Robi Ghosh had a short, but memorable cameo appearance in the 1968 Parthapratim Choudhury directed film, Hansamithun. In this short scene, Robi explains the difference between mime and being an actual mute to a rustic friend from Contai.

Contai, Contai, Contai. Tui na ekhon ekta gaainya roye geli! Kothay Contai aar kothay Paris?

Speechless!

Now in year two at primary school, A has been given homework for some time now. So revising school words in Bengali has been on my to-do list for a while.

We went in to the school yesterday for parents evening while A was at Beavers, so now seems as good a time as any to get around to it.

There’s a useful chapter for this area of vocabulary in William Radice’s excellent Teach Yourself Bengali book where, through a conversation about a school, he looks at a number of different parts of grammar, including the present tense, the reflexive pronoun and participial postpositions.

School – skul
Class – klas
Teacher – ticar/siksōk
Private – besōrōkari
Subject – bisōy

Maths – ōnkō
English – imreji
Geography – bhugol
Science – biggaen
Hand writing – hater lekha
Story – gōlpō
Poem – kōbita
Book – bōi
Paper – kagōj
Picture – chōbi
To draw, paint – aka

N.B. I’m on a computer that doesn’t have Bengali fonts at the moment, so will add Bengali script for the above words later.

"Behold; the Glory"

Here at Venuist we are working on coming up with a number of innovative, well not really that innovative but hopefully amusing, running features as we prepare to move to our new our site’s new permanent digs.

As you can see, we’ve already welcomed 33Problems and Spiral Flag into our editorial cabal. Soon, Mr. Hank Baron shall also debut.

Regular Features to be coming soon are:

• “This Week in Ping-Pong!”
• “Spiral Flag Attempts to Care about Hockey and/or Soccer for a Whole Day”

Today, I unveil our newest feature called: “The Venuist’s Hartford Whaler Salute To…”

“The Venuist’s Hartford Wailer Salute To…” will be an award given out to commemorate an enterprise, person, or idea which has become clear to all to be doomed to eventual failure.

Today’s winner (drrrrrruuuuuummmmmroooolllll)

“Tiger Woods’ Dogged Fight to Protect His Personal Privacy From this Point-in-Time Henceforth“

Dearest Tiger,

We salute you because though we admire your fight to protect the privacy of yourself, your children, and your wife’s indiscretions with the family three iron, your noble fight is fated to failure.  Never again will you stride from green to clubhouse, nightclub liason to masterbedroom’s shower unmolested and without media scrutiny.  Welcome to the world of 21st Century celebrity, dear, fair Mr. Woods. We hardly knew ye.  But now we are going to know thee very, very, very well.  

Trust us. Dude, you are sooo screwed it’s not even cool.

Just as the majestic, micro-regionally beloved Hartford Whalers proudly skated on manmade pond, long fated to disappear into insolvency, and eventually, vanish altogether, so does, Mr. Woods, your privacy have a Joe Sakic slapshot’s chance-in-hell of surviving the 2009-2010 winter sports season.  

Anywho, see you on the tour this spring, or whenever your pride has recovered (or really, whichever comes first) and till then, bon voyage mon frere.

Sincerely,

Staff of Venuist

Destacado por su exótica belleza, aspecto similar a la de un felino salvaje, de carácter tranquilo como la mayoría de gatos domésticos, su aspecto salvaje y agresivo es debido a su origen: es un cruce de especie salvaje con otra domestica, huesos pesados, músculos y estructura robusta, pesa de 5 a 8 kilos, de manto atigrado, posee un gusto por la natación; es por ello que algunos se bañan con sus dueños o se meten en la bañera cuando rebosa el agua. Un buen entrenamiento es colocar un poquito de agua en la bañera y añadir una pelota de ping-pong: el Bengalí puede permanecer allí durante horas jugando y chapoteando. Cuando beben acostumbran a golpear el agua con sus patas. De porte elegante, curiosos, juguetones, No hay mejor diversión para un Bengalí que investigar los bolsos de la gente que llega a casa o supervisar la compra del supermercado, le gusta saltar y posee reflejos rápidos, animal de gran inteligencia, por lo general se adapta bien a la convivencia familiar y pueden vivir en ambientes distintos. Convive perfectamente con otras razas de gatos, y otros animales. Otra de tantas peculiaridades es su maullido, que cuando se oye consigue transportarnos a las exuberantes selvas asiáticas.

