Bangladeshi man runs across a makeshift bridge, as it starts to rain in Cooch Bihar district in the Indian State of West Bengal. © Manpreet Romana/NYT
In November 2012, The New York Times ran two paired pieces written from both sides of the Bengal border.
Jyoti Rahman analyzes both articles: “Naeem is a few years older than me, and Mr Ray is likely to be slightly younger. That means, all of us were born decades after partition. Ours is the generation that has not known Pakistan in Bengal. Ours is the generation that has no lived experience of 1971. Both writers describe what the ‘other’ Bengal has meant to them over the years. Obviously I can relate to Naeem’s story, but I don’t share his conclusion. And while I find Ray’s story interesting for its misconception, I do relate to the way his story ends.”
Jyoti Rahman: Being Bengali in a divided Bengal
Here are the original two articles that Jyoti is responding to.
“Instead of loop memories of a river cottage, perhaps it is better for us to think of ways to revive experiments like Juktakkhor. Once-twinned, now tragically separated, people cannot hope to now, after all this time, reverse midnight’s trajectory. But they can, at least, begin to work together as equals.”
Naeem Mohaiemen: Stranded on the Borders of Two Bengals
“In our conversations, we both avoid that which may be considered contentious. Instead we discuss the real issues that affect both of us — the best places to buy Bengali fish in the Washington, D.C., metro area and the selection strategies of Kolkata Knight Riders, Calcutta’s Indian Premier League cricket franchise, which I support and in which the Bangladeshi national hero and talented all-rounder Shakib Al Hassan plays.”
Source: ALAL O DULAL
We very often have heard many people, though mostly West Bengal’s, lamenting on the ‘divide’ and shedding crocodile tears on being separated. But if they are told to break the ‘shackle’ of India and become united with East Bengalis to form a united independent Bengal, they show lots of excuses. It just makes us recall Poet Tagore’s ‘Dui Pakhi’ (Two Birds) wherein the caged bird invites the free one to enter the cage as there are plenty of food, safe shelter and all other happiness. But the free bird does not concede. He prefers to fly in the open sky even if his life is not that easy. He instead urges the caged one to come out and fly with him in limitless freedom and at last though the latter agrees, he expresses his inability saying that long year’s of caged life has robbed him of the strength to fly. Unfortunately Many in Bangladesh wittingly forget the psyche of the caged bird and blow feigned bugle of ‘brotherhood’ (?) with the other party. They worship Tagore but don’t believe his words that say ‘unity in variety’.