KolkataMusing (KM) is read by a large section of Indian diaspora spread all over the world. Visitors feel KM offers information of value on many topics, and eagerly look forward to its posts.
It's now time to make KM more broadbased. As a part of that KM now accepts articles from guest writers.
Here are a few points to consider:
Please ensure the materials you send like article, photo, picture, video, etc. are only yours and not copied from any source. You as writer of an article own full responsibility for its correctness, and relevance.
Articles on travel, cooking, celebration, and other lifestyle topics will be preferred, especially when they are accompanied by pictures, videos, etc.
Full credit will be given to the writer, including name, website, email (if preferred), phone number (if preferred, but we do not suggest). This will make any visitor to the site directly contact the writer without any intervention from KM.
Final selection of the article to be published will be made by Partha Bhattacharya. He may edit an article if required, and may at a future time remove an article from the blog if such situation arises.
Writers may not receive any payment for the articles they send. If however a writer consistently writes good articles supplemented with photos, videos, etc. KM may decide to link payment for further submissions.
Please send your articles to mahanagar.net[at]gmail[dot]com with the subject as 'Article for KM'.
Thank you.
Announce An Event
Do you own a dancing school? Are you opening a restaurant? Is a program of yours going to be staged soon? Do you want to announce a college reunion? Is the Durga Puja in your para a success?
Please, please announce/share any such lifestyle/sport event with the readers of KolkataMusing. Bring delight to them.
A few guidelines for you before you send:
No non-lifestyle event.
Pictures/videos are must, plus a write-up of about 200 words. Of course all of those ought to belong to the submitter only.
Write about any part of globe, but it must be about India/Indians. Preference though will be for Kolkata
Full credit will be given to the submitter, including name, website, email (if preferred), phone number (if preferred, but we do not suggest). This will make any visitor to the site directly contact the writer without any intervention from KM.
Final selection will be made by Partha Bhattacharya. He may edit a submission if needed and may at a future time remove a submission from the blog if such situation arises.
Submitters may not receive any payment for the announcements they send.
Please send your announcement to mahanagar.net[at]gmail[dot]com with the subject as 'Announcement for KM'.
Thank you.
Click to listen about KolkataMusing. Background music from Incompetech.
Jubilant Trinamool supporters after election results [Photo courtesy: Yahoo! India NEWS]
To many people who have not resided in Bengal, the turning point for the left’s decline has been the incidents at Singur and Nandigram. They also give the example of the left’s withdrawing support to UPA-1 over the nuclear agreement with the US.
But they are wrong! They are wrong because though they hear bits and pieces of the left’s atrocities in Bengal, they have less idea about the extent of oppression of the human rights and values that the left had perpetrated for long in the state.
Chatterers and TV talk-show participants in some national channels often argued how the left could be in power for so long if it hadn’t done something good for the people! And at a different time, the same people would unabashedly pull out the stats of dismal performance of the state and express in open-mouthed wonder, how the left could be in power for such abysmal doings.
The dichotomy in their thoughts reveals that the truth for them is hard to find. But there was no illusion in the minds of the people of Bengal as to what ails them. And they know that a deep-rooted cause has always been the difference between being ‘left’ and not being ‘left’.
To put in a nutshell, the left’s has been a totalitarian regime that deeply polarized the people into ‘us’ and ‘them’ camps. They, in their quest to advance their own political interests, deliberately acted upon the ploy of dividing people between those who ‘belong’ to them and those who don’t.
The disparity between the haves and the have-nots grew to become so overwhelming that it became impossible to ignore the chasm. And the more the chasm became apparent, the more arrogant and outrageous the left became! The utterances of some of their leaders during the poll campaign prove that.
Good governance is not a difficult task but the left approached it in a wrong way. They thought they monopolized it and only they would decide who should be the likely beneficiaries of the fruits of governance.
But know what, keeping aside the political affiliations, what matters to the people at the grassroots is simply a life of good quality. The left failed to do this, no matter what they wanted us to believe.
