Painting and singing stories told through scrolls goes back to ancient times in India and Bengal.
Patuas or Chitrakars have plied their craft for generations in the villages of Mednipur district, near Calcutta.
Painting and singing stories on devotional and historical themes, the patuas would travel to surrounding villages, receiving rice, vegetables and a few coins for their recitals.
Competition from radio and television have eroded their traditional way of life.
Recently women began painting and singing. Adding scrolls based on social themes, such as public health and education, they are developing new avenues and markets for their craft.
I learnt about scroll painters when I met patua Dukhushyam Chitrakar in 1987. Over the years, I had helped him get commissions for scroll paintings from various quarters. His son Rahim's scroll, on rebuilding after the tsunami (of December 2004) is pictured above.
My friend Aditinath Sarkar, anthropologist and documentary film-maker, recently made a film Singing Pictures: Women Painters of Naya.
A clip is accessible below. Read more about the patuashere, and about the patua women of Naya here.
Awakened, awakened, awakened! The whole world’s awakened!
Pictures from yesterday’s Nandigram protest rally and demonstration at Esplanade, Calcutta, are accessible here.
The meeting demanded the resignation of the Left Front govt of West Bengal, led by the murderous CPI(M). Speakers expressed their rage and revulsion against the govt. Singer-activist-mediaman Kabir Suman exhorted the police to revolt against the govt. Naba Datta, of Nagarik Manch, called for exemplary punishment for those responsible, like Binoy Konar, the so-called peasant front leader, who must be held accountable for his explicit incitement to murder, which was no different from the incitement to kill Muslims by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in 2002.
The question of alternatives etc – is not pertinent at this point. The govt must go, and all else will follow.
Whatever “moral” authority Mrs Sonia Gandhi had – has been squandered by her studied silence on the Nandigram massacre. She should have visited the affected areas immediately after.
Meanwhile, a group of spit-licking “leftist intellectuals” has set a new record for shamelessness and obsequiousness by issuing a statement to condone the Left Front govt’s actions – after 10 days of silence following the massacre. This includes Amiya Bagchi, MK Raina, Malini Bhattacharya, Utsa Patnaik, Jayati Ghosh, Mohan Rao, Nasir Tyabji, Teesta Setalvad. It is shocking that Teesta Setalvad should have added her name to this shameful apologia. Did she ask for Narendra Modi to be excused after the Gujarat riots and pogrom?
I am astounded that not a single minister in the West Bengal cabinet thought it fit to resign because of the massacre. But I guess I should be astounded at my wishful thinking.
Left Front chairman has alleged a deep-rooted conspiracy to destabilise the govt. He should forget his schoolboy cloak-and-dagger fantasies and know that it is simply a clearly-expressed hatred of the ugly criminals who make up his CPI(M), that is widespread and is now finding voice thanks to the Nandigram resistance.
A group of women activists from Calcutta visited Nandigram yesterday for a first-hand appraisal. Their report will be available soon.
A mass movement has been kindled by Nandigram. But the ramifications of the stark vacuum of civil society stares at us. Perhaps for the first time in decades, civil society is emerging. The soil of Singur and Nandigram should be consecrated by anyone who cherishes human dignity. It may be difficult to build martyrs’ memorials in neighbourhoods throughout the state and country. But people can make them within their own homes. They can build the memorial in their hearts, and pay tribute to the victims of Nandigram through their action. In the new topography being mapped by the resistance to the all-powerful nexus of global capital and the pliant, corrupt local state, Singur and Nandigram are sacred sites. Children born now should be named “Singur” and “Nandigram”, expressing their parents' fervent wish that they shall grow up to usher in and live in a world of dignity and justice.
At Sandip's book release ceremony yesterday, one of the speakers was Sujato Bhadra, of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR).
The APDR is an organisation whose work I respect enormously. For 3 decades, the APDR has almost single-handedly held aloft the candle of human rights in West Bengal.
Sujato read out from the Govt of India’s SEZ Act and the state rules. In explicit terms, it is stated that this territory will be like a foreign territory.
Very, very fitting indeed, especially in this year of the 60th anniversary of India’s independence, the independence for which Bhagat Singh, whose centenary falls this year, and so many others, gave their lives. Ironic indeed, and deeply shameful, that the same govt should issue advertisements paying tribute to Bhagat Singh. And the CPI(M) has paid its tribute to the memory of Bhagat Singh, whom it had claimed in its pantheon, by the massacre at Nandigram, for the setting up of a SEZ by a businessman associated with other crimes against humanity in Indonesia.
Sujato spoke briefly about their findings from Nandigram. He said what happened there can only be called a crime against humanity.
