Durga Puja: few words — II

Blame it on bogus Bollywood numbers or give a million thanks to sesquicentenary celebrations of Tagore. But this time, it's bye-bye Bollywood, welcome Bangla, again on loudspeakers. This is probably the most welcome change of Puja 2011.

Maybe it's one of the better years in Bengali film industry, popularly known as Tollywood, too, after the golden days of the 1960s and '70s. Along with Tagore, Tollywood has a good role to play in shaping the culture of Bengal. In the recent past, it's hardly seen to find four-five big-budget Tollywood release in the run-up to the Puja. But 2011 is different. The mood set by Autograph last year has just been taken over by a series of films that drew film-buffs back to theatres. Multiplexes in Kolkata, once only beaming Bollywood flicks, have now started screening more than one Bengali film this festive season. This is a sea change in terms of viewership vis-a-vis business. Songs from Bengali films like Ichhe or Baishe Shravan are now being played across the city in the past few days — something unimaginable even five years ago.

Bollywood films were quite a few in numbers this year though runaway hits could be confined to only a few or at least those have not arrived on loudspeakers in localities dotted with Durga Puja pandals. Songs from Bodyguard, a superhit Salman Khan movie released on Eid like last year's Dabangg, were only heard being played on FM channels! After four days of the Puja since Sunday, one can easily find that Bengali songs — mostly Rabindrasangeet — are on the loudspeakers that used to blare "Munni Badnam Hui" last year. I don't know whether we, Bengalis, are still obsessed with Tagore or not, but a little push from our chief minister for the bard's 150th year birth anniversary has seen many a "parar dada" paying obeisance to Rabindranath this Puja. We know our chief minister's obsession (or, OCD) with Tagore songs at traffic signals and railway stations. The best part is people are largely inspired by her thoughts with those of Tagore's being lost into the oblivion!

Durga Puja: few words — I

Puja, for millions of Bengalis, is not merely a festival for pandal-hopping or sporting new shirts, suits and saris. It's a celebration of the times we are in; a time to remember that we live in a society where there are people beyond my self; a time for celebrating the changing colours of life.

Yesterday, on the day of Maha Saptami, i was impressed by an initiative of a Puja committee in south Kolkata where female members of an old-age home were given away sari just after the morning puja ended. This is what people can do: just look beyond their drawing rooms to bring about a change in the lives of others in whatever little way possible. The otherwise gloomy faces of the 30-odd members of the old-age home who were hardly visited by their well-off sons and daughters, mostly NRIs, even during the festive season were suddenly brightened up by the Puja gifts. Money can buy a spacious room at an old-age home but not sheer joy of one's parents. A general sense of responsibility is probably the necessity of the hours. Our responsibility should not end at our workstations only. We tend to forget people even in times of joy and happiness; we often try not to remember those who made us what we are today. Our world is shrinking with times, with every passing day we are getting busier than the previous one... where even the festive spirits can't play a big role.

Can we call Durga Puja a carnival? Or is it Holi that comes close to the sense of a carnival? When thousands of people hit the streets in Kolkata or suburbs with colourful attires taken directly from the latest fashion boutiques the roads seem a sea of humanity cheering up for the most sought-after event of their calendars. It's just a wide and wild imagination to compare tsunami on Central Avenue with Sao Paulo carnival! But sometime, i feel that the annual festive season takes away the gloom from us to leave us in a gleeful state. Isn't not what we call carnival? In serious literary term, the Puja days are not at all carnivalesque. Youngsters spinning on motorcycles with girlfriends as pillion or hatchbacks-turned-jukeboxes on the road teeming with people are obvious examples of how we have made carnival out of the biggest festival in this part of the world for five days. Pictures of pale faces get blurred during the celebrations of the prowess of a mythical lady who killed the demon; unfilled spaces in our hearts get fulfilment through the positive energy generated during the Puja; moreover, these five days can wipe out our tears of the rest 360 days. Such is the power of Durga Puja!

Teacher, forever

Accessing Facebook at Auli was as exciting as getting a proper non-veg chicken meal after days of surviving on simple vegetarian stuff; exactly that happened on August 5 this year. After a long day's trek to Govindghat followed by bus ride, Auli was supposed to be an evening of living off delicious delicacies and drinks. As i logged in to my Facebook account from my cellphone at the GMVN ski-resort, i could not make out a one-word August 3 wall post from Dollar'da: "Nothing". What did it mean? Has it anythng to do with Nihilism? As i racked my brain what made him to write like that while simultaneously looking at other posts on Facebook, i just stumbled on what i didn't expect at all, especially in that scenic Himalayan retreat: Bikash'da is no more.

Only a few teachers can make you what you are today. For me, Bikash Chakraborty was one among them. As i always feel proud to say that i was groomed by excellent teachers both at R K Mission, Narendrapur, and Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, with those at Santiniketan supporting my eccentricities during my early twenties. While we were yet to delve deep into the treasure trove of the English literature, a kurta-pajama-clad shawl-wrapped frail professor stepped into our BA-I class as some other teacher didn't turn up on a wintry morning. That was our first class with BC till he took us to the world of Coleridge, and Romanticism, a year later.

From my BA-I days till we bade Bikash'da farewell, i saw he used to have an aura that earned him immense respect from us and his colleagues alike. He was not head of the department when we were students at DEOMEL, but he had the last word on most issues. An icon in himself, he nurtured hundreds of young minds to turn them into literary enthusiasts. His interaction with students was beyond the confines of a classroom but only a few could enter his almost impregnable inner domain. Those who succeeded could find a different man in great humour and spirits. Months after he retired, i went to Bikash'da's Daronda home to discuss a few points on a paper i was preparing on T S Eliot's influence on Tagore. From a purely academic discussion, it changed direction to things more mundane like Darjeeling tea or what new books the British Council Library had inducted into their shelves! 

