On the death of Mikhail Gorbachev

 

We were young and hopelessly innocent. 

There was darkness at our home, 

Though I could not understand  

The two-word perestroika and glasnost gave some hope 

maybe in a faraway fairyland - hoped the longing to be contagious 

The falling of the berlin wall and the EU  hope was spreading 

 Thought  of globalisation from a human angle as a rule 

It spread with that  came Macdonald's, Pizzahut and many more 

I wished to keep the identity through

Many thought otherwise …..

That was yesterday 

The pendulum shifted right; the setting has moved back to 1900 

The planet filled again with frictional explosives waiting for some mad man to light a cigar

and a spark of annihilation  leads repeat July 1914 

We need to find a new word for hope in the line of perestroika and glasnost in the coming time. 

And a person propagating that hope for the world. 

(Some random thoughts come to my mind on hearing his death )

Reading List 2019 to 2021

 

Reading as a habit is seemed to have lost its sheen thanks to the rise of digital platforms. But with an exploding population and old-world charm associated with books number of books being published is increasing, and a fraction of people are still holding to the good old habit of reading. Many people reinvented their lost love in the current pandemic, maybe reading, painting or cooking. 

 

I belong to the old world and still find solitude and self-realisation or a kind of meditation in reading. Going inside another person's creative process is sometimes like going into other people's lives, minds, and fantasies. Sometimes, it is their beliefs and struggles that I am interested in. Due to a busy mechanical daily life, I often keep my pleasure just by looking at books neatly kept in my Almirah. Many books are half-read, and many are yet to be opened.

 

Kindle was a thing I avoided over the years, just because I thought let me be in the old world. I saw the new generation comfortable with this reading, so I thought of giving it a try. I found it to be good in many senses -like lightweight, highlighting and taking notes, and keeping many books in your product. They may book has its disadvantage just like is with your book almirah. 

 

No time to read in conjunction with to busy schedule and a forgetful mind. I thought it would be best to keep track of what you have read every year. I was noting it in my diary for the last two years, but as they also have the chance of being lost, I thought of noting them up in my blog. 

Here is my reading list of the previous three years; it did not include the books which I collected and flipped only a few pages and kept for incubation; I wish I should have read more, but I can confidently say that the following books kept me engaged mentally and physically in my time with them. 

 

2019 

 

1.      মিচিমি বিহৰ সন্ধানত :তপন কুমাৰ শৰ্মা

2.     1984 -George Orwel 

3.     Man’s Search for Meaning -Viktor Frenkel 

4.     Buddha -Graphic Novel by Osomu Tezka (2 nd time read)

 

2020 

1.     Screenplay -the foundation of screenwriting (incomplete ) Syd Field 

2.     Assam Accord and Discord -Sangita Borah Pichorty 

3.     The Real Munin Borkotoy -Sisir Basumatary 

4.     Palestine -Graphic Novel by Joe Sacco 

5.     Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari  (incomplete read as COVID pandemic started after I completed first few chapters)

6.     IKIGAI Héctor García

 

2021 

1.     The Life at Play -Giris Karnard (Autobiography)- First literature book finished on Kindle 

2.     মোৰো এটা সপোন আছে -ৰুবুল মাউত 

3.     I, too, had a dream – Verges Kurien 

 

 

The story of Sujata

There was not much difference between man and animal till humanity discovered language. Language gave birth to fiction, and they were preserved as folklore 

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gst generations. Much after that, humanity invented paper and inscriptions, which led to attempts for immortalisation by writing them down so that the sacred things could be persevered. With time languages changes shapes, interests change, and many of such stories go into oblivion.

The story of Buddha was alive in folklore, but minute details were missing. There was some tale of Kal-Ashoka the King amongst people, but only in some scratchy stories. Indian middle age was in the dark era.