 La cabeza es ancha, redondeada y levemente acuñada y las mandíbulas son fuertes y anchas. La nariz ancha y larga y de piel color teja y está perfilada con una delgada línea negra. Las orejas son pequeñas, como las del Leopardo Asiático. Los ojos den Bengalí son únicos, de color amarillo verdoso y su forma almendrada. Hoy en día, la mayoría de los bengalíes muestran un dibujo “tabby” en la cabeza, formado por la típica “M” en la frente.

Su pelo se aplasta sobre el cuerpo y es corto, suave y espeso, a la vez que delicado. El color de base puede variar de tonalidades: marfil, crema, amarillo, dorado y naranja. La cola de este felino, es gruesa y de tamaño medio con cuartos traseros más elevados.

El objetivo de los criadores de Bengalíes no es otro que obtener un gato con pedigree lo más parecido posible al leopardo, pero con el carácter de un gato doméstico.

HISTORIA:

La raza de los gatos bengalíes es el resultado de cruzar ejemplares de gato doméstico con ejemplares salvajes de Gatos Leopardos Asiáticos (Felis Bengalensis). E.E.U.U. ha sido la pionera de esta fantástica raza de gatos bengalies. El objetivo fue crear un gato más similar en apariencia al Felis Bengalensis, pero con el temperamento de un gato doméstico. El primer cruce registrado fue en 1963 realizado por Jean S. Mill fruto de la casualidad, entre un macho de pelo corto de color negro con su hembra felis bengalensis.

Se empezó a experimentar con esta raza Bengali durante la década de los 60. En los años 70 se hicieron investigaciones en la Universidad de California sobre los híbridos resultantes entre los felis bengalensis y los gatos comunes. Los resultados aparentes indicaban que tenían inmunidad parcial a la leucemia felina. Los gatitos bengalies que surgieron de estos estudios los adquirió Jean Mill y en 1985 los exhibió por primera vez ante el mundo en una exposición, compitiendo en la categoría de Nueva Raza y Clase Color. El público que asistió quedó atónito de tan hermosa y cariñosa raza bengalí.

De este modo, cuando hablamos generalmente de bengalíes nos podemos referir a estos 3 tipos:

1. BENGAL LEOPARD SPOTTED
2. BENGAL SNOW LEOPARD
3. BENGAL MARBLE

Más información sobre el Bengalí

• Fotos del Bengalí
• Estándar según la FIFE del Bengalí
• Criadores de Bengalí
• Foro del Bengalí

I’ve been tidying up my blog a little this week. Nothing too strenuous mind, that would require a surfeit of spare time, something I don’t yet have.

Nonetheless I’ve added a little to the About page concerning my aim to blog at least once a week, with posts related to Bengali on Fridays and/or posts on any other subject that appeals to me on Tuesdays.

More importantly though I’ve also cleaned up the Learning Bengali page, adding in information from recent posts about Bengali fonts, Google’s language tools, Bengali grammar, YouTube and the Bengali phrase book you can find on Google Books.

When I set up  this blog the one of the main aims was to use it help me in my Bengali study.

This I’ve done already by tackling subjects that need revision, learning new vocabulary and collecting all of this and more in one place. It’s certainly a step up from my slim A6-szied notebook that I was using as, what was called in my school French and German lessons, a vocab book. I was looking for this yesterday and couldn’t find it, if it turns up I may post some of the lists I compiled from 2005-8.

Future posts will include the imperative, making comparisons and more vocabulary lists (school words will probably be the next of these).

Something that has cropped up during the time I’ve spend on my blog is that I was wrong to say the lack of offline Bengali materials is mirrored in the online world. They’re not always easy to find and I’ve yet to come across a decent Learning Bengali website, but there are many things out there if you know where to look.

So, click through to the Learning Bengali page if you fancy, and if you have any suggestions for future topics, Bengali resources etc leave them in the comments section or contact me through one of the methods listed here.

How to say Merry Christmas in different languages. Send these to your friends around the world.

Afrikaans: Gesëende Kersfees

Afrikander: Een Plesierige Kerfees

African/ Eritrean/ Tigrinja: Rehus-Beal-Ledeats

Albanian:Gezur Krislinjden

Arabic: Idah Saidan Wa Sanah Jadidah

Argentine: Feliz Navidad

Armenian: Shenoraavor Nor Dari yev Pari Gaghand

Azeri: Tezze Iliniz Yahsi Olsun

Bahasa Malaysia: Selamat Hari Natal

Basque: Zorionak eta Urte Berri On!

Bengali: Shuvo Naba Barsha

Bohemian: Vesele Vanoce

Brazilian: Boas Festas e Feliz Ano Novo

Breton: Nedeleg laouen na bloavezh mat

Bulgarian: Tchestita Koleda; Tchestito Rojdestvo Hristovo

Catalan: Bon Nadal i un Bon Any Nou!

