Opinion(s)and general 'Gyan' on just about everything! Emotional,cheesy, random, cluttered but generally happy :)
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Delicacies from Purbo Bongo
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Address
Monday, August 24, 2009
Reflectively random
Warning: This post is about nothing in particular
It has been a year since I have been propounded the insensitive, cold, manipulative mannequin and I am at peace with it. It took time, but I fought the battle alone. Yeah! alone. My mom still ponders how come I was never my lachrymose self in this matter. But truth be told, I have become great friends with my mom and sister after the incident. May be what we try to describe as best friends. And it also calmed down a brash side of me. None, and I repeat, none is your friend in this world apart from your immediate family. I have learnt it the hard way round. There may be acquaintances and better acquaintances but nobody is your friend. And the F.R.I.E.N.D.S tune reminds me that it was just a great television show, one I would like to watch over and over again. Betrayals became a part of my vocabulary a few weeks later since this day a year ago, when I got to know the whole story and it was scripted by none other than a person I trusted my life with. Do I sound bitter or pessimistic? No dear, am just being very very practical. And I still trust people. I am a born optimist. That’s one trait in me even my worst critic would like to envy about. I am happy about the fact that it was a great birthday gift for someone. Someone I had a hunch about, I wish I was never there in the picture. The situation could have been a tad less murkier.
Optimism keeps me waiting for the elusive one. The ideal man you see. Yes! I still believe in Yash chopra romances. Facebook says it might just be a cancerian or a virgo and years ago the smuggled Linda Goodman in a boring maths class in school agrees with the prediction.
But the day holds more significance for me rather than being just a day of mud slinging match……when the Court ordered the end of ceremonial celebrations, I agreed. I remember I was merely a law aspirant then, dreaming of getting into one of the top three national law schools. And today after spending almost three and a half years in NALSAR I imagine myself being a loner. I feel detached. Single rooms kill you, literally. I was very excited about getting one. But I hate this cold, lifeless hostel.
Do I live life in pockets? May be. All of us do. Right now I seek solace in reading another suchitra bhattacharya creation or planning about submitting my SOP for the long awaited campus magazine. I don’t know if it’s an alternative to the blog that was initially planned but this definitely sounds better, sounds serious businessJ. But coming back to the celebrations, I think I still quite like the idea of a birthday! It’s just another way of celebrating the spirit of a city which has been called “Tillotoma” by some or “Mumursho Nogori” (the dead city) by some or the “city of joy” in the eyes of a visitor to the city. It is this balancing of divergent opinions that keeps the city going. Happy Birthday
And when social historians marked the turbulent 70’s as the beginning of decline of the city, we shouted discrimination during the times of partition (its still the hot potato). time and again
(Talking about anything old and rotten, our national politics can still feel the stench of a certain incident in history called Partition, Jaswant Singh and Jinnah..and Advani a few years back….does that a ring a bell!)
Monday, August 10, 2009
Afternoon bliss
This Monday afternoon got lazier than the weekend. Classes got over around 2…came back to my room, with mythili’s copy of the latest outlook in the bag. Truly speaking that was my sole reason behind skipping Dhanda’s talk. Well I had a date with Amartya Sen..and boy! I was bowled over..all over again. He keeps the argumentative tradition in us alive and kicking (sigh! I now so wish I had gone for the talk-AD! How much I respect+fear+idolize her). Coming back to Sen’s interview...I think he still remains the very much essential Bengali gentleman…now I know, my friends reading this post will shout at me for my fascination of everything bong, or linking up anything remotely close to my heart as being bong (yesh! I was the one who commented on the Bengali food festival day as – "being bong is a state of mind!" :P). but then again for me or for anybody who thinks like me he is the true essential bangali bhodrolok. Well you need proof- when right wing fundamentalists cried foul over his naming Ashoka and Akbar as the two most influential Indian thinkers/ emperors along with Buddha, for none of them being hindu he reminded me of my hero (cheesy I know) the most non-biased cricket captain India has ever seen. (Well WADA do tie them together now!)
Also, Sen Represents the changing Bengali-the thinking Bengali who prefers his/her daily dose of macher jhol along with the weekly pasta treats or may be a zinger at kfc. Traditionally a left leaning thinker (oh yes! he has been accorded the status of “one of the most influential public thinkers of our time” by Observer and the cover of his new book proclaims it in bold) he comes out in open with his contrary opinion on the Left’s stand on the Indo-US nuke deal or the constant stench of anti American stance in every sphere which marks left politics in India. He agrees to the past but understands the present demands a much more nuanced understanding of the issue. (AD influence again) However that was completely my take on his views. Though I agree Rahul Gandhi will definitely be a very good PM, succeeding a very successful one (Singh is king!). apart from all the qualities that Sen observed about the "most eligible bachelor" around in India, his dimples are too cute to be true!
Also read the review of his new book and needless to say his takes on Niti and Nyay, Rawls and Dworkin makes it one hell of an interesting proposition for a law student to read. Waiting desparately for my next month’s pocket money, or knowing Baba he might just decide to gift it to me :P.
And what do you think could have been an even better end to the afternoon- well may be reading a Shirshedu Mukhopadhyay choto golpo. I know I know, some of you are already cursing me, but this afternoon was completely out of the blue! And right now I can see a patch just outside my window. J