One year @ Kolkata

                Hi Folks!!  I haven’t troubled you people with my writing for quite some time. For this trouble free period, you people should thank my company (workplace, obviously), for keeping me busy, six days a week and a small courtesy to my laziness, too. But I should not be complaining much because, if not for my company, I wouldn’t be writing this post at all. Yes, it is my take on Kolkata, the place where I have lived (and living) for exactly one year. I came here on March 05, 2011 and it has been a kind of rollercoaster experience for me since then.

                By December 2010, I got placed in a small company(the existence of which I came to know only the day before my interview), and was whisked away from South India, all the way to the Eastern part of it- away from all my friends and family. Well it might sound like a totally normal scenario (punctuated with ‘duh’) and not worth the fuss. But for a guy like me, who has spent his entire life time in South India, it was, well kind of, brusque. With a sense of loss and low on morale, I came to Kolkata. But after one year, I now think that Kolkata is the best thing that ever could have happened to me.

                Let me start with my first tryst with Kolkata- the place where I live, called SaltLake City, a planned city at the peripheral of (I should be saying a part of) Kolkata. Since it is a planned place, almost all the streets in my block look the same and so it took me some days to correctly identify the street where I live in. Though I had to stay in a dingy PG (with a cheating owner) at first, I later shifted to a house along with my friends. It is an area teeming with rich people and abundant with big houses. Uproot any house from my street, place it on a sea shore and add a swimming pool to it, it’ll make a perfect beach house. But all the houses are kind of isolated (not literally, though). I swear that people at my neighboring house neither know my name, in fact, nor can they identify me as their neighbor -the ultimate contrary of being ‘nosy neighbors’. For the first two or three months, my picturization of Kolkata was monochromatic; started with Salt Lake City and ended there itself with its rich lot. I did not hate it, but I did not like it either.

                May be along with the change in regime (from CPI to Mamata didi’s hands) came the change in my attitude and liking, too. Later one fine weekend, I happened to get into the Kolkata city, the heart of it and that is the moment I added splash of colours to my picturization of Kolkata. It has all kind of places, that every other Metro city in India has- temples,restaurants, malls, pubs, markets, stadiums and, basically, all the colours in the spectrum- the red one too and the darkest ones too(haven’t you been hearing things in the news, lately ?). But what I like the most is the black and white part of it- vintage, untransformed places. It is, as if most parts of the city, forgot to grow along with time. Want some proof?

Majestic, as Always !!

Don't know how long it is goin to be functional !!

                Howrah Bridge (but there is a Sexy modern day counterpart called VidyaSagar Setu, ahem Biddhasagar Setu, like ppl here say), Trams (the only city in India where it is still operational), British period buildings (there are hella lot of them), taxis (have stayed yellow for almost 8 decades), wooden buses (trust me), houses of middle class people in the city (who, I think, still feel it is absolutely unnecessary to refurbish) and above all the lifestyle of poor people (see it yourself when you come here) - abiding by the laws of Inertia. Clearly, a non-budging city, eh?

                Maybe the government also thinks it is better to leave the heart untouched, I guess(I kinda like it). Full fledged construction works on apartments and stuff (in short, houses for people who are gonna migrate to Kolkata in near future) are going on in the outskirts of the city, called NewTown. Please don’t think that Kolkata’s heart is all black and white (though most parts of it are). Some places, you might very well feel that, belong to some other nation – Park Street, for instance. It is the ultimate destination for night life at Kolkata and invariably, people throng to it, in large numbers. And my other favourite street is College Street, the largest array(matrix, probably) of bookshops in Asia, I guess..There are lot of other places, too, which for the sake of brevity and good content, I leave it to other sites. But one last non-living thing, that deserves to be mentioned is Metro Railway, at Kolkata. Though not as modern as that of Bangalore and Delhi, I like it very much. After, getting used to the city (both Salt Lake and the heart), it is very hard not to like it.. Truly colorful.

                And then came the Durga Puja, which honestly is majestic, and rightly deserved a post for itself. I soon started seeing colours which only some weird insects in the African wild jungle can see. Closely following Durga Puja, was the winter at Kolkata. Though not as cold as Delhi, it certainly is a lot colder than that of Tamil Nadu, and exactly the way winter should be. If the winter doesn’t make you fall in love with Kolkata, my post certainly will not.