Chile: Feliz Navidad

Chinese: (Cantonese) Gun Tso Sun Tan’Gung Haw Sun

Chinese: (Mandarin) Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan

Choctaw: Yukpa, Nitak Hollo Chito

Columbia: Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo

Cornish: Nadelik looan na looan blethen noweth

Corsian: Pace e salute

Crazanian: Rot Yikji Dol La Roo

Cree: Mitho Makosi Kesikansi

Croatian: Sretan Bozic

Czech: Prejeme Vam Vesele Vanoce a stastny Novy Rok

Danish: Glædelig Jul

Duri: Christmas-e- Shoma Mobarak

Dutch: Vrolijk Kerstfeest en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar!
or Zalig Kerstfeest

English: Merry Christmas

Eskimo: (inupik) Jutdlime pivdluarit ukiortame pivdluaritlo!

Esperanto: Gajan Kristnaskon

Estonian: Ruumsaid juulup|hi

Faeroese: Gledhilig jol og eydnurikt nyggjar!

Farsi: Cristmas-e-shoma mobarak bashad

Finnish: Hyvaa joulua

Flemish: Zalig Kerstfeest en Gelukkig nieuw jaar

French: Joyeux Noel

Frisian: Noflike Krystdagen en in protte Lok en Seine yn it Nije Jier!

Galician: Bo Nada

Gaelic: Nollaig chridheil agus Bliadhna mhath ùr!

German: Froehliche Weihnachten

Greek: Kala Christouyenna!

Hausa: Barka da Kirsimatikuma Barka da Sabuwar Shekara!

Hawaiian: Mele Kalikimaka

Hebrew: Mo’adim Lesimkha. Chena tova

Hindi: Shub Naya Baras

Hausa: Barka da Kirsimatikuma Barka da Sabuwar Shekara!

Hawaian: Mele Kalikimaka ame Hauoli Makahiki Hou!

Hungarian: Kellemes Karacsonyi unnepeket

Icelandic: Gledileg Jol

Indonesian: Selamat Hari Natal

Iraqi: Idah Saidan Wa Sanah Jadidah

Irish: Nollaig Shona Dhuit, or Nodlaig mhaith chugnat

Iroquois: Ojenyunyat Sungwiyadeson honungradon nagwutut. Ojenyunyat osrasay.

Italian: Buone Feste Natalizie

Japanese: Shinnen omedeto. Kurisumasu Omedeto

Jiberish: Mithag Crithagsigathmithags

Korean: Sung Tan Chuk Ha

Latin: Natale hilare et Annum Faustum!

Latvian: Prieci’gus Ziemsve’tkus un Laimi’gu Jauno Gadu!

Lausitzian:Wjesole hody a strowe nowe leto

Lettish: Priecigus Ziemassvetkus

Lithuanian: Linksmu Kaledu

Low Saxon: Heughliche Winachten un ‘n moi Nijaar

Macedonian: Sreken Bozhik

Maltese: LL Milied Lt-tajjeb

Manx: Nollick ghennal as blein vie noa

Maori: Meri Kirihimete

Marathi: Shub Naya Varsh

Navajo: Merry Keshmish

Norwegian: God Jul, or Gledelig Jul

Occitan: Pulit nadal e bona annado

Papiamento: Bon Pasco

Papua New Guinea: Bikpela hamamas blong dispela Krismas na Nupela yia i go long yu

Pennsylvania German: En frehlicher Grischtdaag un en hallich Nei Yaahr!

Peru: Feliz Navidad y un Venturoso Año Nuevo

Philipines: Maligayan Pasko!

Polish: Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia or Boze Narodzenie

Portuguese:Feliz Natal

Pushto: Christmas Aao Ne-way Kaal Mo Mobarak Sha

Rapa-Nui (Easter Island): Mata-Ki-Te-Rangi. Te-Pito-O-Te-Henua

Rhetian: Bellas festas da nadal e bun onn

Romanche: (sursilvan dialect): Legreivlas fiastas da Nadal e bien niev onn!

Rumanian: Sarbatori vesele

Russian: Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva is Novim Godom

Sami: Buorrit Juovllat

Samoan: La Maunia Le Kilisimasi Ma Le Tausaga Fou

Sardinian: Bonu nadale e prosperu annu nou

Serbian: Hristos se rodi

Slovakian: Sretan Bozic or Vesele vianoce

Sami: Buorrit Juovllat

Samoan: La Maunia Le Kilisimasi Ma Le Tausaga Fou

Scots Gaelic: Nollaig chridheil huibh

Serb-Croatian: Sretam Bozic. Vesela Nova Godina

Serbian: Hristos se rodi. Singhalese: Subha nath thalak Vewa. Subha Aluth Awrudhak Vewa

Slovak: Vesele Vianoce. A stastlivy Novy Rok

Slovene: Vesele Bozicne. Screcno Novo Leto

Spanish: Feliz Navidad

Swedish: God Jul and (Och) Ett Gott Nytt År

Tagalog: Maligayamg Pasko!

