Sekal Aar Ekal (Those Times & These Times) is Rajnarayan Basu’s sharp, unsparing, and sometimes humorous reflection on how Bengal – and India – changed under colonial rule. First delivered as a speech to university students in 1874, it moves between two worlds—Sekal (“those times”) under the early East India Company, and Ekal (“these times”) under the full sweep of British colonialism. With his dry wit and vivid storytelling, Basu walks us through the bustling lanes of old Bengal—past Sanskrit pandits and Persian scholars, wandering bards and neighbourhood storytellers—while criticising the rise of rote learning, the decline of true spiritual sentiment, and the slow fading of a once vibrant cultural life.