Michael Moore’s documentaries always manage to stir up strong emotions amongst their viewers. Fahrenheit 9/11 caused lot of stir, won an Oscar, but it did not change anything. One potential reason may be that the facts shown were hard to believe and there was no easy way to validate them. This reduced a very well made documentary to the status of a cheap political propaganda. But, Mr. Moore’s latest film, “Sicko”, is different. It deals with an issue that we witness in our daily lives, directly or indirectly – the US health care system, or more specifically the US healthcare management system.
Continue reading →

by Amitava Sen

“Desh is doing wonderful and so much for the better”, declares my friend after his recent trip to Calcutta. I suppose Desh means Calcutta. “People are so prosperous, everything is available at the wonderful shopping complexes; diaper, canned ham” he continues “you name it, they have it”. My friend is all dazed up by the malls and the wonderful shops there. Like Sukumar Roy wrote in his celebrated poem that Borobabu’s moustache made him what really Borobabu was; to my friend the city belonged to its shopping malls and that’s what the Desh was all about.. What else he needs to be impressed about the tremendous leap Calcutta is taking towards progress? He has no doubt in his mind that the country we have left behind is doing wonderfully well. Truthfully I was not that persuaded by his argument, it was only the shopping malls, I thought. What’s the big deal? Continue reading →

On 26th of March Kallol of NJ, one of the major Bengali social and cultural clubs of this area, will be holding their annual general body meeting. On this day the current executive committee will hand over the reigns of the club to the new committee who will be looking after the club activities for the next two years. In the larger scheme of things, this may not seem to be a matter of any significance. But if we think a bit deeply, few issues may surface and tickle your thoughts. If you come to the Kallol AGM on the 26th, most likely you’ll see the following. Continue reading →

Sudipta Bhawmik

(Originally published in AnandaSangbad January 2006 issue.)
We are getting old! We maybe in denial, but the fact remain true. Those of us who belong to the so called baby boomer generation (that is born between 1946 and 1964) are quickly approaching the age about which we need to think and plan about. Yes, financial planning, like IRAs and 401(k)s are important, but I am talking about social and cultural planning. What are we going to do in our “golden years”? Did we ever think about it? Continue reading →

Amitava Sen

If you are not reading or writing in Blogs you are completely out of touch, you are totally un-cool , you are ouside the intellectual landscape; plainly speaking you have forfeited your claim to the membership of “Antel-dom”. Today blogs wield enormous power and influence over politics, society and even literature and publishing, rivalling network news and newspapers. The Blog derives its name from the word Web logs. The word Blog was coined in 1997, where you can post daily scribbings, mostly critiquing anything and expressing any well formulated or stray thoughts. The idea caught on with lightning speed so much so that according to Technorati, the blog tracking site, 70,000 blogs are being launched every day worldwide. Technorati tracks over 20 million active blogs in real time. Most blogs turn out to be servicing specific subjects, specific interests and specific groups, specific may always not be in their contents but in their souls. So what is baring Bengali souls in North America? Continue reading →

Sudipta Bhawmik

We Bengalis are fond of bargains. We feel insulted to shop at any store which do not allow bargaining. We are paranoid that the store owners and businesses are always on the lookout for ways to rip us off. And we would like to be on top of them. “Start your negotiation at one third the asking price”, advised our elders who claim to be the greatest negotiators of all time, “and be prepared to walk away, but slowly. The shopkeeper is going to call you back with a better offer!”
You need to be thick skinned too. Some of the savvy sales people will attack your pride and self confidence without any mercy. They will make you feel like a lowlife for having the audacity to make such an outrageous offer. Some, will keep on playing with you your own game and finally both of you will agree on a deal which will appear like a big win for you and a big loss for the sales person. He will whine and cry and ask you for the last two bits that you can spare, like “Dada, aar duto taka diye din; bounir somoy!”, and you will gracefully oblige. After all you are the big winner! You will walk away with your winning smile, and the sales person will start dealing with his next customer, hiding his own laughter. Many of us, the hard bargainers, snobbishly avoid those stores who conspicuously display the “Fixed Price” sign. What is the fun in shopping if we can’t get to play the bargaining game?
Continue reading →