Kolkata: City of Joy

Truly!! It is the city of joy. We are happier than ever! Why? Finally we have been able to oust Taslima Nasrin from our sacred shores. The action have given Mr Narendra Modi the chance to utter that he is ready to give her shelter. We have been able to bring out the gentle and helping side of Mr Modi's character. Thanks to our politicians and their goons we have been able to see a riot like situation after so many years. After all if Gujarat is there how can West Bengal be far behind? It was only unfortunate, we have always been betrayed by luck, that there was no mortality! Otherwise we would have been the happiest of people in the world. But take heart! All is not lost before these incidents we have nailed down Rizwanur and have also killed 'a few' in Nandigram. So there is still hope. We can make our state a red one. As a well known king once said "Sab lal ho jayega!" (Everything will turn red).



It seems our politicians have planned all these just to surprise us after Diwali. This is their post Diwali offering. Thank you sirs/madams, we will remain grateful to you forever. Sarthok janmo amar jonmechi ei deshe/ Sarthk janam ma go tomay bhalobeshe. (My life has been a success thanks to my birth in this country and also because I have loved my country)

The importance of being spontaneous

I wanted to write a few words but now when I am in front of this computer I have lost the energy to write about anything. Lethargy has taken possession of my whole body. My eyes have lost the focus. It just stares. My hands have gone stiff; it feels more comfortable on the mouse while playing the card games. Are the card games the one to blame? Have they taken away my previous energy to write? I don’t know. I do like to write on my computer. I have missed this machine in Delhi. In Delhi after my office hours I had no access to any computers unless of course I visit a cyber café. But a cyber café is meant for sending or checking e-mails, not for composing purposeless blabbering.
A few days back while I was watching “Finding Forrester” I came to hear this dialogue “The first draft is always written from heart then you edit it through your head.” I am trying to do just that. Actually the beauty of the words and the depth of its meaning haunted me. It was almost what I believe about writing. My writings have always been emotional pieces written directly under the command of my heart. The habit remained even when I wrote answer scripts. There were times when an answer gave me so much pleasure that I wanted to write more about it. But the rules of examination never permitted me to do that. As my history teacher used to say, examination is a science. There are certain ways to write answers. One learns those techniques to score marks. That’s another reason why I never liked examinations.
I have always seen myself as a romantic. Despite my failures in love I have remained so. I have found small things priceless. Small experiences, places, memories have given me more pleasure than bigger ones.
I have always found it quite difficult…. It is difficult to write without thinking. If you follow your heart you will see that you have written more than your thought would have permitted. The brain tells you about the acceptance of a particular word or expression while the heart stresses on emotions. Now it is up to you if you would sacrifice the social norms and follow your heart to write whatever you wanted to express.
In fact very few of us have succeeded in ignoring the preset social norms and notions of acceptability. The society, have always loved and adored stereotypes, to create machines out of normal mortals. In schools, colleges and universities, even in the offices, in short in every sphere of our daily life, we are always taught to think in a particular way, talk and behave in a predetermined predictable way. This rather robs us of our individuality and rather makes us nothing more than mere machines. We become slaves of a system. The so-called fashion trends, promoted as revolutionary, cease to remain so because after a certain period themselves become a ritual and routine affair. Be it the goatee of Amir Khan or the metro sexual look of Saif Ali Khan. There was a time when every chap wanted to talk and walk like Dev Anand or Rajesh Khanna or Amitabh Bachhan. I remember the time I wanted to dress up in full pants because on screen Amitabh never wore short pants.
Today when I look back at my tenure in the Intrasoft I find how they wanted me to adapt to their system. I think my failure in doing so was in itself a boon for me. At least I am still not that much a machine. May be I am more human than others. May be my so-called failures, my imperfections, taking me closer to my mortal self.
Even this computer sometimes points out the parts, which it thinks are incorrect. Can’t blame it. It is programmed mainly for office works where time is short and the end result needs to be quick and perfect. So it helps us to become performing machines. But we are not machines. That’s why, I think, we find the temper tantrums, depressions, and stress becoming a part and parcel of our daily life. These moments remind us about our true identities. We are essentially human beings. It is natural to feel moody and tired and bogged down and chained. We have always loved to experiment, to do new things, different things, varied and so called impossible things. I remember this story about a boy who found rhythmical undertones in mathematics. And soon he started liking mathematics, a subject he previously detested. I never found that music in the figures and I still don’t, and that proves my difference from others.
Though I wish people to remain spontaneous and want them to do things in different ways yet sometimes a particular way a discipline is necessary to make a society perform and give good results. We should all work as a unit to make our society progress. And to make different people work as a unit we definitely need we need discipline, we need obedience towards a particular method or style. But that does not mean we will forget our true selves. At the end of the day we should all remember that we are different. And we should appreciate this difference; we should celebrate it. After all what is a democracy but a unit, which welcomes people of different origin, belief and religion.

