Durga Pujo – the one time in the year, the Bengali diaspora in the world comes out in resplendent colors and simply gorgeous ethnic dresses and congregate around wherever the local festivities are being held. I suspect this is equally true for Bengalis in native Bengal but I have not seen a Pujo in Bengal for over half my life – so, I cannot speak from personal experience.

It is also, I suspect, the season for Facebook to upgrade their backend hard drives to deal with the sudden deluge of FB picture posts and profile updates of scintillating ladies and not-to-be-left-behind-in-their-looks husbands. At a very high level of pixel granularity too, thanks to the latest phones that I am yet to figure out how to make a quiet phone call from 🙂

But to me, this is also a great way to say “Hi” to a lot of old friends and families that I barely get to see during the year and make some new friends. I have to admit that with my terrible ability to remember names, the meeting of old friends and families often becomes embarrassing. However, I am the first one to admit that I am going to hit 50 in a few more months and therefore, I should be given a excuse 🙂

My most delightful moments in life is still with kids. Today, I was able to spend an hour with my runner friend Manas’s daughter. Frankly, I do not know (or rather do not remember) her name. And she had no ability to communicate with me – unless spitting at me is considered to be a form of communication. Some might actually concur 🙂

It is not the cherubic beauty of babies that gets me. It is their inability to understand TIME that mesmerizes me. Look at her. She has no comprehension of what is time. She does not know what five minutes back means. She has no idea of an hour from now means. She is absolutely in the NOW. There is no time for her than just NOW.

“That shiny thing on him? Interesting!! I am going to pull it.” She has no comprehension that it is the watch that someday will tell her time when she is supposed to have food – whether she is hungry or not. As of now, it is something to tug at.

“That black looking thing under my chin? I wonder how it tastes. Let me stick out my tongue to find it out.” She has no idea that a few minutes back she had already tasted my shirt and decided that it was not eminently edible. She has no ability to talk about “experiences”. Her mind is but a blank slate.

She is absolutely in the NOW.

For the folks who have a deeper understanding of spirituality (regardless of the religion you profess), would probably realize this to be the ultimate goal of meditation. Control your mind to live the only moment that is true – NOW.

Every time we fold our hands and close our eyes and bow our head to Ma Durga, that is what we are trying to do – focus our mind to be with the ONE.

And with that picture of a rather startled baby trying to understand why the uncle (and her dad) was disrupting her actions to get her to focus on some weird rectangular stuff her dad was holding … “Happy Durga Puja” to all of you.

This morning my blogsite “History of my Future! (First Draft)!!” – (www.rajibroy.com) got a visitor from the 100th country! I had always thought that the hundredth country from where I will get a visitor would be some distant small country. Turns out it is almost next door to us – Honduras. Not sure what having readers from hundred different countries really means but figured hundred cannot be bad. What was that old saying about you cannot fool all the people all the time? 🙂

[BTW, there is only one friend I know of – Sharmistha Kolay – who can name the countries for all the hundred flags – and just about any other flag that is there in this world. I might be able to name about ten]

“Jeb mein chillarewaalo –
Woh to baarish mein khule aam maaza loot-tey hain
Aur mutthi mein rupaiyawaalo –
Woh zindagi bhar panaha dhoondtey rahein”

Translated…

“Those who had only coins in their pockets
Went out and enjoyed themselves getting wet in the rains
And those with a lot of notes (bills) in their fists
Kept running for shelters all their lives”

This is a reflection on how people of little means often truly enjoy the free bounties of this beautiful earth and those with a lot of belongings spend all their lives protecting and sheltering them – mostly to realize that they cannot take their much protected wealth in their eventual journey.

Sixteen minutes to reach my destination, Google Maps says. But seventeen if there is NO traffic!!!!

One of the challenges of social media is that with the flick of a finger we can send to the world a link or a much-circulated post because one simply agreed with the message. One often gets so carried away that one does not stop to check the veracity of the words being forwarded. Sometimes one will even tag others even though those “others” are never mentioned in the post or in the picture 🙂

Einstein never said that he is “afraid of the day technology will surpass human beings”. Putting words in his mouth might seemingly add weight to the message, but that does not change the fact there is absolutely no evidence of he ever saying that. The most authentic source of Einstein’s words that we are aware of is a collection maintained by Princeton University Press.

The post going around that I refer to is the one where you see Einstein’s picture and that quote unquote “quote” 🙂 and then a picture of young kids on their phones.

So, that was the lie part.

Now the irony part.

You will notice that the youngsters never post posts that say “We are becoming dumb”. It is the parents, elder ones and allegedly wiser ones who feel that the next generation is becoming “dumber”. Or even their own generation that is taking to all these new fangled technologies with multi tasking etc etc. [It is a completely different point that they might be making their own point by forwarding posts that are patently untrue 🙂 ]

However, the concern and disdain that we might have towards technology and modern style of communication changing us (younger and older generations) is no less than what our parents had for us. You probably recollect how our parents never understood how we could listen to music AND do homework at the same time. (multitasking? what is multitasking? 🙂 )

Or what has happened for generations. Socrates and Plato were against written communication. They thought that this new technology will make future generations dumb because they would lose the faculty of memory.

