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| 30- Oct. - 5 Nov. 2022 |
Monday, 31 October 2022
Sunday, 30 October 2022
Saturday, 29 October 2022
Window Seat | Weekly Column in Odia | 30.10.22
Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee | 30.10.22
Cricket Mania!
The day India
defeated Pakistan in a crucial and dramatic match thanks to the swash buckling
innings by Virat Kohli in T-20 world cup ISRO launched the first Indian rocket
with 6 ton plus payload. It carried 36 satellites of OneWeb onboard LVM3. The
LVM3-M2 mission is a dedicated commercial mission for a foreign customer
OneWeb, through NSIL.
Few noticed the
feat. Most of us rejoiced at the defeat of Pakistan, more than celebrating the
win of India. Crackers were burst. Sweets distributed. Many of us shouted Bharat Mata ki Jai. Social media
platforms were filled with laudatory messages. Next day photographs of Virat Kohli
adorned the front pages of almost all newspapers. The achievement of ISRO was
tucked in the inner pages. There was hardly any buzz in the social media. Most
of the television channels mentioned it passingly.
And then, we
lament why we are not able to produce more scientists?
Saptaparni
Post rain, this is the time of the season's
first flowering of the Saptaparni (Alstonia scholaris) trees. It is known in
many names across the country. In Odia it is called Chachina, in Bengali and
Assamese it is Chatim. It is called Pala maram(Pala tree) in Malayalam. In
several Hindi speaking states, it is called Saitan
ki Ped (Devil's tree). In English it is also called the Blackboard tree.
Saptaparni flowers, which also signal
the advent of winter in North India, will be there for a month. By the time one
discards the half sweater or half jacket for full woollen cover and we exhaust
celebrating all our festivals, the flowers would have turned grey from greenish
ivory which they are now.
Saptaparni tree is interesting, as it
conjures completely different images. It is associated with scholarship and
knowledge. It is the State Tree of West Bengal. In Viswa Bharti, Shantiniketan
a leaf of this tree is presented to the Chancellor before the convocation
ceremony. It is called ‘Devil’s Tree’ in several parts of the country as no
cattle eat its leaves. In Kerala it is believed that the heady scent of the
flowers of the tree attracts Yakshis (paranormal female beings).
There is hardly any tree which evokes
so different feelings.
Dilip ‘ORS’ Mahalanabis
Eminent paediatrician Dr Dilip Mahalanabis, who
pioneered the use of oral rehydration therapy during the outbreak of cholera
among refugees of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, passed away recently
after a long age related ailments. He was 88.
Oral
Rehydration Solution (ORS) as a simple, effective remedy for dehydration is
presently known and used around the world. According to the World Health
Organisation (WHO), diarrhoeal diseases, such as cholera, are among the leading
causes of mortality in infants and young children in many developing countries,
where the patient dies of dehydration. ORS, a combination of water, glucose and
salts, is a simple and cost-effective method of preventing this. The Lancet
called it “the most important medical discovery of the 20th century.’’
Born on November 12, 1934 in West Bengal, Dr Mahalanabis studied
in Kolkata and London, and joined the Johns Hopkins University International
Centre for Medical Research and Training in Kolkata in the 1960s, where he
carried out research in oral rehydration therapy.
When the 1971 war broke out, millions of people from then East
Pakistan took refuge in India. Clean drinking water and sanitation were
problems at these refugee camps, and cholera and diarrhoea broke out among
people anyway exhausted and dehydrated. Dr Mahalanabis and his team were
working in one such camp at Bongaon. And it was at this point that ORS was
used and found to be highly effective.
From 1975 to 1979, Dr Mahalanabis worked in cholera control for
WHO in Afghanistan, Egypt and Yemen. During the 1980s, he worked as a WHO
consultant on research on the management of bacterial diseases.
In 2002, Dr Dilip Mahalanabis along with Dr Nathaniel F Pierce
was awarded the Pollin Prize by Columbia University (considered the equivalent
of Nobel in peadiatrics).
His contribution to the discipline of medicine could be mapped
in the fact that WHO eventually adopted ORS as the standard method for treating
cholera and other diarrhoeal diseases. In India, July 29 is observed as ORS
Day.
Eco-friendly
College
Recently I visited Imperial College at Bargarh, Odisha.