In international law there are 3 kinds of mass killings. War crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. India is not a signatory to the law on crimes against humanity, just as the USA and China are not. And Sujato informed the gathering that in 2003, during the BJP govt’s tenure, a secret pact was signed with the USA, under which perpetrators of crimes against humanity would not be prosecuted in each other’s countries.
The Left Front govt of West Bengal has the distinguished record of having perpetrated another crime against humanity in the past – in Marichjhapi, on 31 January 1979, when 36 people (the official no.) were killed in police firing.
Sujato’s conservative estimate is that at least 45 persons were killed in Nandigram, and 100-120 persons are missing. But even this estimate is only on the basis of visiting 3 villages, of the 14 affected. Local people speak of scores of dead bodies having been taken away, thrown into the river, or carried off for secretly burying. A large no. of children are missing.
The police operation of 14 March was not to restore law and order. It was aimed at annihilating the resistance. There were multiple bullet wounds on the bodies of several of the dead.
While the CPI(M) may have announced that land will not be acquired for a special economic zone in Nandigram, the people there are living in terror. For they know the CPI(M) will not spare them, and will ensure their elimination after things appear to have calmed down. They committed the cardinal sin of abandoning the party. And they created an example of militant resistance, which is now going to create more Nandigrams everywhere.
The only parallel in India that Sujato could think of – was the killing and mass burial of some 1,500 youths in Punjab in the early 90s, in the name of anti-terrorist operations.
APDR’s report on Nandigram will be completed shortly and made available to the public. I remember the historic report on the organised massacre of Sikhs in Delhi in 1984, in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s assassination, Who are the guilty? The Nandigram reported will be as significant.
Rudrangshu Mukherjee had written in January, following the Nandigram disturbances, about the death of hope for West Bengal.
Yesterday, I read the Trotskyite turned fascist groupie/apologist Swapan Dasgupta’s article about the return of hopelessness.
And today, senior journalist Sunanda K Datta-Ray has written about the death of hope.
A remarkable convergence of opinion, very revealing about the make-up and worldview of India’s educated, English-proficient class. Alienated, thus fundamentally ignorant, and full of despise for the humble, toiling folk. Totally enslaved in their hearts and minds by colonial hangover.
Hope isn't dead. Its these people who are dead fish!
They all suffer from “market-fetishism”. They denounce opposition to capitalist globalisation as anti-market. But markets do determine economic activities everywhere in West Bengal. As Prof Abhirup Sarkar pointed out in a seminar in Calcutta last year, it is the collusion between the ruling party / state and the large cold storage owners that ensures that the interests of potato farmers, and especially small farmers, are systematically thwarted.
They also suffer from “modernity-fetishism”, which is simply another form of wearing fine suits and boots and sneering at the rustic peasant in his loincloth for his lack of finesse!
They talk about "setting back the industrialisation clock". What nonsense! They should sit in a time machine and try to return to the Victorian era where they rightly belong.
Nandigram has advanced the clock of an economics that is just and democratic.
Thankfully its possible to see through and dismiss these pathetic purveyors of pious platitudes. Being a student of economics, I know that economics rests on a foundation of values. The set of values that comes by default – acceptance of the distribution of resources and endowments in society - is only one set of norms. There could be others. The values thrown up by the farmers of Singur and Nandigram – present a mandate for economists and public policy specialists to try to act upon.
The poor do not wish to stay poor. They know what poverty is, like the self-proclaimed pundits will never know. They want economic growth, which will bring greater opportunities for improved quality of life. However, to assume that economic growth of any hue – through real estate development, through dubious international capitalists (recall Enron) – will automatically translate into removal of poverty is plaintively disingenuous. I can see that it may not be possible for an agency committed to eliminating poverty to get all the capital investment it wants in the desired spheres. So there can be a strategic outlook, where whatever is achieved is sought to be linked to people’s welfare.
But in a state where perhaps the worst oppression on the people is in the state of the primary education system and the public healthcare system – which in turn are in this state because of the extortionary activities of the CPI(M) – care and concern for the people is nowhere on the party's horizon, they care only for power and loot.
The people of Singur and Nandigram have spoken. It is the duty of the educated, privileged section to understand and interpret this, and come up with fitting solutions.
The squeaks of all these “analysts” are not unlike the self-righteous denigration of black capabilities by beneficiaries of the apartheid regime. There is no hope for them in a just order.
As scholar Ross Mallick has written, violation of human rights in South Asia can be largely attributed to the dominance of westernized elites who control the state apparatus. He argues that there is a tacit collusion between national elites (including scholars), NGOs and international agencies in neglecting human rights issues on the subcontinent. He concludes that the very survival of democracy in South Asia will depend on how the dominant elite groups accommodate the needs and aspirations of the deprived and marginalized groups.