A British soldier named Alexander Cunningham noticed some odd structures all over middle India. They had inscriptions in some bizarre language. Inscriptions resembled notes present in Tibet, Sri Lanka, and other Southeast Asia. Investigations, excavations, and scholars' dedication lead to deciphering the Pali language, the Rediscovery of The Great King Ashoka legacy, and many other things about Buddha.

Ashoka lived about two thousand and three hundred years ago, perhaps three hundred years after Buddha. His effort of immortalising Buddha was successful with the actions of the group of scholars in the last century. People started retelling that good old story which had many missing links.

The story of Sujata is one of such. When young Siddhartha was searching for exactitude, he took a prolonged fast, which was nearly fatal till Sujata came into the story. A village girl named Sujata took pity on the dying bright ascetic and convinced him to eat the bowel of Kheer she made for him.

An excavation led to discovering a forte (Garh) named after Sujata. The folklore is reconnected with scriptures found in that stupa (the curious looking stone with inscriptions that bothered Alexander Cunningham), and Fa-Hien, FHsienen travelogue connected the dots.

The rest is history.

Now we find her name, her story in many layers, many books amongst the guides present in the place …Did she become Buddha's disciple? , there were rumours of an affair? Did Buddha save her life once just after he was enlightened?

The Sujata Garh present near Bodh Gaya just near Phalgu river is proof that a girl named Sujata saved her life. People say that King Ashoka made a Garh in her use 300 years after she was gone. Then many renovations took place until all went to oblivion in the middle ages.

The place gave me a goosebump when I assimilated the journey of her story almost two thousand five hundred years after the incident took place.

Nicholas Roerich’s -Sancta and its link to Singhadwar

#NicholasRoerich (1874-1947) was born in Russia and was already famous worldwide when choosing Kullu, Himachal Pradesh as his home. He lived there for about forty years, and local still remembers him as #Maharshi.

Among his follower, he is known for the vibrant colour of his painting and theological belief. All of his family members are world-famous in their own right (a planet is named after the family as 4426 Roerich, His son Svetoslav (1904-1993) was Padma awarded and has a Bollywood collection)

The philosophy of Nicholas Roerich has shaped many of my thought processes, and his famous Painting series Sancta has a particular link to my Assamese book Singhadwar-সিংহদ্বাৰ - a chronicle of parallel stories, was published in 2015. It also received the prestigious Munin Barkotoki literary award in 2016, but soon the book went out of print. After a gap of six years, the 2nd edition of the book is about to release and on this occasion, here is a video regarding Roerich’s #Sancta (a series of six paintings he exhibited in Chicago in 1923 ) and its link to #Singhadwar for my English Only readers. P.S :Assamese version would follow soon

Preparing for 100 years of BhupenHazarika

 

I was driving to my office in Patna city and played  FM rainbow on the radio. I found the commercials FM station a little bit noisy hence the choice. The RJ was talking to some listener on the phone
'Bhupen Hazarika was borne in Assam', said one voice
That's the correct answer.' then replied.

I felt good like all PRE millennial Assamese dinosaurs do. I was delighted to hear Bhupenda discussed in the national forum and listen to his name outside Assam.
After some time, a song from Rudali was played. I asked myself, 'hey, what's happening?
Then the RJ informed that it was his birthday.

That's an even more incredible feeling!

It was his 95th birthday.
I saw @indranils post suggesting celebrating his birth centenary with some idea. And these thoughts came to my mind. I can see that Assam will be celebrating his birth centenary in 2026 with great energy.
But I also fear that most of it would be last-minute haste and outflow of emotions, so its impact would be only one year. But technically, we need much more than that.

So what can we do...? I thought we should plan from now onward to arrive at the best outcome.
What should be systematic planning and an able dedicated leader leading from the front with the help of all machinery?

I decided to type out an ideal way to commemorate 100 years of the bard of Brahmaputra.

I started segregating and typing them accordingly, and here is the masterplan 

1. Cinema:  His films need urgent restoration and digitalizing. With rapid deuteriation of rolls, it is a now or never phenomenon. It requires skill, money, team, effort, and help from Family, friends, authorized copyright holders, and the Government. I hope everyone will take it seriously. 