I found it to be one of the most eco-conscious and study-friendly colleges of
Odisha.
This is one of the few colleges in Odisha which has
integrated it in its architecture and building plan (open space to get sunlight
and natural air, use of hollow bricks to reduce temperature in summer and
noise) and landscaping (creating water body at strategic place to get cooler
air flow). It has created an open air library inside an old and discarded car
using old TV sets and microwave boxes; couple of water bodies including a lotus
pond, an organic farm, and an open air study area. They have a project to
produce ‘holy fertiliser’ out of the worn flowers offered in nearby temples.
They use this fertiliser for organic farming.
Wish other colleges replicate what they are doing.
Tailpiece-1: Law and In-Law
Infosys acquires Britain. Not by law but by in-law.
Tailpiece-2: Heard
Just heard on the grapevine: Truss will now fly
first class for the rest of her life.
No one wants her anywhere near business or economy
!!
(Courtesy: Social Media)
++
Journalist turned media academician
Mrinal Chatterjee lives in Dhenkanal, Odisha. He also writes fiction and plays.
He can be contacted at mrinalchatterjeeiimc@gmail.com
Friday, 28 October 2022
Wednesday, 12 October 2022
Monday, 10 October 2022
Saturday, 8 October 2022
Window Seat. My weekly column in English. 9.10.22
Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee
|9.10.22
The Waste Land at 100
This October, The Waste Land, the most well-known poem of T.S. Eliot turns 100. It was first published in October 1922 in the British journal The Criterion, then a month later in the American journal The Dial, before appearing in book form, firstly, in America by Boni and Liverlight in 1922, and then in 1923 by Leonard and Virginia Woolf's Hogarth Press.
 |
| First Edition of The Waste land |
In its 434
lines, this poem weaves multiple allusions and visions. It shows the waste land
that this world has turned to and also shows how the situation could be
redeemed. It’s a poem of timeless appeal.
I still remember the way Prof. Frederick Wright used to teach us this poem in our MA English class at Ravenshaw College (now University), Cuttack. It was mesmerizing.
Post-Puja Problems
For the
Bengalis Durga Pujo is almost
synonymous with ‘Pet-Pujo’- eating sumptuously, especially non-vegetarian
dishes. Many of my non-Bengali friends, especially from North-India are
intrigued. How can you eat non-vegetarian food during a Puja?
Here is an
answer, however unconvincing it may sound. Please appreciate Durga is viewed
simultaneously from two perspectives in Bengal. She is a goddess, a fiery one -
ok. But she is also viewed as our ‘gharer meye’- daughter of the house, who has
come to visit her parent’s place on her annual sojourn with her children- Kartick,
Ganesh, Laxmi and Saraswati with their ‘bahans’. So as it happens when the
daughter visits her parental home- she is looked after well, and the feast goes
on. Apparently this duality is non-comprehensible and feels almost bizarre. But
in Bengal it is accepted and viewed as absolutely normal.
So almost all Bengalis
have the post-puja problem with their pet-
tummy. During this time they also gain weight. Sugar level goes haywire.
But who cares! This is once in a year occasion.
Hanlon's razor
Hanlon's razor is a philosophical principle that says "never
attribute to malice that which can be explained by negligence or stupidity. The phrase ‘Hanlon’s
razor’ was coined by Robert J. Hanlon, but it has been voiced by many people
throughout history, as far back as 1774.
Let me give you an
example of this rather simple principle. If your friend has not invited you to
his daughter's marriage, it may not have been with the intention to ignore you.
He simply might have forgotten. This has actually happened with me.
Your friend didn't
advance you a loan you asked for. May be he was in dire straits himself, but
did not share his difficulties.
There can be innumerable such examples from diverse fields. We attribute motives and form adverse opinions about every person/ situation that adversely affects us. We cook up conspiracy theories without a thought and without an iota of evidence justifying such adverse conclusions. In fact, misunderstandings and neglect create more confusion in this world than trickery and malice. At any rate, the last two are certainly much less frequent.
So next time a
friend forgets to invite you or declines to advance a loan take it as an
oversight or, at best an aberration.
This principle
effectively means people are basically good. It can definitely make us happier,
even if, as some will claim, it can make us appear idiotic or at best
simpleton. In that case remember, what Napoleon
Bonaparte famously declared:
‘Never ascribe to
malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.’
