…Humanity cannot be sacrificed for the sake of anything!

Dear Madam,

No kudos is enough for Pulitzer prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri for declining a prestigious award from Noguchi Museum, New York, by protesting it’s ban on kaffiyeh in the garb of updated “dress code” policy wherein the staff has been prohibited from wearing any “political dress” in work premises and working hours!

The Museum has initiated this ban in retaliation of the “audacity” of many of its employees who had often sported kaffiyeh to signal solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza !

By preferring to remain on the side of all things sane (human rights of Gazans, freedom of expression of their sympathisers, democracy) by overriding all norms of garnering materialistic desires or prestigious awards; Lahiri, through her sheer refusal of the award, has once again asserted the eternal truth that “All things can be sacrificed for the sake of humanity, but Humanity cannot be sacrificed for the sake of anything”!

Kajal Chatterjee, Kolkata