“Bahadur: The Expatriate” by Parakhit Dutta

(About a 2 minute read)

“This needs to be read by the world…” — Akarsh Jain

I see no reason to suppose that bloggers cannot now and then produce posts that have all the merits of world class literature.  I don’t even think you need to be a world class critic to point that out.

It is quite true that few, if any of us bloggers set out to intentionally produce something of universal and timeless value — something that ought to be on school and university reading lists for centuries.  After all, why should we?

Yet, what is to prevent someone from now and then doing it?  Doing it in all likelihood unintentionally.

I can think of only one objection to the notion that our lowly blogging community cannot now and then produce something the equal of any short work or essay produced by a Montesquieu, Cicero, Pritam, Emerson, Mengzi, or Orwell.

“No world class critic thinks we can.”

But I doubt there are many genuinely world class critics who themselves would make such an argument for in the end, that argument does not hold water.  It amounts to little more than saying “blogging has been overlooked by critics, therefore there is nothing to find in the blogosphere.”

So far as I can see, Parakhit Dutta’s Bahadur: The Expatriate is a universal and timeless work of literature.  Anyone, from any culture, at anytime in history could benefit — could have their lives enriched — by reading it.  Here’s an excerpt:

“…my uncle was someone who had never looked at Bahadur condescendingly, while everybody [else] treated him as though he were an eye-sore, a tiny, irritating thorn, that needs be plucked out at once! He was scolded, berated, shouted at and one hysterical woman had claimed that Bahadur had on purpose touched her, a grave sin for he was an untouchable. Men found pleasure in beating him up…”

I don’t know how you could fault that passage.  I don’t know what methods of accounting could possibly bottom line it as anything less that excellent.  Moreover, the entire rest of Parakhit’s post does not flag from the high standards of that excerpt.

Bahadur can be found here.

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Off the top of my head tonight, I can suggest two other posts any interested person will want to read:

Jane Basil’s hilarious poem Promises

The Ederran’s reflections in Observing Surroundings