Idleness, the great cure

Recently I had suffered a great setback. Without going into details, which I shall refrain from as they are of little interest to others, it is enough to say here that I was near breaking point. And for a various mix of things over which I had little control.

Fortunately, an unplanned twist of events suddenly found me plucked, as it were from the very eye of the storm that was tossing me around, and I found myself in a tranquil, quiet spot, far from all the noise and chaos that was tearing me apart.

At first the angst of all that I had left behind as part of unfinished jobs, untended chores et al kept haunting me in my dreams (read nightmares) and I lay up nights tossing in bed.But after the first week things started to quieten down.

The days pass in idle langour. My cell phone has been deliberately kept switched off. I do not open my e-mails anymore. I don't even sit before news channels on the TV or even pick up the daily newspapers.

I am deliberately doing all this in order to cultivate a disconnect with the world that has been so troublesome to me lately. I just eat, sleep, read books that I have always longed to have the time to read, take long walks along empty stretches and breathe in the sharp, clean air that is so not there in the noisy and hellish metropolis I've just left back for a little respite.

I am leading an extremely idle life, not necessarily an ideal one. But for me, wounded as I've been of late, I find that over the last week I am healing from inside out. I sorely need this to happen. Another couple of weeks of this therapy and I think I shall be healed enough to go back to where I came from.

Idleness then can be a cure.

Paschimbanga

After much hemming and hawing and deliberations throughout the State, the “pundits” (read the idiots), among themselves finally decided to officially and finally change the name from West Bengal to Paschimbanga. This is to be pronounced posh (like the luxury car Porsche) chim, (which actually means West) bawn (like lawn) go (like go).

Why? Because alphabetically we were the lowest among all the other states. (How childish can you get?). As a result of our occupying the lowest place alphabetically, it was felt(utterly foolishly) that we were not getting enough attention of the Centre at Delhi when it came to distribution of funds or other largesse. Can you believe this?

The other reason cited was that since there was no East Bengal in existence any more why keep the prefix West? Okay. But then Paschimbanga is actually the exact Bengali translation of West Bengal. You have kept the Paschim. So that was no reason at all. Or was it? This is an unsolvable paradox that can only evolve out of the fertile minds of politicians and their toady hangers on..

Now with a starting alphabet of P, it is felt that we have climbed up the ladder somewhat. If climbing the alphabetic order was the prime reason for this idiotic change, then what was wrong in adopting just Bengal as our new name? We'd have been there right on top of the pile.

Also, the name would have been a lot smarter, phonetically sound and a lot easier to pronounce etc etc. Now the non Bengalis will have one hell of a time trying to pronounce our new name. As it is they murder the new name of the city when they try and say Kolkata the changed name of Calcutta. Not one of the non Bengalis can get it right. And it makes me grit my teeth every time I hear a non Bengali mutilate Kolkata trying to say it. It really is the easiest of names. Kol should sound like coal and kata is simple with a soft t. But invariably the non Bengali will kill the name by pronouncing Kol like call. The name is killed with the first syllable.

If this is what people do with Kolkata, can you imagine what they're going to do with Paschimbanga?

Definite about Indefinite fast?

Now that Anna Hazare is all geared up for another show (tamasha) certain thoughts have been crossing my mind from time to time.

It is a given that our dear and lovely country is riven with corruption. It is now too deeply ingrained in our national psyche, driven hard and deep into our hard disks. Into the DNA of our national character. This just cannot be gotten rid of all that easily. No matter how much we talk and ponder about it, or hold seminars and projects and make grand sounding statements echoing from one corner of the country to the other.

Two years ago nobody had ever heard of this nobody called Anna Hazare.

Somehow this fellow could strike a chord against this concept of corruption that was/has been tearing our country apart. He just happened to strike this chord at the right moment. I don't think there was any calculation behind it. Just one of those great fluke moments of life , when all the unforseeable factors, the uncontrollable factors happened to be in the right place. The astrologers would say that the stars were right. The entire country was galvanised by this little fellow who was championing a cause. The little guy's voice against the mighty juggernaut of a corrupt system of gargantuan proportion.

With the teeming hundreds of thousands behind him the little fellow was now not all that little. The Government sat up and took notice. Had to. The Government was left with little choice.

His first battle against the Government won, after the first fast, Anna realised he had a weapon in his hand that was invincible. Now he was somebody. He was on an almost equal footing with the mighty Government of India, setting down terms. What an achievement! Never mind whether those terms were feasible or not.

Now that he is poised for his second battle, namely his second "fast unto death" unless the Government gives in, and the Government is all aflutter how to deal with the situation without getting egg in the face like they did with Baba Ramdev. The Government did lose a lot of face the way they handled the Baba Ramdev prank. This time the Government is watching themselves carefully, very carefully. They can't afford another mistake.

But other thoughts assail me. This declaration to go on an indefinite fast unto death is nothing short of an attempt to commit suicide. And this by itself is a criminal offence as defined under Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code. An offence punishable with imprisonment and fine.