Tami: Nathar Puthu Varuda Valthukkal

Trukeese: (Micronesian) Neekiriisimas annim oo iyer seefe feyiyeech!

Thai: Sawadee Pee Mai

Turkish: Noeliniz Ve Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun

Ukrainian: Srozhdestvom Kristovym

Urdu: Naya Saal Mubarak Ho

Vietnamese: Chung Mung Giang Sinh

Welsh: Nadolig Llawen

Yugoslavian: Cestitamo Bozic

Yoruba: E ku odun, e ku iye’dun!

Title:  The Namesake

Author:  Jhumpa Lahiri

Paperback:  291 pages

ISBN:  9780618485222

For being a foreigner, Ashima is beginning to realize, is a sort of lifelong pregnancy - a perpetual wait, a constant burden, a continuous feeling out of sorts.  It is an ongoing responsibility, a parenthesis in what had once been ordinary life, only to discover that that previous life has vanished, replaced by something more complicated and demanding.  Like pregnancy, being a foreigner, Ashima believes, is something that elicits the same curiosity from strangers, the same combination of pity and respect.

-The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, pages 49-50

My first experience with the Ganguli family happened two years ago when I brought the DVD copy of the movie home from the library.  I thought then that it was a beautiful and rich story, and was excited to find out it was also a book.  After a few months of picking it up and putting it back, I finally bought a paperback of it from Waldenbooks about a year or so ago, but it sat on the shelf since then… calling to me whenever I looked in the general area of the bookshelf where it sat.  And after reading Confessions of a Shopaholic, I decided it was time for something a little more lasting and meaningful, so I finally began the journey and story of Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli, and their children Gogol and Sonia.

When thinking about how to describe The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, the word that keeps coming to mind is “quiet”.  Lahiri slowly weaves a beautiful tapestry of the love and living and feelings of being an immigrant family.  The different customs and how the culture of the land in which you live can so overtake you and change you in ways you can’t even realize.  First and foremost, it is a love story:  The love of a man and wife, the love of parents for their children, the love for one’s family, and the love of one’s homeland.  It’s also a story of the journey we all must take of self-acceptance, and, after that, the acceptance of others.  Of course, the “Indian-ness” of it is also beautiful and intriguing.

One of the things I find fascinating from this book is the realization that all people everywhere share the burden of growing up, of culture, and of the hopes and expectations of their parents.  For the majority of us, we caring these burdens among our own people… fellow humans who share similar experiences in this and this helps us not feel so alone.  However, for those who have left their native lands, there can be a constant ache and isolation as they endure the struggles of life without the ability to lean on someone who can understand how they feel.  What’s more, the first generation born in another land are even more isolated, having one foot in the old and new country, they can neither relate to their parents who have no understanding of the way things are in their adopted homeland, nor can they fully relate to their peers who either don’t have any concept of their home life or they find it a curiosity.

Interestingly, after reading this book, it has made me take a second look and given me a deeper respect for Maggie’s dad, who left his own homeland of Vietnam more than ten years ago and has recently become a naturalized US citizen.  Not that I didn’t have respect for him before, but rather gained a bit more empathy for him.  It’s also given me another perspective with Maggie, who made a passing comment recently how she sometimes wishes she was either all Vietnamese or all white, as being both sometimes makes her feel outside of either culture.

For it’s quiet beauty and it’s lasting effect, I give The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri 4 and a 1/2 out of 5 stars.

One of the challenges of learning a new language is pronunciation. There will usually be some words that you just can’t get quite right because of the way your mother tongue has conditioned you to speak.

For me,  Bengali words requiring a nasalised sound, that is, those using the চন্দ্র বিন্দু (condro-bindu) grammatical mark, are difficult. I’ve also long preferred to say আসতে-আসতে (aste-aste) rather than ধীরে-ধীরে (dhire-dhire) when needing a word for ’slowly’. Partly that’s because of the aspiration required by the letter ধ (dh) and partly because I so mispronounced the word once to my father-in-law that my confidence never quite recovered.

One way to get an idea of how words should sound is of course to listen to a native Bengali speaker. If you don’t know anyone from a Bengali family, then podcasts are one way to hear the language, another is to see what’s on YouTube.