Chittaranjan Das
If alive, Chittaranjan Das, one of the finest
thinkers, essayists and educationists that Odisha has produced would have
turned 99 on 3 October last.
Born at Bagalpur
village in the undivided Cuttack district in 1923, Das took active part in
student movement in Class X. During his student days at Ravenshaw, he was
involved with the Communist Party of India. Later in 1942, he joined Quit India
Movement and was imprisoned.
Das returned to
India but instead of taking up a regular job, he joined Jibana Bidyalaya, a
school near Angul for basic education inspired by Gandhi’s vision. This was a
turning point in his life. He turned to education and throughout his life
attempted to provide value and morality based education.
He was proficient
in many languages. His vast studies covered many areas of social sciences. He
wrote and translated over 250 books, which included anthology of essays,
travelogues and a vast body of work on Sri Aurobindo and
Sri Ma. He was conferred with Sahitya Akademi Award in 1998.
I have had the privilege of meeting him on many
occasions. He had a childlike smile. I once told him so. He said and I remember
that as a life -mantra: Mrinal Babu, pila
hei rahile bhala. It is good to remain a child.
Through the Screen
We live at a strange time. We are more eager to capture the
moments for the posterity, without actually relishing it ourselves. And we
hardly ever, look at those pictures or videos- later. Even if we do- it never
really gives the experience of the time it was actually captured. So we lose
the real experience in the elusive hope of capturing it and keeping it to
savour as and when we please.
 |
Photo: Mrinal Chatterjee. Location: A Puja Mandap at a village about 5 km from Jagatsinghpur, Odisha. |
In puja pandals I have seen increasingly more people trying to capture the sights of the aarti in their mobile, than actually experiencing it.
++
Journalist turned media academician
Mrinal Chatterjee lives in Dhenkanal, Odisha. He also writes fiction and plays.
mrinalchatterjeeiimc@gmail.com
Sunday, 2 October 2022
Radio Talk on the occasion of International Day of Non-Violence. Language: Odia | On Radio Bhubaneswar
 |
| May download Radio Bhubaneswar app from Google Play Store. |
Weekly 'slice of life' Column Window Seat | 2.10.22
Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee |2.10.22
Irony
October 2, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi is observed as the
International Day of Non-Violence since 2007 to "disseminate the message
of non-violence, including through education and public awareness".
Mahatma Gandhi was in public life for over half a century- from
late 19 century in South Africa (he formed Natal Indian Congress on 22 August
1894) to India till his death in January 1948 in Delhi. His socio-political
movements were based on three pillars: truth, justice and non-violence.
As Ehsan Naraghi
writes in the UNESCO Courier in 1992, “The name of Mahatma Gandhi transcends the bounds of race,
religion and nation-states, and has emerged as the prophetic voice of the
twenty-first century. The world remembers Gandhi not just for his passionate
adherence to the practice of non-violence and supreme humanism, but as the
benchmark against which we test men and women in public life, political ideas
and government policies, and the hopes and wishes of our shared planet.”
It is often said that history is full of irony. Consider what
happened as India was coming closer to gaining its independence from the
British raj. It was Gandhi , who primarily
led the freedom movement from 1922 (non-cooperation movement) till 1942 (Quit India Movement). There were
other movements which attempted to use violent means though. Gandhi was opposed
to the partition of the country. But partition happened because barring a few
like Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, almost all
leaders of most of the political parties and the British Raj wanted partition.
Two independent dominions- India and Pakistan based broadly on
religion were created. Pakistan had two landmasses, East and West Pakistan,
2020 km apart from each other.
The abrupt partition of India, occurring after two intense years of anticipatory turmoil was poorly
planned and executed in haste. It was eerily violent and deeply traumatic. The partition displaced over 14 million people along religious
lines, creating overwhelming refugee crises in the newly constituted
dominions; there was large-scale violence, with estimates of loss of life
varying between several hundred thousand and two million. Thousands of women
were raped and abducted. Never before in the history
of mankind had such large scale violence and displacement of population taken
place within such a short span of time. Though India and Pakistan
share a common culture, and people of the dominant religions- Hindu, Muslim and
Sikh -have been living together for ages, the violence that happened reached
unprecedented scales, with Hindus and Sikhs on one side and Muslims on the
other.
