Ananda Sangbad 2024 Q2

Ananda Mandir

269 Cedar Grove Lane Somerset, NJ 08873

Ananda Sangbad

A Quarterly Publication of Ananda Mandir, New Jersey April 2024

MY RECENT VISIT TO INDIA: PROSPERITY VS RESPONSIBILITY

By Prabir Biswas

Before I start, let me confess that this is not a research paper, and my comments are not supported with published data or reports. It is simply a summary of my observations during two and half months’ stay in Kolkata and neighboring areas. After a long gap of four years, we were eager to visit India again. I noticed that many changes have taken place in the country during these four years. Some of these changes were good, some not so good. We all by know by now that India is on a journey towards economic and technological prosperity. By measure of GDP on a Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) basis, India now stands third, behind USA and Chaina (International Monetary Fund database). In that context, I just wanted to see how the behavior of people have changed, how responsibly are they using their newly earned prosperity, and who are the people enjoying most of the fruits of this prosperity.

My wife and I had made an ambitious plan to spend three months in India spreading over the whole winter season. December, January, and February being the coldest months in New Jersey area, we chose these three months to spend in warmer India. In the three months, our plan

was to meet with friends and relatives -- and do substantial amount of travelling within the country. Our travel plan was to go as far north as Amritsar and all the way to the southern tip of India, Kanyakumari. Unfortunately, that did not happen because I suffered some health problems, mainly because of severe air pollution in Kolkata. So, we decided to come back to NJ about two and half weeks earlier than planned. In India, we made short trips to Bishnupur, Varanasi and my home town of Cooch Behar. Unlike Kolkata, air pollution in those places was much less and not terribly bothersome.

First Impression

After about fourteen hours of flight from Newark, we landed at Delhi airport around mid-day. Immigration and Customs clearance went quickly and smoothly. This airport is large, modern and quite impressive. I started noticing the emerging prosperity of India right from the airport. I hadgone through Delhi airport many times in the past. But the change that has taken place in the last four years is mind boggling. Huge airport, high ceilings, clean toilets, glass enclosures all around. There is no doubt that the DelhiAirport can now be considered a worldclass airport.

After immigration and

customs, we were supposed to take a domestic flight to Kolkata. This is where our confusion started. We did not see any “Transfer” sign for domestic flights! We asked a person wearing a Vistara (Airlines) tag for help. He could not give a clear answer nor did he try to find someone who could help us. First impression is important, and in most cases, that starts from the airport of entry to a country. I will say this was a miserable failure for a “worldclass airport”. Shiny airport, art work on the walls, etc. don’t mean anything when a passenger cannot get help when needed.

I must share a good story also. For our return trip to New Jersey, we used the same Delhi airport for connecting to the international flight. After getting off from the domestic flight, we were able to navigate to Vistara/ United airlines counter with ease. I lost our boarding passes for the international portion of our flight. The lady at the counter went out of the way to help us by providing an escort all the way to a counter where they printed a new boarding pass for us. This lady and the escort person acted very professionally. How do I explain these two completely different type of response to our need? This is something worth pondering.

We landed at Kolkata in the evening. Sadly, Kolkata

airport has remained the same. Evenings in a big city in winter is normally gloomy, and this evening was no different.

Vehicle Ownership and Noise Pollution

In Kolkata we stayed in an apartment in a four-story building. This walled housing complex holds about one hundred such buildings. When this complex was built, the roadway inside the complex was designed mainly for foot traffic. Now the buying power of the middle-class families have increased many folds. Car ownership has become common. So, there is continuous car traffic inside the complex. It became impossible to walk freely without being interrupted by an oncoming car. And, with the car traffic came the relentless honking. Parking anywhere and everywhere without consideration for the neighbors has become a regular practice, and rules for flow of traffic were non existing. I saw many cars parked that were coated with months of accumulated dust and dirt. This told me that one can now afford to buy a car for no particular reason and leave it unused for weeks and months. What I saw in this behavior is that common people have disposable money. And is bringing out the

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Ananda Mandir

Calendar of Events (Dates are subject to Change) Please check our website frequently www.anandamandir.org Tel: 732-873-9821

NOTE: For Puja time please contact temple or visit our website: anandamandir.org

APRIL 2024

Shyama Puja, Monday, 8

Basanti Durga Puja, Durga Matar Amontron o Adhibas, Sunday, 14

Basanti Puja, Saptami, Monday, 15

Basanti Puja, Ashtomi, Tuesday, 16

Basanti Puja, Shondhi Puja Tuesday 16

Basanti Puja, Nabomi & Ram Nabomi, Wednesday 17

Basanti Puja, Dashami, Thursday, 18

MAY 2024

Shyama Puja, Tuesday, 7 Shri Kirshner Chandan Jatra & Akshay Tritia, Friday, 10

JUNE 2024

Phala Harini Kalika Puja, Wednesday, 5 Ganga Puja & Dasha Hara, Sunday,16

Snan Jatra & Satyanarayn Puja, Saturday, 22

JULY 2024

Shyama Puja, Friday, 5 Jagannather Ratha Jatra, Sunday, 7

Bipad Tarini Puja, Tuesday, 9 Ulto Ratha Jatra & Satyanarayan Puja, Monday,15

AUGUST 2024

Shyama Puja, Saturday, 3 Rakhi Purnima & Satyanarayan Puja, Monday, 19

Janmashtomi, Monday, 26

(*) See www.anandamandir.org or Call Mandir for details

Special Religious Services: Upon request, the priest of Ananda Mandir offers services such as in-house Shraddhas, Rituals associated with Cremations (Antyesti Kriya), Shraddha Anniversaries, Pre-wedding rituals (Naandimukh, Ashirwad, etc.), Upanayan (Paitey), Annaprasan, Wedding Ceremonies & Wedding Anniversaries, Griha Prabesh (Bhumi Puja), Consecrations of new cars (New Car Pujas) and others. If you have needs for any of the above or more, please feel free to contact Biswabhai @ 732-873-9821

Madan Mohan Temple, Bishnupur Rash Mancha at Bishnupur Dassaswamedh Ghatt at Varanasi

Ananda Sangbad

A Periodical Newsletter Published By

ANANDA MANDIR

(A Tax-Exempt, Non-Profit Organization)

269 Cedar Grove Lane Somerset, NJ 08873

Phone: 732-873-9821

Website: www.anandamandir.0rg

Debajyoti Chatterji Executive Editor (Acting)

All queries, articles, news reports and letters should be directed to debsmees572@gmail.com Phone: 908-507-9640

For general information, please contact the following executives of Ananda Mandir:

Anjan Lahiri President

Jai Prakash Biswas Vice President

Debajyoti Chatterji Vice President

Ashok Rakhit Vice President

Arun Bhowmik General Secretary

Sanchoy Das Treasurer

Pradip Majumdar Assistant Treasurer

“BANI BANDANA” AT ANANDA MANDIR

Likeprevious years, Ananda Mandir organized the Bani Bandana event on February 18. 2024. The temple organized Saraswati Puja followed by Pushpanjali, Hatey Khori and bhog distribution. The kids’ program took place in Tagore Hall where around sixty children participated. There were a few schools who participated in dance and chorus songs. All the other participants were trained by the community teachers either in recitation, dance, and chorus or in band.

A middle school student, Adrija Bhattacharya, opened the ceremony with a bandish on Raga Hansadhwani. The Sanchari School of Dance performed a graceful Bharatnatyam set on a few traditional pieces under the guidance of Sanjeeta Mukherjee. Then, there were three young solo instrumentalists – Anay Mitra (piano), Anooshka Sen (violin), and Toorjo Bhattacharya (saxophone), each of whom presented Eastern and Western pieces on their instruments. Bengali poems written by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore were recited by three elementary school children – Soujattyo Dey, Soumili Dey, and Shourik Basu. A group of community kids, HritamMookherjee, Rik Mookherjee, Kaivalya Dutta, Hanshit Dutta, Ishaana Banerjee, and Jenica Barua, performed two Tagore songs under the tutelage of Shoma Mookherjee. It was followed by a poem on Devi Sarawati written by Sudipta Chattopadhyay and recited by Ishaana Banerjee.

A group of students from Malini’s Music School presentedseveral devotional and Tagore songs. The students of Swagata’s Music Academy performed a variety of songs

Reported by Sudipta Bhanja Choudhury (New Jersey)

and it ended with Adwaitaa Goswami’s outstanding solo performance. Aditya Sen and Rianshi Bhattacharya, two elementary schoolers, performed a Bengali modern song under the guidance of Shreya Bhanja Choudhury. A nostalgic medley of Hindi numbers on the keyboard played by the eighth-grade student, Sharanya Mukherjee, caught the attention of the audience. The dances on two Tagore songs were performed by two groups of Ananda Mandir community children –one from the elementary age group and the other from the high school. Pratyusha Sarkar performed a dance on spring in the Bharatnatyam style. Following Pratyusha was Anuron

Chakraborty’s self-composed dance on Kathak. Amulya Bisaria, a high school sophomore, performed a tabla solo, which then was followed by the Youth Band. The Youth Band members were Sayanshuvra Chakraborty (saxophone), Indrayan De (keyboard), and Soumyanil Jana (violin) who rendered an instrumental version of the very popular, “Vaishnav Janato,” and a Bengali modern song under the guidance of Shreya Bhanja Choudhury.

The entire program was highly enjoyable. All the performers wowed the audience who applauded them wholeheartedly. It was a truly successful day for our AnandaMandir community. It is really inspiring to see how an increasing number of children are participating each year in this event. We appreciate the parents’ role in encouraging their children to be exposed in such cultural events to help them stay rooted.

BECOME A MEMBER OF ANANDA MANDIR AND PARTICIPATE IN THE COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES TO ENRICH YOUR FAMILY

A GODDESS OF LEARNING

In the Hindu pantheon of deities, Devi Saraswati occupies a very special place. She is the divine patron of students and learners. The goddess supposedly doles out knowledge as well as skills in music and arts to worthy supplicants. During a very special day in the month of Falgun (mid-February) every year, students in Bengal lay out their books at the feet of the image of the goddess, praying for knowledge. In my youth, I have been part of such a petitioning crowd many a time. But, for some years now, the goddess Saraswati has shapeshifted for me. She is no longer a clay image, but a mortal woman –Rokeya. In my world, she rests next to Vidyasagar as an advocate for education.

Lately, this Saraswati of mine has achieved fame as ‘Begum Rokeya [Sakhawat] Hossain.’ However, I doubt if she would have been happy with this name. Rokeya had categorically refused to add ‘Begum,’ a symbol of upper-class married Muslim women, and her husband’s name, Sakhawat Hossain, to hers. She had wished to beaddressed and known by her given name, Rokeya. She had declared that women must shine for their own skills and achievements, and not by their relationships with their male kin, their authority, or influence. Thus, shedding her husband’s or father’s name was Rokeya’s declaration of independence. Nearly seventy years later, this gesture was adopted by feminists globally as a symbol of women’s self-sufficiency. Albeit this rejection, she had compromised with inexorable social conventions by accepting ‘Rokeya Khatun, her pre-marriage sobriquet. To respect her wishes, I have addressed her as ‘Rokeya’ in this essay.

Growing up in Kolkata, I attended the girls’ school Rokeya had established. By the time I was of school age, the government of West Bengal had acquired it. All I knew then was that a woman named Rokeya Sakhawat had founded it, mainly for Muslim girls. Other than this cursory bit, we had not been given any further information about the school’s founder. I became curious only after another goddess of learning in my life, the school’s headmistress Ms. Shanti Banerjee, had inspired me to learn more. At that time, when I had searched for information on Rokeya, I discovered precious little. As years passed by, scholars continued to ignore Rokeya’s role in Bengal’s educational life. She remained wrapped in obscurity for a long time. That situation has somewhat changed now. I find more and more scholars are researching her work, several articles have appeared, and even a few documentary films have been made.i Much of this work is ongoing in Bangladesh. The place where Rokeya left her greatest legacy, West Bengal, is still ambivalent in recognizing her contributions

By Shamita Das Dasgupta (New Jersey)

as a pioneer of women’s and girls’ education.

Rokeya became a familiar name in world literature at the end of the 1980s. In 1988, the Feminist Press in New York re-published her novella, ‘Sultana’s Dream.’ Immediately, scholars recognized it as the first feminist utopian writing in English. Consequently, ‘Sultana’s Dream’ became a staple reading in many women’s and gender studies departments across American universities.

