Truly Saptarshi

Yes we got this Independence due to the economic crisis that struck the British Empire after World War 2 but that does not diminish the kind of torture that our countrymen and freedom fighters have gone through. The sacrifice and resistance are spoken about a lot but let us then think what are we doing out of the freedom that took so much to achieve? If we did snatch our country from the grip of British, did we do so to make it a better and progressive place to live in or take it on reverse gear altogether? We fight for things as meagre as religion and caste, cows and pigs, temples and mosques. How unfortunate is that! Society to a great extent builds a human’s persona and that needs to be built up with the true sanity of freedom and away from all kind of prejudices. People have to understand that there is no replacement for education and that an educated mind is free and can change the world. By education, society should stop thinking about degree and marks because degree doesn...

Yes I will curse, I will roil, I will sit back and go down the lane of nostalgia. I will keep doing so because I cannot forget her, I cannot stop missing her. Nothing can replace her. Every first time has been with her. Every joy, every sorrow, every love, every fight has been with her by my side. From books to food, smoke to peg everything has her name written on it when it was the first time. And now when i am far away from her, how can I just ‘adjust’ without getting vexed? And trust me food although being a problem, that we do not get good fishes or sweets or posto or shukto it is not always the biggest issue because there are more to it. How will i get away from the place that imbibed in me the love for art, literature, music, introduced me to poetry, to ‘good’ cinema and plays, to dance, to everything good or bad that I have today. Everyone else may find these to be not so important in life but what if all these have shaped you up in life? How do you get away and adjust? Ho...

গন্ডি দিয়েই রুখবে সমাজ যতই তুমি উড়তে চাও। গন্ডি দিয়েই ফন্দি গেড়ে, রাখবে তোমায় বদ্ধ করে। সবার থেকে আলাদা হবে? ভেবোনা তুমি যেন, এই ভেড়ার পালের সাথেই কাঁধ মিলিয়ে চলো। তবে কি সব অন্ধকার? একদমই তা নয়। কণ্ঠে যদি ফুলকি ওঠে, মনে ওঠে ঝড় তুমিই পারবে ভাঙতে শৃঙ্খল আর রুখতে সব বর্বর। গন্ডি তোমার সমাজ নয়, তুমি করবে ঠিক। তাতে যদি সমাজ রোখে, ভয় পেওনা, দাঁড়াও আবার। ঠিক - ভুলের ফারাক বোঝে, এমন মানুষ খুবই কম, গন্ডি কাটার খেলা খেলে, ওটাই ওদের মুষ্টিদম। মরণ তো হবার হবে, গন্ডি দিয়ে নাই বা হল। বাজে কথায় কান না দিয়ে, খারাপ ভালো বুঝতে শেখো। সঠিকটা কে বেছে নিয়ে, নিজের গন্ডি নিজেই আঁকো।

Yes! We do exist and we are as or even more Bengali than people of Kolkata. At the very beginning of this post, let me make one thing very clear, Kolkata is a city and not a state. The state is West Bengal or preferably Bengal. There are many other cities in Bengal and some of them are very far from Kolkata. All Bengalis do not stay in Kolkata and do not need to either. I may sound very stupid but trust me, how some people seems to believe is that the state is called Kolkata. Recently when I had been to Bengaluru and people asked me where am I from and I used to say Durgapur and their reaction would be like, 'O! Its in Kolkata?'. Very similar would be if someone hears me speaking Bangla somewhere outside Bengal and they would be like, 'O! You are from Kolkata?' Come on folks, grow up! Every Marathi is not from Mumbai and every Kannadi is not from Bengaluru. There can be two sides to this issue, one is that simply people are too ignorant to understand basi...

I have always maintained that my nation needs men and women who support feminism but situations come such that it drastically changes the outlook towards things and from time to time I find that its hard to be a man in a men's world where women are both feminist and always eager to take all the not so feminist advantages in the name of feminism. Its just another incident that happened a few days back at a workplace where a few boys and girls had gone for training and it was their last day at the place, so everyone were to be marked by their respective mentors. And as the feedback came in, surprisingly (or not so surprisingly) a boy who had done his project seriously  was sitting all sad and on the other hand the girl who made a honeymoon out of her training period was all happy and rejoicing... why? Because she has scored full marks, and the boy scored lower than her, losing all faith in hard work. But, this is injustice... isn't it? Of course not! How dare the boy a...

Amidst all our near and dear ones, we often find people ‘loving’ a person because they find him/her to be docile, one who can be ‘tamed’ easily and usually doesn’t shout out to proclaim his/her existence. The person usually does not force his/her opinion on others and agrees to people’s opinion easily. These people are very ‘sweet’; you may even get diabetes I tell you. However, one fine day that person feels very insecure or gathers little confidence to face the world and thinks that why not try to put forward his/her opinions. The person tries to live life on own terms, thinking and doing things that will make him/her happy and contended. The person feels very confident that since people love him/her so much, opinions will be accepted by the ‘dear ones’ easily but suddenly something happens that he/she never expected. People suddenly start saying that they do not connect with the person anymore. Whenever they put up their views either they try to shun the person or just t...