The list is vast. If all are not available for restoration, priority should go to masterpieces like  Era Bator Xur (My personal favourite), Pratidwani 

 

Filmography : (Source Wiki)

 

·      Era Bator Xur 

·      Mahut Bandhu RE

·      Shakuntala

·      Pratidwani

·      Ka Swariti

·      Lati Ghati 

·      Chik Mik Bujuli 

·      Roop Konwar Jyoti Parsad Aru Joymoti

·      Mera Dharam Meri Maa

·      Through Melody and Rhythm

·      Mon-Prajapati

·      Swikarokti

·      Siraj (1988)

 

2. music for the world :

 Just remixing his songs would take him to the so-called Biswar Darbar. He is already there. Some Dedicated, authentic sound needs to do with proper selection, maybe with good international collaboration  

 

 Song like  

 

জীৱন ঘড়ীৰ প্ৰতিতো পল  was a song on artwork -Melting Watch by Dali, it has an international Value ---so why not collaborate with the western symphony for re-appreciation of the song 

 

জয় জয় নৱজাত বাংলাদেশ – it is still fresh among people of Bangladesh, why not collaborate with a group of talented Bangladeshi musicians to recreate the energy 

 

জিন্দবাদ মেণ্ডেলা: With South African ethnic musician 

 

মই এক জাজাবৰ: It has a world vision!

মানুহে মানুহৰ বাবে: it occurred amongst ten best songs of last century in a BBC survey, as far as my memory goes, 

3. music for masses (North East and Bengal): 

মানুহে মানুহৰ বাবে is already being sang in various languages of North East lets not forget a single language (Bodo, Karbi, Rabha, Khasi, Missing, Adi, Nagamese, Dimasa, Garo, Mizo……….) a positive effort is being seen initiated by 

@Jiban Narah with  Laxinath Bezbaruah's O mur Apunar Dekh 

I could foresee similar activity to be done all over the northeast 

 

Shilong Choire already has done a lot of musical work. I have high hope they would also come up with some beautiful composition 

Similar initiatives are needed from Bengal Also. I fondly remember one of the Bengali Folk songs Where a youth narrates his problem each month hence differs his marriage, citing some concern to the girlfriend. At last, he confesses that he lacks money as all he earns go to Mahajan; similarly, there are many Bengali Song also which are still in the heart of West and East Bengal  (Ganga Amar Ma, Padda Amar  ma), that needs propagation and exploration 

 

4. Music For the Masses (Rest of India):

Gulzar sahib has done magic with the translation of his song, constructive effort like that should be mentored, propagated with thought with the thing in mind that Bhupen Hazarika does not become a Bollywood commodity.

There are many songs where Bhupen Hazarika addressed the 'Assamese' community which has settled in Assam and 

Hamara Bihu Bihu Lagise …for example, is for the Assamese people who settled from Bihar.

 

4.literature /journalism: If you are a public figure, people stereotype you. That has happened to Bhupen Hazarika also. People forget his works in literature and journalism. May be University /Research project can revisit them and bring them to be academic and public forums.

 

5. Lyrics: After ten years sans Him, around twenty or thirty songs are still fresh and reverberating in peoples minds. What about the rest? In this context, Professor Dilip Baruah sir did an exemplary job. A gem-like 'Sangram Logne Aj (fro Maniram Dewan) and many more need to evolve out of oblivion 

6. Legacy  (fiction, non-fiction ): 

 

Many stories are there in a public forum (fiction, non-fiction) concerning Bhupen Hazarika that needs to be collected together 

7. Museum: It needs a dedicated full-time curator with a vision, Government investment and much more

 

The list is endless, but I sincerely believe we should make a neutral body to take the lead. The past organization dealing with similar issues and making a mess of a social task should not lead.

  Govt and other responsible organizations should help the big project without trying to walk away with political milestones.