‘Sultana’s Dream’ was first published in 1905 in ‘The Indian Ladies’ Magazine,’ an English periodical published in Madras – today’s Chennai. The author was then all of twenty-five years old. ‘The Indian Ladies’ Magazine’ was the first women’s magazine in any language published in India. The editor-in-chief of the magazine was also a woman. What could be a better home for this astonishing feminist novella? At the time, the novella was presented, not as a feminist work but a science fiction. In the genre of science fiction, ‘Sultana’s Dream’ is also considered a forerunner. But it was not the first of its kind. That honor goes to ‘Frankenstein’ written by another young woman –Mary Shelley.

‘Sultana’s Dream’ is about the topsy-turvy world of ‘Ladyland.’ It is a place where women live in peace and harmony and have reached success in every way – economically, scientifically, technically, and politically. There, solar energy is used for fuel, people use air-borne cars to travel, cloud condensation provides clean water and rain for irrigation, and war is a forgotten memory of the past. Life is so efficient and orderly that the citizens of Ladyland need to work for only a couple of hours per week – the rest of the time is spent on scientific innovations and cultural practices. A utopia indeed! But what about men? Is there any around? Yes, but they are rarely seen out and about as they are confined to their homes. With the aid of technology and science, women have brought cooperation, equality, and prosperity to the country. In ‘Sultana’s Dream,’ Rokeya not only critiqued patriarchy, but also androcentrism, capitalism, and the connections between science and colonialism.ii

Rokeya was born on the 9th of December 1880 in Payeraband village in the district of Rangpur in undivided India. Although there’s a bit of confusion about the exact date of her birth, 9th December is now officially recognized as her birthday. It is also the day she died at the age of 52. Rokeya was born into an affluent and respectable Muslim family. Her mother was among the four wives of her father. Rokeya wrote that her family stringently observed purdah for women and girls, not just in front of men and

boys but also with female strangers. Girls and women were kept away from education and were barely literate. They were taught enough Arabic to read the Quran, and nothing more. In compliance with the family traditions, Rokeya was given lessons in Arabic and Urdu. She was forbidden to learn Bengali as the elders believed learning the local language would turn girls into shameless and disobedient harridans. Of course, English was out of bounds also. To make his daughters attractive for the marriage market, Rokeya’s father arranged for them to learn ‘etiquette.’

Nonetheless, a breath of resistance must have been blowing through the children of the household. Rokeya’s elder sister, Karimunnisa, surreptitiously learned to read Bengali and introduced her younger sister to the alphabet. As a punishment for learning Bengali, Karimunnisa was married off in her early teens. Subsequently, Rokeya did not dare to study Bengali openly but kept her endeavors away from prying eyes. However, a guardian angel in the guise of her elder brother, Ibrahim, appeared in her life. In secret, he taught Rokeya to read and write English.

When she was sixteen years old, Rokeya’s family arranged her marriage to a widower, Khan Bahadur Sakhawat Hossain, of Bhagalpur. The age difference between the two was significant. Rokeya moved from Payeraband to Bhagalpur, to live in her husband’s home. One would expect the restrictions and limitations of her life to be even more stern from then on. But the reality turned out to be quite different. Sakhawat was a progressive man. He noticed the burning desire to learn in his wife and brought home English and Bengali books to quench her thirst. Simultaneously, he loosened the strictures of purdah and encouraged his wife to mingle with Hindu and Christian women of the same class. He went further and urged her to write for various journals and magazines. Rokeya did not need much encouragement and jumped at the opportunities her husband offered.

Rokeya’s goal was not to become a bookish scholar. She desired to bring about social change – particularly those that would improve women’s social position. Her objective was to radically alter the social structures that kept women subjugated. Writing was the weapon she used in her battle. Her first objective was to describe the conditions that women endure in a male-dominated society to create widespread awareness. To that end, she published her first essay entitled ‘Pipasha’ in 1902. Next came two anthologies of feminist writings in 1904 and 1922 – ‘Motichur’ – volumes 1 and 2.iii Each essay and short story

that she penned detailed women’s sufferings in Bengali society and the arguments for the need for women’s liberation. Interestingly, Rokeya never once pled for women’s equality; rather, she logically reasoned with her readers based on ethics and justice. Through irony, allegory, fairy tales, and science fiction, she depicted women’s marginalized lives and demanded justice for them. Rokeya routinely challenged religious tenets that deprive women of equal rights and often deceive them into complacency – an action unheard of in those days. She claimed gender-based deprivation of equality as a denial of rights afforded to women in the Quran. Only in the 1980s and 1990s, did Islamic scholars such as Freda Hossain, Mir-Hussaini, Zainab Salbi, and Women Living Under Muslim Laws, etc., come out with similar interpretations of the Quran.iv

Rokeya believed that the main reason for women’s subjugation was their economic dependence. In her writings, she reiterated that women cannot achieve liberation if they remain financially reliant on men. For this, she did not blame women’s postmarital conditions only, but their upbringing in the natal family. She noted that women are singularly reared as caregivers to their husbands and other family members. Consequently, a woman has no chance of developing other skills. She must live with a limited set of skills that are not marketable. In addition, she is deprived of her father’s and husband’s property, and thus, becomes helpless. According to Rokeya, women’s social status can only be changed by overhauling inheritance-related laws so that sons and daughters receive equal shares of the family’s finances. Furthermore, women must develop skills that allow them to earn independently. Only through education and gathering widespread experiences can women achieve this. Rokeya delineated four steps to women’s empowerment: (a) Awareness of social inequality; (b) Acknowledgement of women’s deprivations; (c) Redistribution of wealth in society; and (d) Change in conservative mentality as well as skills enhancement. Undoubtedly, Rokeya’s analyses of social ills fall within the lines of Marxist feminist theory.

In her feminist novel, ‘Herland’ (1915), Charlotte Perkins Gilman obliterated men from her world. Through parthenogenesis, only females are born into this land. Consequently, patriarchy has been disbanded. Contrastingly, Rokeya did not place the blame for gender-based inequality on men alone. According to her women themselves are partially to blame as they suffer from self-amnesia. Women seem to have replaced education, autonomy, and

DETECTING CANCER WITH A DOG’S NOSE

By Rahul Ray (Massachusetts)

Iheardas a boy that, in the old days. if the urine of a suspected diabetic patient attracted ants, it was a strong sign that the person had diabetes. Crude, it may sound today, but there was no other way of measuring blood sugar, and hence the diagnosis and progress of the disease. In contrast, today, a person with scanty or no medical knowledge would rattle off numbers related to the measurement of blood sugar (glucose), and even speak knowledgeably about medications and other means of controlling the disease, if the numbers are high. How things have changed!

My paternal aunt was an advanced stage Type 1 diabetic patient as I know it today. I was very fond of her and visited her often at their house on Harish Mukherji Road. I was also strongly attracted by their huge collection of books. Before settling down with a book in my hand and getting lost in it I would visit her in her bedroom on the second floor. Strangely enough, an easily discernible sweet smell always wafted in her room. I knew that she had diabetes, but nobody explained to me why her room would smell sweet.

An exceptionally long time after she succumbed to her disease, and I became a biomedical scientist, I learned that the sweet smell that my beloved aunt gave out was related to small, sweet-smelling volatile organic chemicals called ketone bodies. For diabetics, these chemicals are produced by ketosis, an abnormal metabolism of excess glucose in the body. Unfortunately, it also signified, unbeknownst to me at that time, that her end was near, which her doctors possibly had confided to her family.

During the 1930s through 50s, Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy was a noted physician in India. The myth has it that he could prognosticate whether a patient would live or die by simply walking into the patient’s room. Such a tall claim is most likely overblown, but in those days, doctors had to depend on non-clinical observations such as the pallor of the patient, and sometimes, simple instincts. It is not a surprise that such predictions were often incorrect, and as a result, many patients

suffered terribly or even met premature death. This grim picture was further worsened by the lack of any effective medicine.

Diabetes, in the past and at present, is a common metabolic disease. Today, due to easily available and simple in-home diagnostic tests, diabetes is detected at an early stage followed by effective medicines and lifestylechange practices, including dietary changes and exercise. As a result, most patients live normal lives, and death due to diabetes is exceedingly rare.

It is generally agreed today that for any disease an early diagnosis is a key to a clinical intervention leading to a relatively healthy, but not necessarily disease-free life, and even an increased lifespan. In other words, a disease can be controlled, though it is not eradicated. Cancer is, however, different due to its propensity to spread into other organs and tissues of the body from its first or primary site.

In 1971 Richard Nixon, the 37th President of the United States declared war on cancer, the most dreaded disease. Radiation and chemotherapy, however nauseating, were the only options available to a cancer patient in terms of therapy. Furthermore, due to the lack of any method of early detection, cancer in most patients was detected at an advanced stage where malignancy had already spread in various organs and tissues by a process called metastasis. Radiation and chemotherapy enhanced the lifespan, however miserable by a few months only.

During the last century, cancer research has made long strides, and it is realized now that cancer is not a homogeneous disease as it was once thought to be. This knowledge has endowed scientists and clinicians to target certain malignancies with significant success. For certain cancers targeted medicines, largely devoid of systemic toxicity of radiation and chemotherapy have become available greatly enhancing comfort and longevity. The greatest gain has been made in breast cancer, the most common malignancy in women. Due to early detection by self-examination and

yearly mammography, followed by effective medicines, many women have become breast cancer survivors. In certain other cancers, a significant increase in cancer survivorship is also felt to be at hand, provided malignancy is detected early

Early detection of any cancer is of supreme importance. For example, cancer is sometimes detected when a person sees a doctor for a routine examination or has an unrelated ailment. In many such cases, cancer has already spread to other organs. Unfortunately, such devastating news to the person and the family is all too common.

This situation is greatly worsened by the heterogeneous nature of cancer. In other words, each cancer is now viewed as unique. Therefore, the methods of detection for various cancers are also varied. As a result, unless it is suspected otherwise, a person does not undergo a battery of tests to detect any lurking malignancy. Hence, unlike routine determination of blood pressure and body weight in the doctor’s office, screening for various cancers, including more common ones is not conducted routinely unless the patient belongs to a particularly vulnerable population due to family trait. It is also noteworthy that the potential cost of a ‘catch-all’ process of cancer detection would be prohibitive for most people.

Going back to our earlier discussion about ants being attracted by the sweet smell of diabetic urine, scientists always felt the need to use critters, such as ants, locusts, and worms for detecting diseases including cancer, exploiting their extraordinary sense of smell. These small creatures depend critically on smell. Ants and worms ‘smell’ their food and mates for their survival and propagation. Bees fly from one flower to another attracted by the smell of nectar in flowers. These creatures also use ‘smells’ given out by their predators to avoid them.

However, it is difficult to train ants or worms, to exploit their extraordinary power of olfaction to detect a disease. Large animals, particularly dogs, are, however, different. Dogs are excellent sniffers and for ages, they have been trained as ‘security agents’ to detect contraband items, and bombs making the presence

of these canines in airports a common sight. Dogs have also been used for ages to ‘sniff out’ missing persons.

A bit of in-depth analysis is called for. An airport, for example, is full of people, food, and clothing, giving off innumerable odors. A sniffing dog is expected to find the smell of bomb-making chemicals hidden inside a bag from all other odorants. It is a very tall order, but they do an excellent job at that.

To extrapolate this ability to detect cancer, a sniffing dog must be able to detect malignancy by smell only. To do that a dog must differentiate between a person with cancer (subject) from a person with no malignancy (control) by sniffing only. Such a scenario demands that the body odor of the control must differ from that of the subject. How is that possible?

Cells of all living creatures produce volatile compounds called volatile organic chemicals (VOCs). Since the cells of no two people are the same, every person has a specific body odor. The human nose is extremely poor at detecting such differences, but most other animals and critters can. But more to the point of discussion do human cancerous cells produce VOCs different from non-cancerous cells? The answer is – yes, because as cells become cancerous their metabolism changes, and as a result VOC output in terms of composition and concentration becomes different.

Before getting more into VOCs let us consider what a smell having thousands of VOCs does to our brain.