His classes on Yeats were unforgettable experience though students in the last row could hardly hear the mild-spoken professor. His lectures on Yeats's poetry were more than sufficient to prepare ourselves for exam papers. For many of Deomelites, Yeats, and 'Waste Land', was synonymous with Bikash'da. He had such an effect on us that weeks before the 2007 reunion, one of my seniors wrote a scrap on my Orkut page: "Romantic deomel is dead and gone/ it's with bikashda somewhere..." just to convey the message he would not return to his alma mater, as BC was no longer taking Yeats's classes! As i told Bikash'da about this, he just smiled and said: "Sob paglami tomader (All madness)!"

Today, as Deomel is ready to celebrate Teachers' Day with traditional pomp and ceremony, the ever-bustling department will certainly miss him: not as a teacher or a scholar only but also as a great human being of our time.

'Death Be Not Proud'

Some people leave a mark on this world, on our lives; others just pay a small visit. As the dark clouds covered the Kalimpong Stadium on August 16, i was standing under an umbrella to watch the final of a school-level soccer tournament along with some local friends. Suddenly, a reporter of a Hindi daily told me that an Anna Hazare supporter had been shot in Bhopal amid the arrest drama in New Delhi over the Gandhian's fast. I asked him who s/he was but he could not give me details then. After a few hours as i came down to Siliguri that evening, i saw 100-odd people brave the heavy rain to take out a rally with posters and candles with pro-Anna, anti-corruption slogans. A lady's picture on one of the posters took me by surprise. She was Shehla Masood. By then, the web world must have been flooded with her pictures and news of her murder in Bhopal.

My communication with Shehla dates back to 2009. That was the time when a lot of like-minded activists of the country started various online campaigns on a whole lot of issues from Binayak Sen to RTI to NREGA among others. Shehla, a former model, was by then known for her campaigns — both real and virtual — across a large section of the society. Her interests also included ecological imbalance and protecting tigers. As i write this piece, no concrete evidence has till been found why Shehla was killed but one point is very clear to all of her friends and well-wishers: her mission did not end in the murder but her killers showed us how a braveheart takes bullets to fight for causes. Hours before she was killed, she re-tweeted: "'It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies. But a great deal more to stand up to your friends' - A. P. W. B. Dumbledore." That says it all about her 38 years' existence.

A few years back, now-defunct but highly intellectual Bengali magazine, Dhrubapad, brought out a special number, "Dosh jon onyorokom Bangali (10 different Bengalis)". A lady painter was portrayed there as one's next-door granny who is not only caring but also loves cooking, and moreover breaks into laughter like a child if her guests are found enjoying her delicacies. But Shyamali Khastagir was more than an artist. With several others in JOAR (Jharkhand Organisation Against Radiation), she gave Jadugoda a new strength to fight uranium radiation among impoverished innocent villagers. A lifelong fight against uranium depletion and other issues took her across several countries.

Daughter of pioneering artist Sudhir Khastagir, Shyamali'di even once courted arrest while protesting in front of the White House; she was also instrumental in stopping to flag off a car rally from the Santiniketan Ashram area. During my stay at Santiniketan, I saw her from close quarters; on many an occasion she asked me to arrange shows for films on several subjects like the US invasion in Iraq, how marine ecology was threatened during Gulf War, how people were slow-poisoned by uranium radiation. Doors of her real abode of peace at Santiniketan's Purbapalli were always open to all. People were treated with home-made ladoos or even muri! She used to live a simple life, true to Tagore's ideal. Besides an environmentalist, she was also a friend of the underprivileged. Some years back, i was going to Santiniketan and on the train, i found Shyamali'di sitting pretty by the window. Soon after the train pulled out of Howrah, a hijra — who i knew for several months then — came to ask for alms. As i told the hijra, Kavita, not to beg like this but try to find a private job, as Kavita was a graduate unlike many other hijras, Shyamali'di gave Kavita a hug and invited to meet her at Santiniketan so that Kavita could be given a job, at least vocational training like many others financed by the septuagenarian lady.

Women like Shehla and Shyamali'di are true-life inspiration to me, and of course many others. In their deaths, they made us more responsible to make this planet for a healthier and better tomorrow.

Bars, Debars and Debates

More than a month has passed since i updated my blog with a new post. It’s not that i did not have time to write or did not have an issue to share my thoughts on. Sheer laziness in addition to my addiction to treks and trips made me a bit busy from the mundane things of life, ruled by some people in our near and far circles. Right after coming down from a semi-high-altitude trek to Hemkund Sahib, i was greeted by an otherwise cool guy at an Old Delhi bar a few minutes before i was about to take the Rajdhani back home: “Hey dude! You are looking cool man”! I was pretty sure it was not intended at me, as i’d never come across such a cat-call (or compliment?) in my innumerable tipsy trips to bars in several towns in the country. But it is a different bar tucked in a corner of Paharganj. Christened ‘My Bar’, this one is a bit different from most of the Delhi bars in terms of ambience and patrons. Characteristically, it has more proximity to Kolkata’s Olypub, where we used to frequent even a few years ago as on any weekend afternoon, My Bar is teemed with college-goers, backpacking foreigners, mid-level corporate executives et al. Olypub, with its decades-old reputation of offering beef-steaks as well as booze at a much cheaper rate than its more affluent neighbours on Park Street, is not a mere popular joint for youngsters only but also a place that would stir debates on Anna and ranna (recipe)!

