SOWMEN MITTER | সৌমেন মিটার

And the riot-mongers know how to go back on their promises made some six months ago, in the run-up to the polls. Actually they knew it all along. From containing price rise to bringing back black money stashed away in foreign banks and sundry other issues on which they were so very critical of their predecessors!!! Now just keep fanning the beast within..! Leave the rest to Time, and some manipulation as well. The 'sabre-matie', or for that matter any other X-press will do to  make it to the destination.  Only that our techie-literati, the glitterati included, and the so-called libertarians (who evidently take pride in their un-addled [or, sun-addled?] superiority of their brains) would never know this was what their tomfoolery led to. And now, as a corollary, the diktat-mongers too have a heyday, with their beards flowing and wagging all the way. 

Rally, and then a counter rally of the fundamentalists, or rather the bigots from both the minority and majority blocs, and that too so quick in succession, are pointers to how things are going to shape up in the days to come vis-a-vis Bengal's political scenario. What havoc can parochialism wreak - we have, time and again, been witness to in the developments that have so often claimed so many lives, rocked the very foundation of humanity, held our values to ransom... And then u see, if of course u want to, how it was so different here not so long ago, in those 'bygone' days!

Peter Thomson Well, you learn something every day... IRISH: THE FORGOTTEN WHITE SLAVES They came as slaves: human cargo transported on British ships bound for the Americas. They were shipped by the hundreds of thousands and included men, women, and even the youngest of children. Whenever they rebelled or even disobeyed an order, they were punished in the harshest ways. Slave owners would hang their human property by their hands and set their hands or feet on fire as one form of punishment. Some were burned alive and had their heads placed on pikes in the marketplace as a warning to other captives. We don’t really need to go through all of the gory details, do we? We know all too well the atrocities of the African slave trade. But are we talking about African slavery? King James VI and Charles I also led a continued effort to enslave the Irish. Britain’s Oliver Cromwell furthered this practice of dehumanizing one’s next door neighbour. The Irish slave trade...

Sowmen Mitter Jack, you know Things change with the times As changeth you along the lines Preordained? Me, cynic and atheist, Non-believer; - have still some proxy wars to fight. The credo now seems to falter As never before. Never before did you know This much of gore. Never before did you sow Noxious weeds any more. Never before did you wail this much, Never before did she scream as such. Never before did the child feel so lorn. Still I've one more battle to fight Long drawn, for those that wield their might Must be shown the door ... Promise me Jack, you'll be there As you had been, tears afire, Holding out, holding off the baton.. Paul too would be there, and so would Rip Viva la Cinderella, my Gaza Strip!

Sowmen Mitter [To AB, my 'anonymous bystander' who'd hardly have an inkling... ] And no, - It's not the voyeur only That leers at you. Someone else - Someone you've known this long - The one that you once let you cuddle, Wary - some other might look at it Through some other prism; Uneasy, for it might come across as Some sort of incest. Leery that you might give in too much, Had urged you to linger on? And you, lain face down And the nether curled up as if To invite, incite, ignite the primeval loins, Kept doodling away and on. Or may be that was just my reading! Cos you flowers are always innocent! And we men -creepy aphids!! But the cleft, veiled under, hugging the mounds Lay there, throbbing, anticipating a rush As even the Niagra would bemoan. And it lies here still in my cells, Shorn of the threads, Oomph oozing out of dense desire, That heady, musky odour, And you sighing away ..

The news of an Amazonian Indian tribe trying to make contact with the outside world, beyond the confines of the thick of the forest they have been dwelling in for generations and somehow still surviving the onslaught of civilization has come to the fore and very obviously, jolted some of us out of the slumber, or rather smug indifference with which we have looked up to things thus far. It has set us thinking about how we are going to deal these indigenous people who have, so far, remained so detached and removed from the influence of the sophisticated world that it seems, it's not only unlikely for them to get along with it, but instead, will also be highly prone to falling prey to the germs their system has not developed any immunity to. But what led them to try to establish contact with the settled population living in the flanks of the forest? It is alleged that it is because of the drug traffickers that they were compelled to go and seek help from the people living somewhat c...

It was while browsing the net that I came across this piece about ' langur menace ' in the India Today web edition dated 31st July, 2014. And these langurs are such creatures whom you can hardly afford to ignore, let alone not getting scared; unless, of course, you are one of those professionals who have willy-nilly accepted it as their fate to ape the apes - whether to entertain their fellow homo sapiens or to con their lesser brethren away. And now the Parliament House, the Indian law-makers' haven, seems to be too perturbed to wish this menace, as posed by these primates, away. Such has been their insolence that even the corridors of power have failed to tame them. Irrespective of the presence of grandiose and overbearing details of power, they have remained unfazed. And lo! what a nuisance, they don't even recognize there could be something as what they call 'tacit understanding'. They would rather go about looking for food or fun, whatever it is they feel...