Offensive-Defensive National Security

COMMENT
The Devil Is In The Detail
May 28, 2011

TOI Crest Edition

Narain D Batra

America keeps a constant hawk-eye on potential terrorists. Less than two weeks after the Abbottabad commando operation, six people, including two imams of Florida mosques, were arrested for providing material and financial support to the Pakistani Taliban. For about two years, 2008 through 2010, according to the indictment, the accused provided money, financial services, and other kinds of support to the Tehrik-e Taliban of Pakistan.

It is the daily nitty-gritty intelligence work that has been keeping the United States safe since 9/11 rather than the shock-and-awe SEALs operation that killed and clawed Osama bin Laden out of his Abbottabad lair and sent him to his watery grave. This is not to diminish President Barack Obama's courageous decision;nor is it to take away from the valour of the Navy SEAL commandos trained for do-or-die missions and the hitherto unknown radarevading stealth helicopters that sneaked past Pakistani vigilance. But these are not foolproof measures.

Such daring missions do go bust. With one helicopter down, the Abbottabad mission got lucky. A similar audacious mission on April 24, 1980, authorised by President Jimmy Carter to rescue 52 American hostages held at the American Embassy in Tehran, ended in humiliating debacle. There have been other disasters too, for example, in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1993, where the Navy SEALs' two Black Hawks were shot down, requiring a rescue operation.

Just as we admire the US Navy SEAL operators, it will be a mistake to underestimate the Pakistanis;they have created the indestructible Taliban, the progeny of a most ruthless secret service, the ISI, which through selfmultiplying lethal cells and self-sustaining charities dominates Pakistan and casts its deadly shadow beyond its borders. The former British prime minister, Gordon Brown, on a visit to Pakistan, called it "the chain of terror that links the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan to the streets of the UK and other countries around the world."

Ponder over the well-organised Pakistani sea-borne commando attacks in Mumbai in 2008. Not only did the Pakistanis do a tremendous job of training do-and-die commando-style terrorists but they also used some of the most modern means of communication including GPS, Google Earth, satellite cell phones, Skype, and Vonage. Somewhere in Pakistan, every movement of the terrorists must have been monitored in real time. President Obama and his team were doing the same in the White House situation room when the commando operation was in progress.

India should not think of fighting terrorism with USstyle commando attacks into Pakistan territory even if it is capable of doing so. And it should ask its military commanders to keep their cool and remain taciturn when provoked by the news media. Terrorism has to be fought with anticipation, intelligence, and persistence.

Every so often, the US Homeland Security authorities revisit and update their plans to meet new contingencies. In 2006, for example, authorities discovered a plot to blast and cripple the underground tunnel system that connects New Jersey with New York City. The discovery was not serendipitous. The security forces were on the lookout for terrorists in order to pre-empt any attack. Besides the Homeland Security, every state has contingency plans. Federal and state governments work meticulously, and closely, to fight terrorism.

In the United States as well as in Europe, there has been a paradigm shift in thinking about terrorism. The strategy is to eliminate terrorism at the neonatal stage by establishing an early awareness system, which is different from an early warning system. The guiding principle is: what can be anticipated can also be prevented. Preventing terrorism at the inspirational and "aspirational" stages is the goal. For example, the plot to bomb Sears Tower in Chicago was at a stage "more aspirational than operational, " according to the FBI, when the terrorists were nailed down in June 2007.

Following the preemptive policy of dealing with terrorists, former US Attorney (for the Northern District of Georgia) David E Nahmias said, "We no longer wait until a bomb is built and ready to explode. " That's what India should do.

Europeans have been following similar antiterrorism strategies. In December 2008, for example, the Belgian police arrested 14 people on mere suspicion of suspected terrorist links. Six of them were charged with being members of a Belgian branch of al-Qaida. What prompted the pre-emptive measure was a concern to secure the European Union leaders' two-day summit meeting, which might have become the terrorists' target. The federal prosecutor in Brussels, Johan Delmulle, was quoted as saying, "We don't know where the suicide attack was to take place. It could have been an operation in Pakistan or Afghanistan, but it can't be ruled out that Belgium or Europe could have been the target. " Instead of sending commandos into Afghanistan or Pakistan, they combed their own backyards and got them.

US security laws allow intelligence and law enforcement authorities to trawl through places of worship, activities of charities, communications of suspected militants, and even their shopping patterns. The strategy "provides a common framework" through which not only the federal, state and local governments work but also "the private and non-profit sectors, communities, and individual citizens" are actively included in Homeland Security's efforts.

Outstanding intelligence gathering, pre-emptive and preventive measures, and anticipatory disaster plans will go a long way in eliminating the scourge of terrorism in India. India needs to create a culture of preparedness and alacrity that pervades all levels of society instead of planning commando attacks against a country with which, in the long run, we have to develop working relations.

The writer is a professor of communications and diplomacy at Norwich University

National Anthem & Rabindranath Tagore

How many countries owe their National Anthem to Rabindranath Tagore?

The pat answer will come- Why! two; India and Bangladesh.; owing ‘Jana Gana Mono Adhinayaka…” (= O lord of the populace) & “Amar Sonar Bangla” ..(=O, my golden Bengal) respectively to Tagore as their national anthems.

But, according to the following translated letter to the Editor of ‘Bartaman’, a Bengali daily (published on 12^th May 2011), it is three.

“The rank and file readers like us knew for many years that National Anthems of two countries were composed by Rabindranath Thakur (=Tagore). Few erudite readers, researchers and historians know the real history. But, after hearing the National Anthems of India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the arena of the World Cup of 2011, all knew that all the National Anthems of all these three countries were creation of Rabindranath. That history of Sri Lanka is being elaborated below.

Some student from Sri Lanka named Anand Samarkun came to Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore to study in the Art & Music Dept. Till 1940 he took lesson in Visva Bharati (University of Tagore). In 1938 Anand made an earnest request to Gurudev to write a National Anthem for Sri Lanka. Rabindranath did not disappoint his student and wrote one in Bengali the first line of which is – “Sri Lanka Mata…” (=Mother SriLanka). Anand translated the Anthem into Sinhalese language in 1953 and gave it to the then President of Sri Lanka. The President was charmed and approved of the song as his country’s National Anthem. Anand Samarkun had translated a good many essays, poems, short stories and novels into Sinhalese language and had become famous for that. It is needless to mention that Rabindranath had set tune to both the National Anthems of India and Bangladesh. Similarly, the Sinhalese National Anthem is sung in the tune set by the Poet in the original Bengali version composed by him.

No song other than Rabindranath’s was accepted by Sri Lanka as their national anthem. The Poet had visited Sri Lanka several times. It is known that Sri Lankans are mostly Buddhists. From the time of Emperor Ashoka they adopted Buddhism and generations down they had their ablutions in this religion. The students of history know, along with other religious priests the sons and daughters of Emperor Ashoka also visited Ceylon to preach Buddhism. At the time of visiting Ceylon Rabindranath had dissertated elaborately on Buddhist theology and spirituality in various gatherings with eager participation of numerous people there. As in India and Bangladesh the World Poet is equally revered in Sri Lanka. At the Poet’s 150^th Birth Anniversary also he is hailed in that country as elsewhere in the world with undiminished reverence. Paeans are still sung with deep respect and inquisitiveness. Daily he is researched in many countries.

Yours etc.

Satyaranjan Das

Retd. Head Master

Bharatpur Higher Secondary School

Raigunj, North Dinajpur.

Free speech in the age of 9/11, Twitter and Wikileaks

Free speech in the age of 9/11, Twitter and Wikileaks

THE ECLIPSED SUN

THE ECLIPSED SUN


By Rajat Das Gupta

“The book comprises translation by the author of some Poems / Songs and other works by Rabindranath Tagore (Nobel Laureate of 1913) in Bengali language.”

