Tomar ghore bash korey kara, o mon jano na. Tomar ghore boshot kore koijona. Fakir Lalon Shah is known by all Bengalis as a spiritual mystic, sage, poet, and a prominent proponent of the philosophy of humanism. The song above by Fakir Lalon originally dates back to the late 17th century. However, sometime in the late 90's this song received a vivacious revival by a local band in Dhaka. I remember vividly the buzz it stirred up for me and my teenage peers back then. The song was catchy, fun to sing along, the lyrics simple, the words learnable and the music familiar. Pretty soon, we were singing it everywhere - at lakeside concerts, cultural festivals, house parties and rooftop hangouts. It became the anthem that reaffirmed our Bengali identity. 20 years went by and the song became archived in our memories. All that time, I was under the comfortable impression that I understood what the song was saying. I had settled for a very literal interpretation of the words on the surfa...