Aamar Sonar Bangla

While the whole world watches in rapt attention as the Arab spring unfolds and turns into a tsunami, sweeping aside dictators, pseudo-democrats and even Kings, a quiet revolution is blooming in India. After almost 3.5 decades of democratic Communist rule, the Left Front is all set to be unseated from power in West Bengal. With this, the curtains would be drawn on the longest serving democratic communist administration in the world!

Parallels with the Soviet State are easy to make. Jyoti Basu might have been the sculptor of one electoral victory after the other, but in the end, he turned out to be the Brezhnev for Bengal. An old aging administration, entrenched corruption, no accountability and rule by violence and fear. Faults that far outweigh land reform and Social engineering that eradicated centuries of discrimination and created a more equitable Bengal. Buddhadeb Bhattacharya tried his hands at being Bengal's Gorbachev. Young, reform-minded and open to criticism, Buddhadeb's first tenure brought the first whiff of fresh air in stagnating Bengal. Even the people gave him an opportunity to prove himself. He steered Bengal away from the claustrophobic Soviet model and tried to follow the Chinese example, but by then, it was too little too late. He came to office riding on the support of the masses and their aspirations, but was stifled time and again. Sometimes, his party let him down, At other times, the opposition, recuperating after decades of emasculation rose to challenge him. At the end, Mr. Bhattacharya turned out not unlike Mr. Gorbachev who hammered the last nail in the Coffin of Communist Rule in the Soviet Union.

It is unlikely that Didi will dramatically change Bengal. In my view, Didi has so far been driven solely by the dream to rid Bengal of the Communists. It is hard to imagine that she would be able to achieve anything spectacular in the absence of a vision for Bengal and in all probability, a fractured house with the Communists baying for her blood.

The dream of a Golden Bengal remains as elusive as ever!

A very 'Skitty' story indeed!

Since most of the residents get transferred after having spent nearly 5 years of their precious stay on this planet in Monghyr, the expectations of the 'departing' residents as concerns their own 'Club Nite' are usually quite high. This, combined with the general sentiment of pain and sadness among the unlucky rest who did not make it to the transfer list, implies that it is not always easy to put up a show that can meet everyone's expectations, especially since the bar is set so high!!....

Now the concept behind the Club Nite is very simple... Since you've been treated as a pauper for 4-5 years in Munger, at least let us make you feel like a King when you're leaving... So, there is a beautifully decked buggy awaiting the 'departing' Manager & his family... The residents have historically danced behind the buggy in its journey from the departing manager's house to the Park Club (although these days the dance does not happen... instead what happens is a mournful walk from the manager's place to the club, with people cribbing about the heat, the mosquitoes and the fact that this would be their 100th club nite!) A couple of group photographs in front of the Park Club and the Club Nite officially begins!

Or, at least that is what everyone thinks... Little do the unaware residents know that while they were gathering at the 'departing' Manager's place to haul him to the Club, a small coterie of brilliant and the best minds in the park congregates in the chotu room behind the dance floor and begins preparations for what would be another mind blowing Club Nite... They go through every single flaw and shortcoming of the departing Manager and weave it together in a seamless and beautiful Skit which would leave the departing Manager red-faced and the rest of the park in splits...

There have been some pretty awesome Skits in the last one year too, with one couple being compared to Ram-Sita with their very own Hanuman, to people's propensity to fart being disclosed and laughed at to what some people would like to keep a secret, i.e. the goings-on in their bed room!!! There have been hit Hindi songs (remember Karishma Kapoor's sexy, sexy, sexy no.) re-adapted to reflect the kind of jobs the 'departing' Manager did to film posters being morphed so as to enable the departing Manager to be next to his favourite actor!!!

To dull the impact of what would obviously be a very embarrassing night for the departing manager, 2-3 glasses of 'rumaali' (a potent mix of all alcoholic beverages available in the Park Club) are pushed down his throat. This way, the probability of the Manager remembering the events of the Club Nite the next day is significantly reduced...

So that's pretty much what happens in another of Munger's favorite pastimes... All in good fun!

It's a dog's world!

My dogg-o-phobia knows no bounds. Ever since I was a kid, the good old lords high above have presented me with instances which have reinforced my hatred (what I actually mean is fear) of dogs. This post recounts my top 3 'near death experiences' at the hands (or do I mean teeth) of the canine kinds.

Experience no. 1: The year is 1993, the month is October. I come back from school and head towards the creche (Working parents!). The creche waali aunty had a pomeranian named snoopy. Those were the days when my morbid fear of dogs had not surfaced, so I'd usually play with Snoopy. One fine day, I discover that Snoopy's heart is on its back, that is to say, that one can feel a dog's heartbeat through its back. Now, mind it, this is not a chhotu discovery for an eight year old. So for hours thereafter, I kept putting my hands on Snoopy's back to count its heart beat. I guess, I eventually ended up irritating Snoopy, 'Coz she bit me on my wrist!! All I knew back then was that if Dogs bite you, you need to get 14 injections in your tummy, else you die. I wasn't ready to get 14 injections (not that I was ready to die!) and hence never told my parents about the dog-biting instance. What I remember vividly though, is me counting my days to death!