And that started the rot.
Contrary to the common belief, the left’s decline started long back. For a long, long time the problem was that the opposition was bereft of a tall leader who could earn the trust of the masses and garner them to take on and defeat the left, which is said to have perhaps the most formidable electoral machinations in the country.
The ultimate decimation of the left yesterday was therefore a long time in the offing. Never think that the debacle was the result of a ‘few’ mistakes like Singur and Nandigram. The ‘mistakes’ accelerated the pace of the left’s demise, but not its cause.
From the viewpoint of a fellow Bengali, I more than welcome the change because no matter what the doomsayers believe, nothing could have been worse than what the left has turned Bengal into in the last more than 3 decades.
Let me give you an analogy. If my memory serves me right, in a BBC telecast of the uprising in Egypt a few months back, when a correspondent asked a demonstrator at the Tahrir Square about the global apprehension of what would happen if Mubarak was made to leave, the man’s reply was telling.
He said that the Egypt’s civilization was one of the oldest, and that it didn’t matter what the other countries felt about their protests. The only important thing was to oust the oppressive regime, and bring a new life in the lives of people in the country.
Today is the dawn in Bengal’s history. It’s not a new dawn since 34 years of misrule is too long a time in the people’s memory to think of a new dawn. Several generations have passed since and frankly, very few among today’s youth have the faintest idea of what it means to breathe the fresh air, and blossom into one’s full capability.
My heartfelt gratitude to Mamata Banerjee, and countless others who live and don’t live but worked with her, to make our dream come true!
Will she succeed? That is a question for tomorrow. For now, let’s enjoy the dawn of a new Bengal.
This guest article is written by Suchita Mundhra. Read about her at the end of the article. If you wish your article to be published in this blog, please contact at mahanagar.net[@]gmail[.]com with subject as "I Want To Write".
The holy texts furnish limpid reasons for celebration of most festivals. Diwali which marks the return of Ram from his fourteen years in exile in the present time means so much more than just his return. The multifarious activities that revolve around it would have been beyond ram’s power to comprehend. Let’s see what diwali means to some…
The greeting card companies get another festival to capitalize. The cell phone operators get a day of increased revenues. For the homemaker it is a week of cleaning all the possible nooks and corners. The household help earns a pair of new clothes from her employers. For the government clerk it means an official holiday with perks. For the Nano family it means a trip to the mall with a pick for all. For the businessmen, it is the best time to please Lakshmi.
So let’s celebrate each diwali with this juvenile spirit. Welcome the new, cherish the old, relish the present with a garnish of the old.
Suchita is in final year of Masters in Arts Journalism from CEPT University, Ahmedabad. Apart from reading and traveling she just keeps dreaming... Her only wish she can think of at the moment is to buy a vintage beetle.
This guest article is written by Suchita Mundhra. Read about her at the end of the article. If you wish your article to be published in this blog, please contact at mahanagar.net[@]gmail[.]com with subject as "I Want To Write".
Aurelia never spoke a word since birth. The childish ‘bubaloo’ and ‘amms’ remained her manner of speech even at 21. She was examined thoroughly, as a child as her parents grew concerned regarding her inability to speak, yet there was little that came out of it. The problem could never be detected and always remained a mystery.
Only a gush of air emanated every time she moved her lips to mouth words. Only air. No words. No audible sound. But, at her current stage she had accepted her body the way it functioned. She heard herself through other voices around her. There were times when she would hide herself in one of the corners of her house only to hear her mother shout out her name over and over again. “Aurelia, Aurelia, where are you? We need to leave immediately. Why do you always do this? Aurelia.” And then she would spring up from one of the corners and beckon that it was her hair that took her long.
Her mother never questioned her and ostensibly she managed to hear the echo that her name produced in the large corridors. Her name was her favourite word. She enjoyed the sound produced by the vowels placed at the beginning and how they would make her mother’s lips look like a fish. Her name sounded beautiful to her. Despite her inability, in the solitude of her room she would sit with a piece of paper with words scribbled all over it. She would try twisting her lips and yearn to hear them in her own voice. But, no miracles ever happened. In dismay, she would remain alone in the silence of her room. She would sit on her large upholstered beige sofa and stare out of the glass paned window.
