A Prayer for Baisakh

Photo: bdnews24.com

As we step into a new year, let us remember what is important and what can be discarded, what can be preserved and flourished and what can be destroyed and dust binned. Baisakhee for Bengalis is not about celebrations only but the resolve to meet the next year as well. It is about the eternal struggle to survive against many forces, natural, invading, political, social and cultural. But every year at Baisakh we define ourselves in the most aspiring manner and put our soul to work to achieve those goals. Baisakhi is about who we are and who we are not and what we want to be.

Not all Bengalis have the same experience of Baisakh, and 1971 gave us an identity that is beyond all other realities and dimensions. We were birthed by the year that was the mother year for all of us. After that Baisakh, all New Years have become special for they celebrate not just a New Year but a new country, an identity we have claimed for many years.

We celebrate many things on Baisakh and the most important of that is our inclusiveness and diversity. We are of many kinds and all kinds in one self and body.  We look different and pray to different deities but at the same time we are part of a larger shared history and heritage. It is as much about the citizens in the hills and plains as well as the people who trudge the paddy fields of Bangladesh. It's about who go to mosques, temples or nature. Our history has produced many kinds of people but we are of one soul and the name of that is Bangladesh. This land, this country can only be what it promises to be if it belongs to everyone.

But this everyone doesn't include the traitors, betrayers, the bigots, the thieves, the killers, the rapists, the many shades of looters, and those who take advantage of the powerless and vulnerable and deny rights to others. The small minded and the flatterer, the destroyer of environment, the polluter of  nature and the air, the rich man who doesn't give proper wages to the  worker, the wealthy who smuggles money abroad…

For them there is no prayer of a good year but a hope that the year will see the end of their evil and evil deeds.

It is our prayer that their golden days should come to an end in our golden Bengal.

We need peace of all kinds. It is not just an end of conflict but an end of mismanagement, ill will and strengthening of systems which will make our world safer and stronger. We need politicians to think less of their parties and themselves, but a little more of the people. We want them to have common sense and talk without toxic venom dripping from their lips. Most importantly, we want a rule of law where all the three institutions are strong and accountable to the people.

We want an end to extra-judicial killings and torture and disappearances. We want courts which can protect its citizens even in the face of the most powerful. We want a judiciary that upholds the highest levels of integrity and can extend protection to all including the alleged guilty. We want justice for all.

We want an end to the poverty which has declined but not quickly enough and while we are not fools to seek prosperity for all, we want an immediate end to poverty.

We want the protection of the vulnerable and justice for all victims. This Baisakh is particularly painful because the list of those waiting for justice fattens every year and there is no end of the procession of such names.

We want the cities to welcome all and not just the rich. We want the roads for all and not just the fancy cars of the wealthy. We want the slums to go and not just see the rich suburbs flourish. We want more democratic roads to be used by all.

We want disagreement, dissent, debate and discussions and not just mindless agreement, suppression of thoughts, words and speeches and expressions. We want criticism but not abuse, we want facts not made up truths in the name of a greater cause. We want to face the future but also our past.

We want to be free and liberated and wish that the next year will be the one in which all our dreams will be realized.

Baisakhee to all.