Kaberi Dutta Chatterjee's Blog: Life and Laughter, page 5

Don’t torrent Neil Must Die, get it here

Dear readers,

Thank you so much for responding me at kadchat51@gmail.com

I do not any longer feel like I’m talking to the wall.

This is to share with you my joy when I found out that “ripple effect” is really a thing !

Though Neil Must Die was published for the first time in 2010, USA, and plenty of reviews appeared on Goodreads and all over the world, I kind of gave up on anyone else reading the book.

Until, this review appeared suddenly in the prestigious IRMA Research and Publications, in Dec 2017. I have no clue of this, and don’t know whom to thank.

And then, I came across some readers trying to torrent Neil Must Die from obscure websites.

See the screenshots below.

I’m guessing some people did read the book, eventually.

…Never give up! You never know when life surprises you.

“Neil Must Die“
The book is available at the lowest price here

Check out the screenshots of the prestigious IRMA review

Also attaching NMD review in the prestigious “Desh” magazine, from Anandabazar Patrika, Kolkata. Honored to be featured alongside Chitra Banerjee Divyakurani. No link known to me

Deer

(Snatched this write-up from Facebook, written by my son, Aneesh Chatterjee, some 10 years back, when he was in High School. He is too embarrassed to share this now, so I have hijacked the article. Only because this reinstated the sense of nothingness in me, and feel you should feel it too. Some articles don’t need a photo. You’ll know why)

Just past 1:00 PM. Our final lunch period had ended. Everyone headed to their classrooms. Well – almost everyone. Some people went home, some went to the library. My initial plan was to go down there, too. Maybe watch the latest TFS Abridged episode on the school computers meant for academic research. They really shouldn’t have computers with internet access at school.

But plans changed. I was sitting outside, at our school’s football field. Empty bleachers, sprinklers dancing, and me trying to fly the paper plane I folded out of a very important certificate of appreciation. It wasn’t flying as well as I thought it would. It ended up in the trash can, in several long, muddy strips. With my shoe prints on them. It was a beautiful day to crush the living shit out of a “certificate of appreciation”. And an even better day to skip class.

I looked past the field. There was, behind the school, a wooded area with a walking trail. Windy Hollow Park, the signboard said. I considered going there, but I didn’t want to lug my backpack full of books down the trail. And so, after careful reasoning, I left it on the bleachers, free for anyone to take and destroy. It was freedom.

I’d been down the trail before, but not for this long. It winded down a steep curve – a fenced-off canal tumbled shallow water from one dirty stream to another along the slope – and I found myself walking into a long, empty path shrouded on both sides by thickets of trees.

It was… quiet. Very quiet. I walked slowly – my footsteps sounded blasphemous. The dead leaves cracked with the wind every now and then, but it was quiet. The trail seemed to go on forever. I thought of walking too far, and not making it back to school in time. But I had an hour left before the final bell, and the vacant emptiness of the forest was alluring. Of course, I thought as I walked, it wasn’t an actual forest. Foray into the trees for a while, and you’d hit a road, or a line of houses – something. This wasn’t the wilderness. This was a pale imitation of it, shrouded in a suburban human city. It was the best one could hope for when it came to freedom, though. All you’d need would be a little imagination.

The forest on both sides curved down and up in steep waves, the trees – both standing and fallen – criss-crossing the landscape. I was far away enough from the school that I wouldn’t be able to hear the bell. God, it was quiet. It was addicting. The trees grew larger, thicker, taller – the tallest one towered at a height slightly shy of a residential building. I wondered what it would be like to climb it, climb all the way up, miss my footing, fall in slow-motion, have my life flash before my eyes and hit the ground on my back with a dull finality.

Imagination takes responsibility.

I came up to a point where the path had taken a forked turn, but stopped. It continued on in the same direction, but I stood there at the unfinished turn. The forest slope started almost immediately after it, running down, deep down, where thick trees grew tall, dry leaves carpeted the grass and canopies of branches impeded descent. I wondered what it would be like to find a person lying in the leaves, slowly bleeding to death from the stab wound of a vengeful murderer. Again – responsibility. I laughed. It was stupid to expect anything exciting in a place like this. Hell, I could see the outline of houses right at the end of the upward slope on the other side. Civilization was standing there, hidden, laughing at my naivety. There was no adventure to be found here. No surprises, no shocks. It was only… picturesque beauty. That was it.

