About Bangladesh

Discussing North Korea tackled an apparent adversary that was gradually closing in on us. 

Antara's former batchmates at Brabourne had desperately needed Antara to be identified as a Russian interest when it became known that

a. It was Agency honchos that had authorised the North Korean hydrogen bomb testing on Sept 3, 2017, in order to stave off any Canadian attempt to create a global financial turmoil and bring up the RMS Titanic, while trying to push Antara towards the Russians ('RMS Titanic, disruptive banking practices, MBS in DC', FACSIMILE blog, Nov 19, 2025; 'How Washington DC had declared war on Sept 3, 2017, the Okinawa puzzle, FACSIMILE blog, November 16, 2025.)

b. And that Kolkata hadn't managed to solve why Lenin's name was on the legit lease but anti-Lenin blackmails had been provided to the Rajasthanis ('The story of contact-corroboration included Robert A Heinlein and the 1942 Wannsee Conference' FACSIMILE blog, November 18, 2025.)

At least we now knew that Kolkata was serious about using the US military against Antara, it might end up in a court of law or at least be the topic of public discussions, why was Kolkata so close to and confident about the US military and vice versa?

As of now, we'd limit ourselves to the argument that the United States' top defence analysts and bureaucrats often had a History-Political Science background, it let you go all the way up to Deputy Defence Secretary level inside the Pentagon, there was no compulsion to have STEM qualifications. 

The fact that such defence bureaucrats had History-Political Science background would obviously bring them closer to colleges like Brabourne in Kolkata, where Antara had been repeatedly told, "You came to Brabourne for the Arts/Humanities faculties, for Science you went elsewhere". 

It was convenient for the purposes of disregarding those that studied Physics or Chemistry Honours at Brabourne, these women tended to crowd around Neeta Ma'am, both the Intel operative who studied Physics at Brabourne and the petrochem expert who studied Chemistry at Brabourne. 

Add to it the fact that these defence bureaucrats at the Pentagon did their PhDs from MIT and you'd know which Bengali couple had brought Brabourne closer to the US military than was desirable.

Phew, finally some breathing space vis-a-vis Neeta Ma'am.

ii. Kolkata thought that way when it perceived an advantage on two blackmails,

a. Burgess-Maclean

b. Eva and Gretl Braun.

It was indeed a mystery that Ajit, who knew how to solve both these blackmails, didn't use it to prevent BT's House from leaving India in 1985 or arrange spacious Houses for his own needs or those of his family, nor did he try to raise his profile in Washington DC when American politicians and officials were competing to create Barack Obama.

Ajit had two rules. He wouldn't accept British intelligence from Eva and Gretl Braun. When he had been offered a cup of tea by them at the Rashmela house in Purulia in 1995--he was temporarily living at the Rashmela house, by himself, while his family was in Asansol, till he got govt accommodations--he genuinely lost his temper, shouted at the Rashmela side in fury and later discarded them as "not worth the trouble". (This was before the winter of 1995 in Purulia.)

To Antara, he'd often say, "I had become overweight in high school, in the first half of the 1950s, I had a nickname because of my weight, my schoolmates called me 'Multani Gai' or the Cow from Multan in Pakistan."

iii. Back to Robert A Heinlein, and it was important to remember that sci-fi had gripped the western imagination right from the 1930s. 

Sometime over the last few years, Antara had attempted to create a database of sci-fi magazines in circulation in the United States through the 1930s-40s, publishing novels, short stories, graphic art, discussions. It was an astounding number, involving hundreds of writers and artists, what would she achieve from knowing them?

All that Antara needed to know was that space exploration didn't popularise sci-fi, it was sci-fi that had provided the impetus for space exploration. 

In the course of her present work, she'd have to remember that there was no tolerance for Nazi Holocaust research in the United States of the 1950s, there was no opportunity to discuss how the Jewish people were wiped off the planet but there were endless subscriptions to fanciful tales of living in Mars or building a colony on the Moon. 

No one was disturbed by the parallels to Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps, living under harsh, austere circumstances that might prove fatal.

Without understanding the American mindset of the 1950s, one would never understand why Neeta Ma'am or Chetla were popular there.

iv. People worldwide assumed that Aleksandr Sakharovsky witnessed the trend to read sci-fi in the US and suppress the Nazi Holocaust, as FCD chief from 1955 to 1971. 

Hence the need to take things slow, Antara would have to understand Sakharovsky's arguments without getting close to the Russians, for these years had led to the emergence of a new nation in the Indian subcontinent, called Bangladesh.

November 20, 2025.