Celebrating a secular Bengal

Whenever the holy festival of Eid ul-Fitr is on the horizon, my mind goes back a quarter of a century when I was in college.

A significant number of our hostel boarders used to be Muslims. Two of our close friends used to invite us to their village to celebrate Eid. Nestled amid coconut trees and bamboo groves, a small white mosque welcomed us, surrounded by cheerful villagers of all ages. I can never forget the warmth and hospitality of the villagers, or the delicious dishes that our friends' parents served us!

Similarly, two other friends from the hostel would guide us during the celebration of Saraswati Puja. I also remember how our friends would visit my sister on Bhai-Phonta. 

This is my Bengal - enriched in the secular humanitarian legacy of Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam. Rogue elements in every society try to vitiate the environment to meet their vested interests. They exist in Bengal also. But sanity and rationality demands that along with Bengal, all societies of the world stop those negative elements from conquering the inherent humanity imbedded within us.

Kajal Chatterjee
Kolkata