New Year resolutions

Sorry no resolutions for me. I have never consciously tried to set goals for myself in the new year. May be I just don't want to rush to achieve something and increase the tension in life. Am I laid back? May be. But I don't think that's the only reason behind my not to make new year resolutions. Though I have seen many people making new year resolutions, but never found any necessity to follow them. I am neither for or against new year resolutions . I think I am just immune to this topic.

Merry X-mas

Merry X-mas and a Happy New Year. I know there are people who have already noted down their New Year resolutions. I have not done that. Actually I have never done that. I have never tried to make any resolutions. Why? I don't know. I never felt the need to do so. May be I don't want to limit myself with some fixed targets. That way may be my new years will look more positive because I will not expect anything from it. Well I do wish some special things to happen to me every year. Some new friends, new jobs, new places to visit to. But I don't want to write them down. Rather like an audience I am witnessing whatever life unfolds in front of me, for me.

Why "Don't mind , please"?

Yeah why such a title? Am I afraid of other people's comments? The answer is yes and no. I am not afraid to speak out my mind but am afraid of intolerance. And these days I think our society is becoming more and more intolerant as far as individual opinion is concerned. Take for an example what happened to South Indian actress Khushboo after she commented on pre-marital sex. What she said was to take precaution while having sex before marriage. We all know sex is an inseparable part of life, regardless of species. By being safe we can prevent unwanted pregnancies and STDs. But the majority thought she was corrupting the younger generation morally! So, what did the majority do? They humiliated and insulted Khushboo.
More recently when Shabana Azmi opined against Muslim women wearing veil one Muslim clergy asked her to shut up. The reason of his disgust was Ms Azmi's profession. According to him an actress is not qualified enough to speak on such matters. Now, it seems the majority and a few at the helm of power, religious or political, are writing down the guidelines of who should talk on what and how much. The concept of majority or mass here stresses on the number of the people. The larger the number the powerful the opinion becomes. A gathering of 10,0000 people is definitely stronger than that of 50. And if the former think Khushboo is guilty then that's what she is. It does not matter if her comment has some points to ponder.
Then ones status also gives him power. By status I does not mean only political status. When the West Bengal Government banned Taslima Nasrin's "Dwikhandita" very few litterateurs went against the decision and staged no public protest. Rather most of them thought the banned was justified. And most of these litterateurs are well known in there respective genres.
In any democratic country banning is the worst thing that can happen to its people. It destroys the base of democratic system. So, that is why I am afraid. I am afraid that someday somebody will force me to stop writing because they don't want me question the established norms or they just don't like my thoughts. That's why I have chosen such a headline. Please, don't force me shut my mouth instead point out my mistakes, the fallacies in my reasoning.

I love to write!

Yeah that's right, but that does not mean that you will like my writings. Anyway that's ur choice just like creating a blog and posting in it was mine. However, if you like to visit here u r welcome any time. I think time is running out and the way this cyber cafe is priced I don't think I can afford a sec more than an hour. So, see you later.