REMEMBERING BENGAL 1: Introduction

We live in the world when we love it.  Rabindranath Tagore

Every region of India has its history and culture, as with the countries of Europe or Africa. Bengal is one such important cultural and linguistic entity in the mosaic that is India.

It was my privilege to have lived there for several years of my life. During that period I absorbed many aspects of Bengal’s colorful culture and language, and I developed deep love for them.  My association with Bengal enriched my life considerably in many ways: It gave me an opportunity to enjoy and learn from another flower in the bouquet of Indic culture. It taught me  to understand and  speak one of the most mellifluous languages of the human family. It gave me hours of musical enjoyment. It taught me how to appreciate a culture not my own.

Though I have been away from Bengal for a good many decades now, I have been visiting Kolkata regularly, each time marveling at the continuing growth in cultural and artistic life of that great city, though also somewhat overwhelmed by the increasing population, congestion in the city, and the bewildering politics that is now beyond my comprehension.

When one grows up in any region of India and learns a little of the language of the people, one gains some understanding of the variety that is India. I am not sure if there are many other countries with such a wide range of language, cuisine, music, and local pride, and yet unified (today) in an intangible way by ethnic and national identity. Herein lies India’s beauty and potential for the present century.

In this series of short essays I plan to recall some of my memories of life in Calcutta of those distant days.

Please share this with your Bengali friends and refer them to SPURTS OF THOUGHT where they can read it: https://acharyavidyasagar.net/