Last year just before Durga Pujo I bought my first saree and my first designer saree. I am not a fan of designer wear. Actually, if I like the shape and color of an apparel and it fits me then I don't care if it is coming from the sidewalk vendors in Calcutta, from Walmart, Macy's or someplace fancier. I bought this saree because it struck me as something very creative - Bengali calendar print in black and white with a solid red border. It has something very Bengali in it with just the right amount of color and an out of the box creativity. So I went for it. Recently I was looking at a few more sarees designed by the same lady Paromita Banerjee. Almost all of them have this right balance of color and a uniqueness which tells me about the refined taste of the designer. With the very limited exposure I have in fashion, I think she concentrates on just one thing in a saree. For the calendar one, her main focus of course was on the Bengali print, so she kept it at two colors. She didn't keep on adding more accents or flashy stuff. In another one, the off white body and golden border has bright red pleats in the center. That's it. No more color, no more decorations...just one thing. I very much appreciate her taste. Before this article becomes one on fashion, let me come to the main point. I so liked Paromita's concepts that I looked her up online to see more of her designer clothes and her professional profile, etc. I found she writes a blog and her topics along with her command of the English language gave me an idea of her - a well educated and cultured Bengali girl. "Cultured" is the thing I am coming to, that is the kind of people I used to know Bengalis as.
Most probably due to the Bengal Renaissance of the late eighteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, Bengalis evolved as a race who could think. They were conscious of the political situation of the country, the reformed the society and they questioned and rebelled rather than accepting something as "tradition". A bright band of stalwarts like Raja Rammohan Roy, Vidyasagar, Swamiji, Rabindranath, Acharjya J. C. Bose, Acharya P. C. Roy, Netaji, Sarat Chandra, Nazrul trailed till Satyajit Ray in all fields from politics to religion, science, arts, literature, music, sports lit up the cultural field of Calcutta, a city which was the jewel in the crown, the city of joy.
I was not as lucky to be born at that time, but I at least was born in the city and had the opportunity to grow up learning about these people and as a book lover, reading stories of these people and their own writings. I always say that for a person who reads (he/she most likely thinks as well) the world becomes a single nest spanning both space AND time. These people imbibed in me and to those people who fit my definition of a Bengali some cultural values which are not easily shaken off.
I see in Facebook - 15 reasons why you should date a Bengali girl, well they are funny when read with a light spirit but that is not all. There are much more stuff in there besides the ability to sing Rabindrasangeet or having a cute nickname. To me Bengali culture is not limited to going to coffee house or sounding intellectual, it is about realizing the things our beloved and revered stalwarts taught us and following their paths. It is about rebelling like Derozio by breaking all chains of dead habit, about loving the most downtrodden countrymen as our our brothers like Swamiji, finding solace in Rabindranath, feeling the deepest sorrow of the poor villagers like Sarat Chandra, on being the firebrand that Nazrul was, making the impossible possible like Netaji, cherishing the children in us like Sukumar Ray, finding our ways in the dark with the help of knowledge like Jagadish Bose...with that comes a race of people who value knowledge and education above everything else. A refined taste in music, arts that also reflects in clothes and dresses. A sharp intellect that gives rise to wit. Creativity that shows up in various places from food to baby names. A questioning spirit that made us liberals who might believe in god, but would not become vegetarians just because some people interpret Hinduism like that.
In Satyajit Ray's famous movie "Agantuk" (the stranger) Utpal Dutta, a character who was interested in anthropology and spent many years among different tribes of the world was saying that before he left home, all the works of the most famous literary people of both English and Bengali were instilled in him. That is what I feel too. In all my steps and my behavior, if the teachings and ideas of these people shine through then I would be able to become a true follower of all these people whom I so dearly love.
Most probably due to the Bengal Renaissance of the late eighteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, Bengalis evolved as a race who could think. They were conscious of the political situation of the country, the reformed the society and they questioned and rebelled rather than accepting something as "tradition". A bright band of stalwarts like Raja Rammohan Roy, Vidyasagar, Swamiji, Rabindranath, Acharjya J. C. Bose, Acharya P. C. Roy, Netaji, Sarat Chandra, Nazrul trailed till Satyajit Ray in all fields from politics to religion, science, arts, literature, music, sports lit up the cultural field of Calcutta, a city which was the jewel in the crown, the city of joy.
I was not as lucky to be born at that time, but I at least was born in the city and had the opportunity to grow up learning about these people and as a book lover, reading stories of these people and their own writings. I always say that for a person who reads (he/she most likely thinks as well) the world becomes a single nest spanning both space AND time. These people imbibed in me and to those people who fit my definition of a Bengali some cultural values which are not easily shaken off.
I see in Facebook - 15 reasons why you should date a Bengali girl, well they are funny when read with a light spirit but that is not all. There are much more stuff in there besides the ability to sing Rabindrasangeet or having a cute nickname. To me Bengali culture is not limited to going to coffee house or sounding intellectual, it is about realizing the things our beloved and revered stalwarts taught us and following their paths. It is about rebelling like Derozio by breaking all chains of dead habit, about loving the most downtrodden countrymen as our our brothers like Swamiji, finding solace in Rabindranath, feeling the deepest sorrow of the poor villagers like Sarat Chandra, on being the firebrand that Nazrul was, making the impossible possible like Netaji, cherishing the children in us like Sukumar Ray, finding our ways in the dark with the help of knowledge like Jagadish Bose...with that comes a race of people who value knowledge and education above everything else. A refined taste in music, arts that also reflects in clothes and dresses. A sharp intellect that gives rise to wit. Creativity that shows up in various places from food to baby names. A questioning spirit that made us liberals who might believe in god, but would not become vegetarians just because some people interpret Hinduism like that.
In Satyajit Ray's famous movie "Agantuk" (the stranger) Utpal Dutta, a character who was interested in anthropology and spent many years among different tribes of the world was saying that before he left home, all the works of the most famous literary people of both English and Bengali were instilled in him. That is what I feel too. In all my steps and my behavior, if the teachings and ideas of these people shine through then I would be able to become a true follower of all these people whom I so dearly love.
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