There was no spectacular view that it offered to her drooping spirit. All she could see was the open sky stretched between the infinite ends. The view was so comforting that she would sit enthralled in this state for hours. It was the silence of the sky that consoled her, speaking to her through that silence. The two silent beings poured out their hearts to one another in their own clandestine language.
She would refuse to step out of the house to bring little Ivan back home from school. The medley of voices made of the children and how much she wanted her voice to drown in these voices. This only reminded her of a worsening dream. One day as she lay in her room with the fever burning her body, all she could think about was to convey one last message through spoken words. The house grew worried about her deteriorating health and when one night her body could no longer endure the struggle; she lay still, looking out of the window. When her room was cleaned all that was found under her mattress were scribbled words and a note that said, 'leave these on my grave to wither away the way I did.'
Suchita is in final year of Masters in Arts Journalism from CEPT University, Ahmedabad. Apart from reading and traveling she just keeps dreaming... Her only wish she can think of at the moment is to buy a vintage beetle.
Let the picture not deceive you, their smiles notwithstanding. The pundits in the capital will assure you this is an aberration. The bonhomie is a casual occurrence; its core is empty and lacks conviction.
What is striking in the picture is how the left and the right can be so immaculately specific even in casual appearances! They don’t hold each other’s hands but certainly do so through intermediaries.
There are other specificities.
Take for example the red pullover worn by Comrade Gurudas Dasgupta or the greenish shade of Madame Sushma Swaraj’s sari. Did those happen by accident? Perish the thought!
Our politicos are too careful to be picture perfect in public view. Why, isn’t Comrade Dasgupta standing to the left in the line? And Madame Swaraj to the right? It’s a different matter that the public view them exactly opposite to their standings!
Coming to standing, it’s a common knowledge that the 3 Yadavs squeezed between the left and the right stood on shifting sands. For, let the women’s reservation bill come up (which may be pretty soon), and you’ll see them screaming at the top of their voice protesting the likely emergence of bal-kati mahilayen.
As I said in the beginning, let not the picture deceive you. There is much more colored divergence than convergence in Indian politics than you imagine.
This guest article is written by Subhroneel Chakrabarti. Read about him at the end of the article. If you wish your article to be published in this blog, please contact at mahanagar.net[@]gmail[.]com with subject as "I Want To Write".
THE SUN GOES AROUND THE EARTH ONCE A YEAR; ALL SCEINTISTS ARE A FOOL ABOUT REAL COSMOLOGY
At the 34th Kolkata Book Fair, these catchy phrases got my attention like many others and I discovered a certain Mr.K.C.Paul, who for over 30 years is trying to convince people that the heliocentric model of our solar system, taught in every school, is wrong.
Instead, he proposes an alternate geocentric model and challenged every scientists since to prove him wrong. He is wrong, and it doesn't require a scientist to figure it out. However, it is not my intention to discuss his model or his intentions, it is rather something else.
For 2 days, I spent around couple of hours in front of him, watching the lack of incredulity of my fellow listeners. I didn't observe a single person who tried to refute his model with logic! Instead, I watched most of them standing speechless in front of wrong reasoning and erroneous interpretation of certain well known scientific facts.
Some were indignant, but not towards his mistakes, rather out of an insecurity that their 16 years of education may be overthrown by this person! Judging by their appearance, age and stature, almost all of them must have been at least a graduate in some discipline. Then what happened? It's simple.
Our education system has given us only knowledge, but not understanding. We know many facts, we know that earth goes round the sun, we probably recall some points which shows why does earth goes around, and not sun.
But our education has not inspired us to understand why we must conclude a heliocentric model from pure use of logic alone coupled with what we observe. We have stopped asking the question "why?" a long time ago, and simply started "believing" whatever that is taught to us. And this is what i would like to call a "sceintific superstition".