The following videos concentrate more on the basics, rather than pronunciation, but provide a good starting point.

First up is the Bengali equivalent of an A-Z book, with the names of the letters given first, and then words beginning with those letters:

Then numbers up to ten:

And finally some basic Bengali:

I look around and see girls and guys messing around. They go out with each other without the thought of being in a long-term commitment. I grew up in America for majority of my life. I lived in America since I was 6-years-old and now I’m in my mid 20s; so I can’t be classified as a FOB. Some call me a FOB because I don’t drink, sleep around, or do drugs, but then again how I conduct myself makes me better than the druggies. I find it very unusual that going out without the intention of getting married it ok with people of my generation. I think I am who I am because of how strictly my family raised me but then again I’ve rebelled many times and had my fun against my family’s wishes.

For this long I stayed with my principle of doing my best to staying single and waiting for the right girl but then again life is short. I had my fun with friendly flirtings, dates, and crushes with girls, but to actually go out in a committed relationship is another story. Sometimes I think, if girls can go out and have fun, and the chances of me ending up marrying a girl like them is high, then why can’t I? Perhaps I’m not giving any potential girls any chances. I look the other way if Desi girls, who are not of Bengali origin, show interest in me. I may have to broaden my potential region beyond Bangladesh. I’m a very stubborn person and I’m stuck hard about my relationship view, but as I see my friends and family members getting engaged and getting married, sometimes I wish I should take a chance.

In my undergrad year, a Punjabi Pakistani girl showed interest, but since she was Pakistani, I ignored her. It’s not that I hate them; I have many female friends who are Punjabi Pakistani. However, someone who cannot speak Bangla nor someone who does not know of the Bengali culture seem to be in the bottom of my list. I don’t mind speaking Urdu, it’s a beautiful language, but for some reason I cannot let go of Bangla or let Urdu overcome it. I want my kids to know Bangla first and English/Hindi second.

Some may think I’m stuck up, but I’m really not. I waited this long for the right person so, why mess around with girls now? Finding the right Bengali girl is hard. People joke around that Bengali girls should be avoided if they are Sylheti, North Bengali, Noakali, or Barishal, but to me it’s doesn’t matter as long as she’s Bengali. I would even cross the border if she was West Bengali or Assamese Bengali from India. A famous quote of the Bengali Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore said “Everything comes to us that belongs to us if we create the capacity to receive it.” So, how do I receive it, I don’t know.

” Ekta jholshe java bikel belaye, Ekta lalche shagorer jole, Jaye bheshe jaye shopnor bojha, Nouko amar kagojer………….Majhi re,O Majhi re, Dekhecho ki tumi taare………Majhi re,O Majhi re, Dekha hai kya tumne use….Kagaz ki naav mein hai bhare sapne mere…” —- from The Bong Connection. :: Nostalgic::

আমার মধ্যে কটা আমি!
হিসেব কষতে বসেই দেখি
থই মেলে না। কোথায় থামি!

একটি আমির ভাল লাগে
ভোরের তারা, সাঁঝের বাতি।
অপরটি – সে ভালবাসে
আঁধারঘেরা নিশীথ রাতি।
আলো-আঁধার, কালো-উজল
দুই-ই কি হয় সমান দামী!

যে আমিটির মন কেড়েছে
রূপসাগরে মনের মানুষ,
সেই আমিটিই হঠাৎ হাওয়ার
ভাসানস্রোতে ওড়ায় ফানুস।
শিকড় টানে। আকাশ ডাকে।
পথহারা মন মধ্যগামী।

একটি আমির গহীন রাতে
একলা ঘরে শ্রান্ত রোদন।
অন্য আমির রোজ প্রভাতে
পূবের আলোয় দিন-আবাহন।
এমনি করেই আলোয়-কালোয়
অতীত হবে দূর আগামী।

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1942): Bengali polymath and Nobel laureate. He has been one of my literary heroes ever since i was introduced to his work as an undergraduate student studying – supposedly – Bangla (Bengali). I remember the first time i encountered his writing. It was a letter, which he wrote home while travelling from India to Britain. I no longer remember the exact contents, only that in it he mentioned the Suez Canal. What i do recall is being awestruck, even with my very limited command of Bangla, by the beauty of his writing.