Well, I wasn’t falling for it. I forced myself to be happy with this illusion. And then, in that stunning quiet, from the thicket of trees before me, I heard the unmistakable snap of a twig.

At first, I suspected people. But no. There weren’t any voices. I walked toward the edge. I peered through the branches and leaves at the other side of the curve, and there, descending downward slowly, were the distinct impressions of four thin, gray legs, and a swishing white tail.

I did freeze for a while. My wild fantasies led me to think it was a mountain lion. A mountain lion, roaming the government-planted trees beside a walking trail behind a row of houses. For fuck’s sake.

No. I knew what it was. I could see it climbing further down. I stepped onto the leaves, foraged my way through some of the shrubbery without getting any spiky branches to poke my eye out. I saw it there, standing. I could see its head. A deer.

Well, it was a doe, really. I wanted to get closer. I made a soft hissing noise, not wanting to disturb the quiet. When she didn’t respond, I hissed louder.

She turned her head and, from what it seemed, looked me straight in the eye from a distance of perhaps twenty meters. We were locked like that for a short while. She found me uninteresting and looked away, but stood there. I climbed down the slope. I don’t know – I wanted to get closer. Have a better look. See what she would do if I did get close enough.

She kept standing there. Looked to her right – I followed – and I saw another white tail. A second doe. I assumed she was waiting for her friend. They both walked further into the trees. I hissed after them like an idiot, hoping to get their attention – to lock eyes with one of them – but they scampered away. No, not this time. I wasn’t going to let this go. The only close thing to an adventure I find in this god damned boring place, and it scampers away?

Have to say, the forest was hard to walk through. Too many branches, too many blocks, fallen tree trunks, loud twigs. I had them in sight, though. At one point, I saw three. Four. Four of them. Friends? Family? The one I was following had definitely seen me. I froze, not advancing. She looked at me and continued grazing, uninterested, not the least bit afraid. She was thinner than the others. Her fur was ripped. Malnourished? Got into a fight? Do deer get into fights?

It looked mesmerizing. The moment I thought that, I heard Louis C.K.’s famous comedy routine in my head: “Deer are horrible, they shit everywhere, they – they make a noise, you know that? They go AAAANGGGGG – THEY’RE ASSHOLES.”

Laughing out loud in the middle of a forest by myself.

I followed them into a clearing. I was close to the one, but she didn’t seem afraid. But it seemed that, every time I’d get to a certain distance, she’d calmly walk just a little bit further away. Maintaining the buffer zone between us. I kept following them past the clearing, and I realized what I was doing. This wasn’t going to end. She wouldn’t let me get any closer. She’d established a rule. They weren’t running away from me – clearly, all of them knew I was there – but they weren’t going to let me come too close. There was an underlying wisdom in that that made me wonder. They knew I wasn’t a threat, but they knew I could be. They let me be curious by not running away, but kept me at bay with their gentle strictness. I gave up. I’d seen what I wanted to see.

Once I found my way back to the trail, I saw that it ended at another row of houses. I saw other people walking now. Civilization had spilled into this temporary paradise. I heard a school bell – not mine, the elementary school at the beginning of the trail – and heard the steady rise of clamorous children spilling into their own field. It was loud in the forest. The illusion had broken. I looked at the branches, seeing shapes, realizing they were only fallen trees, and moving onward back to the world I came from. People were on the trail now, children were playing beside it, and I could see the distant apartment buildings.

I kept looking to my right, but I didn’t see any of them. They’d vanished when I’d left them in that clearing, when I chose to stop following them. They were invisible now. You don’t hear about deer walking into the city. I’d seen one once, but that was only once. An exception, a long time ago. But this… this was in their habitat. And they didn’t run away. They didn’t feel threatened. They let me see.

I walked back into school, into the library, sat in front of a computer and opened up Facebook. Scrolled through my news feed. Tube lights, computers humming, tables, chairs, students and teachers going about their daily duties – all so vacant. But I was happy.

I won’t regret skipping class. Because for one day, I saw something I’m probably never going to see again. Who knows, I might have learned something too. I definitely learned more in those woods than in that damn school building today. What happened was that I decided to take a walk, I decided to leave my backpack unprotected and leave the school grounds, and I met a group of animals that, with their calm wisdom, showed me something I never thought I’d see.