Olfaction is the strongest of all sensory stimuli, including taste, sight, hearing, and touch. In a recent article Dr. Debajit Saha, a researcher in olfaction at Michigan State University states – “When you go to a coffee shop, you smell hazelnut coffee or Colombian coffee. You can just tell which one is which, but

you have no idea what chemicals and what concentrations are different between them.” (1). When this smell enters the nostril, it goes to the brain, and neurons are fired, one neuron for each component. It is important to note that a pattern or fingerprint of all the chemicals in hazelnut smell for example is already stored in the brain, like in a computer hard drive. Therefore, when hazelnut smell enters the brain via the nostril’s neutrons are fired in a highly specific manner and the specific odor is recognized. The fact that cancerous cells produce VOCs different from non-cancerous cells was known to scientists for a while. Hence, they sampled body odors of persons inflicted with a certain malignancy and persons free of cancer. These samples were analyzed in an instrument called a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer. A mass spectrometer can detect various chemicals present in a mixture in very minute amounts with a high degree of accuracy to produce a fingerprint or pattern. Therefore, in an ideal case, a fingerprint from a cancer sample should be different from a non-cancer sample. However, such differences are often exceedingly difficult to interpret predictably due to the presence of certain VOCs in very minute quantities far beyond the limit of detection of the machine.

Therefore, simple, non-invasive, and inexpensive ways to detect cancer early, even if it is not full proof, are highly welcome. A dog’s nose comes to mind. If a dog can sniff out a bomb, perhaps with training to sniff cancer, it can sit at a doctor’s office and when a person with undiagnosed cancer enters it barks to alert the doctor about the possibility of malignancy.

Although it sounds like a page from a book of fairytales there are reports where that

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OF FRIENDSHIP AND A MINOR MIRACLE

By Amitabha Bagchi (California)

In the summer of 1970, I had completed my graduate studies, defended my dissertation, and was ready to go back to India to see my parents. I had not seen them for five years and wished to spend a month with them. I borrowed money to buy round-trip tickets and shared my plan with family and friends. Then came an unexpected hitch that threatened to derail the entire trip.

What happened was that the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) denied the routine 18-month extension of my student (F-1) visa for practical traineeship. They asked me instead to start the process of applying for the immigrant visa straightaway. It was indeed an interesting period of American history: the country was fighting a war in Asia at the same time as it was opening up immigration opportunity to persons of Asian descent!

The INS dictate might have looked like serendipity to most people. In my situation, however, it was a most unwelcome development. On the one hand, the application for a “Green Card” would require me to stay in the US till the completion of the immigration process – a period of some 12 plus

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months at that time. That would mean the cancellation of the long-awaited India trip. On the other hand, I needed an upgraded visa status to work legally in the country on a job that I had already accepted. I was between a rock and a hard place. There was an additional cloud on the horizon: If I immigrated too soon, I would be eligible for the draft and could end up fighting in Vietnam.

I did some quick thinking to save both my trip and the employment offer. The Commencement ceremony at my university was still a few months away, and I reasoned that arguably I remained a student till I formally got my degree. Armed with this argument (or was it sophistry?), I went to the Foreign Students Office and convinced them to issue me an I-20 form.

I worried that going back to the American Consulate in Calcutta a second time for a student visa might raise eyebrows. To minimize risk, I slipped into Tijuana with an American friend and got a multiple entry F-1 visa from the US Consulate. That allowed me to go through the border checkpoint and return to the US legitimately, although my exact alien sta-

liberation with luxury, entertainment, and dependency. She sharply censured women’s love for jewelry as a symbol of their slavery to men. In the battle for equality, Rokeya believed, education and awareness were key to women’s emancipation.

Rokeya was not one to stop at theorizing. She utilized the 10,000 rupees that her husband had left her to build a girls’ school in Bhagalpur. To avoid conflicts with her marital family, she moved the school to Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1911. To commemorate her husband’s generosity, she named the school after him – Sakhawat Memorial. The progressive Hindu educationists who had been promoting girls’ education at the time, were motivated by their need to foster good ‘homemakers’ and ‘mothers.’ The syllabi they created imitated the curricula of European ‘finishing schools.’ At Rokeya’s school, girls learned science, chemistry, botany, arithmetic, drawing, and art. They learned about nutrition, and health, and engaged in sports. Rokeya faced strong opposition from contemporary educators

tus was ambiguous at best.

With my visa situation squared away, in a manner of speaking, my attention turned to travel, and especially to packing. I saw the need to buy a suitcase.

Allow me to digress a bit. When I left India to come to the States, the country was under the thrall of a Nehruvian concept called the Socialist Pattern of Society. It had a mixed economy of private and public sectors – a coexistence of capitalism and socialism if you will – where the playing field was tilted in favor of the latter. PostIndependence India’s limited resources were directed more toward capital intensive Government projects –such as the building of dams and steel mills – and less toward consumer goods. Small wonder the consumer products we had were shoddy by international standards, and that included suitcases and portmanteaus. I remember lugging a soft-side suitcase, bulging in all directions under the weight of 44 lbs. (the maximum allowable by airlines) of mainly my articles of clothing, while exiting India. This was backed up by a metal trunk, lovingly packed by my mother with my other possessions and assorted memorabilia, which was sent by ship and later retrieved at a seaport.

America is of course, if nothing else, a paradise for consumer goods. It is also without peer in imaginative and eye-catching advertisements that pitch those consumer goods. Right around the time I was ready to travel, I became aware of a brand of hard-shell suitcases called Samsonite. The TV ad that I remember most showed a gorilla in a cage jumping upand-down and stomping on a Samsonite suitcase without causing a single dent. I was admittedly gullible and not into fact-checking; I knew the type of suitcase I had to carry on my trip.

Except for one small catch: the price. I was on a graduate-student salary – marginally above the poverty level – and had a loan (for the ticket price) to pay off. So, I opted for a Samsonite clone from Sears. I still remember the color – Charcoal Gray. I have never loved a suitcase as much before or since.

The day finally arrived for me to embark on my trip. The journey to Calcutta was broken into several segments and involved multiple airlines. The first leg was a flight from Los Angeles to London using TWA.

Two close friends, both graduate students from India, offered to take me from La Jolla to the Los Angeles airport in one of their

cars. We ate lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant and started merrily on our way. The roughly two-hour trip was uneventful, and we reached the airport in time. My friends were with me when I went to check in my suitcase at the airline counter. I put my hand in my pocket and – like a proverbial bolt from the blue – discovered that my keys were missing!

My heart sank, my head started spinning, and I turned ashen. What will happen to my favorite suitcase? I pictured in my mind’s eye not gorillas but Customs folks in India stomping on my suitcase. With crowbars in hand and malevolent smiles, they were forcibly prying open the front locks, breaking the suitcase in the process. It would be damaged beyond repair – or so I thought – and my Samsonite-lite would be wrecked and turned useless.

My friends noticed my agitation and I quickly explained the cause. Where did I lose my keys? And what action, if any, could they take to retrieve the same?

It was time to take stock of the situation. It was possible – just possible, but far from certain – that I had lost my keys in the Mexican restaurant. And a look at the airport’s monitor showed that

A GODDESS OF LEARNING

because she had created syllabi for girls that resembled those of boys. Rokeya aspired that women, especially Muslim women, would be able to participate fully in the cultural and political life of society. For this purpose, she established a women’s organization, Anjuman-e-Khawateene-Islam, where women of all classes could gather to exchange ideas and develop friendships without interference from men. The organization was imagined as a classless safe space where women would learn the initial lessons of empowerment. Looking back, one realizes that Rokeya was far ahead of her contemporary social reformers and intellectuals. Our male- and Hindu-dominated society has casually ignored her extraordinary gifts to education. Likewise, her pioneering contributions to India’s feminist movement have not yet been fully recognized. Recently, generations of feminists all over the globe, her legatees, are rediscovering her extraordinary life. Even

then, we still have not assessed, nor acknowledged Rokeya’s transforming work. I hope we will deeply research and comprehend the amazing contributions of this pioneering feminist soon.

Endnotes

(i) See, (1) https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=cylPAJMWdVo;(2) https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ztjKh8VkIWg;(3) https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=oa7XlxjVA4&feature=youtu. be&fbclid=IwAR2LoR_23XAjh4-VsW4T1ZY9h3Uacp_jEXfEz_cg6P6GSZcZURQrCqX8uMc

(ii) See, https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/sultana/dream/ dream.html

(iii) Other writings by Rokeya: Padmarag (1924); Abarodhobasini (1931); Narir Adhikar (incomplete); God Gives, Man Robs (1927); Education Ideals for the Modern Indian Girl (1931), etc.

(iv) Islam provided several important legal protections to women codified in Quran. These include: (1) Right to life; (2) Right to education; (3) Right to earn a living, as well as own and have control over property; (4) Right to choose one’s husband; (5) Right to mehror a monetary gift from the husband negotiated before marriage and recorded in the marriage contract. Half of this amount must be paid at the time of marriage and the other half at any time the woman chooses; (6) Right to retain one’s maiden name; (7) Right to be supported to pre-marriage standardsby one’s husband; (8) Right to economic inheritance from father and husband; (9) Right to be treated emotionally and financially equally as co-wives by the husband; (10) Right to seek a divorce under certain conditions; and (11) Right to dispose one’s property in the final will. In addition, women can demand to be included fully in the political and intellectual arenas of society.

FAILURE TO BECOME AN AMERICAN?

By Basab Dasgupta (California)

Many of my college friends who also came to the US for graduate studies eventually got green cards through one channel or another and decided to stay here. Most did not have a burning desire to become Americans when they first came but eventually got used to the comfort and conveniences of American life. They would not openly admit that and gave various excuses for their decision: lack of suitable job opportunities in India, continuity of children’s education, need to send money home, obligation to get green

cards for family members etc.

In my case, I fell in love with everything about this country within six months after coming here. I decided that this is where I belong and would like to spend the rest of my life. It was a lot more than comfort and convenience; it was compatibility with my personality and perspective towards life. My favorite one-word description of myself was “American”. I intended to get completely assimilated into American society.

Now that I am older and have lived more than fifty

years here, I often think about how my life has progressed. I can confess that I have not become a “regular” American. It has nothing to do with my skin color, foreign accent, religion or other numerous cultural reasons. I attribute my failure to become an American to a trifecta of personal issues; my inability to accept casual intimacy, alcohol and drugs as part of my social life. Please do not get me wrong; I am neither a prude nor religious-minded. I married at a young age, subsequently got divorced and later lived with a Caucasian woman for nine years. I had other relationships. I do drink alcohol, beer to wine to

whiskey, though I have never tried any drug. Typically, when an American man meets an American woman, physical intimacy is very much on the minds of both regardless of their age, marital status, physical attributes and venue of the meeting. Furthermore, they will not hesitate to take advantage of any opportunity to explore if an initial attraction leads to something more. Consumption of alcohol diminishes their inhibitions. This can lead to infidelity, divorce, various unpleasant situations, abortion, diseases, neglect of young children and hasty marriages. Once a couple starts dating serious-

ly, they get married relatively quickly and if a marriage does not seem to work, they also get divorced quickly.

This behavior pattern runs across the entire social and political spectrum. Even president John F. Kennedy reportedly had extramarital affairs with multiple women including Marlyn Monroe and Angie Dickinson. Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinski is one for the scandal book and Donald Trump, who married three times, infamously acknowledged going after a woman’s private parts.

During my post-divorce period, I tried to enter the

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My Recent Visit to India: Prosperity vs Responsibility

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desire for material ownership. I also find that this extra wealth makes ordinary people selfish and impatient.

Though a large number of cars on the street creates traffic congestion, air pollution and road accidents, it has added a whole new opportunity for employment. People with limited education can now earn a decent living by working as a car driver. Employment opportunities have also opened up in auto dealership establishments whose numbers have increased dramatically.

Food Availability and Food Habits

For the young generation in general, I see their food habits have changed for the worse. Many young Information Technology (IT) professionals consume packaged food and also order cooked food from restaurants on a daily basis. Over-weight young people are a common sight. On the other hand, this food delivery service by organized establishments like Zomato and Door Dash offer many employment opportunities. Two wheelers carrying large red boxes with company logos is a very common sight on Indian roads.

Packaged food has brought another problem, a real nuisance, I would say. Now almost everything is sold in pre-packaged plastic-type pouches, and all the empty pouches are carelessly thrown away everywhere.

Fresh vegetables and fruits supply are in abundance. So are variety of fresh fish and meat and poultry. A middleclass family with children can now afford to eat good and plentiful food every day.

Transportation

For longer distances,train is no longer the only option. Flying has now become a popular alternative to train.

