‘No Facts, Only Interpretations’

  

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In the rainy sky of that day, the clouds were playing with the sun and the gentle breeze seemed to keep the Bengalis busy with hilsa fish and khichuri. Whether it is an epidemic or something else, the people of Bengal will be in a frenzy in the midst of fishing and hustle and bustle. This is the touch of life, the essence of fragrance. These unspoken tweets, at least, kept me alive.

Leaning on the pillow, I was gazing enchanted on the page where Shakti Chatterjee's 'Abani Bari Acho' was printed. There was silent peace in the air. My wife came to me with a breathless run and said, ‘madhyamika-uccamadhyamika uṭhe gelo go’ i.e., Secondary-higher secondary is gone up. At first I showed indifference and said, 'What else comes in it'. Then seeing her steady bloodshot eyes, I had to take a break from the submerged bliss of poetry. In that momentary stillness, there was an innocent blink of an eye, a little numbness, a slight helplessness. Where I read that Nehru said, 'If all is well with the universities, all would be well with the nation', I do not remember. There was only one word floating on the TV channel - 'Change after 34 years'. I only remember, decades ago, exactly the same movement revolved around TV. The repetition is determined by the unambiguous syntax, I said, 'What else comes in it'.

It's not that it was a very capricious comment. Perhaps, the manifestation of the subconscious was its culmination. I was very young then. At home, there was an argument between parents and uncles over the education policy of the then Left Front government regarding computer education. At that time there was no obstacle for the neighbors to come in the house. Everyone could come and join the afternoon debate. That was the standard of socialization. As of now, there was no need to worry so much about going to relatives and friends. Lest anyone think anything of it. Anyway, one of the words of our neighbor Haldhari Dadu, still resonates in my ears today, he was 92 then, "For two hundred years only education policy has changed, nothing else."

True enough that we have come from tol-pathshala education to toll tax, but what has really changed? Shivnath Shastri, in his book 'Ramtanu Lahiṛi O Tatkalin Bangasamaj, wrote, ‘A few days ago, after writing in the pathshala, the Brahmin children would go to tol and start reading grammar and those who wanted to educate their children for the kingdom would let them read Persian. Those who wanted to work for the zamindari government or to be engaged in business, would eventually stay in Guru-Mahasaya's pathshala’. Education is for the job, not for knowledge - that was the attitude. Rajnarayan Basu wrote in 'Sekal Ar Ekal', "Practicing writing on palm leaves till the age of ten, then on banana leaves till the age of fifteen, then on paper till the age of twenty. Being able to read a book called ‘Datakarna’ or ‘Gurudakshina’ was the last limit of Guru-Mahasaya's education. There was no knowledge in the country that would elevate the heart and mind, help to understand the world and man." After this tradition, during the British rule, the excitement of being a clerk or a lawyer was paramount. And that's why he jumped up to bilati-chair from chatai and memorized, “Pumpkin lau-kumra cucumber shosha / Brinjal bartaku ploughman chasha”. I also remember in our school, the chronological names of the Mughal emperors were memorized as “Babar Holo Abar Jwar Sarilo Oushodhe”. So what was in the nineteenth century, so in the twenty-first century is going on in parallel.

By the end of the twentieth century, country's manufacturing industry-based economy was still in place. As a result, there was a rush to make children doctors-engineers. And now, in the services industry-based economic age, the new education policy will prepare thoughtless but hardworking workers who will only work, eat, vote and die. However, today is not the time to criticize, the results of the newly implemented education policy will be seen in the next decade. Only then will it be understood, then criticism will be justified. In the words of Suranjanbabu, if the transition from "British education policy to American education policy" can break the stagnation of two hundred years, then it is good, otherwise, 'What else comes in it'. So now it is better to ignore the rule of the wife queen and focus on coffee and fried hilsa. Stay with 'Shakti' or 'Jibanananda'.