To lunch or not to lunch

Let go

Let go of your hurt, your anger

Let go of your aspirations, your exasperations

Let go of your love

Look up

Look to the skies, a bright sunny day

Look at the clouds, floating in the windy bay

Look away from me

Live on

Live like there’s no tomorrow

Live like nothing’s coming back to you

Live laugh launch

Live laugh lunch

Absolute

”Absolute”. What do you make of it? As for me, I first came in contact with this word, may be when I was in Class 3 or 4. Actually, it was in connection to “Truth”, that is, “Absolute Truth”. Many examples were provided. But I remember one, “Sun rises in the East”. It was quite all right. I never thought about it for a long time.

As I grew older though, with a more mature thought process at my disposal, I started questioning many a things, which I had taken for granted earlier. So one fine day I start thinking about this “Absolute Truth” about the sun rising in the east. What is “Sun”? We, mankind, have defined a “Ball of Fire” as “Sun”. We could have named it as Moon or any other name. So, what is absolute about it? Similarly, “East” and “Rising”. In fact, “Rising of Sun on Earth” concept, with the earth seemingly at the centre of the universe, was summarily disproved by Copernicus and then by Galileo in the 1600s, who placed the sun at the centre of the universe and not vice versa. (And today, of course, we know the universe is so much bigger than the sun and our solar system, but let us not even get into that). Yet, our language hadn’t evolved to reflect that change in “Truth”. So, my more mature thought process told me that this “Absolute Truth” was “Absolute Bogus”.

Later on in college days, I came to know of another Absolut(e), but that is a premium Vodka. This is not a place to discuss that.  

Much later in life, after completing the trials of a busy family and working life, when I finally had the time and energy to unfetter my thoughts, I realised that “Time” is also a factor in ”Absolute Truth”. Let us forget about the above definitions and other things, but after a very long period of time, maybe many billions of years later, the Sun will lose the energy and heat that it is radiating now. Slowly everything will cool down to such an extent that first there will be no existence of life form in Earth or who knows, the Universe. So, the Sun will eventually become extinct. At that time, there will again be no “Absolute Truth” of “Sun rising in the East”. So, “Time” is a defining factor for any “Absolute Truth”. What may be true now may not be true in another era.

That is the Fourth Dimension. Time will eventually affect all other dimensions.

And that is how I, a layman, came to understand the concept of the Fourth Dimension, having started with the “Absolute Truth”.

Amen.

Sujit Sarkar

25^th May, 2020.

বাঙালি ও ঈশ্বর

ভারতের অন্যান্য প্রদেশের মত বাঙালিদের ও দেবদ্বিজে যথেষ্ট ভয়ভক্তি আছে। কিন্তু বাঙালি তো আবেগপ্রবণ জাতি । শুধু ভক্তিতে কি আর থেমে থাকে? দেবদেবীরা ক্রমশই আমাদের অনেক আপন হয়ে গিয়েছে ।

ভারতের অন্যান্য প্রদেশে লোকে এখনও দেবতাদের অনেক উচ্চাসনে রাখে, বিশেষতঃ উত্তর ও দক্ষিণ ভারতে । আমাদের এই আপন করে নেওয়া বোধহয় শুরু হয়েছে চৈতন্যদেবের আমল থেকে । ভক্তিরসের প্রভাবে আমাদের ঈশ্বরের প্রতি ভয় কেটে প্রথমে ভক্তি এবং পরবর্তী কালে ক্রমশ তা ভালবাসায় পরিণত হয় । এই ভালবাসায় নির্ভর করেই ঈশ্বর আমাদের কাছের লোক হয়ে উঠেছে। তবে এটা যত সহজে বললাম তত সহজে হয়নি, বেশ কয়েক শতাব্দী সময় নিয়েছে। ধীরে ধীরে হয়েছে ।

আমাদের কথোপকথনে, আমাদের সাহিত্যে, আমাদের ব্যবহারিক জীবনে এর প্রভাব পড়েছে।
আমরা মা কালী, মা দুর্গাকে এখনো যথেষ্ট ভয় ভক্তি করি। কিন্তু গণেশ যতটা পশ্চিম ভারতে গুরুত্ব পায় কদিন আগেও এখানে পেত না। আমরা ছোটবেলায় যখন দশমীর ঘট নড়ানোর পর সব ঠাকুরকে প্রণাম করতাম তখন একবার গণেশের ভুঁড়িতে হাতও বোলাতাম।

