Teenagers Entering Manhood!

When Swami Vivekananda went to the Art Institute of Chicago to deliver his famous speech in September 1893 people said 'Oh this man has come from India, the land of black magic, where people slaughter animals in the name of God". . .

Speaking of animal slaughter and sacrifices under religious pretention in India, I came across an article recently on the net that will give my fellow supposedly "Barbaric Indians" some consolation and a ray of hope and which will also make our religious sacrifices seem almost tame though not innocent.

There is a place in Denmark called the Feroe or Faroe Islands where every year young teenagers gather to prove that they are man enough for this world by killing hundreds of Calderon dolphins, Pilot whales and various other species of cetaceans. This is seen as a celebration and the schools are closed especially for this "festival". These extremely friendly cetaceans are on the verge of extinction and pay death penalty for being friendly or approaching the humans. No wonder this ritual has not been changed. The men who have to prove their manhood by being butchers never really grow up. They are just over grown boys who think like 13-14 year old.


The Countries of the European Union (Denmark being one of them) are supposed to be the torch bearers of this World, who will show us the right way. They are supposed to be the centres of science and culture. If the light of the west will show us slaughtering of innocent and harmless creatures then I would prefer to stay in the dark.

Being a citizen of a developing country, I used to despise our ritual of sacrificing goats, buffaloes to the Gods. But this incident has enhanced my level of tolerance.

After reading that article I feel ashamed of myself as I never had a kind word for my motherland, which is much better than Denmark atleast in oneway - We don't have to kill animals to enter manhood and whatever sacrifice is done in our country, is not done publicly anymore and is held in a secluded area.

I feel disgusted and helpless as I can't do anything to prevent the slaughtering in the name of festival from happening over and over again every year. When the Talibans hacked and chopped up people and killed them, the whole world was enraged and the world power US ended the rule. But these poor dolphins, despite being from phylum mammalia, are unfortunate enough not to be humans and so, few care if they live or die.

At the most what can happen if this slaughtering goes on? There will be just another addition to the list of extinct species and the future generation of Denmark, along with of the whole world, will read about them in Environmental Education school textbooks and will be told by proud fathers that they had poached them all to prove that they were finally men!

Meanwhile, all that I can do is lament for how much fallacy constitutes our race of humans and feel pity for the Calderon dolphins and for once feel proud that being an Indian, I don't have to mince up innocent creatures on the auspicious event of entering manhood.

L'Alliance

It has been one of my biggest dreams-learning French. My dream was extremely fuelled by Sir's French poetry and I hoped to write some of my own some day (obviously not as good as Sir!). The dream was materialized on 22nd August when I joined L'Alliance Francaise du Bengale. It has been almost three months since my joining and I have a feeling that I am not wasting my precious time here as many think, firstly because my time is not that precious yet as of those people who are twittering on twitter and secondly, I am loving the French classes immensely (and to talk of the people who tell I am wasting time, if loitering aimlessly in City Centre is a better usage, I drop my case!).

Before getting into the details of my institute and the varied dimensions that it offers, a little about the quirky man who teaches me French! Monsieur Amitava Das is in his early thirtes (although he looks like someone who has just done his graduation). He has a very homely sort of appearance that makes the nervous student attending the first class feel quite at ease!
He works in a multinational company and teaches in Alliance on saturdays and sundays. He is a wonderful teacher to have if you are a beginner. He isn't stringent but still can keep the students from being indisciplined.He has all the important qualities that a good teacher must have to keep his students interested in the subject. He is very lively and vivacious when it comes to teaching. When you are learning a new language its very important to converse in that language. He makes sure that it happens in his class - the students talking in French and only in French. He encourages us not to stick to our course book and read other texts as well (even TitTin and Asterix which were originally written in French.).

Speaking of my classmates, our class has students of all types, starting from school goers to office goers, Chinese to Bengalis! There are students who come all the way from Behrampore to learn French here. I have found some good friends as we share the same interests to a large extent. Most of them are associated to big names like IBM, PWC and yet find the pursuit of a Foreign language worthy to "waste" time on. Most of them are quick and eager learners and some are voracious readers. I feel comfortable in their company and get to learn a lot from them.

The things that separates Alliance Francaise from any other French teaching institute is its intensive exta curricular activities and the fact that it's directly under the supervision of the Ministry of Education, France. Cultural workshops are conducted by teachers and senior students on a regular basis and even new students are encouraged to participate in plays that are staged in front of huge spectators. From the question papers, the evaluation of the answer scripts, to the certificates that you get after completing the course, everything is issued by the French Ministry of education. Students who intend to do their masters in Engineering or in Management in France get special benifits. As this institute is directly under the French Embassy, deserving candidates get scholarships to do their masters abroad.If you are interested in French music, Alliance Francaise is the place where you should be.


I am not a regular class goer. The last time when I did regular classes was back in class ten(my English tuitions). And now I am a common face in the Alliance Francaise for the past three months. It is the place to be for someone who loves the language and wants to learn it.


N.B.- This is for all the students and the ex-students of Alliance Francaise du Bengale. Please be kind enough to share your experiences in the institute through your comments.