To talk of Anna (as i just mentioned his name), in a democratic country where we elect representatives to the legislature, a person has made it clear that he can hold the nation to ransom even as he hardly believes in parliamentary democracy. The self-proclaimed Gandhian — at least he is adept in going on fast for days like the Father of the Nation although he disdains degrees from foreign university even as the latter had studied abroad — has not allowed its fellow law-abiding citizens in taking part in panchayat elections in the last two decades! If people ask him questions why this had happened in one of the most progressive villages in not only Maharashtra but also in the country, he would hardly give an answer. An autocratic philanthropist in his heart, Anna probably thinks he is India, as some of his supporters took the famous D K Baruah’s phrase to compliment the septuagenarian who has made a vow to defy the Constitution and particularly Parliament to fight for a cause that seems unrealistic. He has been on a dramatic run, quite literally after the Raj Ghat episode, for the past fortnight. Being in the limelight for quite some time now, his attitude towards people at large, except his close comrades, is like a guardian angel of India. His disciples are growing fast with every hour as he is steadfast on his indefinite fast. Thousands of people in colourful attire with sumptuous khichdi on one hand and the Tricolour on the other, march for the Gandhian with a simple promise that they would cleanse the system of corruption; they would no longer pay Rs 1000 bribe to the DIB officer before verification for passport, or grease the palms of TTEs on trains for an upper class berth, or pay just Rs 5000 to the UDC for waiver of civic tax at hundreds of municipalities, or transfer some cool bucks under a heap of papers for releasing the pension file at the same office that he had served just months back!

Cycle of Life

Last week soon after i updated my blog i got an opportunity — a rare one these days unlike in 2007/08 — to ride my new bike on potholed Kolkata roads. Practically, that day, July 14, bus and taxi owners under the once-omnipotent trade union called transport strike to protest against the hike in diesel price. Diesel, although costlier than petrol, is highly subsidized in India and even a 1-paisa raise in its price affects millions, if not billions!

My ride was not intended to reach my destination as fast as possible but it was more of an exploratory one as i started observing the condition of the road that is also a national highway, people by the side of the road, shopping complexes and bazaars, callous pedestrians suddenly obstructing your course of ride and you press on to your disc brake and s/he goes off without making any noise or saying sorry! What impressed me was a stream of cyclists finding their way amid speeding cars and trucks as the road is 20ft wide at some places! Although not a single accident was reported that day on the 22km stretch i covered but at times, i felt like ramming into a rickshaw-van or even a passer-by.

Another matter of great inconvenience was the condition of the road. While going back home every night i've seen the roads in the City of Joy have been rendered to death zones in the past one month where even a joyride can kill someone. As a cyclist, who doesn't have to pay a single paisa as road tax, i cannot expect roads to be, as Lalu Prasad once said, smooth as Hema Malini's cheeks! But i can hope for a better ride, isn't it? After the rains are over in September, or maybe October, i'm planning to take my bike to office and in a country where you are hardly encouraged like that in the UK and in other developed countries, uneven roads just kill my spirits to enjoy a smooth ride. As our government is all but ready to play spoilsport in allowing people to save greens and live on fossil fuel, i don't find it surprising anymore to be pressed into commuting within the city in vehicles that run only on petrol or diesel.

I mentioned in my last blog that i'm trying to devise a new way in commuting. As i don't have a petrol or diesel-guzzler unlike thousands of my fellow citizens, my carbon footprint is quite low than others. This is high time that India, as a rising economy, should rein in vehicles and industries that emit GHGs and promote green steps like offering more subsidy to electric cars than diesel or installing more solar panels in a tropical country than selling coal blocks to power behemoths. In Bangalore and in other metros that witness traffic snarls during the morning and evening rush hours, many people have now switched to bike-to-work mode than depending just on buses and other rapid transport systems. In Kolkata, why can't we develop a system that will allow conscious people to ride a bike to office?

Unique City

Kolkata is the only city in India where tradition meets post-modern in public transport system. Since my childhood, i've been travelling around the city using innumerable modes of transport system that also includes ferry service! In how many metros in the country has anyone seen commuters making a beeline at ferry counters during rush hours just to avoid snaking snarls on arterial roads?
It may sound funny to take a launch — or even a motor-driven country-boat — for attending office on time but i've seen thousands of  people on the other side of the densely populated city use ferry service (operated either by the Kolkata Port Trust or West Bengal Surface Transport Corporation) only to jump onto an autorickshaw connecting the ferry "ghat" with the nearest railway station or bus-stand. Suppose, you want to come to Esplanade, the heart of the city, from Rishra that is on the other side of the Hooghly. Now, you have plenty of options to cover the 25-odd km. You can take a suburban train on the Howrah-Bandel section — the first passenger train in India in this part was operated on August 15, 1854, on these tracks — to reach terminal station Howrah or you can take a bus that will follow the GT Road. And, there's this ferry service also that will take you to Khardah, on the other side of the Ganga, from where auto-rickshaws take passengers to Khardah railway station for the onward journey to another terminal station, Sealdah, or country's first underground Metro Railway's terminal station Dum Dum to avail an AC train to Esplanade.

This maybe a circuitous route to reach the CBD area but not many people within a 25km radius of Mumbai's or Delhi's nerve-centres can enjoy this kind of multi-level transport systems. Trams still enjoy the patronage of many — a recent debate in Kolkata also supported continuance of the street-car services — even as other major cities, including Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, stopped the green services almost half-a-century ago. I've also been regularly taking trams to office, especially on Sundays, not because it's a comfortable ride than mostly rickety buses but it may boost revenue of the PSU to survive! Besides giant trams, our office area also witnesses racing auto-rickshaws, slow-moving hand-pulled rickshaws that frequently draw attention of human rights activists, new-age moulded rickshaws that move into the lanes and bylanes off Elliot Road-Ripon Street-RA Kidwai Road, and ubiquitous private minibuses, buses and state govt buses (that too owned by five different PSUs). The new entrant to the fleet of buses are AC Volvo ones that have also got decent support from commuters, especially those work in the IT sector on the eastern part of the city.