Reading him in English is, by contrast, a much more frustrating experience. The songs and poems fare especially poorly. Translators seem obsessed with rendering the most minute details of Bengali life to the exclusion of the real essence of the poetry. Do we really need to know the name of every musical instrument, flower or season? Tagore’s is the poetry of transcendence, of the way in which the particular points towards the universal; footnoting and exotic vocabulary can only get in the way. Nevertheless, i enjoy the translations by Brother James, especially of the song lyrics. They communicate the rapture, the devotion which is at the poems’ heart:

“…

You may have millions of stars and planets,
but you don’t have me.

You won’t be able to tolerate that,
You’ll have to draw me to Your side,
for You are alone
if i am alone.”

(Gitali 77, excerpt)

Tagore also wrote novels, short stories and plays. He painted, he founded a school – in fact the breadth of his accomplishments is astonishing. I feel almost as if i’m trivialising him then when i say that of all his works it’s what Wikipedia describes as his “autobiographies” which are my great loves. Two books in particular, “Glimpses of Bengal” and “My Reminiscences”, go everywhere with me: I carry them round with me on my iPhone to turn to when i feel drained by life’s pressures. Tagore had a magical memory. I don’t just mean that his memory was good, but that he remembered what mattered, the things that could make a scene live again for a reader – even one who’d never seen his world or anything remotely like it.

I’ll conclude by giving two very different examples, one from each of the titles I’ve just mentioned. Not exactly favourite passages, but ones i’ve alighted on tonight as i’ve been flicking through the books. The first i find touching – although others will perhaps consider it a bit mawkish:

“I saw a dead bird floating down the current today. The history of its death may easily be divined. It had a nest in some mango tree at the edge of a village. It returned home in the evening, nestling there against soft-feathered companions, and resting a wearied little body in sleep. All of a sudden, in the night, the mighty Padma tossed slightly in her bed, and the earth was swept away from the roots of the mango tree…”

(“Glimpses of Bengal”)

The second is just funny, but to understand it you need to know that the arrival they are awaiting is that of their dreaded English language tutor:

“It is evening. The rain is pouring in lance-like showers. Our lane is under knee-deep water. The tank has overflown into the garden, and the bushy tops of the Bael trees are seen standing out over the waters. Our whole being, on this delightful rainy evening is radiating rapture like the Kadamba flower its fragrant spikes. The time for the arrival of our tutor is over by just a few minutes. Yet there is no certainty…! We are sitting on the verandah overlooking the lane watching and watching with a piteous gaze. All of a sudden, with a great big thump, our hearts seem to fall into a swoon. The familiar black umbrella has turned the corner undefeated by such weather! Could it not be somebody else? It certainly could not! In the wide world there might be found another, his equal in pertinacity, but never in this little lane of ours.”

(“My Reminiscences”)

So there you have it: my plea for Tagore. Do not be put off by translations which seem designed to convince you he is unreadable, or by the idea that his work is all esoteric and mystical. It isn’t. If at least one person who reads this post falls under Tagore’s spell then my work here will be done!

So, when I came across the WWF report, Mega-Stress for Mega-Cities, featuring climate change consequences for Kolkata, it immediately caught my attention. The report analyzed 11 major Asian cities which are in the “front-line of climate change impacts”. Kolkata is ranked third on the overall vulnerability assessment. Situated at the estuary of Hoogly River on the Bay of Bengal, Kolkata, with more than 15 million people, is one of the most densely populated coastal cities of India. Being a low lying area, the city is extremely susceptible to sea level rise and storm surges which could inundate large stretches of it. It is also at risk of salt water incursion due to sea level rise and ground subsidence. Over-exploitation of ground water in and around Kolkata combined with sea water incursion has rendered subsurface ground water saline. Altered precipitation patterns and intense rainfall are leading to water run-off. Ground water is not enriched since rainwater no longer seeps underground. Alternate spells of drought and floods are predicted to lead to water scarcity and food insecurity. According to the report, the city also has a low adaptive capability to endure the impact of climate change. Sundarbans, the salt resistant mangrove forest and home to the Royal Bengal Tiger acts as a flood barrier protecting the inhabitants of Kolkata from cyclones and storm fronts. However, this UNESCO world heritage site is also under threat from sea level rise, subsidence, erosion, cyclones and human activity.

So, does all this doomsday prediction likely to make Bengali an endangered species. Gosh! No. They are determined to thrive and proliferate. Awareness of vulnerability of the city is percolating into the consciousness of Kolkatans. Recently, school children from Kolkata participated in the international day of climate action organized by “350“, the international campaign to unite the world in finding solutions to climate change crisis(350 stands for 350 parts per million, the safe upper level of atmospheric CO2).

I need to revise this area of Bengali grammar, which covers things that I must do, those I should and those I ought to do.

It also an area that will come in really handy talking to my sons: You must wash your hands, you need to do your homework, you should watch less television and you ought to stay in your own bed at night. The variations are limitless.

