2009

A little too late for the new year... :P
But never mind...

Last 4th Jan, 2009, on a Sunday supplement of the most leading Bengali daily Anandabazar Patrika, the Rabibasariya, I found some absolutely moving articles written by the youth of Bengal following a competition organized by the daily on occasion of the new year. I like some so much that here I translate some of them.

“Yes, in 9 (i.e., 2009), I want to see Rahul Dravid retired. But who will bell the cat? Why, Dhoni?
And to all would-be-fathers, don’t wish so much for a boy-child! If you have a daughter, ok, you may have to take care of some little troubles when she is at the doorstep of her adolescence, when her loving heart starts to blossom by the magic-touch of a young lad! Just keep a strict eye on your letterbox and the inbox of your daughter’s cell. That’s it! In 9, let the males love their beloveds a little less! Let the far-away females like Paris Hilton and Jennifer Lopez get dozens of “boy-friends”, and not “lovers”. Let more and more Chandrayaan touch the soil of the moon, let them remove the stains on its surface and come back. After all, the moons do want to get rid of their stains, don’t they? Let my XXL-sized sighs of frustration reduce in 2009. Boss, let some worker bees like me at least get the cork beside that of the Queen bee’s!” (Written by Ushnish Goswami. Jalpaiguri)


“I am not Matangini Hazra. Neither am I Mother Teresa. Nor I am any political leader. I am a very ordinary girl. Engrossed in the everyday din and bustle of my busy working life, and under the tremendous work load, yes, I do not have the time to think about my country, my people. My day starts with the panic arising out of the exorbitant prices of articles in the market. After this, while traveling by the public bus, I am alarmed to think, what if the bus tumbles upside down? Will I be able to reach home safely? The tension in the workplace is ever-rising like a lofty mountain! In the middle of all this, there are grudges of my male colleagues beating into my ear-drums always, that they are ever deprived of boss’s favors because, and only because they are males! After finishing all work from office, when I start from there, quite often, the hour-hand surpasses 9. A lone female, so late at night? Several comments fly in from all around. Many men try to help (?) me by offering a lift. After safeguarding myself from such helping males, and reaching home also, peace of mind is not ensured! I have to start afresh the preparation for the survival in the next day’s rat race. In the middle of the night, I wake up, sweating, alarmed by some unknown fear!
When the year is ending, and I have sat to calculate what I have got and what I have lost, I find that in the middle of such woes, I haven’t slept peacefully for too long a time! Those days of waking up in the morning with the last trace of the sweet dreams of fantasy, have probably moved too far away!
So in the next year, I would want to have some sleep! And when I wake up, I want to have such a newspaper in my hands, which wouldn’t contain any news of terror attacks, fights over plots of lands, violence, crime, unrest and accidents. Where there wouldn’t be news of murders, rapes, or female foeticides! Where the snap of the blooded roadway wouldn’t catch your attention in the very first page! Where there would only be news of education, culture, art, sports and progress!” (Written by Debasmita Ghosh, Kolkata)