I had often been struck by the hollowness of the Nobel peace awards, for awarding people like Henry Kissinger while excluding Mahatma Gandhi, whose very name is a symbol of the non-violent struggle for humanity, peace, harmony and justice. And ironically, Nobel Peace Prize winners like Dr Martin Luther King and The Dalai Lama have acknowledged Gandhi as a powerful source of their inspiration.
I stumbled today upon an article written in 1999 by Øyvind Tønnesson, "Mahatma Gandhi, the Missing Laureate". This is carried on the Nobel Prize website.
My reaction on reading the article was - if such high standards were applied to find Mahatma Gandhi wanting, then similar standards appear to have been singularly lacking in other instances. There simply can be no rationalisation. Hence, sadly, the award is severely devalued and inconsequential. While Gandhi stands tall and walks alone, and continues to touch the hearts of people everywhere.
There will be two citizen rallies in Calcutta tomorrow, i.e. Saturday 24 March 2007, in protest against the Nandigram massacre by the shameless and murderous CPI(M).
One is a "Walk for Democracy", from Deshbandhu Park (near Shyambazar 5-point crossing) to Esplanade, beginning at 2 pm.
The other is a rally from Nandan to Esplanade, at 2 30 pm.
Be there and make your conscience count. And remember, in order for us to be able to play our role as citizens in a democracy, the rally organisers who have taken the initiative also have to bear the organising costs. So make sure you express your appreciation and reciprocate by making a contribution.
"It is easy to kill individuals but you cannot kill the ideas. Great empires crumbled while the ideas survived."
This year marks the birth centenary of Shaheed (martyr) Bhagat Singh (28 Sept 1907 - 23 March 1931). 76 years ago today, Bhagat Singh was hanged in Lahore, with his fellow comrades Rajguru and Sukhdev.
As an Indian and Southasian, the memory of Bhagat Singh is sacred to me. His revolutionary ideals, his bravery, his towering example and efforts for inter-community unity and harmony - are as relevant today as they were during the British Raj.
If Mahatma Gandhi is the Father of the Nation, then Bhagat Singh is the Son of the Nation, the pride of every mother. May such brave sons be born again and again in this land.
Read Vidya Bhushan Rawat's tribute to Bhagat Singh here.
In the evening I attended the release of a commemorative volume on revolutionary martyrs Bhagat Singh, Jatin Das and Chandrasekhar Azad, edited by my dear friend and comrade Sandip Bandopadhyay, educator and writer.
Nandigram is a symbol of humble people’s defiance, protest, militant resistance and sacrifice against the globalising local state. It has broken the stupor, apathy, cynicism and mute, opportunistic acceptance defining the intelligentsia and middle classes in Calcutta and West Bengal.
Singur began the process, which Nandigram ignited. And Nandigram tolls the bell for the CPI(M) and the traditional left who have been in power for 30 years.
The region is a border area, between plains and hills and between Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. That Nandigram is in the soil of Mednipur, where the earth has for long been irrigated by the blood of people’s resistance – makes it revered and sacred.
I was reminded by anthropologist Madhusree Mukherjee that during British times, prolonged rebellions rent the area, beginning with the Sanyasi-Fakir rebellion (1770 to around 1800), the Chuar rebellion (early 1800s, until about 1830), the Sepoy Mutiny or First War of Independence (1857) and the Quit India movement (1942-44). There was also a Santhal rebellion.
During the Quit India movement, which tragically merged in this area with the Bengal famine, the region's leaders ran a parallel government quite independently of the British government. Its courts were very popular with the people. The parallel government was disbanded at Gandhi's orders, after he was let out of jail, and it is said that many cried in disappointment.
One of the leaders during the Quit India movement, Sushil Dhara, is now an invalid and spends much of his time in a coma resulting from some illness. He reportedly expressed a wish to go to Mednipur and see the new freedom movement for himself.
Once again, the villagers had created a Muktanchal, or "Free Zone."
The people of Bengal and India owe the people of Nandigram their hearts, hands and heads. So many things need to be done:
- Being with and standing beside the people - Relief and rehabilitation - Medical and psychiatric care - Obtaining compensation
- People’s investigations, Tribunal and Hearings - Music concerts and CDs - Art works, installations and exhibitions - Poems, poetry readings and books - Film screenings and festivals
- A memorial / people’s monument in Nandigram, that would express the sacredness of the soil.
And ultimately an independent political front has to emerge, which can put up candidates for elections from every constituency. I do not see this guilty govt lasting out its tenure (till 2011). We need an alternative to the CPI(M) and to all the other parties at play in Bengal. A people’s coalition, which takes up on behalf of the people the duty of restoring the tattered fabric of the state. With a mission to realise through office a basic minimum programme. Such a front should be in power for at least 10 years. This would also be a period during which the whole political culture of democracy could be rewritten, and new parties emerge, by formation or reform.
