Remembering a Christ-like US President (Jimmy Carter 1924-2024)
On December 29th, when news arrived of the passing of Jimmy Carter at age 100, I wrote the following preamble on my Facebook timeline in reference to a letter I…
Monish R Chatterjee
The US and Perpetual War- A critique of John D. Rachel’s eponymous book
The author, poet and essayist John D Rachel (JDR), whose political philosophy and leanings are rooted in the ideals of a world without war and anti-imperialism and militarism, published a…
Leander Paes, Sania Mirza, Vishy Anand, Prakash Padukone:norm-breakers for cricket-obsessed abysmal Indian sports
[This article will likely generate some ire as though I am being a bit too harsh on Indian sports, and in particular on the bane of Indian sports in my…
Arise! Prisoners of Hunger (Jago Anashana Bandi Otho Re Joto)
(An English translation of Kazi Nazrul Islam’s Bengali version of The Internationale from 1927) [Current translation by and copyright © Monish R Chatterjee (2024)] Arise! Ye prisoners of…
Harry- My Heart is Down, Lost in Kingston town
Tribute to Harry Belafonte- A true giant, a voice for the voiceless, who walked here in my lifetime Your life, every aspect of it, was like the mythical Philosopher’s Stone-…
To Mahatma-ji
(Mahatmajir Proti) Sukanta Bhattacharya (1926-1947) Translated © 2022 from the Bengali by Monish R Chatterjee Of our teeming 400 million, I too am one, I know Abruptly in the…
Divided Rivers: Twin Teardrops upon Mother’s Face
Riverine nostalgia in post-partition Bengali music Since river valleys and riverbanks have perennially been the life-giving source of all flourishing human civilizations around the earth throughout history (Indus-Ganges, Nile, Tigris-Euphrates,…
Vidyasagar and the Emergent Bengal Renaissance – Part II
Canons of Character from Shambhu Chandra Vidyaratna’s Vidyasagar Jeevan-Charit O Bhramaniras (This is part II of a 2-part article on one of the leading figures of the 19th-century Bengal renaissance-…
Vidyasagar and the Emergent Bengal Renaissance – Part I
Canons of Character from Shambhu Chandra Vidyaratna’s Vidyasagar Jeevan-Charit O Bhramaniras Part I [Translator’s commentary: There were two central pillars at the front end of the nineteenth century Bengal Renaissance…
Jana Gana Mana Adhinayaka
This is a follow-up to my 2003 article in defense of Rabindranath Tagore’s Jana Gana Mana Adhinayaka as a homage to his Motherland (Tagore and Jana Gana Mana, Countercurrents- https://www.countercurrents.org/comm-chatterjee310803.htm). …
Apu, Ekshan, Ikebana and being Bengali- Renaissance, uninterrupted – Remembering Soumitra Chatterjee
I was then 14, maybe 15, between studying English and science Spending seemingly interminable days waiting for the variety Of Puja Varshikis; back on our 3rd floor, waiting for that…
Imagining a Different World – For Andre Vltchek- 1962-2020
[ I received the news late last night from Counterpunch- one of my favorite columnists- activist, visionary, poet, philosopher, friend of the downtrodden, Andre Vltchek, had slumped into the seat…
The Caged Bird and the Free Bird
Rabindranath Tagore’s Lyrical Ballad on Freedom and Confinement [Here is a recent performance of this ballad by Lopamudra Mitra and Iman from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGdwE7ei7l8 The caged bird was in the…
My Alibi – A revolutionary’s manifesto
Kazi Nazrul Islam Translation © 2020 Monish Chatterjee [A YouTube recitation by the poet’s son, Kazi Sabyasachi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O10yUEH1XPg I am the poet of now, not of the Nuevo future Call…
The Baritone of Our Renaissance: Hemanta Mukhopadhyay (1920-1989) at 100
Part I: The Life-Changing Rabindra-Sangeet He Revealed to Me I was born in a post-renaissance, post-independence Bengal, in the city of Kolkata (erstwhile Calcutta from colonial times), at a time…
Captain, Beware!
Kandari Hoonshiar by Kazi Nazrul Islam Unscalable mounts, impassable deserts, turbulent seas These you must conquer in freedom’s quest in the dead of night Sailors, beware! The surf rises…
The Caste Hooligans – Part II
Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976) The Caste Hooligans - Part II - ( Jaater Naame Bajjati Shob ) Blinded even in daylight, do you see not How every moment…
The Caste Hooligans
( Jaater Naame Bajjati Shob ) Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976) Translation © Monish R Chatterjee 2020 The caste hooligans have long been at play Caste fraudsters gambling with…
My Wretched Country
(Hey Mor Durbhaga Desh) Rabindranath Tagore Translation © Monish R Chatterjee 2020 O my wretched country For each one upon whom you have heaped insult Through insult it is, one…
Unlikely Confluences: Sarah Bernhardt, Nikola Tesla and Swami Vivekananda
In one of those obscure, seemingly unlikely, yet epoch-making encounters in the grand pageant of human interactions, the paths of three trailblazers of contemporary history- the divinely graceful French…
A Sampling of 1970s Bengali Songs of Pintu Bhattacharya: an Obscure Star of the Post-Renaissance Musical Age
Following the renaissance epoch of Bengali vocal music between 1900-1950, established by key creative figures such as Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), Dwijendralal Roy (1863-1913), Rajanikanta Sen (1865-1910), Atul Prasad Sen (1871-1934)…
Keshta, old manservant of mine -Rabindranath Tagore- a narrative poem
Keshta, old manservant of mine (Puratan Bhritya) Rabindranath Tagore- a narrative poem Translated by ©Monish R. Chatterjee (2019) Goblinesque of appearance, he was a fool beyond measure Anything went missing,…
Shivaji-Utsav (Shivaji Festival) By Rabindranath Tagore
A few distant centuries ago, on a nondescript day I can barely imagine Upon what craggy hilltop, within a…
Partition Angst in Annada Shankar Roy’s Nursery Rhyme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0gOLaYH-rk A translation of Annada Shankar’s Teler Shishi with commentary The Jar of Oil Annada Shankar Roy Translated by Monish R Chatterjee Little Khuku breaks a jar of oil, And…
Fifty Years without You in this Wilderness
[This poem was written in remembrance of half-a-century since the passing of my mother, a most remarkable woman the world did not get to know (reminds me much of Thomas…
Rabindranath Tagore’s Hero Poems
[While Tagore wrote extensively on philosophical exchanges between significant characters from India’s great epics, such as the Karna-KuntiSamvad, the vast compendium of his poetry is essentially reflective and non-historic. He…
Epiphany at Dawn: Rabindranath Tagore’s Ode to Dawn
That the living experience is akin to a joyous festival with multiple stimuli is made clear literally stanza by stanza in this poem, and requires little elaboration or exposition.
The Unique Musical Creations of Kumar Sachin Dev Burman and Their Roots in the Reeds and Soil of Bengal- Part II
On the subject of SDB’s lifelong allegiance and closeness to the folk traditions of Bengal, there is an excellent interview by SankarlalBhattacharjee (whose transcript is available at the link appended…
The Unique Musical Creations of Kumar Sachin Dev Burman and Their Roots in the Reeds and Soil of Bengal- Part I
His apparent estrangement from the Tagorean epoch As with many other frontiers, the Bengal renaissance flowered mellifluously in the domain of music as well. An exhaustive account of this creative…
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