Elections (1)

Today, while on a rickshaw to work, I was re-rerouted from Farmgate by the traffic police, due to the ongoing hartal violence. While going through some of the side alleys, I suddenly came across a surreal sight: The Elections of the Truck & Covered Van Ponnyo Paribahan Malik Association.

Every available inch of billboard-,truck-, overhanging telephone wire-, wall-space was postered with the faces of the contestants  and their ubiquitous 'markas' (symbols): mangoes, palkis, hammers, cruise ships, umbrellas, axles, footballs, etc. etc. In effect, the members of the Association were asked to "vote for the Pineapple"!

27.03.2013

Dhaka

Snapping chords

I have to admit, the music of Pandit Ravi Shankar is not one that I came to of my own volition. Over the years, as I heard my parents play his tapes and CDs in the car, I came to appreciate his music and develop a mild affection for it. A bit like the ghazals of Jagjit Singh, what struck me was not the virtuosity of his performances, but being the unrepentant musical philistine that I am, it made 

me recall many fond memories from my childhood and adolescence.

I've been listening to a few of his albums today and I randomly wondered what Pandit Shankar recalled of his childhood and adolescence after all these years. It absolutely boggles the mind to think that Pandit Ravi Shankar started to publicly play the sitar the year Nazi Germany invaded Poland, before India won its freedom, before Mao became Chairman, before the Cold War, before man deduced the structure of DNA or went to the space or the moon, before all our modern contrivances - his performances started before and continued through it all. Till now. For this reason, I suddenly feel as if an intangible connection to the past has snapped and has cast me adrift in an unknown sea.

[His death was prefaced by those of Oscar Niemayer, Sunil Gangopadhay, etc. so you can surmise why I feel this way.]

Source: Bangladesh Old Photo Archive