They showed me that even in this illusion of freedom constructed by humans, nature held authority. Nature wielded silent rebellion.

Aneesh Chatterjee | 2013-14

Write to chatterjeeaneesh@gmail.com if you want to communicate to Aneesh, or say something. Please give the reference that you found it on this blog.

আজি হায়! শতবর্ষ পরে

~(এটি ১৪০০ বঙ্গাব্দে রচনা।
কবিগুরু রবিন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুরের ‘আজি হতে শতবর্ষ পরে । ১৩০০’
কবিতার আমার একটা উত্তর দেওয়ার বিনীত প্রচেষ্টা)

আজি হায় শতবর্ষ পরে
বসে খুলি তোমার কবিতা আমার কোলে
তাকিয়ে থাকি জানলার বাইরে,
ওই শুষ্ক ইঁট-কাঠামোর দিকে,
বহু উর্দ্ধে আকাশ, দিগন্ত কল্পনা-সূত মাত্র
রোগজীর্ণ সৃষ্টির ধ্বংসের উল্লাসে মাতাল পৃথিবীর পানে
চেয়ে থাকি অসহায় আমি ।
আজ তব বার্তা ক্ষীণ থেকে ক্ষীণতর হয়ে
রয় শুধু দেওয়ালের সাক্ষীরূপে ।
দগ্ধ সৃষ্টির আঘাতের পরিসীমার অনেক বাইরে
রয় সমস্ত অবচেতনার, অনুরাগের সীমানার ওপারে ।
আজি হায়, শতবর্ষ পরে
নব বসন্তের প্রভাতে দেখি বিষাদের হাহাকার !
চক্ষু মুদিয়া শুনতে পাই
অভাগার ক্রন্দন ।
ধ্বংসের মরণলীলা সঙ্গে করে মানুষ
দলিত করে ফুলদল
নিষ্প্রাণ করে স্পন্দিত দেহ
ধরণীর স্তব্ধ প্রবাহে
ভাসায় কাল-রক্তের রাঙা স্রোত ।
বহু প্রজন্মের এপার থেকে
বাঁচিবার তরে, সুস্থতার তরে,
বিশ্বের মনুষ্যত্ব জাগাবার তরে
এই কাতর বেদনা জানাই ইতিহাসের পৃষ্ঠার কাছে
হায়,
আজি হতে শতবর্ষ পরে
থাকবে কি কেউ, এই কাব্য পড়িবার তরে?
~ মে, ১৯৯২ । ১৪০০ বঙ্গাব্দ

©Copyright: Kaberi Dutta Chatterjee

(A poem from my Bengali book of poems, গভীরে যাও। Now available in India online)

Why do have to tolerate the monarchy, anymore?

It’s the new age of human freedom, democracy, people’s rights. Why do we have to tolerate the monarchy or any dictatorship or fascism now?

It’s the “reverence” mindset among people that these kings and queens had exploited for centuries and is still exploiting now. Imagine, the Brit taxpayers are paying S170 MILLION for this coronation!

I think King Charles is educated enough and should consider dissolving the monarchy himself. What has he done for the people except some charity work? Has he ever learnt to earn a living?

I am reasonably decent in my videos, in comparison to my writing. So check out my latest video about how this coronation is such a redundancy and almost a crime!

গভীরে যাও (Dig Deeper)

(Now available online in India, only Rs 200)

My book of poems that I let go.

Written in my Mother Tongue, Bengali, this is a set of poems written over a few decades, whenever I was completely alone. They travelled with me through four residence moves and two country moves. Then I decided to let them go; with them, a part of my soul, that I never wanted to let go.

By publishing these in very old-style Bengali language, I’m trying to make sure that only veterans get to read the poems and get to understand them. By publishing them, I wanted to reach out to all those who cry themselves to sleep even today, afraid of letting go, and tell them, “You are not alone”.

