Q: In which game are there only losers?
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 us with repeat performances. I have seen buildings where the tangled mass of electricity cables can put to shame a crow's nest many times over. Stairways are dirty, uneven and used as impromptu store-rooms with packaging materials strewn all round. Elevators are vintage pieces fit to be in a museum. Whenever there's a power cut, the buildings transform into a concrete example of a perfect labyrinth. No Ariadne's thread to follow and come out safe.
What is needed now is to put away the pieces and get down to some real work. The civic authorities should gather enough courage and sit up and take hard decisions. It is indeed very difficult to declare that enough is enough and that there will be no more infernos. But unless our players pack away their game-board and put their feet firmly on the ground, it will not be possible to stop such events from recurring. The authorities should take notice of all such death-traps and take an oath to put a stop to it.
After all, even if all clandestine activities go by unnoticed by the common citizens, the players will certainly not be able to hide from their Nemesis. They will be powerless to stop the Nemesis in its course of retribution, correction and natural justice. In the end, the loss of property, human suffering, anguish and pain makes all the pecuniary gains seem so insignificant to all barring a few.
As people pick up the pieces of their life and move on, and the city tries to develop a selective amnesia, it becomes clear that nothing has really changed. The survivors sigh, the city moans, the media looks elsewhere for another story, the players get ready for another round, life and death goes on. As I look around, I see only losers.
The next time there will be a sense of deja vu. The soul hardens with each such event until all that remains is a hollow exoskeleton.
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 us with repeat performances. I have seen buildings where the tangled mass of electricity cables can put to shame a crow's nest many times over. Stairways are dirty, uneven and used as impromptu store-rooms with packaging materials strewn all round. Elevators are vintage pieces fit to be in a museum. Whenever there's a power cut, the buildings transform into a concrete example of a perfect labyrinth. No Ariadne's thread to follow and come out safe.
What is needed now is to put away the pieces and get down to some real work. The civic authorities should gather enough courage and sit up and take hard decisions. It is indeed very difficult to declare that enough is enough and that there will be no more infernos. But unless our players pack away their game-board and put their feet firmly on the ground, it will not be possible to stop such events from recurring. The authorities should take notice of all such death-traps and take an oath to put a stop to it.
After all, even if all clandestine activities go by unnoticed by the common citizens, the players will certainly not be able to hide from their Nemesis. They will be powerless to stop the Nemesis in its course of retribution, correction and natural justice. In the end, the loss of property, human suffering, anguish and pain makes all the pecuniary gains seem so insignificant to all barring a few.
As people pick up the pieces of their life and move on, and the city tries to develop a selective amnesia, it becomes clear that nothing has really changed. The survivors sigh, the city moans, the media looks elsewhere for another story, the players get ready for another round, life and death goes on. As I look around, I see only losers.
The next time there will be a sense of deja vu. The soul hardens with each such event until all that remains is a hollow exoskeleton.
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