সাহিত্যে যদি দেখি তবে প্রথমেই যেতে হয় আমাদের নিজস্ব ঠাকুরের কাছে অর্থাৎ রবি ঠাকুর। রবীন্দ্রনাথ তার অনেক কবিতা ও গানে ঈশ্বরকে বন্ধু, সখা বা প্রাণসখা বলে সম্বোধন করেছেন। আসলে রবীন্দ্রনাথ তার কবিতা ও গানে এতই আন্তরিক ঈশ্বরের প্রতি যে তার কাব্য পূজা পর্যায়ের না প্রেম পর্যায়ের বোঝা অনেক ক্ষেত্রে ই মুশকিল । নজরুলও তাকে “বিরাট শিশু” বলে সম্বোধন করেছেন। সুনীল গঙ্গোপাধ্যায় তো কবিতায় সরস্বতীর প্রতি রোমান্টিক মনোভাব ও প্রকাশ করেছেন।

বাঙালির আগমনীর গানও এক সম্পূর্ণ অন্য আঙ্গিকের। আমরা ডাকসাইটে মহিষাসুরমর্দিনীকে একেবারে ঘরের মেয়ে উমা হিসেবে আমাদের ঘরে আবাহন করেছি। ঈশ্বরের প্রতি এই একান্ত ঘরোয়া আচরণ বোধহয় সর্বতোভাবেই অনন্য। বিজয়ার বিষাদসুরের সঙ্গে আমরা সধবা কন্যার পুত্র কন্যা সহ স্বামীগৃহে প্রত্যাবর্তনের বেদনা একাকার করে ফেলেছি। মা উমার সাথে সিঁদূর খেলাও একান্তই বাঙালির নিজস্ব ।

শিবের গাজন নিয়ে ও একই কথা বলা যায় । অন্যান্য প্রদেশের দোর্দণ্ডপ্রতাপ মহাদেব আমাদের বাউন্ডুলে জামাই।

বাংলার লোকসংগীত এ তো আরও কাছের
করে নিয়েছি আমরা সবাইকে। দু একটা উদাহরণ ই যথেষ্ট। যেমন, “কথা কসনে লো রাই শ্যামের বড়াই বড় বেড়েছে”। এর থেকে এককাঠি উপরে “মাঈ তুমি জলে না যায়িও, কদম গাছে বসিয়া আছে কানু হারামজাদা”।

বাঙালিরা ঈশ্বরকে শুধু আসনে সাজিয়ে পুজো ই করেনা তাকে একান্তই আপন করে বুকেও স্থান
দেয়। বাঙালির ঈশ্বরের সঙ্গে এই যে অম্লমধুর সম্পর্ক এটা সত্যিই অভূতপূর্ব ও অনন্য ।

আজ এ পর্যন্তই ।

Sujit Sarkar

২৪শে মে, ২০২০

A lilting ode to nothing

This is the story of 3 lost souls and how they spent a 4 day long weekend ... Chinese New Year in Singapore, doing next to nothing ... well well who's to define what is nothing?

The weekend was most importantly, one man's journey in search of love and how he found 2 knights on his way... they travelled miles and miles on foot ... getting help from well wishers ... our hero's passion kept the group moving forward... but our hero had nothing to gift to his loved one ... then mother earth told him to collect flowers from her gardens ... and make the girl a red bouquet ... and so they did with gay abandon ... while the quaint people of Lion City watched on in such astonishment ...

Then when our hero finally met his princess ... he sang songs for her ... and then there was a lot of eating and merry making for the entire village in this happy moment ...

And then there was also this unheard of incident of highest human compassion ... celebrating the existence of fellow co-inhabitants on this earth ... an elitisit celebration of life in every form ... even when the life is less intelligent than that of us ... so bourgeois yet so cute ...

And finally, the knights celebrated their valour with 2 days of rest ... punctuated by small feasts to celebrate the quaint people's new year, and a run feast at the garden of edens ...

They also ate orange fruits gifted by the strange men, and had visions of men staring at goats ... while one of them so valiantly tried to finish an odd shaped bottle ... filled with a shimmering amber liquid ...

P.S. All credit to Anoop. P.S.

Of idiots and their dreams

3 Idiots. The toast of the nation. First Hindi movie to gross more than 100 crore rupees in receipts. Let's come to the point. The movie was engrossing and entertaining – no two ways about it. However, it has provoked many to comment on the state of Indian education in general, and our IITs and IIMs in particular and the mad rush by parents to get their wards admitted in these premier institutes, regardless of the costs. The discussions at Suvro Sir’s blog have been further stimulating, and I would encourage readers to read the posts there before reading on here.

Now, I had been thinking about a suitable answer to Sir's post and the comments thereafter, but a logical coherent response has been very difficult to articulate. Having gone through the grind of IIT and then "wasting" it all by taking the CAT and getting into an IIM and landing an investment banking job thereafter, I must fall into the category most vilified in the movie and some of the commentators. However, from a purely emotional point of view, I would never want to distance myself from these so called "centres of excellence", because despite whatever misguided path I've taken in life up to now, the IIT and IIM have not been to blame. If anything, they have been huge positives. Of course, there are negatives as well, which I will point out. Overall, this will be a rather long, rambling and confused post. Please bear with me.

