Remembering Ma: From the Editor’s Desk of Conversations

A warm welcome to the 4th issue of Conversations, the annual newsletter of Convergence.  The first newsletter came out in September 2022, a month after ma was no more. Thereafter, remembering ma’s birthday on 19th July, every year, I have been trying to commemorate it in several ways. In July 2023, we brought out the 2nd issue of Conversations. In July 2024, we didn’t bring out Conversations, but instead, published a collection of ma’s articles titled “Collection of Articles on Modern Sanskrit : Volume 1”. Last year, we brought out the 3rd issue of  Conversations. This year, on 19th July 2026, we are bringing out the 4th issue. 

In fact this year, we are holding the 1st Annual Program of Convergence on 19th July – which is going to be a physical event! Since Convergence had been operating as a virtual platform for various course/lectures etc., the teachers and students haven’t met each other. So many, who are able to come physically to Kolkata on 19th July, are really looking forward to meeting each other. So am I!

The event will take place at the Convergence Office-cum-Library, which is at our house in New Town. And there will be people coming from quite a distance like Medinipur, Bolpur, and Murshidabad, and also Baruipur and Diamond Harbour. 

In fact, a small group of students from Gururkul who have recently started taking our online English language course here at Convergence have volunteered to sing/perform Mangalacharan on 19th. 

I will be felicitating the teachers, without whose constant dedication and support, continuing Convergence would be impossible. I will be handing over hard copies of certificates to students who will be coming to the program.

I have also invited the contributors to Conversations to be present and I would request them to please say a few words. That brings us to Conversations!

Like the previous issues, this issue is also entirely online. On the top of the page, you will find tabs like Archive (which contains links to the last three issues of Conversations), Summary (which contains the summary of activities of Convergence for the past few years), Students (which lists the students of Convergence for the past sessions in our various courses), and Convergence (which will take you to the main homepage of Convergence), Photo Gallery (which displays some of my clicks) other than links to Articles, Poems, and Paintings.

Like before, it was sheer pleasure and a great privilege to go through the deep, thought-provoking, and enlightening articles that were submitted. The poems were equally deep! There have been contributions from the Convergence teachers (Swati Parrack, Moumita Ghosh, Shabana Nasreen, Tanushree Ghosh, Arpita Sinha Choudhury), as well as others (Debdas, Mondal,  Paramesh Goswami,  Rupak Biswas, Esha Ganguly) who have contributed before. In fact, Paramesh-da has contributed three articles this time, on varied topics like the Walden Lake, his personal experience amongst American tribals, as well as his philosophical contemplation on a couple of Tagore’s songs. An absolute treat for readers!

Happily, there have been contributions by others as well – Ria Mondal (who has been a dedicated Convergence student taking all the levels of the German and Sanskrit courses – 5 levels of German course and 4 levels of Sanskrit  course), Abhishek Das (who had been a student in the first batch of the German class), Soumi Saha (who has been working at our Library), and last but not the least Nimaichandra Das (who is Abhishek Das’s father).

Murali Monohar Chakraborty (14 years) has sketched ma – and Bishal has (10) has sketched several others. Sroutatwisha’s drawings of her own characters are truly astounding!

Last but not the least, this online newsletter, homepage and all technical support is provided by Samit Basak of Bengal Computers who has very patiently paid attention to my innumerable requests, incorporating small changes in the presentation and the content of the newsletter as well as the homepage. 

Kindly circulate links to this issue, and previous issues of Conversations, our homepage, our courses, our lectures etc. for wide dissemination of our work. Hope you will consider contributing to all future issues of Conversations. 

I hope you will continue to be by my side with all your blessings, support and wishes, the way you have been beside Ma, in her journey heading Convergence. 

Happy conversing!

Soumyanetra

10th July 2026