We are the only creatures who segregate each  other on basis of gender, language, religion, region, skin color, sexuality and everything else and still proclaiming to be together in a world of similar looking creatures.  Whenever we think like this should have been like that or this person will react like this to that situation, it has most of the time been something very different. Being judgmental about human beings has always ended up being erratic. Generalizing is human nature but somehow we all feel we are out of the box. Then what does the box comprise of? The summer makes us sad, the rains make us gloomy and the winter makes us lazy. What else are we left with to feel good? We crave for love and then feel claustrophobic if someone starts being too loving and possessive, We crave for food and end up with stomach upset when given too much. We crave for laugh and end up choking ourselves with too much of it. We love to talk and end up ignoring talkat...

This man claimed to be an atheist but then when the Indian army raided the Golden Temple, he had burst out and returned his Padma Bhushan in protest of the incident. Had been a very secular thinking person but had studied and written about Sikhism in depth and had criticized all religious believes majorly often barring Sikhism for some unknown reason or a very simple reason which goes without saying that he was a Sikh at heart. But above everything else he was a man of substance, a man whose writings were delight indeed and literary pleasure. Khushwant Singh and Amitav Ghosh were the two men holding whose hands i came to the world of adult literature. When I first read 'Paradise and other stories', my sexual zeal got a new boost or rather found a way of fulfillment through reading truly but at the same time it touched me and made me take interest in his works. I was further moved by 'Train to Pakistan' which is a must in almost everybody's bookshelves and has...

স্মৃতি পটে  যত  আলো  আঁধারের  সমাবেশ  তা  নিয়েই  জীবনের  পথ  চলতে  লাগে  বেশ।  জীবনের  এই  সমুদ্র  তটে - ঝিনুকের  মত  কত  স্মৃতি  ছড়িয়ে  থাকে।  কোনটাকে  কাল  সমুদ্র  ধুয়ে নিয়ে চলে গেলেও, আবার কেমন যেন ফিরে ফিরে আসে।  কোনো  এক নির্জন বিকেলে, জানালার পাশে একলা বসে- ছুটিয়ে নিয়ে যাই আমার ভাবনার কালো ঘোড়াকে, কত স্মৃতির  দেশ ঘুরে আসি এক ছুট্টে।  এত স্মৃতির  ভিড়ে যেন হারাতেই চায় মন, চায় ওই স্মৃতি  টুকুই  আঁকড়ে  বেঁচে  থাকতে।  তাই  স্মৃতি  টুকুই  থাক। 

The title may seem funny or whatever but it is really relevant in today's society. It is a new year again and that means its resolution time. I know there are hell lot of resolutions we make and this year too we have long lists but we can all add up this small thing... 'We will be humans'. The society is turning into a monster day by day. And what makes a society are the people of the society i.e we. From this day we can try to do some good on our part so that the evil does not get space to survive. If we do not stop this... we monsters will end up killing ourselves. Everything will be shattered.  We need to spread love and peace and protest against wrongs. Its high time that we (men and women) start respecting women truly for what they are. Especially women should start respecting one another because unless they understand and stand for one another, no one can help them. All men should start understanding that real men do not need to prove their manline...

The drug for life the exercise for minds, a relief of pains and medicine of illness. For some a luxury Rest take it for granted. The eyes come closing The book falls off your hands The phone keeps ringing And the world comes to a standstill. When everything is clear, and the eyes are dreaming No fear no care Whatever is coming! The whole day’s tiring errands halt And the world goes off to sleep Its always something on other side with new highs and deeps. Some rise, others wake up... With the minds swept clean and the heart pumped up Its again the new day's sheen And we will not stop.

2013, as it is has been a special year because the world was said to be coming to an end in 2012. So, actually we started this year with a new energy, fresh minds and more conviction. Although everything did not go very well. Here is a review of the year through my eyes.  The worst man-made mishaps that shook us:  Hyderabad bomb blast Naxal attack in Darbha Valley Muzaffarpur Riots The rapes taking place everyday in some part of the country or other I started with the rapes, riots and bomb blasts because no other topics are more important that the fact to see and show how inhuman we are becoming day by day. Then, starting with politics which is and will always be the hottest topic: Politicians who made maximum news this year: Arvind Kejriwal, Narendra Modi, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav Newsmaking political incidents:   A huge statue of Sardar Patel being built and named as The statue ...

I was having such an eerie feeling ever since i read the news yesterday. The Supreme Court actually made fun of the largest 'democracy' of the world. What is democracy when you are actually taking away rights from some harmless people? Yesterday the Supreme Court of India re-criminalised Homosexuality. I was feeling so bad to even write this post, to post about the fact that my country is actually getting regressive with time. When the Delhi High Court legalised relationship between consenting adults of same gender it was a celebration time across the nation. People from the LGBT community atlast got what they deserved and every sensible person was happy. Among so much of repressiveness and regressiveness prevailng in the society, it was like a silver lining. The Land of Kamasutra - India celebrates sexuality in all forms and the Supreme Court decides upon the fact that homosexual relationship or intercourse is 'unnatural'! Mor...