But why so much details about Kolkata's public transport system? Not that it has raised enormous curiosity in me how an over-populous city cope with so many different types of vehicles, especially at a time when road space is shrinking everyday due to street-hawkers and unauthorized parking of cars but i'm trying to devise a new way, at least for me, of commuting. Maybe, i won't stop using public transport but in an effort for a greener city, i'm trying to develop a unique community here (details in next blog!).

A School Compromised?

Since i heard the sordid tale of my school a few weeks back, i can't relate to the reality with the days we had spent together in our formative years within the high walls of the space called Narendrapur. A school that inspires awe amidst one and all, a school that builds not only someone's career but manifests, in Swamiji's words, "perfection already in a man", a school that is unique in itself that grows with time but believes in the ashrama tradition is something we can hardly think now.

One can visit the campus on the southern fringes of Kolkata to find the true meaning of the word, discipline. Well, that was the idea on which RKM Narendrapur was built in 1943. Students were few, handpicked ones, who would get the best of education and training from the best of teachers. We were the last few batches to have tasted the quality teaching. In the past 10 years or so, the institution has been apparently cornered by the state government to lose its high chair of centre for excellence.

The process was easy. Like other government-aided schools, Narendrapur has to get teachers from a pool created by successful candidates qualified from SSC examination. Precisely, this is where the government played a trick to supply teachers who are hardly qualified to teach students whose level of intelligence surpasses the former! A peculiar situation that the present lots of students have to face day-to-day. Meritorious students here no longer go for the once-respected profession of teaching that too school ones! Some of the university toppers turn out to be teachers, but that's generally confined to the college or university campuses themselves. Schools usually get teachers who prefer Haranath Chakraborty to Eisenstein! Or, Chhaya Prakashani books to Stephen Hawking! A teacher like the great Ajit Sengupta is just a rare-found at Narendrapur.

Then came the age of cellphones. Our on-campus off-the-syllabus expeditions were largely confined to "choti cricket" during the days and "Superhit Muqablas" on Sunday evenings! Our distractions were few although we went through one of the most transitional phases of  human history in this part of the world: India opened doors to foreign companies with ecnomic reforms in 1991, before that Reebok or Coke was brand only to be watched during football World Cups! 1992-93 on one hand were "black years" of Indian democracy with the demolition of Babri Masjid, curfew in major cities, including Kolkata; the birth of serial blasts in Mumbai; the financial jolt with Harshad Mehta scam at BSE; but on the other this was the time when day-night ODIs with back-to-back successes in Tests and ODIs saw another era of marketing cricket unfolding that culminated in IPL 15 years later! MTV was a new thing and drawing rooms started to change forever with the advent of STAR and other TV channels later on. "Dekh Bhai Dekh" was soon to be passé. Also, the first FM station in the country was set up at a place hardly 15km from our campus! So were the first cellphone signals started sending beeps, also from the first tower set up in Kolkata in 1995!

Parents created a ruckus the other day when Narendrapur inmates were found talking on cellphones — something unimaginable in our days not that we didn't have mobiles then but we were brought up under strict discipline. Narendrapur lacks discipline these days besides dedicated teachers who would stay with students at the bhavans. Over-ambitious concerned parents hand over cellphones and iPods unlike my parents who could well gave me a Walkman also! But they didn't. Here lies the second problem in degeneration of an institute. Even during guardian calls on Sundays — as i was never a calm and quiet kid but the one who would play cricket at room and break window-panes or play table-tennis at odd hours — my mother used to listen to the complaints against me and rebuked me sharp. The other day, two guardians threatened our headmaster, who was at the helm then too, if their wards were given TCs! Although the students were shown the Narendrapur main gate eventually, our headmaster had to be put under medicines for the stress and humiliation he never faced.

I won't say Narendrapur is in crisis but alarm bells are ringing. Even if there's a change of guard at the Writers', the government won't change its policy for the sake of a single institute. At least we should try to carry the torch for sake of present students and the Generation Next.

Free? Or, Gagged?

Media, whatever be its strength, is always a soft target. The job of a reporter is equally difficult as that of a diplomat or a commanding officer of the Forces. Attack on journalists in a country that is supposed to promote "free press", is nothing new. Many a time my colleagues our attacked, in some cases it turned out fatal. Although i have never worked with J Dey, who took nine bullets in Mumbai's Powai on Saturday afternoon, instances are many when my friends in the media fraternity have taken the blow amid a stunned silence of governments.

Neither is India a country torn by civil war like Sri Lanka nor is its media voice gagged like that of China. Yet, it's a dangerous place if you want to go into the details of things and publish it for people to know — in short, there's hardly any place for investigative journalism in a country that is rooted deep in corruption. On one hand, people say we publish only "paid news" to suit our corporate needs and on the other, politicians and mafia would constantly put you under threat! Irony of a reporter's job is hardly anyone who is not associated with the mainstream media has any inkling of our profession. It's not glamorous as it often looks like, it's not a safe and secured profession like that of even a primary schoolteacher, it's not money-spinning like that of a doctor or an engineer, but a reporter feels proud in taking a moral stand to unravel the truth. In the process, he might end up like J Dey leaving with unanswered questions.

One of my friends in the industry wanted to move Mumbai to work on the crime beat there. I asked him the reasons, especially when his ageing parents are in Kolkata and he was with one of the most respectable English newspapers. His answer was Mallory-like: "Because criminals are there." Not that Kolkata, or any other city, does not witness murder-rape-robbery-kidnap-extortion et al, but Mumbai is the destination of all criminals, and probably the crime reporters, too. Crime reporting is always a risky job and you won't get support hardly from anyone even if your arm is broken by goons apparently owing allegiance to the ruling party in a state.