Not only science, but regarding any subject or discipline, how many of us really try to understand and realize it's true essence? If the legendary Greek philosopher Xeno is reincarnated and comes infront of us with his radical paradoxes and counter-intuitive conclusions, refuting our well known (read "believed") facts - how many of us will remain confident enough of our acquired wisdom?
Yes, it's better to believe sceintific facts than some baseless primitive practises. But we must understand that it is still against the very spirit of sceince! Science has never claimed its theories to be ultimate. Einstein, Niels Bohr, Heisenberg and many others proposed theories that contradicted the theories that were established at that time.
But you have to provide a logical explanation, survive experimental tests to grant a theory to be scientific. Science has never asked our primitive beliefs to be replaced by the facts. It has rather encouraged questioning, rigorous inquiry, and analysis based only on strict, consistent principles. This is the true spirit of science, which is the foundation of modern society, and which unfortunately is almost absent from our education.
This needs to change, and fast. A kid may have read an entire encyclopedia, but if that's all what he is encouraged to do, he will win a lots of quizzes and debates while in school, but will fail to contribute anything new to the society.
On the other hand, a kid who has always been encouraged to think freely and ask questions will go on to experience the joy of discovering and understanding things around us. He will be definitely be a jewel to the society.
Before we blame our system, we must start this practice in our own home. After all a kid spends more time in home than in school. It's essential that we not only know the difference between "knowing" and "understanding", but understand it as well. Subhroneel is a 21 year old 4th year student at Jadavpur University. He has varied interests and wishes, one of which is to walk in the space at least once.
This guest article is penned by Satyajit Bagchi. Read about him at the end of the article. If you wish your article to be published in this blog, please contact at mahanagar.net[@]gmail[.]com with subject as "I Want To Write". A few days back I got the chance to visit Gujarat for an interview at Anand (renowned for AMUL). It was my first trip alone and naturally I was very excited. I had taken a flight to Ahmedabad. On reaching there I was greeted by a scorching afternoon."Was it still January?" - I wondered.
As I stepped out of the airport I was, to put it mildly, at a complete loss. Signboards, directions were all written in some unknown form of language! No Hindi, no English, thank you. I don't know whether it was due to my pre-conceived notion about the Gujaratis, the people there seemed to be in a constant hurry. None stopped by to answer a harried Bong's questions. Just then as a messiah an autodriver stopped by, asked,"kaha chalna hai saab?" and Hindi never sounded sweeter!
I was to go to the central bus-stand from where I could take a bus to Anand. The autoride was fun. The roads were wide and smooth. Mysterious stone-gates stood ubiquitously at every intersection. You get to see cows on the streets of Kolkata, here you can see camels - fresh out of the pages of Arabian Nights, towing carts. The marketplace resembled just like a Gariahat or a Behala Bazaar, albeit with signboards which an uninitiated Bengali would find hard to comprehend.
I reached the bus-stand, paid the fare and went to a nearby restaurant. There I tried a Gujarati thali, topped by a khakra - a papad like thing. For dessert I had a delicious srikhand. I went to the bus-stand and mimed my destination to a portly 'I-won't-speak-anything-other-than-Gujarati' bus conductor. Half an hour later I was on my way to Anand. The trip was, in a word,' green'. Just a casual glance and you would see a developed rural infrastructure. Canals accentuated the fields and there was a certain sense of order in the entire place.
My stay at the beautiful campus was a revelation of sorts. There I got to interact with people from all over India. So there was I chatting with a vet from Palampur, a B.Com grad from Delhi or an IITian from Chennai. At one point I couldn't help but think about the differences in our ways, cultures, languages, aspirations but didn't realize the moment when I seamlessly gelled with them. Somewhere that endearing similarity bound us together.
