So that June may not stay empty...

Yes, I know, I haven't written for ages. Fact is, looking back on the immense amount and variety of things I have written, I can't think of much to write any more. Not, at least, for now. I am too tired. Maybe someday the blocked stream will break free again. 

I watched Sir Richard Attenborough's Gandhi again earlier this month, after I guess a gap of nearly forty years. Two things occurred to me: a) such a beautiful movie, and yet so ahistorical - a story about Gandhi's life and times with no Subhas, no Ambedkar, no mention of Tagore though the Rev. C. F. Andrews features notably, and Jinnah barely a shadowy figure on the margins?! and b) how did Gandhi do it - returned to India in 1915 little known, and by far the most prominent and influential leader of the country as no one has been before and after, hypnotizing and holding the worshipful attention, affection and obedience of millions of both high and low, without fakery, without violence, and with no more modern tools of mass communication technology except newspapers in a largely illiterate country? I have been wondering all my life, and I am as far away from the answer as I have always been...

New government in the state, of an entirely new type, as I have noted before. Not been in office for two months yet. As I said, I am watching. I am not a man who draws conclusions quickly.

I don't know whether many people are listening to my poetry-reading podcasts on Spotify, but making the successive episodes has been giving me a particular sort of gentle pleasure. I shall glad to have suggestions from listeners about what they would like to hear next. Till then, it remains entirely a matter of my personal taste and choice. Meanwhile, it is good to see that my stories on YouTube continue to attract new listeners, however slowly (both can be accessed by typing in 'Suvro Sir'.)

Over the last few weeks, the rains have been playing truant hereabouts, making us swelter in the muggy heat day after inexorable day. What makes it especially galling is that we keep hearing how Kolkata and north Bengal are being inundated.

That's all for now. As of June 25, my daughter is a married woman. May God bless both her and Swarnava. I am looking forward more and more eagerly to vanaprastha. Just think: even that post is nearly four years old!