Unsafe travel
Sir — Durga Puja is fast approaching and Bengalis are either planning their pandal hopping or making travel plans. But dark clouds loom for both groups: while rain may play spoilsport for pandal-hoppers, travellers face a far graver threat: that of war. Thailand, a favourite for many Bengali travellers, is suddenly looking less than postcard-perfect. A border dispute with Cambodia has taken a nasty turn and Indian travellers have been asked to avoid several provinces. While the embassies and tourism boards are doing their bit, perhaps travel agencies could be more proactive in updating their colourful flyers. Travel, after all, should be about rest, not risk.
Raktim Das,
Calcutta
Little things
Sir — Sumana Roy’s article, “Homeward bound” (July 27), brings quiet attention to a strange fatigue — the exhaustion of constant literacy. The image of a mind seeking rest among dew, shadow, and leaf is nostalgic. So many people live saturated by screens, texts, and signs that they forget how to look without reading. The beauty of names like Taltala and Fulbari offers a rhythm, a hint of something outside scripted modern life. The longing she names deserves serious public consideration.
Pinaki Majumdar,
Calcutta
Sir — There is something devastatingly beautiful about the line, “They fall continuously, tiny dead leaves, like spores falling from the trees, as if the breeze was a byproduct of the trees themselves, their secretion.” Sumana Roy notices the overlooked with great generosity. Her observations on leaves, petals, creepers, and the non-human residents of places ask readers to take a pause. This is a call to shift the gaze — to take seriously what lies beneath footpaths, behind names, and beyond the scripted life. A small haystack, she says, deserves its place alongside a temple spire. The comparison is accurate and long overdue.
Ardhendu Chakraborty,
Calcutta
Think local
Sir — The Sundarbans have long known the wrath of cyclones but rarely has response to them felt as rooted in the land as Udit Mittal’s work. A graduate of the School of Planning and Architecture, Mittal joined a consortium where he met the French architect, Laurent Fournier. Together, they worked closely with a Sundarbans-based non-governmental organisation to construct prototypes of cyclone-resistant homes using locally sourced brick, bamboo, mud and thatch. This proves that architecture needs respect for local wisdom. It is high time design stopped thinking in terms of cement and glass and started listening to mud, bamboo, and the wind.
Sagar Chakraborty,
Calcutta
Sir — What stands out about Udit Mittal’s Sundarbans initiative is the refusal to exoticise resilience. Mittal and his team have not parachuted in a solution. They have walked the narrow paths, learnt the logic of thatch and dome, and trusted villagers as collaborators, not beneficiaries. In an age of climate panic, the effort shows that real adaptation starts on the ground.
Ajay Tyagi,
Mumbai
Historic objects
Sir — There is real merit in treating the commonplace as worthy of preservation (“History at home”, July 25). The domestic showcase documents not only nostalgia but shifts in taste, class, belief, and even geopolitics. One generation’s ivory jewellery box is bound to become the next one’s ethical dilemma.
Bishwanath Kundu,
Calcutta
Sir — Bengalis are not the only ones to have showcases at home. The most enduring presence in many showcases across South India is a sandalwood elephant. Sometimes carved hollow with a tinier elephant inside, owning it was less about possessing a souvenir and more a rite of passage for those hailing from the southern regions.
Tharcius S. Fernando,
Chennai
Sir — In many Tamil Brahmin homes, a small bronze Nataraja stands behind the showcase glass, one foot raised mid-dance, frozen forever. Its presence had nothing to do with daily worship; it was about art, lineage and pride. Guests were told where it was bought, what it cost, sometimes even who polished it. Children were warned not to knock it over. Even as beliefs shifted, it remained a symbol of the respectable past that the house had once aspired to.
C.K. Subramaniam,
Navi Mumbai
Love is war
Sir — One sympathises with the desire to filter out the politically incompatible on dating apps. Life is hard enough without dinner-table debates on a hot date. Still, the complete sanitisation of romance that is permitted by dating apps risks turning relationships into ideological echo chambers. Must all affection be politically correct? The best partnerships have always included disagreements — some lively, others bruising — that teach people how to argue, adapt and still care. A digital checklist for the perfect partner may prevent heartbreak but it also guarantees little surprise. Love, in its truest form, has never been so tidy.
Abhinab Paul,
Baripada, Odisha