She.

To me , she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. I was 15 then and so was she. We often talked about her and some of us had great fun describing her in the most traditional way for talking about the beauty of a bangololona. Her complexion was nothing less than doodhe-alta. She had the eyes of a horini and a perfectly banshir moto tikolo nose. Her lips resembled fresh koyas of komlalebu.........she was no less than a jibanto Durgaprotima. There was no flaw in her except the fact that she had bad hair. We often quipped: Kuchbaron konya tahar jhanta swarup kesh !( instead of meghbaron kesh). Nevertheless she deserved the other praises showered on her. We were never friends - I hardly spoke to her in the six years of secondary education yet she seemed to me a very interesting psychological case study. Our ways were different. We strongly disapproved of each other on every occasion we got to do so. Yet I know not why she did certain things she did! She, through some of her other friends urged me to recite a Tagore poem at a teacher's farewell. I got to know this only after the programme had ended as she feared that i wouldn't recite the poem had i known it was she who wanted me to do so! Another incident was just as weird as this. She was a very good dancer. That year, class 10 had to put up a programme with Pujo as their theme. Our class teacher wanted to do something really innovative so that we could put up a strong fight against our opponent - 10C. So she asked me to do a Birendro krishna Bhadro. I had to start with Ashwiner sharod prate followed by other slokas. She had earlier refused to dance as she hated the idea of wearing a saree but when she heard that just after my Ashwiner........ would begin Bajlo tomar alor benu she changed her mind. She danced really well and needless to say looked stunning in a bluish green saree. I heard she seemed to think herself very lonely. She loved a man who was several years older than her but was never loved back. She waited........ and sometimes hoped that her lover would die and like in Donne's poem his ghost would come to her bed which would serve as a proof that he really loved her but was afraid to say so lest she should refuse her. This horrified me . Can one call this love? But on the last day of our school i had seen a strange thing. She was staring blankly out of the window. I saw underneath her doodhe -alta facial skin layers of ash water laden cumolo nimbus clouds. She felt my gaze and looked at me. I quickly turned my eyes away lest i should see moss green shadows in her doe eyes. I had no desire to start conversation on the last day. Or was I afraid? Did i fear her more than i feared myself?

THANKS!!!

There are some people who can really become a bhorshar proteek when everything and everyone else fails or deliberately tries to confuse people. Amalendu Bandyopadhyay is such a person . A few days ago one of the news channels started creating unneccessary fuss on the UFO issue. They even went to the extent of suggesting their viewers to let lose their imagination and think of the prospect of weird extra terrestrials dessending on say Rashbehari more. The anchor went godogodo while anticipating the probable effects on the ETs as they watched the exclusive telecast of the channel. Thanks to veterans like Bandyopadhyay who sat awake for the whole night to get a glimpse of the "mysterious object". He assured the media that the much hyped UFO is nothing but Venus and the cause of its continuous change of shape are storms that take place in space which blow 35000 or more kms above the sea level and are thus not felt by earthlings. It is also astonishing that this bit of information wasn't avilable from the director of taramandal(BT) who was also present in the exclusive. He seemed confused and also emphasized on the fact that the thing in question could not possibly be a plannet. This is not the first time Bandyopadhyay clears confusion. In a T.V programme , a couple of years ago he, in his well known emphatic manner stated the utter futility of astrological gems and precious stones in improving a persons fate. He asked how could a plannet ,situated millions of miles away from the earth possibly affect the lives of human beings. We need people like Bandyopadhyay who can save us from being fooled by astologers or beguiled by the chatterings of mediapersons who sometime seem no worse than the former in confounding the common man.