Many convenient flights are available from larger cities. Air fare, though substantially higher than premium train tickets, are still within the reaches of the middle class. Recently a new set of trains named Bande Bharat has been introduced. These are all-chair, airconditioned trains with European look, and they travel faster than the earlier “express trains”. Fares for Bande Bharat trains are also much higher than comparable A/C chair car fast trains.

Higher fares are not deterring people from taking Bande Bharat. Trains run full. Earnings of average families have increased so much over the years that the higher fares are now within their reach. All the flights also run full all the time.

Housing

Like the cars I saw laying around without being used for months, I also saw many apartments left abandoned in our housing complex. Windows falling down, pigeons roosting inside. I do not know how to explain that, but people can afford to let houses decay like that. Many new twenty plus story apartment buildings, containing hundreds of apartment units, are springing up in the outskirts of the city. Price tags are ten million rupees or more. Who are the buyers? They are mostly working couples with professional background.

It appeared to me that there is no housing shortage in Kolkata, even with high prices. People are willing to pay more money for better quality housing with more amenities.

Giving

I had an opportunity visit a “Home” that provides shelter, food and care including medical needs to the children with mild to severe mental and physical limitations. All these children were abandoned by their

parents. Those Homes are run by volunteers of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO). Some paid employees run the day-to-day operations. Theshelter I visited is about an hour drive from the city. Every weekend these volunteers take turns to visit this place to oversee the operations. My deep regards for these people who in addition to their everyday work and family obligations: spend time, money and effort to see this organization runs as intended. Later, I learned that this volunteer organization runs several facilities in and around Kolkata. Funding comes from private donations and through government programs.

There are many NGOs providing great services to the people who are in dire need. What is missing though is that there is no disciplined system in place for raising funds from the common people. Also, most people do not seem to feel that they have a shared responsibility to improve the state of the community. Organized fund-raising efforts will help in some way to bring that “belonging to the society” feeling back. Very rich people should set examples by donating generously.

Preserving Heritage- Bishnupur and Varanasi

Main attractions of Bishnupur are the historical structures built at different periods by the then rulers. Many are unique terracotta structures. Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), a Government of India entity, has taken over the responsibility of preserving these structures. These are all very well maintained and well preserved. A big step towards preserving and protecting these beautiful legacies from our past.

Varanasi or Benares being the Holy City and the oldest city in India, millions of tourists visit this place throughout the year. In the last ten years many much-needed im-

provements were completed. First, the holy river Ganga was cleaned up. All the access ghhatts,with deep mythological connections, were rebuilt with beauty and safety in mind. A massive, complex, and expensive project. But it was done. Accessing the holy river of Ganga is now easy and safe. The historic and holy Kasi Viswanath(Mahadev) Temple premises were completely overhauled. The adjacent GyanvapiMosque was kept intact and carefully fenced off. Accessing the Viswanath Temple to offer Puja is now easy. Thoughtfully designed railings with clear directions help navigate thousands of pilgrims every day. With the newly designed Ghatts, over hundred thousand pilgrims can watch the evening Ganga Arati (offering of light to river Ganga). A truly unique experience.

Sarnath (near the city of Benares) is a historic and holy place for the people of Buddhistfaith. Most visible structure is the 140 ft tall Stupa. King Ashoka originally ordered building this stupa (among others). This whole area being of high archeological importance, ASI was entrusted with preserving and maintaining all the objects in this area. Those are all very well kept.

I was told that many such places of archeological value are now under ASI. With their generous budget and skill, those are now well maintained and well preserved. Prosperity is working.

Final Comment

Newly achieved economic and technological prosperity has improved the quality of life of common people. Unfortunately, most people do not have the feeling of “belonging to the society”. Everyone seems to be in competition with the other. The “other” is my competitor, not a fellow member of my society. I hope this rat race will end one day, and people will prosper with the society together.

MEMORABLE QUOTES AND CONTROVERSIAL IDEAS FROM THE INIMITABLE NIRAD C. CHAUDHURI

By Partha Sircar (California)

Perhapsmost members of the present generation are not very familiar with the enigmatic author Nirad C. Chaudhuri (1897-1999) and his inimitable contributions. The prodigious author, a Bengali, is primarily known for his writings in English, though he also made significant contributions in Bengali, primarily in his later life. In addition to his exceptional command in both the languages, he was fairly conversant in Sanskrit, Latin, French and German.

Chaudhuri’s writings were essentially all non-fictions. In his writings, he has addressed a variety of topics, like history, literature, art and politics. He has also reported from the All India Radio during the Second World War. Incidentally, he built up a reputation of being an Anglophile. He seemed to see much good in the influence of the British Empire on the Indians. which often did not stand well with many of his countrymen. A major interest also seems to have been Bengal history and culture. Few, in my opinion, have addressed the Bengali Renaissance as he has.

Niradbabu first burst into prominence in 1955, with the publication of his first book, Autography of an Unknown Indian. It was a seminal work, where the description of his early life, till he started college, is intricately woven into the description of the times. This was followed by several other notable books: Thy Hand Great Anarch (a continuation of his autobiography); Continent of Circe; Passage to England; Hinduism, A Religion to Live By; and Scholar Extraordinary, A Life of Frederich Max Muller; and Three Horsemen and the Apocalypse (published when he was 99 years old). He also wrote several books in Bengali, including Bangali Jiboney Romoni and Atmaghati Bangali. Several of his shorter writings over the years have also been compiled and published.

Niradbabu received numerous prestigious honors, including (from India): Sahitya Akademi Award; Ananda Purashkar; Desikottama Award (from Viswa Bharati); and Vidyasagar Award; and (from England): the Duff Cooper Prize: D. Litt from Oxford University; and the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

I have been a fan of Niradbabu for over three decades. I found an unparalleled erudition emanates from his writings. And his writings displayed uncanny logic which made you really think. Besides, he often expressed thought-provoking contrarian opinions, which drove him to controversies which dogged through his entire life. As the eminent historian Tapan Raychaudhuri (who has taught at Oxford) has written: “every writing of Niradbabu seems to have

given rise to a storm of controversy”. And that may have been a big part of his appeal. And it has given rise to some very interesting quotations and thought currents, which I have tried to present here. I am sure, some among you will surely appreciate them.

The quotations and thought currents I have presented below, except the first one, are strictly from my recollections. I have translated the ones in Bengali to English, to the best of my ability. If I have misinterpreted or misrepresented any of the quotations or ideas, or have mistranslated some, the fault is entirely mine.

[Note: I have presented the quotations (as I recalled and translated) in bold font and within quotation marks.]

• “To the memory of the British Empire which conferred subjecthood upon us,but withheld citizenship.To which yet every one of us threw out the challenge:”Civis Britannicus sum”because all that was good and living within uswas made, shaped and quickenedby the same British rule.”

(This is in the beginning of his first book, “Autobiography of an Unknown Indian’.)

This one quote has been highly publicized as an indication of his partisanship for everything British and consequently anti-Indian. He has tried to rebut it with his own logic, often emphasizing ‘But withheld citizenship.’ But his proBritish, anti-Indian image persisted.

• “Ideal editing is when the writing is improved from the original but still sounds like it was written by the original author.” He said this in reference to the editing of his first book, where he greatly appreciated the work of his editor.

• “I am a Bengali and an Englishman.” He generally described himself as a Hindu Bengali or a Hindu Bangali. Rarely as an Indian.

• “Bengalees do not readily appreciate simple things. They have to argueabout everything”

• “Tagore was the Last Great Man of India“(Thy Hand Great Anarch)

• “Tagore was India’s greatest poet. And that includes Kalidasa” (Thy Hand Great Anarch)

• “Bankimchandra was the greatest Hindu intellectual of the nineteenth century. Nay, he was probably the greatest Hindu intellectual ever, perhaps only comparable was the great Shankara” (Continent of Circe)

• “Bankimchandra was undoubtedly the greatest Bengali novelist ever. But there have been other great novelists of world caliber, notably the three Bandyopadhyays” (Continent

of Circe)

• Niradbabu did not hold Saratchandra in the same high esteem as a novelist. He described him “as rather a great storyteller”. “Saratchandra, nevertheless, was extremely popular, particularly among the women, thanks to the increased spread of education and the proliferation of numerous Bengali journals” (most women were not very conversant in English at the time).

• “Increased literacy and readership, particularly among the women, gave rise to extra sentimentality, often to schizophrenia.” His own mother was a serious victim of it and had to be taken to Calcutta for treatment.

• Niradbabu held the seventeenth century poet Bharatchandra Ray Gunakar (author or Vidyasundar and Annadamangal) in very high esteem. To him, “Bharatchandra’s intellectual prowess compared favorably with the modern era.” Niradbabu had written an article on him, which was praised by his teacher, the poet Mohitlal Majumdar. This piece, possibly his first significant writing, is unfortunately, lost.

• Niradbabu had a very high regard for the artist and painter Nandalal Bose. He had written an article on himin Bengali, the first article he had written in Bengali after a hiatus of many years. Niradbabu held “Nandalal Bose, Abanindranath Tagore, Gaganendranath Tagore, and Jamini Roy as high quality artists”. Niradbabu, however, had little appreciation for the art and paintings of Rabindranath Tagore. He has said that “may he lose his eyesight before he started appreciating Rabindranath’s art.”

• “Four things were held in high esteem in the Aryan culture: the sun; river; fair complexion and the adoration of the cow” (Continent of Circe)

• The high place of the Mother Cow in the Hindu ethos is not because cow’s milk is universally consumed in India. For those in the northern (Cow-belt) areas, water buffalo milk is more common” (Continent of Circe)

• “The origin of the “cow adoration” comes from the long-horned cows with big humps” that came with the Aryans. It was not easy to protect them from extinction in the hot Indian planes. Hence this measure. The cows in eastern India have smaller humps. Strictly speaking, they are a different genre – the zebu.” (Continent of Circe)

• “The six men that have had the greatest influence of Bengali character were: Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. Sarat Chandra Chatterjee, Swami Vivekananda, Netaji, Subhash Chandra, Rabindranath Tagore and Keshab Chandra Sen”

He caught quite a bit of flak for not

including Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar in the list. His refrain was that his intent was not a list of the of ‘the greatest Bengalees’, but of those Bengalees who had the greatest influence on them. Vidyasagar, whose character was more upright, like that of an Englishman did not fit the mold. He was similarly confronted for the inclusion of Keshab Chandra Sen in the list. To it, he simply retorted: People today have conveniently forgotten what a tremendous influence Keshab Chandra Sen was in his day, particularly on the youth.

• “Almost all that can be labeled as Bengali Renaissance occurred essentially after the interaction of the Bengalees with the British. The only notable exception was probably Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.”

• “It is unfortunate that Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru could not get along together in their political lives. Both came from similar (wealthy) backgrounds, both had lawyers as their fathers and both had leftist leanings.” (Thy Hand Great Anarch)

• “Both Netaji and Nehru had intense hatred for the English. That is why they often acted irrationally. Gandhiji was, on the other hand, a bania. He treated the interactions with the British, strictly as a business.” (Thy Hand Great Anarch)

• “Vedic Sanskrit was limited to the elites. It was different from the later Classical Sanskrit. It essentially vanished, being taken over by Prakrit during around Buddhist times. Classical Sanskrit with its rigid grammatical forms made its appearance later, around the beginning of the Common Era.” This is reflected in the existing Sanskrit versions of Ramayana and Mahabharata, which were written in classical Sanskrit. There, the monkeys and the women and children and servants of the household spoke in Prakrit. (Hinduism- A Religion to Live By)

• “The old Vedic religion did not have a presence of temples and no idols. They appeared later. The earliest image was one of Krishna attributed to Heliodorus, a Greek, in around first century AD.” (Hinduism- A Religion to Live By)

• “In the literary tradition of India, there was no concept of Prem (love). There was only Kama (lust). That was even true for Kalidasa. The only exceptions may be found in some passages of Bhababhuti.“ (Bangali Jiboney Romoni)

• He also went on to add that “in modern Indian (read Bengali) literature, there were no ready models to follow. Western literature filled the void – Romeo Juliet was a particular favorite in this regard... And to elucidate the feeling of love, Bankimchandra and others often resorted to

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PUJA ACTIVITIES FOR JANUARY-MARCH, 2024

Reported by Mita Sinha, Chair, Puja Committee

New Year marks a day of happiness. New Year brings new hopes, energy and ideas. We welcomed 2024 with open arms. After a long time, this year we had a cold winter but that did not deter most of our devotees to come to Ananda Mandir to attend our pujas.

