thakur thakbe kotokhon???

After 150 years the magic of Tagore is still alive? or its just the myth??He is the cultural icon of our country, more precisely of our Bengal..we take pride in his works,but how significant he is in today's life???will it be some how different if Tagore was not born 15o yrs ago?well,I suppose it would have been different in many people's life but of course not in every one's life.The writer,philosopher,painter,poet and a thinker of the future left this footprint in every segment of our culture,literature,society,politics.....shantiniketan's security guards were not able to protect his Nobel prize but have we been able to follow the paths which were been shown by him??This year I saw every news channels made special episode on his man to pay tribute on his 150 th birthday..I don't know how many of us really respect him but certainly he did one job very efficiently..there are in numerous artists who are making their money by selling this man..what makes him more valuable to many of them..isn't it??still now TV shows on Tagore always rises the trps..so its a good business indeed.but if we had genuinely followed his paths we could have earned more profits in every aspect..now a days from every politician to film maker is very much interested in Tagore..I recently heard an interview by SAIF ALI KHAN where he said that the novel PARINEETA by Tagore is a masterpiece!!!! just imagine..his songs are still the best seller every year in Bengal at least..the visualization or the choreography which are imparted on rabindrasangeet now a days,most of the times they are so cheap and sometimes even vulgar that is really hard to digest..a true admirer of music is able to visualize a scene just by listening it..Copyrights have been withdrawn, it doesn't mean that we have got the right to sell anything in the name of TAGORE just for business.This year every political parties during Kolkata civic poll election used Rabi thakur's poems,his writings for their campaign without proper meaning ,just to prove themselves culturally literate.What I feel as bengali,if there is one single person who really understands our souls,he is tagore.No need to say he is immortal by his work,don't sell out or utilize this person for anyone's mean purpose..

Ei dinota khôma kôro, probhu,

Pichhon-pane takai jodi kobhu.

Diner tape roudrojalae shukae mala pujar thalae,

Shei mlanota khôma kôro, khôma kôro, probhu.

THAT'S NOT 'RIGHT',BUT THERE IS NONE...

The last post discussed an important issue regarding life at Kashmir and how the basic human rights are being denied everyday. The issue I intend to discuss today is not one where people's lives are at stake and certainly not the most important issue of recent time.But this issue is just another instance where the basic human rights are being denied once again by the government and I feel something should be done about it.

Yes,I am talking about the recent turmoil regarding the BLACKBERRY phones. Government of India (as well as some other countries) is worried that terrorists may use the blackberry and the government won't have any clue about what they intend to do because they found the encryption system of blackberry is hard to decipher. And govt. is trying to pursue RIM(Research In Motion),the manufacturer of blackberry in India to hand them over the encryption details so that they can snoop on our phones, SMSs emails and god knows what else. That means we will have to say good bye to 'Privacy' very soon.

But there are 600 million people in India who uses mobile phones in India according to the telecom companies(and among them 1 million are Blackberry user). What surprises me is how is it possible to watch over all those 600 million peoples and what the speak over the phone,what they right in there SMSs,and their emails!!! Well,certainly they will have to snoop extensively without any exception. :D How else can they be sure of our security of which they are so much worried about. :P So they are gonna need a huge number of employee who will do the job for them. Apparently govt. has found a way to solve large unemployment problem of our country. ;)

Coming back to the point, if RIM gives in to govt. arm twisting, there won't be any difference between the blackberry and other phones available in the market. In that case, terrorists most probably won't use it for communication. In fact they used Satellite phones during Mumbai attack. And there are many other communication tools available as well that can be used by the terrorists as an alternatives of blackberry. Govt. is so much concerned about our security, still they couldn't do anything about the maoists attacks. Surely they were not using the Blackberries. What makes them think that they will get some ground breaking success just by listening to all the phone communications in India. There are more pressing security issues that need attentions. The sooner they understand this,the better for them,and of course for us.

But it's not about the terrorists. When I started this blog what was in mind was our basic right of privacy. Surprisingly when I googled it to know the details & I was shocked to find that our constitution doesn't have any explicit law that protects our right to privacy. Only the article no. 21 of Part III of the constitution which tells about right to life and liberty mentions loosely about privacy. That means legally there is nothing could be done about the snooping whether you like it or not. And that's where I object. Frankly,one has the right not to share something with someone and no way to a stranger if it is not a public information. That's a right I expect to be there in a free country.

We certainly don't like to be monitored by anyone and share our each and every thoughts to someone totally unrelated to my personal sphere,even if our security is the issue. May be their logic is right in small scale but it is down right impractical at large scale. So we are putting our privacy in public just for nothing. This doesn't ensure our safety. Just makes our life open to all. and it's high time we do something about it.