honorable." This title was awarded to Indians, both Hindu and Christian. During the British Rule, the Rao Bahadur was accompanied by a medal. The equivalent title for Muslim and Parsi subjects was Khan Bahadur.-Wikipedia Raibahadurs are extinct now. But it was not so even around five decades back. In and around Rashbehari, Bhowanipur and Ballygaunge areas there were a number of mini palatial buildings with gardens at the front behind large wrought iron gates which used to display names of the owners of the buildings prefixing "Raibahadur" . In my early years, while I was in my morning schools I developed the habit of walking around the Kolkata roads most of the day. I could find a number of those build

Arun da was never interested in his studies. He used to boast that he did not read any subjects other than General Science. This fact used to be reflected every year when results came out.He fared well only in General Science. Starting from perhaps 1957 onwards,Arun da religiously appeared at the school final examination and came out unsuccessful.Ultimately,Arun da passed school final perhaps in 1964 when the board decided to do away with school final and switch over to higher secondary.His friends opined that that year board did not have other option but to push him through. My intention here is not to make fun with his unsuccessful attempts. Arun da was one of the close friends of our elder brothers.As was the custom in those days in the middle class localities, we used to receive lot of affection and attention from the friends of our elder brothers. Sometime, they seemed to be more dependable than our own brothers.The question of making fun,therefore,does not arise.But the ba

I read somewhere that while two Britishers meet they form a club and while two Bengalees meet they initiate a Puja.Now I understand that Gurudas,my elder ,aged 10 years then and me,8 year old were gifted with both the traits.We initiated a club way back in 1956 with an ulterior motive to organise a Saraswati Puja. The Goddess used to be worshiped in our household in most humble way but we looked for something more gorgeous.The nearby club in the locality, "Dilip Smriti Sangha", used to perform Puja with usual pomp and gay but we were not much accepted in the group as we were fairly new to the locality. We felt neglected. Neglect of this kind, sometimes, ignite a spark within the mind of persons who are creative by nature. I heard that Sir Jamshedji Tata came up with the famous Taj Mahal Hotel as he was not treated favorably in some British five star hotel.Unknowingly we followed suit and decided to establish a club. Space was not much of a problem as the roof of our house

I came to listen to the term "Civic Sense" while I was a kid young enough to study at class II.We were recent residents of Kalighat then. One of our neighbors made it a habit of throwing his family's garbage promptly in front of our entrance every morning. The narrow street used to remain dirty until the municipal sweeper arrived on the scene.It was real difficult for someone to enter to or go out of our house meanwhile.As was the practice in the locality no one came forward to object.Perhaps hoping that one day the gentleman responsible would understand the agony of his close door neighbors. But that fateful day never came. My father lost patience one sunday morning and asked the gentleman to stop the practice.He,in turn, got infuriated and questioned the authority of my father . His logic was simple.As the street belonged to commoners using the road all users had similar claims.He refused to accept that he was doing anything wrong. He assured my father that he would not

Bimal Mitra's literary works always fascinate me,specially the novels.He had the capacity of writing novels with the characteristics of an epic.His central character,may not be the principal one but stories revolves around him.He remains a helpless bystander putting his best efforts to influence incidents but mostly in vain. This time I am not here to discuss Bimal Mitra and his works though.I took the reference as he came to my mind while I was roaming around the Auckland streets just like that. This city was built by the British settlers and as elsewhere they made it a point to recreate London here too. Therefore, the old buildings ( and believe me,there are too many) were built in greco-roman majestic style and invariably features a clock on the top or middle of the building. As such, kiwis apparently have an affinity towards clocks too. They have created a clock within the famous Albert Park ( the oldest volcanic site in the region,conver ted to a park and got the name of prin

Rongitoto.The name sounds a bell in your ear. Around 600 years back it rang a bell no doubt but that was a bell to give alarm to the Maori settlers who used to live in the nearby Motutapu island.Rongitoto literally means 'bloody sky' in Maori language.In fact it reddened the sky line of the country whose original name i,e Aotearoa ( to-day's New Zealand) reminds you of long white clouds.Out of the deep blue pacific a big red mass started erupting some day 600 years back in a series of dramatic explosions and gave a different shade to the nearby clouds. It is the youngest island in the Hauraki Gulf in the North Shore of Auckland and the last and largest volcano to be formed in the Auckland volcanic field.It is also one of the biggest volcanic eruptions which earth had ever witnessed. From a distance you can never imagine there may be anything unique within the island you are about to set your foot on.It is as nice as others, majestically sitting just off the Auckland c