Reflection

1. Sirens blaring, load-shedding. Copters hovering, people scrambling To bomb-shelters. A thud of bomb overhead A little girl smiles in bunker as she looks up At a man who pans…

Man is born free. But everywhere he is in chains. It is not a philosophical cliché. It is a fact. Man chains up fellow man; and thus gets chained up…

Lata Mangeshkar ji came to the Mohun Bagan ground of my town, Burdwan, decades back. If I can use a slightly high-sounding word, it was really an epoch-making day for…

As I am writing, my mind went back to those unbelievable scenes just a year back at Gabba as India overpowered Australia in their own backyard. A team that went…

India is a land of netas. There is hardly any lane and by-lane that does have neta. None becomes Netaji, actually does not dare to be. Subhas Chandra Bose is…

‘Religion is the opium of the people,’ Karl Marx famously said. ‘I am proud to call myself a Hindu,’ Swami Vivekananda equally famously said. It is clear these two visions…

‘There are more unsung heroes than those in history pages.’ Manik babu said in his inimitable way. ‘What is the meaning of unsung, sir?’ Partho, the most notorious boy in…

I came to this earth many a year back. The world was different. I can’t remember it exactly. There was school in day; cricket or football in the afternoon; study…

‘This plant is mine.’ Beena said. ‘How can it be yours?’ I asked. ‘My father planted it last year.’ I added. ‘But this is mine.’ Beena sounded aggressive. The plant…

Winter came at 20. Nutanpally with much fanfare. Father busied himself all day with preparing the soil for rose beds and winter flowers, namely chrysanthemum, marigold, sunflower and periwinkle. As…