What's in a name!

"I Pity the Fool" is an American reality
television series on TV Land  
starring Mr T 

"What's in a name," they might say, but when I joined the BBC in 1999, my Regional Head Elizabeth Wright confided that the reason why she decided to officially see me later than expected was because of my name. She needed some time and probably a bit of practice to decently pronounce my name.
Tirthankar Bandyopadhyay, a 23-letter name is not only mouthful but also quite a difficult one to pronounce even by the Indian standard. No wonder, the elderly White British people in my neighbourhood chose to rename me "Tito". Everytime they apologetically address me by that name, I assuage myself by babbling the Shakespearean phrase from Romeo and Juliet.
My colleagues at West Thames College are even smarter. They have reduced me to "Mr T", of course with my consent. Little did I know that the name was linked to an American television character and our looks and nature were miles apart.

About a decade ago, subaltern historian from Chicago Dipesh Chakarabarty wrote in the Anandabazar Patrika how strangely his surname was pronounced by a cabbie to give it a different connotation.

However, transformation of names to facilitate easy pronunciation is not uncommon. Sunil becomes Sam, Banerjee - Beny or Banjo and Sukhbinder - Suki or Sukh. But all these are in the West and Indians, especially Bengalis take pride in the fact that their tongues are flexible enough to pronounce difficult names easily.

Sea Bass becomes Basa Fish in India

Tonight during our dinner, my wife Sonali narrated a story of how the name of a fish has undergone metamorphosis - thanks to the upward mobile Indian middle class - which is hilarious to say the least. The laughter that followed lightened the sombre mood at the dinning table ahead of a dull Monday morning.
Sonali gathered from her Facebook friends that Sea Bass, a sweet, white, textured fish, caught in the North Atlantic, from Norway to Senegal, is known as 'Basa' in many parts of India and is gradually becoming a prestigious delicacy among the ever expanding middle class. To add a vanity touch, the word 'fish' follows 'Bassa' rather than its usual vernacular versions.

Our local fish monger sells Sea Bream alongside Sea Bass and he hails from Afghanistan. "What's left of globalisation," I said to myself ! Globalisation may be a great leveller but names still matter.

** The comedy of errors with names continues. My friend Suddhasattwa Bandyopadhyay pointed out on Facebook that what is known as Basa Fish in India is actually "Pangasius Bocourti" and not Sea Bass.

Tirthankar Bandyopadhyay is a journalist and media consultant. 
He can be contacted at tirthankarb@hotmail.com 

All comments are personal.

Melancholic happiness

The grey morning in London is followed by a drizzle and then a heavy shower. It always feels cosy to sit in the comfort of home and watch the downpour outside. It renders a sense of melancholy but the pensive feeling is filled with the joy of satisfaction.

The weeklong half-term break is almost over and life is going to be hectic as usual from Monday. Sitting in the confines of Starbucks on Hounslow High Street, the dull and grey outside comes with a refreshing feeling.

The drizzle and the nagging spells of shower are very much part of the London I like and love. Laziness creeps in, one is distracted from the long list of things to be completed before a working week sets in, and yet the downpour and the accompanying dreariness is comparable to the freshness of having a deep breath in the lush green English countryside.


The waiter at Starbucks has already reminded me that I have sat for too long in lieu of the regular cappuccino that my good friend Rajat Dey bought me this morning. The anxiety is palpable as quite a few people are waiting in the aisle to relish their drinks in a bid to save themselves from the autumn downpour.

The gloom is not necessarily joyless and the sun peeping out will only act as a dampener to the melancholic happiness.

Tirthankar Bandyopadhyay is a journalist and media consultant. 
He can be contacted at tirthankarb@hotmail.com 

All comments are personal.

Reading Nehru may help Mr Vadra

November marks an important month when it comes to Indian politics. For a country which easily falls for hero-worship and paying obesiance is synonymous to public outpouring of respect for the national leaders on their birth and death anniversaries rather than delving on their legacy, November assumes significance as two of India's prime ministers were born in this month.

India's first prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was born on the 14th day of November and this year marks his 125th birth anniversary. His daughter Indira Gandhi was born on November 19 and this year completes three decades since she was brutally assassinated by her bodyguards. Both father and daughter have made significant contributions as prime minister in shaping India's polity and left a rich legacy.

