I had to come back….

 

I had to come back….

 

In my yesterday’s Blog I had said that I would be back after two days. But today’s (17 September) issue of Desh compelled me to get back to my Blog.

Today’s issue of Desh carries two of my reviews, one of Belgharia Rooptapas production of SHANKO, and the other of Newtown Bratyajon’s MARSHUMER EKDIN.

It also carries Shubhankar Bhattacharya’s very well-written theatre review of Bengaluru’s Smaranik’s production of Indrashis Lahiri’s play DRISHTIKANYA. What amazes me is that this same production of the same play by the same group under the same director had been reviewed by me way back in 2014. It, though not often, happens that the same play staged by two, or sometimes three, or may be more groups like in the case of Tagore’s RAKTAKARABI, have been reviewed. This aptly reflects the diversity of thoughts and interpretations amongst the groups. But a presentation of the same play by the same group has little to suggest other than acknowledging a new set of actors doing some of the parts. I may mention that this play had been produced by Indrashis himself for his Chena Mukh, a long time back. I had mentioned this in my review twelve years back.  

Another point of indignation that I find has garnered in me. Lately I find that they have their own system of pronunciation of Western names or English words, that does not go with my way of pronunciation. Like for instance, I pronounce Brecht in the English way as BREKHT, as Shombhu Babu used to pronounce. In fact I learnt this diction of the name from him. Some pronounce it in the voiceless velar fricative sound (ch) like in the German way. As a result, I had been writing the name in Bengali script as BREKHT since long. Suddenly in a recent issue I found the word had been edited to BRESHT! On enquiry I was told that they have adapted their phonetic system of spelling of foreign words. But for that to be implemented the correct diction needs to be known.

But the ultimate of it all has been for the word ‘visual’. In my review of SHANKO, I had written ‘visual’ in the correct diction as ‘vizhual’ in the Bengali script as ভিজ্যু়য়াল. But to my horror I found the word has been changed to ভিশুয়াল !

I believe this is sheer unbearable torture, of sorts.

May God help me!!!