Read more….

http://www.indoindians.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=39&Itemid=120

Rabindranath Tagore’s Indonesian experience

Java-Yatrir Patra

Rabindranath Tagore’s Indonesian experience

Read more:
http://www.poonamsagar.com/2011/04/java-yatrir-patra-–-rabindranath-tagore’s-indonesian-experience/

Tagore and Vaishnav Hinduism

How Vaishnav Hinduism influenced Tagore literature

Rajat Das Gupta (Kolkata)

rajatdasgupta@yahoo.com & dasguptarajat@hotmail.com )

My book of Tagore translation THE ECLIPSED SUN (TES) was published in January 2002 more on insistence of a few North Indian friends of mine while I went there on an Audit assignment rather than my creative urge as a literary quack while my Audit profession put me poles apart from the aesthetic world. Conscious of my shortcoming, as a rule some explanatory note preceded my translation of every piece of the poems/songs I laid my hand on to prepare the mind of my prospective readers who would generally be wider apart than me from the lofty height of Tagore’s dispensation due to linguistic barrier. Yet, my quackery was sometimes naïve and I had left out some important dimensions of Tagore literature which a real erudite certainly would not.

I realized such an omission of mine in TES while in March 2011 I happened to have in hand an article by Dr. Jaba Chatterjee in the faculty of Bengali literature at Rishi Bankimchandra College at Naihati (an hour’s journey from Calcutta). Subject of her article was influence of the Vaishnavite cult on Tagore’s literature which I totally omitted in my TES, very unpardonably. In her dissertation Dr. Chatterjee particularly mentioned the following 2 songs by Tagore which are part of my TES, to illustrate impact of Vaishnavite cult on Tagore. So, I shall try to make good my earlier lapse by restructuring my the then introductory notes related to these songs with the historical context which Dr. Chatterjee’s article reveals. The songs are as follows :

1) Tomay natun kore pabo bole

Harai kshne khan

O mor bhalabashar dhan

……………………………..

…………………………………

[Note: With our limited perceptions we lose sight of God in our daily life. However,

we do glimpse Him at times to realize that He is our dearest who had created

humans to whom He occasionally flashes the mysterious intent behind His

wonderful creation of life, but only to be left again to the mundane. Is this

hide and seek His mirth, never giving us the final answer to our eternal

quest of mystery behind our existence? Now, the problem with Tagore’s

poems and songs often is, we cannot freeze it to any particular

interpretation and because of occurrence of the lines “Endless Thou art /

So delude as null to covert”, I am tempted to invoke the scientists’ Big Bang

theory here behind Creation if of course it means that the debut of myriad

manifestation in Nature, as we see, started from explosion of a single atom

and the Universe, now in an expansion mode will start shrinking again

as it will reach the maximum possible physical inflation and then will start

its reverse course to be again reduced to an atom, maybe this process to

continue ad infinitum. My earnest request to the readers is they may please

take my interpretation of the Big Bang theory with many a pinch of salt, if

not with a lot of laughter too. However, assuming I have even marginally

grasped the Big Bang, are we not still dwelling on the mundane? Where is its

spiritual dimension? I got a lot of spiritual stuff in the said article by Dr. Jaba

Chatterje.

In her article she has mentioned the following song of Tagore and also

another close to it ( No: 2- To Unite with me / Is Thy eternal journey)both of

which are part of TES and both as an impact of Vaishnavite cult She also

gives examples of a good number of other songs of Tagore influenced by the

Vaishnavite poets (e.g. from Joydeb’s (12^th Century) Geetagovina.(in Sanskrit)

& Bidyapati of 15^th Century (who wrote in Maithili) and quoted them in their

respective languages in original, in vogue in those periods in Eastern India,

including Bengal.

The crux of Dr. Chatterjee’s paper is, though human enigma about

evolution of life on this earth is primordial going with an awe, the devotional

blend in it assumed Tsunami height in Bengal, history of which is nearly a

millennium old whose impact deeply influenced Tagore literature since mid

19^th Century onward which may be noted in a large number of his songs/poems

of which, quite a few in my TES occur (besides the 2 nos. mentioned in this

passage), unwittingly hitherto of their Vaishnavite link, and the reader

may hopefully relate this introduction to those also. I am thankful to

Dr. Chatterjee for making available her erudite paper to me without which my

introductions would remain deficient as in my original TES.

