Futile try at telling the future

puja is over but not the festive spirit. the bumper puja numbers which had been bought have not been gone through from cover to cover, the word will now start going around of the pieces, stories, novels or essays, that deserve special mention. these pujabarshikis have been a part of the festival for well over 50 years and dd (bangla) had organised a programme on whether such literature has any everlasting value.among the participants was dibyendu palit, one not known to mince his words. he pointed out that publishers of such numbers had started offering baits in the form of gifts to potential customers and asked whether they would have done so if they were confident of the publications selling on the strength of their content. so much then for the "value" of the literary efforts. talking of gifts, why did a magazine for women attach shaving brush and cream with one issue? but was it always like this? no, said poet pranab mukherjee and named novels which appeared in puja numbers and went on to leave their stamp on bengali literature. kankabati dutta was full of praise for sunil gangopadhyay's first novel which had appeared in such a publication but was it absolutely essential to speak of goethe in the same breath? a little later, she thought she had to refer to marx but could not recall the name of the work she wanted to speak of. the question sought to be raised was meaningless. time alone can say whether a particular piece of writing will live through the ages or not. those who gathered at the mermaid tavern every evening over 400 years ago could not have known that "bill" shakeapeare would continue to live after his death. the puja week demanded some special entertainment and etv bangla screened telefilms on satyajit ray's short stories made by son sandeep. as it is always with the young man, the efforts were so-so and it cannot be said for sure that viewer interests would have been aroused even if these were not ray stories. such films should be sub titled so that non-bengalis can also have some idea of the maestro's qualities as a story teller. talking of fathers and sons, the same channel's shreemati programme has the late uttam kumar's son giving culinary tips and telling viewers of the dishes his father particularly favoured. clearly a ploy to attract viewers but, perhaps, it would have been more of a success if a certain actress had been roped in. after all on his own the son really does not exist.