Kolkata in Flux - Revolutionary Jesus meets street brawling CM

Kolkata is always a fascinating case.

The muse of poets, revolutionaries and poverty tourists, Kolkata has always been a place where the old French adage of - "The more things change, the more they remain the same" seemed like a way of life.

A world-record breaking 30 year long democratic communist rule, Kolkata always seemed tantalizingly and uneasily poised between a illustrious past and a struggling present.

Kolkata always seemed like a place which was filled to the brim with the past with little space for the future. It was also a place of dreamers and poets, a place where going to the theatre still ranked in the top 5 options of how to spend the evening. It was also a place where the whole state went for a siesta between 2-4 pm, always making me wonder whether Bengalis had been secretly colonized by the Spanish conquistadors!!!

But to me, Kolkata has always been defined by polarities. The people and the capital and the state always seemed to choose one of two teams in, well...everything. Football - East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, Fish - Ilish and Rohu, Actors - Uttam Kumar and Soumitro Chattopadhyay, Sportsman - Sourav Ganguly and rest of the cricketers. Politics? - The Communists and well, anti-communists

For almost to decades, the Anti-communist crown has been worn by the street fighting, usually incoherent Mamta Banerjee. To her has flocked the Bengali herd, looking for succor after their romantic tryst with communist utopia soured after 30 long years. It has been a change for the state that can be compared to suffering a hemorrhage - like breaking off a 30 year old marriage. Its ramifications will be felt for a long time.

Some of that ramification is already being felt....

Kolkata was defined by two more things - the city with a heart and a city steeped in communist signages and ideology

It was a city with a heart - it stopped for the fallen pedestrian and it was a city where women could more or less feel safe walking down the street. I remember Kolkata in 2006, when I lived in the city for a year, pandal hopping during the puja late into the night. I did not hear of one single case of eve teasing or molestation...
It was also probably the only city in the country where famous international communist leaders found a prominent space in the park statues and the street names, long after they had been erased in their own countries - Lenin for example

But what the Bengalis and the rest of the country is seeing in wonder is something that seems to disprove their favourite French adage.

First the Communists proclaim Jesus as the original revolutionary!!! Atheists to Jesus proclaimers within a year. I mean, we all know that the communists in Bengal liked to live in the past, most particularly in the vicinity of late 1800s but to take a two millennium leap to find a source of inspiration is a feat that has led to many a mouth remaining agape!!! Next they might call Lenin a counter-revolutionary and rename Lenin Sarani as Jesus Sarani!!!

And then the image of Kolkata as the one with the heart and the one safe for women shattered with the gangrape of a woman in a moving car (and you thought they only happened in Delhi!!). As if that was not enough, worse was yet to come -

First the police to whom the woman turned to for help mocked her and one officer actually propositioned to her.

Second the woman Chief Minister said that it was all a frame-up to malign her government and led her party to attack the victim's character in public. She even makes the Police Commissioner say so...Then Damayanti Sen, inspite of all the pressures solves the case thus disproving Mamta Banerjee and is hailed as a tigress by the media

Thirdly and perhaps worst of all, the CM calls Damayanti Sen and gives her a semi-public dressing down for not going by her diktat.

Seemed more like Bihar of old than Kolkata of any age...

The Trinamool had promised "Poriborton" or change when they swept into power.

And "Poriborton" there has been!!

Communists are becoming strange animals and vigorously making Marx turn in his grave.

A woman CM is showing us the ugly scarred face of a city that everyone thought to be wrinkled but hiding a smile...

I guess it all depends on how much change the average Bengali can live with....but guess right now its a choice between a revolutionary Jesuist party and a rabble-rousing Mamta whose only plan is to do everything heinously wrong

 

                          

Technorati Tags: Kolkata,CPM,communist party,Bengalis,trinamool,Mamta Banerjee,Damayanti Sen,Rape,jesus

Inshallah Kashmir - Why this needed was to be banned and why you need to see this…

Banned in India by the ever faithful Big Brother of a censor board, the director took the unprecedented step of releasing this online (apparently there is no law against releasing something online…yet). Ashvin actually opened it up for download for one day – on 26th January, the Republic Day. That’s quite a symbolic gesture!!

