King's College is just across the road from my workplace at The Strand. Everyday I take the bus from in front of the King's College to go to the Waterloo British Rail station on my way home. Everyday I see the pictures of well known people associated with the King's College on the glass wall of the institution's Strand Campus.
Never did it strike the chord so strongly till the time when I entered the premises of the King's College to get myself enrolled for my latest academic endeavour. I felt a strong bond with John Keats, who abandoned his career in medicine to become a poet, Desmond Tutu or may be Martin Bashir. They were all alumni of the King's College. It is this special link with the past which probably makes us proud today and provides inspiration for the future.
I have seen such exhibition of the past glory in almost all the famous British academic institutions. Pictures of great Indians like Amartya Sen, Meghnad Desai, I G patel, K R Narayanan adorn the walls of the London School of Economics. Similar is the case with the School of Oriental and African Studies and the Oxford University, which has many prime ministers and presidents as its notable alumni. However, I haven't seen anything like this in the Indian educational institutions that I went to.
At the St. Xavier's College in Kolkata there were portraits of Jagadish Chandra Bose and Ramananda Chattopadhyay but probably the Jesuit institution produced more luminaries, who could be considered well known in their respective fields. That the West Bengal Industry Minister Partha Chattopadhyay is a Vidyalaya Praktani became known to me only after reading a report of his felicitation in a Bengali newspaper, although I have interacted with him several times during my reasonably long stint in journalism. Like the St. Xavier's College,Calcutta, Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya, Narendrapur, also produced many personalities, who later made significant contribution to either their fields of work or to the society at large.
From our childhood days we were taught to be humble and not to boast about ourselves. I still remember my grandfather telling me "baro jadi hote chao, choto hao tabe" meaning if you want to be seen as well known and hence respected you should be humble and not boast about yourselves. This principle, however, doesn't find many takers in the age of Neo-liberalism, when individualism rules the roost. One might not boast about oneself but should not be self evasive either.
What else could be more self deluding than being indifferent to the rich past and being ignorant about the good work of the predecessors. As a student of the Calcutta University's Economics Department at the Katakal Campus, I have never seen portraits of or commemorative plaque about people like Bhabatosh Dutta, Amlan Dutta, Santosh Bhattacharya, Panchanan Chakraborty and many others, who either as economists or as teachers were well respected during their times. Neither was there any knowledge or interest about these personalities and their works among the students nor any effort to make them (students) conscious about such things.
Engaging with the past bestows a sense of responsibility and pride for the incumbent generation, which is essential for success. Moreover, when the market has become the ultimate platform to assess success, probably marketing the past may ensure a better price for the future.
All comments are personal and have no bearing on others.
Comments on the post are welcome at the blog site.
Showing posts with label Kolkata. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kolkata. Show all posts
Sunday
Monday
"Duniya Dot Com"
It was a weekend of song and dance and also a drift down memory lane. At a Bengali cultural programme here in London, I came across quite a few people after a span of many years. As one recollects the years gone by, there is a feeling of nostalgia and also a sense that the world is changing everyday and getting even smaller.
Who would have thought that one day I would come across Samit-da here in London. Samit Ray is now the Managing Director of the Rice Group and we share the same root of growing up at Jatindas Nagar in Belgharia. Although, he is a few years senior to me, yet as young boys we were associated with the same Udayan Club for years. Seeing the organisation headed by Samit-da making strides in India, I sometimes felt if we could come across but never dreamt that it would come true of all places in London and that too possibly after almost three decades.
The two people who influenced me most in taking up journalism as a career almost two decades ago were my two great friends Ritwik Mukherjee and Debasish Choudhury . Ritwik had joined the profession during our college days and almost regularly we used to walk to the office of Kolkata, a daily which is now defunct, at Lenin Sarani. It was there at the Kolkata office that I came across Kunal-da. Kunal Ghosh, now the Executive Editor of Sangbad Pratidin,a Bengali daily published from Kolkata, and the Chief Executive Officer of Channel 10, a same city-based television channel. More than two decades ago he was one of our windows to the world of journalism and we would be mesmerised by the exciting stories he would tell us about shoulder-rubbing with people at the helm and getting hold of those in power, especially the Congress politics with which he was then very organically linked.
While in Kolkata, I came across Kunal-da a few times later but not so much ever since joining journalism myself. Probably, the last time we met was during a demonstration at Esplanade East, one time well known rallying point for protestors and demonstrators in Kolkata, in 1995, which he was covering possibly for Aajkaal, another Bengali daily. As I get to read the articles written by Kunal-da for Sangbad Pratidin, here in London, thanks to the internet, and with the political metamorphosis that has taken place in the Indian state of Bengal, it was a pleasure meeting him here in London after over 15 years.
Nearly 20 years ago when I first joined journalism, we were a group of 20, selected to revive an ailing Bengali newspaper, Jugantar, with a rich history. It was during those days when the print media had not been shadowed by the glitz and glamour of television journalism. Veteran journalist, late Niranjan Sengupta was entrusted with the responsibility of training us. It was during the training stint of three months at the St. Xavier's College in Kolkata that four of us - Anindya Chattopadhyay, Joydip Chakraborty, Santanu Mukhopadhyay and I - got very close. Every evening after our training sessions we used to cling like a group and it was so conspicuous that one of the fellow trainees then and now the Assistant Editor of the Anandabazar Patrika, a Kolkata-based Bengali daily, Ishani Dutta Ray chose to write a creative piece on the group "Ekti Bakul gachh ebong charte chhele" , meaning one Bakul tree and four boys. I still remember a Bakul tree on the Park Street footpath just outside the college.
