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It's almost October... This time used to be the best to shop for new clothes, given that Durga pujo is just a week away. But this year, it's been starkly different. Not even the pandemic could dull festivities,  as the R.G.Kar incident has. Tilottama still waits for justice. So do scores or rape/molestation/abuse victims suffering in silence in our country. We are shaken, shattered, in no mood to celebrate.  Yet.....and yes, there's a yet. For several small craftspeople, artisans, weavers, designers, this is the time they do maximum business every year. To sit and mourn is not something they can afford.  There is a Banglar Tanter Haat on in Boi Mela grounds, Korunamoyee, Salt Lake, for the past two weeks. Business has been abysmal, say the artisans sadly, yet resignedly. They too are hoping Tilottama gets justice.  But they have families to feed. When they don't have even a single sale in a day, they know they can't buy that trinket for their daughter back home. The...

At some point of our lives, we need to ask ourselves - what is more important? To raise one's voice against what's wrong. or to just let things be and get on with our regular lives? Be immune to something - since it hasn't happened to me, or stand up and protest - because it can some day? Come September-October, and there's a festive feel in the air in our country. Ganesh puja, followed by Navratri and Durga Puja, then Deepavali, are the mega festivals we wait for all year.  To Celebrate What? But festivals are enjoyable only when civic systems are in good health and the society is healthy. If there is glaring rot in society, no festival or celebration can cheer us up.  People in power dangle the carrots of religious festivities, along with the pet drugs of Bollywood, celebrity weddings and IPL, to distract public attention from actual problems plaguing our society. Maslow had explained the hierarchy of needs about a century back. Unless the basic requirements of safety...