And once you see this you know why…

Which is why you need to see it

It has been the practice of all governments to try and dictate what we must see and hear and there us always an effort by all governments to make the public buy into their version of current and historical events.

And there has been an increasing virulence of intolerance by self-appointed patriots whose sense of injustice bleed too easily. Look at what happened to Symbiosis university’s Kashmir seminar “Voices of Kashmir”, which was cancelled due to the ‘fatwa’ by the right wing fringe.

And Kashmir is one topic which will always invoke strong reactions. And this is one topic which will always see an effort to give the ‘official’ version of the story

Read more »

Rupert and Amy – till death do us apart…

So Amy Winehouse is dead..at the incredibly ominous age of 27, the age which claimed Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison and Cobain…While that age number merits an all new blog article of its own, this post is about a small thought I had when I read about the Amy’s death in the papers today…

In space of about a week, NOTW died and then Amy died…almost coincidentally symbiotic…

The media that pushes them to stardom, only to earn profit by completely feeding on creating images false and partly true…the talents that need the media to give them an identity only to make a devil’s deal…

Its tragic all around but that's what goes…

NOTW will have a new successor…so will Amy…when it has been decided what we public need to read or hear, be sure that there will be substitutes very soon…

Well, Amy…look at it this way…the media which killed you will also immortalize you in the hall of fame of “Dead at 27”…The next quiz question will be about you…

del.icio.us Tags: Amy Winehouse,Rupert murdoch,NOTW,News of the world,culture,music

The case of the Old Warrior and his price…

So this truly is the end of Sourav Ganguly as we know him best – the bat in his hand, pads on feet and the classic charge down the pitch for the lofted six – stuff now to be seen only on YouTube videos, never live again…

Emotions are running high now and will remain on boil for some time to come – especially among the easily excitable Bengalis who see this as a personal snub…how dare some movie stars and corporates not see fit to take on Ganguly, they ask. How can they measure his worth in money, they ask then. Which is where I need to ask some questions as well…

In the midst of so many conflicting emotions (the twitter updates on Ganguly have really spiked in the last couple of hours), it is often   difficult to find a neutral position. And especially when I have been and will always be a avid fan of Ganguly – for me, not only of the best cricketer but also the most complete leader of men that cricket has produced in this country.

But life goes on, has to go on and Ganguly of all people, should have realized by now that there is a time to take a last stand and a time to slide gracefully into the sunset. There is a time for brave stubbornness and a time for pragmatism. The gunslinger past his prime will be eventually shot down by the younger one. Fact of life.

Before we start berating the rich smug corporate czars and the movie stars for demeaning a legend, let us ask ourselves an  uncomfortable question – was Ganguly a willing participant or was he not?

In fact, he increased his base price before the bidding began, (which may have actually been the last nail in his coffin), which may or may not be a last attempt to rake in the money before the end of a career.

Lets face it – he, along with everybody, was in this for money. Period.

So lets not keep shouting that this money fest is demeaning to cricketers and to cricket. For better or for worse, every sport is eventually about money. That's what gives us the spectacle that cricket enthusiasts have been lapping up for the last three years.

Its quite simple – if you don't like, don't watch it, don't give the advertisers your money or the event your attention. If it goes for us, it goes for Ganguly. But then, he wanted to be a part of it.

And when you are a part of it, you play by the rules.

And the rules of this particular game is this – This is a young man’s game, this is a game that calls not for class or even talent but for brutal quickie power, this is a game not played for pride or glory or even for sportsmanship or country – its played for money

It is not – a place where legends will be feted and celebrated for their own sake – if you haven't played for some time, you cant hit em out of the ground from the first ball, a place where huge egos can be pampered

Which then brings us to the next question that is being asked – How dare they they think Ganguly was not good enough? After all, he was one of the big scorers in IPL3.

