North Kolkata Calling !!

Yes Ranudi has stirred us all. In fact it was a much awaited idea -a kind of a Great Awakening for the present India if not the World ! Hence we should try to dig deeper and deeper and find out  the cause and consequence of such a thought provoking idea ! At least it has jerked us out of ' The present unthinking  and un aspiring rut'!

 Is the Titanic destined for oblivion in the near future ? The ship that sank on the icy North Atlantic seabed on April 15, 1912 and along with it took 1500 lives- is in its last leg. It is slowly & certainly breathing its last breath-succumbing to corrosive salts, rust etc. The crow's nest from where the  first signal ' Iceberg right ahead !' came literally vanished.  The captain's cabin has collapsed. It was here that the naval officer Edward John Smith was resting when the ship struck the iceberg! One could not but feel sorry for the ongoing circumstances that will soon leave no trace of the historical ship ! (Thanks to TOI for the news )

We recently had the opportunity to visit a nearby forest from  Hyderabad. We decided to spend few days at the forest camp since the long weekend holidays encouraged the idea. My son along with his old school friend made the necessary plans and it was they who decided to take their cars and make it a Long  Drive program as well. Of course they took their families too. Finally after a lot of excitement we reached the camp and were given our required cottages (3 Nos). Well to make a long story short I would like to mention one little incident while we were having our breakfast the next morning.     The canteen was nearly full and we were eagerly waiting for  our Idlis & Badas. A family was just beside us relishing the food served. There was a little girl -around 5/6 years old- with them who-as  usually happens- was looking around & enjoying the situation. She was approximately my granddaught...

This reminds me of a lady about 50 years of age who got  trapped inside a Bank's vault. The lady was busy inside the vault when suddenly she heard the noise of a big door being closed. Before she could react she found herself trapped inside the vault and -of course- darkness prevailed. She was completely at a loss when she became aware that she would have to stay there for three days as the bank would remain closed for that period. She tried every means to get out -shouting at the top of her voice, knocking at the vault door etc. Finally she recognized her situation and sat down quietly for some moments.  She thought and thought for a way out but failed.  At last she remembered  about Meditation which she usually practiced but not very seriously. She knew that she would have to remain there for 3 days without food and water.    To make matter worse the season too went against her since it was the hot ...

Her name was Mrs. Flaming. She was a part time teacher in a school just opposite my house. She was an Anglo Indian lady.  She was tall with dark complexion but the most remarkable part were her eyes. They were the softest eyes that I had ever seen. She used to impart spoken english lessons to that Hindi  Medium school.  She was usually accompanied by her husband who probably lost his job or was unemployed -I am not sure. Mr . Flaming was terribly in love with his wife and he followed her in her every  steps. He had a peculiar expression of disappointment all over   his face and seemed to be living just for her sake. I was newly married then and my wife was not accustomed in speaking english fluently-though she had a Master Degree in Philosophy. I decided to call upon Mrs.Flaming for the sole purpose of making my wife speak the language comfortably. She immediately agreed and we made the necessary arra...

I am really at a loss to understand why certain thoughts invades me for no known reason.  Today while I was sitting on the balcony of my son's flat in Hyderabad I was suddenly  overpowered by such bizarre thoughts. Bizzare in the sense that there was no immediate situation that could provoke such unimaginable sense of emotion. However it prevailed and I was simply carried along with the waves that beckoned- further and further-away from the realities of the present world. I thought  but failed to connect myself - wonder why ?  I suddenly remembered a Tagore song sung by Babul Supriyo while casually watching the TV. 'Tumi kon kanoner ful   Kon gogoner tara' The song engulfed me completely and kept on and on reverberating within me with a strange consistency. Being a musician myself with sufficient knowledge of Indian Classical Music as well as Rabindrasangeet I failed to come to  a reasonable conclusion to my predica...

    Ramdulal Niwas was built by Ramdulal De(Deb) a pioneer in         Indo-American Trade Relation ! Chatu Babu and Latu Babu     were his two sons. Chatu Babu was perhaps the first Bengali      Sitarist. The building is well maintained and gets a fresh coat      of paint every 8 years. However the inner building gets it     every year before the Durga Puja!