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Happy Daughter's Day | Sowmen Mitter

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My Dearest Sanjhbati , Though this wish comes a little later than Daughter's Day, I hope you will accept it with the same warmth and love with which it is written. Love does not keep a calendar; it simply finds its way to the people who matter most. Watching you grow from a little child into a thoughtful adolescent has been one of the greatest joys of my life. Every stage of your journey has taught me something about hope, courage, and the beauty of becoming your own person. You are no longer the tiny hand I once held all the time, but you will always be the little girl who holds a permanent place in my heart. As you step into the exciting and sometimes confusing years of adolescence, remember that you do not have to be perfect. You only have to be honest, kind, and true to yourself. There will be days when life feels difficult, when you may doubt your abilities or feel misunderstood. On those days, never forget that your family believes in you, and I believe in you more than words...
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Compensating a grieving mother? | Sowmen Mitter

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It's the new normal now. Once you have a son, or a daughter, or a brother killed, you get to become an MLA, courtesy of the ruling party or the party that's likely to grab power. The trend was set by Mamata Banerjee whose insatiable lust for power set such a kind of series of precedents as can only be matched by a prodigal son who is already known by the very vile company he keeps. Nobody will ever know which circumstances allegedly led to Rizwanur Rahman dying by suicide, even though that's precisely what his elder brother Rukbanur and the TMC, which fielded him as a candidate, capitalised on to evoke the sympathy of the electorate and thereby, secure the mandate.  Then, came Mrs Debnath, who is still, and continually, clamouring for justice for her slain daughter, but in vain. Politically naive as she is, she is yet to realise that she must keep mum. Maybe, a few 'snubs' would do that, and I'm afraid she's already got the necessary 'hint'.  And now...
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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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