Well, he may be good enough or maybe not. After all, he has not played cricket in a long time – long, short or the Blitz versions. So let me play the classical trick of turning the tables and putting your money on it. If it was your $4m and you had a choice of Ganguly with his legend or two players with $2m each but who are battle ready, and you stand to gain if your team won and lose if your team loses, which way would you go? At such times, the head easily wins non? So lets not blame easily…

So yes, it is a disappointing way to hang up your cricket bat but hey it was a war out there and Ganguly lost fair and square (though conspiracy theorists will undoubtedly see one in this one as well – we all have ways to deal with disappointments!!).

I do not believe that this is a disgrace. We, Ganguly’s fans should be confident of the one we admire. Ganguly’s accomplishments are enough to wipe out this distressful day. The man who turned around Indian cricket cannot be disgraced by an event, which in the final analysis, is not much more than a extravagant gully cricket tournament.

Long after the cheerleaders have packed up and gone, long after the after-match parties (which will still be more important than the match itself) have faded into the dawn, long after the fixers have gone home with their booties and long after people will stop giving a damn about the advertisement fuelled match adrenaline, the vision of Ganguly’s waving of his shirt above his head will still define the spirit of Indian cricket…

My Captain, my Captain…Adieu…

Technorati Tags: Sourav Ganguly,Ganguly,cricket,India,sports,IPL,IPL 4,auction,KKR,Bengalis

Sedition of the good doctor

Binayak Sen was convicted today for ‘sedition’ by the ‘justice’ system of this country. People around the world are appalled that such a thing can happen in the largest ‘democracy’ in the world…

It would almost be abnormal today, in this seemingly ethically ambiguous world, to not feel a sense of hilarity when such heavy words are used with such seriousness. You feel like laughing out loud and then bang your head on the wall…Mr Assagne, you of course understand, dont you?

Dont you know, Mr Sen, that it is sedition to protest against what one considers injustice and it is sedition to care for the people who have been forgotten even by the democratic vote-seekers. It is also traitorous to speak up publicly. All this makes you an enemy of the state…dangerous anti-social…they called you a terrorist too, didnt they?

The justice of this country…they needed to make an example of you. Just like they are making an example of people who have stashed away millions nay billions from sports events or from telecom spectrum or even from onions. You see what I am getting at my good doctor?

There is a saying – Kill a man, you are a murderer. Kill millions, you become a general. Maybe you never heard of it…

If you had, you would not have been in a filthy jail for so many years…nah…you would have had merely a parlamentary committee set up against you (that too after many protests!!) and you would have been busy preparing bytes for our 24 hours news channel, between their reality show updates of course.

Maybe your mistake was in being upfront about it all. Maybe you believed in the balderbash about the essential goodness of it all – you know, humanity, justice, fairness…fraternity, equality and liberty and all that and you know how that one ended up!!!

No Mr Sen, its all your fault. They are right, spot on. People like you just keep cropping up and you just dont learn. You should have really taken up arms against the state or done something really traitorous. Then you would have had politicians lining up at your door so you can help them win elections. Like you were right now, you were of no use to anyone, dont you see that?

And what the world has no use for, it punishes. Ah well, justice meted out wont you say, my good doctor?

Mr Sen, you are already old news…Ah well, time to turn to the sports page…

 

Technorati Tags: Binayak sen,Binayak,Sen,justice,India,prisoner,Maoist,doctor,tribal,jail,chattisgarh,convicted

History witnessed – Slovakia defeats Italy

There are some sporting moments that become marked in the collective memory of the world and which become iconic events, burnt deep into the history of the game. They are talked long after the shock, bewilderment and the euphoria has died down.

