Bengal is where my heart is!

           I always had such a respect or rather a feeling of reverence for Bengal and it’s people. Coupled with reverence, a sense that Bengal is  mystically beautiful also come up in my mind whenever I hear or read something about Bengal. And what to say of Bengali people, I find them to be the nicest people India has. Have you ever listened to a Bengali boy or girl talk and especially a girl talking in Bengali, it is the sweetest thing to witness and one of the most soothing voice your ears will ever hear. In languages, I love listening to russian poetry as well but  if I compare listening to russian and listening to bengali (though both are greek and latin to me ), I would love to hear bengali more and more. Nothing parallels the charm of listening to our sweet bengali people talking.

             Now coming to bengali people, no body can dispute that there is something unique in them which makes them special. First things first, bengali people have always been known for their  intellect and I believe that the tradition continues till today.  If you look, the genesis of modernity in the India of 18^th Century or so happened in Bengal. After all the great Raja Ram Mohan Roy was from Bengal and so was Ishwar Chand Vidya Sagar. Not only that, the revolutionaries activities too started in Bengal, for example the Anushilan Samiti and it’s members like Kudi Ram Boss and Prafulla Chaki, they were bengali too with a distict genre of revolutionary spirit. Arbindo Ghosh is another fine name. On the top of all sits the most reverent Rabindra Nath Tagore, whom I regard as one of the finest people India will always be proud of. His lines where the head is held high… are so inspiring for me whenever I read them, in fact they are the best lines I find, the most influential  use of language you will ever go through, something similar to the awe and inspiration you get by reading the lines of American Declaration of Independence.  In today’s times, I heard so many times Pranab Mukherjee presenting budget in the Parliament, it is so lovely to watch him speak, he is a combination of intellect and sweetness, otherwise intellectual people are so infamous for being so seriously boorish. Come more closer, what a delight it is to hear Amartya Sen speak or sometime read his works, that is a true intellect expressed in words.

                      Moving further, you find that Bengal was the cradle of our independence movement too. The Swadeshi Movement of 1905  is known to be the first organized movement India witnessed, though it slipped into a revolutionary movement at later stages, but the way it was organized in the beginning is a matter of great appreciation. Women came out on streets in the times of 1905 and they were respectfully given a place by the fellow people in the movement. See the beauty of bengali people that in their movement also, they could not do away with literature and poetry. Amar Shonar Bangla… which is the national anthem of Bangladesh originated in this movement only and was crafted by none other than Rabindra Nath Tagore. Move further, we know that Bengal played a important role in the national movement till the very last be it 1921 Non Cooperation Movement or the Civil Disobedience of 1932 or the Quit India of 1942.

                 Moving on to their culture, though I don’t know much about that, but still it is one of the loveliest India has to offer. I had just looked at some photos of one of my friends from  west bengal and how cute it is to find that they call the festival Durgo Pujo, not Durga Puja. I loved to pronounce that again and again. And then we all know the Roshogullas of Bengal are famous, in fact my mouth just started watering while I wrote that...haha. How beautiful it is notice the big red bindi, women in bengal put on their forehead. Or see a bengali marriage taking place (again I have seen that in Facebook photos only.), it is such a wonderful chain of rituals. Moving further there can not be any end to appreciating bengali culture if we start talking about rabindra sangeet and rabindra paintings.

            Well, there may be so many other things in the land of Bengal, a land which I didn’t have the fortune to visit till now. Wish I will go to Kolkata soon, see the yellow cabs and the trams and the white uniformed police and the Ganges and the jute cultivation and eat roshagullas and do things after things after things. I have such a intense desire to also go the Kalibari Temple, where none other then the famous son of India Vivekananda and his guru Swami Ram Krishna Paramhansa lived their life, how blissful that place would be I can only think sitting here so far in Nainital.

          What inspired me to write all this so suddenly while many other works are pending on my desk is my good fortune to meet yesterday somebody very charming from the land of Bengal and then many things about which we talked and talked and talked. And then suddenly, there is a book review of a new  biography of Raja Ram Mohan Roy published in latest issue of India Today which too is open right at my desk. See even today Raja Ram Mohan Roy is being read, discovered and rediscovered and explored…. I am right in saying so many letters of praise for the land of Bengal and it's people.
             To conclude, I am adding this little piece of music from Bengal, I have always loved listening to this fine music and I am sure you will too....