I had met a gentleman through a close friend of mine. Over time, through various conversations, he eventually became an acquaintance of sorts (not a friend, mind you). By virtue of that acquaintance, he would occasionally seek different kinds of official assistance from me. Making phone calls on his behalf, showing him the right path for customs and VAT matters; besides this, I tried my best to help him and his contacts with various government services from time to time... without any self-interest, purely for the sake of our relationship.
Yesterday, during the match, I was habitually posting various sarcastic comments just for fun; seeing these, that gentleman knocked me in my inbox and behaved terribly with me, even questioning my intellectual sanity. I hadn't said anything about him in any of my posts, yet he took them personally and launched a personal attack on me. As I mentioned earlier, he's not my friend—merely an acquaintance. From that limited standing, I couldn't quite understand what sense of proportion led him to behave with me in such a manner.
Say whatever you want about the context and content of my posts—place yourself in a relevant position and demolish my writing completely if you can; I actually enjoy such healthy intellectual exercise. But when someone sees my post and attacks me personally or drags me into it, I find it utterly unacceptable and offensive. The reason being, I can't fathom why someone I don't even know, someone I've written nothing about, would attack me. Of course, to speak without doing that, one needs at least some brains in their head.
I'm thinking, if that die-hard Argentina supporter ever calls me again for help, I'll tell him it would be better to call Messi instead of me.
What wretched emotions these are, for which people destroy even personal relationships! Even if I had said something about that gentleman's relatives or about him directly, there would have been some justification! Never in this life have I uttered or written a single bad word about anyone who later attacked me. Everyone who has attacked me has done so without any personal provocation. What a strange species, this Bengali race! You could roam the entire world and find only one pure specimen of such authentic emotional intensity! Our ghee and honey might be adulterated, but our emotions are entirely... pure, pure, hundred percent pure!
I have some sad news to share. Mr. Swapan Das, a cleaner at Sagarika Yard working for Western Marine Services Limited, died suddenly of a heart attack while shouting with excessive joy after Messi scored the first goal. (Understandably, the sporting aspect didn't make it into the official announcement. I'm writing this after learning the whole incident from a high-ranking officer of that organization, who happens to be my school friend.) This poor, emotional 55-year-old gentleman left behind a wife, two sons, and two daughters at the time of his death... not on Messi's shoulders, but facing hunger. Messi won't take responsibility for supporting his family—the question doesn't even arise logically; who will, we don't know, just as he himself didn't know. Such sudden death of the family's breadwinner—the lifelong tears of wife, sons, and daughters—is merely a press release to us, and to the World Cup winners... just another innocent new bottle of champagne unconnected to the incident! Some celebrate life, some embrace death... on the same occasion!
What could be more urgent and relevant in this world than staying alive!!!
Some have their wits intact but their heads screwed up; others have both their wits and heads messed up! It's crucial to know how to deal dispassionately with that emotion which gives nothing but momentary joy. This world never feels even an atom's worth of genuine remorse for a fool's failure or death.
Ki sundor kore bollen “Some celebrate life, some embrace death… on the same occasion!”. Apnar lekha pore bare bare notun kore bhabte sikhi, notun kore dekhte sikhi. Amar Namaskar neben.
write well