Also those who encourage, aid and/or abet the commission of an offence are also guilty of committing an offence. Punishable offence. (Refer to Chapter V of the IPC on Abetment of Offences). Sections 109 and 111 make the position abundantly clear by spelling out the punishment and liability for abetment of offences.

What I am wondering is what is stopping the Government of India from invoking these laws and stopping this Hazare from making a nuisance of himself and throwing a spanner in the workings of the Government.

This is one sure way the Government could put a definte embargo on the indefinite fast.

On a train? Not me!

I think I had spoken too soon.

About how unsafe it was increasingly becoming . Travelling by train, that is. And that was with regard to what thugs on trains could do to you. They now have a free rein on trains, particularly when the trains are passing through Bihar. This has been that way for far too long now and we've more or less come to expect the worst when trains enter Bihar.

But what thugs can do to you pales to insignificance to what can happen to you or the entire train if just a few nuts and bolts or a fishplate go missing from a part of the tracks.

The scale of mayhem and disaster that can happen and as happened, twice on the same day, leaves the country gasping in utter disbelief. The twisted bogies lying helter skelter with untold dead and dying, limbs torn from bodies flung around like so much ghastly waste is numbing to the senses.

And when, quite understandably, the nation's psyche seeks an answer and a person in power to turn to, he plays truant like a schoolboy cutting school and hides behind a plethora of lame excuses. What a sorry state of governance we have!

And then when I know that the Pujas are on the way and people would be travelling I shiver in fear thinking how many more such gruesome accidents are waiting to happen. Just around the corner.

In fact my wife and I are already booked to travel to Delhi to holiday with my son and daughter-in-law. Should I cancel the train tickets and get air tickets, I wonder. The first knee-jerk reaction that comes to my mind when I think of travelling is what? On a train? Not me!

Safe trains! When?

Railways are becoming an increasingly unsafe method of travel.

If the Maoists have'nt removed the fishplates and caused a derailment, instantly killing and maiming hundreds of innocents, there are any number of train robberies and harassments caused by thugs from Bihar. Why is it that these thugs have a free rein when the train is passing through Bihar? No other state is this unsafe for a train traveller. Even the railway police turn a blind eye when looting and harassment of women passengers take place. This is shameful for all Indians.

Now that Lalu, the clown has been replaced by a sensible CM in Bihar, is it not fair to expect that the thugs and unsavoury elements from Bihar be reined in?

Also now that Mamata Banerjee is in control, not only of West Bengal but the Railways as well, we should expect to see a firm hand in dealing with the railway police who are oftentimes hand in gloves with these rogues running loose in the running trains.

When will travelling by train be safe and a joyous experience again? As it was, I remember, in my childhood.

Angels fear to tread...

Now that the Supreme Court has reined in the runaway spirit that was getting the better of good sense, we can sit for a minute and look at the situation as it is.


Okay, during the Red Regime the Government had wrenched away forcibly, fertile land from farmers and peasants. And given these plots away for a song to the mighty industrial emperor. The actual snatching and grabbing of fertile lands that had fed hundreds of families for generations back had come about through bloodbath and near genocide caused by the red goon army unleashed on unarmed simple peasnt folk. There was no end to their savagery, particularly as they had been helped alongside by the state machinery and personnel. Having grabbed the land away from the peasants, who were thus violently thrown out of their own property in this brutal fashion, the Red Government gave it all away for a song to the Industrial tycoon for him to build his car factory.


We all know what happened afterwards. The industrialisation that was to be didn't happen. The Tycoon had to turn away from W Bengal and head westwards. Whatever little construction and structures the tycoon had put up stayed as they were. The land lay without coming to anybody's use.


Then came the General Election and the rout that followed. The Red dragon, after an seemingly endless regime of 34 years, was totally vanquished and fled with its tail between its legs.


All this is history. Having reduced the earlier rulers to a rubble, the new brave leader of the present Government has undertaken this Herculean task of retrieving a semblance of governance from the rule of anarchy that has been dominating the scene for so long. The new leader has not a moment to spare in her headlong rush to get going and get things done.


One of the most striking and admirable items in her agenda is to return the lost land to the farmers. In her headlong rush, perhaps she has gone overboard in certain areas that need to be re-assessed and remedial steps taken. In reclaiming the land that has already been transferred to the Tatas, the aforementioned tycoon, she has had a bill passed and acted overnight and taken practically forceful repossession of transferred land from the Tatas. Here she needed to tread gently. Tatas were not going to run away with the land. The heavens wouldn't have fallen had she given them a reasonable time to hand over possession of the transferred land back to the Government.


I wonder who was advising her. There's no doubt she has the best brains in every field surrounding her and advising her. But sometimes when there are too many cooks in a kitchen, and everyone a master chef, it's not difficult to imagine how edible the broth might be.



And so it happened. She went in with her guns blazing. But there is something in the world of law known as "due process". If you show undue haste in acting, then this concept of "due process " gets jeopardised. And a court of law is always there to correct the infraction. The Tatas had no other option but to go to the apex court to get a stay of the actual handing over of the land to the farmers, even before it had been properly adjudicated by the High Court as to whether or not the Act, hurriedly enacted by the State of W Bengal, was constitutinal or not. If it is finally decided that the Act itself is bad, then all action taken under it must be declared null and void and status quo ante be restored. The land would go back to the Tatas and zilch to the farmers.