The Temple was open all day on January 1st, from 9 am to 8 pm. We had a number of visitors came to the temple on the first day of the year. Also, we had our Satyanarayan Puja in the evening and that was well attended by our members.

On January 10 we had our monthly Shyama Puja. The Temple was quite busy on this day.

The month of January ended with our monthly Satyanarayana Puja. A number of our members were present at Ananda Mandir for this puja.

Ratanti Kalika Puja was the first puja for the month of February. This puja is annu-

ally observed in the month of Magh, Krishna Paksha Chaturdashi, and mostly people of West Bengal celebrate this puja. Goddess kali is worshipped on this day. We had a large number of visitors came to the temple to offer prayers. This was a special evening. We had dinner after the puja.

On February 9, we had our monthly Shyama Puja. The Mandir was packed with worshippers on this day. After the puja, havan, pushpanjali and arati we all had good dinner.

This year we had our Saraswati Puja on February 14th. This puja is dedicated to goddess Saraswati. She is the goddess of knowledge, wisdom, music, performing arts, science and technology.

In some parts of India people celebrate Basant Panchami on this day. In India, schools and colleges arrange pujas in the morning to seek blessings of the Goddess Saraswati.

Our puja started at 8:00 in

describing the sentiments/ feelings of ‘married couples’. (Bangali Jiboney Romoni)

• “There was no specific Upanishadic Period in Indian history. Upanishads were written in several periods. There was also no Buddhistic Period. Hinduism and Buddhism existed parallelly for much of the period.”

• Perhaps to highlight his slender frame and short stature (he was 5’3”) and long life (he lived to be 102), he has said, “During a large storm, the big trees often go down. But the smaller plants and weeds survive”

• He has said, “I had delusions of having a love-marriage. But with my short stature, dark complexion, and lacking the looks, that was not easy. Besides, in those days, the only available single girls were the elder brother’s shalis or the sister’s

the morning. After the puja we had arati and pushpanjali and then we had Hate Khori. Hate khori is an auspicious ritual which is performed to signify starting of education for a Hindu child. Among the Bengali community this is a special day for all students. Little children of two to four years old perform a ritual of writing Bengali alphabets and numbers on a slate. This is the beginning of their formal education. We had 12 kids came to the temple for this ceremony and they had fun writing on a slate in good old-fashioned way. They also received a bag of gifts from the Temple. This is a fun ritual for both kids and parents and they enjoy it every year. Yellow is the color of this day. Ladies mostly wore yellow saree and some men wore yellow kurtas. Yellow marigold was offered to Ma Sarswati for the Puja. Students brought their books with them to be blessed by goddess Saraswati. All of us had prasad and lunch after the puja.

Bani Bandana was observed on February 18 at

Ananda Mandir. This puja is also dedicated to Goddess Saraswati. In the morning, we had puja,arati and Pushpanjali, and after that, we had Hate Khori on this day again. Eleven kids participated in for this ritual. Lunch was served to all attendees on this day. After lunch we had cultural program, dance and music, performed by kids at our Tagore Hall. We have a number of talented kids in our community and they presented their talents on the stage. At Ananda Mandir we always celebrate Bani Bandana on a weekend so that everybody can participate.

We also had our monthly Satyanarayan Puja in the evening. The month of February was a busy month for us with multiple pujas.

On March 8, we celebrated Maha Shivaratri Puja at Ananda Mandir. This is the day to honor and celebrate Lord Shiva. This is one of the most important festivals for the Hindu community. Shiva and Shakti are two forms of one energy. Devotees do a day long fast on this day. At

night we had the celebration of Hima Chandan Aarati and Rajbesh of Lord Shiva. Some of our members stayed up all night at the temple on this day.

The last Puja of March was on 9th we had our monthly Shayama Puja on this day. The attendance was little low on this day because we had Shivaratri the day before. After arati, and puspanjali we all had our dinner.

Ananda Mandir is a beautiful temple where everybody is welcomed. Devotees come from out of state to attend our pujas. We are very proud of our Mandir.Our temple hours are 9 to 11:30 am in the morning and 5:00 7:30pm in the evening. The temple is open seven days a week. Anyone can sponsoran online puja, if you cannot come to the temple. On line pujas are performedwith sponsor’s name and Gotra. For our detailed schedule, please go to our websiteat www.anandamandir.org. Please come and be a member of the temple andenjoy this special place with your friends and families.

MEMORABLE QUOTES AND CONTROVERSIAL IDEAS

nonods.I had no luckin those areas. So, reluctantly, I resorted to my father’s help.”

• In his autobiography Thy Hand Great Anarch, Niradbabu states that till 1942, when he went to work for All India Radio in New Delhi, he had only worn a dhoti. He was 45 at the time. He indicated that that was the norm for adults in Calcutta at the time, for most Bengali bhadralok (gentry); only some barristers and England educated gentlemen resorted to trousers. He said that he even visited the Government House, on an invitation from the press corps I believe, wearing a dhoti with a coat on top”.

• The dhoti culture seems to have accompanied Niradbabu to Oxford, where he settled in 1970 at the age of 73. There is a picture of this frail,

diminutive man in a dhoti and kurta, sitting with his wife in his Oxford living room, in one of his later Bengali books. He has even claimed in his characteristic haughty manner “that he may probably be the last Bengali bhadralokalive, who still went to bed in a dhoti.” And finally, (I heard this from a friend – I have not read it myself) Niradbabu’s body ascended the funeral pyre in a dhoti. That was in 1999; he was 102 at the time.

• According to Niradbabu, “the greatest loss of the Partition to him was not the loss of home and hearth and the economic distress. It was the open mind instilled by the great rivers. He said, “One who has seen the Padma and the Meghna in full bloom would really appreciate his feeling.” (He was reminded of the same feeling on the banks of the St.

Lawrence River, when he was visiting Canada many years later).

• Niradbabu greatly admired the sceneries of the countryside in England, including its manor houses. He has indicated “this has not found its mention in writings by the Bengalees. Even Rabindranath, with his eye for beauty has not mentioned it, even though he had spent some early years in school in England.” This is a surprise to him.

• When Amartya Sen was honored as the Master of Trinity College in Cambridge, an honor held earlier bymany past luminaries.Niradbabu did not quite appreciate it. He had reportedly said, “He is not English enough.” To this, Amartya Sen, the gentleman that he was, simply responded,”He is a very senior man. He is entitled to his view.”

EMERGENCIES ARRIVE AT INCONVENIENT MOMENTS!

During my working years, I had to travel a fair amount. Sometimes I took day trips, and sometimes I was gone for weeks. When I was away, Sikha had to take care of all the tasks a growing family faces on a daily basis – and the occasional emergencies that popped up at the most inconvenient moments. Let me describe three such inconvenient emergencies she had to handle all by herself in my absence.

The first one happened in December, 1974. I had joined GE’s Research & Development Center (Schenectady, NY) the year before. After spending a year in an apartment, we had moved into a newly built home in Latham, NY. We were mighty proud to own our own home and were busy and happy with the process of settling in a new home in a new neighborhood. Ananya, our first daughter, was just one year old.

I had to go on a business trip to Gainesville, FL I was uneasy about leaving Sikha with the baby for two days but she assured me that she would be able to take care of herself and the baby when I was away.

A couple of hours after I left, snow started falling, and a strong and cold blast from the north lasted all night long. Sometime in early morning, Sikha was fixing breakfast for herself in the kitchen when she heard the sound of water gushing out down-

By Debajyoti Chatterji (New Jersey)

stairs. Our house was a raised ranch, and part of the downstairs was carpeted and furnished. She rushed downstairs and found that a section of the ceiling in the powder room had collapsed, exposing a water pipe that was leaking badly. Water was rapidly accumulating on the bathroom floor and had started to seep into the adjacent utility room, full of unopened boxes.

Sikha had no idea what to do. We had moved into our new home only about four months ago, and Sikha didn’t know where the shut off valve for the water line was or how to operate it. Sikha realized that she needed help to stop the water flow as soon as possible.

Sikha ran upstairs, grabbed the child, and ran out of the house in her pajamas, wearing house slippers. She was hoping to find a neighbor and ran up and down the street, freezing her feet in the ankle-deep snow. Fortunately, construction workers were working in a nearby lot, and Sikha got one of them to run over to our home and find the shut off valve to stop the water flow. Sikha spent the rest of the morning mopping up all the water from the floor in the two rooms affected. Later, when the child

was taking a nap, she moved all the boxes from the utility room to another room to minimize further water damage.

When I returned from my trip, I parked the car in the garage and entered the house through the utility room. “Wow, you tidied up the mess in the utility room when I was away!” was my compliment to Sikha as I gave her a big hug. In reply, she said, “Wait till you hear what happened yesterday!” ***

When Ananya, our first child, was about four years old, she had a bad case of dry cough in the middle of winter. She didn’t have any cold or congestion, so we were not too worried. We gave her children’s cough syrup, hoping it will ease the coughing. I left on a business trip, planning to return two days later.

Later in the day, after Ananya had a bath, Sikha was helping Ananya with her clothing when she noticed a quarter-sized bulge on her right groin. It was round, soft to the touch but not painful. It wasn’t there the previous day, Sikha was sure of that. The bulge was only on one groin, and that was odd and suspicious. Sikha decided to wait for a day but the bulge did not disappear. She decided to call Ananya’s pediatrician, without waiting for me to return from my trip.

The pediatrician advised Sikha to

take Ananya immediately to the nearest hospital for a surgery. Sikha did not know where the nearest hospital was, so she spoke with the nurse in the doctor’s office to get the directions. But she had another kid at home! Our second daughter, Kooheli, was just one year old. Sikha called Krishna Sharma, one of our Indian neighbors, and arranged Kooheli to stay with her. In less than half an hour after her call to the pediatrician, Sikha was driving Ananya towards the hospital.

As I was driving from the Albany airport towards our home, I saw Sikha drive by me. She also recognized my car and pulled over right away. We talked, and Sikha told me where she was headed and why. I decided to follow her in my car because I didn’t have the directions to the hospital.

To make a long story short, Ananya had developed a strangulated hernia from incessant coughing, probably brought about from very dry air inside the house. The pediatrician repaired the hernia, and Ananya was released that evening. The doctor explained that if the hernia had not been repaired right away, the strangulated part could have been deprived of blood flow and suffered from serious infection. He complimented Sikha for her keen observation and timely call to his office. He also suggested that

FAILURE TO BECOME AN AMERICAN?

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dating scene. My strategy was to impress women with my intellectual traits, but it rarely worked. I did not know what to say, what to do, when to make a move and where to go. My awkwardness in dancing did not help the situation.

My difficulty was enhanced by my emotional state. I never understood “casual affair” with “no strings attached”. Not only do I get emotionally involved, I always worry about the woman’s emotions. This “baggage” was always a deterrent for me to marry someone new and live happily ever after.

It always surprises me how most Americans take their exspouses or ex-partners completely out of their lives after a split. They do not seem to get emotionally attached regardless of the length of their marriages and initial passion. I am shocked by the amount of animosity if not hatred that often exists among many divorced couples.

I enjoy alcohol on special occasions. There is nothing better than a glass of Merlot

with a good ribeye steak in a fancy restaurant. My favorite drink during business travel was Bourbon and seven up. An after-dinner drink of Kahlua or Baileys Irish Cream is a wonderful way to finish a dinner. However, I never get addicted, never get drunk and never feel the need of alcohol to complete my dinner.

Alcohol consumption in this country is increasing.

Aisles and aisles in grocery stores are stacked with bottles of alcohol and rows of endless bars/restaurants serve alcohol on any busy street. No matter where you go, an alcoholic drink is within easy reach. It is a given that alcohol must be served at any gathering. “Girls’ night out” means “girls drinking alcohol”. “Watching a ball game with guys” is synonymous with “watching and drinking beer”. Being frugal by my Indian upbringing, drinking alcohol also seems to be wasting money. Why drink a $12 glass of wine when I can drink a glass of coke for $3?

I am expected to know and memorize not only the names and varieties of various wines

and hard liquors but also mixed drinks. Examples are: “Daiquiri”, “Mojito”, “Pina Colada”, “Mai Tai”, “Long Island Iced Tea”, “Mimosa “and the list goes on.

Of course, a person has a right to drink whatever he/ she feels like if they can afford but I draw the line where it leads to irrational embarrassing behavior, spousal abuse, car accidents and health issues such as liver damage. I am always careful not to serve an excessive amount of alcohol when I am the host of a party at my home.