To get anew again

I lose Thee now and then;

O my precious love, Thy flight

Is only to be back to my sight.

Thou art not to remain,

Endlessly behind the curtain;

Mine Thou art for ever –

Drown in the temporal for frolic mere.

On Thy search trembles my mind,

Passion waves my love thou to find.

Endless Thou art

So delude as null to covert;

Such is Thy pleasure

To leave me in desolation tear.

2. Amar Milan lagi tumi ascho kabe theke

Tomar surya Chandra tomay rakhbe kothay dheke

…………………………………………………….

……………………………………………………….

[Note: Since his evolution in nature Man is trying to grasp the mystery of Creation or God and that supreme hour of His perception is nearing us more we delve into

His obscurity.]

To unite with me

Is Thy eternal journey;

Thy moon, sun and star

Between us can’t be a cover.

Many an evening and morn

Convey Thy footsteps’ vibration;

Pass Thy secret messenger’s call

My heart to enthrall.

O Traveler! My heart inundates

As Thy heavenly joy there resonates.

Does there appear

The supreme hour;

My bindings are all over

With Thy fragrance the breeze does appear?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Unlock Their Minds

Times of India

Unlock Their Minds

Narain D Batra

Monday, March 21, 2011

University campuses in the United States are increasingly becoming wireless, enabling students to use their laptops or mobile devices from anywhere. Classrooms are getting “smart” in the sense that teachers can connect to internet sources from their classrooms, besides using other instructional tools. Many professors put up their class notes and other teaching materials online. Online discussions and wikis are becoming common teaching tools. 



An institute of higher education with graduate and postgraduate research programmes needs a sophisticated environment of virtual learning that allows its students and faculty to access not only its own databases but also global intellectual resources. Some universities such as MIT, Yale, Carnegie Mellon, University of California at Berkeley, for example, have made available their courses including video lectures online to the public. Through their open courseware, these universities have established global collaborative relations with other institutions and in the process built up their social capital and enhanced their reputation. 
 
MIT offers more than 2, 000 free courses online, including many courses on India, for example, “A Passage to India: Introduction to Modern Indian Culture and Society” and “Music of India”. As of today, its open courseware site has received 70 million visits from 215 countries. Some of its faculty members have become global brands. 
 
India’s technology elites are not lagging behind. Taylor Walsh, in a recent book, Unlocking the Gates, has profiled India’s “National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning” a collaborative project of seven IITs and IISc, Bangalore, which at present offers 229 courses mostly in science and technology. 



Making a classroom “smart” and globally available requires the university to have a professional studio/ staff to help faculty members to digitise and upload their lectures and other teaching materials online, apart from having enough server space to accommodate requests for access from the general public. It is an expensive undertaking. Some universities have developed virtual campuses for their graduate programmes, supplemented with periodic on-campus residencies during which students and faculty members make presentations, hold symposia and seminars. 
 
Of the various instructional methods used for teaching by American professors, the use of computer-aided instruction especially at the undergraduate level is limited to PowerPoint or video primarily to break the monotony of a long lecture. PowerPoint gives teachers an illusion of mastery of their subject matters but its excessive use can be a barrier to engaging students in class. Some students resent the technology because it tends to shut them out of live exchange. No one has come up with an equally good alternative to the lecture-discussion method that has been at the heart of the teaching-learning experience since ages. 



Lecturing is done primarily to establish an intellectual and personal relationship with students even if the same material may be available in the textbook. Sometimes lecturing becomes a necessity especially when a tough topic and fundamentals have to be explained. When the textbook along with supplementary readings is brought to bear upon a discussion topic in the classroom, you see the beginning of learning, which is further enhanced through projects, term papers, weekly essay assignments and the stimulus of quizzes and midterm and final examinations. 



