sanchaliscribbles

                                   A  work by Barbara Kruger (1981)   ঘটনাটা ছোট। ২০১৭-র ।  একটা দোকানে গিয়েছিলাম। দোকানের TV-টা চালানো। একটা অনুষ্ঠান হচ্ছে। সঞ্চালনায়ে অভিনেত্রী শ্রাবন্তি। দোকানের দুই মালিকের এক মালিক বলে উঠল, “ধুর! শ্রাবন্তিকে ভাল লাগেনা, আমার শুভশ্রীকেই ভালো লাগে।” সাথে সাথে আর একজন বলে উঠল, “হ্যাঁ! শুভশ্রীর ফিগারটা হেভি! একটা ব্যাপার আছে। ছোট, বড় সব জামাকাপড়েই মানায়।” আমার পাশে দাঁড়ানো একজন তাদের সাথেই সুর মিলিয়ে নিজের বক্তব্য রাখলো, “ঠিক, তবে শ্রাবন্তির গজ দাঁতটি আমার খুব ভালো লাগে। মেয়েদের গজ দাঁত থাকলে আলাদা চার্ম।”  I preferred writing down this extremely deep conversation about women’s body in Bangla, quoting verbatim, because I didn't want to invest time translating filth from one language to the other. For those who can’t read Bangla, it’s a conversation among nine or ten men talking about women's bodies (in this case, two Bengali actresses in partic...

Painting by Jacob Lawrence The Covid 19 situation in India has not only exposed the faulty health system in the country, but also the condition of the labour force. The thousands of workers walking in the scorching heat are all invisible to the government. Not to mention, there are many social media posts, tweets blaming the workers for leaving their work place during lockdown, almost criminalizing them for being poor. It is easy to say these, especially when we have a roof over our head, and food on the table. And those sharing their "migrant stories" with the "metoomigrant" hashtag, mustn't forget to add the word 'privileged'. Or, they could just stop their free flow of ignorance in a time like this.  Remembering a few lines from  Auden’s  Refugee Blues  written in 1939.  Say this city has ten million souls, Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes: Yet there's no place for us, my dear, yet there's no place for us. Once we had ...

People often describe Budapest as “the Paris of the East”, but I beg to differ. It holds a special place in its own right, and needs no comparison. I visited the city in January 2020. My purpose for visiting the Hungarian capital was primarily academic. But when you get to be in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, how can you miss exploring its beauty! I haven’t read much of Hungarian literature, but ever since I read Magda Szabó’s The Door , and Abigail I have wanted to visit the country. Both the books, like any other good book evoke a sense of curiosity to know more about the place and its people. Which is why, upon receiving the invitation from ELTE University, I did not think twice before accepting it. I only had two days in the city, but I’m not complaining. I tried to make the most of it! My train journey to Budapest started from Passau in Germany, with a seven hour wait at Wien Meidling railway station in the middle of the night. All those hours in Vienna, and I was...