Then there are drugs. I see addiction to drugs as a separate issue from addiction to alcohol. Drinking alcohol is an open secret; everyone drinks and the only question is how much. Not everyone takes drugs and even fewer admit taking it. My discomfort lies in acceptance and tolerance of those who take drugs. I have zero tolerance and do not know how to deal with drug addicts. I would rather not allow such people into my house nor even interact with them at social gatherings.

Many Americans I meet in

social and professional circles openly admit to having tried “pot” or marijuana. Recreational use of prescription pills is now an acceptable practice, especially among the younger generation. These pills offer a transitional step to harder drugs, especially if mixed with alcohol. Numerous accidental deaths from overdose do not seem to be a deterrent. No one publicly admits to taking hard drugs like cocaine or heroin or crystal meth, but I can see from the behavior of some people at parties that they are “stoned”. They behave like zombies and do not appear to be themselves.

This is the key point. I believe that people do drugs and alcohol because they want to metamorphose into someone else and can say or do whatever they please, hiding behind the façade of this other person. I never felt that need. I am completely content and happy with who I am.

If my American friends in any gathering find out my views about these three activities then I will probably not be accepted as an

American and regarded as a stereotypical ethnic Indian. No one says it explicitly, but I can tell from their comments and jokes, looks and body language. They would rather carry out their conversations leaving me out. Sadly, the trend among younger generations in all three behavior patterns is for the worse.

Many of my Indian friends pretend to be wine and alcohol connoisseurs as a symbol of their Americanization but otherwise live an “Indian life”; eating Indian food, watching Bollywood movies, socializing with other Indians, attending religious festivities, making annual trips to India and so on. I do not want to be like them because I will rather go back to India if I want to live an Indian life.

I still consider myself to be an American but one without American vices. I wish I could educate Americans that there is a way to make their lives even better. I will offer them the age-old teaching of Indian holy men: learn to control your urge for instant gratification and tame your senses.

PREPARE FOR THE WORST, HOPE FOR THE BEST

By Dilip Chakrabarti (New Jersey)

Lifeis a special creation by the almighty -- or some unknown miracle has given the gift of life to human beings. Although people have different opinion about its creation, I think everyone believes that it is an invaluable gift given to human beings.

Life is miracle whether it is human life or life of any other species in the world. It is established by the science of archaeology that human life began between 5 to 72 million years ago in Africa when early humans started to walk on two legs. Then they started to move around the globe for various exploratory reasons. In every community, males started to dominate females.When there is no societal norm or rule, the strong always devour the weak, so stronger males started to take over the weaker females.A chaotic situation of anarchy, confusion and selfishness evolved in the lives of these earlier humankinds. There was time where the rule of Matsya Naya was prevalent, which proposes that in periods of chaos, when there is no ruler, the strong devour the weak, just as in periods of drought big fish prey on the little fish. Thus, the need for a ruler was viewed as an absolute necessary to maintain the discipline in the communities.

The Bhagavad Gita encourages us to live life with purity, strength, discipline, honesty, kindness and integrity. In this way we can find our purpose in life and live it in its full potential.These main teachings are repeatedly reinforced in the texts of the eleven principal Upani-

shads. The first and most important is the realization that the ultimate, formless, and inconceivable Brahman (Godhead) is the same as Atman, as our internal soul.

The Upanishads, the conclusion of the earliest Hindu texts, express the ultimate goal of life as unity with Brahmin which, it is written, can only be achieved through moral actions.

However, after thousands of years of human beings living in discipline and harmony created a style of living where love, affection and caring have received a special place in the human heart and society. Science has a distinct impact in today’s life enjoyed by the human society. Material amenities of life got better and better by inventions but the relation between human societies did not really improve much. Disrespect, intolerance and lack knowledge for others among different sects, different countries and religions did not really improve much. If we narrow it down, to one country, to one community, to one family unit, what we see is not encouraging now a days, even the difference of opinion between husband and wife is very often is ending in altercations, on many occasions it ends up in the court for divorce or so.

Now a days in any community some male female relationship conjugality is clinging in razor thin strings, whether it is husband wife or male female partners or any other relation male female relationship is really strained by the self-egoistic nature of individual persons. How-

ever, there is another type of marriage has been legally accepted in most of the communities, when the union takes place between same sex, naming male versus male and female versus female. it is called as “domestic partnership or marriage.” It is not known if this kind of same sex marriage is accepted in Islamic religion.

In the West, male and female choose their own life partners with a vow to remain married till the end of life, but often fall prey to unhappiness, and the husband and wife decide to go their separate ways in pursuit of happiness by taking a “legal separation” or “divorce.”

The individual male and female come to a decision to marry on their own in the Western counties while in the East, the marriage is often regulated by the choice of families, often parents of the bride and groom for centuries. Most of the time the bride and the groom see each other for the first time in the wedding rituals, they get married and eventually fall in love and hope to stay together for the rest of their lives.

The ultimate goal of any marriage is to lead a life to its end with mutual respect and happiness. However, this vow sometimes becomes very weak and calls for an end to the marriage.

The children who are born and brought up in the West do not believe in parental choice for marriage, and they choose their own spouses but unfortunately a considerable number of them end up in the divorce court. But why? There is no easy answer to it. Only social and behavioral experts may have the answer to this question. However, as a lay

man I can give an explanation for it, and it may or may not be acceptable to some of our readers. Two reasons I can think of are education and financial independence. In the past, women were dependent on men because men were the main bread-earners while women took care of the house and the children. They rarely enjoyed any financial or educational strength to severe the ties of a marriage even if they were mistreated by their male counterparts. Having no education or money, women did not have the strength or will to say “no” to the marriage. Now, the situation has changed.Women are educated, sometimes earning more than their spouse and are not afraid to take steps to come out of any strained relationship. For the same exact reason, the marriages are facing the similar fate in the East also. Self-confident educated women are not afraid of any social stigma or consequences of any separation or divorce. Separation in the West is as painful as in the East. East and West feel the same depth of love and happiness when together and feel the same degree of pain and dejection as a consequence of separation either by divorce or by any natural cause of passing away.

However, there is also another type of separation among married and elderly couples which for some reason never get an attention until it happens. This type of separation is usually caused by nature, and we call it “Passing Away.” Every marriage goes through it.iI does not discriminate, poor or rich, educated or not, ultimately every married couple succumbs to it. More devasting effect of a temporary

separation is often faced by mostly the elderly couple, it is faced when one spouse is near or completely incapacitated due to some grave illness, accidents etc. and this can happen to any couple young or old. If this is faced by any couple, what the action should be to neutralize its effect.

My family once became a victim of such devastating debacle of an auto accident leading the victim in coma for ten days. When our daughter asked me “Daddy, I want you to come and live in my home until Mom comes back home.” Confidently I refused her and replied “Don’t worry about me, I will be fine.” But my “I will be fine” fell flat when I wanted to cook something, my problem started with finding the ingredients in the kitchen to cooking, food was either overcooked or half cooked, either little or no salt, running the dish washer etc., it was a disaster. Next morning, I called my daughter and told “I am coming to your home now.” Luckily my daughter pulled me out of that hapless situation. I also like to mention that my friends, even their children gave me an extraordinary support during those days. This incident taught me the value of self-dependence.

Thinking about the situation which I have been through, I would request every couple, young or old, must have some plan in place to encounter this type of difficult days which may create an uphill battle for the family. Always be prepared for any kind of spousal separation, temporary or permanent.As the proverb says, “Be prepared for the worst and hope for the best.”

OF FRIENDSHIP AND A MINOR MIRACLE

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the TWA flight was two hours late. With surpassing alacrity, my friends made up their minds. They would go back to the restaurant to search for the keys. The idea seemed to me crazy and preposterous, but what could I say? I wished them godspeed, slumped into a chair, and stared blankly at the TV screen. It would take my friends a minimum of four hours to go and come back from San Diego. Some time later, the TV monitor showed the TWA flight to be late

by three hours. I was surprised, but my hopes didn’t go up too high. Some more time passed, and now the screen was showing the flight to be delayed by four hours! It was incredible. But what was even more incredible was that, as I stood in line to board the plane, my two buddies showed up with my missing keys!

Several thoughts come to mind as I look back on the episode.

First and foremost, how easy it was back then for non-traveling public to move around in airports. It was long before the days of secu-

rity checks and screenings to permit only ticketed passengers to proceed to the gates. An extreme case is India, where only bona fide passengers are admitted inside airport terminals. In today’s world, my friends would have no chance at all to get close enough to me to hand over the keys.

Second, I was almost absurdly lucky. My friends found my keys, which had slipped out of my pocket, on exactly the same spot where I had been sitting to eat lunch.

Finally, the flight delay, which I might have thought annoying in any

other circumstance, actually worked to my advantage. I found it intriguing how TWA timed the information flow and let it dribble out slowly: the delay that started out as two hours ended up being twice as much. I suspect it is an airlines industry practice to let out bad news like flight delays slowly, so as to soften the impact on passengers.

How to interpret my extraordinarily luck? For whatever reason, stars did align right for me. Should I indulge in hyperbole and refer to the event as a miracle – albeit a minor one?

MOVIE REVIEW

“DOSTOJEE” – AN AWAKENING

Recently I saw the movie Dostojee. I did not go with a lot of expectations. As a matter of fact, I thought I would be disappointed. But I was pleasantly surprised and was really impressed to witness this painstaking, eightyear effort of Prasun Chatterjee, the narrator, screen writer, director, as well as the sound designer of the film. There are some parts of the movie that remind us of Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali, namely the lushing greenery of the paddy fields, and the “kaashphool” swaying in the wind. But the film stands out in its own visual language, highlighting a portrait of childhood friendship blossoming in the luscious countryside. There is a fearsome monsoon rain that brings grief towards the end of the movie.

The setting of the movie is in the early 1990’s in a remote village in West Bengal near the India-Bangladesh border. The village goes through a turmoil with the demolition of Babri Masjid, that happened far away from this village some six months ago. Two eight-year-old boys, Palash, a Hindu andShafiqul, a Muslim are close friends. They seem oblivious to what is happening with the religious conflict around them. Palash’s father is the Hindu village priest, and Shafiqul is the son of a Muslim weaver. Their families rarely interact with one another. The friendship between these boys is somewhat disrupted with the tension simmering between the Hindu and Muslim communities in the village. The portrait of their friendship glows in the middle of the countryside with lush farming land and the river Padma flowing nearby.

As the film opens, we see Palash and Shafiqul engaged in numerous pleasures of childhood including throwing stones in the Padma River. The two call each other “Dostojee” meaning a friend, a term rooted in the Rajshahi dialect. Their homes are next to each other sharing a common courtyard. The boys go to the same school and have the same private tutor. Palash is a good student, and Shafiqul does not do his homework and is constantly scolded by his elders. When they are not in school, they fly kites, catch fireflies, pose like Amitabh Bachchan, get

By Mandira Chattopadhyay (Ohio)

photographed at the local studio, watch bioscopes at the village fair, and carry on with numerous childhood errands.

Early in the film, we see the two boys go to the village market to buy “toktoki”, a contraption that makes a clicking noise. They did not find the toy but ended up listening to a man with a microphone stating that as a response to the demolition of the Babri Masjid, it has been decided that a “Chhota” Babri Masjid will be built in the village and the villagers are asked to donate generously for this. The boys are quite oblivious of the Hindu – Muslim conflict taking place in their village, and the boundaries set by the two communal groups. When Shafiqul steals some sand that has been collected for the mosque construction and uses it to decorate the Jhulan taking place in Palash’s home on the eve of Janmashtami, it annoys some members of the Muslim community. We further witness Shafiqul secretly bringing a bowl of ‘Semai’ for Palash made by Shafiqul’s mother for the celebration of Eid festival.

In response to the angry demands of the Muslims of the village to build a new mosque, the Hindus decide to have a ‘Jatra’ performance of Ramayana. Shafiqul attends the Jatra without his father’s approval and enjoys it. In the middle of the performance Shafiqul and Palash go backstage to find Sita (played by a man) and Ravana smoking. The boys ask them, “Aren’t you enemies?” Ravana replies, “We are all friends, but we dress up as enemies just to fill our stomachs.” Next thing we know is that Shafiqul is beaten by his father for going to the event.

