Kolkata Ramblings

A: The high power blame game now doing the rounds in Kolkata. After the devastating fire at Stephen Court, Park Street, this high power game has one-upped all other games at present. Move over KKR, you simply don't stand a chance. Cricket is after all a gentleman's game. This isn't. This is a multi-player game. The only eligibility to become a player is to be a big shot. This is much more exciting than Monopoly because the properties are real and so is the money. And of course, no one goes to jail. However, all this is nothing new. This has been going on for ages. Even the players have more or less remained the same. Maybe the identity of the individuals have changed but that is immaterial. And, the game begins when one of the properties of our city is destroyed and lives are lost. Watching Stephen Court up in flames and people jumping out was heart-wrenching enough. But every one knows that there are innumerable buildings packed in this city that can easily provide...

People have always attached a lot of importance to their names: how it should be spelled, said out loud, and so on. People in power have attempted in many ways to immortalize their names: Murshidabad, Aurangabad, and so on. Markets, monuments, buildings, airports have been named after famous persons. But everywhere, there has been a noun associated with the name to complete the nomenclature. For example, we have Dalhousie Square, Connaught Place, Eden Garden, Netaji Subhas Bose Road, Aurangzeb Marg, Qutb Minar,  Nizam Palace, and so on. In all these examples, the name makes it unambiguously clear as to what is being referred to, whether a building or a road or anything else. Kolkata has taken the lead to erase such distinctions. Perhaps in their own wisdom, the authorities have decided that enough is enough and a name is a name is a name. So what if the proper noun refers to a person or a place? In the beginning, the streets of Kolkata were renamed after persons and most of the r...

Why would a legislative body deem it necessary to reserve seats for some pre-defined category of persons? Do the citizens elect representatives for such activity? The current women's reservation bill is an issue in question. If at all, any reservation should take place while preparing the candidate lists for each constituency. Women should be encouraged to contest elections. Right from the village level to the Indian Parliament. There is nothing wrong in it. But who will win and become eligible to bag a seat in the House should be decision taken by the voters. And I am sure that our legislators are well aware of the issues involved. So why is this happening in India? I always thought that people in Kolkata were of the intellectual type. That is they would rather lay open any political issue threadbare and debate all possible facets of it, than silently go about their own work. Today, I have discovered that that particular species of Bengalis have become extinct. Or maybe they h...

Though Kolkata is one of the great metros of India, it is really difficult to identify the hallmarks of a great city. Rather, it sports many characteristics of a traditional Indian village. As I commute across the city each day, the sights set me thinking whether we Kolkatans are moving towards the future or towards the past! I will keep posting the many sights and situations found only in Kolkata. Others are also welcome to contribute their share. Remember, if you live here, you are also one tiny bit of this teeming, buzzing ocean of humanity. Your tiny bit also contributes to the final mayhem and madness.