(Please do not use Google translate. Google will destroy the ethos of the poems)

“বি এ পাশ মেয়ের বিরহের গান মানায়না”।

সত্যজিৎ রায়ের ‘নায়ক’ ছায়াছবিতে উত্তমকুমার কোনো এক প্রসঙ্গে এই উক্তিটি করেন। সেটা মনে একটা খটকা ধরিয়েছিল।

তাই কি? সত্যিই কি শিক্ষাদীক্ষা, জ্ঞান-গম্মি, অর্থ-বিত্ত-মান-সম্মান থাকলে কেউ বিরহে কাতর হয়ে বালিশ ভেজায়না? রাতের পর রাত ছটফট করেনা? সকালে ঘুম থেকে উঠে ভাবেনা, “আজ একশো-পাঁচ দিন হল…”। আয়নায় নিজের দিকে তাকালে একটা নিথর মুখ চোখে পড়েনা?

এইমাত্র একজন বিশালদেহী, টেকো, মধ্যবয়সী আফ্রিকান ভদ্রলোক মুখে মাস্ক পড়ে আমার সামনে দিয়ে হেঁটে ‘স্টারবাক্স’-এ ঢুকল। আমি কানাডায়, আমার বাড়ির সামনের একটা ‘স্টারবাক্স’এর প্যাটিওতে বসে লিখছি। ওনাকে দেখেই আমার মনে হল, “ইনিও নিশ্চই কোনোদিন বিরহের গান গেয়েছিলেন?”

নাঃ ! ‘নায়কের’ ওই উক্তিটি খুবই ভুল। তথাকথিত পড়াশোনার সাথে হৃদয়ের কোনো সম্পর্কই নেই। যদিও অদ্ভুতভাবে দুটো স্থান আমাদের মস্তিস্কের একই ভাগে — লিম্বিক জোন-এ। অত্যাশ্চর্যভাবে, মানুষ যতটাই বিরহে কাতর হয়ে বালিশ ভেজায়, তার ব্রেনে ততটাই গাঢ়ভাবে বিদ্যমান করে তার পথ চলার প্রেরণা। এক কথায়, মানুষের মস্তিষ্কের একই স্থানে ব্যাতিত করে তার ব্যাথা দেওয়ার ক্ষমতা, এবং সেই স্থানেই বিরাজমান সেই ব্যাথার ওষুধ। গবেষনায় দেখা যায় যে যে যত বেশী বিরহের গান করে, সে তত তাড়াতাড়ি সেই চোট সামলে উঠতে পারে। মোটকথা, বিরহে যে যত বেশী কাতর, সে ততই ঝড়ের বেগে জীবনে উন্নতি করতে পারে।

আমার এই কবিতার সংকলন সেই কোন এক যুগের এক বিরহের কাহিনী। সেই বিরহকে জয় করার কাহিনী। এখানে-সেখানে ছড়ানো সেই কবিতার মলিন পৃষ্ঠাগুলো দেখি আমার মুখাপেক্ষী হয়ে তাকিয়ে আছে বছরের পর বছর ধরে। তিন বার বাড়ি বদল, দেশ বদলের সময়ে স্যুটকেসের কোনো এক কোণায় কবিতাগুলো ভরে নিয়ে চলেছি। ফেলতে পারিনি কোনদিনই সেই হৃদয়াঘাতের ১৯৮৬-র রব। যত্তসব!

তাই আজ ভাবলাম, রেখে আর কি হবে? এমন বালিশ-ভেজানো ক্রন্দন তো আমার একার নয়। এ তো সকলের। সব বোকাদের। বিলিয়ে দি বরং! আমাদের সময় প্রেম ছিল লুকোনো, অন্তরে, মনের আড়ালে, অস্পষ্টতায়, অহংবোধের বেড়াজালে। অপেক্ষায়, অশ্রুতে ভেজা। তাই আমাদের আশির দশকের অনভিজ্ঞ মন, আর আজকের যুগের ইন্টারনেটের সপাট চাবুকের প্রশিক্ষায় গড়া অভিজ্ঞ মনের মধ্যে হয়তো অনেক ফারাক। মন অনেক পরিপক্ক, অনেক প্রস্তুত। তথাপি, প্রকাশের ভাষা আলাদা হলেও, কয়েক প্রজন্ম টপকিয়ে এ বেদনা তো সবার। কোপ তো সকল সরল মনে একই ভাবে পরে। জর্জড়িত করে। যেন গভীর খাদে পদস্খলন হয়। সেই খাদ থেকে কাদা মেখে, রক্ত গায়ে উঠে দাঁড়াতে হয়। অনেক রাত অনিদ্রায়, অনেক দিন গুনে গুনে, ধীর পায়ে আবার সেই খাদের চূড়ায় উঠতে হয়। এ কাল্পপ্নিক নয়। এ কালের নিয়ম। সকলেরই জীবনে হয়। সকলে গাথা রচনা করে না। ভুলে যায়। বা কালের স্রোতে সে সব কথা হারিয়ে যায়। আজকে আমিও অনেক বদলে গেছি। আজ আর ষাট দশকের সাদা-কালো উত্তম-সুচিত্রার প্রেম প্রভাবিত করেনা। এইসব ভেবে কবিতাগুলো যেভাবে আছে, ঠিক সেভাবেই তন্ময়ী আর সুদিপ্তর হাতে তুলে দিলাম।

