Skip to main content

Posts

Khela Hobe: Connotation & Interpretation

                Photo Courtesy vaishnudebi-dutta-JShfWXJrAvc-unsplash As someone who knows Bengali (the language), I often wonder how to describe maal (Bengali: মাল ; Hindi: माल ). The word may have a different connotation in different contexts. With a simple Google translation comes the following suggestions: goods, property, booze, wealth, merchandise, revenue, freight, etc. In my life, I have come across various others: fool/idiot, good looking (mainly the fairer sex), difficult, sperm, cash, object, etc. Catch the drift? No? Because the tangential reference lies in the topic being discussed at the particular time the word was used in a sentence. Or try to catch the drift of the word in tandem with facial expression, or eye movement, or gesture. Even while uttering the word, a slow shake of head may refer to an idiot, a quick glance may mean reference to the person being glanced at, flicking the thumb off forefinger may mean money, mimicking a drink – the usual, etc. It’
Post a Comment
Read more
Recent posts

West Bengal Assembly Election 2021 - 1

  M uch has been written about BJP’s “saffron surge” in the last Lok Sabha election in West Bengal, which saw the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress face certain reverse. Earlier, the results of 2016 Assembly election saw the TMC win 211 seats and the Congress 44. The latter’s “tactical ally” CPI(M) won 26, RSP – 3, AIFB – 2 and CPI – 1 assembly seats. Percentage vote share of major political parties in West Bengal in Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections Three seats each went to BJP and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha while an independent candidate won one. West Bengal assembly comprises 294 constituencies. On the other hand, in 2019 Parliamentary polls, without overwhelming support from Muslims, Mamata Banerjee's party could likely have slipped to the number two position. Out of 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state, TMC won 22 and the BJP 18. The Congress managed to retain Baharampur and the Maldaha Dakshin seats. Political debate over eight-phase assembly election
Post a Comment
Read more

#TheEncounter

Encounter...  The meaning of the word as we use in India is unique. The word assumed it's new meaning in the late-1960s and acquired a unique place in our vocabulary by the time of Emergency. It was the time of the Naxalbari movement in north Bengal turning violent and entering large parts of urban areas in the state. Even scholars and professionals were supporting a fledgling group of so-called Communists who had broken out of the Left parties, accusing the latter of "compromising with a cause" by following Parliamentary Democracy.  "Power flows from the barrel of a gun," they quoted, conveniently ignoring the fact that if so, the state is many times more powerful. They made handful of poor villagers take on posse of rifle-toting police with bows and arrows. All in the name of "revolution"!  Oblivious to logic, students on (then) Calcutta streets chanted, "China's chairman is our chairman". It was romantic to be called a Naxal or a Maois
Post a Comment
Read more

The Epitaph

The other day there was one of those unsolicited messages in one of those unsolicited groups. Yes, with time, I have started attending WhatsApp University. And with time, I have stopped exiting groups; I attend these classes as a passive, mute student of unlearning – though my attendance would be considered insufficient. Many may call me a watcher or even a voyeur. However, I yearn to unlearn a lot – especially from groups that proudly exhibit the term Media or Journalist. So I do occasionally glance through the sundry post when I need to unlearn or get winded. In the message, one of these media specialists targeted a certain “infamous” communist leader, raising questions over his source of income in supporting his livelihood (even if frugal) or funding an election campaign. Left is just a four-letter word today. And now that it has been rendered politically and economically irrelevant, I find it amusing that some people still find it worth flogging a dead horse. And I LoL when someo
Post a Comment
Read more

The 'Invisible' Working Hands

Vijay Yadav was from Patna, Bihar, and Sufian Momin was from Maldah, West Bengal. They became friends while working at a multi-storey-building construction site in Mumbai. On Monday (April 13) evening, Momin gets a call from Vijay; later, other labourers from Maldah who were staying in Bandra east also receive similar phone-calls. Calls were also received by labourers from other states with a message for them to assemble at the bus stop near Bandra railway station on Tuesday afternoon with a demand: “either arrange our food, or arrange our return home”. Thus, the migrants from Maldah joined workers from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, others, at the said bus stop in Mumbai. 'THE INVISIBLES' by GOPAL DUTT SHARMA  The labourers later said that instead of either proving food or a passage home, police dispersed them with baton charge. Some were injured by the caning; but scared of being nabbed by the police, most preferred to suffer quietly at the shanties that are their temp
Post a Comment
Read more

Past Will Lie Heavy On Future

When Messenger Is News  In media industry, the present will pass; but the past is likely to lay heavy on the future. While some publications have announced closure – mostly “temporary” – many have announced pay cuts (“temporary”) and some, even job cuts. A message went viral on Sunday; that a certain Hindi news channel has fired its “entire Digital English team (15ppl)… without any prior notice… they just got an email on Friday evening. They are just paying one month’s basic salary and nothing else”. The three-para message was shared by others over various social media platforms. People started asking those in-the-know for details… and re-shared the incident with their “followers and friends”. Soon there followed other messages … National, regional, vernacular... Whether a "big house" or not-so-big-house... salary-cut, job-cut, leave-without-pay… most tightening their belts any which way during the lockdown. Those sacked were also part of the pro
Post a Comment
Read more

To My Colleagues Covering #CoronaScare

To colleagues working in their newsrooms or on the field in these days of Corona scare… To those comrades who will not or cannot isolate or quarantine themselves… To associates who will tomorrow again “cover” Parliament, the offices on Raisina Hill, or various hospitals, or other ‘beats’… From my hardworking young friend @IamNaveenKapoor handle I may not be anywhere there, but my thoughts, my wishes, my applause are always for you, with you… When countrymen open their newspapers, switch on to a news channel or log onto a news-site, they will know what they want to know because you were there to source out what you know they will want to know… When such calamities strike, editors scramble reporters to ground zero. And this time, it’s ground zero everywhere! What is worse – and what I can understand – your beat, your daily reporting will become tougher and tougher as the “society is walled off”. And the times aren’t good for either news or for the media industry a
Post a Comment
Read more