West Bengal today offers this opportunity. Once again Bengal shows the way to the rest of India, and today, in the context of globalisation, to the whole world. Not the elite or intelligentsia of Bengal, but the poor rural folk.
You cannot put a good thing down. After four decades of merciless assault by history, the people of Bengal have again stood up, and the fragrance of this sacred soil again gives us the whiff of freedom, that substantial freedom that Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi dreamt of, not mere political freedom, but social and economic emancipation.
The giant, slow-growing Saguaro cactus in the Sonoran desert in America draws water from the earth and grows over decades until, bloated, it collapses; and this event then nourishes an array of life forms whose very continued existence depends on these rare events. The people of Nandigram have made us aware of us what we are.
If I am proud to be Bengali, its Nandigram I am proud of. The soil of my childhood, which filled me with all its reverential essences, long-parched under a cruel sun, has awakened and called me and I hear its call and hearken.
Music concerts for Nandigram – the first one took place yesterday. Dohar, a gifted and popular group dedicated to propagating and renewing Bangla folk songs and music, performed at the Gyan Manch in Calcutta on 21 March. The concert had been scheduled for 16 March, but that was the day of the Bandh, or strike, called in protest against the massacre in Nandigram on 14 March.
Though the solo concert was a long-cherished wish for Dohar, they felt unable to make this a joyous occasion, where they could sing happily to their hearts’ content. They refused to do so. Nandigram had overshadowed their performance. The people whose songs and music they sing – the common folk – were being killed. Their songs are part of the living culture of the common folk. So protest and accusation of the evil tyrant suffused their songs.
One is fortunate and blessed that groups like Dohar exist. May they be granted every strength. To hear some of Dohar's songs click here.
Here's Dohar's Baul song Dekhechhi Rup-sagorey Moner Manush ("In the ocean of beauty I've seen my heart's companion").
Blogger Shree has also written about Dohar's concert - here, here and here.
Listening to Dohar’s songs – I knew myself. I am a product of the soil of Bengal. What I know is from this soil. What moves, touches, awakens, inspires and fulfils me, is from this soil. Its here I want to be. Its here I want to see paradise on earth. And its with the humble people of this place that I want to build that.
Listen to Mousumi Karmakar's song tribute to those killed and wounded in Nandigram here.
I have written (e.g. here and here) about some of the fundamental problems defining the city of Calcutta and threatening the future of the city. Long ago I had the good fortune of learning about the geo-hydrological aspects of the way the metropolis was growing from Subrata Sinha, a former deputy director general of the Geological Survey of India.
So I was glad to see an article by him in yesterday’s Statesman, on this very subject, and in the context of what’s happening right now. As a citizen of Calcutta, I am deeply disturbed by what he says.
Subrata Sinha writes:
Globally, prime farmlands are virtually categorised as Endangered Species. The Singur zone falls precisely in that category. After tampering with it, the West Bengal government is now out to pursue its eco-demolition agenda further. It has gifted the stretch from just beyond Rajarhat down to Baruipur-Kulpi within the Sundarbans deltaic wetlands zone, to construct a major N-S highway and develop a Special Economic Zone with Kulpi Port and ancillary hubs. This will destroy the residual wetlands ~ the lifeline of Calcutta and bulk of the sub-continental watershed.
The Calcutta wetlands form part of the deltaic region of the geo-hydrologically connected Ganga-Hugli-Meghna-Brahamputra river systems and part of the trans-national watershed comprising the Himalayan mountains. The shareholders mainly include India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. Unfortunately, the wetlands have been severely affected by urban encroachment; largely crippling their functions.
The urbanisation of Rajarhat New Town was the first item on this despicable agenda. Contrary to its erroneous depictions as non-wetland, it is a swampy marshland, within the wetland definition ambit. Situated near the northern headlands of the deltaic region and close to the recharge zone for the deeper Calcutta aquifers it falls directly in the path of the prolific monsoon overland flow from the upslope regions of the river basin. Moreover, numerous rivulets of the shared Indo-Bangladesh deltaic drainage system originate here. Adjuncts of intensive urbanisation (like roads, buildings) will act as a wall across the flow route, with the runoff getting diverted towards Bangladesh and core Calcutta, already plagued by flooding and drainage congestion. It will also affect the “Sunderbans” multifunctional ecosystem that forms the vital sea-face for most of sub-continental watershed.
As its main shareholder India cannot shirk the responsibility of maintaining geo-hydrological equilibrium within the watershed. The consequences of implementing these projects shall thus spell disaster.