এই কবিতাগুলো ১৯৮৬ থেকে রচনা। পড়লে মনে হতে পারে, আরে এ তো বিদ্যাপতির যুগের কবিতা! আসলে আমাদের সময় এতো বাংলা কবির সংস্পর্শে আসা হয়নি। রবীন্দ্রনাথ, বিভূতিভূষণ আর শরৎচন্দ্রের বাইরে যেতেই পারিনি। তাই কবিতাগুলোতে সেই আস্বাদেরই পুর্ণ ছাপ।

এই বইটির মুক্তি পাওয়ার জন্য লিমেরিক লাভার্স পাবলিশার্স’ কাছে আমি ঋণি। ওদের অনুপ্রেরনায় আর পথনির্দেশে আমার মলিন হয়ে যাওয়া কবিতাগুলো আজ প্রাণ পেল। সরলতার অশ্রুতে স্নান করে আমার পাঠকেরা যেন আবার নির্মল, সতেজ হয়ে উঠতে পারে, এই কামনা করি।

Get the book of poems here: গভীরে যাও

Is the steady population growth coming to an end?

1,418,014,898 — Population of India on Monday, April 24, 2023

1,454,886,466 — Population of China as on Monday, April 24, 2023

8,029,428,824 (and turbo climbing) — World Population as on April 24, 2023

(Source: Worldometers.info)

As my Motherland proudly heads to become the most populated country in the world in just a few days, we are not here to celebrate that, nor to mourn. We are here today to celebrate something else altogether.

We are here to celebrate the power of Nature.

Though the world population hit the 8 billion meter in 2022, and the numbers are turbo exploding even as I write, even as you read, the rate has actually slowed down. From the 50’s, it has slowed to 0.9% as of 2023!

Growth is beginning to slow, and experts predict the world’s population will top out sometime in the 2080s at about 10.4 billion. But the population explosion will slow out, despite the mortality rate going up to 73% average worldwide.

I have hand-picked 4 factors to understand why the world population is slowing down. And the hands of Nature is at its best which is set to resurrect the tipping human balance on Earth. As we are the only, I repeat, ONLY ‘spot’ in the entire creation, that has this intelligent species, as we know of date.

Hand of God

Hand of God, (or for those who choose not to believe — the hand of Nature) is working overtime to bring down the world population.

a) Covid killed 4 million people in 2012-20-21 (I refuse to write anything else here, considering you have not been inside a cave and are equally fed-up of the Covid knowledge)

b) Repeated earthquakes, droughts, flood and natural calamities are slicing off human existence with elan, the last one being on February 6, 2023 in Kahramanmaras and Hatay provinces, southeastern Turkey, which killed over 50 thousand people.

2. Fewer offspring choices

There has been a radical shift for the younger generation to have fewer offspring. Even 10 years back this intention of not having own children was questioned. Now more and more young couple are choosing not to have children, and instead focusing on their career. There is also a happy percentage who are adopting other children, children from orphanages. That is a remarkable shift, which is perceivably slowing the rate of growth of population. This phenomenon is happening almost everywhere around the world, though at different rates.

3. Choice of partners

Even though at this point, I cannot personally accept the concept of ‘pregnant men’, I see a tsunami of people around the world choosing the same sex as their partners. This directly cuts off the chances of them having any offspring, leave alone them having multiple unplanned babies, the kind we’ve had over years.

