Re-reading Herbert, thanks to Suman Mukhopadhyay..

Remembering the time when I first read Herbert, a few years back.re-reading the book on screen helped me to look back at the words, at the time, at our past too. When I had heard about the film while studying at Delhi,I didn't know that it was banned it west Bengal by the government.

But how can we interpret 'Herbert' now? Pointing out the fact that in Bengal not necessarily the 'cream students' are/were associated with the third-stream communist movement was, perhaps not pointed out like this before Herbert in contemporary Bangla literature. It is unfortunate that the contemporary 'heroes' of Bangla literature didn't write any 'revolutionary' criticism of the text (at least we didn't get that in Delhi. who knows about Patiram there?)

Though the film was not for all, aptly the story tells that 1. the ghost of 70s is still there in the mahole of IPS zone 2. 'Duniya knapano dosh din' was not a prescription for B.E. college hostel but also for x, y or z 3. the intellectual state still has the tradition of getting job or getting admission through specific office rooms 4. Is there really any difference between Theosophy and Communist manifesto? 5. finally the realization 'explosion can happen anywhere, by anybody and at any time' is to be followed by the state as a Bible-statement

the architecture and Bangla accent of North Calcutta strengthened the smartness of the making, also the collage where we constantly see Lalit kumar with his camera. Probably after few more years we'll forget about kite-flying, gangajaler tank, chilekotha..we'll also forget people like Binu...

We would like to hear more about such fuzzy identities perhaps, while our own identities are in a crisis, which is increasing everyday. We may discover more Herberts next door, or may be inside ourselves, who knows?