Nonetheless, online teaching is raising some interesting possibilities. While in classroom discussions some students, especially girls, hesitate to participate, I have found that most students participate very enthusiastically in online discussions. Many of them express themselves freely whenever free-style discussion is encouraged. Online discussion creates a level playing field between the extrovert and the shy type. 



Of course, students and professors miss a lot when there are no face-to-face encounters, dramatic moments which occasionally result in witticism, humour and other delightful confrontations that enhance teaching and learning, and make the dialogue such a joy. 
 
Information technology causes stress on the campus because no one can always keep up at the cutting edge of technology. Even younger faculty members who have grown up with the internet feel stressed; information technology is not always user-friendly. 
 
Teaching online requires a different attitude because communication between students and teachers is asynchronous. Many adult students find working on their own time a great advantage. But how to get one’s point across without facial gestures and vocal cues is a challenge. Classroom liveliness and vibrancy, the thrill of being with students, are absent online. Lecturing is performance and some of us become teachers because it gives us a sense of participation in the learning process. 



Physical presence and face-to-face meetings can bring out the best in students. The adrenaline rush that one feels in the class when there is something unexpected, the laughter, the body language and voice inflection and the instant feedback, all are absent in the virtual classroom. How to bring one’s personality into the virtual classroom is a serious challenge. 



Global exposure can be an incentive for some professors to improve their teaching but the jury is still out on whether a smart online presentation is all that we mean by good teaching. But how can one disagree with the MIT’s motto “Unlocking Knowledge, Empowering Minds,” whatever it takes, virtual or real? 



(The writer is professor, communications and diplomacy, Norwich University)

Corruption in India

COMMENT

It's a matter of trust

Narain D Batra | January 8, 2011

Times of India The Crest edition

The challenge for India, a growing economy, a rising nation that wants to play a global role, is how to go beyond the trust based on family ties, old boys' networks, caste and religion - especially in a diversified and multicultural world - so that investors can repose their faith in the system.

The system must be so open and transparent that it creates verifiable trust and trustworthiness. There lies the future of India. 

Erosion of trust is a global phenomenon.

President Barack Obama sees the rebuilding of public trust as one of his major challenges and, therefore, the subject of transparency reverberates in his public communication. What is good for the government is equally good for corporate governance. 

Doing business is essentially building social trust, which is imperative for foreign direct investment (FDI), especially if a company is dependent upon global customers as many Indian companies are increasingly becoming. When enterprising families join hands with government, business growth can be rapid in the initial stages, because regulatory constraints and market accountability can be waived to access credit and investment.

The rapid growths of companies like Satyam, for example, was not due to the miracle of unique Indian entrepreneurial spirit but because of the government-family nexus of economic interests, contemptuously though rightfully called crony capitalism. 

Although crony capitalism is present in every society, it flourishes best where the flow of information, both economic and political, is limited.

This has been the pattern in most Asian countries and India fits into this pattern. India is a double-book nation and those in the accountingauditing profession do understand how big India's shadow economy is. The protected family-based business system reaches its limits of growth when it needs infusion of technology and capital for expansion, which can come from sources outside the family. Investors, especially now when they have many competitive opportunities available all over the world and can electronically transfer their investments instantly, demand sunshine, transparency, openness and accountability. You cannot separate business from politics, global corporate from global politics. 



It is possible to create trust beyond the family-based business system but it can be done only under the supervision of an independent watchdog authority that creates a level-playing field for all. In the United States, the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) monitors business corporations and stock markets. Markets are complex but fragile systems, which do not thrive on family ties but on honest and open communication with investors. But even the best system is open to abuse, as we have been painfully observing what has been happening to some legendary banks and financial institutions. Trust is in deficit now. Rebuilding global trust is the biggest challenge for corporate and political leaderships in the age of uncertainty. And India is no exception. 



