The Land of Deterioration..

Calcutta became Kolkata in the year 2001.

West Bengal became Poschim Bongo in 2011.

This is enough to prove that this place has gone from bad to worse in the last few decades. I don't want to start a regional fight or communal battle here. I simply wanted to share a few experiences as a proud Calcuttan/Kolkatan for the last 11/10 years, respectively. 

Let me point out a few shortcomings of our city of joy, which no other metropolitan city in India faces today.

1.  Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport:

The Calcutta airport has been used as a major airport since early 1920s. Sadly, not much has changed since then. The airport buildings do look pre-historic. The trolleys and conveyor belts seem to have been used during the World War II. The toilets are easily detectable not because of the sign boards (pun intended- as there are no sign boards in the airport), but because of the strong stench. The staff is ever helping and ever smiling, if they see Mahatma Gandhi coming out of your pocket. The good thing is the nature loving attitude of the management- no animal, bird or insect is barred from entering the airport premises. And neither are they forced out. There are no garbage bins required in the building, because every corner is a spittoon and a garbage bin. 

BUT, a new terminal is under construction and should be ready for use by early next year. Just keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the very best.

2.  Kolkata Metro:

The Calcutta metro was the first subway transportation in India which came in operation back in 1984. Now, in 2011, it is the worst subway transportation in India. The trains are rickety, the stations dirty, the staff uncooperative and the crowd unruly. It might sound a bit harsh to criticise it in such a way, but when compared to the metros in New Delhi and other cities of the world, it does feel like an embarrassing truth. The stations are a mess- no drinking water available (excepting one or two stations), infested by rats, dirty and stinky. The security checks at the stations are a mere formality. There has been more than one instance when I had to force the security personnel to check my bags to remind them of their duty.

BUT, five new lines are being constructed which will be having world-class trains and fully air conditioned stations. Two of the five lines should be ready in a couple of years. Hoping for the best! 

3.  Auto-attack:

The worst fear of every car driver is the auto rickshaws on the roads of Calcutta. They appear from nowhere and the traffic rules doesn't seem to apply on them. They cut lanes, they drive in the wrong lanes, they jump signals, they carry 6 passengers, they stop right in the middle of the road... to sum it all up, they are next only to the Devil, on the roads of Calcutta. Even the police will not do much to keep them behaved on the roads. Actually, they can't do much. Every auto driver is affiliated to a certain political party which pays for the auto. The driver becomes a part of the union and has the backing of the party at all times. They are one of the biggest vote banks and no political party will do anything remotely close to what might upset these 'royal' citizens of our state.

4.  Rallies, Bandhs, Political Meets and similar chaos:

Although it sounds like the ingredients of a perfect politically aware state, it is only excuses to bunk work and create chaos on the streets to show the supremacy on the normal, hard working citizens of the state by the politically inclined (read gunda raaj) people. The state which is obsessed with curbing sound pollution during festive season does little or nothing when a 60+ underachiever takes up a microphone and starts shouting and howling on the pretext of addressing a crowd. The city traffic is already slow moving on weekdays, specially during office hours and rallies are allowed to contribute to it with free consent. 

These are just a handful of reasons which have led to the slow development of our state. I don't want to just criticise the state. All said and done, I love Calcutta. It is one of the most homely and warm place to live in. It is a perfect place to grow up as a child. Even after getting an opportunity to travel to every other metropolitan city of our country, I feel most comfortable in Calcutta. But if these small problems were taken care of, the city would be a real gem.

"Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position. ~Mohandas Gandhi"

Friends - A complete package

The first memory of life outside the comforts of our home are generally about the preschool. The colourful walls, the tiny round tables, and the tinier chairs with cartoon faces on it. The many crying faces which looked soothing as we could relate so very easily with them. This was the phase when I realised the importance of friends. The first relation which we create independently with strangers in this strange world. The people who stood there when we cried while entering the school, when we fell and bumped our heads and cried even more, and then they laughed in unison picking us up, dusting our shirts and patting our backs. These friends, who were the reason why we felt like celebrating our birthdays, distributing chocolates in class, throwing a party at the house in the evening. 

