Happy festive seasons..

Eid Mubarak... Shubh Navratri.. Shubho Durgapuja...May all the blessings of God shower down on all human kind.

Mahalaya

Mahalaya

Mahalaya: well, the very word opens a barrage of sweet memories in mind. Those days back in childhood when we used to wake up to the ring of shrill alarm clocks and gather around the primitive transistor after quickly brush our teeth.. the morning sun was nowhere in the scene. The pure sky was studded with night diamonds sparkling in early winter.

Then the magical voice of birendra krishna bhadra boomed out of the transistor.. and a magical journey started for a bunch of children eagerly waiting for durgapuja. The greatest festival of bengalis. Which was to start from the sixth day of mahalaya.

Those who don’t know any thing about durgapuja, well, in ancient times a demon named mahishasura procured two boons from Brahma, one said he could change his forms and every form was immortal. Second one said that neither a man, a god or a demon can kill him. After procuring these two boons he went on rampage. So the Gods gave their powers and formed mother goddess durga.. and armed her up with their weapons. She killed mahishasura when he was changing his form from mahisha (buffalo) to asur (demon) on vijayadashami. The war started today, on mahalaya. This is why mahalaya is so much cherished by bengalis, its called the beginning of devipaksha (15 days of the goddess). On this day bengalis offer prayers for their parted ancestors. The banks of rivers are clustered with men offering their prayers to their ancestors..this is called tarpan.

To me mahalaya means magic of birendrakrishna bhadra, that person was one of the most genuine devotee of mother goddess, one listening to his program will convince any one that his soul, his entire being is behind those recitations. What a truly blessed soul.

I was addicted to his program, had to stop it after joining the first job.. then slowly I became lazy. But the ecstassy is still there.. I still remember listening to his program while the morning sky slowly turned to red.. promising the sun rise. Or that specific night when I stayed up all night because the only alarm clock was dead and I did not wanted to miss his recitation.

better beware

I have once worked for an organisation which was run by a selfmade man, he has built quite a nice business starting from scratch. So he had every reason to be quite protective toward his business.

He is a issueless guy with plenty of money and I thought it was his careless attitude for money which made him buy two computers for one computer operator.. one stand-alone only for internet and the other connected with the LAN. There was separate printer and necessary things for both the machines because every day huge amount of official emails used to arrive there.

Then slowly I became net savvy and I realized that he was intelligent. There are too many ways of hacking in your computer when you are online. I have personally seen some proofs.. hints that were too much blunt to be ignored, as I don’t believe in telepathic communication.

Before that I used to think that all the stealing is done after you post something in blog, then I realized that posting is no longer required, being in the computer is enough.. I have a good antivirus installed but geeks say even that is not enough if someone is determined to steal.

The bitter fact is we, the normal users can never fight hackers, when they can hack into NASA etc then what are we? A big nothing. So being careful is the best way.

intolerance

Well, during growing years no one is spared from this vice, the inability to accept a view which clashes with our own. Only the degree of inablity vary. Some argue, some start fist fight, some cower, some fume and some keep silent but stick to their own view thinking the other one is wrong.

Then we grow up and some of us learn that there can be hundreds of results of an argument if we put it under a microscope.. we both might have been wrong, we both might have been right, we both have been partially right etc etc. more than that we learn to respect the rights of others, the truth that everyone has right to hold his/her own opinion and stick to it if it is not harming someone.. but some of us refuse to grow up, they still keep attacking anyone/everyone who holds a view other than his own.

I sometimes read them and think how vicious this mindset is, it doesnot minds to do any thing/every thing to a person who just doesnot shares his views.. Ahem!!! Now that’s a little too much for me atleast. To ridicule or hurt a person just because he doesnot thinks my way.. well!!! Hope I never do that!

God and us

Throughout my life I have always believed one thing, God is/was and will be my best friend and greatest benefactor. I never had second thoughts about that.

My relation with God is so peaceful that I often wonder that why do some people have complain against god? after analizing their complaints the thing which I have gathered is:

When we worship God with desire in our mind, we forget one thing, that is.. God only controls our souls. Whatever change she wants to make she can make only through souls which have surrendered to her. She cant make us win lottery or make us mistress of the world. All she can do is make us not care about money or luxury. She can give us the wisdom to enjoy and relish the things which are on our plate. Destroy greed, and that, my friend,to me is the biggest bliss.

