Winter is finally here. The sweet sunlight or “mishti roddhur” of Calcutta afternoons, bathing terraces with a yellow/golden glow is something we Bengalis look forward to throughout the year. Lunch over, families often head to rooftops to catch the warmth of the setting sun and huddle around patches of it, soaking in the warmth. There is nothing more appealing than ferreting out a book from the shelf downstairs and make one’s way upstairs and settle down for a good read. Today after a simple meal of hot buttered rice and lentil soup (basically bhaat daal, ghee), I hit the glass cased bookshelf and found a tiny, slim, little, hardbound copy called “In Search of Life’s Definition” by journalist Subhas Pal.
I remember it as a gift which I had put away for a later leisurely read because the topic is RIGHT up my stream. If I were to identify one goal in life, it would be to search and find life’s definition.” Gingerly plucking it out from a row of other tantalizing titles and dusting it off, I am off to the terrace. The simplicity with which the complex idea of juxtaposing the ordinary realities of life with that of the spiritual plane is another point of identification as far as I am concerned. “A person can live one’s life mainly in two ways,” Dr Devika Saha, University of North Bengal, writes in her excellent Foreword, as she introduces the author’s application of science to the interface of ordinary and extraordinary. She points out that Pal searches for the answer from the view point of “science, biology and philosophy.”
Pal doesn’t beat around the bush but clearly indicates that the driving force behind ordinary life is science… DNA, evolution. But where he questions science is the abuse of technology which has led to deviant behavior in human society. He is shocked by the propensity for constant wars and points to the irony that parallel to the track of advancement, progress is a track of destructive tendencies. The English translation of the book, published by Vivekananda Sahitya Kendra, Kolkata, has been done by Mr Saurav Dasgupta. While the arguments, personal, often imploring humanity to use science for social good rather than destruction, do get conveyed, in parts the translations sound a little too literal. The writer interprets life’s unfolding in scientific terms and yet through a philosophical lens. When the sun goes down and so do the people of the terrace, what lingers are thoughts about why people don’t stay content with happiness and yellow sunlight. The writer is Editor, Features