4th of July 2010 Celebration in Nashville -- CNN iReport

 

Malatibala Balika Bidyalay

Malatibala Balika Bidyalay

Benimadhab, Benimadhab, I want to visit your home
Benimadhab, do you still remember me? 
Benimadhab, when you played the flute of romance--
under the lush green canopy, I was a pupil at Malati School
Sitting at my desk I solved math problems in our small classroom
Outside the class our teacher alongside her groom
I was standard nine, I was sari
We met, Benimadab, at Sulekha's home.

Benimadhab, Benimadhab, well-read and smart
When visiting from town I am but dark 
Just one glance at you and I ran to my abode
Benimadhab, my father works at a store. 
Despite it all hums the whining little bee, in the arbor blooms life decree  
And in my evening study hour I miscalculate my sums
I was standard nine, I was sweet sixteen
Clandestinely we met beside the bridge

Benimadhab, Benimadhab, tell me the truth
After all these years do you still remember our past?
Did you ever tell your girlfriend about us?
I saw you just once together with her
Under a light, a marvelous light
I tell you I thought you two looked smart 
The sight quenched my eyes, the sight burned my eyes
I came home and wished you good luck.

At night when I go to sleep at the basement chamber  
Silvery moon rays illuminate the bedding sheet spread on the floor
My other sister, the one younger than me, is lost in the barbed thoroughfare
She just disappeared; I don’t know with whom she now resides 
Today you have, what will happen tomorrow? Tomorrow is the devil
Nowadays I am the neighborhood needlework tutor
Yet fire, Benimadhab, why the fire does not lit?
How will it be if I end too up being another fallen woman?

Recitation of Joy Goswami's original Bengali poem Malatibala Balika Bidyalay by Barnali Saha

Read It: Week 1

Read It: Week 1

I am starting a new segment in my blog where I will be reading to you snippets of some of my favorite works of literature. I will be reading to you poems and articles, short passages from stories and novels, etc. Every week I will upload one audio file and you, my readers, are welcome to share passages from your favorite literary works too.

This week I will read to you the final pages from Fyodor Dostoevsky's Notes From The Underground. This novella, which is undoubtedly one of the classics of English literature, stars, unlike other pieces of literature, an antihero. Like many other characteristic works by Dostoevsky, this novella too projects a hero who changes deftly from the role of a victim to that of the dispenser of humiliation. Here too, like his other long works, Dostoevsky belabors, and many a time contradicts his own ideas. Yet, in the end, he manages to put forward a static image of a dreamy antihero who is morally corrupted and emotionally torn. The protagonist in this novella (who is anonymous and writes from a dark cellar) talks at length about reason and intellect, about the false pretensions of the adoptive European culture, and the totalitarianism that ultimately comes from Utopianism.

I found the last two pages of the novella most interesting; especially the part where he talks about the importance of pedantic regimen in our lives. He feels that we (the novella is addressed to a fictional audience) are so dependent on books and scriptures for our intellectual training that there might be a day when we would no longer be begotten by living parents but fathered by abstract ideas.

 Dostoevsky's dry humor is strikingly attractive, and I am sure those of you who tend to marvel on the darker sides of life will find ample pleasure in this piece of literature.  

The Despicable Academic Situation in Arizona--Thoughts of an immigrant

The Despicable Academic Situation in Arizona--Thoughts of an immigrant



The disgraceful incident taking place in Arizona of immigrant English teachers being targeted for "bad English" evinces the blind-sidedness of a part of the American people. Such an unjustified, corprocratic view of humanity, of disregarding the potential of people coming from outside the United States is enough to prove the blind ignavia that the country has sunk into. The founding importance given to the superiority of red-blooded Americans: people born and raised in the United States, doesn’t hold true in modern day perspective. Consider what you will, but such an idea of survival is defunct in a digital age and the bigotry and racism that such a thought begets are threats to the worldwide human right issues. Here, I would like to share a little personal incident that took place a few weeks ago. I was taking an online writing course and one of my classmates thought, even before she had any idea of my academic background, that I might be having "language issues". I was really hurt by her comment, and had to explicate in my reply the fact that like her I too studied English as my first language all my life. People like her are everywhere, does that mean that in every walk of our lives, we, the non-native Americans, have to carry our letters of recommendation proving our credentials in our side pocket? The world is heading towards becoming one unified globalized city where language and complexion differences are not given any importance anymore. Moreover, propagating such ideas as Americans might not understand the words spoken to them by immigrants also sound obtuse since most American states have distinct languages of their own and they, in many cases, fail to understand each other. People from the North often denounce the speech of the South, and vice-versa The bruised relationship caused by the Civil War between the Northern and Southern states might have healed over time, but their points of view have not changed yet. It is frequently taken for granted, even today, that all the refined, democratic ideas of change and revival come from the North, while the South is still known for its intrinsic troglodytic nature. People living in the Midwest Bible Belt are taken as more religious than rest of America. Such believes are siblings of a lost era, today, they make absolutely no sense whatsoever. Religion is ones own personal choice, and one doesn’t need to dwell in a particular area to be deeply religious. I think what I am trying to say is that simply holding differences in ones biological background as the focal point of judgment of the person's expertise is wrong and unjustified and so is firing teachers for the make-belief idea of their being unworthy pedants just because they are not Americans. Auditing certified immigrant teachers for "bad grammar and mispronounced words" is unjust. You cannot asses one's proficiency based the idea that a language has to be spoken in a particular way, and that any divergence from the set norm will be regarded as a public offence. People who dwell on such theories need to consider the neological attitude of the Twitter-centric world.