1. Why do some many people take the IITJEE exam despite not knowing what engineering really is? Because many of us just follow our parents' dreams, given the fact that we don't have any dreams ourselves. Because my parents come from a generation where they were not really assured of any financial backing, they wanted us to secure our finances first before thinking about dreams. The glamour of an IIT admission is not always the cause. More children in developed nations can easily think of alternative careers/ dreams/ passions because they can afford to, from childhood. They were brought up in a secure environment, whereas we were not. While that is not enough to kill dreams, the sad part is, at the point of my high school examinations, I had no idea where my dreams lay. Or my passions. All I knew was I found mathematics easy, I found languages interesting, I had an excellent short-term memory, I was speedy, accurate and efficient. I liked Chemistry as much as I did Geography. I had no idea where all this was pointing to. So I took the JEE, because I knew I could crack it. It gave me four more years to figure out what I wanted to do in life. It would give me a platform to pursue my dreams.

2. At this point of time, let me take the opportunity to share my loathing for all those who took one-two years off after their Class XII exams to attend some coaching centre in Delhi or Kota to make the cut. The advent and spread of these coaching institutes is the turning point where the quality of education in IITs took a nosedive. Before them, I believe only those children who consistently scored good marks in Mathematics and Science at school were “pressurized” to take the IITJEE. After Kota came, parents started to believe that two years and 3 lakhs investment could transform anyone into an IIT-ian. Of course, the quality of students does make a difference. I am not defending the Professors here, but why would the Professors take any interest in imparting quality education when the students themselves took no interest? For most students, clearing the entrance exam after two hard years of slogging is enough motivation to let their hair down and not care about academics any more. Thus, most would list their “Top 2 percentile rank in IITJEE” as an academic achievement in their CVs rather than a CGPA in excess of 8/10 in IIT.

3. I still believe the IITs and IIMs are centres of excellence as far as India is concerned. But, by no means are they the only centres of excellence. And it is up to the student to make full use of the facilities and infrastructure available at these institutes. The top IITs may or may not produce the best engineers of the country, but they do well enough on some other fronts. They instill a co-operative camaraderie among students as against the competitive framework that most parents strive to bring up their kids in. They do indeed promote the virtues of hard work, not only in academics, but in creative arts, drama, sports, technical skills, event organization, and even marketing and PR. All these are facets of active IIT life, which I have seen missing in most other institutes, where life is more about malls, motorbikes and women. And if smoking pot is a crime, I’m sure people in my father’s generation did it too, and they turned out to be some of the most dedicated engineers in their lifetime. Also, the fact that you meet people from all corners of the country, brilliant minds – some of whom are wholeheartedly involved in their thermodynamics and artificial intelligence and fuzzy logic, some who can speak in 9 languages and some who can convince Tata to part with 10 lakhs in sponsorship money by their glib talk – does help you broaden your horizons. That is, if you want to. If you don’t want to, you can stick to your South Point Calcutta classmates. But that isn’t the fault of the “centre of excellence”.

4. Are people wasting the Government subsidies by choosing to do an MBA and not using their engineering skills? Firstly, what exactly are the skills of an engineer – if you are saying screws and nuts and bolts, I beg to differ. I think it is the ability to approach a problem, analyse it logically and come to a scientific conclusion is what defines the critical skill for an engineer. And that should not necessarily be restricted to building bridges and assembling cars. In this context, let me also add, that speaking for the students of the Mechanical Engineering department, the first choice of jobs has always been among Tata Motors, Larsen & Toubro, ITC, Maruti Suzuki, Ashok Leyland et al. It is only because I did not qualify for any of these that I was forced to sit for IT companies like Accenture. And it was because I had no intention to pursue a job in the software industry and “waste” my talents that I opted to do an MBA, immediately after completing my graduation. Otherwise, I might have seriously considered honing my skills at any of the above companies. So why were there only 10-15 core sector jobs for the 50 odd students of the department, whereas there was no dearth of IT/ITES jobs for the whole institute? I am very sure I would have done more harm to my engineering degree by doing a coding job than what I am doing right now.

5. So why did I not get a job in an engineering services firm in spite of the fact that I was actually interested and was one of the few students who were able to secure the highest grade in the Comprehensive Viva Voce (the 30 minutes at the end of 4 years in the institute when you are grilled by 5 senior Professors on your cumulative engineering fundamentals)? It was because I was a complete zero as far as my soft skills were concerned. I was not able to communicate to the interviewer that I was passionate enough to do the job. That is where the Indian “centres of excellence” come a cropper, when compared to their international counterparts. The emphasis on grades, right from school, makes you feel that you are defined by your examination marks. Which, in the real world, is far from the truth. Thus, parents do not bother about the marks in “Elocution” in school as long as their kid scores 90+ in Mathematics. The first teacher who showed me the importance of this subject was of course, Suvro Sir, and thus, it was the first time in Class 9 that I got poor marks in Elocution. Unbelievable, but all the other teachers had just given me good marks in the subject because I was a “good student”, despite my all too obvious lack of speaking skills.

