Greek philosopher Diogenes (412 BCE) when asked where he came from, proclaimed: “Kosmopolitês”, “I am a citizen of the world”. The ancient Hindus considered “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” – the whole world as one family. The Surat Al-Hujurat (verse 13) declares “Equality among people”.The Bahai faith proclaims that “the earth is but one country and mankind its citizens”. Tagore wrote of a “heaven of freedom… where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls”. And then John Lennon sang “Imagine there’s no countries”, as did Michael Jackson –“We are the world, we are the children”.
Hi
Welcome and thank you so much for stopping by!
I am Shumon Sengupta, and I have a delightful daughter Madhura, who helps me with this blog.
By now you would have got a good sense of the inspiration for our blog.
I work in international development, and together with my wife Ananya and our daughter Madhura, we have been travelling and living in different parts of the world. We have embraced peoples and cultures, and made counties our very own while we have lived there. We are from Kolkata (India), but the Earth is our home, and we like to consider ourselves as world citizens.
I love my work, and as a family, we love people, travel, art and culture, and are always up for an adventure.
Through our blog we hope to share a big part of our lives with our readers – our experiences, journeys to different parts of the world, my work, people we meet, our interest in the arts, aesthetics and culture, and most importantly, our sense of the wonder at things small, big and infinite, i.e. our experience of what we as individuals experience as true, good, beautiful and the eternal.
At the end of the day, our blog is about the brighter side of life; about ‘Ananda’ – the joy that transcends our worldly trials, tribulations, sorrows and sufferings, and helps us become more humane.
As we share the tales from our trails as world citizens, we welcome you to join us in our journey. And we invite you to share your journeys with us too. So do write to use if you care to share something, and have a few moments to spare.
Should you, dear reader, find some beauty, experience even a few fleeting moments of joy reading our blog, we would have done our job, i.e. paid our dues, as much as that was possible, to the beauty that has been revealed to us; for all the joys we have experienced.
Shumon Sengupta, with
Madhura Sen