The ultimate irony was, on 14-15 August 1947 night, when
India was celebrating its independence and the first prime minister of
independent India Nehru was delivering his now iconic ‘tryst with destiny’
speech, the ‘father of the nation’ was sitting huddled with others at a house
named Hyderi Manzil, close to a Muslim-dominated slum in Calcutta (now Kolkata) fasting and
praying for communal harmony.
Fallen
Flower
Anybody going on a
morning walk in small towns and cities can find them- persons with a stick in
hand and polythene bag in pocket. They would pluck flowers from roadside
flowering trees, steal from other’s gardens and public park. If you confront
them, they would say: it is for puja (worship) of God at home- as if God had
specially asked them to do so.
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With this as
background, I’ll now retell what my friend and journalist-turned media
academician Mrityunjay Chatterjee has written on his social media platform:
Every morning, I
see an elderly gentleman picking up flowers fallen under a tree and placing
them in a basket. He would pick the flowers tenderly and with a strange
devotion.
His activity used
to intrigue me.
Today I saw him
again and decided to put my curiosity to rest, about why he picked up fallen
flowers while other elderly people plucked fresh flowers.
I asked him, "I
always see you picking up these fallen flowers from the ground. What do you do
with them?"
-
"I offer these flowers at the
feet of the deities at home," he answered calmly.
This was the first time
I had heard something like this. So, I asked him again, "If you don't
mind, may I ask why you offer fallen flowers to God when there are so many
flowers on the tree?"
-
"I help the flowers fulfill
their purpose - of being with God in their last days. They have life too; like
us, they also want to be with God in their final days, don't they?" he
asked me.
I nodded in silence
with a strange churn in my inner being.
He said, "Some
people pluck buds that have not yet bloomed and some only pluck buds that have
just blossomed, not even letting them release their fragrance. Everyone takes
what is beautiful and takes away the plant's beauty from it. See how these
plants look, colorless and deserted."
He continued,
"Every flower has a purpose, to be with God. While everyone takes the
flowers that are still on the plants, I do not choose those. It is not the
flowers' fault that they fell off. They also deserve to be with God. You should
try it too, it will give you peace and happiness...just as it gives me. I cannot
support anyone in this old age, but I can at least help these flowers achieve
their goal."
I just nodded,
wished him well and kept on walking.
My mind was racing.
With this new inspiration and idea, I decided that I should also try to collect
fallen flowers.
I crossed a
hibiscus tree and saw some flowers under the tree. As I bent down to pick them
up, I heard a voice.
"You cannot
offer fallen flowers to God," I heard an inner voice say. I stopped for a
moment.
"God is only
looking for your feeling and devotion, so go ahead and pick up," I argued
with myself.
After a few moments
of this turmoil, I picked up the flowers and placed them on my palms. As soon
as I placed the flowers on my palms, I got goose bumps and my heart began to
race. It was a very different kind of love that I was feeling for these flowers
from inside.
I brought those
flowers home, washed them and put them where they should be, at the feet of the
Lord.
The whole
experience was just wonderful. I felt great within. I felt as if I had saved someone's
life or helped someone come out of misery. I had never felt this kind of
satisfaction ever before.
And I will continue
to do so --Pick up what has fallen.
In life, we always
want to be around good and beautiful people. We want to see ourselves with
people who are of our stature, and those who are below our stature, we want to
see them below us.
But, the real
satisfaction comes when we help someone and make their life better. Be it
human, animal, bird or any other form of life.
So why not flowers?
Conversation
Triggers
Every city has its
own conversation triggers.
In Delhi it moves
around political and administrative power.
In Kolkata it is
Politics, food and culture (pronounced- kalchar).
In Chennai it is
cinema and stars.
In Mumbai it is
rains, trains and share market.
In Bhubaneswar it
is temperature- hot or cold, depending on the time of the year.
In Bangalore it is
traffic jam. Everybody talks about it at least five times a day.
++
Journalist turned media academician
Mrinal Chatterjee lives in Dhenkanal, Odisha. He also writes fiction and plays.
mrinalchatterjeeiimc@gmail.com
This column is published in Gangtok based English daily Sikkim Express, Indore based English daily Free Press Journal and Bhubaneswar based news site www.prameyanews.com
Saturday, 1 October 2022
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