I was the only person from Kolkata and the people there were pretty inquisitive about the city. "are the students there very political minded?", "Tell about Singur", "what are the aspiration levels there?", "Wasn't Jyoti Basu the best WB CM?"....There I was, in the land of Gandhi the sole representative of the land of Tagore!
On closer introspection I found out that my initial discomfort arose out of the unfamiliarity. The people there looked just like their eastern cousins, the food habits weren't that different and even the Gujju letters almost resembled like Hindi! I picked up a couple of words like "kemcho", "majamma". I came back home with a handful of those khakras and a pleasing thought - I was not a lost Bangali in Gujarat...I was an Indian in my homeland.
Satyajit is an Economics graduate from Calcutta University. Currently he is an MBA aspirant, hoping to serve a global company as an effective team player. He has 3 wishes in life, one of which is to drive a flaming Ferrari down the busy streets of Kolkata at 150 kmph.
accessible with mobile devices through the mobile network and utilizing the ability to make use of the geographical position of the mobile device.
Now you may wonder what is that, and if some experts say that LBS is going to be the biggest buzz in 2010, you’ll further wonder why the hell! Except that the buzz is already in action in full force.
The 'big picture' that John presented about Foursquare is that it is
a location enabled service that allows users to "check in" when they stop at a bar, restaurant, park, bookstore or really anywhere they want to list. The service further allows users to connect with friends and alert them of your location if you choose.
Although Foursquare is most popular in the US, it is fast catching up in continental Europe, and also in SE Asian countries like Malaysia, Singapore, etc.
In his article John predicts that Foursquare will be either Facebook’s or Google’s before the year is over. Looks like his prediction will become true much quicker, what with the launch of Google Buzz. Only the predator is unlikely to be Google.
Yesterday Google Buzz debuted and has almost instantly become the talk of the 'web' town. I already have several buzz followers in my Gmail accounts.
But what levels the ground between Foursquare and Google Buzz is the latter's mobile app. Type in 'buzz.google.com' in your phone browser and start buzzing. See the video below.
Who knows, this one may be the real clincher of 2010!
2 days back the CM inaugurated the online edition of Rabindranath Tagore's complete works at the ongoing Kolkata Book Fair (more on the fair in another post). The site is located here [http://www.rabindra-rachanabali.nltr.org].
About 18000 pages constitute the bard's works. It's however an ongoing project in which the works of stalwarts like Bankim Chandra, Vidyasagar, Mir Mosharraf Hussein and others will also be included in course of time.
Once done, the whole project will not only be a timeless wonder, it will also help every Bengali-knowing person across the globe to use as needed.
The project is being assisted by BESU and IIT, Kgp among others. Here is a small excerpt of a page in the site.
This guest article is penned by Satyajit Bagchi. Read about him at the end of the article. If you wish your article to be published in this blog, please contact at mahanagar.net[@]gmail[.]com with subject as "I Want To Write". Often I have heard many Kolkatans rue the fact that there are not many beautiful places to visit in and around Kolkata. However, on the Republic Day I went out on a family picnic to a place I am sure not many a people know of. It was a scenic place on the banks of River Ganga near Diamond Harbour. But it was not the picturesque venue that made the place unique. It was a Navy Camp which was functional even a decade back. Courtesy my cousin, who is in the Indian Army, we got a chance to go there.
The place was used to test artillery shells and was an important strategic location during the Indo-Pak war of 1971.The place still has relics from the past-a decrepit 80 feet tall watchtower, bunkers, army residential places and the kaman-ghor. My uncle, who used to study at a school nearby, told, as a child on occasional days, he used to often hear the booming sounds of shells being tested. It was one of his happier days as it translated into the school being called off. The civilian ferries and boats were warned not to enter 3 kilometers within the zone.
Those are now things of the past. Now what remains is a completely abandoned post. The area is gradually being functionally phased out. The camp now serves the purpose of organizing picnics or meets. The well manicured lawns descend to a river bank overlook by an ancient cottage. An abandoned navy boat is reminiscence of the erstwhile active military actions. As the sun gradually sank into the Ganges, I couldn't help comparing the stark contrast of that peaceful evening to the once active and flurrying activities of the Indian Navy forces...
