Missed opportunity
• Sir - The internet has been full of striking photographs of the Orionid meteor shower. The shower, visible when the earth passes through the debris left by Halley's Comet, peaked in India in the weekend immediately after Diwali. Unfortunately, the heavy smog that envelops most places in the country during and after the festival left stargazers in India disappointed. The shower was visible from few places. One doubts it would have been visible even if it had not occurred after Diwali. Light pollution has rendered the night sky insipid.
Nikhilesh Gupta,
New Delhi
Lost in translation
• Sir - The article, "A language in decline" (Oct 19), by Manish Nandy was thought provoking and moved me deeply. His assessment of the current linguistic scenario in Bengal is unpalatable but true. Fewer and fewer Bengalis speak in their mother tongue, choosing instead to speak in English to show off their upbringing in an English-medium school. Strangely enough, some of these so-called intellectuals will also be found delivering lectures on the decline of Bengali on February 21, which is observed as Bhasha Dibas.
The decline of the language can be blamed on the entertainment medium as well. Bengali films and television serials are increasingly being peppered with Hindi and English. This stems from an ignorance about the language which, in turn, leads one to believe that Bengali is inferior to other languages.
One should look back at Renaissance Bengal when the leading lights were fluent in both Bengali and English. They took pride in cultivating both languages with dedication. People should not turn a blind eye to this rich tradition. More than one language can be learnt and spoken without any one losing its character or importance.
Rajesh Chowdhury,
Murshidabad
• Sir - All languages, be it Latin, Sanskrit or Pali, evolve. Especially if it is a living language. With evolution comes change that often makes the evolved tongue sound like a new language altogether. But Bengali still has at least some decades before it meets this fate. Given the huge population, across countries, that speaks Bengali, the language is unlikely to die out like the Andamanese tongue, Bo.
The Bengali's love for his mother tongue has often led him to imagine a scary dystopian future for the language like Kaliprasanna Singha did in Hutom Pyanchar Naksha. However, such worries are unfounded. There are many people who speak only Bengali and no other language. Till that time that such people exist, Bengali will live on, albeit with dialectical variations.
Sabyasachi Sengupta,
Calcutta
• Sir - It was saddening to learn that even Bengalis living in Bengal neglect their mother tongue. Bengali is rich in folklore and excellent literature has been written in it. I remember one instance when I went to a neighbourhood shop, the young boy there could not understand the meaning of baish and I had to say 22 in English for him to garner what I was saying. This ignorance about the language among the youngsters means that they are being deprived of some brilliant children's literature that we have grown up with, such as the works of Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury and Sukumar Ray. They will also not get to enjoy the likes of Rabindranath Tagore and Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. At best, they can read translations which are never as good as the originals.
The literary circles, authors and publishers together, must find a way to reverse this unfortunate trend. The state government should extend its full support in this matter and ensure that Bengali is read, spoken and written in widely once again.
Suman Sankar Dasgupta,
Calcutta
• Sir - Manish Nandy's concern regarding the evolution of a new language that is a hybrid of English and Bengali is well founded. This was once prevalent only among the Bengali elite but now has spread to smaller towns and cities that see this hybrid language as a sign of progress. However, most Bengalis have been reduced to a laughing stock owing to their accent, mispronounced words and limited vocabulary. Yet, it is doubtful that any of these people, who take pride in speaking broken English instead of their mother tongue, have read the English classics leave alone the ones in Bengali. Such an outlook is only creating poorly informed generations who are not well-versed in either language. Educationists should vigorously campaign for the revival of the Bengali language. Maybe that will yield some results.
Jahar Saha,
Calcutta
Parting shot
• Sir - The Indian Railways is the lifeline of the country. But it could do with a lot of improvement as far as punctuality is concerned. My train to Malda which was scheduled to arrive at Lucknow on October 18 afternoon arrived instead on October 19. I lost out on an entire day of a festival, as not only had the train arrived long after time it was also running several hours late. Old people and children face tremendous discomfort and inconveniences from such delays. Then, people miss their connecting trains or flights to other places. While India dreams of a bullet train, the existing infrastructure continues to decline.
Ankita Basu,
Calcutta