Nehru was known for his rich vision of nation-building and although one might disagree with him but no one could question his intellectual and political acumen. He has influenced many in shaping their intellectual thoughts.

Recently, I came across an article by Dipesh Chakrabarty, a well known historiographer on South Asia whose works range from the modern to Subaltern Studies. In the article titled "In the Name of Politics: Sovereignty, Democracy, and the Multitude in India" (Economic and Political Weekly; Jul 23 2005), the author makes a comparison between 'colonial sovereignty' and its post-colonial version. Although set in a different context, Chakrabarty makes extensive use of Nehru's speeches in the initial years of independent India.

Talking to a group of agitating students in Patna in August 1955, Nehru said, "demonstrations and hooliganism"  were not appropriate forms of protest in an independent country. A few days earlier in Guwahati he observed, "No strong nation indulges in throwing stones and behaving like hooligans. Any fool can do that."  (Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru; Vol 29, p:57).

Nehru's observation can be debated, but it came to my mind when an Indian television channel beamed an agitated Robert Vadra, the husband of Priyanka Vadra (nee Gandhi) - Panditji's great grand daughter, pushing the mic of a video journalist after being asked about his allegedly questionable land deals in Haryana.

One may find it a bit out of place to establish a link between a visually brazen Vadra with Nehru's observation on the nature of protests in independent India, but the comparison becomes easier when one is mindful of the fact that the much talked about great grandson-in-law of India's first prime minister behaved like a tearaway.

Politics in a democracy, according to Nehru, must be based on 'discussions, debates an discipline' and he believed in it with similar conviction even in the civil sphere. Vadra has clearly violated the norm as defined by his great grandfather-in-law by pushing the mic of the newsperson and virtually intimidating him by asking several times if he was "serious". Vadra had every right in not responding to the query of the journalist but to act in a seemingly violent way goes beyond the realm of civility.

Nehru believed in the power of education as he thought it was the way to enlightenment. Vadra is probably unaware of the civilities necessary to be in public life and needs a dose of enlightenment in the form of education. The cavaliar in him would do well to read Nehru before he exposes himself to another incident of recklessness.

Tirthankar Bandyopadhyay is a journalist and media consultant.
He can be contacted at tirthankarb@hotmail.com
All comments are personal.

Do we need borders in 21st Century

Small is beautiful. Let's have small states with no artificial borders separating the stream of humanity. This afternoon at home I was glossing over "Letters From a Father to his Daughter" - a series of letters written by Nehru to Indira while he was in prison. I could see how race, religion, caste, creed, nations, continents were carved out to create artificial barriers to the free flowing stream of humanity. These segregations made it easier for the rulers to dominate the governed.

To visualise a borderless world order may seem Utopian but the latest phase of globalisation, i.e. Technological Globalisation, is inching us towards that direction. The compression of time and space, technology being a great leveller, the democratic potential of the social media, will hopefully one day not only provincialise the world as in Europe, but  flatten the globe even further rendering it transparent and visible from every possible corner.

I must admit that the issue of Scottish independence never seemed a big deal for me even a week ago. Europe being a provincialised continent, the possible break away of Scotland seemed more of a nuance of nationalism, but its extrapolation on a global canvas added greater intellectual flavour to it.

Do we need states, borders, boundaries in a 21st Century world order? Possibly there is no straight answer to it. As technological development and free flow of capital make the world flatter, intrinsic identities are spearheading. As class as an intellectual project becomes relatively less relevant, caste situates itself at the very heart of important discourses.

Weakening of nation states makes way for nationalism, ultra-nationalism and even parochialism to grab the centre stage. As the distinction between the global and local become blurred, local issues project themselves as sand dunes amidst the vast desert of globalism.

It is challenging to identify the possible reasons that changeth the world, nonetheless it is a very interesting moment in our history.

Tirthankar Bandyopadhyay is a journalist and media consultant. 
He can be contacted at tirthankarb@hotmail.com 
All comments are personal.

Modi's silence & journalistic clientelism

Journalism they say is "literature written in a hurry". The comment is attributed to British poet and cultural critic Mathew Arnold. It takes a bit of research to find out that there are doubts as to whether the 19th Century sage writer really made the comments attributed to him.