Satyajit is an Economics graduate from Calcutta University. Currently he is an MBA aspirant, hoping to serve a global company as an effective team player. He has 3 wishes in life, one of which is to drive a flaming Ferrari down the busy streets of Kolkata at 150 kmph.
On Jan 14 the main frontpage story in The Telegraph ran like this: Google wakes up, sees evil in China. It narrated the events that concerned Google’s threat to leave China should the conditions continue to remain the same that prompted the search giant to issue the threat.
My mother, who turns 80 later this month and who often comes and stands by me watching what all I do on my laptop, was curious. She hears me often talking about how Google has become the heart and soul of many a people’s online world, and so she reasons that Google must be a huge dominating force.
As for China, those who live in the eastern part of India are well aware about China’s gigantic and galloping might. Why, only last November China raised so much hue and cry over Dalai Lama’s visit to Tawang Monastery that it seemed as if the place belonged to it!
No surprise then that my mother wondered what the outcome will be between the clash of the 2 titans, Google and China. To that my first reaction was that just as nothing eventually shattered the earth during the cold war between the US and the then USSR despite several severe posturing, similarly Google and China too will likely mend the common fence between them in their own ways, away from the media’s glare.
The reason is not far to seek. The stake for either is monumentally high to not seek a middle path. So if, we may assume, Google starts showing ‘some’ unfiltered search results, China may silently acquiesce pending deploying the other cards it holds close to the chest for future use as and when the times arise.
But wait, spare a thought: Is the matter that simple?
Bereft of jargons, it doesn’t look so. We will shortly munch that over but first a brief recap.
Setting foot in China 4 years back Google was aware of what it was up to in that country. In a Feb 16, 2006 testimony Google acknowledged that:
The requirements of doing business in China include self-censorship – something that runs counter to Google’s most basic values and commitments as a company. Despite that, we made a decision to launch a new product for China – Google.cn – that respects the content restrictions imposed by Chinese laws and regulations.
That and only up to that was okay for Google. But now the things have turned serious. Google alleges that in mid-December a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on their corporate infrastructure originated from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google.
Out of the 2 main issues it is confronting, Google already adheres to, albeit ‘unwillingly’, the filtering of search results, YouTube videos, etc. – those that are not to China’s likings. The main issue is therefore concerning the theft of intellectual property from Google. And this is the crux of the standoff.
Why is this serious? If Google fails to protect the intellectual property of its users, then it may turn out as catastrophic. Since the search giant – or should it rather be the largest online marketing company – possesses the most invaluable personal information of billions of users, therefore to have them stolen is something that can never ever be imagined even in the worst dreams.
Google is clever. It has roped in 20 other large companies – not named though – in the ambit of those it found ‘affected’. That translates to some onus on these other companies as well to make them feel sufficiently alarmed.
Meanwhile, the news that the US government is also protesting to China over the cyber attacks proves that Google has been able to take the matter to the government-to-government level.
China though continues to remain unfazed. Its Vice Foreign Minister says that Google Inc.'s complaints about cyber attacks and censorship in China should not be "over-interpreted" or linked to Beijing's bilateral relations with the US.
So what will the likely outcome of this great fight be? We can think of some though much of it will be played behind the faceless closed doors.
It can be safely assumed that Google will place the highest premium on the safety of intellectual properties it holds. There can be no compromise on this, come what may.
Else, for any breach in the security of important confidential data, it will be like kissing the online world goodbye. Maybe forever.
He leaves behind a legacy of an ideal party loyalist, and what one could, yet couldn’t make Bengal proud because for him the party came first and indeed the last.
Jyoti Basu was a tall leader, widely respected across the country, but that was perhaps more on account of his innate quality of being a good human being, an able administrator, a person who could rise above the narrow confines of caste, creed, and religion.
But a political figure’s – that too as famous as him – legacy cannot and should not be judged by him being just a good person. It is more important to understand what he did and didn’t for his fellow people.