Economic growth of more than 8 per cent during the last several years had made us temporarily forget about corruption until the slew of scams that were outed last year. Ordinary Indians pay a bribe of about $5 billion (Rs 21, 068 crores) a year for "availing one or more of the eleven public services in a year" according to a 2005 Centre for Media Studies/Transparency India Report. Can you imagine how much people of the super class - those who breakfast in New York, lunch in London and have dinner in Mumbai - must be paying to speed up their business deals? 

Initially, as the legend goes, the foreign exchange crisis of the early 1990s forced India to open up its doors to market economy. But India was pushed into globalisation by the information revolution.

The other India, its diaspora, especially in the IT field, began to show ingenuity for developing new products and services as well as for solving complicated problems, including the killing of the millennium bug. Bangalore was able to liftoff in spite of its poor infrastructure and in the process transformed itself into a cyberspace module that expertly docked with the emerging digital universe, partly thanks to Indian satellite technology, which was paradoxically seeded during the era of self-reliance. 

While the spectacular success of Bangalore and India's IT industry showed how much the Indian entrepreneur could do for the world, it also exposed India's vulnerabilities, its sluggish rural economy, massive shortfalls in investment for infrastructure development, high illiteracy levels, and a high rate of underemployed and unemployed people. The world began to look at India's underside. Indian policymakers and intellectuals began to grapple with the problem of economic growth, but they did not pay attention to the culture of corruption, a yoke on the poor. 

Sadly, the news media in India has not been playing its watchdog role robustly enough. Public accountability through news media exposês and relentless investigative reporting, especially through internet blogging and television shows, as the American experience shows, is a strong antidote to corruption.



What would make politicians and bureaucrats more accountable and responsive to public needs? Individuals who exercise political power should be made answerable for not only how they use the power vested in them but also whether they achieve goals with clean hands. Some problems facing India are systemic and call for structural changes. The system as a whole has to be geared up for growth, which means the development of a Grand National Strategy that covers every region.

Booming Gujarat and a depressed North-East cannot be part of the same country. 

If India were to build global trust and take its rightful place in the world order, it must fight corruption as seriously as it is fighting terrorism and insurgency. 



The writer is professor of communication and diplomacy at Norwich University

A modern Bengali poet

Joy Goswami

Foreword by Rajat Das Gupta, FCA

Professionally an Auditor, I have no authority to pretend as a literary connoisseur. However, penchant for poetry is everybody’s right which I have along with my passion to transmit the best of Bengali literature across its linguistic boundary, of course by my translations, good or bad. This passion was kicked up by a few of my North Indian friends in their urge to know Tagore a bit more than they did already before they discovered me while I was on my professional tour in Delhi. However, under their pressure, I started translating Tagore for their consumption in 1998 which they published in a few North Indian magazines until publication of my book of Tagore translation THE ECLIPSED SUN. During this time I took excursion into translation of a few modern Bengali poets also of whom Joy Goswami was one whose following two poems only I had translated but not published anywhere until now. With this very limited exposure to Joy, I shall not try to lecture on the merits etc. of his literature except that I liked intensely his two poems I had translated (in March 2000But, I shall highlight the interesting information I had read in The Statesman (Calcutta) in late 2007 that two Americans have brought out their book of translation of Joy Goswami’s poems published from Calcutta. A picture of Joy with a copy of the book in his hand went with the news and Joy appeared to be rather satisfied with this publication. But the news also informed that the two American translators were unhappy about some changes made in their script by the publishers without their prior permission. The news did not give the name of the publishers though of course the names of the two American translators were given. However, due to my carelessness, as is my wont, I forgot to note down their names and so regret my inability to mention the names here. But what is amazing in this news of commonplace strife in the publication world is, Joy has infiltrated even the American minds who are temperamentally and culturally poles apart from the Bengalees. So, this news on Joy should be joyous to the Bengalees!

Poem: MALATIBALA BALIKA VIDYALAYA (Malatibala Girls’ School, popularly referred as ‘Benimadhab’) – By Joy Goswami in Bengali.

