Monday, June 27, 2005
addaa a rewrite
At the risk of infringing the copyright act, I quote Mr Salil Tripathy from FEER. “ONE OF THE enduring images of Calcutta is the presence of an adda. Roughly translated as “the place” it is a spot where people gather, often at a street corner, usually at a set time, to discuss and debate. The topic may be anything: French New Wave cinema; differences between Stalinists and Trotskyites; or even whether “the prince of Bengal,” Sourav Ganguly, has outlived his utility as India’s cricket captain. Opinions are expressed freely, and discussions go on for hours, with neither side (assuming there are only two sides) willing to give in easily.”
I use adda or aaddaaa the Bengali word freely in this blog. I tried many times to explain but failed. Thanks to Mr Tripathy.
My father late Bimal K Ghosh ( nickname Kanu) could have done much better with this blog thing. He had intellect, knowledge and flexibility to correct himself if found himself wrong. He had interest aplenty for anything and everything you may name. I am witness to his accepting his error to his early belief and saw him arguing opposite ideas with equal gusto. My mother will not take exception, I hope, he was an ‘adda freak’. He spent large part of his life in adda and with books. He was enviously rich with many highly and some not so intellectual friends of various interests; treated all with equal humility. Discussions sometimes heated up and were always cooled by hot tea-milk-sugar brew. For any discussions with him, if my patience permitted, I would get all side views including those he did not agree with. I saw my mother taking scrap notes (perhaps upon his wishes and availability of her time) of his wise discourses. If I could have them, those notes may add much needed color to this blog.
I use adda or aaddaaa the Bengali word freely in this blog. I tried many times to explain but failed. Thanks to Mr Tripathy.
My father late Bimal K Ghosh ( nickname Kanu) could have done much better with this blog thing. He had intellect, knowledge and flexibility to correct himself if found himself wrong. He had interest aplenty for anything and everything you may name. I am witness to his accepting his error to his early belief and saw him arguing opposite ideas with equal gusto. My mother will not take exception, I hope, he was an ‘adda freak’. He spent large part of his life in adda and with books. He was enviously rich with many highly and some not so intellectual friends of various interests; treated all with equal humility. Discussions sometimes heated up and were always cooled by hot tea-milk-sugar brew. For any discussions with him, if my patience permitted, I would get all side views including those he did not agree with. I saw my mother taking scrap notes (perhaps upon his wishes and availability of her time) of his wise discourses. If I could have them, those notes may add much needed color to this blog.
