yes, there is a hope...

India : A Sacred Geography Do you remember review of Benaras: The City of Light written by Diana L. Eck? As I read more and more about her books, I am sort of liking her. The depth she had in exploring the Indic religious organisation which is very rare for someone looking from outsiders perspective. This book India : A Sacred Geography, published in 2012 by Random House is next in series for the author wherein she has delved into the vastness of religiosity of India as a country. The book is divided into 10 chapters starting with a detailed note on transliteration and pronunciation. In A Sacred Geography, an imagined landscape, the author identifies tirthas as “crossings”  where one’s prayers are amplified, one’s rites are more efficacious, one’s vows more readily fulfilled. The book indicted that in the ancient shastras not only geographical teerthas but also teerths of heart are referred as “manas teerthas”. These are enumerated as “truth, celibacy, charity, patience, self-contr...

Calcutta : Maa Asche                You can be nostalgic about the city anytime. While having tea missing your Lal cha, Sandesh craving at evenings or malai toast at Faltu or Kalakand of Kaka Tea. Come Puja (Pujo to be precise) and you miss that Pujo fever in the air with mind retrieving the memories cherished in the city for years and seems like “aaj hi Calcutta chala jaata hu.” To add the WhatsApp statuses of friends and Insta reels of Pujo Pandals of Chetla Agrani and Shreebhumi extract a piece of heart from you.                Come Pujo and we see Kolkata transforming itself with whole city lit with best of lighting right from Airport to Howrah Bridge with sea of humans in between which means famous Pujo Pandal is in vicinity. The Deshapriya Park Pujo unveiled world’s biggest Thakur (idol in Bangla) in 2015 till 2022 the Pujo has constantly enriched itslef with latest being getting the recogn...