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For whom the bell tolls?

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This was but expected. This is perhaps, provided the report is authentic, the first ever toll of the politically motivated exercise about to be launched in a few days' time. As I hear, from the 4th of November onwards.... And I'll not be surprised if many more such people succumb to their anxieties as a result of this. This can also assume very sinister proportions unless otherwise checked in a sane manner. In a country like ours where so many people, particularly those living on the margins, do not have access to proper documents, this entire thing called the Special Intensive Revision might prove to be a Damocles' sword for the powers that be.  But then the dispensation at the centre is confident. With the tens of thousands of their IT cell trolls and the subservient godi media across the country, they know they can help themselves tide over any such imminent crises like they did during those Covid times as well when no deaths nor anything could deal the desired blow to t...
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Don't interfere with our food habits

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You may call me a provincial chauvinist or whatever; but these scoundrels, and the party at whose behest they dare do this need to be dealt with properly. I'm not here to promote parochial identity-politics (which I'm severely opposed to as a matter of principle); but then, I'm afraid that if such aggressive overtures are allowed to go on like this for long, there will soon come a time when us Bengalis would have to live in perpetual fear of them, haunted by a sense of total insecurity in our own homeland. Such incidents appear to be gradually and steadily on the rise; and can no longer be ignored or wished away as just occasional instances of aberration. We must rise to the occasion ...
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Ravens scavenging for carrion flesh..

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Circa 2009/10. Yes, these intelligent scoundrels exercised their democratic rights that day by aiding and abetting the terror machine that left hundreds of socially marginalized Left activists gruesomely mutilated and killed, many of whose corpses were left to rot for days on end without being attended to for a dignified farewell.  Yes, these self-important members of the so-called civil society were certainly decisive in their posturing at that time, and later, effusive in celebrating and presiding over the decimation or "demise" of the Left in Bengal. In collusion with the deep state and vested interests of all sorts and hues - ranging from the saffron or ochre to the deep "revolutionary" scarlet red! 😀  And now, when one of these clever ravens - known for his freewheeling 'conscience-keeping' - is again opening up to state who is "confused" - u know he is again out to scavenge for carrion flesh. Yes, my use of the phrase is deliberate. Corpses...
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Bapu, the colossus...

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Very few people outside of my immediate family know that I was nicknamed 'Bapu' after the Father of the Nation, for which I constantly bore a grudge against my father throughout my entire youth and even afterwards until it no longer mattered. My father was a man of the Left, very much a politically oriented man; though, as I realise now, abject poverty and familial obligations had compelled him to withdraw himself from activism. But I'd rather not dwell on that part now. Early youth saw me gradually being drawn into political activism in student and youth fronts where, for no particular reason, I found myself hating the colossus for being 'a Congressi', for not having condemned the hanging of Bhagat Singh "the way he should have." My father never bothered to explain to me why he adored the "half-naked fakir" so much, nor was it cool in those days for the Bengali youngsters to be adoring anybody but Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose for the l...
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Amitav Ghosh

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Amitav Ghosh. My most favourite author in Indian English literature. The sweep of his knowledge, the kind of rigorous and elaborate research he puts in before weaving a story are simply breathtaking. When you read him, you know what pure literature is all about. I think he has few parallels in the contemporary Indo-Anglian genre.  He has been named the 2025 recipient of the Pak Kyongni Prize, often referred to as Korea’s Nobel Prize in Literature. The award is presented to the "truest writer of our time who has upheld the essential values of literature and made a profound impact on world literary history."  Congratulations, sir! ❤️
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“বাম হাত তোমাকে দিলাম” - হেলাল হাফিজ

এই নাও বাম হাত তোমাকে দিলাম। একটু আদর করে রেখো, চৈত্রে বোশেখে খরা আর ঝড়ের রাত্রিতে মমতায় সেবা ওশুশ্রূষা দিয়ে বুকে রেখো, ঢেকে রেখো, দুর্দিনে যত্ন নিও সুখী হবে তোমার সন্তান। এই নাও বাম হাত তোমাকে দিলাম। ও বড়ো কষ্টের হাত, দেখো দেখো অনাদরে কী রকম শীর্ণ হয়েছে, ভুল আদরের ক্ষত সারা গায়ে লেপ্টে রয়েছে, পোড়া কপালের হাত মাটির মমতা চেয়ে সম্পদের সুষম বন্টন চেয়ে মানুষের ত্রাণ চেয়ে জন্মাবধি কপাল পুড়েছে, ওকে আর আহত করো না, কষ্ট দিও না ওর সুখে সুখী হবে তোমার সন্তান। কিছুই পারিনি দিতে, এই নাও বাম হাত তোমাকে দিলাম।
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Devi - The Goddess - [1960] Satyajit Ray

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A film on religion and superstition by one of the greatest rationalists and humanist directors the world has ever seen. -  Gautam Benegal "It is a haunting melody of cultural conflicts,irrational enthusiasm, obsession.belief in God by asceticism (instead of rational thought )"-  Nida Ghatte
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