HINDOL 1st Issue - Jul - Aug.. 2009

8/2/2019 HINDOL 1st Issue - Jul - Aug.. 2009

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This issueof Hindol

has been

sponsored by


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With Best Wishes

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HINDOL

AMIT R SARKER

PRISM Consulting

D1/28 DLF Qutab Enclave Phase-IGurgaon-122002


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It was the late 1940s. At the railway station in Madras a lady,

probably an Anglo Indian, eyed one of her co-passengers with distaste

and ill concealed hostility: he was - horror of horrors - an English

sadhu. Finally her emotions got the better of her and she burst out -

wasn't he ashamed to mix

with the locals, to disown

Ch r i s t i an i t y, letting down his

own people; and what had he

gained - giving up his culture,

religion and c o u n t r y .

Krishnaprem, for that was the

English sadhu's name, took out atiny vigraha of Lord Krishna

and with a smile displayed it to

the outraged lady, "I have got

him, madam: my Krishna".

This was the beginning of yet

another journey but Krishnaprem

had already travelled far from his original English moorings. His

original name was Ronald Nixon and he was born in Taunton, England

in 1898. He was a bomber pilot in the first world war. One of several

bombing missions with his squadron across the English channel into

enemy territory was to change his life forever. While returning to base,

Shyamal Ray

Chittaranjan Park

New Delhi

In Quest of KrishnaThe story of Krishnaprem

(Ronald Nixon)

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he was separated from his squadron. He saw some planes in the

distance - thinking that they belonged to his squadron, he tried to turn

his aircraft in that direction. But the plane did not obey his commands- some force made him fly in quite the opposite direction. Later he

realized they were in fact enemy planes and he had had a providential

escape The incident set him thinking. Why had his life been spared?

Was there some purpose behind his miraculous escape?

The next scene opens in India, at Lucknow. Sir Harcourt Butler

was on the look out for an outstanding scholar who would be the first

Indian Vice Chancellor of Lucknow University. He finally chose

Jnanendra Nath Chakravarti who, on his part, initiated a search for

academics to join the faculty. Ronald Nixon was found suitable and

he joined as Professor of English. He stayed with Prof. Chakravarti

and his wife as a member of their household.

The professor's wife, Monika was a remarkable lady. Educated and

cultured, she was well known in the higher echelons of Lucknow

society in those days. At the official parties on the well manicured

lawns of the V.C's residence she was the perfect hostess, very muchat home in the company of the 'burra sahib's and their memsahibs. In

these circles she was regarded as a bit of a social butterfly. But Ronald

was observant - he saw that she would leave in the midst of the

animated conversation and merry making, go indoors, head for her puja

room where the vigraha of Radha-Krishna was installed, sit down in

reverence, and almost instantly go into Samadhi. After a while she

would come out of Samadhi, slowly get up, and re-join the party.We cut back to more than thirty years to 1890 when Monika, then

a young girl, was living with her parents at Mirzapur. Swami

Vivekananda visited Mirzapur with the purpose of meeting Pawhari

Baba, a revered saint who lived on the outskirts of the town. Swamiji

happened to visit Monika's home and is supposed to have predicted

that the little girl would one day become a great saint. He expressed

a desire to perform "kumari puja" - the puja was duly performed.

Dilip Kumar Roy has described a visit to Lucknow in the beginning

of 1923, when he had been invited to tea by Atul Prasad Sen, the

famous poet-composer. It was there that Dilip met Ronald, a bright-

faced young man about his own age. He discovered Ronald's deep

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respect for Hinduism. It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship:

the basis, one suspects, was the shared 'madness' about Krishna. He

discovered Ronald's abiding faith in Hinduism in his discussions onthe Vedas, the Gita and the Upanishads with like-minded people. Dilip

Kumar Roy, who had made his name as a singer, saw tears flowing

down Monika's eyes whenever he sang devotional songs in her presence

- in particular Hindi bhajans and Bengali kirtans. Dilip also observed

the Cambridge educated Ronald prostrating himself before Monika.

As Dilip was to learn later, Ronald had already accepted her mentally

as his guru. After Ronald's (then Krishnaprem) death in 1965, Dilip

lovingly penned his biography "Yogi Sri Krishnaprem" (Bharatiya

Vidya Bhavan) which is still the most important source book on the

great yogi.