Examples are galore. In less-developed states and cities, attacks on reporters are quite frequent with the local mining mafia or gangs or even so-called rebels pull the trigger on inquisitive people who practise on the firm belief: pen is mightier than the sword. Will the government allow us taking up arms like Chhattisgarh's Salwa Judum? Our enemies are many, friends few. We don't need police protection, we don't need sympathy of people, we only need the right kind of environment to work — not to go home happy at the dead end of night only but also to protect democratic and human rights of billions.

Hills Are Heaven Again?

I don't have any childhood romanticism of Darjeeling like many others. My first visit to the Queen of Hills was when i was pursuing my degree at Visva-Bharati. Although i had trips to the Himalayas before that somehow Darjeeling didn't fit to my itinerary ever. Maybe because of Gorkhaland agitation of the late '80s my parents never took us there fearing Bengali backlash during the heyday of Subas Ghising. Maybe because of that only i was never sent to a Hills school, rather to a plains one near Kolkata. Maybe that's why i hardly had any inclination towards one of the most popular hill destinations in the vicinity.

Just a day after i came back from my maiden Puri visit with my mother in 2001, suddenly i got a call from my friend who had a plan trip to Darjeeling with his friends. But one of them declined to go at the eleventh hour and i boarded a sleeper coach of the Darjeeling Mail! We didn't have a hotel booking also and being there just two days after the Puja, it was virtually impossible to find a room for just three of us! After much googling, we got a superb room just off the DHR toy train station. Sharp whistle of the toy train — another symbol of romance after Aradhana fame — woke me up every now and then during our short stay of a couple of nights.

I always had a mind of a typical tourist and inquisitive journalist! During our ropeway ride, visit to zoo or to Happy Valley TE, i talked to people out of curiosity of what makes the town so attractive to thousands of visitors! The evenings were not quiet at the Mall, breakfast tables were simply over-booked for hours at Keventers... i was wondering why the rush to a particular place. The answer i've never got. In the next few days, we criss-crossed the hills with halts at Kalimpong, Loleygaon (Kaffer), Lava, Rishop, Dooars among other places. Wherever we went, we had won hearts of the local people as we had respect for them — unlike many of us who still want to keep them alienated from our society.

The bond just grew stronger with our 2007 trek to Sandakphu, the highest point of West Bengal. Over a week, we befriended many a local people there, especially our guide Saja became another team member. Images of poverty-stricken faces welcomed us in villages. Government schemes of poverty alleviation seemed to have not reached there for years. Beautiful was the topography with serpentine roads meandering through pine trees. White peaks of Kanchenjungha, Kabru and Pandim accompanying the backpackers all the way to the Sandakphu peak — our trip could not have been better! But somewhere in the region reverberations of Gorkhaland demands could be felt though not in striking terms set later by GJM leaders. I did not even think then that we could not return there for a couple of years.

In October 2010 when i visited the hills last, people there realized they have no option but to keep the three 'T's floating — tea, timber and tourists. Our driver, whose home in the foothills i visited later, was a pro-Gorkhaland supporter but he too told me: "Yeh hingsa se badi nafrat hai, magr karoon kya (I hate this sort of violence, but what can i do)?" That was a transitional phase in the Hills after ABGL leader Madan Tamang, who had a democratic voice, had been killed on May 21, 2010. Residents there could not understand what the best solution to their misery was — whether to support GJM (thus supporting economic blockades and surviving on peanuts) or support the Bengal government (thus hounded out of hill homes).

The dilemma seems to be over now with the Mamata Banerjee government agreeing to some of their demands. As the people from plains again making a beeline to the makeshift stalls on the Nehru Road to pick up a sweater this summer, the Hills can hope for better days ahead with hosting a perfect Puja holidays for the Bengalis!

Pain & Peace

It was almost 1.30 in that 2007 night of early spring when we entered a zone of dense fog where our car’s headlights seemed to be reflecting backward. We couldn’t help but make a brief halt at a highway dhaba that came up there only recently. The young owner of the eatery joint — apparently grown quite popular in a short time on the NH-2 where truck drivers relaxed themselves on khatias — told us how he hoped that the upcoming Tata Nano plant near his dhaba would change his fortune, like many others. We also thought that with the new government — second Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government bulldozed opposition parties to victory just nine months back with industrialization on lips — could turn the tide before heading towards Bankura.

Same dhaba, two years later. On our way to Santiniketan, i told my friend that we should stop there for breakfast. I was not at all nostalgic but i could see from a distance that the once-bubbling dhaba was looking shabby with its thatched-roof verandah caved in during Nor’wester. I asked the young man, who obviously didn’t recognize me, what about his dhaba’s expansion plan he had told me a couple of years back. “My dream is lost somewhere under the blue tin sheds of the Tata plant. Can’t you see that?” terse was the answer with pain in his looks. That was in February 2009, a little over four months after Ratan Tata had announced the decision to shift his proposed plant from “Bad M (Mamata, Banerjee) to Good M (Modi, Narendra)”. Back to wheels, my friend said: “Because of one lady, many a dream has been shattered like this.”

In the past four years, i’ve taken this highway many a time and seen how a real greenfield project was coming up flattening fields that yield golden crops, how a woman resisted forceful takeover of land, how an under-construction plant with 80% completion gets its equipment shifted overnight and moreover, how the people still stare at the 1000 acres with disbelief. Singur has many definitions and dimensions now. People, especially farmers in Bengal villages, have now realized that their lands are acquired for some projects and most of these hardly come up in their lifetime. They can part with their land but who will ensure their survival? The industries won’t give jobs to unskilled farmers, like what happened in Rajarhat. The government won’t allow farming in urban vicinity, like what happened in Salt Lake. The elites won’t allow an entry to their domain, like what happened in Santiniketan. They will always be marginalized.

