Happy New Year!

No, this is not a “will-start-blogging-more-regularly” new year resolution in action. Time does make one wise and I have realized very well that I am not good at this thing called blogging. Actually there has been a lot to write upon the last few months, but the general laziness and other priorities would not really let me blow the dust off this blog. And I guess, that’s how it’s going to remain here.

Today’s question is a topical one and has generous set of clues. Like some of my other questions went, X created something which later would have a very popular “usage”, Y was inspired by this creation to create another popular creation and Z has one of the most popular references of that “usage”. Identify all and give me a really nice story to bind them. And here’s wishing you all a very happy 2009.

Answer:

So here I am, a good 9 months after I originally posted this entry, coming back to update this post with the answer. As if someone cares. But anyway, as the first presenter of Mastermind series, Magnús Magnússon, would have said, “I’ve started so I’ll finish”, I too will do the same and bring a graceful demise to this post.

Now I thought the one picture in this question which was easily identifiable was “Z” which is nothing but the poster of the famous romantic comedy starring Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, “When Harry Met Sally”. BTW, such was the ingenuity of my framing the question, if you notice, the pics X, Y, Z appear in the order Z, X, Y. Genius, isn’t it?! Anyway, so coming back to the movie, they say the best moment in the movie is the ending when Billy Crystal comes running to this New Year’s party and confronts Meg Ryan and then they have this typical boy-girl crib talk and then the clock starts ticking towards 12 a.m. and countdown crystal keeps coming down and then as the new year arrives, Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan make it all up within themselves and start kissing as the western tradition goes and then the moment comes which connects this whole goddamn movie to this goddamn question — a song plays in the background and Crystal asks Meg, “What does this song mean?  For my whole life I don’t know what this song means.  I mean, ‘Should old acquaintance be forgot’.  Does that mean we should forget old acquaintances or does it mean if we happen to forget them we should remember them, which is not possible because we already forgot them!?”

That song, my friends, is the creation in question - “Should old acquaintance be forgot, Auld lang syne”, a song which was orginally written by Robert Burns, our man in pic “X”. For whatever Robert Burns intended to write that song, the song, for some reason, became the anthem in Western countries to celebrate the coming of a new year. So come 1-Jan, 0000 hours and they all start crooning this song. But hum this tune to a Bengali and he would immediately retort back that this tune was originally composed by the greatest Bengali, Indian ever, Kobiguru Rabindranath Tagore (Mr. Y) for his song, “Purano shei diner kotha” (Those old memories). But truth be told, even the great Robi Thakur had his moments and actually had plagiarized this tune (as well as the song “Fule Fule” from another Scottish tune; mail me to get bored on that). But I am not complaining. Neither should anyone. It’s a wonderful tune and while I’m sure that a lot of Westerners would have fond memories singing it during New Year’s, I and many fellow Bongs would have our own singing/listening to the Hemanta’s rendition of Purano Shei. And to that, I am eternally grateful to all these great men.

If memory serves me right, my good friends, Rajorshi Biswas and Sourya Biswas attempted this question and either almost cracked it or gave the full answer. Kudos to them. They certainly don’t seem to have forgotten the Kothas of Purano Shei Dins.