BREATHTAKING

if there is one place that can inspire instant poetry in me it is rural Bengal. swami vivekananda has mentioned it in his travelogues, Tagore has immortalised theses places through his poems and prose, jibonanondo das has written the graceful and lyrical poem,"oi dhanshiritir tire".... the list is endless. yet, nothing actually compares to the beauty that is inherent in rural areas of Bengal. no disrespect intended to the great writers of Bengal, but no language can produce words lucid enough to capture the glory of nature in its resplendent best. i have always felt that if there is one thing on earth that can make me forget all else and just be at peace with myself, all ambitions, dreams and rat race forgotten, its the calm serenity of narure, its the ennervating fury of raging nature, its the boundless passion and seamless synergy of nature.

this year i had no hopes of getting leave and i was making do with small weekend trips in the sahyadri hills in and around mumbai. they are also one of the most pristine spots in maharashtra. however, i finally managed to pluck up the courage to ask for leave, and voila, i got it! for 10 staight days too. so, i went staright home and then proceeded to laze away to glory for if there is one place where you are king no matter how big and idiot you are, it home. mom kept stuffing me like a pig being fattened for slaughter on christmas day. all my trousers started getting tight after a mere two days. yet, my mom's cheif accusation remained that i do not have sufficient food. let me tell you something about bengali moms. they feel the fatter their kids are the better they look to the rest of the world. the word healthy has a completely different meaning in their vocabulary. when i was in academy and at the prime of my health, i was regulalrly chided by all moms around me to be weak and thin. so, when they give you food you are supposed to finish off the whole plate and ask for another plateful.

even as these shenanigans were on, we decided to go on a trip to shantiniketan, this being the time for poush mela and Tagore's birthday. for all you uninitiated, Rabindranath Tagore happens to be the poetry that runs through the veins of bengalis all over the world, at least till my generation. he built a small village called shantiniketan where he made a model of society should be in his eyes. its was sans all trappings of vulgar wealth, only th beauty of nature and man harmoninsing. he also built an university called vishwabharati, which is still one of bengal's premier institutes. so this time of the year is very special for all bengalis and a huge mela is celebrated in shantiniketan in memory of Tagore. its called the poush mela.

the first installment of my travelogue shall come up in my next blog. before i leave, here is an interesting thought.i mentioned in my previos blog that i will highliht the basic differences among men and women. so, why do men join mathematics for higher studies and women join biology? i know that there are some exceptions, but they just go to prove the rule. any interesting observations?