Column | Window Seat

Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee

Puja Season

As I write this, preparations for Ganesh Puja is on in full swing. In Eastern India,
Ganesh Puja marks the beginning of 'puja season' which will end with Saraswati Puja in late Jan-early Feb. In between we'll have umpteen numbers of pujas. Countless number of puja pandals will spring up on road sides, bazars even within ponds. There will be all round merry making with ear splitting loud music and wriggling of various body parts which goes in the name of modern dance. And there will be colourful immersion procession. The idols will be taken in a procession with more loud music and weirder alcohol-induced dance and immersed into nearby water bodies. 
Our water bodies are no longer capable of holding the hundreds of thousands of idols, which would be immersed with decoration paraphernalia. Factor the chemical colour, used to make these idols and the plaster of Paris in which many idols are being made these days- and you will realise the damage it does to the water body eco system. Can good sense prevail? Can people see the damage they are causing to God's most beautiful creation in the name of God?

Another peaceful bandh

Trains stopped on tracks with scared passengers peering through half closed windows. Roads deserted as the tyres burned belching black arid smoke on the face of clear blue sky. People remained indoors as the peaceful demonstrators moved on the roads with sticks and iron rods in clenched fist. A baby cried. Mother hurried to hush her- in case this cry is taken as a protest against the bandh.

Hindi Divas

14 September is observed as Hindi Divas. On this day in 1949, the Constituent assembly had adopted Hindi written in Devanagari script as the official language. It also resolved to take pro active steps for its propagation and development.
I strongly believe that we Indians have amazing language learning skill as we hear many languages almost from our birth. So learning a new language, especially an Indian one is no big deal for us. 
We should all learn Hindi not merely because it is our 'raj bhasha' but because it is such a rich language and it happens to be one of the six most spoken language of the world - so you can converse and connect with so many people.
In India only Hindi can be the real link language for three simple reasons: a. it has a pan Indian cultural connect b. it is already spoken by half of India; and c. it is one of the most flexible of Indian languages.

Tailpiece: Tremor

Tremor!! There is a tremor in Dhenkanal, cried by wife quite excitedly. I said, I did not feel a thing.
- "Listen to the TV news. They are saying there is a tremor in Dhenkanal. Matlab, there is a tremor."
Lesson learnt: news on TV is more authentic than your own experience, even if you are right there at Ground Zero.

Photo:Ashok Panda

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3 Sept.2016

Mrinal Chatterjee, a journalist turned media academician lives on the valley of Paniohala Hills at Dhenkanal, Odisha. He also writes fiction. His latest book ‘Point by Point’, a collection of his columns published in Odia daily Khabar and Sambad Kalika is being released on August 2016.

He can be contacted at mrinalchatterjee@ymail.com

This column is posted regularly in www.orissadiary.com