“Khirki Thekey Singho-duwar” v.1

You’ll need to know Bangla (Bengali) to understand what the title means. They are the 3 opening words of a very popular Hemant Mukherjee song, from early ’70s.

Roughly translated it means the space “between the back-door & the entry gate” of a mansion. This first line is completed with another three words, forming another prosaic phrase. ”Ei tomadeyr prithibi” – or, “that, is your entire world”! The next line goes on to state the obvious, that we do not know of a “universe” that exists beyond that little world of ours’!

Lately I’ve been wondering if it was Hemonto’s immortal voice, Uttam Kumar’s  (Bengali cinema’s one and only superstar, who lipped this track) charisma, the haunting composition, OR the prophecy in the opening lines which made this an evergreen favourite number!

Fast forward to 2009. More than 30 years have passed India by and we have probably grown bigger blinkers. Television brought the (media defined) “world” right within our cozy drawing rooms. Cell phones kept us in very close contact with the world beyond our visual range and lately the net is aggressively weaving us in its convergent web.

Then what checks us from being there & doing that? The Indian Railway’s reach is undoubtedly deeper today. There are a few hundred additional aircrafts cris-crossing our skies every hour, blacktops have clawed in to more villages than we’ll ever need to travel to, the number of vehicles at our collective disposal has grown phenomenally. I mean, what’s stopping us?

Do you  have the answers?