Today’s newspapers are full of interesting analyses of his life, his doings, and his non-doings. They are interesting because they present a vast 7-decade canvas of Indian politics as it transformed from the last days of the British era to what it is today. Just for this reason the history of Jyoti Basu’s life will remain an important reading in long, long time to come.
History unfortunately is also cruel. And so, along with the agrarian reforms and decentralization of power he initiated in his initial days as the chief minister of Bengal, the history will also recall the championing of destructive policies during his tenure.
Many of the ills that plague today’s Bengal can be traced back to his days at the helm of affairs in the state. To mention a few are causing the industries to flee Bengal, stopping teaching of English in the primary classes, losing crucial first-mover advantage with regard to the use of computers, failing to turn Bengal into a famous tourist destination, politicizing education at every level thereby helping it slide to its nadir, and so on.
All of these were Bengal’s bane but what stands out as the most damaging was the patronizing of militant trade unionism. Stopping work at the drop of the hat, sometimes for petty selfish reasons, became the norm. Not surprising then that the word ‘gherao’, popularized earlier by the SUCI minister Subodh Banarjee, got inducted into the Oxford English Dictionary in 2004 owing to its popularity and intensity as a new method of labor action.
Jyoti Basu leaves us at a time when political intolerance has given rise to unprecedented political violence in the rural Bengal. Whether or not there occurs any change in the coming 2011 elections, the dream of a peaceful, prosperous Bengal looks as distant and eluding as ever.
It may sound unpalatable on a day when the great leader lies in state but Bengal owes much of its present-day miseries to the misrules committed during the Basu era.
That’s the reality. That’s how the history of Bengal will visit him time and again, notwithstanding the steady pouring of grief today.
Long time no verse, nothing better only worse...that's what I tell myself time to time as I come to terms with my long absence from Kolkata Musing.
"Oh don’t pretend," you may say, "your blog, your baby…yet you say you coming to terms? Are you nuts?" I don't blame you.
It's me to be blamed...rather my lethargy but I have a cause to stay away for awhile, a real cause if you will. It's the overhauling of my bread-n-butter website, 2WebVideo.Com, that teaches how to produce videos for the web.
Let me however admit that real or not, a prolonged absence does more harm to a blog than good. It's obvious. It's like letting dust collect on your favorite showpiece allowing it to lose its luster.
Okay, enough of my ranting! Now that I'm wielding my pen (hope it lasts..!) for my sake and for the sake of this blog's committed readers, let me come to a favorite subject of mine. It's about the quality of life we the Kolkattans live.
When a fire destroys homes of some 450 people, only in Calcutta do people’s leaders stop fire tenders from reaching the site. When an ambulance is desperate to reach a hospital with a dying man in it, only in Calcutta, political activists stop it and think nothing of letting the sick man suffer or even die. The cruellest part of the story is that such ugly, inhuman acts are hailed as signs of a vibrant political culture. On two consecutive days, bandhs and blockades by political parties showed how little Bengal’s political class has changed. The bandh organized by the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) in South 24 Parganas also suggested that the comrades, humiliated in one election after another since last year’s Lok Sabha polls, are incapable of learning any lessons whatsoever. In rejecting the Marxists in these polls, the people had expressed their anger not only at their government’s many failures but also at their politics. The trouble is that the alternative— offered by Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamul Congress — is proving to be more of the same. Ms Banerjee’s loyalists apparently think that the surest way to beat the Marxists is to imitate their politics of bandhs and street battles.
