Calcutta Corner

The Turning Tables
How the tables have turned! Before the Assembly elections in 2011 when the CPI-M was in power Mamata Banerjee was up in arms trying to ensure that the state police is not given the power to man the polling booths across Bengal. At that time she insisted on Central paramilitary forces fearing that the Left would rig elections. Now she is insisting that Central forces are not required for the upcoming Panchayat elections in the state. A verbal duel between the state Election Commissioner Mira Pandey, who feels that the poor law and order situation in Bengal makes it necessary to call in Central forces and members of the state government, which insists that law and order is the business of the state so the decision is entirely its own, has reached boiling point. The question is why is the state government so keen to keep Central forces away? To ensure “free and fair” elections, TMC leaders – including Mamata Banerjee – have always demanded additional forces (even at the time of the last Panchayat Elections in 2008). So why not now?

Tongue-Tied
Call it the heat or just fatigue from constantly engaging in political verbal battle, some of our most articulate leaders seem to be losing their power of speech. Here are a couple of examples of the tongue-tiedness of our politicians from this week:

• On the subject of Mira Pandey, TMC’s Mukul Roy said, “Amar mone kirom ekta bepaar shepaar hochhey” (Translated in English it means something like: Something is happening in my heart).
• On the subject of Mukul Roy, CPI-M’s Biman Bose admitted he wasn’t sure about his designation when he said, “Ami hoyto bhool bolchhi,” (I am probably saying the wrong thing).

Existential Questions
As promised last week, here are a couple of more gems from the Calcutta Police’s enthusiastic road safety campaign:

• “Opaarey? Na Oporey?” (To the other side? Or to the other world?) goes the slogan of one campaign showing people crossing the road while talking on their cell phones.
• "Baba’r maathay helmet, Baba’r onek naam, Amaar maatha chotto boley nei kono taar daam" (My father’s an important man so there is a helmet on his head, but my little head has no value). The Bengali rhyme is accompanied by the visual of a little boy not wearing a helmet riding pillion on his father’s motorbike. It is a common sight in Calcutta – the driver of a motorbike wearing a helmet (perhaps more to avoid being fined rather than for personal safety) while those riding pillion are without one. 

Sorry, Not Safe
The following news made front page headlines in some local newspapers in Calcutta: “A Calcutta Municipal Corporation survey of the city’s 309 private markets has revealed that as many as 187 of them do not have any water reservoirs while 100 of them do not even have a single fire extinguisher.” Call me a cynic, but somehow this does not come as a shock to me. In fact I would be very surprised if the survey revealed these markets were abiding strictly by safety norms. 

I asked around and found that most Calcuttans agree with me. They too said that they would be very surprised if they were told that Calcutta’s markets were safe hangouts. “Flouting safety norms is so common in Calcutta that even a super-speciality hospital like the Dhakuria AMRI (where a fire killed nearly one hundred people, mostly patients, two years ago) doesn’t properly follow safety norms. So if you tell me that all these crammed and disorderly markets which seem to have just cropped up without any planning were all following safety rules, I would be shocked,” said a shopper at Calcutta’s New Market, which incidentally is situated just beside the Calcutta Municipal Corporation office.

Aastey Ladies...
Calcutta’s buses still continue with the chivalrous tradition of announcing when a lady passenger is getting off, with the conductor hollering at the bus driver to slow down and show some consideration with a high pitched, “Aaastey, Ladies.” (Slow down…lady getting off.). In fact so considerate some of the conductors are that if the woman happens to be accompanying a child, he makes sure he mentions that too and then the cry becomes, "Aastey, Ladies, koley bachha" (Slow down...lady getting off with a child in her arms). 

I was pleasantly surprised to notice that gender equality is now being practiced by some conductors who are not leaving out the men for the show of consideration. This week I got onto a bus, where the conductor told the driver: “Aastey…Ekjon ladies naamchey” (slow down, one lady is getting off) and then after a pause “Aar shongey dujon lok” (with two gentlemen).