However, it’s not true to say that I structure all my Bengali study around ways to tell off my children. (Some, perhaps, but by no means all.)

Common obligation (must, have to):

object case + infinitive + third person হওয়া (hōoya)

• Tense of হওয়া (hōoya – the verb ‘to be’) depends on the time of the obligation

• Possessive case can be used instead of the object case, particularly if the obligation in question arises from circumstances, rather than someone actually imposing an obligation

• West Bengalis often use a contracted form of the object case in its singular form আমায়, আপনায়, তোমায় (amay, apnay, tomay)

Examples:

আমাকে আরো বাংলা শেখা করতে হয় (amake aro bangla shekha kōrte hōy)

তোমাকে স্কুলে যেতে হবে (tomake skule yete hōbe)

অসুক হয়ে আমার আপিসে যেতে হবেনা (osuk hoye amar apise yete hōbena)

তোমায় বাড়ি পরিস্কার করতে হবে (tomay bari pōriskar kōrte hōbe)

Moral Obligation (ought to, should):

possessive of person obliged + verbal noun + উচিত (ucit

• Present tense needs no main verb; to make negative add the ‘negative verb’ ন-, নই, নও, নয় (nō-, nōi, nōo, nōy etc); for the past use ছিলো(না) (chilō(na)) and for the future হবে(না) (hōbe(na))

• N.B. The possessive can go after the verbal noun as well as before it

Examples:

আপনার আরো খাবার দেওয়া উচিত (apnar aro khabar deoya ucit)

এতো বেসি বইগুলো পড়ার উচিত (aro besi bōigulo pōrar ucit)

এটা করা আমার উচিত ছিলনা (eta kōra amar ucit chilōna)

আমার সেটা করা উচিত হবে (amar seta kōra ucit hōbe)

Need

Need can either be expressed in Bengali by using লাগা (laga – the verb ‘to strike’) in the following kinds of forms:

আমার ঘুম লাগে (amar ghum lage)

বড় বাড়ি কিনতে অনেক টাকা লাগা (bōrō bari kinte ōnek taka lage)

Alternatively দরকার (dōrkar – need, necessity) is commonly used in the form:

possessive + noun/verbal noun in possessive case + দরকার (dōrkar)

Past, future and negative formulations follow the same rules that apply to উচিত ucit.

Examples:

আমাদের আরো ঘুমার দরকার (amader aro ghum dōrkar)

গাড়ি বেস সকাল-সকাল আসার দরকার হবে (gari bes sōkal-sōkal asar dōrkar hōbe)

শীতকালে আমাদের মোটা পোশাক পরবার দরকার ছিলো (sitkale amader mota posak porbar dōrkar chilō)

• If you don’t see Bengali script above then you need to install Bengali fonts

1981, English, Bengali

Set in the 1970s in a colonial Calcutta whose old-age homes still have Englishmen who have stayed back and where schoolteachers make staffroom banter such as “Even the natives are being educated these days!”, 36 Chowringhee Lane is a high-ceilinged apartment building where a widowed Anglo-Indian schoolteacher spends lonely evenings – until the arrival of two young lovers as tenants. The couple – Nandita, her beautiful, vivacious former student, and her boyfriend Samaresh, a stoically quiet writer – slowly endear themselves to their landlady; soon she starts to look forward to their chance meetings in the hallway so she can invite them in for tea. The scene of the evening that the three of them go out for a stroll and ice-cream, Victoria Memorial Hall majestically in the backdrop, is among the movie’s most memorable.

Director: Aparna Sen

Cast: Jennifer Kendal, Debashree Roy, Dhritiman Chatterjee

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Links: Order DVD, or watch online here.

Aguner poroshmani chonwao praney.
Ey jibon punyo koro dohon-daney.

Amar ei dehokhani tuley dhoro,
Tomar oi debaloyer prodip koro
Nishidin alok-shikha jwoluk ganey.
Andharer gayey gayey porosh tobo
Shara raat photak tara nobo nobo.
Noyoner drishti hotey muchbey kalo,
Jekhaney podbey shethay dekhbey alo
Byatha mor uthbey jwoley urdhwo paney.

One of my most favourite Tagore songs. It comes under, “Puja Parja”, i.e, Devotional songs. Talks about purification of your soul, just like fire purifies everything. A purified mind would see things differently. When you leave aside your ego, pride, jealousy, lust, greed, envy, sloth, anger then you see the world in a different way. Almost like a veil is lifted and everything changes all at once. Everyone and everything remains the same, only you see them differently.

