War

Canvas of history
Forever painted in red
Shows us the right mirror
Mankind has never been kind

Battle after battle
Peace has been butchered
Yet we dream and hope white dove
Will save us
Love will bail humanity

Even in garb of peace
We know to fight our
Cold wars
Power wars
Without weapons

Even between you and me
We identify the Other
To keep the fight on
We need victims
To feel the power

Even if we don’t butcher
We bully in good humor
To eliminate the Other
Upmanship may drown us
Yet we steer our ships with pride
Towards annihilation and regret

Metaphorical Phoenix
Rises from the ashes
But we keep the embers burning
To start the next war
With every hope demolished
Love turns into a refugee

Upholding Heritage Buildings in the era of Development

It is a big challenge to safeguard heritage structures in a city which is growing and developing fast. Unfortunately, this development happens without a plan to save old heritage structures which define the city character and culture. It is indeed heartening to see the awareness campaign lead by the writer Amit Chaudhuri and his group. The campaign is garnering support as one of the themes of oldest locality  in Kolkata’s biggest festival of Durga Puja depicts this very concern through its installation art!!

One can only hope the city planners and local authorities will come up with a master plan to restore the old glory and plan new buildings keeping in mind the true aesthetics of the city.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Heritage-gets-a-helping-hand/articleshow/49425515.cms
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Syrian Refugee Crisis – Is History repeating itself with role reversals?

Last whole week disturbing images and stories of migrants crossing precariously into Europe from Syria have gripped the media headlines and rightly so! We humans love creating conflicts/wars without giving a thought to the fallout of the conflict. Human instinct is to survive, even if it requires to flee one’s homeland. The walk of refugees to the Austrian border from Hungary has created history and so has Germany’s open welcome to refugees. It is the human movement and dynamics which creates the political history and geographical realities of the world. We are living in an highly intriguing era where demographic distribution of population is all set to change forever and so will the image of Germany! Germany is finally able to absolve itself of its historic Nazi era guilt by welcoming refugees and migrants. What goes around, comes around indeed!!!!