And decades down the line, people will talk in wonder about the spectacle that was. They will wonder whether they would be able to watch anything like it themselves – watch it as it unfolds, live or being physically present, not necessarily knowing at the start that they are living in a historic sporting moment but knowing fully by the end of it…

Then there will be people who would have seen it live, as it unfolded before their eyes, as history was created in their lifetime, people who were privileged to have been there, in the right place and the right time. These people would remember the moments vividly, moments when their blood would be throbbing and they would be on their feet, all aches and worries of this world forgotten…

Yesterday, I was one of the lucky millions who was a part of such a moment. And the magic was provided by one of the most extraordinary game of football that I have ever seen.

Slovakia, World Cup debutantes, with no victory in their first two matches, against all odds, defeated the defending champions Italy 3-2 in a pulsating match that had one of the most intense last 10 minutes of football ever seen. Italy ended up at the end of the group, below New Zealand!!! Who would have thought that when the world cup started? Italy and France, the finalists in 2006 WC are both out (both defeated by so called minnows – France eliminated by South Africa)

It may be a pivotal moment in world football, which in a world cup marked by many upsets (and we are still in group stages), a moment which may herald the coming of age of footballing nations which played second fiddle to the great footballing nations (Later, in the night, Japan defeated Denmark 3-1, crashing them out, first time the Danes had gone out of group stages).

It was a game that Italy had to win or atleast draw to get a safe passage into the round of 16. And everyone gave the Italians thumbs up. After all, that's how the Azzuris have their history – they are slow starters but they eventually come good. This time, the law of averages caught up with them.

For the game review, read this from the Fifa site (if the link does not work, click here)

And see the goals and the highlights of this game which along with being a historical landmark also had its more than fair share of drama and controversy (can the two be ever separate, I wonder)

 

 

The snippets and the highlights can only capture a small part of the drama of the live action when every second seemed heavily pregnant with possibilities of the game swinging any which way. The late surge by the Italians was wonderful to watch and your heart went out to the Italians as they realized the nightmare that they are living through and the nightmare that most of them would carry all their lives, this being the last world cup for the majority of the ageing Italian team.

And what better way to capture the moments than by posting some of the pivotal moments of the game, a game that would live long in the memory of those lucky to witness it…

Slovakia vs. italy 2010 WC from protik basu on Vimeo.

Perhaps the most poignant photo of all is of Cannavaro, walking back in the proverbial sunset but with no happy ending, an end that no-one would have wanted but that's the way the game goes…

del.icio.us Tags: football,world cup,slovakia,italy,upset,goals,group stage 2010,south africa

India sold for 500,000…

I remember a childhood story that i remember affected me profoundly. The story was of the Koh-i-noor diamond and how we lost it to the Britishers. The Brits were the ‘bad guys’ who looted the best things that this country had to offer and how they obscenely display the Koh-i-noor, something that they stole from us.

It was a story told with much pain, a pain which I could articulate later as born out of impotent helplessness. At that time, I could just sense the injustice of it all. I could sense the wound. The pride of India, stolen and displayed openly by the thief. If only we were powerful and could force the Brits give it up, how wonderful that would be, i used to fantasize. I used to fantasize, Hollywood style (or rather Mossad style) of a crack team of commandoes who would steal back the diamond.

I guess i retained a bit of that boyhood fantasy till very late. If some part of it still lived somewhere inside, the following news pretty much would have killed it off…

Tipu Sultan’s sword sold off

The implicit belief of my boyhood fantasy was that no Indian, if given a chance would let a part of his history and legacy be sold off like a cheap trinket. By Indian, I mean us as a collective. The government of the people, as a custodian of the country’s pride…

In spite of having ‘grown up’ i.e. resigned myself to the ‘practical world’ of adulthood, a part of me that never let go of the boyhood fantasy has collapsed with dismay over the almost non-importance of the event for the public, let alone the mandarins in the parliament. It merited a single column in most newspapers. IPL’s cheerleaders get more space.

