Utsob Roy > Recent Status Updates

“In New Hampshire, five hundred men and women petitioned the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company not to cut down an elm tree to make space for another mill. They said it was “a beautiful and goodly tree,” representing a time “when the yell of the red man and the scream of the eagle were alone heard on the banks of the Merrimack, instead of two giant edifices filled with the buzz of busy and well-remunerated industry.””

“Anything’s possible in Human Nature,” Chacko said in his Reading Aloud voice. Talking to the darkness now, suddenly insensitive to his little fountain-haired niece. “Love. Madness. Hope. Infinite joy.”
Of the four things that were Possible in Human Nature, Rahel thought that Infinnate Joy sounded the saddest.

"Gravity is responsible for a number of ailments, in particular gout. Molecules of uric acid in the bloodstream are driven downward by gravity and congregate in the lower extremities, typically around the big toes. When the concentration of uric acid reaches a critical value, it can suddenly crystallize, causing excruciating pain."

Already loving the book.

"We say in de Affica soil, ‘We live wid you while you alive, how come we cain live wid you after you die?’ So, you know dey bury a man in his house."

* de = the, wid = with, cain = can't

"The hero of yesterday becomes the tyrant of tomorrow, unless he crucifies himself today."

Indeed.

"The work of art is, then, the ideal answer of the creative type to the problem of existence as he takes it in—not only the existence of the external world, but especially his own: who he is as a painfully separate person with nothing shared to lean on. He has to answer to the burden of his extreme individuation, his so painful isolation."

"অলৌকিক আনন্দের ভার
বিধাতা যাহারে দেয়
তার বক্ষে বেদনা অপার।"

Indeed.

"And then there are painters who never do anything that is no good, who cannot do anything bad, just as there are ordinary people who can do nothing but good."

This is from a letter when he was working on an 'art firm'. He always was a rebel.

"There is one logical way of solving the riddle: to argue that there is a single omnipotent God who created the entire universe – and He’s evil. But nobody in history has had the stomach for such a belief."

Not necessarily Evil. He can be drunk like Lord Flying Spaghetti Monster.

"...under the stern, intelligent eyes of an orthodox dogmatism, the mythical premises of a religion are systematized as a sum total of historical events; one begins apprehensively to defend the credibility of the myths, while at the same time one opposes any continuation of their natural vitality and growth; the feeling for myth perishes, and its place is taken by the claim of religion to historical foundations."

"But the world owes much to rebels who would dare to argue in the face of the pontiff and insist that he is not infallible. I do not care for the credit which every progressive society must give to its rebels. I shall be satisfied if I make the Hindus realise that they are the sick men of India, and that their sickness is causing danger to the health and happiness of other Indians."

Loving it.

In 1931, when Ambedkar met Gandhi for the first time, Gandhi questioned him about his sharp criticism of the Congress (which, it was assumed, was tantamount to criticising the struggle for the Homeland). “Gandhiji, I have no Homeland,” was Ambedkar’s famous reply. “No Untouchable worth the name will be proud of this land.”

"What they said and did continues to have an immense bearing on contemporary politics. Their differences were (and remain) irreconcilable...
...Ambedkar was Gandhi’s most formidable adversary. He challenged him not just politically or intellectually, but also morally."

Things are getting interesting.

"...The other possibility is that there are witches out there, hiding somewhere, plotting their revenge, liberally applying fire-proofing compounds to themselves. And someday they may reappear and start causing trouble. And then what will our high and mighty scientists do? Throw calculators at them? Witches eat calculators."

Totally makes sense.

ক্যাম্পবেল সাহেব রিয়্যালিটি বা সায়েন্টিফিক মেথডলজিরে খুব বেশি পাত্তা দেয় না মনে হচ্ছে। :p

Reading again as a part of a study circle. Très sombre.

Reading again as a part of a study circle. Tres noir.

Part One শেষ করে কেবল part two-তে গেছি। কাকুর লেখা চমৎকার। ব্রাত্যজনকে বিজ্ঞান বোঝানোর দুষ্কর্মটি বেশ ভালোভাবেই সাধন করেছেন তিনি।

আজ নিষিদ্ধ পুস্তকপাঠ সপ্তাহের শেষ দিন। অগত্যা...

মুরাকামি আমায় কষ্ট দেয়। গল্প তো নতুন কিছুর না। বলা যায় সবচেয়ে পুরনো গল্পই বলে লোকটা। রাজতন্ত্র, পুঁজিবাদ এমনকি পরিবারেরও আগের গল্প। মানুষের প্রেম, প্রতারণা এইসবই। মানুষের সবচেয়ে পুরনো অথচ সবচেয়ে আসল গল্প। কেমন একটা বিষণ্নতা ভর করে মুরাকামি পড়লে।

কী জানি! কয়েকটা এপর্যন্ত ভালো লেগেছে, অধিকাংশই সুবিধার মনে হয়নি। আমি কি তবে আর্কাইক? কনটেম্পরারি ধাতে সয় না?

হিচহাইকার্স গাইডস্ টু গ্যালাক্সি সিরিজের বইয়ের প্রতি পাতার জন্য গড়ে এককেজি গাঁজা বরাদ্দ ছিল। :D

After reading a monumental amount of Gibran and some Sagan this one is simple amusing.

"Smoking to me is a pleasure and not a habit." আয় ভাই! বুকে আয়!

By far not bad. মাঝেমধ্যে সায়েন্টিস্টের নির্মোহ যুক্তির জায়গাটা ফেইল করছে মনে হচ্ছে। একটু অগোছালো।

:D
"In liberality Abu Is-hāk imitated the king of India : for, on one occasion, he gave to a person, who had come before him, the sum of seventy thousand dinars. No one, however, can be compared to the king of India : 7a for he will give sums equal to this many times in the same day, particularly to those who come from the parts of Khorāsān."

Happy new year!

বেশ ভালো লাগছে পড়তে। অন্য দুনিয়া দেখছি। ইংরেজিটা কেমন যেন, একটু আঞ্চলিক ভাষার মত মনে হচ্ছে।

I hear the question upon your lips: What is it to be a color?

Color is the touch of the eye, music to the deaf, a word out of the darkness.