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
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