The Power of the 90 Million

This is the 10th year of www.getbengal.com, a journey that we began with a single mission in mind - to talk about only the positive essence of Bengal. For ten long years, we have been doing, month after month, what we set out to do: explore Bengal through online journalism. We have been identifying and following stories in all corners of the state, from the Himalayas to the Sunderbans.

It has been an eye-opener to report on positive Bengal, which has thousands of parallel running narratives, dealing with the polarization of thoughts, political upheavals and their ramifications, with a surprising disappearance of complexity and nuance from the mainstream media, where agendas have taken over narratives, and rhetoric over fact.

However, on its long and wonderful journey, GetBengal was happy to look for the essential and positive truths of Bengal, beyond the present personality-based journalism, or the prism of “good” and “bad”, “right” and “wrong”. Some of our best stories reflect this - the many coexisting, incongruous, paradoxical realities, but we stuck to our core vision of positive journalism.

An initiative like this was always a bit of a long shot in terms of commercial viability. Even with the leanest infrastructure, costs can only go one way - up. Getting advertisements is also not an easy task. Besides, readers and viewers are not really keen to know the positive aspects of this state. They would much rather spend time and energy going after information that at the end of the day has no bearing on their lives.

Starting today, we have made a decision to take a fresh look at the content that we have been generating for years. It has been dynamic and owning the platform has been a blessing for me to have a free hand with its content. We have decided to hit the road and come closer to the people of this state and explore the ‘power of the 90 million’, spread across 23 districts of Bengal.

We have planned to open up conversations with relevant personalities across genres who might be sharing or disagreeing with our thoughts, in-depth analysis of issues, connecting with the diaspora spread all over, on a positive and fruitful note.

According to a recent central report, Bengal tops the list when it comes to primary school entries, and shows a significant negative curve in school dropouts. Nearly 53 years since the Naxalbari Movement, a strange thought comes up – there was a time when, answering Mahatma Gandhi’s call, thousands of the country’s brightest young students abandoned academics and joined politics, in service of the nation. How is the present generation of students reacting to contemporary politics? The commitment of a man who has been rescuing hundreds of children and women from trafficking. How much junk is part of the food that we are consuming on a daily basis? And of course, the silent Diwali declared by the State Government. These are some of the many issues that we will be talking about this week.

We have added a significant segment to our repertoire - Bangladesh, and are committed to exploring the myriad issues of our neighbouring Bengali-speaking nation. We are excited to connect with the people of Bangladesh, and promise to bring you some of the best and most positive news from across the border.

I am very happy to work with a small but exceptional team, and a dedicated group of contributors, all of whom somehow linked through their pursuit for positive journalism. Together, they made this happen.

Last but most importantly, I thank you, dear reader. You have shown your love for the platform and our perspective of journalism, and have been kind to our mistakes. You have done more to spread our name than we ever did. The analytics make us happy.

It’s been a memorable journey and I urge you to be with us, just as you have been all these years, inspiring and encouraging us to gather more and more positive vibes from every nook and corner of this state.

Thank You
Indrajit Sen

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