Rodevra Republic

Zubeen Garg performing in 2015 Which singer’s funeral drew the largest number of mourners in history? Guinness records tell us it was not Queen Elizabeth, not Michael Jackson, but a young voice from Assam - Zubeen Garg, fondly called Zubinda. When he passed away on 19th September, at the age of 52, lakhs of people poured into the streets, a silent testimony to how deeply he was woven into their lives. Who was he? A singer who gave the Assamese heart its modern pulse, who carried his region’s music far beyond its borders, and who lived at a pitch too high for ordinary endurance. Success came early, with fame arriving faster than maturity. His was the familiar story of dazzling talent that never quite found balance. Surrounded by admirers, yet denied the private space every artist needs, he grew increasingly fragile. Addictions, pressures, and the suffocation of being treated like “public property” took their toll. His untimely death, while scuba diving, clearly unfit for it, feels l...

The Soul’s Triumph in A Tale of Two Cities  by Charles Dickens (1859) “Will You Hold My Hand, I Am Afraid?” - The Soul’s Triumph in  A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities is set against the French Revolution, a time when mobs ruled the streets and the guillotine fell daily. It tells of two men who are outwardly very different but strangely connected: Charles Darnay, an honorable French nobleman who renounces his privileges, and Sydney Carton, a brilliant but wasted English lawyer who believes his life amounts to nothing. Both men love the same woman, Lucie Manette. She chooses Darnay, and Carton, though heartbroken, remains close to her as a loyal friend. Over time, he quietly resolves: though squandered, his life may yet be redeemed if he can lay it down for those she loves. That moment comes when Darnay is condemned during the Revolution. Carton, who looks strikingly similar to him, switches places and takes his death sentence. Thus, Lucie is spared w...

A few days back, there was this conversation with a young lady who said she had a huge problem - she had so many travel pictures that she didn’t know how to store them properly. She and her husband travel extensively, often to exotic places; by the last count, they had been to 48 countries. It made me think: now here is a problem we would all love to have. They live in a sprawling flat at Marine Drive, a typical SoBo family with old money, just five people in the household. They have a full-time cook, and another of her serious grievances is that she and her mother-in-law can’t agree on what food to tell him to prepare. Enough, it seems, to turn an otherwise comfortable life into a hotbed of stress. Then there are what we might call “real” problems - people struggling to manage day-to-day expenses, settle debts, or deal with their own or their family’s health issues. People facing relationship crises, difficulties in marriage, or the heartbreak of not having children. Others wrestl...

 We, the great Indian middle class, have a PhD in making the most of what we have. Our homes are little laboratories of thrift, where no toothpaste tube is left unsqueezed and no soap bar dies alone, it simply merges nobly into the next one. Nor is any liquid soap or shampoo spared without coaxing the very last bubble out.   Old clothes never retire; they are reborn as mops, dusters, and floor-wipes. A T-shirt that once saw disco lights on a dance floor will one day see the bathroom floor. Rubber bands may snap, but our spirit doesn’t. We tie a knot and voilà—one more inning!   Plastic bags? They live longer than us. Folded neatly and stored under mattresses, behind kitchen doors, and in secret drawers, they stand ready for duty like loyal soldiers. And gift-wrapping paper? Smoothed out, stacked, and reused - because why should a good ribbon shine only once? Even at the bank, when depositing a cheque, we don’t use our own pin,  we use the one kept in a box at the...

Sesshu Toyo's "Bird and Bamboo" (15th century) This week’s story is one more beautiful presentation of art from Japan, a technique called Sumi-e  (literally “ink painting”). It is the Japanese art of brush painting with black ink. Deeply influenced by Chinese ink wash traditions and shaped by Zen Buddhism when it came to Japan in the 14th–15th centuries, Sumi-e does not seek to capture realistic detail. Instead, it expresses the essence of a subject with the fewest possible strokes. The aim is not representation but revelation, not “what something looks like” but “what it truly is.”     Zen painters believed the brush should move only when the mind is still. A single stroke of bamboo, done in a clear state, was more truthful than a hundred “planned” ones. The beauty came not from thought but from the empty, direct presence of the artist. The philosophy behind it was simple yet profound: the brush becomes an extension of the spirit, and one stroke reveals the state of mi...

Q 1. We understand that Letting Go is a fundamental principle in spirituality, easy to understand, but practically very difficult to practice. It seems clear in theory, but in actual life it feels impossible. Why is it so difficult to let go? Ans 1.  It is difficult because our entire way of living rests upon holding on, to possessions, people, positions, and, most of all, to our self-image. From childhood, we are trained to grasp, to secure, to protect. This grasping becomes second nature, so when we hear “Let go,” the mind feels as if something essential will be lost.   The true prerequisite for letting go is not just a spiritual instruction but a deep inner recognition, that clinging does not bring the peace we seek. When you see, with clarity, that no amount of holding on has ever given lasting satisfaction, then a natural urge to loosen the grip arises. That urge is the seed of real letting go. Q 2. So, letting go comes only when one realises the futility of clingin...

The Great Wave off Kanagawa  (1831) -  Katsushika Hokusai   This weekend story is in two parts. The first part gives the technical aspect of Katsushika Hokusai’s timeless print, which includes the artwork and technique used. The second part is about the symbolism in the print First part - Artwork and technique: The Great Wave off Kanagawa (1831) is not a painting in the usual sense but a woodblock print, part of his celebrated series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji. It was created during the Edo period of Japan (1603–1868), a long era of peace and stability under the Tokugawa shogunate. With warfare subdued, art and culture flourished. Cities like Edo (today’s Tokyo), Kyoto, and Osaka became vibrant cultural centres. Several art forms thrived in this period: ukiyo-e woodblock prints (like Hokusai’s), kabuki theatre with its colourful spectacle, haiku poetry perfected by Matsuo Basho, and the refinement of the tea ceremony and garden design. It was in this atmosphere of cre...

Do you recognize this image? First created in middle of 19th century, it has since become iconic and is now universally associated with the most emotionally profound and morally layered works of literature ever written. The answer is Les Misérables   by Victor Hugo. It is a tale of redemption through love, and the transcendence of hatred and injustice through compassion and spiritual awakening. The protagonist, Jean Valjean, undergoes a transformation from bitterness and hate to a life of love and self-sacrifice, a shining example of inner awakening. Love, in its many forms, redeems not only him but others around him. The moral arc of the novel pivots on Valjean’s journey inward, where he sheds ego, vengeance, and fear. He begins as a hardened ex-convict, embittered by years of imprisonment for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving family. Shunned by society, hate begins to define him. A simple yet radical act of love and mercy from Bishop Myriel, who forgives Valjean for s...