None of us want that to happen. We all want the farmers to get back their land from which they had been so brutally evicted. If in her haste that most admirable of her agendas gets lost in lealities and an endless bout of litigation and counter litigation, an endlesss process which can go on to perpetuity, nothing would be more tragic.

There's a saying that goes "angels fear to tread where fools rush in". Our new leader has emerged as a saviour and an angel to the lost state of W Bengal. We had all lost our hopes of revival of W Bengal. She has given us new hope and new aspirations. We all want her to win, every which way. That is why she must be cautious and remember the saying that angels fear to tread...

Sorry, no sex! We're Indians.

I read a disquieting news item this morning.


Seems there's this hospital at Asansol. The superintendent there, a young, presumably personable man of 35 had been successful in seducing a young staff nurse, a twenty something. These are fringe benefits of the medical profession, which we, of the non medical profession have heard rumours about from our college days.

Anyway, this super and the nurse met at the dead of night in one of the many empty rooms, in the hospital itself, where else?. And they were conducting their tryst as only two lovers can , in the still of the night and away from prying eyes. They were so absorbed in each other they were quite oblivious of the fact that the bed they were on was creaking. In the dead silence of a night in a mofussil hospital, around 2 A.M. the sound of a creak carries over long distances.

It so happened that the "creak" awoke another nurse in the hospital. She thought at first, being panick-stricken at the odd sound, that it was a burglar. She woke up the other staff nurses and soon as a group,now emboldened, marched down the corridor leading up to the tryst room and flung open the door. Our hero (the superintendent) and his girlfriend were caught in flagrante delicto


After this, dear reader, living in India, you can imagine what happened. Yes, all hell, as the saying goes, broke loose. The sky came tumbling down on the two hapless lovers, in dishabille, literally caught in the act. Recriminations, abuse hurled in shrill voices, gasps of disbelief from the assembled entourage all made a merry mess of the situation. This nightmare continued to such lengths that even relatives of patients in the hospital came from near and far and thoroughly thrashed up the poor super.

To cap it all, the hospital authorites were left with no alternatives but to immediately suspend the superintendent and the young nurse, pending further and no doubt the harshest of disciplinary action.


Now, when I look at all this that happened, my mind fills with dismay at the sheer hypocrisy and the downright intolerance in the mind of my countrymen. Just let's think for a moment the plight of the two lovers. They were enjoying a moment of quiet bliss and togetherness, harming no one and interfering with nobody's life. It's just that they were two consenting adults being intimate, away from the public gaze. What exactly was their offence in the eyes of the "shocked" people who thus mistreated them? Its these people who abused their privacy and took law into their own hands and caused a violent breach of "law and order" by turning a night of quiet romance into this nightmarish act. True the lovers were using the official premises for conducting their very own and private business. But they weren't neglecting their duties or official responsibilities. Then why all this brouhaha? Over something which was none of anybody's business but their very own.

It is this feeling of sadness that makes me realise the truth in the saying "Sorry- no sex! We're Indians!"

One grisly tale

A teenage girl, all of 14 was rounding up her cows on a lazy afternoon in a rural setting. She was being helped by her little brother. The cattle had strayed too dangerously close to the local police lines.

A few constables out also and having nothing better to do, (under the indulgent and benevolent eye of the Chief of the State) had already spotted their prey. As in unison, they got up off their well rounded bottoms and gave chase. The little girl had no chance. She was picked up and brought down desperately struggling, to a derelict little room. Her little brother had however escaped and ran back home in panic to report that his elder sister had been picked up by the police.

In the derelict room, as mentioned, in the quiet afternoon of the police lines, these three or four brutes had in their midst a traumatised but nubile young girl, a very delectable fare, no doubt, for their lust which was now overflowing. A gangrape followed.

The girl lay unconscious and bleeding. Now, lust abated, the beasts , with their brutish thinking knew that this had to be hushed up. Otherwise, if the girl were allowed to let go, God knows what might happen. They just couldn't afford to take the chance. After all, they had their precious Government jobs to save, didn't they? So they decided to finish off the girl then and there and then string her up and let her death be passed off as a 'suicide'. What an absolutely brilliant idea!

So they proceeded to strangulate the already unconscious girl. This grisly act done, they quietly dragged the body and used a rope lying around to string her up from a nearby tree, which was, again, within the police line compound. These brilliant constables, didn't chance taking the body of the girl outside in broad daylight to look for a tree in the village where to hang up their handiwork.

We all know this, courtesy the newspaper reports. The mother and other villagers have since discovered the body of the little girl in the faux suicide mode. The police are trying their best to cover up. Huge sums are being offered to the shattered mother of the little girl. But that will not happen because the media is now in on the story and hopefully will soon create such a stir that something drastic happens.

What is curious though, is the stony silence we are all getting from the Chief of the State. Does she have no comments to make on this gruesome and macabre incident which more than highlights the state of anarchy in her state? Or is she too busy scouting for another site where another stony statue of her ample dimensions may be put up?