A part of our glorious history – that of resistance agaisnt the Britishers (Tipu was the last king to defeat the Britishers), a legacy of the perhaps the greatest threat against British rule (before 1857), a symbol of what we have learnt to be proud of (remember the serial ‘The sword of Tipu Sultan’?), is sold off to the highest bidder at an auction house in London and we do nothing!!! and worse, we are still happily doing nothing. And even worse, we have already moved on…

Tipu’s sword was taken (stolen by the ‘bad guys’ remember?) from his dead body when his capital was overrun in the Third Mysore war. The captured sword was taken a symbol of triumph to London and 150 years later, we get a chance to get it back to where it belongs. But we let it go into the private collection of somebody rich enough to display it among his/her other trinkets.

A government that sits back and watches millions of rupees being spent on as useful as their own statues (sometimes complete with handbags) is not able to spend a few million on getting back what is rightfully ours?

In 2000, Vijay Mallya bought another of Tipu’s sword amidst much fanfare, as if he was doing a service to the country by keeping it in his house. Why not make it public property? Why was it not demanded? (I would not be surprised if this is the same sword that Mallya bought, which it is, according to some reports)

Which is all a collective failure, a failure of our pride to galvanize us in demanding the restoration of dignity of our past. We just don't care enough. Perhaps we don't seem to feel that it is important enough. Our so called present ascent to a world superpower (superpower of outsourced work, mostly) gives us more pride, not a supposed colonized past.

The only question to be asked here – would China (with similar history and the supposed competition to our ascent) have sat back and let their legacy be sold off? Of Mao or of Sun-yat-Sen? How many of us would say yes to that, I wonder? Something to ponder on there…

I guess Tipu fought for the wrong country…

 

del.icio.us Tags: Tipu Sultan,sword of tipu sultan,auction,india,history,1857,first war of indepenence,legacy,indian

End of an era – Viva Chetak

Ah well…all good things must come to an end, especially if you don't want to own the good thing anymore!!!

Bajaj will, from now on, manufacture only motorcycles, finally bowing to market tastes. With that decision, a product that signified India for decades will pass easily into history pages – the “Hamara Bajaj”, the Chetak.

The scooter that was the beast of burden for the common man carrying whole families on its seats, the acquisition of which (after sometimes years of waiting) truly became a neighbours envy – owner’s pride. The scooter which with its Italian inspired design ruled the Indian roads long before auto majors discovered the market in the country. A scooter which when your father let you drive was when you became a man of the world, a world suddenly free…

That's the nations nostalgia, a collective nostalgia as it were. Anyone above the age of 23 or so will have a special personal memory of the scooter that looks impossibly frail and might I say cute in front of the hulking bikes of today.

We also owned a Bajaj scooter, some 20 odd years ago. One of my earliest memories was the extreme thrill I felt of standing in the front, just behind the handles, my little hands on the dials, my hair buffeted by the wind against which my eyes squinted to see ahead, safe in the knowledge that my father was the captain and my mother the navigator. It was the most perfect Titanic moment (the hands outstretched moment that is – not the crash!!!) I ever had. I used to actually feel that I was flying without making any effort, tagged along by the Gods. Nothing I have done since has come close to that experience…

However I believe that it was time it gets consigned to our nostalgia. The Chetak was not made for the madly commercial world of today. It belonged to the world of movies like “Chashme Baddoor”. It belongs to a world when you actually loved what you owned because you literally bought it – EMI was not yet invented by financial whizkids, a world where cosmetics to make men fairer was not advertised on the TV, a world of sometimes impossibly grotesque fashion but also of rebellion. A world of limited but meaningful TV, not the infinite variety of trash today…

Ironically, It belonged to a world where streets were emptier and you could have done with more power in the engines, instead of in a world where you have all the powers in the world but no streets to drive them on!!!

Of course, scooters have been reinvented – the Activa for instance. But for us Indians, it will never be the same.

The song of Chetak remains humming on in our mind, if only as a dirge. An elegy, even, to a world vanished forever…

Viva Chetak!!!

 

del.icio.us Tags: Bajaj,scooter,India,marketing,product,nostalgia,Chetak,current issue

We will wave to you on your choppers too!!!!

