Magic Reality

If you’re a daily passenger on the suburban section of Eastern Railway, you must have seen them. I’ve spotted them both on trains departing out of Howrah and Sealdah —the most popular and crowded stations in the country. But they are not commuters like any one of us; they won’t be found in a cramped compartment of, say, 17.10 Up Bongaon local or 18.45 Up Bandel local. Mostly, they take the route opposite the current of human wave — Down trains in late afternoon hours and Up morning trains.

The aisle between rows of seats is their stage to display the art. They look at even licensed hawkers with scorn if they think their show is spoilt by screaming of “peanuts”, “handkerchiefs” or “apples”! But they are not angry, because they have learnt the secret of successful trade. One of them would take out a rope from a torn bag, saying: “This one is very disobedient. It does not pay heed to anyone of us, even if I order it to stand straight. Now see the magic…” The rope — an old Indian trick — becomes stiff suddenly, not even bending a degree the moment the boy, hardly eight years old, says: “Laden!” Everybody breaks into laughter in the relatively less crowded bogie on that late winter afternoon when i was on my way to office on a Habra-Sealdah EMU local.

This one followed by three other tricks like drinking milk and filling the feeding bottle with the white liquid coming out of the toddler’s ear! The boy even changed the colour of a bunch of flowers from green to red, a la P.C. Sorcar (Sr/Jr… who cares on a train!), and the last one was to vanish a coin and got it from the collar of a gentleman undoubtedly not a thief.

The magician had two more friends accompanying him. After the three-minute show was over, they approach each one of us, asking for patronage. Most of us relented with donating a coin or two. I did not, rather i asked a simple question to the magician and his friends: “Why don’t you go to school?” The reply was brief, laden with a tinge of realism that was not surprising: “Will you give me food if I go to school? Who will feed my parents?” So much of responsibility on frail shoulders. I said the school would give you mid-day meal, but could not assure them of food for their parents and other relatives.

In our daily journeys, we come across so much of real problems that we take it for granted, as if it’s their prerogative, not mine. Why should i bother? But for them, is it a question of choice or forced situation arising out of social inequality? I don’t have the answer, probably neither the dollar-enriched NGOs that do everything to fill personal coffers nor the government’s social welfare and childcare schemes chalked out at cool comfort of AC rooms far from dusty station concourses.

Such children would always be underprivileged — that is the fate they were born with and destined to doom. Is it "written" like that of Jamal Malik in Slumdog Millionaire? Or, can we do something?

©Supratim Pal

9/11 to 26/11: History remains the same

(This piece will appear in an online US magazine in April this year)

The definition of terrorism changed the morning some youths hijacked two planes and rammed into twin towers symbolic of American might. Till that fateful morning, terrorists were known for unleashing bloodshed in several parts of the world. Meticulous planning, brainstorming followed by unprecedented attacks were not in the dictionary of terrorists before 9/11.

Just about a decade back, terrorists were known for waging war against state armies where they are based, like in Kashmir or in Sri Lanka. Take the example of Kashmir, a region otherwise known as the paradise on earth for its scenic beauty. The Valley has been in the headlines since the past 50-odd years since the time Pakistan laid its claim on the green meadows, huge glaciers and snow-capped mountain peaks. But fear lurked behind the willow and oak, with youths being indoctrinated in thoughts of separatist movement and trained to shoot people to death. It happened mostly in the late Eighties and Nineties. Jawans of Indian army fell to the bullets and grenades of youth in the villages of the Valley and alleys of Srinagar.

Around the same time, youths across the border were also taught to launch suicide attack — an act of terror that would dominate militant activities the next several decades. The seed of militancy was sown in the 1990s in a region not quite ravaged by war, but dictated by political and civilian instability. The area — compassing more than one country —became the womb of 9/11 and similar attacks later on.

This brief piece of background information was necessary before we set to look 9/11 as a watershed event in the world history.

9/11 was a unique terror plot, which includes everything that a real horror drama could boast of. It had men with arms sneaking past the security cordon of the most advanced airport, hijack of more than one aircraft belonging to the most powerful country in the world, enormity of a suicide attack the world never saw before and finally the damage in several million crores. Besides the complete razing of the twin towers that bore tell-tale names, symbolising business hubs of not only the US, but the world, the attack had a severe effect on economy across the nations.

We heard of flight hijack, but never heard or seen live at our cushioned drawing room the footage of the climax of such an incident at a place we are quite familiar with. In a weird repeat of history, billions of eyes were glued to the screen for 60-odd hours to watch how a hostage drama was unfolding in Mumbai in November. What's the distance between Manhattan and Mumbai? For terrorists, it's zero.

26/11has more than one thing in common with 9/11than the word "terror". Like in Manhattan — one of the costliest places on this planet — the terrorists chose a seafront luxury hotel — again, one of the most valuable and heritage properties in India — to begin bloodshed. In their attack, or the hostage drama, the terrorists were ruthless in not even sparing women. To gain maximum media coverage, one of the gun-toting youths called up a TV station to send the message loud and clear: that they were on a mission not for humanity, but to obliterate it completely.

Between Manhattan and Mumbai lots of places, including Madrid and London, bore marks of terror — might not be of the same enormity that the cities off the Hudson and the Arabian Sea had experienced. Unfortunately, history revisits us only with gory memories. We think that the fateful Tuesday morning of September 2001 is past suddenly one dinner turns bitter with "breaking news" tickers and scenes of a hotel in flames.

A collective voice — feared, thrilled and ready to take revenge — says that we should wage war against the perpetrators of crime. Pressure mounts on political leadership to act. Then starts a war to bomb off a race from the pages of history in the name of zeroing on a man once supported to gather arms for a possible battle during Cold War. Some show restraint also, foreseeing the outcome if two nuclear-powered nations start a clash that would amount to another world war. Some would say that let's start a crusade keeping the religious factor in terrorism in mind. Till today, there is no signal whether the archrivals would actually indulge in another bloodshed in the region, but that would not stop some out-of-the-world youths to immerse in bloodbath.

Besides the social and political spectrum, the economic history is also ruled by terror attacks. A booming dotcom industry just got out of the track after 9/11; a nation fighting global recession in 2008 finds it harder to convey the message that it was still one of the safest places with exotic locations, yoga, ayurveda and spicy foods. Shattered economy is what a terror attack on a financial capital of a country with 8 per cent growth can leave with.

People live everyday hoping to alter the frightful moment with happier days, but to no avail. History remains the same everywhere, every time a terrorist is born with anger and hatred in mind to strike at will to crack our will power.

©Supratim Pal