Mere Coincidence ?

Generally I don't write twice in a day, but just now something I came across which sort of forced me back here and and cant stop myself from sharing this.
I was at half.com (Ebay's web site for DVDs, books etc) checking out the famous children's movie called Bambi from Disney. Ritwik has become a big fan of it...and this old 1942 hit has even surpassed the "Cars" (another recent Disney hit) in his ranking. So after renewing the Bambi VHS twice from library I thought maybe I will buy it this time and did buy it minutes earlier. But guess what do I see while checking out this DVD from half.com. "Customers who bought this....also bought it". You all might have seen it in Amazon, Ebay, or any other online stores. This is just a recommendation which there server provides keeping a track of customers, their likings and their checkout carts.
Anyway what I saw was shocking. Instead of "Peterpan", "Lion King" or "Aladin", I saw the customers who bought "Bambi" also bought " Texas chain saw Massacres".
I fail to see any connection there....but maybe half.com shall inform the authorities with that particular customer's details. You really never know....!

Whats there in a (sur)name?

I don't remember I ever had to use Advanced Search Option of Google, untill this morning. And my key search phrase was "origin gangulys -saurabh".

Sorry Saurabh..but you being a "Ganguly" is hampering my "quest" on the "Origin of my...rather "our" forefathers. See my frustration when I see pages after pages dedicated to you..so I had to use "excluding Saurabh". Suddenly I have this curiosity about my great great grand fathers and where they came from, belong to etc...but so far even after 24 hrs after visiting many pages, forums, wikipedia, hindunet, genealogy,ancestry (the last two are asking for a fees to give me answer), still I have not come across to anything solid and search is still on.

Long time back I remember asking this same question to my "jethu" (father's elder brother, who is no more now). What he answered was that a small family of priests from a village in UP called Gangpur or something like that (may be near river Ganges) were brought by some
Bengal king as his "Raj-Purohits"..and thus the family tree of Ganguly started trying to wash off the sins of their king. Later on someone told me it was not UP, but a a village in Bengal itself near the present city of Bardhman. "Jethu" also used to mention me proudly that Gangulys are the superior among other 3 main Brahmins of Bengal mainly Mukherjee, Chaterjee and Banerjee and that's why you will find Gangulys rarely, compared to the other three.

So when I went and said to this my cousin LaluDa (son of my father's sister..and himself a Mukherjee) he not only twisted my ears and scolded me, but also said "Stupid it is the "Mukhopadhyay" who are the number one, see it means Mukhya (chief) Updahyay (teacher). Go and see in Bombay how many Mukherjees are there, starting with Hemanta and Hrishikesh" (thanks god Rani was yet not born then). I did not go back to my Jethu with this new found logic ever..but I am sure he must have had an answer for this too.

Personally I used to be fascinated with Chaterjee and Banerjee though. That somehow used to sound very "stylish" to me. Particularly in some hindi movie where the Barrister would be referred as Mr Chaterjee....Or the doctor doing some life saving operation on our hero is none but Mr. Banerjee.

I also used to wonder when Chattopadhyay is Chaterjee, Bandopadhyay is Banerjee, and Mukhopadyay is same as Mukherjee, why the hell Gangopadhyay is not Gangerjee...atleast it would have helped me in those days when my childhood friends used to tease me with Ganguly being very similar sounding to that phrase in hindi..... well if u don't know it better not know it.

Whatever it is...my surname has caused me lot of worries right from my childhood. First of all the sheer length and tongue twisting...made it more challenging when first name is not simple as Deb or Raj. Imagine a 4 or 5 year old saying and writing his name as "Indranil Gangopadhyay". Later when asked my dad why you did not keep it simple as Ganguly, he mentioned "because of a certain school clerk who decided that his matric certificate should mention "Gangopadhyay" instead of "Ganguly" and since that day of 1955..all our official surname became this big one, until 2004 when I decided that Ritwik will be Ganguly and not Gangopadhyay. I am sure later when he reads this blogpost he is going to thank me!

Many of my non-bong friends and all used to think it is "gang-upadhyay" and used to write it like that only. Ofcourse pronouncing itself was challenging too. As Saurabh was till too young for national cricket team and Kishore Kumar rarely used to mention he is Ganguly....people (or atleast my school friends of those small towns in MP) hardly knew about it....and used to think what an odd last name he has got. There hardly used to be any Bengali population, but it all changed when we moved to Raipur. Thanks to Railways and other industries it was well populated with NRBs (Non Residential Bengalis). So imagine my happiness when in my class itself I found Samir Ganguly and of course lots of Roys, Mukjerjees, Sens and Pals!

Later on things also started improving with Rupa Ganguly in Mahabharat. Finally some Ganguly was in limelight and making it big in non bong area. Also by that time because of sheer age the knowledge base of my friend circle had increased and they started realizing Kishore Kumar, Ashok Kumar are all Gangulys too. And ofcourse things changed for ever when Dada aka Prince of Calcutta came in. But by that time I had already stopped thinking about my surname and all. So I am sure that small Ganguly kid is no more passing through the days adjusting with his surname in that small town in MP like I did.

Well it had affected me too..Now years after and miles away still sometimes when I order for a carryout dinner from an Indian restaurant and spell my last name (its in habit now), and the other side replies "Oh you don't have to spell..we know Ganguly"...it feels good!

Tryst with Destiny

While growing up, like so many others of my generation, I never liked Nehru and always blamed him to be the cause of India's current problems. But today on his 43rd death anniversary, when I ponder myself...I think I may have been prejudiced and biased then. Lets for a moment forget what he could have done, what he failed at miserably, his "panch-sheel" and disastrous relation with China, could he have avoided partition and subsequent millions of lives lost in riots, his Kashmir policy, his attitude towards Subhas Chandra Bose or Vallavbhai Patel, his desperation to become 1st Prime Minister of Free India. These questions are very difficult to answer but lets think for a moment what he had done for India.

Maybe the initiatives he took did not reap its fruits immediately but after 60 years of independence I think we can certainly give credit to him and his basic foundation policies for today's success India is witnessing.

He certainly had a vision for the country.

He pioneered the concept of Non Alignment which was needed at that time to make India self reliant on many sectors and not blindly dependent on Russia or US. He carefully avoided India to follow the Capitalism, or Communism path and rather chose a mild socialist path where govenrnment invested and build the infrastructure to launch the economy. Had we relied on US from day one of independence I cant even imagine what would have been today's India.

Though he ensured that basic industry and economics remains closed to outsiders but high technology sectors were kept open, which we needed very much. He truly beleived in industry and technology and their importnace to move the country ahead. It must have taken guts to choose the western way of economics and technology for the free India, differing with Gandhi who wanted India to be cottage-industry based economy. All the major public sectors (be it Steel, Oil, Power...including Hydroelectric and Nuclear) were built during 1950s. His education policy is credited for today's world class institutions of IITs, IIMs (BTW my engineering college , now NIT Raipur was also founded by him in 1954).

So with all "gila-shikwaa maaf", today I salute the person who delivered us this speech on midnight 14th Aug 1947, for it was he and his vision which is certainly benefiting India today!

"Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity."