Oh Calcutta, she's spitting on you!

I am not from Kolkata, neither do I love Kolkata. But after reading what Ms Bachi Karkaria has written about Kolkata in TOI Crest dated Apr 9, 2011 Bangalore edition, I thought I should write up. TOI Crest attempted to explore the characteristic of some of the cities of India. While most writers seemed to be unhappy to write about his/her allotted city and were more prone to discuss the vices than virtues of the cities, Ms Karkaria went one step ahead and she was almost spitting her hatred for Kolkata. I don't know why she is so upset with the city or the city people that she came up with such a notorious article.

The reason for my writing this blog post is not to bring forward the virtues of the city but to point out the false allegations made on Kolkata. I am not here to make any political statement also. I will simply prove why I think these allegations to be false and will also write which other city of the country actually deserves that 'allegation'. Please read on.

Ms Karkaria has expressed her annoyance to the fact that Victoria Memorial in Kolkata is still called Victoria Memorial while Victoria Terminus (VT) is called Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) in Mumbai. I want to state a simple fact here. Victoria Memorial is a building that houses a museum with portraits and memorabilia relating to the then queen Victoria. While VT was a rail terminus, which could be easily changed to any name (CST in this case), how can you actually change the house and museum of queen Victoria to somebody else's name like Chhatrapati Shivaji Memorial or Gandhi Memorial or Netaji Subhash Memorial? I really don't understand her point here. And also FYI, Kolkata hosts the biggest museum in the country.

Also, Ms Karkaria has mentioned that Kolkata is the last Indian city with an intact statue of queen Victoria. By writing this sentence if Ms Karkaria is hinting at Kolkata people's keenness towards British or pointing her finger at the city people's patriotism, then she's grossly at the wrong foot. No matter how many hatred articles like this she writes about Kolkata, she can't change the history of Indian freedom fight movement. At that time when people from Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad were busy becoming engineers and writing exams for the ticket to London, it was people of Kolkata who were protesting, marching, fasting and dying for India. So before making such a lose statement, she better checks what she is writing.

I am surprised at one sentence of the article - 'stitching seamlessly onto the English cultural fabric'! Post independence, only Kolkata was the city that had the courage to throw not only English people but English culture from their lives, for which they are now paying hard in this double-standard nation, which is obsesses with the idea that better a person speaks in English, more he is respected in the society. It is the very non-fondness of English culture that has left Kolkata youth in the back seat in the career track as Kolkata people can't speak English fluently. Whereas go to any other city in South India or North India, you will see people prefer to speak in English than their own mother tongue proving their undeterred loyalty to the English culture. Boys and girls and their parents in South India seem to have only one motto in their lives ever since they are born is - Go to America. In the same article when Ms Karkaria makes fun of a Kolkata people's English pronunciation, at the same time she blames them for being the blind followers of English culture. A paradox in the confused writer's own thought process. And also, I used to think that making fun of a Bengalee's Hindi and English pronunciation was a good subject for the cheesy script writers of Hindi soap operas and second grade Hindi films. It's quite a shock to see an editor of the most famous English news paper of the country taking such a cheap action to make her article famous. It is true that people in Kolkata can't speak great English or Hindi, but you being a non-Bengalee go to any Kolkata street and ask anyone to guide you for an address and see how that person tries hard to tell you the address in his/her broken Hindi. Try the same in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai. Do I need to say more?

The mention of Bengalees attending Kolkata club in tweeds and formals is also beyond my understanding. Has Ms Karkaria never attended any club in India in any other city? Is she new in the country? Is she not aware that Bangalore club and Madras club don't even ALLOW people inside the club in dhotis and pyjamas? Before writing an article in a national newspaper, I think Ms Karkaria should have done some study.

Ms Karkaria needs to take a trip to Indian cities, specially to North India and South India to know what it means to be a city to be obsessed in itself. I have lived in quite a number of cities in India. Except for Kolkata and Mumbai, I have not found people in any city who has a fair idea about the country they are staying in. My personal experience has taught me that Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai are the three most self-obsessed cities in the country. Any normal people in these cities don't even know that the country they are living in has a states called Assam or Arunachal Pradesh. While people in Chennai and Bangalore don't know where cities like Chandigarh, Shimla or Darjeeling fall in the country and consider any people staying outside Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu or Kerala to be North-Indians, people in Delhi has no idea about anything beyond NCR and consider people staying anywhere in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu or Kerala to be Madrasis. Ask even an auto rickshaw driver in Kolkata about India; you will find that even you know less than him.