I have learnt that with sperm donor insemination, reciprocal IVF, or using a surrogate (with or without an egg donor), LGBT couples can have their children. They can also chose to adopt, foster care, or coparent. All of these options have sprouted only over the last 5-6 years. It was totally unthinkable before that, almost a taboo, so much that even donor insemination of a heterosexual couple was questioned by the society.

I wonder where this society is now!

4. Gender Identity issues

Gender identity has become such an issue, that children are allowed to decide their gender identity even before they are allowed to decide their bedtime.

I have categorically requested my son to not have any babies. Even if he has, I won’t be able to grand-mother them with a permanent gasp on my face. The other day I came across a transgender female, who had surgery to become a male, and now blaming the doctors as to why they (?) didn’t stop them (?) changing their (?) sex, since they (?) feel female again!

When I asked a friend’s son, (on Facebook), who had a baby, “Oh congrats! A boy or a girl?” He commented with elan, “Born a boy, we don’t know what it’ll be when it grows up.”!!

Hence, this permanent confusion that the next gen children are subjected to, having allowed to decide their gender even before they learn how to walk, may, if not anything, control their procreation rate. If they do not know themselves whether they are females or males, whether they want to hold a baby in their wombs and create a new human being, how will they think of procreating and producing offspring? I still do not cater to the ‘pregnant male’ concept. But if push comes to shove, and males want to nurture babies in their bellies, and science is ready to implant a copy of God’s uterus inside their paunches, I cannot say what will be the outcome. But till then, procreation will only be stumped due to confusion.

5. Humans killing humans

Though this is not exactly news, but brainless human war activities, terrorist groups and mass shooters are killing off their own clans with so much efficiency, that they are doing half the work that Nature was supposed to do. Such idiots are helping the world population reduce fast.

The recent being a bomb explosion in protest of the Ukraine War in St. Petersburg, during a speech by military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in a café, when an IED planted in a statuette gifted to him exploded. 42 people died in the attack.

As long as humans continue to torture, humiliate and kill their own kith and kin, Nature can relax. Nature/Creator/God doesn’t have to create a Hell for humans. Humans are creating one for themselves. Nature/God/Creator can now watch this latest show on ‘Its’ own Netflix, with a bag of popcorn.

Nature always had its own way of handling the humans that it created. If it allowed humans to arrive by killing the dinosaurs, It can annihilate humans to allow other forms of life to triumph.

We can relax.

Read more in WtF I Found God (India)

WtF I Found God (Amazon)

‘Neil Must Die’ in India

Guess what! You can get print copies of my first novel, Neil Must Die, from India straight now, at an unbelievable low price!

Check it out!

Set in India in the pre-internet era, in the ’90s, when mafias ruled Mumbai and unemployment eroded the youth in Kolkata, Neil Must Die, set in Kolkata, Mumbai and the Himalayas, is the story of a rich, educated, partially-spoilt youth, Neil, who is on an aimless dawddle through life, who suddenly finds himself in the center of a forbidden path, leading to a plethora of them. One of the bestsellers in Canada, USA and India, published consecutively in all the three countries, Neil Must Die is a binge-worthy novel, “It’s like a movie going on in front”, says a reviewer on Goodreads; and is ready to be made into a film. 

Keep this to yourself: A sequel to Neil Must Die is getting written, as you read this!

#BookAddict #booklovers #BookLover #books #bookstagram #newbooks #booktwt

LINK:https://notionpress.com/read/neil-must-die

May Day! May Day!

This is the Gregorian Calendar year 2023.

We are in an abandoned and round trajectory, on a ship that goes on a predictable trip around a bright yellow star; in a predictable timeline, and predictable path.

We are all alone in the middle of nowhere.

No one knows anything about us.

We fall asleep on our bed in that ship and wake up each morning with a new hope that something new will happen.

Nothing is happening. We are only going round and round.

A lot of us even believe that someone from elsewhere is making this ship go round and round. But we have not found anyone, anywhere to help us.

Right now, we only have ourselves to account for. We kill ourselves. We kill other creatures who do not resemble us. We kill our own types who resemble us, have the same organs and blood color, but who do not believe in something we call “religion”. A lot of us also believe in someone called “God”. Some believe in someone called “Jesus”. Some others believe in someone called “Allah”. And “Krishna”. And “Shiva”. And a whole lot of other names I cannot remember. But these entities don’t really exist. They don’t come forward to help.

