Shubha Nabobarsho 1417!

The Bengali New Year just went by. It is 1417 Bongabdo now. Wishing all the Bengalis Shubha Nabobarsho! Hope this brings you all prosperity and health!

Today’s topic is Bengali and the Bengali language. Recently I came across a news article in http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ about Bengali being selected as the sweetest language of the world. (Find the article here) We always knew this, that after one of those European languages (may be Spanish) Bengali was the sweetest language of the world and one of the most spoken language too. I am proud to be a Bengali and this is one more reason to be so. I can read, write and speak in Bengali and that is an achievement in any human being’s life. I was blessed to have born in a Bengali family and hence, I did not have to toil that hard to learn Bengali. I wish people reading me, who cannot read Bengali would learn this someday and would be able to explore the treasure we have in our Bangla literature! Oh, such a great feeling to be able to address Bangla as my own! I was telling the other day to one of my friends in office, that there is so much in Bengali and its literature that it is not possible for someone mortal to read and learn everything that is in there. And that my wife could go on and on and on talking about Bengali, Bengali literature, Bengali people and Bengali land – we are so proud Bengalis!

That’s it!

I am a Bengali and let me be a Bengali and let me take pride in the same.

But that would not be the end of all of it. People in India speak so many different languages and everyone is proud of their own languages. Till this point everything is fine! But no! People will not just stop there. They will go much ahead of this and start comparing their language to their neighbors’. They will start comparing the languages and cross the limit and call names of the other language and the people speaking that. This is what the majority of Indians do at present. We discriminate fellow Indians on basis of their language, cast, creed, religion and color. We have seen it, felt it, talked about it and have kept quiet. I mean, we never had anything to do against or for this. We don’t take any steps ourselves. We keep mum and we condole ourselves.

I am staying away from home for last 12 years and I have seen it everywhere I went – be it Assam, Tamil Nadu or Karnataka; be it in street, shop, bus and auto or in office! Where are we heading towards? Are we a country of educated people? Well, if this is what education teaches us, we should go back to the jungles and start dwelling in caves. There is no tolerance, no brotherhood, no serenity and no forbearance in any of us! And we call ourselves educated, civilized and healthy human beings and citizens of a developing country – a republic, a democratic and a sovereign nation! Does anyone know the meaning of these words? LOL!

It’s time we rise and stand against this and pull those despotic nincompoops by their ears and teach them that this is a country of many people and all of those have the right to go anywhere they want; do anything they want; talk any language they want; practice any religion they want. And not only this, the citizens of India are free to eat at any restaurant; wear any underwear they want; sneeze as many times they would like to; watch any movie at any theatre.

If you have got a problem, just leave!

Grow up people and act as if you are civilized, even if you are not ;)

The picture is a cover of a book written on Indian Languages. I just loved the cover and wanted to post it here. Taken from here.

The above is also posted at: Bangladeshi Hindi: Portal to the Hindu World