Sundarban, Amitav Ghosh and love of novels

 My introduction to Sundarban in Bengal is primarily through the novels of Dr. Amitav Ghosh. His The Hungry Tide, Gun Island and the recent Ghost Eye has the beautiful forest as one of the main actors in the storyline. So. when one of my former students from Bengal visited the Sunderban, I wanted her to send some pictures of the forest and the rivers to me. She was gracious enough to send them to me, filling my heart and mind. Here are some of the pictures that she had shared with me. 

This picture is special because the red cloth is tied after prayers to the goddess Bonbibi, the deity who appears predominantly in Ghosh's novels. The deity is often invoked for protection from the tigers and other dangers which the local fisherman could face in the mangrove forest.

 

A crocodile

                         

                                         

       The vast expanse of the river which looks lovely

You might wonder that there are many pictures of the Sundarban littered all over the internet then why am I getting so excited over pictures that I procured from my former student. Well, one's lived experience is worth more than the many unknown photographers' pictures on the internet.

Thanks dear Aditi for the beautiful pictures.

Dear reader, I will pause here but leave two posts on the works of Dr. Ghosh which I had written.

1. Revisiting Amitav Ghosh's The Hungry Tide

2. Do you remember your WORDS?

Red Salute aka Lal Salaam

This post is part of the Chennai Bloggers Club's CBC VIBGYOR BLOG TAG 2 where some of us will write a post on the colours of VIBGYOR each day starting 1st of May to the 7th of May, 2020.

The colour theme for today's post is RED. 

Red brings to my mind, the Left and the pioneers who have led the movement upholding the rights of people, especially the marginalised and the voiceless (read as the ones being silenced!). It is but the vibrant red which has the place of being attached to a cause - that too a most pressing and vocal one that! The fiery attitude, the hot words, the bloody slogans - all worthy of the colour and the movement. Yes! I am talking about the Leftist movement also known as CPI and popular in the states of Bengal and Kerala.




I was introduced to this greetings Lal Salaam while in college. Many of the fellow Malayalees and Bengalis who were passionate about the country and equality, used to greet each other with a chirpy Lal Salaam and many of us who were slowly getting initiated into this whole history of Marxism and Leftist ideology were fascinated with the greeting. But then we weren't members of either of the states, hence we upheld our Dravidian greeting of Vanakkam which was a safe greeting devoid of any ideology or colour. Bland, apolitical and neutral yet a beautiful three-syllable greeting. I'm digressing here.

But when I say people from Kerala and Bengal, don't be mistaken that everyone is so. NO. Only a fraction of the citizens who passionately believe in the cause of the oppressed and the marginalised greeted so. Some people who didn't support the Communist party were also keen to the causes of the people and saw themselves as part of the ongoing struggle. It wasn't a fashion statement for it was loaded with energy, zeal, mission and urgency. You knew that if one uttered the words, they were aware that they were privileged by education, money and a certain standing in the society, yet knew that they were in the battle of the masses.

It has been proven that the red state of Kerala is in the forefront of the present day Covid-19 battle. With the plans, press meets and the immediate actions undertaken by the present government led by Shri. Pinarayi Vijayan, the state has been cohesive in bringing together many brains and ideas to redeem the situation. While naysayers and critics continue harping on the loopholes of the Red party, it is for everyone to see how Kerala has flattened the curve against the virus, having previous experience of tackling the Nipah virus which shook the state in 2018.

Red also denotes the struggles of the Dalits, transgenders, adivasis, and number of voiceless people/communities, where blood has been shed for mere survival in a democratic country. Red unites the people all over the world in spite of numerous internal factions and diverse mindsets.

Red says STOP. The red party also says STOP to the aforementioned struggles.

Stop closing your eyes.
Stop pretending that you are the heir of privilege.
Stop saying, "We don't need reservation."

Lal Salaam.

Image courtesy: 1. Shutterstock 2. Brainpickings.org

Today marks the last day of the #CBCVIBGYORBLOGTAG2. Please do visit the blogs of Kaushik, Clement, Kumutha and Pratip who are also participants of the #CBCVIBGYORBLOGTAG2.

New found tastes

Taste and sensations are peculiar attributes that have a mind of its own. Recently, I was introduced to Bimli, a sour tasting fruit and Wiki tells me that the botanical name is Averrhoa bilimbi. Now, I am quite fond of the tangy flavour - tamarind, raw mangoes and the like have always held a special place in my tongue. Bimli is something like that. I realise that there are so many flavours and items that one has not tasted and perhaps will never taste! One of my colleagues had lovingly prepared Bimli pickle and asked us to sample her culinary prowess, and I being the tangy-loving entity lapped up the pickle with a zest that only tangy-lovers could comprehend. I quickly made note of the recipe and tried it at home. It wasn't as good as it had ought to be nevertheless, I could see that I was not as lazy as I had thought I might be.

Bimli happened to me quite late in life. I could not imagine that I had spent so many years without tasting this fruit. I think that sometimes it would have been growing in the vicinity of our house but we had never bothered. My husband knows this fruit well and tells me that every house in Kerala has the Bimli (Pulinchika) tree. I wonder how many such fruits, trees and tastes are unknown to us in spite of sharing living space with us. I wish I could identify these gems and die happily in the knowledge of having partaken of the many wondrous tastes of nature.

On another note, I saw a movie in my phone for the first time - The Bengali Night, a French film, set in Bengal of the 1930s. It was weird to see Hugh Grant so frail and gaunt. The film also led me to one of my favourite authors - Mircea Eliade. The film is an adaptation of his autobiographical novel, Maitreyi. The film took me on a wild journey of the years where love was a simple look, holding of hands and rapturous ecstasy. I had always liked Hugh's accent and this film was from an era where Grant was not yet idolised as he is today (a few years ago, to be precise).

Many first times today and I again realise that every day, we have an opportunity to learn and unlearn.

Well, what have you discovered today, dear reader?

Image 1: Bimli (Wikipedia)
Image 2: Wikipedia