Had the city been self obsessed, they wouldn't be as welcoming to outsiders as they are. A country where racism is increasing day by day, Kolkata could be a model city for others to learn from. Everybody knows how non-marathis are not welcome in Mumbai, but what about Bangalore and Chennai? Recently, the second biggest bus depot in Bangalore removed the sign-boards in each platform where the destinations were written in two languages - English and Kannada (forget about Hindi. They don't even care about the court orders) and replaced them with new sign-boards where destinations were written only in Kannada. Should I speak about the unwelcoming characteristic of Chennai in the way they treat non-Tamilians? It's an irony that a city where from all bus numbers to all directions are written also in English for the convenience of Non-Bengalee people is labeled as 'self-obsessed city'. Ms Karkaria, get your facts correct.

Also, I want to know how much research Ms Karakria has done to dig out a minuscule population of 'panditya'caste and their story. From my personal observation I have seen that the cross-caste, cross-culture and cross-religion marriage is the highest among Bengalees. Kolkata is perhaps the only city in the country where arranged marriages happen among different castes. Whenever any such cross cultural marriage happens in India, this is almost certain that one of the two tying the knot is a Bengalee. I have seen almost all combinations of marriages with Bengalees like Bengalee-Punjabi, Bengalee-Hariyanvi, Bengalee-Uttaranchali, Bengalee-Assamese, Bengalee-Kannada, Bengalee-Tamil brahmin, Bengalee-Tamil non-brahmin, Bengalee-Malyalee Hindu, Bengalee-Malayalee Christian, Bengalee-Gujarati, Bengalee-Sindhi, Bengalee Hindu-Hyderabadi Muslim and Bengali-Marathi. But I have not seen people from any other culture mingling with other cultures to this lasrge extent. I am sure Ms Karkaria has also come across many such couples because media is full of Bengalees but she still writes something nonsense like this.

Ms Karkaria is also upset that youth in Kolkata is not aware of 'Jasmine Revolution'. I want to ask her which city boy/girl in India is aware of this revolution? I really want to know.

When compared with other city, Kolkata is not a girl-child killer city like Delhi, it's not a wannabe like Bangalore or Hyderabad, it's not stinking orthodox like Chennai or it's not a money hunter like Ahmedabad. Every city has some virtues and vices. Kolkata also has its share of flaws. If you want to dig out vices, you may have many. Simply because Kolkata is not politically correct city and is not as rich as other cities of India, it doesn't give anyone a right to write 'anything nonsense' about the city. The proficiency Ms Karkaria has shown to 'create' allegations for Kolkata out of thin air, I think she can even turn a Mahatma Gandhi to a monster. I challenge her to write an article in the same tone for Chandigarh or Chennai. I challenge her. Does she have the guts to do that?

Link to the article that is written by Bachi Karkaria in TOI Crest dated Apr 9, 2011: http://www.timescrest.com/coverstory/kolkata-bong-appetit-5133

IPL

Where cricket is sold in the hands of entertainment.

Where players don't play for country honour but for money.

Where 'owners' not 'coaches' set standards for players to follow. ("I want 4 wickets" , 'Ok, ma'm")

Where players look more like servants to their owners than players.

It's Woman's world too

India is a country, which is obsessed with the word 'cricket'. We have a great team of eleven players who are not only number one in Test Cricket but also number one One-Day Cricket after snatching away the world cup two weeks back. It's quite obvious that I am talking about the men's cricket team, right? Who bother about the women's cricket team anyway?

But we have a women's cricket team also. This team may not be as glorious as the current men's team but it is somewhat more like the India men's cricket team of 10 years before. But who cares. No one really bothers about what Indian women's cricket team is doing. Neither their matches nor their achievements are covered by media; forget about them endorsing products. No one appreciates the fact that some girls are practicing hard and playing hard for the same country.

In a nation when we have such good women's cricket team, can anyone remember a good lady cricket commentator? Why is there women like Mandira Bedi, Rashmi Chopra or Mayanti Langer hosting the cricket shows? They dress in 'lucky' dresses on the matches when India is playing and talk about which cricketer looking handsome and romantic on the field. I remember during 2003 world cup Mandira Bedi used co-host the show and on the India matches she used to come dressed as a bride. Can't the organizer have the captain of Indian women's Cricket team to co-host the show? No. No one would that. The simple reason for that no one wants to see girls in that position. Girls should do only one thing - show off their skin and add on to the glamour of the show. Since there would be no lady cricketer coming on the show wearing a spaghetti strap blouse and talk absolute nonsense on the show, so get those blunt beauties.

On the top of that, you will see boys, the same boys who prefer to see a spaghetti-strapped-blouse-clad lady as the anchor than a real cricket player commenting on how girls have no understanding on cricket and how they should mind their chores at home than blabbering about cricket.

On one side when no girl of merit is allowed to show her merit because girls are just used as glam-substance, the boys are also blaming them for not having any merit! What a double standard.

Abraham Lincoln said it right

Abraham Lincoln had said sometime: "If you want to test a man's character, give him power".