Irrespective of whether Arnold made these comments or not, there is a qualitative difference between journalism and serious academic and reflective writing. When I joined the Press Trust of India (PTI) in Delhi, one of the editors, Arun Kumar told us that the language used in news reports should be such so as to make it clear and interesting even to a person travelling in a crowded train in Mumbai.

Do clarity and making things interesting oversimplify the subject?

I have no clue and there are differences in opinion on this. After having spent two decades in journalism, it seems that journalists generally are in the habit of thinking very high of themselves. Does this sense of self-importance evolve from their intellectual prowess or their ability to grasp and analyse very quickly or efficiency to simplify things or for going places and rubbing shoulders with the powerful?

Again, I don't have any definite answer, but a good friend of mine from my school and college days who was also my colleague briefly in a newspaper once jocularly retorted that "we reporters are nothing but a bit more respected porters." The comment made in lighter vain was not intended to depict any disrespect for those who serve the society by carrying out heavy and difficult manual jobs with ease and efficiency but only to self-asses a profession one was in.

When I first joined journalism by chance, a few years after my friend did, I was inclined to be a reporter as well. It was not only because of a desire to have many bylines - as it is the usual practice that reporters get bylines and the sub-editors and others at the news desk do a thankless job and lead a life in anonymity - but also to be known by the people, develop contacts and be visible. This visibility, which initially makes one proud gradually gets transformed into a form of self-proclaimed power, often demonstrated by throwing one's own professional lot even to get personal things done without caring about their legal, ethical and moral implications.

It's not the reporter alone who is to be blamed. There are stories galore to prove that officials and those who matter succumb to someone flaunting his or her press card rather than attending a genuine cause. Such is the power of the media that even people with enormous influence believe that it can make and unmake careers. This power, if any, flows from the social perception that the media contributes hugely to build or break much sought after fame. In my journalistic career, I have come across many instances when people were right but floundered because the media portrayed the wrong thing.

It is this perception that is trying to paint a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi being suspiciously silent about his plans and actions. Many are apprehensive that the man, who is perceived to be divisive, is silently executing his game plan, others think that once on the hot seat he is bewildered and doesn't know how to cope.

While it is the job of the journalists to be inquisitive, ask questions and reflect not only public opinion but also collective queries of the society, but the silence of the prime minister is increasingly making the media restive. Dr Manmohan Singh was also a man of few words, but the silence of someone known for his forceful articulation stuffed with conviction like Modi had bewildered the journalistic fraternity and his political opponents alike.

It is as if Modi is following in word and spirit the old adage that we have been taught in childhood - which says, the more you speak the more lapses you make and the more flaws you show. While political adversaries can't wait to find Modi on the wrong foot, the restlessness of the scribes emanates from a multiplicity of reasons.

Firstly, those sympathetic to the cause of the BJP in general and Modi in particular, and vociferously articulated their views from long before the general elections were expecting to be rewarded. Secondly, those who want to be close to the establishment irrespective of political and ideological affiliations to have a share of the goodies are desperate to start a channel of communication with the new prime minister and people close to him. Thirdly, those who are antagonistic towards the cause of the BJP and Modi want to put the prime minister under intense scrutiny and that is not possible without the Gujarat strongman being forthcoming in his interactions with the media.

The way in which Modi has shunned many publicity temptations has kept the media and various other operators wondering as to how to get closer to him and rub shoulders with people who matter. After all, being close and friendly with the powerful often serves a form of clientelism which is important in an age of crony capitalism.

From an etymological point of view, the primary work of a journalist is to collect information, verify and inform the consumers of news in a palatable way. The restlessness of the journalists following Modi's enigmatic silence is not so much for not being able to serve the consumers of news and more for being left out of the power matrix. Like many other operators, journalists who stroll in the corridors of power develop stakes and it is by no means easy to let it go by.

An academic friend of mine who is sympathetic to journalists is however, more generous in his views. He takes resort to the classical definition of civil society being an intermediary between the state and the individual. Journalists being part of the broader definition of civil society, my friend thinks that it's only fair that they try to build a bridge with the omnipotent Narendra Modi.

After all the significance of proximity can't be overlooked in defining power relations and influence flows from the omnipotent to those close to him or her.  

Tirthankar Bandyopadhyay is a journalist and media consultant. 
He can be contacted at tirthankarb@hotmail.com 
All comments are personal.