Shubho Nababarsha 1418!

The advent of Baishakh is always cause for a renewal of the Bengali soul. This morning, as we ring in Bangla Shaal 1418, it is once more time to reassess ourselves, indeed to recall the cultural traditions we as a people are heir to. It is of special significance that over the years the beginning of the Bengali New Year has increasingly been a reflection of a rejuvenated spirit among the people of Bangladesh as also among Bengali-speaking people elsewhere around the globe. Particularly remarkable has been the constant reassertion of the sentiment that Pahela Baishakh marks the essentially secular character of our national ethos, be it in matters of faith, of music, of our reading habits, indeed of our way of life.
For Bengalis, Baishakh is certainly a recapitulation of history inasmuch as it is a recalling of the social background that accords significance to the season. Since the times of the Mughal Emperor Akbar, Baishakh has been a time of stock taking of the year just gone by and of an opening of accounts, or haal khata, for the one just ushered in. In clear terms, therefore, there is a rather pastoral quality about Baishakh, indeed about every turning of the season in Bangladesh, that one does not miss. The economic aspects of life related to Baishakh are a reminder of the social realities upon which our heritage is grounded. The agrarian nature of life in this land, at once predominant and timeless, has lain at the core of collective life in historical Bengal. Beyond and above that has been the cultural heritage, enriched through the passage of time and history, which has regularly injected substance into life and living here.
Pahela Baishakh, then, is a symbol of all that is good and beautiful and profound about life and culture in a Bengali ambience. It is also a time for us to look ahead into the future, through pledging to rekindle and renew the values and mores which generations of Bengalis have asserted and upheld in their lives again and again.
Shubho Nababarsha to all our readers, patrons, friends, indeed to all Bengalis in Bangladesh and beyond it!