                I’m not comparing this city with others, I’m not saying this is the best metro (I have seen only three so far).In fact I’m not in the arguing mode at all. All I’m saying is, I happen to be here, and fortunately or unfortunately, I like it very much. This city made me feel that I’m a man firm on my own feet., maybe that is why like it very much. The reasons are not so important, when their culmination is so beautiful and colorful. You still don’t agree with me? See for yourself, how vibrantly colorful Kolkata is.

Freakishly colourful isn't it??

Clearly, Holi is also a part of my love affair. What say??

                Oh.. Kolkata is famous for sweets and really tasty they are. But the sad part is, things which are supposed to be spicy are also sweet (Biryani, for instance). But kind of got used to it. And so is Bengali, very sweet (unless if it is from a loud decibeled woman). Right now I’m trying my best to learn it.

                Lot of great people have lived here and lot of people have said a lot about this place (hehe.. almost all the versions are better than mine). But, the best way to feel this city is, to be here. May be for a span of a week or 10 days and the best time according to me is during Durga puja. You will definitely enjoy yourself. If you want to see a preview of the city, do watch the film Kahaani . I hope they will show the Kolkata in good light, as it is set in this city at the time of Durga Puja.

                And here we go. The culmination ritual.. Thanks for reading it, with patience. Abar dekha hobe, with my next post. Bye, and please thank Google for the pictures (last one is mine, though). Ciao..

Durga Puja @ Kolkata

               For Durga Puja, I had eight days of holiday (a rarity, in itself). I could have gone home, to Tamil Nadu, and could have met my parents and friends, could have had delicious homemade food, which has become a luxury for me in the past five years. But (despite all the pluses), I decided to stay back, just to watch how people celebrate Durga Puja over here, at Kolkata.  I daresay, I do not regret it at all. To be honest, I loved it very much. Jot it down, I have never seen such a celebration in my life.

                Two weeks back, I had no clue on what will happen. Just like you are at this moment, (unless you are from Kolkata); but now I could write an essay about it.

Ahem, I can hear you fuming, “Badhri, cut to the chase“. Here we go!!

How do they do it?

                The Durga Puja phenomenon is for six days. The whole city is flood lit, even the darkest parts of the city (both in literal and non-literal sense) are bright and welcoming. Certainly, electricity is not a limitation for these six days, even 60 watts incandescent bulbs (the famous gundu bulbs) were used as serial lights for decorating many households. Bengalis perform Pujas at their home, like every other state in India, during the daytime.  But the best part, called ‘Pandhal Hopping’, will be the best if you become a Nocturnal.

                 People over here start making temporary structures called Pandhal, a month in advance, at least. There are hundreds of such Pandhals across the city. A standard Pandhal is a temporary structure (in all bizarre shapes) which will have Durga Statue inside. These are made based on some theme like Peace, Environment Conservation, even Space Exploration and so and so. But be assured that each of them was splendid in its own way. Some Pandhals were small in size, some were huge - like a palace, a fortress, etc (after seeing these, I started wondering why these are called ‘Pandhal’s). You will have difficult time in believing that these are temporary structures and will be dismantled after the puja. Some will definitely take you by surprise, like a 52 feet Durga statue made of fibre glass did for me. They have a contest called ‘Sharad Shamman’ for deciding the best Pandhals- innovative ones and beautiful ones.

                All you have to do is, to hop from one Pandhal to other, during the nights- as many Pandhals as the time and (more importantly) the traffic permits. Sleep all the daytime and seek all the night time.

Yes, I can smell the question in the air - What is sooo great in all this ????

-          Well, the answer is, Bengali People.

                Back in Tamil Nadu, Diwali is arguably the the most celebrated festival. Some people may say Pongal and let it be so.  For both of them, these days, the main focus is not on the festival itself, but rather on the other stupid things like television and movies. The first thing that we friends (that includes me too) discuss, be it Diwali or Pongal, is the films. The first thing most of my friends will do this Diwali will be to watch ‘7aam Arivu’ or ‘Mayakkam Enna’ or ‘Velayutham’(I hate to add this one in the list). Not to mention the super hit films and tete-a-tete with actors, in Television. I’m not saying that Tamilians do not celebrate at all, but I say that the whole festive thing is diminishing with every passing year. There certainly is a huge difference between how I felt about diwali when I was in fifth standard and how I feel about it now.