Even if it means a wave of good riddance

The incident of a person dying because of the security arrangements made for PMs visit to a hospital was an event waiting to happen. In fact I am sure that there would be many incidents like these, which happen, either directly or indirectly due to the stoppages made for the travel of our VIPs or VVIPs or whoever with fancy nameplates.

If you have travelled on the roads of Delhi, you would have most certainly got stuck in traffic that is stopped a full half hour before somebody important is to pass down the road. And inevitably this would be done at the peak hours. I have been stuck on the Dhaula Kuan – Gurgaon road at 9 in the morning for a full half hour. Imagine the pile-up on that road due to that stoppage time. And all because someone needs to feel important enough to feel he/she is an assassination target.

But reaching office late and dying because of this are very different. Its time that someone (The PM would be a good idea to start from) wakes up to the alternatives. And seriously, Mr Singh, an apology like the one you have given comes out very lame without change in the status quo.

An alternative.In a country that spends crores on MPs snacks, we can use those funds (let them eat a few less sandwiches) to buy choppers for our ‘important’ guys. Have helipads made at all the important destinations that these guys frequent. And if you are worried about security in the skies (and if you have watched too many far fetched Hollywood action flicks), have a battalion of choppers. We don't travel to office or hospitals in skies. We don't mind.

But in cases like the incident that happened, when roads must be used, security must be tight but focussed. Harassing common people and denying basic rights should be made a criminal offense.

And seriously, its a non-brainer - Hospitals are not a place for functions. Or has the PM forgotten that people die from things other than bullets?

I and you can rant as much as want but the next time you want to reach office on a tight schedule, the president might just feel like a morning drive on the wide and empty roads of Delhi. After all, they have a country to run…

del.icio.us Tags: Delhi roads,current issue,Delhi

Holy water, unholy carriers…

I am fine with religious functions and events as long as they don’t disrupt ordinary people’s lives. The tradition (newly revived during the BJP government rule) of kawariyas carrying Ganga water from Hardwar and transporting them on foot to their respective places definitely don’t fall under this category of personal religion.

For a month, they disrupt roads and create a ruckus wherever they go. And like it happened in Punjabi Bagh yesterday, these people just need an excuse to create a disruption and indulge in hooliganism. I think we really need to dig beneath our rhetoric of giving respect to religious activities and see this event for what it is – a disruptive activity which gives some people a license to rule the roads for a while. And this is not the first time that the Kawariyas have created disruptions in their wake. This has happened year after year and there is in fact an increasing trend of increasing violence.

And anybody who has travelled in Gurgaon in the last week or so will testify to the fact that traffic is literally brought down to its knees just because the kawariyas refuse to stop at red lights and refuse to let cars pass when they are travelling – in short act like they are above the law. And the sad part is that the law allows them to be this way. Small surprise then that they display the kind of anti-social behaviour that they do.

I have a couple of issues with the whole thing

First is a personal one. Religion thrives on making people single-minded by making them simple minded. Carrying water on foot for hundreds of miles is an arduous task and frankly a very intensive one. Many people express their admiration for the kawariyas for the same. But the fact is that it is just empty religious fervour – one bereft of understanding and one based on jingoism. If they really care about the holy water they are carrying, why don’t we ask them to join a river conservation programme? Why don’t they join Greenpeace and try to preserve all that makes the Ganga ‘holy’. They wont simply because that takes a lot of commitment and a lot of background work. And it wont give them a chance to rule the road for a month or indulge in random acts of destruction. For them piety is in walking miles and showing their faith, not in trying to understand their religion.

Second is a practical one. It is understandable that the government would not want to stop something which is born out of belief. But isn’t it also the duty of the government to ensure that the common citizens are not hampered in their daily life? The government seems to favour the first over the second, perhaps because the first group is organized and prone to aggression (maybe precisely because of the weakness of the law-enforcers) and the second group is neither.

So we continue to suffer hooliganism in the name of religion.

 

Technorati Tags: Kawariyas,religion,hindu,ganges,current issue,civic issue