Prof. Aloke Kumar - Blogs

KALI: The Dark Splendour of Shakti.

In the pantheon of Hindu divinities, none embody the paradox of creation and destruction, compassion and cruelty, passion and detachment as completely as Kali, the dark Mother. She is Shakti in its most unbridled, elemental form, the supreme power that creates, preserves, and dissolves.

Kali — The Goddess of the Cremation Ground, the Mother of the Heart

As I return home in the evening, in the dusk, I find many Kali idols being taken for worship. Not in silent prayer as when Durga idol is taken but, with much pomp and fervour. With thick smoke from aromatic resin (dhuno) filling the air.

Neelanjana Ghosh

My friend Neelanjana Ghosh, Khuku,passed away today, after a very brief illness. Even as I write these words, it feels unreal, as if she has merely stepped away for a moment, perhaps into another room filled with fabrics, books, and sketches of trees that she would later bring to life in kantha stitches.

The Western Plunder of Egypt’s Sacred Dead

The pyramids of Egypt were never meant to be wonders for tourists or curiosities for scientists. They were sanctuaries of eternity; royal tombs built for the pharaohs and nobility of ancient Egypt, who believed that death was not an end but a passage into divine immortality.

Maria Corina Machado

I was happy when I first read that María Corina Machado had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and posted accordingly. At least, I thought, the committee had not fallen prey to Donald Trump’s propaganda, nor to the endorsements from Pakistan’s Munir and Shehbaz, or Israel’s Netanyahu, nor to the millions spent every year by public relations firms to manufacture heroism.

Mrinal Sen

The line — “This clock works if it is lying down” — from Padatik (The Guerrilla / The Foot Soldier) by Mrinal Sen (1973) is one of those deceptively simple sentences that carry multiple layers of meaning. It’s both literal and deeply metaphorical, encapsulating the film’s central tension between ideology and individual, motion and stasis; revolution and fatigue.

Unmatta Bhairav

Unmatta Bhairav , the name trembles on the tongue like a forbidden mantra, charged with the fever of something both divine and dangerous. He is the most enigmatic of all the Bhairavas, the mad, ecstatic form of Shiva where transcendence erupts through the boundaries of reason.

László Krasznahorkai: Nobel Prize for Literature

It is a remarkable and deeply deserved choice that the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to László Krasznahorkai.

For many readers and critics, he has long stood as one of the most important living authors in Hungary, and this honour both vindicates and amplifies his singular contribution to world letters.

Kojagari Lakshmi

While most associate Lakshmi with Diwali in North India, in Bengal she is worshipped on Kojagari Purnima, the night of the full moon following Durga Puja. The word “Kojagari” comes from “Ke Jage?” — “Who is awake?” It is said that on this moonlit night, Lakshmi descends to Earth and wanders from house to house, asking “Ke Jage?”.

Lakshmi Târa

In Western art and philosophy, symmetry has long been elevated to an almost moral ideal. From the polished marble faces of Greek statuary to the carefully balanced portraits of the Renaissance, beauty was measured against geometry. Eyes aligned perfectly; features mirrored one another; proportion was order, and order was truth.

Varun, god of the water and the ocean and guardian of the west, riding on a Makar.

Among the earliest hymns of the Rig Veda, one encounters a profound vision of the universe bound together by a principle both mysterious and majestic: Ṛta. This word, derived from the root ṛ meaning “to rise, to move, to set in order,” represents the eternal law that governs the cosmos, nature, gods, and men alike. Ṛta is more than a law — it is the very order of existence, ensuring harmony between the seen and unseen worlds.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak and the Two Cries of National Awakening

Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856–1920), remembered as Lokmanya, was one of the earliest leaders to inspire a mass political consciousness in India under colonial rule. His contribution lay not only in his fiery writings and speeches but also in his ability to link cultural traditions with nationalist aspirations.

Consciousness, Artificial Intelligence, and Our Search for Meaning

The mind is its own place,” wrote Milton, “and in it self can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.” But in an age when machines can simulate, with the sheer force of computation, for mind-things like poems, is the mind still a sovereign place? What heavenly and hellish creations can it alone make that no algorithm can reproduce or mimic?

Mauro Morani withdrew from Society to Solitude

He left because he no longer felt like talking to anyone.

Mauro Morandi, once a schoolteacher, made a choice in 1989 that few would dare to make. He sailed to Budelli Island in Italy, and when he arrived, he decided never to leave. For more than three decades, he lived there in solitude, caring for the land, the beaches, and the wildlife, speaking to no one except the sea, the sky, and the occasional visitor.

Kali Kirtan & Kali Krishna

2009-10. I was striving to re-open Jessop and Dunlop with the help of the Government of West Bengal and was visiting Writers Building every other day. I was meeting Ardhendu Sen, first as the Principal Secretary: Industrial Reconstruction and then as the Chief Secretary.

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