There are quite a few magical visuals in the film. There is a great scene in which the boys sneak out at night to catch fireflies. Against a tree shining in moonlight with shadows cast on the ground, the boys pretend to be two princes at war. They are seen wearing paper hats that have glittering fireflies stuck on them. It is truly a stunning shot. It subtly reminds one of the violence that lurks around these two boys – a violence that they can with-

stand just because of their deep friendship. With the communalism of the outside world coming down on the elders, these two boys live in their own ways. There is an ideological war going on outside, and the friendship of two children of different religions in the village is a slap in the face of that war!

The episode of the kite is very touching. Shafiqul steals some coins from his sister’s piggy bank but is caught redhanded and punished. But with some coins still left in his mouth he buys a kite, and both go across the river. But while flying the kite, Palash ends up breaking the kite. and the two pick up a quarrel and decide not to talk to each other. A broken kite feels like the end of the world. They would not sit next to each other at school. Eventually Palash buys a kite and the two are friends again. This is a contrast from the older members of the community, who would never come to terms again. Shafiqul asks where Palash got the money, Palash says he got it by saving the money by not taking the donkey cart to school, but by walking his way to school. But as they flew the kite, it soared high in the grey sky and then fell from its grace into a distant land. A metaphor in life: there is truly little control of what happens in one’s life.

Then there is a prop – a container in which the boys put a caterpillar to see it turn into a butterfly. Shafiqul, the creative one of the two, pokes holes in the container using a spoke from his father’s umbrella, so that the caterpillar can breathe. They would feed the caterpillar by putting leaves inside the container from time to time.

When the communal disturbances recede from the view, the story takes a turn towards pathos. The friendship between the boys is impacted not by men, but by a random act of God. The two are seen playing by the river with the heavy monsoon rain pouring on them. Shafiqul suggests he would make a wave and Palash would catch it. But Palash loses control and is drowned in the river. Shafiqul runs home crying

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Emergencies Arrive at Inconvenient Moments!

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we make liberal use of room humidifiers during winter months to prevent excessive coughing. Until this incident, we had lived in apartments with steam heating where indoor air was not terribly dry. Our new home had “forced air heating” which apparently reduced moisture level inside the house to very low levels.

Another unwelcome emergency had been recognized and handled on a timely basis by Sikha. ***

The third emergency involved our second daughter, Kooheli, and arrived without warning in 1980. We usually called her by her nickname, Mou. She was five years old. When I received the news that my father had passed away, I decided to catch the first flight out of New York and be at the side of my mother in Puri as soon as possible. Mou had a slight fever but was in good spirit otherwise when I left for India.

I took a British Airways flight from JFK to London, and after a fairly lengthy stopover, flew another British Airways flight to Calcutta. Because of dense fog, the flight could not land in Calcutta and was diverted to Bangkok, Thailand, a thousand miles away. For unknown reasons, we were not allowed by the Bangkok airport authorities to deplane. After being grounded for two hours or so, the aircraft took off for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – 750 miles away from Bangkok! British Airways had very made arrangements for overnight stay in hotels in Kuala Lumpur for all Calcutta-bound passengers. We were going to be sent to Calcutta next day on a British Airways flight.

By the time I checked into my hotel, I was almost twelve hours behind schedule. Tired, hungry and angry, I took a hot shower and ordered room service. While waiting for the food to arrive, I decided to call Sikha to cry on her shoulder. She answered in a sleepy voice, and I immediately realized that I had forgotten all about the 12 hours of time difference between New York and Kuala Lumpur! I started to apologize to Sikha and suggest that she go back to sleep. But she said in a serious voice, “I

am glad you called. Mou is in hospital.” I almost jumped out of my skin. “Why? What happened?”, I asked feebly. Sikha told me that the day after I left New York, Mou’s legs were so weak in the morning that she could not get out of bed without Sikha’s help. Under the pediatrician’s advice, Sikha rushed Mou to the hospital.

Ananya was left with Barbara Young, our neighbor next door (we were in a new home, located closer to my place of work). Blood tests in the hospital had revealed that Mou had caught rheumatic fever. Fortunately, the doctors had concluded that Mou’s heart was not affected by the bacterial infection responsible for her rheumatic fever. Sikha did not know how long Mou would be required to stay in the hospital and what treatment she was going to need in the future. I was stunned and deeply worried. I had zero knowledge about what caused rheumatic fever, what treatment was required and what I needed to do as a responsible father. There was no Internet or Google in those days, and I was at my wit’s end, sitting in a hotel room about 10,000 miles away from Sikha and my five-year old daughter. I assured Sikha that I would turn around from India as soon as I could and lend her a helping hand. I had planned to spend about two weeks with my grieving mother in Puri before returning back to the States. But once I reached Puri, I could only think of my little child, confined to a hospital bed, and Sikha shuttling back and forth between home and hospital. After about three days in Puri, I could not take it anymore, and I flew back to the US. I was sad that I could not spend more time with my mother but my sense of responsibility to my daughter and wife simply overwhelmed me.

Once back in the US, I rushed to the hospital to see Mou. It was heartbreaking to see my five-year old hooked up to an IV drip line and several monitoring devices. She was visibly tired and in poor spirit but her eyes lit up the moment she saw me. She stretched out her little arms to give me a big hug. And I was so glad to be able to hold her and comfort her.

BOOK REVIEW BY KOOHELI CHATTERJI, NEW JERSEY

“They Called Us Exceptional and Other Lies that Raised US” by Prachi Gupta

“They Called Us Exceptional -- and Other Lies That Raised Us” by Prachi Gupta (published by Penguin Random House, 2023) is a heart-wrenching memoir that moves beyond what will feel to many like a familiar field - professional immigrant parents, second generation children, even the central New Jersey landscape - to the deeper and more difficult layers of mental illness and its multigenerational role in her family’s life. Here, in the shadows of what so many Indian American families struggle to talk about, the possibility of family shame and judgment too daunting to bear, mental illness threatens to destroy not just one person, not just two, but the truth and wholeness, the bond and heart that composes family.

Part of what makes Gupta’s story so immediately compelling comes from this familiarity. Many of us will see glimpses of ourselves and our families in these pages. After an arranged marriage in India, Prachi’s father decides to pursue a medical degree, sending Prachi, her younger brother Yush - a mere eighteen months younger and as beloved a friend and ally as any in her life, and their mother to stay with his parents in Toronto, until the time comes for them to join him, first in California and later in New Jersey. In this way, the foundation for a pattern is established: when Papa acts, everyone is impacted.

As Papa becomes Dr. Gupta, the family’s earning power climbing to include private schools and the large suburban home, he holds high standards for and brooks no nonsense from his children. As she recounts her childhood, it is not Prachi but her father whose choices begin to direct her life. When Prachi discovers new interests and passions, they are immediately subject to Papa’s disapproval and banished. Her first hero and beloved playmate, Papa’s darker moods, his penchant for criticizing,

his insistence on foisting Mensa IQ tests and complex physics texts on his young children and then relentlessly quizzing them on topics they couldn’t possibly absorb, are like a live wire humming closeby: dangerous the nearer you get, safe only at a distance.

Where Papa truly shows his loss of control is in his relationship with Prachi’s mother, Ma. The novel is in fact written in second person, the “you” to whom Prachi writes the very Ma from whom she grows estranged. When each of the dyads within the larger family unit become frayed as a result of his increasingly troubling behavior, everyone suffers. When mental illness is finally diagnosed, Prachi has reason to hope. Perhaps with the right help, she imagines, medications from the prized fields of medical and pharmaceutical sciences will make mental illness as easy to talk about as an earache, cure the afflicted, and leave her family free in peace, free of their dysfunctional dynamics.

Unfortunately, “getting help” is not something the Guptas do, and here is the difficult truth this memoir so poignantly highlights:

South Asian Americans are, of any racial or ethnic group in the United States, the least likely population to seek mental health treatment, with a treatmentseeking rate one-sixth what it is for White/European Americans. As a current graduate student of social work at Rutger University, I have recently been exploring these racial gaps, trying to wrap my mind around the numbers of untreated mental illness in our community. After all, the rate of prevalence of many mental health disorders - Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, Schizophrenia Disorder, to name a few - are largely consistent with other racial/ethnic groups. However, according to the Office of Minority Health of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, “In 2018, Asians were

60 percent less likely to have received mental health treatment as compared to non-Hispanic whites”. In other words, South Asian Americans are suffering at the same rates as everyone else, but we are the least likely to seek professional help for that suffering. Unfortunately, when we fail to acknowledge such issues, frightened to share or misperceiving the “fault’ of the illness to lie within our control, mentally ill South Asian Americans - and therefore, their families, too - suffer unnecessarily for far longer before seeking care. By the time they do, domains of functioning are so impaired that intervention and treatment become significantly more complex and psychosocial restoration of health is threatened.

While this family unraveled, one thread catching until each connecting knot fell loose, it did so quietly. Out of view. Behind closed doors. This, after all, is what so many of us are familiar with: the belief that no matter how difficult things are, they are always best dealt with within the confines of family. But our children, and our families, are hurting just the same. Prachi’s mother may be the silent you, or she may be all of us.This book should serve as both a wake-up call and a call to action for us, individually and collectively, as South Asian Americans.

According to a 2022 study by Srinivasa, Pasupuleti, and Dornamraju, “Suicide

rate is the highest among South Asians even among Asian-origin Americans which has higher suicide among all minority populations – Asian, African and Hispanic Americans” (see Reference below). Moreover, “According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. When broken down by race, suicide is the first leading cause of death among Asian American young adults age 15-24. This is true of no other racial group in this age range in America”. Additionally, numerous studies have pointed to the correlation between cultural conflict and specific mental illnesses, including anxiety and depression.

Gupta’s relative youth is also its secret, for it lets us in on what we do to children, so powerless and impressionable, when we refuse to acknowledge or talk about the mental illness that is invading every last nook and cranny of their lives. We can do better, and we must. Educating ourselves is the first step. Like any illness, uncertainty and ignorance breed anxiety and keep us from acting. When we recognize that there are resourceshighly trained professionals who can help us, provide us with culturally competent treatment - we can give them a try.

We need to wake up to the hard realities of mental health in the United States and recognize that mental illnesses are as real and ur-

gent in our community as they are in others. Looking the other way and assuring ourselves we can take care of it amongst ourselves may help us hold uncomfortable topics at arm’s length where they are more palatable, but the longer we withhold effective treatments, the greater harm we impose on the sufferer and everyone around them.

I hope Prachi Gupta and her family find a way to peace. For all of us, I hope her story will give us an opportunity to have open up difficult but necessary conversations around mental illness.

As always, I am open to your feedback and/or suggestions for books by South Asian American authors! Feel free to email me book review suggestions at kc125@rutgers.edu.

Prachi Gupta has written for the Atlantic, Salon,the Washington Post Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, and Elle. Gupta’s interviews include former First Ladies Michelle Obama and Ivanka Trump, and she won a 2020 Writers Guild Award for her investigative essay, “Stories About My Brother.” They Called Us Exceptional” is her debut memoir.

Reference:

Srinivasa, S. R., Pasupuleti, S., &Dronamraju, R. (n.d.). Suicide among South Asian Americans: A Systematic Review of Causal and Risk Factors. ScholarWorks @ UTRGV. https:// scholarworks.utrgv.edu/ sw_fac/23/

COMMUNITY NEWS GSCA Corner

Reported by Pradip R. Das (New Jersey)

Tribute to Asit Ray

GSCA mourns the loss of Asit Ray (Asit-da to most of us) who passed away on January 5th at the age of 80. Asit da was one of the co-founders of GSCA in 1992, leading to its incorporation as a non-profit the following year. He was instrumental in scripting the by-laws of the organization which, in spite of revisions, guides how GSCA operates. Asit da was a mentor to many new members who joined the organization over the years. On a personal side, he was a prolific and thoughtful writer as exemplified by some of his articles about his early experiences as an immigrant to this country. I always opine that “To know a person, listening to what he says may not be enough.Read what he writes”.

Asit-da leaves behind his wife Manashi and two daughters, Molly and Urmi, and their husbands and children. Our memories of Asit da will be cherished dearly.

Holiday Party 2023

On Saturday, December 10, 2023, GSCA concluded its activities for the year with its annual holiday party at Crowne of India, Plainsboro. This event was open to both members and non-members. Several childrens’ items were presented starting with an adorable fashion walk, with children as young as three participating with glee. Group performances by young adults, both songs and dances, were a treat to hear and watch. A holiday party without holiday melodies is incomplete, this included several traditional holiday tunes. A lively and very entertaining zumba dance performance by the group “Bolly Zumba”, an in-house GSCA group of members, entertained viewers with their rhythmic and animated performances. All in all, a wonderful evening of entertainment and good food for all.