I don't spend even a single day when I don't remember this quote. I have come across so many people who behave differently with different people. A wretched person may be very humble and polite in front of you. You may find that person to be very nice. But wait and see how that person behaves with the people who are even more wretched than him. If he behaves nicely with them, then you can conclude that that person is really a good person.

Imagine a person working hard under his manager's pressure becomes a manager one day. Now you can see the true character he possesses. If you see him treating his team members badly, don't think that he has changed; he is just showing off his true character which was suppressed till date. The housewives, who have little chance to show off their power anywhere else (except to their husbands, in some cases though) generally command their maid servants. I know many ladies who when meet their neighbors and relatives spend a considerable amount of time discussing how they control their maid servants while the gentlemen discuss their managers in details. And what about those women who never got any chance to command a maid also? They would pray for the day when their sons will grow up and will bring a daughter-in-law home. That's the time when she'll show her true character. If then the lady behaves reasonably, you can say that the lady had been always a good person. But if the lady makes her daughter-in-law suffer every moment, then it's just another case when a devil has come to its true character.

Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth

She is a magician when it comes to narrate human emotions. The eloquence she has to describe even the minutest feeling and expression in human relationships is something that stays on even months after you finish the stories just like a favorite fragrance. I had explored her capability of touching hearts in her last book 'The Interpreter of Maladies', but I found 'Unaccustomed Earth' even more refined than the previous one. Interpreter of Maladies had stories involving people from varied social strata but the stories of Unaccustomed Earth revolved more or less around the similar cluster of people - the Bengalees settled in America.

But the masterpiece from the magician was three interrelated stories on Hema and Kaushik. These three stories are by far the best work I have read from Jhumpa Lahiri. The deep melancholy I fell into after completing the three stories of Hema and Kaushik that I seriously needed a saline of laughter to come out of it. The story 'Once in a lifetime' seemed to be the prequel of the story 'The interpreter of Maladies'. But it was not. By these three stories she not only established her writing skill but also introduced a new concept of writing - three independent but interrelated stories.

Shobha Dey

Do the words of a woman even count who goes through Botox surgery to enhance her vital statistics before posing to show off her painted cleavage for her book's cover page to cut sale?

The Radhachura tree

I remember reading somewher that there are more than a thousand types of gulmohor flower available. I may get the number wrong though. Among all these types of gulmohor the one that still has been fascinating me since the age of two years is the thick yellow flowers with coffe coloured stems and seeds, which we call Radhachura.

I remember we were in Hailakandi then. We used to stay in the house, the last property that my grandfather had built just after they moved there from Hobiganj after India got its independence at the cost of partition, which not only cost my grandfather two houses and some acres of fertile land but also his life.

There were two gulmohor trees at the two sides of the huge gate guarding the house with two lawns and two ponds. One of them was a Krishnachura tree which used to beautify itself with big red flowers. That's the most common pattern of gulmohor avialbale I think. The other was the Radhachura tree. The nature must be the greatest fashion designer. It releases such great colour combinations that it becomes the biggest trend later. The combination of thick yellow and coffee colour is one such example.

Ours was a joined family. As our mother and aunts used to be busy in kitchen all day, me and my sister used to play all day under those trees. There used to be a mild fragrance in the air. It was so mild and faint that I never acknowledged it until last week when I went to the SBI branch near my house in Bangalore and a familiar fragrance automatically drew my face upward. It was the same Radhachura tree, I was standing under whose shaded area. It was as familiar as of a loving relative and such was its fragrance. For a second I forgot that I was thousands miles away from a house that exists no more and that more than two decades have passed since that playful time. But Radhachura is still there never ceasing to adorn itself with beautiful flowers and mild fragrance.

Some Unfulfilled Dreams

It's true that I don't like Delhi but I used to like the India Gate and the surrounding area a lot. Otherwise very harsh and intolerable Delhi climate turns to be a very nice one only twice a year - February-March and October-November. I always used to wish to spend a full evening in India Gate and its surrounding areas during those four months. But it never happened.

February-March is the time when Delhi roads are the prettiest due to blooming gulmohor trees arrayed on either sides of the roads. When I used to come home from office, I used to take office bus or cab, I used see those windy roads in Dwarka and used to dream that one day I would walk down the road and count the trees and take lots of images. I still sometimes dream those roads that I could never walk.

Winters is the fair time in Delhi. There happens one fair after another during that time. One such fair is Trade Fair. Probably there is not a single person left in the city who has not visited Trade Fair, except for me of course :) I used to hear a lot of stories about people's experiences in the Trade Fair and I used to dream that I would also go there one day, but it never happened. Same was with the Surajkund Fair. Even before going to Delhi I heard people talking a lot about it, but I never happened to visit that place. Though I used to see my friends and colleagues in office using various stuff bought from Surajkund Fair, I never had the chance to go there.