A few days ago, i was on a bus going to Bakkhali, a tourist spot off the Bay of Bengal. After it left Namkhana on its last leg, i spotted some bull-dozers pressed into service for widening of NH-117. An old woman, sitting by the window, asked her relative (maybe husband): “What will happen to those who have land by the side of the highway?” “The government has given them compensation and also recruited our villagers in the job. Why should we complain if the 30ft wide road adds another lane to it?” he said. I was not surprised as people have realized two things: awareness is necessary, and development is the keyword but not at gunpoint.

Bong Pride

Known for its focus on culture, especially after Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee ascended to the chair just before the 2001 polls, every other Bengali thought that West Bengal would rightfully be put up on the cultural map of India. True to our nature, we, Bengalis, always think we are far more progressive than other states culturally, if not on the industrial front. Our superiority complex is simply unmatchable: we think people from neighbour Bihar has hardly any culture, we don’t even consider Maharashtra can also dominate the field like finance markets. Gujarat? That might be a developed state but ruled by a communal chief minister! Examples like these are abundant.

What is surprised to note that West Bengal — or Bengalis as a community — didn’t have any representation in Republic Day tableau fro several years. Critics would say why make a fuss about it? When other states had tableaux in this all-India cultural show on the Raj Path, why can’t West Bengal send a team to the annual New Delhi colourful extravaganza? Nobody had an answer, no one was bothered, at least those at the helm of affairs in Kolkata, the power citadel of communists in India. We had a chief minister — who had also been the cultural minister for decades — apparently inclined to writing plays, watching films, and moreover, spending times with culture vultures.

Yet, nothing changed much after we sent a team to the Delhi show way back in 1996! This January, something was different on the sprawling misty Army campus in New Delhi. A team of teenagers from Santiniketan was rehearsing steps for the Republic Day parade. They had just a fortnight to practise the dance to the tune of a Rabindrasangeet chosen by the person who had invited them for the national show. Their instructor was also not spared from the strict Army guidelines even during the practice sessions as this would be televised across the country besides thousands others, including the President, Prime Minister and other dignitaries, would watch it live.

On that chilly morning of January 26, the 15-odd youngsters, including girls, finished the 4.5km dance to the rhythm of “Oi Mahamanob Asey” to an overwhelming response of VIPs and enthusiastic spectators. Their performance was applauded by one and all as they were the only group, unlike other states, that did not use a tableau but represented the barefoot performance on the Raj Path. Sitting in her usual sari-chappal beside Sonia Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee was visibly happy with the performance ideated by herself. She was instrumental to invite Visva-Bharati students — who represented the Indian Railways — to the Republic Day show for a tribute to Rabindranath Tagore in his sesquicentenary anniversary celebrations. Incidentally, West Bengal did not send a single team this year also!

Whether we should take pride in our state of cultural affairs is a matter of debate but an Army officer present during the practice sessions said: “At last we have seen Bongs are not afraid to put up a show on Republic Day.” Isn’t it the time to ponder over our future as a community known for cultural supremacy? Can we hope to see a team from our state performing on the Raj Path in 2012? Questions are many.

Tuition Time

"Chhele ta du to letter peyechhe (My son has got letter marks, 80%, in two subjects)," the agarbatti-wala told me in a cramped compartment of the usual 3.01 Dn Bongaon local today. Yesterday, results of Madhyamik Pariksha (secondary exam) were out and this incense sticks-seller was taking pride for obvious reasons. But he was wary also. For his son's Plus Two private tuition, he has already talked to four teachers of the school the boy is studying. And, the amount they are charging is beyond the man's financial reach. Now, he is thinking whether to take loan from their co-operative society (Rs 250 interest on a loan of Rs 10,000) or stop his son's education.

Problems aplenty. Esteemed teachers of government schools concentrate on offering private tuition than taking classes much like the doctors going for private practice during hospital hours! Education system, like health, should be on priority list of any government if the state wants to be on the progress path. Can we expect our HRD minister will do something striking like the chief minister in overhauling the system? Some years ago when the state government decided to ban private tuition by schoolteachers, there was an never-seen-before protests from most of them under the umbrella organisation, Left-backed ABTA. And, the party — synonymous with the Left Front government — called a press conference to clarify that such a rule would not be implemented and the party leaders would talk to the minister concerned. What followed next was nothing but a firm rebuke of the minister and withdrawal of the proposed rule.

Alternative source of income for thousands of teachers was thus secured at the expense of parents' pockets. More importantly, the teachers would not take classes seriously as they know the same student — who is also bound to be inattentive in the class — would come up to hims that very evening and take notes for better results. So, who has gained in the process? No one except the party, and teachers owing allegiance to them! For the government, teachers are a huge force not only to conduct polls but also to inject values (read, party ideology) in the tender brains.

Last but not the least: the agarbatti-walla still hopes that the new government would help his son and others like him in higher studies. Let's wait whether Mamata — who recently promised to dole out funds for meritorious students of economically backward classes — can fulfil his dream.

Facebook Feedback # 1

[One Facebook post has tempted me to comment and counter-comment. I think these conversation is historically important, hence i would like to make a copy-paste file of this with important comments from my friends in this blog only. And this was almost the same time my last blog was published on the same topic. More relevant comments on the FB post will be added to the comments section of this blog also]

Anjishnu Bandyopadhyay: This is what we wanted...PORIBARTAN.... Director of Bangur Institute of Neuro Sciences suspended for argueing with our dear CM...for protesting against the flock of reporters accompanying the CM, and disturbing the hospital complex.
Think of the "poor" patients who were supposed to be operated on by the suspended doctor today.

Bibaswan Banerjee: This is bound to happen if a fascist and irrational person is in power........

Aranya Sen: Gone will be the days of democracy and freedom of speech! Voice something against the ruling party, and face the wrath! Are the days of 70s coming back?

Bibaswan: but unfortunately it is our generation that have voted for them.....without realizing the direction of the "paribartan"......

Shailesh Kolekar: this is bad ...

