Binayak revisited

Today, I started searching through my old pictures from early last year, about the protest organized in Vancouver against the imprisonment of Binayak Sen for standing up for the rights of the indigenous tribal people of the jungle of Eastern India.

Why? Well, because Sanchaita asked for them.
Why did she want them, and who is she?
Well, she is preparing to make a page in Facebook about the Vancouver chapter of AID, and it is for that purpose she wanted the pictures.

Who is she? Well, she is a young woman that laughs a lot.
We were going to be touching base with each other every week, as far as possible.
Who are we? Just a half dozen folks willing to try to make a difference within our means, towards the general principle of AID – Association for India’s Development, by creating a Vancouver chapter of the AID Canada registered NGO, of which most likely Montreal, Toronto, Waterloo and a few other towns too will make chapters. As such, we have had a few conference calls pan-Canada already on it. Anyhow, we are just a handful of insignificant folks, really.

So, going back to the issue – I remembered that I was not too bad as a creator of rhyming slogans, both in English and Bengali, and had actually archived a small number of those created during the event last year.
So, while sending some of the pictures of that date of over a year ago, I looked at the pictures again, and they made me smile.
The thing is – rhythm and rhyme, comes naturally I guess, when it comes to some interesting work. Some of them are inside the pictures – but entered here separately:

Here are a few of them.

 

কারাদণ্ডের যুক্তি নাই
বিনায়কের মুক্তি চাই
—-
সাল্ওয়া জুদুম কলা খাও
বিনায়ককে ছেড়ে দাও
—-
Tribals too have their rights
Help Binayak in his fights
—-
শোনরে সবাই বনগাবাসী – হাঁসি হাঁসি চল্ UBC
বিনায়কের বন্দীদশা – তাই নিয়ে আজ হোক জলসা
কে কি ভাবে – কোথায় যাবে – কি যে হবে – হোক খোলসা
দেশ-বিদেশী, জগতবাসী, আয়রে দাদা, আয়রে মাসি
সবাই এলে আমরা খুসি – দল করে আজ চল্ UBC

Many of these poems appear to be not in English. What language is that?
Bengali.
What kind of gali is that?
Its not a gali, its Bengali. BENGALI. Its spoken by people of Bengal.
What kind of gall is that?
Not gall, Bengal. BENGAL. You are unbelievably thick !!
Well, I like Hamburgers.
No wonder ! Any more questions?
Yes, how about translating those poems with the bent gali?
Bengali, not bent gali, you hamburger eating moron. In fact there is a request from Sanchaita already, about translating the last poem.
Where is that?
What?
Well, I’ve been to San Francisco, San Jose, and even San Salvador and San Juan. But San Cheetah ? Is that in Africa? Why do they need your poems translated there ?

Forget it. You’d never understand. Here is some money, go have another hamburger and don’t come back to tell me how you liked it.
Hey, you are a pal. Cheers for the poems, bent or not.
OK, bye.

———

And here is my later addition to the movement.