Novel Idea

Sir — Tala Park Prattay chose to spray the goddess with water as a symbolic immersion. This may not go down well with many Bengalis, but it may be the way forward given that pollution spikes in rivers and waterbodies just after the Durga Puja. Surely, the goddess would be unhappier with humans for polluting the natural world than for being sprayed down. While many Pujas this year chose an environmental theme, few actually took concrete steps that would make a difference on the ground. Moreover, given the work of art that Durga idols are, it may be better not to immerse them.

Bidisha Nag, Calcutta

Different voices

Sir — Dattatreya Hosabale and Mohan Bhagwat, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh general-secretary and chief, respectively, may be speaking in different voices on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s handling of the economy, but in reality, they are in cahoots (“Two faces”, Oct 7). It will be interesting to see how the big two of the BJP — Narendra Modi and Amit Shah — respond to the seemingly mixed messages coming from Nagpur.

K. Nehru Patnaik, Visakhapatnam

Sir — Dattatreya Hosabale has rightly highlighted the rising poverty, unemployment and inequality in the country. Such a strong censure indicates that the RSS and the Central government are not on the same page.

Bhagwan Thadani, Mumbai

Sir — The RSS has finally admitted that the country is facing high levels of poverty and inflation. Is the sangh trying to take the limelight away from Rahul Gandhi and the issues he is highlighting on his padayatra? Acknowledging the problems being faced by the country is the sangh’s way of pacifying people who are affected by them.

Jang Bahadur Singh, Jamshedpur

Take care

Sir — The Supreme Court must be lauded for taking up the cause of the elderly (“SC seeks data on elderly care”, Oct 7). A bench of the apex court has sought a report on the implementation status of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act. The report will reveal that senior citizens are being deprived of basic rights, including geriatric care. The elderly should not feel like they are the burden of society.

Arun Gupta, Calcutta

Sir — The report on the status of the implementation of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act is the need of the hour. India’s elderly population is rising and the means of caring for them should be laid out clearly.

Rohan Bandookwala, Mumbai

Unclear stand

Sir — The prime minister, Narendra Modi, has told the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, that there are no military solutions to the conflict with Russia. They also discussed the importance of nuclear safety and Modi expressed India’s readiness to contribute to peace efforts. Zelenskyy responded by saying that he would not conduct any negotiations with the current president of the Russian Federation. India has an established record in global peacemaking. However, New Delhi can only play that part if it makes its position on the conflict clear.

S.S. Paul, Nadia

Truth teller

Sir — Annie Ernaux should be congratulated for winning the Nobel Prize in Literature. She was awarded this honour for her courage and clinical acumen in exposing the roots of alienation and collective limitations of individual memory. She has written more than 20 books that chronicle events in her life and those around her.

Raju Sharma, Calcutta

Sir — Stripped of all poetry, Annie Ernaux’s prose is spare and journalistic, leached of emotional excess, examining from the vantage point of hindsight the events that had shaped her — her hardscrabble early life in a Normandy town; the fire in her belly to be more; her relationships with her parents, husband and lovers; the acute sense of ignominy and inadequacy induced by gender and class barriers, and the inevitable scuffle with age and ailments.

Sohini Saha, Calcutta

Stellar discovery

Sir — Astronomers have discovered a stellar binary with an extremely short orbit, with the two stars circling each other every 51 minutes. This is one of a rare class of binaries known as a “cataclysmic variable”, in which a star similar to our sun orbits tightly around a white dwarf — a hot, dense core of a burnt-out star. This process can give off enormous, variable flashes of light that, centuries ago, astronomers assumed to be a result of some unknown cataclysm.

A.K. Chakraborty, Guwahati

Sir — The discovery of a new stellar binary will put to rest many doubts about the existence of gravitational waves.

Angela Das, Calcutta