Later when Prof. Chakravarti retired, he made his home in Benares,

beside the Ganga. Krishnaprem joined Prof. Chakravarti & Monika

Devi in Benares, accepting a lecturer's post at the Hindu University at

a salary of rupees three hundred a month, much less than what he was

earning at Lucknow. Monika took sanyas after her husband's death andwas now known as Yashoda Mai. The butterfly had broken free. Ronald

took diksha from Yashoda Mai and became Krishnaprem. It was thus

that Ronald shed "at the feet of his Guru the burden of all that the

world counts valuable in order to find the hidden treasure for which

most men have no eyes".

Yashoda Mai, accompanied by Krishnaprem, left Benares and

proceeded north to Almora, which was now to be their home. High upin the hills at Mirtola they built their temple ashram dedicated to

Krishna. The ashram was named Uttar Brindaban. But this was still a

few years ahead. The interim period was one of great struggle and

hardship. His friends in Lucknow were aghast on hearing that their

Ronald, the war pilot, a First at Cambridge, one time University

professor was now begging for food and alms at Almora. This was

doubtless part of the process where the ego has to totally dissolve, to

prepare the aspirant for the next stage in sadhana.

Imagine what the picture would have been typically at the Ashram,

after Yashoda Mai's death in 1944. There was Krishnaprem, now the

leader, supervising all aspects of the temple ashram's activities; there


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was Moti Rani, Yashoda Mai's youngest daughter, a free sprit who was

the life and soul of the ashram: who had taken diksha from

Krishnaprem after her mother's death; then there was Dr. R. D.Alexander, an eminent surgeon, who had known Krishnaprem since

his Cambridge days, and who, initiated into Vaishnavism was now

known as Haridas (having given up his practice he tended to the

ailments of the poor hill people in and around Mirtola); then there

was Madhav Ashish the young British ground engineer in the Royal

Air Force, who in 1946 came to Uttar Brindaban to visit Krishnaprem

and stayed back permanently.

The temple, where the figures of Radha and Krishna stand on a

marble platform, is the sanctum sanctorum of the Ashram. The

Vaishnav rituals were strictly observed and Bhog offered daily. Food,

as also the lifestyle at the Ashram was simple, almost spartan.

There we have it in a nutshell. In one corner of British India we

have three Englishmen steadfast in their faith in Vaishnavism,

mendicants in Krishna's name, living in a temple-ashram perched high

in the hills over Almora, a corner where Brittania had waived the rules.In Uttar Brindaban, Krishnaprem spent the rest of his life bringing

a "British doggedness to bear upon the practice of Yoga" in the words

of Sri Aurobindo. Krishnaprem had, according to Sri Aurobindo, a

"pashyanti buddhi", a seeing intelligence. On a visit to Pondicherry in

the late forties Krishnaprem met the Mother and asked for her blessings

so that he could give more of himself to his Guru and Krishna. "But

you already have," the Mother said. "Not enough", repliedKrishnaprem.

Krishnaprem also visited Tiruvannamalai to receive Ramana

Maharshi's blessing. Krishnaprem sat silently along with other

devotees to meditate . The Maharshi gifted him with a wonderful

mystical experience. Later the Maharshi would describe Krishnaprem

as "a rare combination of a jnani and a bhakta".

Other than his temple duties, Krishnaprem found time to write

books. Two of these - "the Yoga of the Bhagavadgita" and "The Yoga

of the Kathopanishad" were particularly well written.

Gertrude Emerson Sen, granddaughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson,

was married to Bosiswar (Boshi) Sen, the botanist, and the couple made


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their home at Almora. Yashoda Mai and Krishnaprem visited their

home and stayed with them when they occasionally left their ashram

to travel. An anecdote related by Mrs. Sen gives us some insight intoKrishnaprem's thinking, not to speak of his abiding faith. It was October

1962, and the Chinese forces had struck in NEFA; the Indian army

had suffered serious reverses. There was a possibility, however remote,

that the Chinese forces would overrun India - at least this was Mrs.

Sen's fear and she queried Krishnaprem on this. Krishnaprem was lost

in thought and then recalled an incident during the epic battle of

Kurukshetra, when Ashvathama released his Brahmastra weapon

directed at Arjuna. No power could thwart the terrible weapon. At that

point, Krishna put his foot down on the ground, and the chariot wheels

sank into the earth; the Brahmastra passed harmlessly overhead. "I

believe," he said, "that at the critical moment, Krishna will always

put his foot down. India will be saved. India can never lose its soul".

