While talking to a distant friend (after so long) I was (yet again) reminded the fact that I’ve had the opportunity to stay at so many places in such short period… 7-8 years, 3 places noticeably and inter changeably. My wisdom says people who adapt with different haute couture are pleasant. But what could be an unpleasant stay over a period, turned out to be one of the most riveting experiences. No prize for guessing, it is Kolkata. If you have spent >2 years in the oxford of east and have been in love with each and every moment elapsed why on earth will you even dream of loving an overtly populated, polluted and slothful cal.
It was after I came back to Pune from Cal, that I realized that I missed a lot of things about Calcutta. I missed the then nagging neighbors, the small and narrow street with smell of charcoal emanating from every alcove, the street food, Beethoven’s symphony played at the Minto Park signal, fragrance of bestsellers at oxford book store, the bus/metro/tram ride, the ever shouting bus conductors, the forever cribbing of bongs about Bengal bandhs, traffic, law & order, society rules etc, Christmas celebration, pujo. I used to think that I am never gonna go back to cal, once I move out of here. But now that I get to think about the simple and the concept of life in small packets, so evidently seen in Calcutta, I realize how privileged I was that I had the chance to befriend Calcutta bongs and others.
We live and forget that apart from work and families there are other things we snub. We forget art and literature, quaint paintings, the ever enchanting chords of music, the magic of playing football when it rains and the poetry of Tagore. Calcutta wakes up, works but comes back to its neighbors & friends, dances with friends during Pujo, sings together for a casual antakshari at their society premises, exchange dishes with neighbors, casually visit each other’s place just to say hi, instruct other’s children to become a good citizen, teaches them the importance of kalboisakhi, sings the morning glory with their riyaaj, debates over every issue under the sun and declares bandhs for personal pleasure.
Whether it is the magic of kalboisakhi, pujo, lokhi puja or Christmas; Calcutta looks beautiful. People who hate it for multitude of reasons get used to the finger-licking street-licious food, friendly crowd, the constant cribbing of people, bonhomie of their neighbors, ever bargaining crowd at every corner of street shop to mall, the theatres/plays, book launch, rickety metro ride and celebration of everything which can be happily enjoyed. I missed Kolkata, amidst the sophistry of Pune; eventful and demanding Mumbai; in the void of no nonchalant environment in Delhi.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Scarred India
What does an intriguing question mean to you? If you ask me, it would be- what does independence mean to you? Or, maybe, my take on- ‘politics is the only solution’ (quoted by Mr. Gandhi yesterday at Pune)
Today’s newspaper had this itsy bitsy take on how the interactive session between Mr. Gandhi and the students of various institutes happened. How Mr. Gandhi answered, conveyed and convinced the youth to join politics and solve ‘the problem’. It read- Scion of the biggest political dynasty in the nation arrived in the city with a single point agenda.
Reasons why I find this issue, intriguing:
• Being quadruped is not limited to mortal combat: Our religious procreation strategies; cause and effect-domestic abuse, molestation, marital rape, female foeticide and infanticide blah. This makes me contemplate that we were better being slaves. At least, we were fighting against a common issue. We were one. We were not screwing our own traditions and cultures in the name of humanity or whatever!
• Being kewl is the now mantra: We distort our treasures because we think it looks cool that way. I have lot of examples and to start with I have the winner of all the examples, the recent ‘mile sur mera tumhara’. I remember when I was a kid; I would run to watch this featured song on doordarshan. It used to give me the delight of watching all the legends in one song. I could get to see the beauty of Kerala, the sunset of Rajasthan, the baritone of Mr. Bachchan, could relate with the levity of children aired, the turbulent waterfalls of Meghalaya, the mystifying voice of Ms. Mangeshkar and the saccharinity of regional voice sounding one in mile sur mera tumhara, tho sur bane hamara. I am glad that in the new feature a lot of living legends were not there, viz, Tendulkar, Bhupen Hazarika, Pdt. Shankar, Gulzar etc etc. The now feature mile sur is nothing but an introduction to the film industry. And I don’t give a damn to it. Period.