Translator: RAJAT DAS GUPTA

rajatdasgupta53@yahoo.com

& dasguptarajat@hotmail.com

[Translator’s note: As per report of the World Bank, the benefits of ‘Globalization’ has reached only 20% of the populace in India. More frightening is, the economic gap of this 20% with the rest 80% is widening with time. In other words, while the economic affluence of the minority rich is mounting, the rest are drowning into the bottomless abyss of despair.

What is missing in such surveys is, how the dream for a happy home of the countless youths is shattered under this socioeconomic pattern for which we have to fall back on the poets. One may recall Tagore’s poem “Bansi” (=‘Flute’) where the young man oppressed by poverty absconded his nuptial ceremony, thus to save the bride from the misfortune of being his life mate. “That very hour I did abscond; / Thus the lass eluded my bond; / And I backed to square one / Her passage to my abode to shun / To my dismay; / Though she visits my mind every day / Clad in Dhakai Sari / Forehead with vermilion smeary.” Only this nostalgia could be the sustenance of the young man for the rest of his life.

Further, Tagore’s “Sadharan Meye” (=A Commonplace Girl) may be recalled where the fiancée of a middle class girl went over to England (for higher study) only to be beguiled by the glamour of the foreign beauties there and became amnesiac of his fiancée at home. The commonplace girl implores to Saratchandra ( the renowned novelist at that time, still a bright star in Bengali literature with his great fame for his empathetic novels particularly on tragedy of women) to write a story whose central character would be a girl (to be named Malati, the imploring girl’s namesake) forgotten and neglected by her fiancée (to be named Naresh, again namesake of the treacherous lover), similarly beguiled by the women abroad. But, the girl warns Saratchandra, if he stops there, it would blemish his image of a great novelist. So, as ‘Saratchandra is not a miser like God’, he should stretch is story further where Malati would score brilliant result in the Calcutta University, and on invitation from abroad, would attend scholarly conferences there and Naresh (having repeatedly failed his exams. there), along with his foreign girl friends, would in amazement be witnessing from far in the hall Malati being awarded accolades.

But, Joy Goswami’s heroine has no room for such fancy even amidst her grinding poverty. Her younger sister has opted for the underworld. So, questions the heroine her modern Dushmanta (the king in the classic Sanskrit story who had forgotten his fiancée Sakuntala) – “How come if I too / Be a base girl with taboo?”

Benimadhab, O Benimadhab,

To your abode I’ll lob;

O Benimadhab, do you still me recall

And that aches you at all?

O Benimadhab, under the Tamal tree

You played flute in musical spree –

While I in Malati school all in gloom

Doing sums at my desk in the classroom;

Outside stands the teacher with her hubby aside

With my lessons I slog inside;

Then just in class nine,

For ‘sari’ I do pine –

Met you at Sulekha’s, O Benimadhab

Upon my first heart throb.

Benimadhab, you a student bright,

From the town arrived, our village to sight –

I’m a girl mere

Complexion no way fair –

Escaped to the next room

As you arrived all in your bloom.

Benimadhab, in a shop serves my father –

Yet, in the woods, around flowers the humming bees gather.

In the evening I do err

In my sums, on freakish spur

Of my passion- for home task not so keen

While in class nine, in my sweet sixteen;

And there by the bridge on the street

Once we sneaked our meet.

Benimadhab, O Benimadhab,

Tell me the truth, do not fob,

Do you still muse

Those days of no use?

Divulged those to your love?

Glimpsed I just once your better half

Under the dazzling light –

For satiety of my sight,

Yet my eyes to blight;

But to truthfully opine,

You two matched fine.

Back home, as passed the spell

I wished both of you well.

Now at night I retire

In the bed spread on the floor there

At the room on the ground floor

Moonlight beams through the window to the door.

The sister next to me

With whomsoever now she be,

Is a pervert- lost wayward

At the crooked bent to the underworld.