I first learned about Krishnaprem, while reading Dilip Kumar Roy's

"Among the Great". What touched me most was his extraordinary faith.

The following extracts from Krishnaprem's letter to Dilip Kumar Roydated 31st December 1932 are revealing.

"I am myself utterly certain that Sri Krishna can be

experienced in perfect concreteness. As I think I once said

before, He is the concrete of concretes and no mere misty

abstraction or imagined form. I am not denying the reality of

experience of the Nirvishesha Brahman but saying that the

latter is like seeing the sunlight while to see Krishna is to see

the sun itself.

. Why do you doubt that Krishna will respond to you?

Because you feel you are unworthy? So are we all. We are no

Rukminis that we can write to Krishna saying as she did, that

'I have such and such good qualities and only you are worthy

of them'. We have nothing to recommend us to Krishna except

our desire for Him.

Some people describe Him as formless or as havingthousands of hands and feet but two feet are enough for me.

And what feet! If one misses them no Brahmananda and no

Mukti can be enough to compensate for the loss. ..At one

time, as you know, I worshipped the Buddha, and deeply too;


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but that was before I knew Sri Krishna, and now, when I look

down the vistas of the past, among all the host of shadowy

phantom figures I see only that one Divine form gleamingwith supernatural light. But why the past? Past, present and

future, there is nothing but Him. The curves of His body are

worth more than all the Infinites and Eternals and Absolutes.

All the worlds are within the pores of His skin, and yet there

He remains, no shadowy cosmic figure, but the eternal

cowherd, in yellow dhoti, peacock feathers, maddening the

soul with the melody from a bamboo flute. Krishnat param

kimapi tattwam aham na jane (What truth can there be beyondKrishna - I do not know)"

Consider another letter, this time to Dr. Govinda Gopal

Mukhopadhyaya dated 19th November 1944.

" If there were no Krishna I, personally, should be happy

enough with Advaita Vedanta but, and there is the rub, there

is Krishna and if you see Him all previous values go into

reverse as it were.

So what can I do? If it was not for Krishna all could be

plain sailing. Only a fool would fear to abandon the ridiculous

for the sublime. But there is Krishna and there's the difficulty.

Just imagine that Krishna stands before you offering you either

advaita moksha or Himself, which in fact would you choose?

You may say the choice is not a real one, that Krishna is

himself moksha. Very likely, but the converse is not so true

- diyamam na grihananti. You may argue as much as you please to avoid being

confronted with the choice. Nevertheless all your

shouting will only serve to drown a voice in your heart which

says that even the possibility of finding Krishna is better than

the certainty of moksha."

A letter to Dilip dated 29th September 1945 reveals his devotion

to his Guru -

" I will tell you what is written in burning letters of fire inmy heart that carry their own guarantee of truth.

Krishna and guru are one; but, if I leave Him, Krishna may

leave me - at least He may smile His "Sammoham


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Sarvabhuteshu" smile and say: 'Well, if you don't care for me

then I don't care for you - at least not more than I care for the

louse on a monkey's backside'. But my Guru will never leaveme whatever I do. I may leave Her but She would never leave

me. I may fall from the Path, return to the flesh-pots and

wallow in their filthy slops for five lives or fifty lives, I may

blaspheme the Sacred Stone within my heart and die cursing

God and man - all this and more I may do but She will never

leave my side. Each separate folly of mine will be a stab of

sorrow in the heart of Her who is sorrowless but She will

never turn away Her face nor cease from trying to assuagethe pains that I must suffer from my own foolish acts. Never,

never will She leave my side nor cease to guide my steps until

I stand in that eternal Braja where she stands now. God-

forsaken and man-forsaken I may be, but Guru-forsaken,

never!"

Krishnaprem left his mortal body in November 1965. Moti Rani

had passed away many years earlier in 1951, Haridas in 1957. Amongst

the inner core, only Madhav Ashish remained by his side. His health

had been deteriorating for some time and he was advised an immediate

operation at Jaipur. The ashramites left for Jaipur on 13th November

1965. But on the way, too weak to stand the strain, he collapsed and

was taken to the little hospital at Naini Tal where on 14th November

he passed away. His body was brought back to Pannuanaula close to

Mirtola. The villagers carried his body the last few miles to

Dandeshwar, where the cremation took place near the spot whereYashoda Mai had also been cremated.

I had the opportunity to visit Uttar Brindaban in September 2007.