Since my leaving Jugantar for The Financial Express in 1994 the four of us were not as close as before because of practical reasons but we were still in touch. In 1997, when I returned from Delhi, to join the Press Trust of India in Kolkata, I heard that Anindya has taken up a career in singing and set up a Bengali band called Chandrabindoo.
Just before leaving for London in 1999, Anindya presented me with a cassette of one of their popular numbers. Since then we hardly met, except for a brief stint in 2001. Anindya and his group have since grown to be one of the popular Bengali bands. It was only through his performance at London that we got to meet each other after a span of over ten years.
All these meetings, with the three very successful people in their respective fields,are sure to incite nostalgia but at the same time it gives me a cosy feeling of how small the world is becoming with every passing day. Technology and its advancement have transformed the world in such a way that even a foreign land is no longer alien. At the same time aspirations are skyrocketing in a globalised world with increased opportunities. Many professional Indians are realising that the world is there for them to grab. As I am sipped with nostalgia after drifting down memory lane for the past two days, I can only think of a popular number by Anindya and his band Duniya Dot Com. Those who understand Bengali would definitely appreciate the wonderful lyrics of the song. Even those who don't, and hence deprived of such a wonderful performance, also realise how the worldwide web has literally transformed this globe into a virtual village.
I hope Anindya and his band wouldn't mind me using the title of one of their popular numbers as the title of this post. It is me basking in reflected glory.
All comments are personal and have no bearing on my present or past places of work. Comments on the post are welcome at the blog site.
Who would have thought that one day I would come across Samit-da here in London. Samit Ray is now the Managing Director of the Rice Group and we share the same root of growing up at Jatindas Nagar in Belgharia. Although, he is a few years senior to me, yet as young boys we were associated with the same Udayan Club for years. Seeing the organisation headed by Samit-da making strides in India, I sometimes felt if we could come across but never dreamt that it would come true of all places in London and that too possibly after almost three decades.
The two people who influenced me most in taking up journalism as a career almost two decades ago were my two great friends Ritwik Mukherjee and Debasish Choudhury . Ritwik had joined the profession during our college days and almost regularly we used to walk to the office of Kolkata, a daily which is now defunct, at Lenin Sarani. It was there at the Kolkata office that I came across Kunal-da. Kunal Ghosh, now the Executive Editor of Sangbad Pratidin,a Bengali daily published from Kolkata, and the Chief Executive Officer of Channel 10, a same city-based television channel. More than two decades ago he was one of our windows to the world of journalism and we would be mesmerised by the exciting stories he would tell us about shoulder-rubbing with people at the helm and getting hold of those in power, especially the Congress politics with which he was then very organically linked.
While in Kolkata, I came across Kunal-da a few times later but not so much ever since joining journalism myself. Probably, the last time we met was during a demonstration at Esplanade East, one time well known rallying point for protestors and demonstrators in Kolkata, in 1995, which he was covering possibly for Aajkaal, another Bengali daily. As I get to read the articles written by Kunal-da for Sangbad Pratidin, here in London, thanks to the internet, and with the political metamorphosis that has taken place in the Indian state of Bengal, it was a pleasure meeting him here in London after over 15 years.
Nearly 20 years ago when I first joined journalism, we were a group of 20, selected to revive an ailing Bengali newspaper, Jugantar, with a rich history. It was during those days when the print media had not been shadowed by the glitz and glamour of television journalism. Veteran journalist, late Niranjan Sengupta was entrusted with the responsibility of training us. It was during the training stint of three months at the St. Xavier's College in Kolkata that four of us - Anindya Chattopadhyay, Joydip Chakraborty, Santanu Mukhopadhyay and I - got very close. Every evening after our training sessions we used to cling like a group and it was so conspicuous that one of the fellow trainees then and now the Assistant Editor of the Anandabazar Patrika, a Kolkata-based Bengali daily, Ishani Dutta Ray chose to write a creative piece on the group "Ekti Bakul gachh ebong charte chhele" , meaning one Bakul tree and four boys. I still remember a Bakul tree on the Park Street footpath just outside the college.
Since my leaving Jugantar for The Financial Express in 1994 the four of us were not as close as before because of practical reasons but we were still in touch. In 1997, when I returned from Delhi, to join the Press Trust of India in Kolkata, I heard that Anindya has taken up a career in singing and set up a Bengali band called Chandrabindoo.
Just before leaving for London in 1999, Anindya presented me with a cassette of one of their popular numbers. Since then we hardly met, except for a brief stint in 2001. Anindya and his group have since grown to be one of the popular Bengali bands. It was only through his performance at London that we got to meet each other after a span of over ten years.
All these meetings, with the three very successful people in their respective fields,are sure to incite nostalgia but at the same time it gives me a cosy feeling of how small the world is becoming with every passing day. Technology and its advancement have transformed the world in such a way that even a foreign land is no longer alien. At the same time aspirations are skyrocketing in a globalised world with increased opportunities. Many professional Indians are realising that the world is there for them to grab. As I am sipped with nostalgia after drifting down memory lane for the past two days, I can only think of a popular number by Anindya and his band Duniya Dot Com. Those who understand Bengali would definitely appreciate the wonderful lyrics of the song. Even those who don't, and hence deprived of such a wonderful performance, also realise how the worldwide web has literally transformed this globe into a virtual village.
I hope Anindya and his band wouldn't mind me using the title of one of their popular numbers as the title of this post. It is me basking in reflected glory.
All comments are personal and have no bearing on my present or past places of work. Comments on the post are welcome at the blog site.
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