Now I’m the sewing teacher local,

Can’t flare up and be vocal;

With my hand to mouth life

Daily is my strife –

How come if I too

Be a base girl with taboo?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Poem: Megh Balikar Jonya Rupkatha (A fairy tale for the cloud girl) – By Joy Goswami in Bengali –

Translated by Rajat Das Gupta (Calcutta)

rajatdasgupta53@yahoo.com

& dasguptarajat@hotmail.com

[Translator’s note: Children are compared with the angels. But, with age, their wings shorten and they come down to the mundane world from their dreamland. However, in spite of the illusion world of their childhood dissolving with age, the poets do not lose their aesthetic senses. Even in the midst of this rude practical world they retain their perceptions of truth and beauty and can still draw on their infantile nostalgia.

At grown up age, the realization that strengthens in the poets is that the idea they had nourished in their childhood that their fancy world was the entirety and that to capture that alone in their poesy would divulge the complete spirit of mankind, was a great mistake. Gradually they realize, the world is too diverse and a large part of it remains un-captured in their whole life’s aesthetic creation and many of their earlier perceptions also get lost with the flow of time. Maybe, from this very realization Tagore had said, “This musical dedication didn’t respond to many a call / Gaps remained” (Ei Swar Sadhanay Pounchilo Na Bahutaro Dak / Roye Gache Fank”.]

When a child, I’d marvel,

If for play I could travel

To the land of clouds and, true it came –

A cloud girl asked, “Boy, what’s your name?’

Answered I, “Magic Spell”;

Annoyed, she rebuffed, “Hell;

Such an absurd name can’t be.”

Said I, “No, not so, listen to my story.”

Said she, “I won’t – the same king and queen –

For all these trash I’m not keen –

Neither the prince and flying horse

Swords and shields will me engross.”

Said I, “For you I’ll rewrite, it’ll be mine.”

Said she, “Will you? That’ll be fine;

But it must be long and give me when done.”

Assured I, “I’ll write the whole earth for your fun.”

But years rolled by

Ere my pen on my paper I’d try.

As I wrote a page or two

A craze drove me for the quest of clue.

To the land of clouds I reverted

That me in infancy heartily greeted;

But not a known face there

I did encounter.

But one for me did tarry,

I asked her, “Are you cloud girl, that very?”

Says she, “Those I remember not.”

Said I, “A book you wanted me jot.”

Asks she, “Is it with you?”

“But I want it anew –

So float it in that lake

It now being all fake;

And yes, I’m cloud no more,

They call me rain, not to soar.”

That instant it did hail

Soaking me hair to nail.

It got lost with other rains around,

Joining the river streams far bound.

“They call me rain, they call me rain”

Rang in my ear time and again –

Wet and drenched under the tree

Mused, could clouds a mere store of rain be?

And not my ecstasy

That floats high free?

But some other rain reckoned me –

“Why be sad?” – asked she

“Go back and rewrite –

Might be to your less delight –

Now full monsoon,

It is Earth’s boon

We’re busy going lands far

To fertile the soil under –

So, mind your work, don’t slack

As clouds, again to you we’ll be back.”

I’ll write a whole Earth, a whole Earth –

So left home to find where I dearth;

Built a cot in the dense woods

Paper and pen as my only goods-

Alone to be left there,

For food, boil a bit of rice bare –

And I’d write without stint

On trifles as I might mint.

The Earth is of various dreams

The fairy tale that so deems,

Is mine –

Nothing else I pine.

Hell bent to write and erase

Day and night all varied phrase,

As my hands paralyze

I stop only to realize

I missed all year, month and date

And that too very late.

To my scribbling I take a closer look

To find I hadn’t finished even a slender book.

There is sudden shower

On my scribbler,

To wash away in the wood

All my life’s writing as I could.

Outside I find under the tree

The joyous peacock in dancing spree;

From one tree to other the birds lob,

Say they, “For the poets here we mob

For them we stand bold

Amidst storm and cold

For truth and beauty

To be sung through eternity.”

The poet from his cot

At the horizon lost his vision to spot

In his ecstatic mood

Beyond the field, river and wood

Where stands the mountain

To pour out silvery fountain –

Where rains for ever

Humans stepped never

Rushes the golden cloud deer

His juvenile days to peer.