People From Kolkata

"Essentially what I said was that people are coming to rich countries from poor countries not because they want to, but because rich countries had stolen the futures of poor countries."

"...I’m always shocked by the lack of historical awareness on the part of the average American. Many of the people who have come here did so to forget history, to turn their backs on history."

"I'm so lucky that he agreed. A fascinating tale."

"Even in Death they had a thing in common, Pain."

"I have also registered complaints against errant taxi drivers. Although they have promised action, let’s see how they’re going to follow it up. But overall it’s a very useful page for commuters."

"I am insane, with small intervals of horrible sanity."

"I believe the essence of the Independence Day is missing. We celebrate it like any other holiday, which is wrong. We must celebrate our independence everyday, not just on one day of the year."

"Anjan Dutta is one of the most interesting persons I have ever met."

"Mani Kaul was one of the greatest auteurs of New Wave Indian Cinema. His films reflected his personal creative vision. Kaul was a man with a luminous mind who pioneered the parallel cinema movement in India. His films explored a new language and expression. Innovative imagery, vocabulary and experimentation were his forte. His debut film Uski Roti was a landmark film in Indian cinema. He was deeply influenced by Robert Bresson, Andrei Tarkovsky and Ritwik Ghatak, though he made a mark of his own."

"Though Mitra’s case was different because it was a heart attack, I shudder to think what would have happened if an accident occurs in one of these studios. With no professional medical practitioner in attendance, things became difficult."

"The recent trend of the Bengali film industry is to remake South Indian films. My film had a mockery about that since I don’t believe in remakes. I won’t make a film which is a copy of something. I am very firm in my beliefs, even if that causes me to lose a few producers. There are many people who are making loads of remakes. But at the same time, there are many newcomers who have original ideas, working on new things, and getting producers. It is obviously a bright side of the shoel thing."

"The FM channels are as popular as TV. People are hooked to the radio all day. So, when the same medium strongly publicises the piece, people are bound to keep listening to it."

"We passed on the email to the Eastern India Motion Pictures Association. They have informed Lalbazar’s anti-piracy cell. We’ve also informed Bhawani Bhavan and will write to the copyright authorities."

"The moment there’s a foreigner in a film it gives a novelty to the script. We make regional films and we need to hype our films."

"Soumitra Chattopadhyay is the only person in Tollywood who has the equivalent stature as of Amitabh Bachchan. So, why does Soumitra always have to be a father or uncle or grandfather, or just have work in serious roles or portray depressing characters? What is wrong if Soumitra acts in a role that is different from the usual roles he plays? If Bollywood can do experiments, then what is wrong in experimenting things in Tollywood?"

"I always felt that the telefilm directors made wonderful films, which are even better than the big screen movies, but never got enough opportunities to showcase their talents on the big screens."

"With both Jeet and Prosenjit venturing into television, things are bound to hot up. We are hoping that things change for better now. It’s a bit like Shah Rukh Khan hosting Kaun Banega Crorepati and Salman Khan hosting Dus ka Dum. The shows have been evidently designed keeping both these star’s image in mind."

"I have a Defined Goal - A Dream - and I am trying to get there. Wholeheartedly, Yes, I leave nothing out. I Believe - The Regrets in Life are the Risks not taken.""

"Ultimately, the Indian public is not fool. They can spot the difference between what is said for effect and what is done in reality. Whether it is politicians or actors or social activists, they know for sure whom to trust or not."

"If the character has the motivation to dance round trees, then I will dance round trees. If the motivation is strong enough, then I'll fly to the moon."

"Fifty three per cent children in India face sexual abuse – both boys and girls – but we still feel uncomfortable talking about it. We are still hypocrites when it comes to issues like child abuse, sex or for that matter homosexuality. It is high time that we brought the issue from under the carpet."

"When the poet said that for him poetry was not a purpose, but a passion, he was also expressing the feelings of the true scientist to his own field."

"Modern science rests on a universality that transcends ethnic, racial, and religious frameworks."

"Ultimately, we all become photographs."

"While we have footprints on the sands of time, there is no trace of things yet to come."

"The aesthetic dimensions of science, like that of great classical music, are evident to the aficionado."

"If we do not wonder about origins and ends at least once during life’s journey, we are but biochemical blobs that devour matter and energy for a time-span, sport and make noise, and then go into eternal extinction."