I was watching Dadagiri on Zee Bangla, unlike most days. These days I am not much into television (not that I have been). But whenever I do watch, I can’t help liking Dada … I absolutely admire him.

So anyways, I just wanted to relate an incident today, which Dada mentioned as real “Dadagiri”.

It is about a man who works as a sericulture labour. He works in mornings from 5 A.M  and comes home to help the mentally challenged people in afternoon. From, what I could gather he isn’t affluent. In fact he probably tries to make his ends meet like a lot of people in this ever-inflationary economy which in the last decade has seen a completely skewed distribution of wealth and income.

When asked why he was helping the popularly known as “mad people”, he sited two reasons. First, he had lost his mental balance for a brief period of time, about a year and recovered and so he knew what it was like to be in such a situation. And then another incident.

One day when he was walking down the road he saw a mentally challenged beggar begging infront of a shop. And he was horrified to see that the shop-keeper (or some other man) had actually put hot oil into the beggar’s hands instead of some food so that he doesn’t disturb them again. The beggar couldn’t understand why he was feeling so hot and didn’t know what to do. So after a few minutes he tried rubbing his hands on his clothes thinking that such an action would make the feeling go away. How a human being can get so inhuman is beyond my understanding. So anyways, this man (our real dada) picked up the beggar and took him to a hospital and then started taking care of him. In a period of about seven months the beggar regained his mental balance and his relatives came to pick him up. I am not sure whether his relatives had thrown him away or he had fled from home or got lost.

From then on, this man started taking care of mentally challenged people who have nowhere to go. In fact his neighbors now bring any such people they see on the streets to him, for help. By now, he has helped 400 people regain their mental balance. He doesn’t have the means but does whatever he can from whatever little he has and earns.

The song that was played on the background was so apt-

aguner poroshmani chonwao praney.
ey jibon punyo koro dohon-daney.

The point is that sometimes you never quite realise what it is to like to have a disadvantage unless you have gone through it yourself. Or to put it differently, you can never quite feel the same way (except probably your loved ones, who might feel it more than you do) or know what it feels like.

But then, I suppose you never quite realise what it feels like when you can overlook or overcome  that disadvantage either. When you get to the point which others call, “a normal life” (I suppose loved ones do know what it feels like, maybe more than you do). But people need help and support to get to that point. They don’t just need monetary help but your love, care and understanding, which is what is found lacking in most cases. And that’s where everyone’s role comes in …

Instead of giving the one-lakh rupees to the participant, I wish it was given to this man. He deserves it, and much more. I am happy that Dadagiri at least made us aware of this. I wish he had left some address, so we could help him.

Ashwarya Rai Bachchan is one of the most successful actresses in Indian Film Industry. She was the former Miss World and one of the best models in India. Aishwarya Rai is born in Mangalore. She is voted several times as one of the most beautiful woman in the world. Her debut movie was Mani Ratnam’s Tamil movie ‘Iruvar’. She has acted in several multi lingual movies in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and English. He rose to fame in Sanjay Leela Bhansali movie “Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam” she won Filmfare Best Actress Award for the role. She is the first Indian Actress to be a jury member at the Cannes Film Festival. Times magazine has included her amoung the 100 most influential people in the world. In October 2004 her wax statue was installed in the famous London Madame Tussaud’s wax museum. She is also the global brand ambassador for L’Oreal. A special Tulip in Netherlands is named after her.

Tabu is one of the most talented actresses in Indian Film Industry. She is born on 4^th November 1971 in Hyderabad. She is the niece of famous National Film Awards winning actress Shabana Azmi. Tabu has proved her talent in different language movies like Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali and even in American films. She is a two times winner of National Film Awards and still holds the record of winning the largest number of Filmfare’s Critic’s Award for Best Female Performer category. She is more often seen in artistic and critically acclaimed movies and themes rather than normal commercial films. Some of her most famous notable roles are in movies like “Maachis, Virasat, Hu Tu Tu, Astitva, Chandni Bar, Maqbool, Cheeni Kum and Mira Nair’s The Namesake.

Klar viele kennen es unter dem Namen Lakritz. Aber schon dieser Blogeintrag zeigte, dass es damit nicht getan ist, da die schwarzsüße Köstlichkeit in verschiedenen Landschaften auch unterschiedliche Namen hat.

Das ist international natürlich nicht anders. Um nun aber auch außerhalb der deutschen Sprachraums in Sachen Lakritz nicht sprachlos zu sein hier der erste Teil einer Liste mit hilfreichen Worten für Lakritz, die es im Ausland leichter machen sollen Entzugserscheinungen vorzubeugen