Anjishnu: fortunate for the Director...the CM didn't repeat her acts of slapping and smearing black paints on the faces of Govt officials.

Bibaswan: Wait a bit....she will do that soon..........i amsure!

Abhilash Nair: dada, seesm u dont like didi 2 much :)

Sandipi Mukherjee: ki r kora jabe.. ??

Subhen Kar: There is nothing called a poor patient in this country you cannot be poor and a patient at the same time. Hence it is justified.

Supratim Pal: what the CM did (suspending BINP director) y'day is not supportable, so is the functioning and deterioration of health services in the 34 glorious years of Left rule. if her surprise visits yield minimum results in improving health services in govt hospitals, real poor will bless her, not upper-middle class poor like us! Bibaswan, most of us (voters) had experienced TINA factor all these years... we were not in heaven either Aranya... giving a chance to another party for 5 years will not pull us down to another hell, we hope. change is the most constant factor we seemed to have forgotten in the Left rule! instead of just visiting and taking superb pix of kerala, Anjishnu, can we take some lessons from one of the most developed state? WB is the ONLY state where we have both the snow-capped hills and sun-kissed beaches... why didn't our jyoti babu develop it on kerala tourism model? when can we have a hospital like CMC vellore? why can't we tap thousands of medical tourists like TN? why should there be exam special trains to B'lore? why should our best brains go to HYD or B'lore? why doesn't a govt talk to poor farmers before acquiring their farmland just to appease certain biz groups while parched lands in purulia just lying unused? isn't it fascist and irrational Bibaswan? we don't have answers for all these... we just think it's our fate we were born in 1980/81/82... but we can change our destiny... let's see.

Anjishnu: ‎1. "Surprise visits", followed by the huge crowd of reporters, are mere publicity stunts...she has to remind us tht she's our Health Minister too...there r other ways of improving healthcare, rather than harassing patients.
2. "give a chance to another party"...tht's what ppl hav done...let's see the end results.
3. "snow-capped hills and sun-kissed beaches"...wait for these to be converted to Switzerland and Goa, as per the election manifesto...hope Switzerland doesn't become part of a new state called Gorkhaland.
4. Its not feasible to appease all farmers, more so, if this small % of farmers r backed by opposition. There won't b any industry in the state then. The compesation was pertty good.
5. There r lots of good colleges in Bengal now, the standard of them r better than lot of their counterparts in K'taka.

Abhishek Das: ‎Anjishnu, Did you know that Dr. Gorai (The BINS Director) was a man close to Alimuddin, and he misbehaved with the opponent party CM...so this was bound to happen !! Moreover....a Hospital Director is an Administrative head...& he is not the main surgeon in a surgery team...he was called at CM's Secretariat office for a meeting, but he gave excuses....It's apt he got suspended......Press should be free and fair...that's what democracy is all about ! The press did not flock the inner sanctum of Operation Theatre but some Male wards...so I don't find any wrong in this....

Supratim: ‎1. not a single reporter or the CM "harassed" any of the patients. wherever the CM goes, media follows... it's a norm not only in bengal... but across the world the press follows heads of states. we did not have to follow any CM to hospital wards in the past few years, as he preferred to sip black tea at Nandan amid sycophant intellectuals than visit patients! weird!!!! 2. gorkhaland problem was made serious by jyoti basu... and the onus of solution will be someone else! great... we will see how that unfolds... how many past CMs wanted to tap tourism in the hills? or the beaches? compare any WBTDC hotels with other state tourism resorts... you guys will get the results... ‎3. why don't you guys ask pro-poor Left leaders why did they go for lock-out in the jute mills? who stopped industrialisation? why do we still see CITU stops work at Haldia petrochem (their flagship pro-industry example) frequently? again, i reiterate, why can't there be industrialisation in dry arid lands of Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore than in fertile Hooghly, Burdwan and East Midnapore? people in purulia need industry more than anything, as they have only 3 months of agricultural production unlike 12-month farm produce in Singur and its adjoining areas... small % of farmers are ALSO farmers... if someone takes away my laptop, keyboard, cellphone... my means of livelihood... how can i survive? if u take away their land, how can they survive? how many times did the ex-CM talk to the land-losers? or the prospective land-losers before distributing cheques in sept 2006 in singur? how many hearings were done in Singur or in Nandigram? the govt just cannot send a notice via East Midnapore DM and start acquiring land in Nandigram... y'day the NAC cleared compensation six times the present value of land... why can't be done six years ago? land acquisition process would have been smoother then... Singur and Nandigram agitation made policy-makers in Delhi to think also... mamata was never anti-industry but pro-farmers... we know industry cannot come up in the sky... why didn't the Left create a land bank then like what Mamata did soon after became railway minister in 2009... the under-construction railway project and the pace of it in Dankuni is what commuters (and voters) see everyday... what compensation was given to land-losers in rajarhat where a flat now costs more than a 2-bed flat in LA or NYC!!

Sid Pathak: Wow...did that really happen?

Bibaswan: ‎Supratim, the problem is our very own attitude of blaming the past......however we must focus on criticizing the ruling team rather than the party who had already been kicked out!......I believe people must keep faith on TMC and hope they do at least something that would help them earn a pedigree for themselves...........however currently as a common man I feel that Mamata has this attitude of "ami i shob"........the earlier she comes out of this, the better is for the state when we will get to see the "paribartan" in the correct direction.......otherwise it will be the same old situation I am afraid!.....and she must stop making those false promises that she will change everything in 200 days and stuffs..........thats not possible.....not with the people like me and others who prefers to speak a lot and do nothing!!!!!!!!!

Anjishnu: ‎Abhishek, If "being close to Alimuddin" and so called "misbehaving" leads to such suspension, then then either you r not in proper state of mind while writing the post, or we r heading to the black days of '70s.
And read the Telegraph post, you will understand that a "Director" operates also.

