Ma (continuing)
She called me this morning and said that she wanted to say something to me. I had just come in from my walk with Radhaballabi, alu dum and sweets. God knows why I walk! Weighing about 90 Kgs now--ate icecream and sweets three weeks back when Babu came and didn't get a chance to work it off!
She told me that she had remembered an extraordinary scene. So much of literature grows from just one scene or one image. Faulkner had written that The Sound and the Fury had developed from the image of a little girl on a tree with dirty drawers. How poignant.
Poets, story-tellers, are gods. Particularly, story-tellers. How many chambers and caverns must their brain be having. So many plots, sub-plots, characters, ends, combinations of events. So many. I find narrative the most fascinating of all. Sydney had said, that nature delivers a 'silver' world but poets a 'golden'. The Natyashastra too was considered the Fifth Veda!
Ma said that once on the way to Sylhet by road from Shillong, they had stopped at a check post. On one side of this post there was an orange orchard. Khasi women sat there trying to sell their oranges. Ma said, 'I could not make up my mind whether the orange was more brilliantly coloured or their skins!'
She said, ' They were not really interested in selling their oranges. Instead they were regaling each other with gossip and other tidbits and almost rolling over each other in merriment!'
How pastoral, thought I and thought she, too.
She said that at that point of time she found Sylhetis to be living in a 'goddalika' or closed lane or road. She said that the men were not enterprising. Having fish and rice easily at hand, they did not feel that they needed to work hard for a living.
She said that what she most disliked about them was that they would come to the house of relatives in Shillong, looking for clerical jobs there, and stay indefinitely. She said that the influx of relatives was such that the children of that house would not get enough to eat. I mean, not enough of nourishing food.
Community above all. Individual, counted for nothing. Modern day Sylhetis have distinguihsed themselves throughout the world. I have Sylheti relatives who are doing exceptionally well in the Sciences and in Technology. On an average they also have a great degree of cultural sensitivity,pride in and knowledge of Bengali culture, and innate appreciation of cultural forms. Some training of course, is called for, for these attributes to manifest themselves.
My cousin Rinku's cousins are the founder members of a group in Silchar that is devoted to Bhasha Awareness or Bangla Bhasha awareness.
And many of the leading Sadhus of the Ramakrishna Mission are/were Sylhetis. The first Swami Prabhananda and the present. Swami Gahanananda and so many others.
Swamiji used to say that because Swami Premananda went on the East Bengal mission, so many East-Bengalis were drawn to Belur Math and the Ramakrishna Mission.
I remember reading about East Bengali devotees of Sri Sarada Devi who would travel many hundreds of miles to come and see her at Kolkata at Mayer Badi.
She called me this morning and said that she wanted to say something to me. I had just come in from my walk with Radhaballabi, alu dum and sweets. God knows why I walk! Weighing about 90 Kgs now--ate icecream and sweets three weeks back when Babu came and didn't get a chance to work it off!
She told me that she had remembered an extraordinary scene. So much of literature grows from just one scene or one image. Faulkner had written that The Sound and the Fury had developed from the image of a little girl on a tree with dirty drawers. How poignant.
Poets, story-tellers, are gods. Particularly, story-tellers. How many chambers and caverns must their brain be having. So many plots, sub-plots, characters, ends, combinations of events. So many. I find narrative the most fascinating of all. Sydney had said, that nature delivers a 'silver' world but poets a 'golden'. The Natyashastra too was considered the Fifth Veda!
Ma said that once on the way to Sylhet by road from Shillong, they had stopped at a check post. On one side of this post there was an orange orchard. Khasi women sat there trying to sell their oranges. Ma said, 'I could not make up my mind whether the orange was more brilliantly coloured or their skins!'
She said, ' They were not really interested in selling their oranges. Instead they were regaling each other with gossip and other tidbits and almost rolling over each other in merriment!'
How pastoral, thought I and thought she, too.
She said that at that point of time she found Sylhetis to be living in a 'goddalika' or closed lane or road. She said that the men were not enterprising. Having fish and rice easily at hand, they did not feel that they needed to work hard for a living.
She said that what she most disliked about them was that they would come to the house of relatives in Shillong, looking for clerical jobs there, and stay indefinitely. She said that the influx of relatives was such that the children of that house would not get enough to eat. I mean, not enough of nourishing food.
Community above all. Individual, counted for nothing. Modern day Sylhetis have distinguihsed themselves throughout the world. I have Sylheti relatives who are doing exceptionally well in the Sciences and in Technology. On an average they also have a great degree of cultural sensitivity,pride in and knowledge of Bengali culture, and innate appreciation of cultural forms. Some training of course, is called for, for these attributes to manifest themselves.
My cousin Rinku's cousins are the founder members of a group in Silchar that is devoted to Bhasha Awareness or Bangla Bhasha awareness.
And many of the leading Sadhus of the Ramakrishna Mission are/were Sylhetis. The first Swami Prabhananda and the present. Swami Gahanananda and so many others.
Swamiji used to say that because Swami Premananda went on the East Bengal mission, so many East-Bengalis were drawn to Belur Math and the Ramakrishna Mission.
I remember reading about East Bengali devotees of Sri Sarada Devi who would travel many hundreds of miles to come and see her at Kolkata at Mayer Badi.
No comments:
Post a Comment