- Well, tell me, what do you mean by 'timeless beauty'? - It could be nature's multifaceted play of forms. Or it could be the continuous evolution of folk culture. Like our eternal village wedding traditions—songs, dances, color festivals, the playful teasing of grooms, and such. - Wonderful! Tell me something about folk culture—I'm quite curious about it. - Poush festivals, harvest celebrations, Boishakhi fairs, boat races, rice cake festivals, ekka-dokka, bouchi, gollachut, danguli, dariyabandha, ha-du-du, narrative songs, folk ballads, traveling theater, earthenware, husking pedals, looms, ox-drawn plows, nakshi kantha—all these timeless celebrations of joy together form folk culture. Actually, infusing life's work with joy is our folk culture. - Hmm... what's the Poush festival mainly about? Have you ever experienced it firsthand? - It's actually the golden grain harvest after Chaitra's scorching heat, after spending a busy, labor-intensive time until the rains, when farmers get some rest. During this time, farming communities remain absorbed in communal joy. Then, stretching and stirring, rural life comes alive in celebration of cutting and bringing home the aman rice. This transforms into peaceful contentment when Poush arrives. The sweet fragrance of new rice in every home and the intoxicating delicacies of date palm juice create an unbroken stream of pure joy. This phase is Bengal's timeless festival of celebration. This is Poush-parbon, winter's gentle warmth gives it a distinct new dimension.
- I've never experienced any of this! Only read a little here and there in books! And what about Nabanna?
- Nabanna means the rice cake festival after bringing new grain home. In our rural life, this is when people wade knee-deep through fields and ponds catching fish, when young boys and girls collect duckweed and water chestnuts from streams and marshes—all these natural joys keep people enchanted with happiness in thought and mind. - I never got any of this except picking water lilies and chestnuts.
- Tell me something about the origins of folk culture! Is the source of folk culture agriculture and farmers? - The source of folk culture is mainly livelihood-dependency, connected to folk traditions. Rather than calling it any single profession, we could say folk culture is connected to the multifaceted nature of livelihood in humanity's evolutionary progress. Agriculture is the leading factor here—the earth's thirst, oh, the earth's thirst... you understand, Neel! Just as you are my thirst, as I am the flame tree's thirst, exactly like that. Did that seem biased? - No, what bias? What exchange? Actually, you know how to stir me up! - Where did you make the exchange? You didn't at all! Fruitless journeying, yet you let me touch you and where! Ha ha ha
- I had a love affair with a flame tree when I was thirteen. My understanding was somewhat beyond my years, so I could sense that my relationship with that tree was more than just between plant and animal life—it was something deeper. The tree touched the sky. To see it fully, I had to crane my neck up, and even then I couldn't find its crown. I'd often wrap my arms around it in a futile attempt to find its pulse, though my small hands couldn't encompass its girth. The tree was born beside grandfather's window, and it still stands there now. All of us friends would gather beneath the tree; there'd be singing, dancing, storytelling, and playing house. When flowers began to bloom, we'd count the days. Flowers would fall on us in the breeze, and we'd all gaze skyward, watching the flowers descend. Bathed in that flower-rain, little me would return home having gathered the kingdom's splendor. Eventually I grew a bit older, then civilization said change was needed, but I didn't listen. I stayed a while longer. Certificates said, now you must go! Mother said, we'll leave in search of another flame tree. After that, I never found anything by searching! I used to think, when we meet again, I'll quickly kneel and say with outstretched arms, I love you, flame tree! It was never said! How long has it been since I've embraced you, you know! Do trees really have no hearts?
- They do, Neel; trees are just like humans. Birth, childhood, adolescence, youth, old age—they go through all these stages too. Trees have sorrows—the sorrow of losing their green. They have joy—the joy of giving birth. They have pain—the pain of losing you. Go and see how your touch falls like tears in winter and spring... Standing alone, how it searches with harsh eyes for where one blue person went silently. Come with the cranes in their sky-dance; come, let's become green together. See, the pure evening calls at twilight; it says, touch the whiteness once, swan-bride! Don't be sad, time heals, this will make you unquestioning. - Right! You're a bird-person of green time, you've learned to be well in such a strange way! - A person soaked in new sap is utterly impure, though. - I don't understand pure or impure. Look, I see you in so many ways, I've been amazed many times, then regaining composure I've thought, human variety is limitless. - Like a person of wrong seasons, I lie in this metallic age, the green of trees cannot touch me. So much indifference has accumulated in your formlessness! - Who gave me the responsibility to examine and know everything closely! This seems unnecessary to me for everyone. I want everyone to think the same about me too.
- You want to be a misspelled person, don't you, Neel? - I want nothing. I'm not in all this wanting and getting. - Can a person without exchange become secondary? Actually, you don't want to move away from mechanical structure. - I truly don't. It keeps me well. - Self-importance has its own form, I suppose, Neel! Though the lonely person of water-oceans emerges from water's ancient stories, what prevents saying I love you! - What we call a dark bud, that person also walks in darkness. - I've brought this grammarless life across many paths, yet I haven't found your grammarless way of being well. This is your utterly natural generosity. There are such specialized people. You're so vast inside, it's quite hard to find a little space! - I think, can anyone become so deep without being very ordinary! I see some beautiful busyness of yours, then I play cutting games with myself. - Someday beneath a very high dense blue sky and glittering sunshine, two divided people walk, destination still unknown!