THE BYSTANDER

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Showing posts from May, 2008

Human Warmth

Thursday last, 22nd May 2008 I went to attended a post marriage bride reception party call “ Bohubaht ” in Bengali, at Katwa a small sub-divisional town in the province of West Bengal, India. This is the first time ever I happen to visit this part of India or better say Bengal. Traveling by local train to cover the distance of little more than 100 kilometers in 4 hours is exhaustive. There is no provision of toilet in the railway coaches designed to ferry the local passenger. What transpired they never expected one to travel from the train`s starting to destination point! However, when you get out of your city, what has transformed itself in a concrete jungle, the greenery is bound to absorb your mind to forget the rest. In the month of May, the climate offered bit cool, since the sky was cloudy. So the journey was pleasant. More so , when I met my hosts there. The people in this big mega city, Kolkata, have become long ago , mechanical. They force laugh or greet mechanically and we a...

UN`s inaction for Gypsy`s inhuman plight in Kosovo

Those of us live in any part of Asia or Europe, one time or other , most of us have met Gypsies. Here in this part of globe, India, we are likely to find them on road sides, in busy cities. Camping and littering all around, kids are tottering, women cooking and the male members of the group smoking tobacco or busy in some odd jobs. This nomadic tribe practically left no clear cut history behind them to find their family tree or their origin. However, the evidence suggests, they migrated from Asia to Europe through land routs thousands of years ago. Geographical boundaries carry no meaning to them until recent decades. Where the borders are not porous and strict vigil maintained, there they get stagnated. Off late it is found at some places in Europe they have settled in the outskirts of few cities, as they did in Mitrovica, a town in northern Kosovo. This town is on the bank of Ibar river which separates physically Serbians and Albanians as border. Askhkali, Roma and Egyptian are thre...

Think of a different world

Some time, in idle hours, it crosses my mind, had Mr. Md Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, been a Hindu, then the post independence history of India must have been quite different. Such thought crossing my mind is not totally baseless. It was Jinnah’s grandfather who embraced Islam. Ironically, Gandhi and Jinnah both originally belonged to the same caste; Guajarati Baniah! It was truly tryst with destiny, as Pt. Nehru use to say while referring Indian freedom. Had Jinnah continued to be a Hindu, the very Pakistan would have been with in India. Off course till this 20 ::20 matches take off, we would have missed all these cricketers on the same field for quite some time. However, lots of other misery, like partisan, then couple of wars, between two cousins ( or brothers !) could be avoided. And to the envy of the developed world , India would have excelled long ago economically. All these I write, because as I use to think such change in the course of history, and happenings thereaft...

Know your finger prints

Fingerprints and physical appearance in general are part of an individual’s phenotype, which arises from the interaction of the individual’s genes and the developmental environment in the uterus. In the case of fingerprints, the genes determine the general characteristics of the patterns that are used for fingerprint classification. As the skin on the fingertip differentiates, it expresses these general characteristics. However, as a surface tissue, it is also in contact with the amniotic fluid in the uterus. The fingertips are also in contact with other parts of the fetus and the uterus, and their position in relation to uterus and the fetal body changes as the fetus moves on its own and in response to positional changes of the mother. Thus the microenvironment of the growing cells on the fingertip is in flux, and is always slightly different from hand to hand and finger to finger. It is this microenvironment that determines the fine detail of the fingerprint structure. While the diff...

Indian Cuisine and Western Style

Indian meals , rather delicacies when served in western style , specially buffet they can mess up the whole thing. Imagine after board room meeting when the buffet lunch is served how sometime one feels. You may hold a plate over a paper napkin, served on them chapattis with “ dal makani ”. The spoon, fork and knife lay by the side, you have to help yourself with your fingers. The big question comes, what use the spoons, forks and the knife have? You never know. More humiliating when you are served with chicken breast roast or “ tondur ” dishes. I feel so embarrassing when I can`t hold the stuff with my both the hands and help myself ! In such buffet, you have to eat while people are milling around you, there is the tension, that a lump of gravy may jump off your plate and spoil your coat or shirts , god forbid it may spoil others apparel as well. Think , it that personality happens to belong to fairer sex! Our dishes are best suitable to be ate on floor and off course with the freed...