Bangladesh, April 17 -- An article by the eminent Bengali historian Jayanta Sengupta, published in the Indian newspaper, The Telegraph, this week caught my eye and held it for a long, long while. Rarely do I come across a piece of writing that is scholarly and eloquent in equal measure, that is lucid and urgent, that is ecologically sparse with words but inflected through and through with the exuberant rhythms and patterns of life that words exist to capture. I was enraptured and emailed him immediately. He was kind enough to respond promptly in spite of his busy schedule as Director of the Alipore Museum in Kolkata, a post that follows his work as Director of the Victoria Memorial Hall and long years of illustrious teaching at Jadavpur Uni...