Friends play the major role in shaping our personality as we grow up. Some teach you to cheat, some teach you to help others cheat. Some teach you to play, some teach you to bunk physical education classes and play the game of love. Some share their lunch with you, some finish away your lunch without even asking you. Some ask you to write notes for them, some ask you to write poems for their partner. Some take the blame on their heads for you, some put the blame on you. Some walk beside you holding hands, some walk right behind you singing love songs. Some stood by you outside the principal's office, some laughed at you sitting in the class rooms. 

Friends will be there by your side, no matter what the reason or occasion be. They'll be there when you exceed and when you fail. They'll be there when you break up and when you patch up. They'll be there when you break your leg and when you break someone else's leg. They'll be there when you play pranks on others and when other play pranks on you. They'll be there at the middle of the night when you're not sleepy and they'll be there in the morning when you need to talk. But still, the best moments are the ones spent fighting. We fight, we break up, then we hit each other and make up. The bond is much stronger than anyone can ever imagine.

Friends- a complete package. I have every kind of a person with me. The playboy, the singer, the dancer, the psychopath, the bouncer, the terrorist, the cameraman, the West Indian, the nerd, the cricketer, the bullet, the gamer, the lover, the preacher and some are just Family. 

"A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down ~ Arnold H. Glasow "

Categorisation- A double-edged-sword

Being a part of the ever growing population of an over populated country has led to a common habit in the masses- to categorise and put people in clusters, groups or sects, so that they can tackle the huge number of people with ease. This method of stratified sampling is indeed remarkable but only as an extent of management process. But the government gave it much significance and used it extensively, anon it developed as a habit in the public as well.

We categorise boys and girls as a separate class and everyone, we believe, possesses certain characteristic just because they are 'a boy' or 'a girl'. Instead of scrutinising people in the basis of their own merits or demerits, we simply form a bias beforehand and tend to work our way accordingly. The girls will keep on saying- guys are flirts, they lack emotions, they never consider a long term relationship, they prefer cricket over their girlfriends, blah blah blah. All I want to say is, your father is a guy too, have you ever considered that before making a generic statement?

The government, I believe, is to be blamed too. They still follow the age old method of reservation and only consider whether the person belongs to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe or Other Backward Classes. I feel that they should look into every single application made under this 'privileged' category and then decide whether the concerned person actually deserves the 'special treatment' of being born in a Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe or Other Backward Class family.

We have been brought up in a society obsessed with generalisation. We form a bias on the basis of religion, region, gender et cetera. A few examples from a particular class and the prosaic conclusion comes down to one, every class member is such. We create classes, then we pick out a few bad examples and then we form a bias against the whole class. The irony of all this is maddening.

"He's a politician, must be corrupt"

"The Indian cricket team lost, the match must have been fixed"

"The singer/actor died, it would definitely be a case of drug overdose"

"The young guy crashed his car, must be drunk"

All I'm trying to say is, why don't we look into each matter explicitly, instead of generalising. Each individual is very special and unique in his/her own way. Respect that and try to know the other person as they are!

"We are much too much inclined in these days to divide people into permanent categories, forgetting that a category only exists for its special purpose and must be forgotten as soon as that purpose is served." ~Dorothy L. Sayers

A crazy thing called LOVE..

Love- the craziest feeling a person can experience. The loveliest moments spent, whether in solitude or in the company of your love. The feeling in which the sun seems to be replaced by the face of your desired one and the whole world seems to revolve around her. When your smile gets synced with her and the tears flow in unanimity. When the happiest moments are the ones spent in silence, looking deep into each other's eyes, with a smile on the face and a feeling of utmost content in the heart. When the thoughts do not let you sleep at night and the day dreams cannot let you work. 

