AGE OP ENDEAVOUR 6^ bringing into the fold of literacy millions and millions every year. To bridge the gap between rural and urban cultures, festivals and workshops are being organised at great frequency. And yet, about each of these activities has a desiccated look about it: plenty of commotion, a whole lot of comings and goings, but few instances of fresh creativity. State-sponsored programmes expand the base of patronage, they do not ignite any prairie fire of fierce imagination. Caution calls to caution, and lacklustreness is king. What should have been an exciting trek towards proletcult turns out to be drab plebianization. The enemy, meanwhile, has increasing resources at its command. The enemy is rabid, but it does not flinch from being radical, and it improvises every day brave new weaponry. Young people are confused. Their inherent rationality should nudge them to opt for socialism and drastic structural reforms. But they are put out by the demonstrated atrophy of imagination across the barricade. It is a terrible predicament. No outsider can however help here ; the glorious left tradition in Bengal has to be salvaged, but this can be done by only those who are in situ ; they must be permitted to use their daring and invited to give untrammelled rein to their imagination. For if the left is not audacious, with audacity tempered by judgment, it ceases to be left. And I feel little need to close these notes with the semi-jocular emphasis : comrades, we call this self-criticism ! ASHOK MITRA Former Finance Minister, Govt. of West Bengal.