• Being the slum dog millionaires: who are we? Why do the poverty, ignorance, regionalism, red tapism, corruption and illiteracy win us accolades? And the fact that India has increased life expectancy from 32 years to 65 years. We have built about 1.25 million miles of new roads; we have multiplied our steel production by over 50 times and cement production by almost 20 times. No other technology has brought India--the urban and the rural--together as effectively as the 500-line EPABX designed and implemented by the Center for Development of Telematics under the leadership of Sam Pitroda. We have increased our exports from a few million dollars at the time of independence to more than $125 billion now, with about $150 billion of imports; green revolution, white revolution, economic reforms, Chandrayan, Eka and brave media remains dilettante by the world.
• Indian movies: I would certainly not want to watch Border, Gadar, Bhagat Singh and others over and over again, which were merely a remake of some Will Smith movie or Independence Day. I do not wish to criticize Muslims, criticize congress for not hanging Afzal guru, spitfire at Gandhi for if he was not here; there would have been no partition, cancel my plans of staying at other countries because then I won’t be proud of my nationality.
• Rules and regulations for the ‘mango people’: for the common man, getting things done as per the Govt.’s rules and regulations is a rocket science. A terrorist gets his/her passport(s) done in few seconds but a genuine person may take ages and currencies. You follow traffic rules, pay bills, taxes and et al but also pay extra to the police, security etc. coz you want a hassle free life. And sardonically, a politician evades useless expenditure for a lavish life. The income taxes we pay gets the minister’s son a new Ferrari…and you sit for the seminar of ‘Equitable distribution of wealth’ or ‘Growing economy of India’. Sigh!
• Being victim of a killing spree: I read the newspaper every day and figure out I am so unsafe everywhere. I can get a heart attack on the way and will never reach the hospital because there will be rickshaw strike, roadblock(s), killer buses, a long unanswered logjam, treacherous stretches and truncated roads which claim four lives in a month.
• Anti-India movement: I am surprised, hurt and ashamed to see how a Maharastrian fights with Jats or a Behari fights with Bengali or a Marwari fights with Punjabi. A Bengali feels respite meeting another bong in Mumbai, a Maharastrian speaks in Marathi with the other Marathi manoos not acknowledging the other non-maharastrian; none of his business. A Raj Thackery is adored for spreading regionalism and linguist movement. A South Indian says that he/she does not know how to speak in Hindi, when ironically Hindi is the mother tongue of India. The small regions, religions, languages, cultures etc. has bifurcated India in small, ugly, unimpressive, sordid and ghastly pieces. You can still be burnt alive if you plan to marry someone out of your caste or creed. You can still be physically and emotionally tortured if you do not speak the local lingo of a state. You still fear practicing your fundamental rights, because a political leader might just gag and beat the pulp out of you. You do not meet Indians anymore; you get to see a Punjabi, Marwari, Bihari, Maharatrian, Gujrati etc.
You are free to give me reason(s) why the question cannot be intriguing, but pleasant. Please do not give me reasons like- we are ahead in some rocket science, x% of the Indians are a part of NASA, we have the brightest population of IITs, IIMs, IASs, IPSs….does it matter to our independence? How many class one officers do not take bribe? How many of you do not litter because you do not want to make your country dirty? How many of you have (lately) said you are an Indian and not a Bong, Maharatrian, Bihari and others?? How many of you have quietly seen unlawful things happening, criminals breathing right down on your lungs and have never cared to report? I find this question intriguing because vande mataram does not give me Goosebumps the way it used to when I proudly marched past in my school parade for my country. I am off it, far from it and probably bought and tunneled by the infecting termite.
Today’s newspaper had this itsy bitsy take on how the interactive session between Mr. Gandhi and the students of various institutes happened. How Mr. Gandhi answered, conveyed and convinced the youth to join politics and solve ‘the problem’. It read- Scion of the biggest political dynasty in the nation arrived in the city with a single point agenda.
Reasons why I find this issue, intriguing:
• Being quadruped is not limited to mortal combat: Our religious procreation strategies; cause and effect-domestic abuse, molestation, marital rape, female foeticide and infanticide blah. This makes me contemplate that we were better being slaves. At least, we were fighting against a common issue. We were one. We were not screwing our own traditions and cultures in the name of humanity or whatever!