The heart is the strongest magnet known to the mankind which functions on its own accord. It reaches out and attracts not the most beautiful heart, but the most compatible one. The heart does not have its own pair of eyes and so it only feels the other heart. If we close our eyes and feel someone, we do not find any flaws, we only feel the warmth. So is the case with this lunatic piece of an organ. It does not consider the consequences, or the difficulty in trying to achieve the love back, before attaching itself. The heart has only one simple rule - to find the one which will keep it busy. 

A very famous saying goes like this, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder". With certainty, this is not something I would disagree with. The heart aches in the absence of the love, making the feeling grow more stronger. The absence is felt the strongest at nights, for some reasons which we might not be able to prove scientifically. During such nights, my heart writes:

Wish you were here with me tonight,

your loving hand by my side,

easing me, comforting me,

wiping tears I can, no longer hide..

Wish you were here with me tonight,

the smell of your skin on my shoulder,

getting warmer, our bodies together,

as the night kept getting colder..

Wish you were here with me tonight,

your pristine silhouette nearing me,

the long stares, the quiet talks,

no one around, just you and me..

Wish you were here with me tonight,

holding on to me so tight,

none can change the way I feel, 

just want this to be an endless night..

Love makes you do crazy things- to stay right there beside her, to feel her presence, to see her smile, to lose yourself in her eyes, to hear the sound of her laughter, to read her thoughts, to smell her perfume, to tuck her falling strand of hair behind her ear. Wherever you look, you feel she is there. Your eyes start searching for her even when you know she is not there. Her absence makes you stare at her pictures, reading her old texts, waiting for a "Hi".

Love, whether expressed or unvoiced, is the most beautiful feeling in the world. The feeling of having your own little world. 

Happiness and Women

I think it must be really difficult being a woman as there are a number of things that must be constantly going through her head, no matter how big or small it is. She is always aware of who is checking her out and who is following her. She knows whether her lipstick smeared or her kohl has smudged. If her tee is untucked from behind or if the fringe of her hair is falling exactly at the desired angle from her forehead towards her eye and if the volume of the fringe is perfect or not. Is the hand bag's (which should be called the hand baggage keeping in mind the size of those things these days) label clearly visible to the other chic passing by her. She needs to keep in mind that the typing speed on her cell phone should not be fast enough to damage the tip of the nails. Her steps should be quick enough to show an urgency in her walk but keeping her high heels from breaking. When sitting in a cafe, pretending to read a book, her lip should have a pout, which should not seem like she is trying to kiss the coffee mug but enough to boil interest in the guy sitting on the opposite table, while making sure that she doesn't make eye contact with him. She is to smile looking at her phone at least once in every five minutes even if the God damn gadget is out of power and switched off, so that nobody realises that she is alone and bored.

This is the price that a woman is willing to pay, because this makes her feel happy. And as we all know, happiness comes with a price tag.

According to her:

She is either fatter than her gym partner or more petite than her gym trainer making her eat less or work out more. She is either in a relationship where she's putting in too much effort to make things work out or she's in a relationship where she lacks space and privacy. She never has clothes for a party which she realises just minutes before leaving. She is always upset after a great evening or a lovely dinner because her man gave the waitress 50 bucks more than she deserved as a tip. She keeps nagging about her computer not because she is tech-illiterate but because her colleague's computer is better and faster. She sleeps early at nights because she is tired, but her man sleeps early because he did not want to talk to her. She watches movies and soaps because these are emotional, sensitive, heart-touching and requires hard work to be made whereas football players or cricketers are a bunch of lunatics always running behind a silly ball. She is always happy after buying an expensive dress till she gets to know that her neighbour bought a more expensive dress. She starts hating her newly bought pair of shoes if they are being sold at a discounted rate at the end of season sale. She feels disgusted if she is eve teased and feels unattractive if no one notices her when she goes out. 

The life of a woman is that of struggle and endeavour to be happy. But a happy woman seems to me a myth. She is never happy nor content. She is always at the receiving end of life's misery. 

A man gives many question marks, however, a woman is a whole mystery.  ~Diana Stürm