Sir — Belligerence, thy name is Donald Trump. But the man, evidently, has a sense of humour. At the G-20 summit in Osaka, Trump cracked a joke with Vladimir Putin, asking the Russian president not to meddle in American elections. However, with Robert Mueller agreeing to testify publicly on his investigation into Russia’s alleged role in the US presidential elections, it may not be long before Trump turns belligerent, once again.

Ramananda Mukhopadhyay,
Nadia

Sound and silence

Sir — The article, “Monsieur Maurice” (June 26), was thought-provoking. In it, Uddalak Mukherjee writes about once familiar sounds that have now disappeared. Many sounds that we grew up with have also evolved and transformed with time. The phiriwala’s daak that Mukherjee mentions is a case in point. Gone are the days when street vendors developed quirky tones and phrases to attract the attention of buyers. It has been replaced by a more or less similar monotonous recorded track that is played on loudspeakers from Maruti Omnis and thelas alike.

Calls that have been lost include the shrill calls by sellers of kulfi and ice cream on summer afternoons, the bell of the sugar candy man who made animals and birds out of candy on sticks for children and the strange noise that balloon sellers made by rubbing inflated balloons.

Other sounds, natural ones, have been lost too. Take, for instance, the mating sounds of insects on quiet winter nights or the croaking of frogs during the rains. Since the world is never quiet anymore, these sounds are never heard. Or perhaps it is because climate change has killed off most insects.

Mukherjee also writes that silence is deified. But where does one find silence anymore? Silence used to be the foil which highlighted the very sounds whose loss Mukherjee mourns. Now there is white noise, which is mistaken for silence because people have forgotten what silence sounds like.

A.K. Sen,
Calcutta

Sir — Uddalak Mukherjee probed the various soundscapes that pervade our public and private spaces. Stillness, too, produces its own music. I can still recall my visit to the Sri Aurobindo Institute of Culture. My senses were filled with the kind of sounds that Mukherjee has described. The stillness, especially in the meditation room, is all-pervasive, opening the mind to the various sounds around.

Haimanti Dutta Ray,
Calcutta

Sir — “Monsieur Maurice” was an excellent article and brought back to mind many things that we miss these days. Uddalak Mukherjee comes up with one or the other apt reference with regard to the topic at hand each time; this time it was Radhaprasad Gupta’s book. Moreover, the conclusion of the piece, pointing to the nuance between sound and din, merits closer attention, especially in the cacophonous times we inhabit.

P.B. Ghosh,
Calcutta