21st February, 2002

A sting long struck us

the venom now runs slowly

with blood; and time bears fruit.

The poet, the lover, the rebel

talks computer, talks America.

The fruit has redeemed their tongue

and so for them

all whose roots lie across the fence

raise cacophony, ring alarm

are nostalgic, passionate fools

myopic petty bourgeois

crying glory to a language

crying hoarse

humbugs...

OUR TRIBUTE TO RAJEEV DAS...!!!

We firmly believe that Barasat resident, Rajeev Das, could have been saved had the District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police, 24 North Parganas been BENGALIS.

We therefore Protest yet again against induction of Non-Bengalis into Administration.

We demand that the Officers concerned be immediately Show-caused and Removed from Office.

We ideologically maintain that Outsiders as Administrators cannot empathise  with the feelings and aspirations of people with whom they share little common touch because they as individuals are Career Bureaucrats, whose allegiance and loyalties rest with different interests, and who are far removed from the decorum of Public Service.

Political Harakiri....!!!!

 This is what we call political suicide...! At a time when we, the Bengalis, are trying our best to alleviate our      socio-economic and cultural position and trying to rope in like-minded Bengalis to be a part of a movement to further the cause of  our self determination and the right to protect our language and our traditional                progressive humane identity, such myopic acts by a section of our own community put us on back foot or from where  we had begun. they do not see the danger lurking in the guise of nationalism that tends to betray the very  concept on which it was built with many parts of India rising to assert their political identity. There was a time when people from Bengal settled and travelled across the length and breadth of India and spread the message of freedom and education and the value of modern thinking, they also spread the light of this beautiful language Bengali. However in recent times if we really spare a moment and cast a cursory look over the scenario, we will certainly find that Bengali is no longer a part of education anywhere in the rest of India All the Schools in  Bihar and Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh, where once Bengali was taught as a subject have been  deliberately done away with or on the brink of closure due to lack of funds (?). It's a darn lie, which even a child can understand.                                                                                                                                

It's high time we understood that if we are to save ourselves we need to protect our language on our land and make all possible efforts to restore it to a height of glory which in turn would ensure for us a place in History and on the demographic Atlas of the earth...                                                                                                  

Remember a linguistic denomination is no Community if it has no land under its feet...!!!.                                A Community commands no respect if it taboos its own language and denigrates its ethos to another..!!                                                                                                                                                                

If Bengalis still prefer to sleep and afford to overlook...!!!

The Telegraph
Kolkata
Friday , January 21 , 2011

The City Diary

Held for assault on HC judge’s guard Ajit Kulkarni, a Pune resident, was arrested for allegedly beating up the guard of a Calcutta High Court judge when the latter protested Ajit’s spitting on the road. The incident occurred when the judge’s car was passing through Karaya on Thursday morning. When Kulkarni was confronted by Alok Kole, a constable of Calcutta police reserve force, he allegedly started abusing the cop and slapped him before trying to snatch his service revolver. Kulkarni was overpowered and later arrested. Kulkarni has come to Calcutta on an official trip, police said.  It is not just an incident but a manifestation of a mindset that is very much instinctive and may not be racially or any way motivated  for that matter. if an outsider just stepping into the state can show such aplomb, one can quite as well imagine what other non-Bengalis are capable of doing should there be a need at all. the question is 'WHITHER BENGALIS...? Do we yet learn to read the writing on the wall? Are we reading at all? One Kulkarni was arrested. What about the thousands of Kulkarnis,Todis, Shaus,Singhs,etc, etc swarming about like cockroaches ready to and even eating up our resources to the extent of denuding us to paupers.  We are on the verge of becoming a minority. Wake up before it is too late...!!!

Dialectic

How it feels like

to die for a cause

or something you believe is true?

Perhaps it is a death of a different kind

with more pain or less pain

or even no pain at all;

for the place we keep pain for record

is filled with thoughts

that I’m sure are too smug for crass.

so it’s safe to think this way

for when you’re a part of the same machine

you run out of scruples

quite free-hand and one

among the seven angels of apocalypse.

7^th February, 2011

Diptesh Augustine Sarkar