• Being kewl is the now mantra: We distort our treasures because we think it looks cool that way. I have lot of examples and to start with I have the winner of all the examples, the recent ‘mile sur mera tumhara’. I remember when I was a kid; I would run to watch this featured song on doordarshan. It used to give me the delight of watching all the legends in one song. I could get to see the beauty of Kerala, the sunset of Rajasthan, the baritone of Mr. Bachchan, could relate with the levity of children aired, the turbulent waterfalls of Meghalaya, the mystifying voice of Ms. Mangeshkar and the saccharinity of regional voice sounding one in mile sur mera tumhara, tho sur bane hamara. I am glad that in the new feature a lot of living legends were not there, viz, Tendulkar, Bhupen Hazarika, Pdt. Shankar, Gulzar etc etc. The now feature mile sur is nothing but an introduction to the film industry. And I don’t give a damn to it. Period.
• Being the slum dog millionaires: who are we? Why do the poverty, ignorance, regionalism, red tapism, corruption and illiteracy win us accolades? And the fact that India has increased life expectancy from 32 years to 65 years. We have built about 1.25 million miles of new roads; we have multiplied our steel production by over 50 times and cement production by almost 20 times. No other technology has brought India--the urban and the rural--together as effectively as the 500-line EPABX designed and implemented by the Center for Development of Telematics under the leadership of Sam Pitroda. We have increased our exports from a few million dollars at the time of independence to more than $125 billion now, with about $150 billion of imports; green revolution, white revolution, economic reforms, Chandrayan, Eka and brave media remains dilettante by the world.
• Indian movies: I would certainly not want to watch Border, Gadar, Bhagat Singh and others over and over again, which were merely a remake of some Will Smith movie or Independence Day. I do not wish to criticize Muslims, criticize congress for not hanging Afzal guru, spitfire at Gandhi for if he was not here; there would have been no partition, cancel my plans of staying at other countries because then I won’t be proud of my nationality.
• Rules and regulations for the ‘mango people’: for the common man, getting things done as per the Govt.’s rules and regulations is a rocket science. A terrorist gets his/her passport(s) done in few seconds but a genuine person may take ages and currencies. You follow traffic rules, pay bills, taxes and et al but also pay extra to the police, security etc. coz you want a hassle free life. And sardonically, a politician evades useless expenditure for a lavish life. The income taxes we pay gets the minister’s son a new Ferrari…and you sit for the seminar of ‘Equitable distribution of wealth’ or ‘Growing economy of India’. Sigh!
• Being victim of a killing spree: I read the newspaper every day and figure out I am so unsafe everywhere. I can get a heart attack on the way and will never reach the hospital because there will be rickshaw strike, roadblock(s), killer buses, a long unanswered logjam, treacherous stretches and truncated roads which claim four lives in a month.
• Anti-India movement: I am surprised, hurt and ashamed to see how a Maharastrian fights with Jats or a Behari fights with Bengali or a Marwari fights with Punjabi. A Bengali feels respite meeting another bong in Mumbai, a Maharastrian speaks in Marathi with the other Marathi manoos not acknowledging the other non-maharastrian; none of his business. A Raj Thackery is adored for spreading regionalism and linguist movement. A South Indian says that he/she does not know how to speak in Hindi, when ironically Hindi is the mother tongue of India. The small regions, religions, languages, cultures etc. has bifurcated India in small, ugly, unimpressive, sordid and ghastly pieces. You can still be burnt alive if you plan to marry someone out of your caste or creed. You can still be physically and emotionally tortured if you do not speak the local lingo of a state. You still fear practicing your fundamental rights, because a political leader might just gag and beat the pulp out of you. You do not meet Indians anymore; you get to see a Punjabi, Marwari, Bihari, Maharatrian, Gujrati etc.
You are free to give me reason(s) why the question cannot be intriguing, but pleasant. Please do not give me reasons like- we are ahead in some rocket science, x% of the Indians are a part of NASA, we have the brightest population of IITs, IIMs, IASs, IPSs….does it matter to our independence? How many class one officers do not take bribe? How many of you do not litter because you do not want to make your country dirty? How many of you have (lately) said you are an Indian and not a Bong, Maharatrian, Bihari and others?? How many of you have quietly seen unlawful things happening, criminals breathing right down on your lungs and have never cared to report? I find this question intriguing because vande mataram does not give me Goosebumps the way it used to when I proudly marched past in my school parade for my country. I am off it, far from it and probably bought and tunneled by the infecting termite.
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