I am quite fed-up with the way people speak nowadays. And disgusted with the attitude some people carry with them against people who do not know English properly. Firstly, i would be very happy if someone makes me understand what has English to do, or rather any language has to do with the fact that a person is well-read or literate? A person may have studied a lot in Bangla or Hindi or Tamil or Urdu... that does not make him/her literate? On the contrary it maybe often seen that a person speaks English very smoothly but in reality he is an empty vessel an its only the fact that empty vessels sound much is proved. Because of this wrong attitude, the languages have got distorted, people learn English in a hurry because its being seen as a status symbol and do not get time or try enough to learn his.her mother language or local language. And while writing or speaking they just rape the languages badly and its so painful for the eyes and ears. Its true that English is a language wi...

It was a loving 'Bhai' by which my grandfather used to call me and i answered back with the same. My dearest bhai passed away on the second of last month and its been more than a month now. Life goes on and it is no exception for me either. But somewhere there is a void, for the first time i lost someone so near and dear to me. These are compulsory pains of life. But, the memories do not understand and they seem to come back again and again only to make me feel more void. So, i thought of writing a few lines here in my blog. The fondest memories which i have of Bhai are those childhood days when i used to go out with my bhai almost everyday. And sometimes my didu (grandmother) used to accompany us. And then i had got the habit of walking, which i have lost a lot now. And i had a habit of buying loads of pens which was fulfilled most of the time by my bhai. Buying pens and especially the costly ones was like a hide and seek game with my parents because they never appreciated it...

Gurur Brahma Gurur Vishnu Gurudevo Maheshwaro It is that day of the year when we celebrate 'Teachers'. The most respected of all professions, i have also from my childhood always thought of becoming a teacher some day. Because in all other professions, the respect is till you are in the post. And once you lose the post, people mostly tend to ignore you. But this never happens with 'good' teachers. Yes, i used the word 'good' before teachers. It sounds really bad but had to use it seeing today's scenario. It is so sad. Teachers are the one who molds the pupils to become better citizens. When the boy/girl first steps into school, he or she knows nothing and is so easily modifiable, he/she takes in everything that comes on the way. This is where a teacher makes entry and teaches what is good and what is bad. However if the lackage starts from this stage, it is very dangerous. It is dangerous for the future of this society, this country. Previously ...

What happened at Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh is very painful and miserable . Maybe somewhere we are to be blamed down the years but i am writing this post not to discuss those issues of nature . But , this is about us , how we people are taking advantage of the whole situation at times. According to the newspapers and television channels , what is going on besides the rescue camps is just inhumanity. Shopkeepers are selling a packet of chips worth Rs. 10 for as much as Rs. 100 , a 'mere' roti costs anything from Rs. 100 to 150 . Yes its time to get shocked , its time to realise that we may shout out slogans but when it comes to be that 'good person' , that 'human being' we always think of , we are not ready to be so. These situations come as tests and each time we fail. If we take advantage of someone's ill fate , trauma , sorrow and ill heath then what examples are we setting ? Where is our humanity ? Then we come to people who have set out ...

Firstly i would like to Thank the whole team of 'Bombay Talkies' for making this film-going experience a treat for cinema lovers. All the four directors came up with really good stories and i loved every bit of the film. When the film starts with 'main chhakka nahi hoon , homosexual hoon' ..... it makes you sit up and take notice because you know something great is on its way. This is how Karan Johar's story starts and it explores the relationship turmoils of Rani and Randeep's relationship alongside the arrival of Saqeeb who is gay in a urban backdrop. Its wonderfully explored and touches you deep inside the heart. Rani Mukerji stands out in the whole film with her award winning performance of the role of a wife who works in a Cinema newspaper and even discusses sex with her co-worker Saqib Salim when he wants to know about it. The way she expresses that 'and we did it last night' or after she comes to know the truth the way she expresses her grudg...

How can a country be so shameless and mean ? Its something to be really thought of ... a country like Pakistan does not need a court because its laws are of no use , they do whatever they want with no basis. They kept Sarabjit in prison for 22 years when we know that a life sentence cannot be more than 14 years. Moreover Sarabjit Singh had strayed off to Pakistan because he was drunk and then he was caught and made into a spy and terrorist. They made him 'Manjit Singh' for their ease because they knew well that they would not be able to justify him being a terrorist. When time and again the court postponed his death sentence due to lack of evidence and like this 22 long years past , they had nothing else to do to show how big-mouthed pigs they are , they murdered him out of anger that we hanged two of their terrorists (read 'sons') , when they were proved to be terrorists , atleast in the case of Kasab. Afzal Guru case had many complexities i agree but atleast ...