Tragically, in its zeal to promote the interests of the corporate and affluent sectors, the State is sacrificing its natural bounties and welfare of the overwhelming rural majority. Calcutta will be the proverbial sacrificial goat!
It isn't often that one reads something that makes one happy. The Economist carries an article on the subject of "allophilia" - liking for other groups. It gave voice to the peculiar malady I suffer from. Its fulfilling to know I am not alone. In 1994, after touring adivasi (i.e. indigenous peoples') villages in interior Orissa in eastern India on a planning study, I felt one was fortunate and blessed to be able to learn from our adivasi communities what civilisation and refinement means. I had also subsequently been fortunate to be nourished by the sensibility of the poor Muslim slumdwellers in Howrah. And yesterday I came upon my friend Rahul's blog, which is dedicated to the naturalist vision of living of the Bhil.
Positive prejudice: Really loving your neighbour
Why holding off from hatred may not be good enough
“I feel comfortable when I hang out with them.” “I'm truly interested in understanding their point of view.” “I feel I can be myself when I am around them.” “To enrich my life, I would try to make more friends (from that group).”
Such warm, exuberant feelings towards other categories of human being—national, religious, racial or social—are the sort of thing that Todd L. Pittinsky, a social psychologist at Harvard University, spends his time probing and testing. This is not just because he too likes to hang around people who accentuate the positive. Mr Pittinsky's hope is to turn the conventional wisdom of “conflict studies” and “race relations” upside down.
There is a huge body of knowledge, he says, on prejudice against races or other categories. What he wants to promote, both as a scholarly tool and policy goal, is “allophilia”—liking for other groups—and the behaviour it inspires. “So much research aims to understand racist and xenophobic attitudes, so much policy aims to counter such attitudes—but people neglect to look at positive attitudes to other groups,” says Mr Pittinsky, a professor at Harvard's Centre for Public Leadership.
He believes that “allophilia” is a measurable state of mind with hard consequences. For example, the attitude of an American voter towards immigration is determined less accurately by party affiliation or social and economic status than by the degree to which he or she simply likes Latinos. And people's choices in charitable giving, study, voluntary work and travel are guided, not surprisingly, by the sort of groups that make them feel good.
More controversially, allophilia theory holds that efforts to fight racism often err in trying to abolish or minimise the difference between groups—telling people that “we and they are really the same” or “we all belong to a bigger group, and that matters more than any slight difference.”
The experience of Bosnia and Rwanda, where murderous hatreds resurfaced after decades of apparent symbiosis, shows that categories are resilient. That is one reason why Mr Pittinsky thinks that “mere tolerance is inherently unstable.”
He is not the only scholar to stress the limits of tolerance alone as an ideal. Robert Hayden, a social anthropologist at the University of Pittsburgh, has coined the term “antagonistic tolerance” to describe the way sacred sites were shared by Christians and Muslims in the Ottoman world, and by Hindus and Muslims in British India. His point? The fact that groups accept a regime or “truce” imposed by an imperial power does not mean they will refrain from competing once they get a chance.
To ex-subjects of the Soviet imperium, talk of officially encouraged admiration for “fraternal” nations, laced with displays of embroidery, cuisine and folk-dancing, sounds cloying. Soviet allophilia finally failed because people saw it was dishonest; it hid the travails of ethnic groups who had suffered deportation and persecution under Stalin. By the end nobody believed in brotherly love.
So by all means, let allophilia be studied, measured and encouraged. Just remember: state-sponsored cultural events may not be the best way to go about it.
Ref:
Pittinsky, T. L., Rosenthal, S. A., & Montoya, R. M. “Moving Beyond Tolerance: Allophilia Theory and Measurement”. Presented to the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, January 2007.
I woke up early today morning to be able to catch the (partial) solar eclipse visible from Calcutta. It was somewhat overcast so the eclipse was not visible for a while after it started.
The images were taken (from my roof) at 7 13 am, 7 25 am and 7 37 am respectively.
A web-surfer reached my blog searching on "Cooking Biryani".
I felt bad that s/he could not find what s/he wanted, especially when s/he had actually reached the right place! For the last few years, through the Howrah Pilot Project (with which I am associated) women in Howrah have been making spices for Biryani and other delectable preparations, which are exported all over the world. Each packet of Biryani masala carries the recipe and cooking instructions. And that text - written in early 2000 - is still in my computer.
So, with apologies and thanks to the dear Biryani recipe searcher, I am reproducing that here. And yes, this is a promotional for our Biryani and other spices.
Slice the onion into long strips and fry in oil until golden in colour.
