Prometheus Fire

A deep dive into Nepotism In the recent few months, among all the topics that have come to the forefront in India, Nepotism has probably gained more controversies and raised more questions than any other. In this article, I am going to try to define nepotism and try to look at it from different perspectives. What is Nepotism As per Oxford learner’s Dictionary, Nepotism means, “giving unfair advantages to your own family if you are in a position of power, especially by giving them jobs”. This advantage can be in different ways and forms depending on the industry, sector and context. Two things stand out for me in the definition here. Firstly, the word ‘unfair’ and secondly that there is no notion of competency. ‘Unfair’ is not very quantifiable all the time. It’s relative to the person not getting something. Many a times, afraid of owning up to our limitations, we tend to think that the situation or the superior (in the context of position of power) has been unfair to us by not giving...

মহিষাসুর মর্দিনী মহালয়ার দিন ভোরে রেডিও চালায় না এমন বাঙালি ঘর বোধহয় খুব কম ই আছে। আর এই একটা দিনে রেডিওর টিভির থেকেও বেশি জনপ্রিয়তা পাওয়ার কারণ - বীরেন্দ্র কৃষ্ণ ভদ্র এর কন্ঠস্বর। বাঙালি মহালয়া কে জেনেছে, শুনেছে, উপভোগ করতে শিখেছে তার ই মাধ্যমে। তবে, All India Radio এর এই চির অম্লান অনুষ্ঠান চিরকাল বিতর্কের উর্ধ্বে ছিল না। অনুষ্ঠানের অতীত  ব্যাপারগুলি আমার জন্মের ও অনেক আগের। বিষয়টা নিয়ে আকর্ষিত হলাম youtube এ একটা নতুন আগত বাংলা সিনেমা এর trailer দেখে। অল ইন্ডিয়া রেডিও তে মহিষাসুর মর্দিনীর সূত্রপাত 1937 সালে। বাণী কুমার এর লেখা, পঙ্কজ কুমার মল্লিক এর সুর, বীরেন্দ্র ভদ্রের স্তোত্র পাঠ - এ নিয়ে ছিল যাত্রা শুরু। প্রথমের দিকে আগের দিন রাতেই সব শিল্পীরা এসে যেতেন এবং ছটা নাগাদ live অনুষ্ঠান broadcast করা হতো রেডিওতে। একাধারে যেমন অনুষ্ঠানটি প্রথম থেকেই বাঙালির মনে জায়গা করে নেয়, তেমনি একটা বড় অংশের বাঙালি সেসময় এর প্রতিবাদ করে, কারণ যে লোকটা চন্ডীপাঠ করছে, সেই বীরেন্দ্র ভদ্র ব্রাহ্মণ নন। কিন্তু বাণী কুমার যার তত্ত্বাবধানে পুরো অনুষ্ঠানটা চলছিল, তিনি এ বিতর্কে কান দেননি। এ সবের মধ্যে...

India is said to be the largest democracy in the world. The fourth pillar of Democracy is press/media house. Weakening of media threatens democracy. It is high time that we speak about our national media. The quality of journalism and news reporting are deteriorating everyday. Not only the news reported has become irrelevant in the bigger picture, but also it has become so biased and untruthful that one has to validate all the news through fact-checking sites. We, as a society, are now at a cross road. Our annual GDP is drowning at the depth of Mariana trench whereas, unemployment is reaching the height of Mt Everest. Millions of people are being pushed to poverty, new active corona cases are reaching to several thousands each day, climate change is threatening our whole existence. But among all these things, most of the news agencies are interested in updating us about how Sushant Singh Rajput died, whether her girlfriend supplied him drugs or not, whether Virat, Anushka are expecting...

Probably, every one of us, at some point of time or other has thought this question wistfully- What would have happened if I was a Superhero? What kind of ‘Superpower’ would I have? I know I did ponder this for long. And probably not so surprisingly, the answer changed for me with time. We desire the most that we can not achieve in reality. Hence, it is pretty natural that we all have a hidden desire to someday posses a special power that no one has. Or rather posses a power that makes us something special, elevate us from the rest of the people. When I was a child, I was more interested in having the power to facilitate everyday works rather than having super strength or super speed. Really. If you think this through, what exactly can you do with super strength in your daily life rather than save people from overly dramatised situation?👀 Rather, probably having exposed to Harry Potter, I more often than not, wished to possess a spell like-"Accio" (Probably because I kept l...

In the last few years, there's a new trend that has come in our society. You may have noticed there are many cases of harassment and shaming in social media as well as in society about knowing someone's own mother-tongue. Regional parties are being established with the goal of protecting their regional languages however, they are just insulting the other languages to prove their language’s supremacy. Even the other social issues that has no connection with this, are being coloured to give them a look of language discrimination and racism. I would not say that there is not any issue. People are harassing each other for their choice of languages. Parents are in dilemma whether they should choose a regional language medium school or english medium school for their children's education instead of focusing to the quality of education which is far more important. More people are in the favour of the second one; since they think that it will broaden the career opportunities more. ...