During a promo event for his book
Bongs and Mallus don’t mix, so they says. Bengalis claim the legacy of Rabindranath Tagore and his literary achivement of Nobel prize in literature. With another Nobel coming their way through Amartya Sen, they are on cloud nine.
On the other hand Malayalis have the biggest egos and sledom give ground to the Bongs. That they can’t stand each other is too well-known in the journalist circles.
One of my long-standing friend is a Bengali who grew up in Kanpur. A charmer, Bishwanath Ghosh loves books, music, booze and… generally loves to live a good life.
He has a good collection of books, one of the best I have so far come across, and which I had the fortune to browse through while I stayed with him for four months in his Chennai flat.
I also met quite a few of his friends during my stay, learned a bit of cooking too. Many nights have we spent discussing music and books over a bottle of Old Monk. That was many summers ago. Today he is married and is also known as a writer and blogger of repute.
What always intrigued me is his love for Malayalam songs set to music by Salil Chowdhary. ‘Aa kaiyilo, ee kaiyilo’ being one of his favourites. Salilda has set music to quite a large number of Malayalam songs, many of which find place in BG’s collection. He also loves to visit Kerala on and off and seen more of the state than I have. And I have not met a more talented writer and editor who improves copies with the turn of a phrase here and an adjective there. I hope he remains a friend even during the autumn of our lives.