I strongly believe that the deeper the bonding between a person and God is, the happier that person will be. All he will have to do is surrender every thing to God.

My relation with eternal mother has been quite intimate, just like biological mother and child. Through out my life, she has been there to warn me from dangers.. invisibly of course. Whenever I used to take some step heading to blunder, I used to have premonitions, as if she was warning me to not do it. Well they were too subtle, so some times I used to ignore it and suffer, but with age I learnt to listen to that inner voice.

When goings used to get really tough, I used to observe with gratitude that she always offered a way out, it might have been a temporary one, but that’s what was needed most at that time.

Not only that,she has played the ideal guardian in my life. I have seen that often I have yearned for some thing, even begged God for that but to no avail.. disappointed, sulked for a while. But later things showed that it was best for me to not get that thing.

rabindrasangeet..songs by tagore

Music in my eyes is the most beautiful creation of human souls. It reveals every emotion of human being..love, anger, hatred, adoration, affection… no human feeling or passion is untouched by this.

Rabindranath tagore is most probably the expert of exploring human emotions through songs. I have not heard another single person with such a splendour of talent.

I have listened to rabindrasangit for years, his music can mould your thoughts to purity. Whatever he touches becomes pure.. love, nature and devotion.

With his magical grip on pen he wrote song after song covering every emotion of human beart. The miraculous part was his choice of magical tunes for his songs. They fitted in perfectly. They enhanced the beauty of his already fabulous poems to the level of heavenly.

He was born amongst and surrounded with people of extraordinary talent. Who helped him in creating tunes for his songs but he always was a part of it, so it was his taste which reflects in all of them.

Whenever I listen to rabindrasangit this is the thing which overwhelms me, how can an artist be so perfect. Not only that, the singers whom he handpicked and trained to sing his songs are the most beautiful singers I have ever heard.. kanika banerjee, shantideb ghosh.. as if he left his soul in them.

Tagore left a magical legacy for us, who can understand his thoughts and lose ourselves in his music.

Saratchandra : a brave writer

Well, I guess every one has heard his name, atleast most of the people have courtsey multiple super hit movies made on his novels.

I think all his stories has been shot in bengali and everyone of them has made good impact on viewers. I appreciate him more as a writer. A brave, reformist writers. I have been reading his works since I was five or six years old.. no don’t smirk, he has written for every age group. I have read, re-read his works and the more I have read them the more I have become mesmerized by his mental strength, reformist mentality and power of creating magic by pen.

In one hand he portrays the pain of women.. widows, children of sex workers, sex workers.. on the other hand he portrays the steel which some women have in them, through all adversity. Their affectionate nature which fills up their entire being even when they are in dire straits. Different complexity of human nature, specially the nature of women.. their vices and their glories. Their rise and fall. I wonder if any other writer of indian origin has captured the mindset of women this perfectly.

I particularly love his character shodashi bhairavi.. a woman who was the priest of a village temple, the eyes of the lusty landlord fell on her and the surrounding village politics.. that woman inspires too much of my awe.. well my head simply bows to that woman of extraordinary mental strength and courage. There are some equally touching softer characters too, or the rebels like kamal, rajlakshmi, annada.. so many of them. somehow he had a strange capacity of giving his female characters a complete, normal yet above normal life.

bankimchandra: emperor of bengali literature

Not a very popular writer, if we count by the number of people who read his works and will admit anonymously that they love his work.

I have picked up some odd writers because of my mother, who was an avid reader and had a uncommon taste. Bankimchandra is one of them. She just loved his works and so do I.

He was more like shakespeare, picking up the most exquisite words and painting a picture out of them. He was truly the emperor of classic bengali language.

I often feel awe struck, how could he use such exquisite word yet create fantastic novels and immemorable characters. Characters so real, like kundanandini or kapalkundala. Bhramar, Indira or Suryamukhi. Kapalkundala is my favourite character in fiction world.

The immense strength of character which this lady had I have never seen another lady with such strength of character. She embodied truth and honesty. Her fearless honesty is awe inspiring for any woman.

Just like I will never forget anandamath, durgeshnandini or bishabriksha… such fantastic usage of language yet such immemorable characters.