Kolkata Dylan Blues

Thrown in to the world
Told only nice tales
Grew up believing them
Despite what the world hurled
Couple on the telly
Hugging and smooching
Blood in the papers
No one is watching
Grow up kid
Time to rid
Of all the sunshine
Idea that life's fine
Justice isn't a velvet path
It's blood-skin that a dead man hath
Person on the pavement is asking for money
Words he doesn't mind if you can cough up honey

Went through college school
Numbers don't add up
Or even if they do
You'd still be the cool fool
Thousand and one jobs
Passing and calling
Working for the boss
Without good feeling
Grow up kid
Time to rid
Jobs aren't for the dole
It's your slotted role
Money isn't for keeping
See the earth the worms are heaping
Six feet under or fire-burnt for the earth's keep
Who will know whether you had sown what you did reap

Medicine's called love
Bitter be the taste
You got to swallow it
There isn't any choice dove
Breakups and hookups
Swiping screens of love
Company that you seek
From the stars above
Grow up kid
Time to rid
Love isn't a red heart
Squabbles fill the cart
Marriage is far from fun
Everyone marrying their someone
The smile that you put on every time you step out
You got to make up over the tears that brought them 'bout

Loose pants and shrill voice
Memories are fading
Winnowing wheat from chaff
Bad roads from Rolls Royce
Thinking 'bout legacy
Long-lasting impacts
You tend to forget
As people your facts
Grown up kid
Not yet rid
No one remembers you
All time save a few
Do not think a tome
Bringing it all back home
If you feel good then crush the fruit and taste the juice
Wanna try to spread the feel and enjoy the blues

(To be sung to the tune of Bob Dylan's 'Subterranean Homesick Blues')

BBC's Desert Island Discs

বাইবেল ও শেক্সপিয়ারের সমগ্র রচনা তো থাকবেই।

তা ছাড়া, যে আটটি গান, একটি বই ও একটি বিলাস সামগ্রী সঙ্গে নেবো তা হলো এ রকম।

গান

১) রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর, 'আমার নিশীথ রাতের বাদল ধারা', সাহানা বাজপেয়ী-র গাওয়া -- কলেজে পড়ার সময় এই গানটা খুব শুনতাম।

২) Louis Armstrong, 'What a Wonderful World' -- হয়তো আমার সব চেয়ে প্রিয় গান।

৩) Frank Sinatra, 'Moon River' -- Sinatra-র গলাটা শুনতেই হবে।

৪) आरिफ लोहार, 'भाग मिलखा भाग' -- গানটা খুব অনুপ্রেরণা জাগায়।

৫) मधुश्री, 'कान्हा सो जा ज़रा', বাহূবালি ২ চলচ্চিত্রের হিন্দি সংস্করণ থেকে-- গানটা শুনে ঘুমোতে ভালো লাগে। 

৬) मोहित चौहान, 'सबसे पीछे हम खड़े' -- কলেজে পড়ার সময় এই গানটা খুব শুনতাম।

৭) मोहम्मद रफी एवं गीता दत, 'हम आप की आँखों में', পিয়াসা চলচ্চিত্র থেকে -- খুব ভালো লাগে এই গানটা।

৮) Leonard Cohen, 'Closing Time,' -- অন্তিম গান।

বই

F.T. Palgrave, Golden Treasury, with additions by John Press

বিলাস সামগ্রী

পুরনো কিছু ফটোগ্রাফ

কলকাতায় বাংলায় ঘড়ি

প্রথম: https://scroll.in/magazine/833345/how-the-first-english-clock-with-bengali-numerals-and-swiss-machinery-came-to-calcutta

দ্বিতীয়: https://eisamay.indiatimes.com/west-bengal-news/kolkata-news/the-first-bengali-clock-tower-in-kolkata-for-bengali-new-year/articleshow/63678305.cms

মানিকতলার ঘড়িটা দ্বিভাষিক ও বাংলা সংখ্যাগুলো রং করা।

Doubt, protest and empathy

The three Christian theological virtues were faith, hope and charity. In addition to the four classical virtues of wisdom, courage, temperance and justice, these three came together to form the seven virtues of the Christian world.

In the twenty-first century, I think faith is less of a virtue than it earlier was when religion had greater significance for a larger section of the population. On the contrary, what improves the world is technological innovation, which in itself is fuelled by doubt.

One of the other factors which improves humankind is acquiring rights, which is rarely gifted but has to be demanded and seized from the powers that be. The protests manifesting the demand are carried out in hope, hope that the demands will be met. Thus, hope in the form of protest remains one of the forms of human progress.

Charity (Latin caritas = love) was the greatest of the Christian theological virtues. I think it remains the greatest virtue even now. In order to love or even be charitable (in the modern sense of donating), one needs to empathise, imagine oneself in the place of another.

Thus, I think the three modern virtues which propel the human race forward are doubt, protest and empathy.

New English fiction recommendation lists

Commonwealth and US
————————————————
Man Booker Prize

International
————————
Man Booker International Prize

India
————
DSC Prize for South Asian Literature
JCB Prize for Literature
The Hindu Literary Prize

USA
———
US National Book Award for Fiction
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Edgar Allan Poe Award

My favourite classical Greek tragedies

Aeschylus
Agamemnon

Sophocles
Ajax
Antigone
Philoctetes
Oedipus the King

Euripides
Trojan Women
Medea
Iphigenia at Aulis
Iphigenia in Tauris

Penguin Classics editions of Euripides

19 plays by Euripides are extant today. They are published by Penguin Classics in various anthologised volumes.

Heracles and other plays, translated by John Davie (5 plays)

Heracles
Iphigenia among the Taurians
Helen
Ion
Cyclops

Medea and other plays, translated by John Davie (4 plays)

Medea

Alcestis
Children of Heracles
Hippolytus

Electra and other plays, translated by John Davie (5 plays)

Electra
Suppliant Women
Andromache
Hecabe

Trojan Women

The Bachhae and other plays, translated by John Davie (5 plays)

Phoenician Women
Orestes
Bachhae
Iphigenia at Aulis
Rhesus

Orestes and other plays, translated by Philip Vellacott (6 plays)
The Children of Heracles
Andromache
The Suppliant Women
Phoenician Women
Orestes
Iphigenia at Aulis

Alcestis and other plays, translated by Philip Vellacott (3 plays)
Alcestis
Iphigenia in Tauris
Hippolytus

Medea and other plays, translated by Philip Vellacott (4 plays)
Medea
Hecabe
Electra
Heracles

The Bachhae and other plays, translated by Philip Vellacott (4 plays)
Ion
The Women of Troy
Helen
The Bachhae

Philip Vellacott did not translate Cyclops and Rhesus.