Reality check ...

My short and sweet tenure at Kharagpur after almost two years of UK and another two in US has been that of an eye-opener - coming down to ground reality - for those [including myself] who had always thought ankle-deep waterlogged city is next to God's curse, come see entire south bengal today - submerged beneath what is still not declared a 'flood' :)

My journey today started at 7.30 from Kolkata and soon after we left Santragachhi it was all the same story till Kgp. What bothered me more is people seemed acquainted with living on the edge and have taken it for granted. They know that each monsoon is probably going to bring home a tide, and they will flow with it. They probably even don't know that there is a 'flood' in someone's dictionary. In their own way I saw many of them netting fish that came home with this tide. With this positive attittude [probably stemmed from a mix of ignorance and helplessness] and a smiling face they kept on fishing for years. And would probably dwell another century in their silence.

Rilke after a pause

In times when you are with yourself I have seen Rilke to work wonders - take you off to a distant land [dikshunyopur for whoever understands bengali] At a time when I was reaching out to the horizon found another gem on my way - happy reading..




'Already the ripening barberries are red
and the old asters hardly breathe in their beds.
The man who is not rich now as summer goes
will wait and wait and never be himself.

The man who cannot quietly close his eyes
certain that there is vision after vision inside,
simply waiting for nighttime
to rise all around him in darkness –
it’s all over for him, he’s like an old man.

Nothing else will come; no more days will open
and everything that does happen will cheat him.

Even You, my God. And You are like a stone
that draws him daily deeper into the depths.'

(Source: Selected Poems)