6. I have no complains with the underlying message of the movie “3 Idiots”, which is to follow your dreams or passions, if you are lucky enough to identify them early enough. However, I agree with Sir that hard work should not be undermined. And that the “centres of excellence” should not be the Mecca of all school goers and their parents’ ambitions. So, if our kids don’t really like dividing sin(theta) by cos(theta) or think integration is what the politicians of today sorely lack, lets not force them to the slaughter houses of Kota. But, lets not discourage them from a stint in the IITs and IIMs as well, if that’s what they want when they are out of ideas. They are not bad places. Maybe the greatest inventors and entrepreneurs have not emerged from the IITs in hordes yet. But, 4 years in IIT is a humbling experience. It produces good people, with hearts mostly in the right places. In terms of tangible achievements, there’s not much to write home about but I don’t believe that these institutions have been a complete failure, either. Contribution to nation building – ambiguous. Contribution to character building of individuals – definite.

P.S. Thoughts on the matter, anyone?

The race I never ran...

Of late, I have been getting this sinking feeling that I'm losing the race. What race, do u say? Well, for the moment, let it suffice to say that this is a race that the organizers do not know of, and hence, they haven't advertised it nor they have kept any prize reserved for the winner. If that still does not satisfy you, consider it as just another figment of my not too fertile imagination.

The race was never meant to be in the first place. 'Coz there are no other runners. I am running the race alone. At least ostensibly. I forced it upon myself to participate and now I find myself at the crossroads, not knowing which way leads to victory. But I am just too attached to this long distance run of mine to give it up so easily. I'll continue running as I have been doing for the past two years. This race has not brought any rewards to me, neither any accolades. On the contrary, it has caused me untold pain. But it has been worth it. It has been an experience worth reliving.

As I continue my journey unto life, this one race of mine and the sights and sounds associated with it will continue to provide a source of sustenance as nothing else. The race has been long and arduous. But I have been hallucinating of late. Of late, I have being seeing people on the stands, watching me run and laughing at me. Often have I wondered at their mirth. They think that I'm running this race for the prize. I laugh back at them for their naivete. They can have the prize, for all I care. I haven't even thought of the prize, for God's sake!

But as I stated earlier, I'm finding it difficult to continue running at the same pace and with the ame vigour as before. Something seems to be lacking. The sights and sounds have changed. don't get the same thrill out of running anymore. Have those spectators spoiled my fun? Maybe...maybe not. I can't pinpoint the reasons. I am getting tired. I can see but emptiness staring at me with her unforgiving eyes, daring me to continue the race.

I believe I have strength just about enough for one last sprint. One concentrated effort. One last try. One last attempt to breast that tape which seems to move for ever and for ever away as I run forward. Should I preserve the strength and continue my lacklustre race or should I make that one last effort? What lies on the other side? The crossroads seem neverending...

Watch Out for The Fingers!!!

Over the past few days, the fingers have been dominating me completely...to the extent that they have become the fulcrum of many a conversations I have been having with people...normal people, people whose lives don't involve having to deal with the whims and fancies of the fingers.
Lucky bastards, I must admit.

Living under the constant shadow of the fingers is not smooth sailing. That is not to take anything away from the experience, though, and I must admit, it has been a rewarding one, to say the least. Of course, you must keep in mind that it is me and not the fingers, who is doing the talking here, contrary to what some of you may have been led to believe!

So what are the pros and cons of the whole issue? The cons I will deal with later, but lets talk about the pros! Know what, these damn fingers seem to be very highly opinionated about any and every issue and unfortunately for some, they are not afraid of expressing themselves. Hence, neither am I (I wish that was true, but its a on-going process).

The fingers know how to deal with people. The fingers are strong, they can deal with hurt and disappointment. I am still learning to do the same, albeit under their apprenticeship. The fingers know how to take decisions, however unpleasant or off-the-track they may be. The fingers know that you don't always have to justify a decision. The fingers know all. I'm still learning. I hope I will learn quickly enough 'coz I don't know how long they'll hang around.

The fingers also know all about relationships. The fingers can define love so easily that it is almost difficult to comprehend. The fingers must have learned their philosophy from the Lord Krishna himself. At least, I get that general feeling that they are highly skilled in this area of specialization. And they teach well. And hence, I am getting better at this. There is no longer that niggling doubt in my mind, which has been my constant companion. Now I know.

So I go about happily in this world, trying hard not to feel the burden of my repsonsibilities and the pitfalls of my relationships, ably supported and guided by the fingers. I hope I can spread some resultant cheer!!!