Or when Samuel Morse (yes, he who invented the telegraph), as the lead in the Board of Western Union passed up on the opportunity to buy the patent to a new fangled things some guy called Alexander Graham Bell had invented because he thought future generations will become dumb if they used any communication without written record or proof.

So, let’s stop being cynical about newer tools and how new generations use them. Yes, there are side effects. None so dramatic as to make all future generations dumb. Human beings have their own way of adapting and adopting. This is how growth and progress looks from the inside. Over time, we learn to reject what does not work. No amount of Facebook post forwarding is going to influence that.

So, quit worrying. They will do fine. We will do fine.

Hang on now, as I research some links so that I can forward all of them to you with this post 🙂 🙂

[Disclaimer: If you are one of those that posted that Einstein thingy, don’t feel bad. There are too many of my friends that have done it for me to be able to single you out :-). Plus there is always the irony of critiquing FB posts thru a FB post 🙂 ]

I do not know the name the of the poet

“Ahista chal zindagi, abhi kai karz chukana baaki hai
Kuch dard mitana baaki hai, kuch farz nibhana baaki hai
Raftaar mein tere chalne se kuchh rooth gaye, kuch chhut gaye
Roothon ko manana baaki hai, roton ko hasana baaki hai
Kuch hasraatein abhi adhuri hain, kuch kaam bhi aur zaruri hai
Khwahishen jo ghut gayi is dil mein, unko dafnana baaki hai
Kuch rishte ban kar toot gaye, kuch judte judte chhut gaye
Un toote-chhute rishton ke zakhmon ko mitana baaki hai
Tu aagey chal main aata hoon, kya chhod tujhe ji paunga?
Is saanson par haq hai jinka, unko samjhaana baaki hai
Ahista chal zindagi, abhi kai karz chukana baaki hai”

Roughly translated…

“Slow down your pace, Oh Life! There is a lot of debt yet to be repaid
Some pains are yet to be erased, some duties are yet to be fulfilled
Oh! Life! Your speed led to some being angry; and some just went away
The upset are yet to be pacified; the crying ones are yet to be comforted
Some wishes are yet to be fulfilled; some work is yet to be completed
Desires that are imprisoned in my heart, they are yet to be buried
Some relationships broke after they bloomed, some broke away even before they could bloom
All those wounds of broken relations – they are yet to be healed
Oh! Life! You carry on. I will come along. (But) can I possibly live without you?
(After all), He who controls my every breath, I am yet to come to terms with Him.
Slow down your pace, Oh Life! There is a lot of debt yet to be repaid”

The alarm clock shook me up early in the morning. Half sleepy, still in bed, I was scanning quickly the mails and messages on my phone to check on the important items of the day. It was a FB message that completely shook me out of my bed.

Many hours later, I am still trying to process the news. It has been a whirlwind of emotions. Often my mind goes back to the king snake. That my father in law saw in our property when he was visiting us. That led him to recoil. And lose balance. And fall. And break his hip. Without that I would have never taken him to my brother in law’s house in Kharagpur after I accompanied him back to India. And without taking him there, I would have never realized “Oh! this is an hour away from Midnapore. Maybe I should visit Sibapriya and his parents!!”.

That was barely six months back. His dad was frail and was not in a physical or psychological shape to hold a conversation down with me. He could barely even recognize me from nearly thirty years back when his son and I used to go to the same school in white shirt and grey shorts. But I took a lot of pictures of him.

And the FB message was essentially to let me know that those were the last pictures I would ever have of him.

It is that finality of death that intrigues me and befuddles me. I know I am not supposed to be sad at death. I realize that death is a part of life. If I accept existence, I have to accept lack thereof. I recognize that I ought to celebrate Sibapriya’s dad’s life. Coming from the humble beginnings that he had, what he made of himself is something to be emulated. That he has raised a child as kind, humble and successful as Sibapriya is something I want to say about myself someday reflecting on my children. I get all that. I know that achievement is to be celebrated. And I do.

But it is that lingering…. “yes, but”…
…. I cannot barge into his house one more afternoon just to have a coffee….
…. I cannot go to his bedroom and ask him to sit on his bed so I can take a few more pictures…
…. I cannot ever say to him again “Porer baar abaar dekha hobey. Tokhon bosey aaro golpo hobey”. (“Next time I will see you again and we will sit down and talk about some more stories”)
…. like I did in September

It is that even small ray of hope that death absolutely extinguishes once and for ever….

For all that, I will take his limited life on earth any day. Without that, I would have never had a friend called Sibapriya in my fifth grade.

And that is the lasting legacy he has left for me….

Do you know what it means? Google it up. Good trivia “of the day” 🙂