Dibyendu's WallScript

“Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habits.” – Henry Brooks Adams. Yet, truth itself is a mountain of weariness. If there had been only a single lie in the world, death might perhaps have sealed it into permanence. The French have a phrase – La Vie en Rose – life seen in rosy hues. In Camus’ The Fall, La Vie en Rose was not poetry, but the false glitter of a youth’s life drowned in self-deception. For in this world, what unfolds cannot be untruth. The very phenomena of human life twist truth into falsehood and falsehood into truth. The difference lies here: in truth abides an endless melancholy, while falsehood is cradled in gaiety. Humanity flees from truth, fashions instead a magical realism in which the heart may dwell at ease. The lover adores a parrot, dreams of a serpent-maiden for his bed. The clash between imagination and reality is staged in this manner, through the upper chambers of consciousness and the subterranean caverns of the unconscious. Thus does a thinking ma...

One of the most condemnable and shameful acts in human history has been unfolding relentlessly in Afghanistan’s Bamiyan province. The tallest statues of the Buddha in the world are being destroyed with cannon fire by Islamic fundamentalists. The entire world looks on in stunned silence as the final remnants of a two-and-a-half-thousand-year-old Buddhist civilization, hewn into mountain rock, are reduced to dust by the barbarity of Taliban devils. Rage, grief, and revulsion twist the hearts of civilized people everywhere. Against this conspiracy to erase human history, culture, and civilization, the voices of humanity cry out in protest. And yet, the great powers of the world, disguised as mere spectators, continue to observe, unwilling to intervene with moral or material strength.   America and European museums want to “buy” the statues. India too offered to preserve them. Yet the Taliban remain unmoved in their brutal resolve. Their goal: to eradicate from Afghanistan every trace ...

Can recitation be called an art? On the 22nd of April, 1978, at Rabindra Sadan, in a programme organized by Raskoli, the legendary playwright Shambhu Mitra himself answered this question. He said: just as in music, where a lyricist composes words, a composer sets them to tune, and a singer delivers them before the audience — in the same way, recitation too is an art. If a singer is to be called an artist, then why should we hesitate to accept the reciter as an artist, when he presents a poet’s words before the listener with equal artistry? This unassailable reasoning of Shambhu Mitra elevated the very stature of recitation, granting it the dignity of a performing art.   And yet, owing to the perceived lack of depth and expanse, the patrons of the more established art forms still refuse to acknowledge recitation as an art in its own right. In schools and colleges today, cinema is taught as the “youngest art form.” Postmodernism, however, has expanded the horizon: photography, recita...

“ Marriages are made in heaven”—I do not believe it. With all my heart, I believe in every institution outside the confines of marriage. Made for each other—that seems far more relevant. Yet this cherished maxim, through constant overuse, has become so burdened with vulgar suggestion that even Plato’s imagined lovers might sink into despair. The irony of modern society lies here: old sayings survive intact—with commas, semicolons, and full stops—yet their meanings shift and curdle with time. The phrase Made for each other has borne witness to such a transformation, and those who have lived its bitter philosophy know the truth better than anyone.   Let us first glimpse this idea through the eyes of a man. A successful man desires a beautiful woman. If he is greatly successful, he will want the woman to possess a little learning, a touch of intellect to go with her looks. The proportion is simple arithmetic: if the man holds a master’s degree, the woman must at least be a graduate; i...