Add the meat to the fried onions and then the ginger and garlic paste, add red chilli powder and salt to taste, and put to cook. Cook until the meat is fully done. Note that the meat should not be completely dry but should retain some gravy.
Add the curds / yogurt to the cooked meat, and set aside.
Cut the potatoes in large pieces, add 1 pinch saffron and fry in oil until slightly crisp. Then add half a cup of water and let it cook until the water is dry and the potatoes are well done.
Clean the rice, wash and soak in water for 10 minutes.
Take water in a cooking pot and heat. When it begins to boil, add the rice, salt to taste, and 2-3 bay leaves. Check the rice from time to time.
When the rice is about three-fourths done, drain out the water.
Add all of the BIRYANI MASALA to the cooked meat and mix.
Take a cooking pot and place some meat and potatoes at the bottom. Add a layer of rice. Place another layer of meat and potatoes over the rice. Set in layers like this.
Dissolve 1 pinch of saffron in the rose water and pour on top.
Add the ghee to the milk and pour over the meat-rice.
Sprinkle the chopped pistachios and raisins on top.
Cover the cooking pot thoroughly so that no steam can escape, and cook over a slow fire for 10-15 minutes.
Mix well before serving.
Garnish the serving with slices of the slightly fried boiled eggs.
Biryani is best eaten with raita and green salad. Raita masala is prepared by lightly roasting and then grinding cumin (jeera), dry red chilli and black pepper seeds.
Since biryani is very rich, eating this with a specially prepared ghol(drink) aids digestion. To make the special ghol, grind into a paste green chilli, mint leaves (pudina), black salt and salt. Lightly roast black pepper and cumin (jeera) and grind into a dry powder. Add the paste and powder to the curds / yogurt. Add water to dilute.
Poet Joy Goswami has written two poems to symbolise people's outrage and protest against the Nandigram massacre. I am reproducing them below, in Bangla, together with my attempted translation.
bolben, golaay dori diyey jhuley thako shaararaat. taa-i thakbo. pordin jokhon bolben eybaar nemey esho tokhon kintu lok laagbey aamaakey naamaatey eka-eka naamtey paarbo na
otuku paarini boley oporadh neben na jaeno
For the oppressor
Whatever you say, I shall do exactly that, I'll eat exactly that, wear exactly that, apply exactly that on my body And leave to go out. I'll abandon my own land and go away without so much as a word.
Tell me, put a rope around your neck and hang all night. I'll stay like that. But the next day when you say, now come down You'll need people to bring me down I won't be able to come down by myself
"Bhaater jonye gaan baanaabo Bhaater jonye shob kobitaa."
“I’ll make songs for food All poetry is for food.”
A citizens’ protest-demonstration against the barbaric, pre-planned, well-organised massacre in Nandigram was held in Calcutta today afternoon, at the Esplanade.
Students, academics, writers, poets, painters, singers, film-makers, actors, activists, and people from all walks of life, thronged the demonstration - to express their outrage against the atrocity in Nandigram and to call for the ousting of the murderous CPI(M) and the immoral Left Front.
Singer-activist Kabir Suman hailed democracy finally coming to Bengal. He urged the people to think especially about the women of Nandigram and their dire plight. He said the injured and all the affected families are in immediate need of food, medical attention and medical supplies.
A member of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) narrated her horrific experience from the fact-finding mission to Nandigram. She said a suckling babe had been snatched from the breast of the mother - who had been shot dead - and thrown into the river. She said that she had also gone to Bhopal in the aftermath of the gas-leak disaster (of Dec 1984); in Nandigram, the situation seemed worse, because of the unending reign of terror there. She urged people to go to Nandigram and and simply be with the hapless victims for as much time as they could, to give them solace. Immediate help is also needed to bring together all those have separated from their loved ones.
Another speaker reminded the audience that Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee's wife had called for the hanging of Dhananjoy, accused of rape and murder of school-girl Hetal Parekh. For the mass murder and rape of innocent women in Nandigram, as a woman, she now demanded the hanging of Buddhadev. Or else, she challenged them to come and rape her too.
The end of the rule of the power-crazed, corrupt, criminal, fascist thugs CPI(M) is nigh. Like rats abandoning a sinking ship, CPI(M)-groupies have started distancing themselves from their patrons and overlords. And like rats too, CPI(M) members and their spoils-partner supporters will have to scurry and burrow for cover as public ire and hatred boils towards explosion. The CPI(M) rats have proved a very efficacious vehicle of wealth-garnering for some worshippers of Lakshmi, especially real estate developers. They must be anxious indeed about the fate of their pet rats and the future of their Lakshmi blessing.
Pictures from the protest-demonstration in Calcutta are accessible here. (View the slideshow.)