Delhi rains used to be marvelous. I always dreamt of going to India Gate and Mehrauli-Gurgaon road during rains. But I never had the chance to do so.

I may not return to Delhi anymore. But I am hopeful that I'll fulfill my dreams in Bangalore. The wish that tops the chart is visiting Ulsoor lake :)

Where do they go?

I have a confession to make. I have a fetish. Whenever I travel and come across a road diversion or flyover diversion, I yearn to see where the roads that I have not taken go!

This happens the most when I take the regular route everyday. Generally I go by the same route and I keep wishing that the bus had taken wrong diversion. But it happens never!

The Taste does matter

I am not very stylish, neither do I spend a lot on branded garments. But I make sure that I dress decently. After all, the clothes are reflections of our minds. My mother says that when you see anyone wearing tattered, torn, unclean and worn-out dresses (even though that person has enough money to buy decent clothes), you'll understand that that person possesses 'tama guna', which is the worst type of character a person can posses according to Hindu shastras. The complete list of all guna in descending order of virtue is : Satya, Raja, Tama.

Anyway, back to me. I always prefer to wear clean cotton dresses. Though I am not a brand freak, but when it comes to buy readymade dresses, I prefer to buy it from a good shop. Earlier I used to like to shop from Fabindia but I have stopped it ever since their revised price has reached sky. Now I pick dresses from any good showroom.

But I have always been appreciated for my taste for dresses, bags, shoes and other accessories. Recently I had bought a handbag. It cost me Rs. 350. Next day when I went to office, a colleague of mine liked it so much that she insisted me to get the same bag for her. I got one for her. The next day when I reached office with two bags, one in my use and the other for my colleague, another colleague of us insisted me to get the same bag for his wife. So the next day I got another bag again! Later when I checked other places, I came to know that the minimum price that bag is available elsewhere is Rs. 800!

So, that's how I shop. I don't buy expensive branded stuff. But I buy decent things and for that I need to pick the stuff of my choice from a place of my choice. And of course my mobile phone. It's still a rage among my friends and colleagues. I never liked any Micromax or Corby mobile. I know what I like and I want to go for the stuff I like. I have bought Nokia X5-01 and I still relish the moment when people appreciate it with raised eyebrows.

There was a time in my life when I was not allowed to buy anything - forget about buying a thing of my choice. I had to wear something which used to loathe. On top of that I used be accused of possessing a bad taste by the same people who used to compel me from buying stuff of my choice! What an irony! Thank god I am out of that dirty well now.

A devotee or a nastik?

Swami Vivekananda once said that the person who doesn't believe himself is the greatest nastik.

I know a person who demands himself to be the greatest devotee of god because he bows down before god innumerable times a day; before leaving home (even if he is going to grocery shop in the neighbourhood) his prayers to god are unending, he takes innumerable dips in the river Ganga in Haridwar as he believes that more number of dips he takes the more punya he earns and also when he takes such a dip, he makes sure that he stays under water for maximum time possible as he believes that the longer dips he takes, the more punya he earns.

Now the person has other interesting characteristics also when it comes to trusting himself. He cannot take any decision himself. From the smallest to the biggest decisions, he has to ask his mother to help him. If his friend invites him over for lunch or dinner, he will ask his mother what he should reply. Everytime he has gone to the vegetable market, he will call his mother at least for 5-7 times to ask what vegetable he should get; he would also narrate to his mother what vegetables he can see infront of him and they are of what colour and what quality. This he does everytime he goes to the vegetable markeet. If he goes to buy cloth for himself or somebody else, he will call his mother and narrate the types of designs and colours he can see in fromt him. He also asks the shop keeper that he would come back if necessary to change the cloth if his mother doesn't like the dress even if he has just bought a shirt for himself. While having lunch or dinner, if the peerson who is serving the food is not his mother and in the middle of the meal if that person asks him if he would like to have some more rice or dal, he would ask his mother if he should have more. By the way, the person I am talking about here is 36 years old. Also, if there is anyone in his office who is giving him trouble or there is some new opportunity in his company, he would ask his mother what to do even if his mother has no understanding about corporate culture.

What should we call that person: a devotee or a nastik? One good thing is that he would not really bother what Swami Vivekananda said since his mother doesn't approve of anything said by Ramakrishna Mission or people associated with it :)

It's quite clear that this person's mother is the decision maker in the house and she has made him a bonsai in order to have the control in her hand. But shouldn't the son be capable of taking his own decision? Shouldn't the son have fiesta in his life? Shouldn't the boy also rise?

Congratulations to me

Finally I have joined the company which I wanted to join for so many years.

Congratulations to me :)

We are world champions!!!

Finally we are world champions after a long wait of 28 years.

At a moment when it seemed to be an imposible task, Gambhir, Kohli and Dhoni made us believe on miracles that nothing is unacievable. Hats off to team India :)