The present leader of the ashram, I had learned, was one Mr. Dave

Beresford, of Australian origin. He is now an Indian citizen. Dave,

then 18 years in 1964, was just about to leave India for England, when

he visited the Ashram alonwith his parents, who were orchardists. One

visit and Dave decided to stay on. It seems Madhav Ashish, at firstglance, recognized Dave as the one who would succeed him as head

of the Ashram.

On our first visit, we made our way up the cement path, and reached

Ma's memorial located just opposite the temple. The memorial was


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covered with flowering plants, truly a riot of color. Having paid our

obeisances we stood still drinking in the beauty of the place, quite

awestruck by it all. We stayed there for twenty minutes or so andreturned in respectful silence.

We were to make the journey to the Ashram once again, in mid

June 2008, when the rains had just started. The path leading up to the

Ashram is unpaved and the car tyres started to skid. We got out, asked

the driver to go ahead and trudged our way up. This time around we

had the honour of meeting Dave Beresford, now known as Sri Dev

Ashish. He was cleaning the temple room where Radha Krishna are

installed. He gently refused my offer to help and completed his task

in our presence. I asked if this was just the same room where a divine

incident had been played out in 1943, when Dilip Kumar Roy had come

visiting and Ma was still present in her physical body. (The reader

can know more about the incident in "Yogi Sri Krishnaprem"). Dev

Ashish-ji confirmed that it was so.

We stayed back for about an hour during which he shared some of

his experiences with Krishnaprem. We made our way back to thewaiting car. My heart was heavy - with gratitude. A dream had been

realized, twice over

(The author works with a Public Sector undertaking.)

Our e-mail :

[email protected]

[email protected]

Although the emphasis of this group is on Bengali culture, the

propagation of multi-sectoral efforts for synergising people ofdifferent cultures and languages in an atmosphere of mutual

trust, respect, advantage and harmony is one of our declared

objectives.


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(The first part of this article appeared in the second issue of "Dhvani"

(January, 2009), a little magazine of New Delhi that was at that time

being edited by the Editors of this magazine.)

2

"Islam is a great religion" appears to be the mantra of the day, mouthed

by many, including a variety of world leaders. It has since occurred to me

that the constant parroting "Islam is a great religion" in some convoluted

fashion contributes to the dehumanizing of Muslims. Borders and cultures

disappear as we stereotype anyone who practices Islam. Yet, though many

of us could give a speech on the difference between culture and religion,

somehow all of that theory slides off our brain and we happily lump all

Muslim people together because they practice Islam.

I have lived in Kabul now for about a year. I've had the privilege of

being able to get a peek inside the proverbial veil and want to give you

my perspective of some aspects of the everyday culture of the Afghan

people. A large section of the Afghan population is nomadic. I am not

writing about them as I have not got close to anyone in this group. I am

mainly talking about people who most likely share the kind of

demographics as the readers of this article - middle class and educated.

A child is born. "It's a boy!!" He will continue the family name and

take care of his parents. Huge numbers of relatives and neighbors areinvited on the sixth day - Shab-e-Shash - evening-of-the-sixth. I was invited

to one and took a friend with me. We entered to find at least 50 other

women sitting tightly against each other along the perimeter of the living

room. We sat down in one corner and wondered if we had been impolite

Santwana Dasgupta

Kabul, Afghanistan

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by not individually greeting everyone, even though we knew no one. We

had. We made up for it by overdoing the good-byes.

Afghan greetings - an overwhelming, elaborate and complex set ofrituals for the uninitiated. I am invited and I enter the house. The hostess

comes up, grasps my hand and kisses me three, four, five, six times on

my cheeks while unleashing a series of sentences at the same time: how

are you, are you tired, is your health ok, is your family ok, welcome to

my home, may you live long. I am supposed to do the same, but even

after a year I helplessly hyperventilate as I cannot keep up. I'm entrenched

in the polite, how are you, I'm good, thank you.

Now let us reflect that in most Afghan houses several brothers withtheir wives and parents and children live together. Each man, one by one,

rests a hand on his heart, bows slightly and greets you with, Salam-wale-

kum, khush amadi, zinda bashe - namaskar, welcome, may you live long.

All the women and teenage girls kiss you, shower you with questions,

and all the little ones, boys and girls, gravely approach you and shake

your hands. A good 15 minutes have passed by before it is all over and

I can sit down, and I'm secretly dreading the time I have to leave, because

a variation of this is going to happen all over again.I swear to you, this elaborate ritual is not limited to parties and

invitations. Often when I'm walking from my house to the office, half

way down the street a kind of guard-switching takes place. A guard

approaches me and stands to my side, while the other walks back to the

house. I have to stand there for about 2 minutes as these guards, who see

each other every day, exchange an elaborate set of greetings.