GSCA New Board

A new Board of Trustees composed of three new and four continuing members, took office at the beginning of this year. Subhamoy Sen is the new Chairman of the Board for the current year.

Saraswati Puja

On a rather balmy winter day, Saturday, February 17th, at Shree Swaminarayan Mandir, Somerset, NJ, GSCA’s first community event for 2024 took place. This was an open to all event which also witnessed the attendances of some new members who joined this year. GSCA welcomes them all. Nearly 100 were in attendance in spite of the snowy weather. Besides the traditional puja, pushpanjali and prasad/bhog, a delightful vegetarian dinner was served. To entertain the attendees, a delightful cultural program by the youth and adults of GSCA was presented. Both vocal and instrumental medleys were presented by youngsters (some below 10). Several new local talents, including a four-person band, were seen performing. Everyone enjoyed this year’s first community event.

Upcoming Events

Annual General Meeting in March. GSCA will be celebrating its popular “Baishakhi” event in May.

(Stay tuned for venue and time.)

NEWS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

Compiled by Debajyoti Chatterji (New Jersey)

The Dog Ate $4000 Cash!

A Pittsburg area couple had picked up $4000 cash from their bank to pay for the fence being installed on their backyard. They had left the cash on their kitchen countertop and gone to the backyard to supervise the installation. When they returned, they found that Cecil, their seven years old goldendoodle, weighing about 100 pounds, had chewed and swallowed $2500 of cash and had shredded the remaining bills into bits and pieces. You can only imagine how the couple managed to “extract” most of the $2500 over the next three days, then spent several additional days to hand-wash all the poop to recover most of that $2500, and a few more days to tape together all the bits and pieces. (Washington Post, January 3, 2024)

Yes, the Credit Card Interest Rate is 455%

Do you think that the current credit card interest rate of 25 to 30% in the US is high? In Brazil, some are paying interest rate as high as 455%. That is the rate being charged by Nubank, one of many digital banks operating in Brazil to cardholders who are delinquent in paying the minimum amounts due for 90 days. The normal interest rate averages 190%. It is hard to believe that the inflation rate in only about 5% in Brazil but the banks can charge any interest rate they wish (or the market will bear). The Brazilian lawmakers are now contemplating passing a law to limit the interest rate to 100%. (Washington Post, December 24, 2023)

Meet the Fool Who Ate NJ’s Hottest Curry

A reporter with NJ.com dared to try out what is billed as New Jersey’s hottest curry. It is served at Brick Lane Curry House, a Jersey City-based Indian restaurant. The curry is made of the hottest chili, Carolina Reapers, available in the US. The dish is so hot that the cooks use gas masks to protect themselves from the burns that can result from inhaling the chili fumes. After finishing the dish (“phaal curry”), the reported emphatically said, “Don’t fall for it. Don’t be stupid!”. (NJ.com, December 8, 2023)

The Night Before Christmas – For a 3-Years Old

Parents of a 3-years old boy was awakenedat 3 am on the night before Christmas because the boy needed a pair of scissors. They soon discovered that their son was so excited about gifts from Santa that he had gone downstairs and opened everyone’s presents! When he

could not remove the Superman from the package, he needed a pair of scissors from his parents! “The photo posted to social media, which had been viewed more than 6 million times as of Tuesday morning, shows the destruction underneath the Christmas tree, with a pile of torn-up paper next to the family’s unwrapped gifts. The family’s Christmas had been ripped to shreds by their toddler in only a few minutes — and the parents now had to race against time to put it all back together.” Much to the parents’ credit, they repacked all the gifts before the other family members woke up. (Washington Post, December 26, 2023)

A Catatonic Woman Awakened after Twenty Years!

A straight-A college student encountered a traumatic event when she was 21 years old.She suddenly developed a terrible case of psychosis and “became lost in in a constant state of visual and auditory hallucinations. The former high school valedictorian could no longer communicate, bathe or take care of herself.” She was diagnosed with a severe form of schizophrenia, and soon became catatonic, “stuck at the nurses’ station — unmoving, unblinking and unknowing of where or who she was” for 20 long years. Fortunately, in 2018, a team of doctors discovered that in addition to schizophrenia, the patient had a serious form of lupus, an autoimmune disease. After a prolonged treatment for lupus, the patient is leading a nearnormal life in a rehab facility. (Washington Post, June 1, 2023)

Untrained Bangladeshi Chef from Jersey City Nominated for James Beard Award

Nur-E Gulshan Rahman of Korai Kitchen restaurant in Jersey City, NJ, has been nominated for a James Beard Award as the “best chef in the MidAtlantic Region”. This is a noteworthy news for two reasons: (1) she never received any formal culinary training, and (2) she never owned a restaurant before Korai Kitchen – and she started just six years ago as a “take-out only” affair with a tiny kitchen. Mrs. Rahman is in her sixties, and owns the restaurant jointly with her daughter, Farhana. After four years as a take-out business, it changed two years ago to a regular restaurant -- and quickly received a positive review from the New York Times food critic. After the news about her award nomination broke, the restaurant was booked for the entire month within one hour! (NJ.com, February 22, 2024)

“DOSTOJEE” – AN AWAKENING

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while his buddy’s sandals lie on the riverbank. The river that was bright and happy with blowing ripples in the heydays seems dark and sad. When Palash dies everyone is struck with grief. Palash’s mother is the most grief stricken. She starts to take care of the caterpillar originally cared for by Palash and Shafiqul by getting leaves from outside. When the caterpillar turns

into a butterfly, she is happy but becomes sad when the butterfly flies away. She is reminded of her son that is no longer with her. There is still a tone of religious intolerance when Shafiqul is thirsty and asks for a drink of water, and Palash’s mother gives him water in a separate container, not from their own.

The child actors Asik Shaikh and Arif Shaikh playing the roles of Palash and Shafiqul, are excellent al-

though they have never acted before. Palash’s mother played by Jayati Chakrabarti is brilliant in a few scenes in the movie. The scene where she breaks down over a photograph of her son, which she has never seen, is particularly noteworthy. Prasun Chatterjee has drawn out charming performances from the child actors and has skillfully pieced together a portrait of a sleepy village in West Bengal in beautiful detail.

DID YOU KNOW?

Compiled by Pradip R. Das (New Jersey)

Question: Is the average body temperature 98.6 deg C?

Answer: No, it is not.

Though normal body temperatures vary from person to person, it’s been widely accepted for more than 100 years that 98.6 degrees is the average temperature. But studies show that the average has actually decreased in recent years and may be closer to about 97.9 degrees. The often-cited “normal” temperature of 98.6 degrees comes from scientific data published more than 150 years ago.

In 1868, German physician. Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich, studied more than one million temperature measurements from about 25,000 people. He reported a range of temperatures, noting that some people had lower temperatures and temperatures were higher in the afternoon, but concluded the overall average was 98.6 degrees.

Researchers have drawn a different conclusion in more recent studies.

Studies from Stanford University School of Medicine found the standard average temperature is lower than 98.6 degrees and has been decreasing over time. The researchers looked at data from 1862 through 1930, 1971 through 1975, and 2007 through 2017. They found that body temperature decreased by 0.05 degrees every decade (eLife, Jan 7, 2020).

different study from 2017(British Medical Journal) looked at temperature measurements from about 35,000 patients and found their average was around 97.9 degrees.

A paper published in September 2023 (Journal of the American Medical Association) analyzed oral temperature measurements from more than 126,000 people seen at Stanford Health Care from 2008 to 2017. It found that adults have normal temperatures ranging from 97.3 to 98.2 degrees, with an overall average of 97.9 degrees.

Payal Kohli, M.D., assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus, and other medical experts believe there are a number of reasons the average body temperature has fallen in recent years. One reason is a lower metabolic rate in modern times, which could be tied to “higher body mass, better medical treatments, preventive measures and overall health,” Robert Shmerling, M.D., wrote in a blog post for Harvard Medicine (Harvard Health Publishing, Sep 12, 2023). People also have better sanitation and living conditions now than they did in the 1800s, Kohli said. When Wunderlich gathered his data in the 1800s, tuberculosis, syphilis, chronic gum diseases and other inflammatory conditions that can raise a person’s body temperature were common and treatments were limited, Schmerling added.

The latest research about body temperature also begs the question of whether medical providers should redefine a fever, Kohli said. Most medical providers say a fever is a body temperature of at least either 100 or 100.4 degrees (Cleveland Clinic).

But, if a person’s basal – or resting – temperature tends to run lower, they may begin to have a fever, if they are below 100 degrees, since their body is warming up more than usual.

BRIDGING MINDS

Ananda Mandir partners with RWJMS to increase representation of South Asian

Americans in the medical literature

Whendoctors at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School’s Division of Cognitive Neurology noticed that South Asian patients were getting less in-depth work-ups for memory problems due to language barriers, they began a research project to develop appropriate standards to account for the unique immigration and language-based factors inherent to the South Asian diaspora. However, they quickly ran into the perennial problem of research studies: slow recruitment of volunteers.

After hiringShromona Sarkar, BDS, a Master’s Degree candidate at Rutgers School of Public Health, researchers began reexamining core issues that may be related to recruitment issues. Ms. Sarkar also began reaching out to her contacts in the South Asian community, and began regularly setting up tables at community events at Ananda Mandir. “Through active engagement with the diverse and vibrant community at Ananda Mandir, we’ve successfully overcome recruitment obstacles with remarkable efficacy. My experience has shed light on initial hesitations among some community members to undergo MRI scans, coupled with prevalent misinformation about the procedure and a lack of interest in receiving health-related information. However, it has been heartening to witness the enthusiasm of many individuals who were eager to participate. This endeavor isn’t merely about conducting research; it’s about building connections, dismantling linguistic and cultural barriers, and understanding and engaging with the community to make a meaningful impact. It’s about advocating for better representation and healthcare outcomes, ensuring that every member of the community has access to accurate information and resources to make informed decisions about their health. This collective commitment underscores our unwavering dedication to bridging these gaps and fostering a healthcare landscape that prioritizes diversity, equity, and inclusivity, ultimately laying the foundation for a healthier and more equitable future for generations to come,” said Ms Sarkar. This partnership found that South Asian Americans (relative to other groups of Americans) were less likely to want to know findings from MRI brain scans, and less likely to endorse donating anonymized MRI brain scans to researchers. These findings are now published in the Alzheimer’s Association’s Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions.

Meanwhile, recruitment for an ongoing study on how the South Asian brain ages compared to other groups is ongoing. As shown by the Mediators of Atherosclerosis in South Asian Living in America (MASALA), South Asian Americans have more risk for vascular disease (such as heart attacks and stroke) even at lower cutoff points than White Americans. This has led to changes in how doctors diagnose South Asian patients, and how they weigh starting medications. Now, Rutgers researchers are looking at what factors may cause disease in the South Asian Aging Brain (SAAB) study. “Given what we’ve seen in MASALA, it is important to note whether vascular disease is causing more problems with thinking than we may have previously suspected,” said Dr. Karthik Kota, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Geriatrics. “We continue to partner with Ananda Mandir to help us get the data to answer this question and better represent South Asian Americans in the medical literature.”

As for Ms. Sarkar, she still finds the work interesting even after moving onto her new career as an analyst at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey “Being part of this research has shown me the significance of addressing healthcare disparities within the South Asian community. Our study isn’t just about gathering data; it’s about advocating for better representation and healthcare outcomes for everyone. When I started recruiting people for our research, it wasn’t easy. Some folks were unsure about getting MRI scans or joining the study. But I kept going, believing in the importance of our work. Along the way, I met some amazing people who understood why our research mattered. They saw how it could help our community and were eager to be a part of it. Their support gave me a boost and kept me going. And then, there were those who didn’t just understand – they really got it. One participant, whose father and uncle suffered from memory problems, didn’t want the same to happen to him or to future generations. He believed that research like ours could make a real difference for our community. Hearing stories like his inspired me and reminded me why I started this journey. Together, we’re working towards a future where healthcare is fair for everyone,” said Ms. Sarkar. She and the Rutgers SAAB team will continue to work with Ananda Mandir through 2024 and beyond.

We thank Ms Shromona Sarkar and Dr Karthick Kota for their efforts on studying memory and other brain-aging related issues among members of the local South Asian diaspora.