Enquiries were made and it emerged that a professional golfer's earningscould be much more than a cricketer's. Ah, that was it. So every Babla, Montu,Bhola or Sourav (with due apologies to the Ganguly) had to be made into agolfer. To bring home pots of money. Every middleclass Bengali mom (dads are,generally, less ambitious about their children here) started surfing/reading upon golf before embarking on the task of locating training and coachingfacilities in golf. And this is where they met a hurdle--coaching theiroverweight and nerdy sons (as most Bengali kids are before they 'blossom' intoeffete men) in golf was too expensive a proposition. But some tenacious momshaven't given up--last heard, they were exploring the possibility of hiringRCGC's caddies to teach their sons the game at the 'para' football field! Smart,nah?
Positive Posting
There is, at long last, something good to write about the Kolkata Police. It'sactually the new city police chief, Gautam Mohan Chakrabarty, who deserves thekudos. Kolkata's police will be the first police force in India to implementwhat has been recommended by many experts for so many years now. In ten (of the52) police stations in this city, some officers will be designated exclusivelyfor the task of investigating crime. Chakrabarty has said that at least 30percent of the officers of sub-inspector's rank at these police stations will beengaged to only investigate crimes. They won't be put on routine law and orderduties or assigned other tasks, save for an emergency. This is something thathas been recommended for a long time in order to allow police to investigatecrime, track down criminals, book them, prepare foolproof chargesheets andensure their indictment by courts,. This move, which will gradually be extendedto other police stations in the city, will definitely go a long way in crackingcrime cases and booking criminals in Kolkata. Cheers to Chakrabarty. And I justcan't help noting what a contrast he is to his disgraced predecessor, PrasunMukherjee.
Timely Makeover
Albert Hall, or the Coffee House on College Street, will get a much-neededmakeover. The private firm which bagged the contract for constructing India'sfirst book mall on College Street has offered to foot the bill for the faceliftand also for this historic place's regular maintenance. Established in the1930s, this heritage 'adda' joint that has been frequented by most luminaries ofBengal has been managed and run by a cooperative of its workers ever since theCoffee Board (which set it up) had decided to shut it down in 1958. AlbertHall's USP is its heritage status, that many famous personas of Bengal spent(and still spend) hours there, and that the food is highly affordable. Theemployees' cooperative running it has been making modest profits, but not enoughto undertake repairs and refurbishment of the place. The place, now, is decrepitand rainwater gushes in through large cracks in the ceiling, the furniture isfalling apart and the kitchen resembles a dungeon. Bengal Shelter HousingDevelopment Ltd, and its Managing Director Samar Nag, ought to be feted foragreeing to pump in money for Coffee House's makeover and keep this place--anintegral part of Kolkata's rich cultural heritage--alive and kicking. I justwonder why all those intellectuals who write and sing and talk about CoffeeHouse and its culture and have made piles of money from their literary, academicand artistic pursuits have never bothered to put in a few thousand Rupees eachfor their favourite adda joint? Classic examples of never putting their moneywhere their mouth is, I'd say.