SATYANESWAN

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 The historical document was meant to let the people of India understand their rights and limitations to sustain a true democratic set up Looking back now after decades, we may comment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....