APNA UTSAV  (English, Paperback, Purnendu Ghosh)

Our stories, however simple, are, after all, our stories. We like to share our hopes and sorrows with others. We often forget what happened yesterday but can recall the exact details of what happened 50 years ago. Sometimes, our forgetfulness is deliberate. We often ‘edit’ or ‘rewrite’ our memory, unknowingly or unconsciously. Our memories are a collage of the old and the new. Our memories are fragile. The only way to freeze a memory is to put it in a story. I evolved from abecedarian to doctoral ignorance. From a professor I became a schoolmaster. I have tried to understand the need for balance and the necessity of imbalance. Optimum optimism has the elixir of life. Perhaps, we reach destinations that were destined for us. Perhaps, freewill helps us to reach our destined destinations. Often, we do thought experiments with no endpoint in sight. Life is not fortuitous, nor a planned chain of events. We come with a closed fist to acquire everything. We go with an open fist leaving everything.