American vocabulary has long been held hostage for the imperfect use of certain words. In US lexicon colour is written as color; traveller as traveler, and so on. The US vocabulary has also contorted certain accepted terms and names: Iraq [ih-rahk], for example, is often called as AI-raq, a word which stresses on the sound of I, thereby twisting the common consentaneous expression into an unconstitutional one. If grammatical mishaps are taken into consideration then President Bush is also to be condemned for the unpardonable verbal misstep of calling nuclear as new-killer-- a word having no grammatical basis whatsoever.



Finally, let us end our little talk with Martin Luther King Jr.'s immortal words: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." The liberty land is a land of opportunities, a land which boasts the principle of universal brotherhood like no other nation in the world. The United States has given shelter, love, and, most importantly, hope to several weary immigrants. In the global community the USA is known for its fairness and tolerance, thus it pains to see the other side of this beloved country that presents a disagreement of the said belief.

Thoughts on Khaled Hosseni's Senior Day Speech at Vanderbilt University.

There are dreams, and then there is reality. There are dazzling kites of imagination, and then there are a thousand splendid suns each beaming with indomitable, indefatigable hope. Everyday is a new journey, a journey not to an unknown isle, but to the vast expanses of the untamed, natural depth of our own mind. Everyday we learn and everyday we forget what we have learned the day before. A never-ending process of learning and forgetting continues with the cycle of our tamed chronicles in this earth. Only a few people can come out of that clichéd cycle and soar high with the kites of imagination, these people are the plenipotentiaries of god, angels in human form who positively change the world in ways far greater than the humble multitude could ever imagine. Today I had the privilege of listening to one such inspiring figure -- author and humanitarian -- Dr. Khaled Hosseni. Having read two of his best selling novels -- The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns-- I have developed a deep sense of respect and admiration for this wonderful novelist. Both his momentous works are spectacular, bewitching narratives that talk human connections, the intransigence of quite souls, and the hardships of life in a land far beyond the reach of technological advances. The fact that the real voice of war is pain, that jingoistic hubris of war-heroes is not a mark of jubilation, but a deep scar on the face of humankind who have been affected by the afterclap of the said war. Hosseni talk about suffering, about freedom and about the strength that imbues through suffering. Hosseni's novels set in pre-war Kabul, Afghanistan, tell the story of a beautiful world that is destroyed by violence. How grave violence is and how small are we in front of cacodemons of nuclear revolution, civil wars, terrorism. But life always offers us oasis of hope, and ultimately it is hope that sustains us through unbeknownst adversities. It is peace and hope that Hosseni's work ultimately propagates.

Born in Kabul in 1965, Khaled Hosseni left Kabul with his parents in 1970 and settled in the United States. Later he went on to earn a Bachelor's Degree and a MD before taking up writing as his sole profession. Dr. Hosseni is a well known ambassador of peace. The Khaled Hosseni Foundation (www.khaledhosseni.com) born after his trip to North Afghanistan in 2007 partners with several non-profit organizations and provides humanitarian aid to the devastated refugees, children and women, living in underdeveloped areas in Afghanistan. His work both as a writer and as humanitarian is outstanding. It was a great experience listening to a real-life hero.

Throughout his inspiring lecture, Dr. Hosseni talked about change, his belief in moral upliftment through education and the lifelong process of learning. The nonconstructive power of apathy, Hosseni says, has a crippling effect on human mind, one should never fall prey to the negative impulse of apathy. He talked at length about social skills and how we could use our innate social skills to create a better world and become not citizens of one country, but caring global citizens. The goal of life is much bigger than we think it us and it is through ones own behavior that one sets a standard in life. Finally he feels that it is important to be educated about what is going on in the world. One needs to have a broader picture of the world to understand ones calling.

Hosseni's Senior Day speech has been an overwhelming experience for me. I am embedding the You Tube Video of the lecture for my readers. I wish they also get inspired to do something good.