Governments never learn, says an old adage, only the people do. If Bengal’s political class will not learn, the people must. It is time that the people stood up and told the politicians to learn. Everyone now agrees that bandhs solve no problems. They have long ceased to be of any importance in terms of political symbolism. Worse, even the political parties know that bandhs and other forms of hold-ups are all a matter of flexing muscles. But, if the civil society is to raise its voice, it must steer clear of the partisan argument. It must draw a clear line between political loyalties and disruptive politics. It will not do to choose between the CPI(M) and the TMC in condemning the politics of bandhs. After all, such politics violates the basic freedoms of citizens. Political pluralism is an essential part of democracy, but it is time the people rose above their party preferences in order to condemn the attack on their freedoms and rights by self-seeking politicians. There are now signs that the political scene in Bengal may change at last. But a change of government will mean nothing unless it comes with a change in the political culture. Bengal needs a people’s revolt to save itself from its politicians.
Those who were lucky enough to be present at the venue were left dumbfounded at the impossibly impressive performance by thousands of participants. The fact that China later got for itself a record number of medals in the games is another story.
China’s 60th National Day Parade on October 1 that passed by the 'historic' Tiananmen Square brought back the memory of the Olympics opening ceremony.
I got to see only brief glimpses of it on the TV, but the moment I came across this video below I decided I must have it here to share with my readers.
The video is partially in time-lapse mode, and partially in slow motion giving a touch of class to it. I'm sure you'll like both – the immaculateness of the parade especially those in uniform, and the video.
Often the dilemma pops up in mind. What makes your Kolkata unique?
Those who are in early stages of adult life will never fail to sing paeans to the city mainly because their fond memories of adolescent days are still fresh in their minds.
But I’ve seen people who have crossed 40s and have been living in and out of the city for a long time will often feel that Kolkata has precious little to offer that is pleasantly unique.
Among that precious little is the city’s own way of celebrating Durga Puja. No, I’m not talking of the fun and frolic you engage in on those 4 days. That part is essentially the same whether your puja is in Lokhandwala, Baltimore, or in Pocket 40 of Chittaranjan Park.
What is unique to Kolkata’s Durga Puja is the quest for creativity, the insatiable urge to create something new. And it is for this reason that I will always feel that Kolkata’s Durga Puja can perhaps never be paralleled.
Let me present a small slideshow of a few community pujas, among which is that of Suruchi Sangha, what with the stunning show of environment friendly theme.
May the tribe of Suruchi Sangha live long.
Let me wish all KM readers a warm sarodiya subhechchha.
Behind the mild smiling demeanor is a razor sharp mind. For Shashi Tharoor is just not another minister in the central cabinet.
Yes he is an accomplished writer, has studied at St. Xaviers in Kolkata and St. Stephens in Delhi, has earned 2 masters and a doctorate from Tufts University, Massachusetts, is an avid cricket fan having got his latest book launched by none other than Sachin Tendulkar last month, and so much more.
But he is a much taller person than maybe many of his colleagues in the corridors of power in New Delhi. But for US’ disinclination, Shashi Tharoor would have been the Secretary General at the United Nations instead of the incumbent Ban Ki-moon after Kofi Annan’s term expired in 2007.
That he is close to the Congress party was evident when he got that party’s nomination for the prestigious Trivandrum seat in the last elections. But given his high profile and international repute, it remains a mystery how he could agree to slip into a much smaller shoe of a minister of state.
The latest faux pas that Tharoor committed in his Twitter remarks is amusing, but he is clever enough to have pictures of his travelling in ‘cattle class’ shown on the TV immediately thereafter.
The matter may die down eventually but not without leaving him with a bitter taste. Shashi Tharoor ought to know what goes and what doesn’t in Indian polity.
As for the larger question of whether or not to use Twitter by prominent persona like him…well the field is wide open for answers. The point is there may be occasions when there will be slipups like the present one by Tharoor, and by sheer chance if any secret gets leaked completely inadvertently that may be a real danger.
To Tharoor’s defense it must be said that even US President Barack Obama twits, but then it is likely that each of his tweets is screened lest there be any mistake. Is there any similar setup in the Indian government? If not, then perhaps twitting may not be a good idea for Shashi Tharoor.
Which perhaps is why Nandan Nilekani abandoned Twitter after assuming the office of chairmanship of the Unique Identity Development Authority of India (UIDAI). Food for thought, if you may.