Experience no. 2: The year is 1994. I'd stopped putting up at the creche post-school and would head directly homewards from the bust stop. In the open courtyard, in front of the apartment, a stray dog had given birth to puppies. Now, the only entrance to home happened to be through the open courtyard. And since, I'd trespassed on the dog's territory many times in the past few days, I never thought anything unusual would happen this time around. Well, except this time I was wrong! The moment that bitch (I mean it as an abuse, not as a reference to the dog's gender) saw me, she bared her fangs and started barking. Although hesitant, I ignored the ominous warnings and continued to tread on, only to be chased out of the compound by that Mother of the Devil! I ran and I ran and that bitch made me take two rounds of the apartment block before she headed off to take care of her young ones. And there I was, left in the middle of nowhere, waiting for the opportune moment to head back home!!! (I guess the dog left after an hour or so, which is when I finally could go home!)

Experience no. 3: The year is 2006. I am chilling out a friend's. This friend is in possession of a Doberman. A fierce and scary animal who'd remind one of the 'Grim' (of Harry Potter fame!), I'd insist on him being locked in/out depending on where I was (out/in). My friend, adhered to the regulation sincerely, till one fine day, my Dad calls up when I was at this friend's place (The dog obviously was loose outside). Not meaning to be rude, I took the call and walked outside..... only to be confronted by Lord Yama in his full glorious and ghastly form. The canine lunged at me without a warning.... I was left speechless and my heart stopped beating for about 10 seconds...It took me a couple of minutes to return to my senses...
It was the closest thing to death that I have ever experienced!... Never did I visit my friend's place again!

So that's pretty much why I am still scared of dogs... It still creeps me out to walk back to Peninsular park from the factory post dusk... The loud "Wooooooooo" of the Dogs reminds me of my Near Death experiences!!! What can I say.... I guess Emotional scars take forever to heal!!!

Munger Diaries V- An incident to remember

In the last post, I had talked extensively of the ritual of Holi in the Peninsular Park. In the same post I had also referred to an incident in which a resident had run away from his place to escape the marauding Holi ki Tolis and returned in the morning to find his place desecrated, almost literally. Well, this post talks about that incident in much more detail and why that is one incident I would never forget in my life!

Now there is this goody 2 shoes guy in the factory where I work. He is extremely decent, quite reserved, seemingly sincere and someone who is yet to be exposed the wicked minds that roam on the face this planet! The OOS-Holi night happened to be a party at one of the resident's place. So, the Holi-Toli's objective was very clear... They had to leave the party just before midnight so that the Holi rampage could be commenced with. Now, Mr. Goody two shoes was seemingly bursting with enthusiasm. He asked everyone in the party as to when the Holi festivities would commence... So you really can't blame anyone for thinking that this fellow was dying to play Holi...

Anyways, the Holi-Toli commenced with the rounds of the park with the specific objective of rendering people who were going to be OOS a wee-bit colourful. Everything seemed to be going according to the plan, when the Holi-Toli encountered a locked door when they reached Mr. goody two shoes' house. Now, obviously, people were surprised, 'coz just minutes ago he'd been asking everyone what time Holi would begin. Since, Mr. Goody-Two Shoes is new to the factory (new being a relative term), people assumed he was being shy and thus, following the prescribed Standard Operrating Procedure, broke into his house via a small window which was covered with a wooden cover. The Holi-Toli was shocked beyond belief to find that Mr. Goody Two Shoes was missing from his place, and thus, once again following the prescribed Standard Operating Procedure, smeared his walls with colour and finding nothing else substantial to wreck, dismantled his bed and moved it outside the house. Some over-enthusiastic members of the Holi-Toli smeared jam on the floor and the walls, and others devoured the fruit juice which Mr. Goody-two shoes had kept in the fridge.

The next morning, When our protagonist returned to his place, he was shocked beyond his wits. In his vew, this was an unacceptable act that deserved, possibly, a police complaint. In this case, he restricted his complaint to his superiors. The Holi-Toli, when they came to know that the poor fellow had felt hurt and pissed at the way things had turned out the night before, in all their goodness, released pamphlets in the park, requesting people to donate money so that Mr. Goody two shoes' place could be set right once again. But, our protagonist did not take kindly to this idea as well. It inflamed his anger and he swore never to set his foot in the park again. (Eventually he did, after much coaxing and cajoling, but that's the boring bit)

The biggest question in this entire episode is who all made up the Holi-Toli... Going by the looks of the Toli members, it seems plausible to state that Ghosts (remember Charles' Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol's' Ghosts of Christmas!) residing in the Park took it on themselves to celebrate Holi in the traditional way and ended up rubbing our protagonist the wrong way!

But abhi kya kar saktein hain? I am sure some of those ghosts would be meaning to say 'Bura naa mano Holi Hai!"