S.O.S.

S.O.S.

Mayday!

Help us, future humans or anyone reading this from anywhere other than this ship.

We are a self-sustaining ship that is set to slowly discover its own potential. The rest of the dark universe is like a puzzle and we humans are supposed to complete that puzzle, find out that mystery. We are very small. Tiny. Almost microscopic. A lot of us have died trying to unfold that mystery, but no one has found out who built that mystery for us in the first place.

We have progressed a lot. But have regressed more.

And yes, we also die. We also are born. Millions each day. And millions die each day. It’s a crazy things happening on this round ship, where everything is hanging around a solid ball of gravity.

We cannot stop. We are not going anywhere. We are simply going round, and round.

PLEASE HELP US, FUTURE PEOPLE.

We are here, that pale blue dot!

Why and how did I move to Canada? ‘The behind the scene’ story.

This is the first time I spoke in front of the camera in so many words. Thanks Rita Roy Massey for letting me relive my memories. #canada #canadajobs #canada #canadastudyvisa #canadaimmigration #CanadaImmigration #canadaimmigrationservices #CanadaImmigration https://youtu.be/AAiZdjVXgdY

I apologize to my readers for resorting to electronic media for a greater audience. Fact is that, readers like you are fast receding from the world, leaving behind a very lazy set of spoon-fed audience. And the last of us are reading this. I request you not to click on the video link, or else you too will stop being readers, and the world will lose a few more thinkers.

Instead, please click on this link to read the same content, written in the form of literature. https://kaberic.wordpress.com/2013/06/09/words-rape-me-at-night/

Write to me what you think at kadchat51@gmail.com

What IS #ChatGPT? Is it a direct defiance to human abilities?

ChatGPT, ChatGPT, the word or phrase is suddenly being tossed around the internet sphere like it’s another virus!

My first instinct was: RUN!

Then I paused and scrutinized it. I downloaded the app for a second, treating it as an untouchable. I asked it, “What is the English of the Bengali word “অভিমান” ?

It scratched it’s non-existent head for a while and replied hesitantly. (Yes, I actually felt the hesitance in its reply): “Respect”

“WRONG!” I typed, “YOU ARE THE NEXT IDIOT AFTER ALEXA”

Instantly I scrapped the app from my phone and gave my phone a sanitizer bath! Phew!

Later I found it had impossible abilities! The ability to write a 5000-word story in 10 minutes, with twists and turns. With 3 different endings! And students were cheating from ChatGPT to the last T in their essays. No one can tell the difference!

I am shocked!

Then what happens to the credibility of writers and researchers like us? What happens to us typing out hundreds of pages of book, with no help, even from the grammar apps stalking us.

What happens to artistes, and their works? What happens to researchers and their mounting data that they collected and scribed over 10s of years?

What happens to the credibility of HUMANS AS A SPECIES?

We are creating bots, not to destroy us, which I have brought up extensively in my book, “WtF I Found God“.

We are creating them to serve us, to make the work of humanity easier. NOT to eliminate the necessity of humans altogether?

Be scared! Be very very scared.

But like scientist Michio Kaku said, if we do not integrate with AI and AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), we may become obsolete ourselves.

It is like bringing up a child. You bring it up to make it independent. But not so much that it discards its parents. There should be some element of utility even in our old days. We should hold some power in our hands, so that we can tweak its power at the right time.

But yes, this is the next revolution after industrial revolution, then technological revolution including smartphones, social media etc. This is the AGI revolution which I was so apprehensive about.

In fact, when I released my book, WtF, in October 2022, ChatGPT wasn’t even a thing! Or else I would have surely devoted a chapter on it in my book.

I know most of you guys, who come onto my blog, are avid readers. I am so proud of you. But to get the message across to others who are not readers, I have my YouTube channel, Frontline and Chai. I have discussed this ChatGPT at length with my husband while travelling one day in our car. Please check it out. Subscribe if you like the channel. I’m planning to have more discussions on board the channel.

But I know you guys will never give up reading, so I will continue to write for you.

I have hope in humanity and I know this too shall pass.