                But here in Kolkata, still the main focus is on the celebration, and more importantly, celebrating it in the traditional way. Bengalis have found out novel ways of doing it, but still they cover all the essentials – they Pray, they Meet and they Moot – all grandly and all in large numbers and more importantly with prime focus. The whole city is on the streets. I have stayed at Kolkata for eight months, till now. I swear that the number of people I have seen on these six days is much greater than the number of people I have seen during these entire eight months’ stay, put together.

                Theatres charged the same fare and not to mention, no new movies. Even Champions League T20 matches, which were supposed to happen here at Edens, during the Puja time were shifted to Chennai and Bangalore, for the fear of lack of audience. If you ask the reason, anyone here will give you the same answer- “It is Puja time, man”. Only one complaint which I could rally against, is the traffic. They still haven’t found out any novel way to tame the traffic. And I’m sure they will not, because, the whole population (Er… the modest usage will be ‘a huge majority of population’) is on the roads and pandhals; and so is chaos.

                Ask the people who have lived at Kolkata in the past, even if for a year or two, the one thing they’ll miss the most is Durga Puja. The City Of Joy does live up to its name during these days.

                And me, I have decided to stay here even for the next puja. I must be seriously retarded (which, I have to agree, I am, but in a lesser degree :p) to stay at the City of Joy and not to witness it at the Pinnacle of Joy.

Thanks.

PS:  I might have gone wrong (,or long) with few facts; and mixed past and future tenses generously. Forgive me. And yes, pictures.. Please take a look at the pictures below too. Thanks again.

Few Pandhals.. My favorite ones..

Interior Decorations

It is made up of Iron Mesh

Well... Something...

That was really Huge !!

And, that is the ceiling..

And, Gods of course..

52 Feet !!!

Life is Precious, even mathematically..

                Last week, an IIM-B student named Malini Murmu, committed suicide. Reason : Her boyfriend dumped her on Facebook. His status read “Feeling Super Cool today. Dumped my new ex-girlfriend. Happy Independence day !”. I agree that this status, might have hurt her badly. But that is no reason, for taking her own life. I’m not going to say this is right or wrong. Let us not rally on that. My point is something else, something much more important…., Life…, precisely.

Waste of Talent and Hope !!!

                Few months from now, she might have got herself a big job which paid her obscenely (imagine, an IIM-B graduate), get lucky and get loved again and much more. All this, had she lived. But, Alas, that stupid girl decided to pull her plug. Ironically, Suicide is the most cowardly act, which requires immense courage.

                Let us do a simple math, to find out how precious Life is. Let Mr.X be a fictional human being, living a healthy life, on earth. We’ll find out the probability for the same, I mean, for ‘a human being living a healthy life, on earth’. (Forgive me if this post is lengthy, but I have to get the math right, to prove it)

   1)      It is a scientific fact that a single human male ejaculation, during copulation, releases 180 million sperms. So Mr.X is that one little lucky sperm in 180 million. For math’s sake, let us keep it 100 million. So, one in hundred million, as of now.

   2)      Don’t we need an egg for an embryo to develop?  Yes. A human female develops 522 eggs in her life time. It is lucky that Mr.X’s parents decided to do it on that particular month. If they had decided to do it on some other month, it might have been Mr.Y or Ms.Z alive, not Mr.X. So now the probability of Mr.X being  alive is one in fifty billion.

   3)      Now this is the probability of Mr.X being born to his parents. What about his parents?  His dad being his paternal grandparents’ son and his mom being his maternal grandparents’ daughter? That’s a pair of one in 50 billion resulting in another one in 50 billion. I don’t even know how to calculate probability for it. So as of now, for simplicity, let us take one in 500 billion as the probability of Mr.X being born(which is much greater than the real probability)

   4)      This is just for a single generation. Even if we consider that human race started from 0 BC/AD, we have to count for 20 generations.  So you repeatedly divide, one in 500 billion, by 500 billion, for 20 times. That is definitely beyond the processing power of my brain. Let us scale it down again. Say, one in hundred trillion – the probability of Mr.X’s birth.

   5)      Now probability( I know you hate it at this moment) of human being formed?? There are billions and billions of species. If not for our brain, we might very well be extinct by this time. So,the probability of Mr.X being a human being(keep in mind that dinosaurs were ruling the earth a long time ago, and also recently in the Jurassic park movie) is let us say one in one quintillion.

   6)      Ok, just simple math from now on, the probability of earth being formed – hmmmm, I don’t know. But, after taking into consideration some amount for this event, let us say , as of now , the probability of Mr.X being born on earth is one in a googol (yes, I spelled it correctly, it was Mr.Brin who spelled it wrong).

