Feb 14th – Not just Love!

Went to the Celebrating Kolkata award function at the Calcutta Club. Dignitaries and achievers in their fields like Rituporno Ghosh, Harsh Neotia, Aparna Sen, Indrani Haldar, Dr Bikash Sinha, Suvaprasanna among others were awarded at a function. I and Moubani Sorcar were asked to give the award to Indrani Haldar, who again, is a friend of mine.

When Renu Roy approached me for this award function, I asked her two things.
First – Would Calcutta Club allow me for my attire given their strict colonial dress code regulations?
Second – I was too junior to give away an award to an achiever who is senior to me. But her persistence prevailed over Calcutta Club and me. I agreed to her proposal and so did the Calcutta Club.

In the evening the announcement was made that today Feb 14th was Valentine’s Day – the day of love. True. But how many of us remember that on this Day in 1930 or 31 three legends of Indian freedom struggle – Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev – were hanged to their deaths. I am not against Valentine’s Day but I strongly feel that we should respect our culture, history and tradition. Yesterday evening when I was watching Pandit Birju Maharaj’s performance at the Science City, one of his statements “…..please make sure your children do not swing on the floors with chewing gum in their mouths and ensure they know their rich heritage and culture,” really struck me.

It is said that sacrifice is a part of love and without sacrifices you cannot get love. If this is true, then why do we think we can give or get love on Feb 14th without remembering the sacrifices made on this day. And yes, thank you Renu for making sure that the Club allowed me in our traditional Indian national dress.

ess bee