Children are completely

adored and spoiled. I

genuinely can't understand

how they grow up to be so

polite and capable. An

Afghan 13 year old boy or

girl is extremely self-

sufficient. Most boys marry

by the time they are 22 andgirls by the time they are 18.

The boy is capable and

confident, able to work,

negotiate in the bazaar for the

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best price on everything from a melon to a TV, maneuver the bureaucracy

to get jobs done, organize events and the girl can cook for 30, sew

everything from curtains to elaborately designed wedding outfits, take careof babies, manage a budget - it amazes every non-Afghan here.

The society is segregated at a very early age, and boys and girls older

than five or six do not play together. At weddings a huge hall is separated

by a wall - the women sit on one side and the men on the other. The male

guests never see the bride. The weddings are wild and raucous affairs

with hours and hours of dancing and jokes and laughter - of course the

women dance with women and the men with men.

And yet, once married, the couple is allowed, in their own house, asurprising level of public display of intimacy. As the whole family sits

down for dinner, husbands and wives sit side by side with knees touching

and hands resting easily on each other's legs. After dinner, as we relax

over tea and fruits, husbands and wives will sit very close and even softly

talk to one another while everyone else is engaged in another conversation.

It is a startling contrast to the oppressive level of segregation found in

almost all other areas.

While a man can have up to four wives, most Afghans I know onlyhave one. Culturally, it does not appear to be a hugely popular thing to

do and the Afghan women I know would be deeply hurt if their husbands

brought home another wife. While it is easy to divorce, it is virtually

unheard of as the commitment of marriage is taken very seriously. Every

earner in the family contributes a share to the family pot, and this share

is determined by the money manager - and this could be the oldest male

or female of the house.

Although Afghans do socialize with friends, most of the socializing is

done within the family, with weekends being taken up by visiting relatives

and celebrations related to birth, engagements and weddings of relatives.

There are celebrations that take on a more communal slant - the two

big ones being Nowruz (New Year) and Qurbani-Eid. Afghans follow the

lunar calendar and New Year is around March 15th and it is so, so, so,

so much fun. The markets are a crush of people buying new clothes. Fish

comes into Kabul by the ton from Jalalabad and Pakistan and fish-fryvendors litter the streets. A big fish is filleted and cleaned along its length,

rubbed by spices and flour and deep fried till it is crisp. A mixture of

lemon juice and oil is squirted over the fish, it is wrapped in a huge nan,

which is then wrapped up in newspaper. In another paper bag, hot and


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colorful jalebis are placed and you strut off with your fish and jalebis -

a staple to celebrate the new year.

Three days before the New Year you start preparing Haft Mewa (sevenfruits) - walnuts, almonds, red kishmish, black kishmish, pistachios, dried

apricots and dried plums. You wash and rub, wash and rub, till the almonds

and walnuts are white and all the skin is gone. You then clean the raisins

and soak it all in water for three days. In the end you get this heavenly

fruit soup in which you sprinkle rose water. It is a good thing that people

laugh at you if you make it any other time, because honestly, you can eat

kilos of it - it is just that good.

Music blares from every street corner, people visit each other, kiteflying competitions decorate the sky and then the mela - Sakhi-Jan mela

- starts and GOES ON FOR 40 DAYS!! Vendors, palm readers, gamblers,

musicians, tricksters all come together to give you and your loved ones

a very good time. In contrast to the revelry is the celebration of Qurbani

Eid, in which animals are sacrificed and the rich feed the poor. The smell

of blood fills the air as brightly colored sheep, cows and goat are sacrificed,

the meat divided into three parts - part one for the family, part two for the

neighbors who could not afford to sacrifice, part three for the mosquewhere it is cooked in huge vats and served to the poor. Again, droves of

families and friends visit each other and people keep track of who did

not come to visit!

Aside from food, most expendable income is spent on clothes. Afghans

are fashionable people and extremely good looking. They are also thin,

have wonderful skin and hair, and are comfortable in traditional and

western outfits. The men

wear salwar kameez. For

casual attire they have

jeans, t-shirts and casual

shirts. For women, the

salwar kameez is an import

from Pakistan and they do

wear it, but equally

common for the women are jacket and skirt suits (full

length), and jacket and pant

suits. All women wear head

scarves. There are many


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who still wear the full

burqa when they go

outside, and as theywalk you can still see

the fashionable clothes

and the high heels.