   7)      Well, my last point and the most important one. Life.. Our scientists have discovered thousands of planets and stars, but none of them even have the slightest hint of life. If there is head and tail, you can calculate the probability, if head is the only thing, then I don’t know how to, it is beyond math. Life is something weird., even science can’t explain it and it exists only here.  There are infinite amount of heavenly bodies and so I have to say, the probability is one in infinity.

                So, at last, the probability of ‘Mr.X living a healthy life, on earth’ is one in infinity. If it is one in infinity for Mr.X, then it is so for you, and for me. If I am right, one by infinity is zero. So mathematically, you and me, should not exist at all, but fortunately, we do. We are here, against all odds. If Mr.X’s grandpa decided to pull his plug, just like, Shalini did, then Mr.X wouldn’t be alive and kicking, in fact neither his dad. If his mom and dad, had decided to take their lives, when Mr.X was two years old, he might very well be dead by this time, due to lack of care. My point is, your Life, though yours, belongs to others too. So it is not for you to decide, to commit suicide.

                You might be a Gollum, going madly for the Lord of the Rings, saying “My own.. My Precious”. But at some point, you have to stop, to think that the ring is not as precious as the life, that seeks it, is.

                According to Dumbledore, “To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure”. Yes, true, but it should seek you, not the other way around. We might be ugly, bad, rotten to the core, depressed, broken and thousand other things. We might even be bankrupt, but always remember that we have got the most precious thing that infinite others couldn’t get- Our LIFE. Don’t lose it for anything, less precious than that.

You have given some minutes of your life to me, for reading this post. I should really thank you because, I(hopefully you, too) know how precious your life is and every minute in it, is. Thank you, again.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

                When the idea of blogging cropped up in my brains, the purpose of this blog and its posts were pretty vague to me. But one thing was lucid; I was determined not to review books or movies, because whatever one’s opinion be, on these two, there will definitely be another, completely contrary to the first. However there has to be exceptions to any rule and the exception to my rule has the name

                                                    

                                           ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’

That is what the cover looks like !!

                If you are a bookworm or if you like crime novels and if you have not read this book so far, then do not read this blog post any further. Buy this book, read it first and then read this post. You must be thinking that I’m insane, to shoo away the very little readers by poor blog has. But trust me if you read the book you’ll definitely boomerang to this post, read the post  and will either totally agree with me or totally disagree with me. Just black and just white- no shades in between.

 Ok Badhri, enough of bullshit, take the plunge.

                ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’ is written by Agatha Christie and was published first in 1926. I went to Crosswords, a bookstore, last week. There were two racks  named ‘Crime/Mystery’ and one rack was filled with Agatha Christie’s novels. She, simply, is the Queen of Crime. And this book is her Masterpiece.

                Just like, almost, every other Christie’s work, there is a murder and the queer Hercule Poirot investigates it. After reading each chapter, I went through it again in my mind just to make sure that I did not miss any clues provided by the author. Before this book I had read 8 Christie’s  and not even once I succeeded  in identifying the murderer (yup pretty dumb on my part ;) ). This time I was determined to guess the murderer right, before she announces it.

                But I daresay I failed miserably. Don’t think that I’m modest or something. I could never have guessed it because, Dr. Sheppard is the murderer, and that bloody person happens to be the NARRATOR.

                Not even a single cell in my brain could possibly have guessed that narrator could also be framed as a murderer. After reading this book I felt, what do they call, betrayed. And so did lot of others who initially read this book in the 1920’s. There is an unwritten rule that narrator should be truthful and definitely not a murderer. But I(and you too :p) have to agree that Agatha Christie, once again managed to hoodwink us, bigtime. And this exactly is why, I think ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’ is considered her masterpiece.

                The first 350 pages of this book are just like any other crime novel and the last 20 pages are unlike any I have come across so far.

                This is the best crime novel I have read so far.( The best is always, Harry Potter, for some weird reasons) Before this, my most favourite Christie’s novel was ‘And Then There Were None’. 

And ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ is also worth the mention.

Recently one of my friends asked me this, in FB “Do you still like Christie’s books?”

I don’t know what she meant by it.

                

 But my answer is this : 

                 Yeah , Christie’s novels are always the same, almost. I have read nine so far and there are plenty of them left to be read. I’ll stop reading her novels, the very first day I guess the murderer right.....

India Against Corruption, and me too..