I am a Rimcollian, which is the name for an Old Boy of the Rashtriya Indian Military College (formerly the Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College), in Dehradun in the Himalayan foothills. Earlier this week I was in Dehradun to attend the school reunion, which is held on the Foundation Day, 13 March.
The Rimcollian bond is very strong. In the 85 years since the school was established, less than 5,000 students have studied here. So its a very small and exclusive fraternity. The unique and demanding military ethos of the school also bonds all the Old Boys. Rimcollians have been at the forefront of military valour and leadership of the Indian army and armed forces for 7 decades. Many Rimcollians also led the armed forces of Pakistan after 1947.
This year marks the centenary of Mr Hugh Catchpole, an Englishman, who came to teach at the RIMC in 1928. He became the Principal of the school in 1948, and in 1953 went to Pakistan where he established and taught in 3 schools - until his death in 1997. The RIMC and the 3 schools in Pakistan, and the Old Boys of all these schools, are jointly observing and celebrating the Catchpole Centenary with a diverse programme of events spread across the schools in India and Pakistan.
I studied at the RIMC during 1972-76. And during 1998-2003 I did a second stint in the school, this time as a visiting Master. RIMC is one place that I shall always feel is my home. I can never have enough of the verdant splendour of the campus and the exceptional sensibility of the cadets fashioned by the daily routine and culture of the school.
Amrit, in the picture above, joined RIMC in 2003. I was seeing him after 4 years. As I told him, he was a complete mess then; he's a fine young man now!
Pictures from the RIMC reunion of 2007 are accessible here.
An important event during the Rimcollians' reunion at the RIMC in Dehradun is the wreath-laying ceremony at the War Memorial in the school. This honours all the Old Boys who made the supreme sacrifice, of their lives, during battle. The list of names on the War Memorial begins from the Second World War, and continues to the present (in anti-insurgency operations).
The wreath-laying by a senior Old Boy, to the playing of the Last Post by buglers is a sombre and unfailingly moving experience for all the Old Boys present. Being back in school during the reunion, everyone is joyously transported to their childhood. But the War Memorial ceremony, and the Last Post, remind us that some others with similar happy children's laughter were suddenly snatched away, by the very heroism inculcated by the school. There is pin-drop silence, its as if even the leaves on the trees are still.
The 'Last Post' bugle call is used at military funerals, memorials and times of Remembrance. It symbolises the 'end of the soldier's day' in so far as the dead soldier has finished his duty and can rest in peace.
Speaking of military tunes, another sombre melody that I love to hear - which is also played by military bands in England and India - is Abide with me. Written by Henry Lyte, of England, in 1847, it is inspired by Luke 24:29, where the disciples who were traveling to Emmaus asked Jesus to "abide with us, for it is evening and day is almost spent."
Abide with me is an evening hymn. Its word pictures are taken from the experience of the passing day: falling eventide, deepening darkness, growing dimness, and fading glories. In that, it can also be an introspective of the end of life.
But this is also a prayer for living life now. This hymn reminds us to plead with our Lord to abide with us. Stay with us. Be there unchanging when all around us changes. Through cloud and sunshine, abide. "In life and death, O Lord, abide with me."
Mahatma Gandhi loved to hear Abide with me.
Click on the image above to read the lyrics / music.
After the CPI(M) led state government of West Bengal embarked on a policy of forcibly acquiring agricultural land, faced with strong resistance in the villages, the state has unleashed the barbaric police force and the cadres of CPI(M) on the protesting villages, with a license to kill.
Yesterday, following a massive police + cadre operation, some 20 people are feared to have been killed and over 200 injured.
Please sign and circulate the on-line petition against state terror in Nandigram. The petition is accessible here.
On Tuesday, I saw my aunt Revathy after 15 months. It was a shock to see the transformation wrought by the killer disease. But I was then able to see her in another light altogether. I saw what she was: a being of pure light / love, distilled essence of her father / my grandfather, in whom she had been able to see something of what he was.
Revathy adored and revered her father, SV Kailaspathy (1904-90).
In the poem “Reclamation” in Last Possibilities of Light, Revathy wrote:
…You stood on your head every morning; and spun thread as Gandhi did, and you had a history we knew nothing about, so profound was your reticence. …
Hard to imagine then, as I lent my shoulder to your enfeebled step, that there were epic journeys you made, quite casually; icy Himalayan pathways and sun-baked Mohenjo-Daro, circling the Shwe-Dagon, and briefly years later, the Pyramids.
It’s as if I am bound in some way, to keep the hours, to imagine what I do not know for certain. From the corner of my eye, I catch you running through fields, hands clutching stolen green guavas, and then at last, memory becomes my inheritance.
