Pahela Baishakh is perhaps the single biggest celebration for the Bengalees. On this morning everybody is happy and relaxed and everybody has a smile on their lips. Greeting are exchanged, gifts given and received and sweets distributed. Violence and despair do not figure on this day: they are things done away with and it is only the joy and happiness of the moment that unite the Bengalees. Tragedy and absurdity take leave, to be replaced by hopes and dreams. For are we not what we dream? And on Pahela Baishakh, the Bengalees dream and sing. And we are left wondering, in a quiet moment by ourselves, how a nation which is so fond of music and songs, Which has created and produced amongst the best poets and singers of the world can stoop such of moral depravity. It must not be allowed to flourish.
On this first day of Bengali New year, the resolution should be one of unity, of love and compassion. Not one of hate and discord. Let us all attempt to rise above our self-seeking selves, to unite together. For once, let us not allow our petty difference to rule our hearts: the Bengalees are capable of far better, far superior things as has been proven over and over again. Let us all say on pahela Baishakh with determination, "Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high, Where knowledge is free, Where words come out from the depth of truth into that heaven of freedom. My father , let my country awake."