My Maiden Act

Jan. 23, 2026 was Saraswati Puja Day. We, the Bengalis of Ganga Vertica Apartments, celebrated it with much fervour and warmth.

As a part of the evening cultural programme, we did a skit -- Sukumar Roy's Abaak Jalpaan (অবাক জলপান). This was a very famous Bengali skit by Sukumar Roy, meant for children. The skit was a funny one and the audience was very much in splits. And there I got to do something I never thought I was capable of: I acted!

When I was a little kid, I used to love watching plays enacted by Uncles and Aunts of the neighbourhood. Historical, mythological, political, comic and satire, even science fiction. Even at that age, the acting, the dialogue delivery, creating an atmosphere with minimal props — everything fascinated me. But never in my wildest dream did I ever think that I would ever get on stage. This was one art form I never flirted with.

When my friends suggested that I participate in this play, a part of me was terrified! How was I even in the list of possible actors?! I had no experience in acting, and consciously at least had never wanted to do it. Yet a part of me jumped with excitement! Would I too get to act? Make exaggerated body gestures? Say things with unrealistic intonations? Get to wear a fake wart on my face (as would invariably be a part of the makeup of at least one of the actors in those plays I remembered from my childhood)? I truly experienced 'Joyfear'!

This was a first time for me in several fronts: acting, acting in a Bengali play and memorising and delivering reasonably long dialogues. I have always thought myself incapable of memorisation — a trick I hardly ever used even when I critically needed it — as a student. I was so happy I could memorise my dialogues and could deliver it with acceptable reproduction. Also, as my upbringing has been outside Bengal, I am always a bit conscious about my Bengali diction. I am so happy I could gather so much courage. And I am elated by the fact that I could try a new thing at my age. I didn't get to wear the fake wart on my face, but I did all the other things. Learning need never end all life, nor does it need be driven by any aspiration of worldly greatness.

I wish Ma Saraswati keeps blessing me with the courage and enthusiasm to jump into things I am not an expert in and keep learning, growing and living life with a learner's spirit. I also thank my very talented friends -- Mr. Somnath Chatterjee for coming up with the idea and directing the rehearsals, Arijit Banerjee for carrying through the main role with such panache, and Sabyasachi Ruj and Koushik Saha for joining in and contributing with their unique style fuel to the laughter machine. 

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Ganga Vertica Saraswati Puja 2020

An Ode to Big Bang Theory (the TV Show)

The day before yesterday as the final episode of the final season of Big Bang Theory rolled to its conclusion, I capitulated to what the makers of the series would have wanted me to do — I let my eyes get just a bit moist.

BBT could also be charged of stealing hundreds of hours from our family mealtime. It had quite undesirably shifted our meal venue from the dining table to the living area in front of the TV. Guilty as charged!

But BBT had also given us countless moments of laughter. While many jokes were cheap, mean, racist, mildly profane, most were truly witty. The main characters were designed with enough craft, psychological insight and variety of traits that it hadn't grown monotonous watching them. Though I don't possess the knowledge to evaluate, I think there's enough mathematics involved in optimising the ensemble of traits visible in all the characters and how they are distributed among the characters to maximize the comic effect. Much of the humour in the series lay in its dialogues and how they were delivered. Again, the dialogue design exhibited phenomenal access to knowledge in human psychology and various branches of sciences (astrophysics, neurobiology, microbiology and of-course physics).

One of major ticklers of the theme was the presence of contradictory traits in Sheldon — a genius level IQ contrasted with a nearly absent EQ. Undoubtedly, the focus was mostly on his low EQ as instances of his genius would be mostly inaccessible to most viewers and would have little comic value. It provided an excellent contrasting backdrop on which to paint glorious pictures of his goofiness. I also feel that the makers mayn’t have shied from capitalising on the fact that people on average love to hate brilliant people. That a genius level scientist can completely fail in social settings isn't just funny but even comforting in a sadistic way to an average viewer.

Of course, there are many instances of contradictions in the show. Amy with high IQ and EQ but bad body image. Penny with physical attractiveness and street smartness but low textbook intelligence. Leonard with his maturity but emotional vulnerability. Howard and Rajesh both with impressive academic background but low self-esteem and creepiness. Bernadet with her tiny height and cute face but with a dominating and aggressive personality. Howard with his creepiness but attachment with his mother. The impressively high intelligence of all four boys contrasted with their social awkwardness and love for comic, videogames and superhero tales.

Placing complementary characters side-by-side maybe another of those design tricks. For instance, Amy (high EQ) against Sheldon (low EQ). Penny (low IQ) versus all the others (high IQ).

Probably complementarity of various types is a standard comic tool.

In the jungle of slapstick, there were plenty of examples of genuinely witty and high-class use of language. If not anything else, I am sure that all three of us learned a lot about clever use of language, English in particular, because of watching BBT.

And I think one of most comforting and endearing aspect of this show was its light-heartedness. We are academicians ourselves. And, while we love our profession, we know how gruelling it can be with more its share of stress, anxiety, ego, competition sometimes amounting to bitter rivalry and even hatred, insecurities, manipulation and corruption, powerplay, bullying, abuse and harassment. However, these characters, academicians themselves, when they sat down together in the living room of Sheldon's apartment, eating always out of their ordered in packet, they would always be exuding a sense of relaxation. There may be dashes of sarcasm, anger, frustration and all sorts of negativities, but all adding up to create an atmosphere of cosiness and camaraderie, devoid of overwork or overwhelm. Having my meals in their company would transport me into their world for those few minutes, and my life would lose its bit of burdensomeness for a while.

So there! That little mist that appeared before my eyes wasn't just because of Sheldon's emotional speech at the Nobel Prize ceremony, but because I had also already started missing these fictional friends of mine, with whom I had spent more lighthearted and quality time than with many other so-called real characters in my life.