Many Afghans smoke,

and many Afghans

drink. Before the

Russians came in 1980,

Afghanistan even hadwineries. However,

now it is done in secret

and the wineries have

slammed shut.

Every culture has a relationship with sports and it is huge here in

Afghanistan. The society is very competitive as evidenced by the rapid

rise of the Afghan cricket team. Soccer is hugely popular. Wrestling and

body-building are highly respected sports and lately every block has startedboasting a school on martial arts. The more distressing, but nevertheless

popular sports are dog-fighting and cock-fighting. However, the crowning

glory is the national sport - Buzkashi, and to me, this sport in many ways

explains the mystery of Afghanistan.

I'm at a loss of words on how to describe this game. The one I went

to had about a 100 horses with riders. It was a large field surrounded by

the ever present wall and there was a white circle (about 5 feet in diameter)

in the center of this dusty field. A calf had been slaughtered and beheaded

and dipped in brine overnight to prevent rigor and to make it pliable. The

body was thrown next to a flag on a post dug into one end of the field,

and the riders went at it. The object is to retrieve this calf (estimated at

between 30 to 40 kilos) and then to toss it inside this circle. It is one man

against all and except for hitting the face, all is fair.

The men bandage their legs with layers of cloth, then surround their

calves with long sticks and bandage that, and then put on the famous longBuzkash boots. Their bodies are heavily padded with very thick coats and

pants, their heads are covered with thick fur hats. They have to leave their

hands bare. No gloves are allowed. They carry short whips filled with

sand and the horses are trained to bite. In the crush of vicious horses that


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are bucking from the whips, men who are whipping each other, a rider

has to retain control of his horse, grab the calf, shove it under one leg to

grip it, hold on to one leg of the calf with a hand, and then try to get itto the circle.

Sometimes the body positions simply defy any sense of gravity and

often you see a rider holding on to the calf with just his thigh, lashing out

with both hands at attackers, with the horse seemingly knowing exactly

where to go. The better rider watches other riders fight to lift the calf off

the ground and just as someone has a bit of a hold, forces his horse right

into the tangle of horse and men, takes the other leg and through sheer

physical force of horse and rider emerges with the calf.It went on for three hours (there were several rounds) and at the end

no man died, fell off a horse, no horse buckled or limped - and most of

us just sat there in complete disbelief about what we just saw. I mentioned

that once there is peace and security in Afghanistan, marketing this alone

to the west will hold up the Afghan economy. We were in Kabul, the ones

held in Mazar and Badakhshan (northern provinces) are played with

around a 1000 horses. All I could think of is this game is a clue of why

no one ever has been able to conquer Afghanistan.We were just four women among a few thousand spectators of men

and could not really cheer loudly and that was difficult. There were

bleachers carved into the mountain for everyone to sit. As soon as we

entered, there was first silence, and then people scrambled to bring out

rickety plastic chairs for us to sit on. We were with my favorite Afghan

guide here, who scoured us an invitation from the war lord (General Fahim,

the famed Masood's right

hand man, and an ex-defence

minister). General Fahim

never demeaned himself by

actually coming to us, but we

felt pretty safe knowing that

we were his guests.

Peace be with you. You

can write to me [email protected].(The author (right) has been involved in peace and

social justice causes for the last 14 years. With

friends at the Buzkashi match.)


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Ohetuk SabhaOhetuk SabhaOhetuk SabhaOhetuk SabhaOhetuk Sabhaconducted the followingconducted the followingconducted the followingconducted the followingconducted the following sessions of sessions of sessions of sessions of sessions of

Ohetuk AddaOhetuk AddaOhetuk AddaOhetuk AddaOhetuk Adda

over the last one yearover the last one yearover the last one yearover the last one yearover the last one year

December 14, 2008

Shyamal Ray rendered Tagore's poems in

Bengali and English.

January 11, 2009

Malabika Majumdar explained the development

by various philosophers on Free Will.

February 8, 2009

Jayanti Chattopadhyay led the adda on

19th century Bengali literature in the context of Sati.

March 8, 2009

Shyamal Ray, Soumya Mukherjee and Maitrayee Sen

introduced the adda to humorous poetry in Bengali and English.

Documents

HINDOL 1st Issue - Jul - Aug.. 2009