                It was a quiet evening, as usual, in Salt Lake City. I was sitting in the front seat of an auto and intently listening to the conversation between two loquacious girls in the back seat. I was so engrossed in their conversation (not that I understood a thing… they were speaking Bengali, nevertheless you cannot question my dedication :p ), I missed getting down at my destination, Central Park (notoriously famous among young and not quite young lovers of Salt Lake City). So I had to walk few meters back. And when I was about to reach Central Park, a shriek from loud speaker greeted me- "Inquilab Zindabad !! ". What I saw next, totally took me by surprise.

                At the entrance of Central Park, there were about two hundred people, with candles, drums, loud speakers, waving Indian Flags and what not-s. Reason: LOKPAL BILL. They were singing something in Bengali and dancing( Ahem.. I should say, protesting). In a nut shell, except for an Old Gandhian fasting, it was like a mini replica of Ramlila Maidan.

Central Park Entrance

                Just like every other youth in the protest, I was drawn to it (with Ratchagan BGM in my brain) and was about to ask for one candle. But at that moment, something in me, stopped me (might be cinematic, but trust me I stopped). I took out my phone, took a few snaps and went home. 

Reason: One small thought originated from some remote corner of mind, that I’m not the right person to be a part of this rally against corruption. Simply because, I am corrupt.

                My corruptions are not as big as that of our esteemed politicians, but I am corrupt enough to be called as Corrupt. I don’t know to drive, but I have the driving license with me because I managed to bribe the RTO and get me one. It would have taken a day for me to get the darshan of Balaji at Tirupati, but I managed to come out, unscathed, in two hours, just because I greased someone’s  palm to cut me through the queue, right into the shrine. And I can keep blabbering for pages, but that is not the point. I abused my money, for a cause(s) greater (I should really say, cheaper) than its value, which is a perfect case of corruption. We protest with full fervor against the greased palms, but we conveniently forget that it is, we, who grease those.

                Scores of youth took it to the streets, the Lokpal protests, in the past few days. A big thanks to them, because it was their involvement which took the protest to the next level and made the government to pass the bill (Hmmm.. hopefully so, without any more hitches). But how many of us, given the chance and position of the politicians, will abstain ourselves from being corrupt? Pause for a second and fathom your own mind. Or say a lesser degree. How many of us will not not bribe from today onwards??

Think.. Think..

                The Lokpal Bill itself is ingenious, a real stroke of geniousness inspired from similar bills in few other nations. But, but, but, on second thoughts, don’t you really think that the bill is fundamentally flawed?? The strength of this bill is drawn from the strength of the people of this nation, who are , simply, corrupt.  Lokayukta or whatever the body against corruption is named, consists of handpicked people from this corrupt lot. This exactly is the flaw of the bill.

                There is a saying in tamil- “Thirudanaai paarthu thiruntha vittaal thiruttai olikka mudiyathu”., which means, we cannot abolish thieving until the thief himself considers it as bad and restrains himself from doing it. India’s this fight against corruption will not be successful, unless each person realizes his level of corruptness and refrains from being corrupt. Untill and unless, it happens, I swear that this Lokayukta will be the most corrupt body of this nation. To put it in gaming terms, Counter terrorists will be the real terrorists.


                Without self-realization, the whole Lokpal thing is like the patriotic feel which you get after seeing Freedom Struggle movies on Independence day.. It'll drain from your mind the very next morning. There might not be another Anna Hazare in the future, but there will be people like you and me. And it is with this section, the change has to take place. It need not be instant. But it has to be gradual. Everyday, we have to become as less corrupt as possible. It is just you, to monitor you. No commission, no body. Only you and me.

                Phew… Your brain must be brimming with the word Corruption. Sorry, but I couldn’t find an equivalent one. And yes, I can hear you swearing against me like “ Who the heck are you to say this?? Are your thoughts saintly?? You are saying this ok, but how much goodness is in you to really say this??”.

                No. I don’t say that I’m a good person or a person with saintly thoughts. I’m not at all significant to me or anyone. You can call me an Oaf, pervert, sadist(hopefully..not a rapist.. I’m not that bad) and what not, call me everything. Yes I’m not a great guy, but I did have this one good thought and thought I had to share with someone, thus resulting in this post. Thanks for patiently reading this thing. I owe you some time, in your lifetime.

Links that might interest you:

1) India Against Corruption - the Official Lokpal site

2) I Paid A Bribe - Well, the name says it all