In an essay Revathy wrote last year on Chowk, she recalled:
The life we lived in Bombay where I was born, was the one set by my father’s example whose fairly impoverished beginnings and subsequent rise as a government officer by dint of hard work and complete integrity was held up to us as the standard. This still works for me. He lived largely within himself, a gentle, reticent man, whose principles of behaviour have profound resonances for his children.
He adored Gandhi, adopted his simplicity, celibacy (after I the youngest, was born), his complete openness where religion was concerned. The stories passed down by my mother concerned his having mainly Muslim friends in school and college, among whom he enjoyed feasting and keeping the Ramzaan fast. He loved the Urdu language and long after we were grown, practiced its prescribed courtesies when guests entered the house.
After reading this I wrote to Revathy:
Thank you for this account, which expresses exactly how I remember Thatha, and I can now see how much I too have been formed by his example.
She replied:
“…Stuff happening, and one is not best equipped to write buoyant, cheerful notes. Glad you felt the truth of whatever I had to say about Thatha. He is probably more relevant to us now than at any other time. Feel the huge shift in what the world has become since his lifetime.”
Revathy most ably received the baton and passed it on, in the grand relay race of life.
The awesome mystery of Death ... Death unites the living, Death illuminates life. Revathy has gifted her loved ones the most supreme gift, the gift of her Death, through which she assumes eternal life.
A little while ago I got the news that my aunt Revathy (my mother's youngest sister) passed away. I was in Bombay yesterday to see her and my uncle Gopal and cousins Kartik and Skanda.
Revathy had been battling cancer since April last year. She and her family fought a very brave battle, keeping up hope and untiring efforts even in the face of grim reports. In the last week, her condition took a severe downturn, and she began sinking. And in the end, even when she was completely enfeebled and bed-ridden, her mind, her voice, her vision, her will - holding on to life - and her faculty of infinite selfless love remained undiminished. She would have been 60 this year.
Revathy was a connoisseur of the arts, a person of refined sensibility, taste and feeling, and an accomplished writer and poet. Yesterday afternoon she spoke to me about her recently published collection of poems Last Possibilities of Light (Writers Workshop, Calcutta).
I have known her from my infancy. As my youngest aunt, she was more than a mother can be. Books, literature, poetry, songs, music, cinema - she was a channel to so many things for us. Most of all, she cared for others, even at personal cost.
From her I learnt the phrase "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways" (from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poem), and so much else besides.
A couple of years ago I wrote her:
"Many years ago, you gave my mother the book The Barretts of Wimpole Street, with an inscription, "How do I love thee, let me count the ways". Thus did I learn about Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and later in college we studied Robert Browning's poems in the compulsory English courses. But that phrase has remained with me ever since. Several years ago I read the full poem. Now, thanks to the wonders of the internet, I have this in my computer. So I send it to you, with thanks."
She replied:
"This is the sweetest thing that has happened for a long time. Thank you. I love the circular nature of things that happen in one's life. And poetry gives us a much needed dose of dimly-glimpsed Reality."
And some months later, after I wrote her to put up performances of her singing, she wrote:
"... Perhaps with your prodding I can do more to remove bushels covering the light! Isn't 'light' a beautiful word?"
In September 2005, after the birth of Naina, my sister Shyama's daughter, Revathy wrote:
Is she a key to a time of dreams, a future without fear and the heat of futile wars?
will we walk through the door into a future where people bathed in light turn smiling at one another
with their hands joyfully hurling flowers at one another.
When she opens her eyes to the light, we will know.
Revathy lived to give love, joy and caring to those around her. Her passing away is a devastating loss to us. She leaves behind a terrible void.
September, haay ekattor Ghar bhenge gechhe juddher jhore Joshor Road-er du'dhaare manush Ato ato lok, shudhu keno moray?
The third and fourth stanzas of Moushumi’s version (the concluding lines in the video clip) in my poor translation:
They are homeless, their eyes sleepless, Shelter-Home-Nation wiped out by war, Bomber planes inside their heads. When will this black night come to an end?
Hundreds and hundreds of faces, O ’71! Jessore Road tells so many tales! So many dead faces on half-dead feet, East Bengal walks to Calcutta.
The tragedy of East Bengal in 1971, leading to the formation of Bangladesh – I was a 11-year old in Calcutta then. In the summer of 1971, my aunt Indu, a physician in London, had come as a volunteer doctor to work in the refugee camps near Calcutta. Such devastation nearby and such a sea of humanity converging in and around Calcutta. I will never forget, and that tragedy binds together the hearts of people of Bengal across the two sides of the border.
Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.
They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward. Maybe they have to be crazy. How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that's never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels? We make tools for these kinds of people. While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world... are the ones who do.