"It has been said that science is proof without certainty, where as religion is certainty without proof."

"The spiritual quest is the expression of the deepest longing to connect with the Whole."

"What debaters in ivory towers often fail to realize is that when it comes to achieving well-defined goals, both theism and atheism can work."

"When one is involved in the discovery and discernment of the marvelous law and symmetries that shape the phenomenal world, one cannot but be struck by the silent and unfathomable intelligence that seems to pervade the Cosmos."

"The fact is, when we are born, we are neither theists nor atheists, but ignoro-theists."

"The person of faith, in ritual or worship, while reciting a prayer, singing a psalm, and invoking a mantra, feels deep within a communion that, like the philosopher’s stone of alchemy, transforms the lead and copper of animal existence into the silver and gold of divine delight."

"If a and b yield C, but C is not equal to a+b, then we have emergence."

"Bookish academics need to remember that when it comes to analyzing works regarded as sacred by vast numbers of people, sound scholarship is like the firmness of bones, while appreciation and sensitivity are like flesh and blood. Without the latter, the former is merely an ugly skeleton: morbid and monstrous, lifeless and lamentable. With the latter, scholarship becomes robust and living."

"all the light and beauty, all the grandeur and majesty of the universe are unraveled only in the tiny retinas of human beings."

"science and religion are intrinsically interconnected both being expressions of the human spirit."

"Mysteries, to most scientists, are meta-stable states of non-understanding, often like darkness before dawn. Like the morning dew, they evaporate away by the light of new knowledge, causing an euphoric eureka."

"the technical work of scientists is blind to nationalities, they overlap and mingle like sounds from different instruments in an orchestra to create and constitute the grand symphony that science is."

"Of all the wondrous elements in our vast and complex universe, there is perhaps nothing more intriguing, than consciousness."

"condemning religions as a whole would be like wanting to destroy a garden because weeds have disfigured it."

"The religious approach to spirituality is like delighting in a gourmet meal; the scientific approach is like studying recipes or chemically analyzing the ingredients of the menu."

"We are creatures, not only of the mind, but of feelings and emotions as well. Indeed, feelings and emotions are more fundamental to our being than pure logic and reasoning."

"Religions are like lofty peaks rising high above the surrounding plains of our physical being, merging, as it were, into the distant domain of heaven itself, beckoning the human spirit with grandeur."

"It is only when we move to modem times that we find the first traces of sarva-dharma-samabhâva surfacing in India in the form of the Brahmo Samaj.... Even Keshub Chunder Sen cannot be called a votary of sarva-dharma-samabhâva, strictly speaking. The man fancied himself as the prophet of a New Dispensation (Nababidhâna) which had not only equated all religions but also gone beyond them. He ended by becoming a bag of nauseating nonsense... The trail blazed by Keshub Chander Sen, however, did not go in vain. It was followed by the first disciples of Sri Ramakrishna who took over the Mission after the death of its founder, Swami Vivekananda..."

"Chittaranjan Das: I believe that Bengal has a message for the world. Keshub Chunder Sen delivered that message. Again and again that message has been delivered on the banks of the Ganges, and again and again will that message be delivered and redelivered in a fuller and yet fuller manner till we listen, till the world listens."

"Romain Rolland: His journey to England was a triumphal progress… During his six months’ stay he addressed seventy meetings of 40,000 persons and fascinated his audiences by the simplicity of his English and his musical voice."

"It is impossible to establish unanimity of opinion among mankind, and those who have tried to bring about such unanimity have always failed. I hope, therefore, the friends and promoters of this movement will not commit that great mistake. Let individual liberty be recognised: let individual rights be fully vindicated and respected; but still at the same time , while we recognise differences of opinion, let us feel, and let us declare, that it is possible to have a common platform of action, where we can exchange our sympathies with each other as brethren."

"Those of you among our readers, who are farmers or artisans, do ye unite and stand up. Exert yourselves to the utmost to improve your condition, to forcibly stop outrage, cruelty and oppression to the tenantry. It is for your good, consider, that we publish this little journal. Sleep no more. It is time, wake up. No one is there to speak for you."

"An anonymous rhyme of the nineteenth century bemoaned in Bengali:"