Gautam Ghosh: The poor and hapless people are spending the Night on the Hospital Floors with Rats and Mice. The Superintendent is busy...The CM arrives for Inspection...she has the Moral Duty and the Right to do so, as the Defacto head of the State...how come the patients are disturbed?"?They are alighted rather, for the visit of the Angel...Do not talk like a demon ...see yourself in the Mirror , you must have lost youir Human Values and senses to speak such Rot..

Supratim: Anjishnu, just a passing comment: as Bibaswan said we shud not go back to past... but i can't but differ on this "black days" point. i won't go into detailed opinion now, but maybe in my next blog. :-)

Bibaswan: ‎Supratim, I believe you won't mind a few comments from an old friend........Your blogs are exceptinally good in terms of thoughts and composure. But somehow I never see an unbiased view. I believe it is the responsibilty of us to put forward a true and unbiased point and let the people decide.......I know that the state was definitely in dismay during the left front rule......my point is about TMC as an alternative and Mamata as the CM.............are they by any means a better alternative?.........This needs to be seen......whether Mamata is actually capable of doing something constructive...........This Bangur case defintely has a lot more to what has been published.......

Arindam Das: I agree with Supratim. To all Left Sympathizers... plz shut up your mouth ... else next time figure won't be 60 odd ... it will be single digit only :))

Sid: wow...just read the article...I am afraid of Bengal's future...

Sohan Banerjee: Alu.... please dont mind ... but u r politically biased .... people like u kept left in power for so long .... of course they were on ur opposite side

Supratim: ‎Bibaswan, why should i mind? FB and blogs are open space... and thoughts should be shared... thatz why we all participated in this comment thread... anyway, let me put one thing first: from the core of my heart, i am a communist in its true sense; not like jyoti basu who couldn't resist black label every evening or our ex-CM buddha whose daily dose was, as i said earlier, black tea at nandan with sycophants. all leaders have their own way of doing things... tell me one thing is mamata's politics much different what communism, more particularly marxism, is all about? if you look into it, his every step resonates communist manifesto of 1848. i hope everyone of us have read it thoroughly esp since we grew up in a communist-ruled state. our problem with mamata is simple: simplicity, impulsive, rough compared to suave, complex, show-off etc etc of other leaders. many of us may not know how tech-savvy she is, but she won't show it off. she won't flaunt a blackberry or ride a sedan! her politics is like that. we, typical educated bengali middle class, may not find a mirror reflection in her, but millions of marginalised people do get that. as i said in this thread earlier, we (voters in bengal) were suffering from TINA factor for years... There Is No Alternative (TINA)... opposition was made lame-duck and i think that's the best jyoti babu could do during his rule in bengal. yes! it is always an achievement for any democratically elected head of a state to wipe out opposition... and mr basu did that with sending a pipe-smoking dhoti-clad birbhum brahmin to delhi (who never contested an election before this UPA govt) and subtly dividing the congress in bengal in various factions. look at mamata's team now: an MLA who created the rift in bengal congress is now back to TMC, an ex-mayor who once projected her in 1984 elections as a mentor is now her cabinet minister! examples are galore... what she did was to gel the anti-left forces together like what mr basu did in the "dark days of 70s"... lastly, are we ready to give mamata 34 years? of course NOT... we want results, isn't it? she only took her oath last friday... just over a week.. isn't too early to judge her whether she is better or worse? value judgement comes only after she starts doing something... what she is doing now is a bit theatrical (hence my FB posts are 'daily dose of didi drama' accompanying the blog)... she is best in doing so, it's her way of functioning... let's see whether she can change the situation... and Arindam, erokom bolis na. u never know what might happen in another 5 years. erokom bolei kintu oi dhoti-panjabi pora lok ta nije here dol k dubiyechhe. :)

Sohan: friends ..... my educated friends ..... please dont go with d political stunts or advertisement politics ..... I still think from a very nutral pt of view that Mamata has not won..... but left has lost...... I am sure that Mamata will become a danger for democracy soon .... and the sold out Anandabazar will try to cover her back ...... but belive me .... I wish that future proves me wrong

Bibaswan: ‎Supratim, Hyan..........bujhlam tor point ta.......r amio bar bar etai bolchi je dakha jak kichu korte pare kina...........kintu somehow akta sadharon manush hishebe kichutei hisheb ta melate parchi na......actually communism, marxism....eshob amar kache anek boro boro kotha........CPM actually sudhu naam ei oi 2 to follow korte.....kintu oi mamata r karjo kolaap take kichutei bhorsha korte parchi na..........eta jamon narendrapur e paritosh da akbar history te ami ektu beshi number peye jete amake ghor e deke jera korechilo ami tukechi kina..........seirokom i arki!!!!!!

Arindam Das: ‎Supratim, I have made a comment because these ppl found flaws in a govt where are not even in 34 days and couldn't find in them who were in power for 34 years...

Bibaswan: ‎@ Arindam : actually I think we, the people of our generation only started to understand politics lately, in a proper way, studied about it, gathered the intelligence to interpret it just lately..maybe in the past 5 yrs...........and since...

@Supratim : arekta jinis hocche eta je left der akebare vanish hoye jawatao jathesto khotikarok......karon left ache bolei India ajo recession e mukh thubre poreni..........seta mana uchit.........ei desh tar abostha dekhchi to........"daan" er jere jerbaar hoye gache akebaare............serokom abostha na hoy........setai bhoy..........

Arindam: ‎@bibaswan correct and we should wait watch & see rather than jumping to a conclusion so early it's premature and childish too......

Supratim: Bibaswan, ami koekdin agei FB te ekta link share korechhilam... "why the left should not vanish"... saba naqvi er lekha... besh bhalo http://outlookindia.com/article.aspx?271911