Category Archives: Politics

Congress Redeems, Congress Ruins

Posted on July 1, 2022 by secondsaturn

The promoters and owners of the INC, its supporters, those who are naturally inclined towards the Congress have entered the mode of metaphysical faith rather than of reasoned reflection. They are wont to believe that their routing at the polls … Continue reading →

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Nusrat Jahan

Posted on July 1, 2021 by secondsaturn

The case of Nusrat Jahan has upset mainly the young, idealist, zesty and nationalist minded Bengalis much concerned with the pride and dignity of their culture, little realizing that it is the Renaissance and not the Sati that defines Bengal. … Continue reading →

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Kotal Kahini by Biswanath Lahiri

Posted on June 7, 2021 by secondsaturn

Biswanath Lahiri. Kotaal Kahini. Dey’s Publishing. Calcutta. 1971. When I was growing up in the early 1970’s, I often heard Madhuri mashi, whose death anniversary is today talk of Kotaal Kahini as though it were a novel. Only last week … Continue reading →

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Keshub Chandra Sen – Pedestrianization of the Brahmo Samaj

Posted on March 1, 2021 by secondsaturn

Sanjiv Chattopadhyay. Dharmayuddha. Bengali. Dey’s Publication. Kolkata. 2011. The book is a biography of Keshab Chandra Sen, a prominent social reformer of Bengal who lived between 1838 and 1884 and occupies the mind of the Bengali intelligentsia as man of … Continue reading →

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Indian Secularism

Posted on September 10, 2020 by secondsaturn

My friend Reshmi Bhaskaran asked us through her Facebook posting what secularism was? On the face of things, secularism, by its European definition would be the ineffectuality of religion in the affairs of politics and of public life since ideas … Continue reading →

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Sociology of Winning Societies, Losing Societies

Posted on August 13, 2019 by secondsaturn

I am visiting Chennai with mother in what is likely to become an annual affair from now on. My cousin and her family are dedicated doctors to say the least, fantastic in diagnosis and peerless in commitments to patients. Besides, … Continue reading →

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BJP and the Twilight of the Idols

Posted on May 20, 2019 by secondsaturn

In the early thirteenth century, says Richard Eaton, one Mr Ikhtiyar bin Bakhtiyar Khiljee overran Bengal with merely forty horsemen. Lakhhan Sen, the then ruler of Bengal was having his dinner and upon hearing the marauding Afghans, quietly fled without … Continue reading →

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Ease of Doing Business

Posted on February 25, 2017 by secondsaturn

I never say no to invitations except when they are on Sundays. The Sunday is a difficult day for us because the dog sitter is on leave and we have to stay back with Georgie, our pet. But this time, … Continue reading →

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In Adda With A RSS Scholar

Posted on February 22, 2016 by secondsaturn

Madhusree and I are part of a Bengali adda which takes place once a month on a Sunday. Like all Bengali addas, it is the adda which is important and while pretending to be only a group for pure conversation, … Continue reading →

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Amma – Empress of Tamil Nadu

Posted on October 8, 2014 by secondsaturn

So the deed was done; in the days of the early autumn of 2014, Ms Jayalalitha, the ruling Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu was sentenced to four years of imprisonment on charges of corruption. Ms Jayalalitha, or Amma as she … Continue reading →

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