Kolkata Korner

Fishy Tales
The Bangali bhadralok nearly jumped out of his skin earlier this week. For,his favourite fish, the hilsa (or ilish) looked set to get scarce this year.That’s because Bangladesh, which exports the prized fish (and Bangladeshihilsa is a thousand times tastier than that from this side of the border, as anybhadralok will swear) to Kolkata, had taken it off the export list. There werehowls of protest, including from ministers who sent urgent SOS messages to NewDelhi urging it to "take up the matter" with Dhaka. Ultimately (and toevery Bengali’s great relief) it transpired that the babus in Bangladesh’srevenue department had erroneously included hilsa in the list of items bannedfor export. The mistake has been rectified and, to everyone’s delight, trucksloaded with hilsa from Bangladesh have started rolling in.

More Good News
There can’t be too much of a good thing. This year, it seems, hilsa willbe available in abundance (and that’ll, hopefully, drive down the prices)since many of the 2500-odd trawlers that venture to the high seas to harvest thefish have been equipped with mobile computing communication system that’llenable them to not only stay out longer, but also venture further away from theshores. And that’ll mean better and bigger catches! This time of the year, theseas turn violent and many fishermen have lost their lives in the past; hence,they fear going too far off. But with this GPS-based aid developed by theJadavpur University, they’ll not only be able to get early warnings aboutstorms and cyclones, but would also be guided to the shores through safe routes.And fish merrily in the deep seas.

Scaly Feetwraps
Yet more on fish: two bright final-year students of the Government Collegeof Engineering & Leather Technology in Kolkata have developed a technique tomake footwear from fish skin! Not only is fish skin cheaper than conventionalleather, it is also greener: the processing does not involve the toxic andcarcinogenic chemicals that are used in tanning leather. Also, fish skin hasgreater tensile strength than conventional leather and is also more versatile.The duo--Sandip Das and Risin Dey--have applied for a patent and have made notonly shoes, but also wallets and handbags with fish skin in collaboration with aGerman MNC. Commercial production is expected to start by this year-end. And no,the shoes/wallets/handbags don’t stink.

Writing On The Wall
Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has ultimately seen the writing onthe wall. Weeks after proclaiming that he’d repeal a law that bans graffiti onwalls, Bhattacharjee has stepped back to acknowledge the loud protests hisstatement evoked from house-owners. Kolkata’s largest-circulated dailyspearheaded a high-decibel campaign to keep the city’s walls clean. Athree-member Ministerial committee set up to decide on the issue will nowconsult citizens and citizens’ groups. Bhattacharjee has admitted that privatehouse-owners have the right to keep their walls free of graffiti. But, at thesame time, political parties also have the right to emblazon the city with ‘revolutionary’slogans, he added. What he, perhaps, meant, were slogans proclaiming Bengal tobe the best investment destination in India.

Hawking Spaces
While Kolkata’s walls may remain clean (if only for a few more weeks), itspavements will continue to be afflicted by that perennial scourge that forcespedestrians to risk their lives and limbs by traversing on the dangerous roads.The city’s two-lakh-odd hawkers (but since they are static, ‘vendor’ is aterm that’ll be more apt) selling everything ranging from undergarments andhairclips to bedspreads and TV sets occupy major portions of pavements alongmost of the busy streets. Past efforts to evict them have been unsuccessful,largely due to lack of political will and a corrupt police force. Now, on theurging of the Calcutta High Court, the state government will frame a policy that’llallow these vendors to remain, but would regulate them. The vendors would bedisciplined and would also be helped to have slick stalls that’ll occupylesser space. And pedestrians could, then, return to the pavements.

Good Cops
And that’s not an oxymoron. Okay, not all cops, but some, at least a fewscore of them, are good. As newspaper reports over the past few days have amplyillustrated. And all of them are traffic sergeants. The good Samaritan acts ofthese traffic sergeants have earned the Kolkata Police some bouquets. Onetraffic sergeant, who had been detailed to escort the Governor’s motorcade,chanced upon an ambulance carrying a critically ill patient that had brokendown. He commandeered a truck that towed the ambulance to the hospital and oncethere, ensured the patient received due attention; that he’d be late for worknever detracted him. Other stories were about traffic sergeants chasing errantcabs to retrieve bags left behind by forgetful passengers to shelling out moneyfrom their own pockets to help people in distress. The ‘men in white’ (whiteis their uniform) have done not only the force, but also Kolkata, proud.

Lost & Found: Southpaw’s Charm
Dada (Sourav Ganguly) was on tenterhooks since last weekend. He was sure hehad lost any (slim?) chance of making a comeback to ‘Team India’. Allbecause a thick gold chain strung with two medallions--one of Mangal Chandi(that one he’s always kissed on and off pitch) and another inscribed withnumbers (a recent addition at the behest of the family astrologer after the ‘Chappell-More’blow)--went missing last Friday. He tucked it under his pillow before fallingasleep on Thursday and had forgotten to put it on before stepping out of hishouse on Friday. The cops, who were called in, nabbed the suspect--a persontasked to change the curtains of the hideous, rambling mansion that Sourav andnearly 80 of his family members and retainers stay in--and extracted both thechain and confession from him. Ganguly, a superstitious soul, was relieved thathe would wear his lucky (??) charms to England where he plays county cricket forNorthamptonshire. And a good performance there (thanks to his lucky charms)would get him into the Indian team, he feels...[Watch this space]

Sweltering Summer
Sourav, one must say, is lucky: he’s leaving the sweltering, oppressiveKolkata heat for the cooler climes of England. The weather, over the past week,has been especially unbearable: very high humidity and the heat have combined tomake this city a living hell. The sultry heat took no less a toll than the fieryMamata Banerjee who, while protesting the rise in fuel prices earlier this weekat Esplanade, collapsed on stage. Her aides said she had been outdoorsthroughout the day and the heat became unbearable, leading to a temporaryblackout. But true to her reputation, the firebrand leader recovered within afew minutes (thanks in no small measure to the iced juices she was fed) to grabthe microphone and resume her tirades against the Marxists--according to Mamata,though Manmohan Singh has raised fuel prices, the Marxists are equally to blamesince they’re supporting Singh’s government. Never mind that the Marxistsare also protesting the hike.

Sensible Protests
And talking about protests, it appears that good sense has, at long last,dawned on Bengal’s Marxists. While the CPI(M) lined up country-wide proteststhat even paralysed normal life in many states, especially in Kerala, life wenton in Bengal that day. Buses, trucks and taxis plied normally (they went off theroads in large swathes of the country), people went about their lives as anyother day, government offices functioned and everyone went to work. Bengal wasan oasis of activity in the strike-struck country; and thanks to Chief MinisterBuddhadeb Bhattacharjee who convinced his party that a strike wouldn’t be inBengal’s interests. Left Front partners like the CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc whofavoured a strike were dissuaded by Bhattacharjee. And when potential investorscame calling over the next few days, Bengal’s bureaucrats highlighted the factthat the state functioned normally even as life came to standstill in otherparts of the country. Now, is that the wily Bengali Marxist’s mantra: disruptlife in the rest of the country and maintain normalcy here to attract investors?

Radhabinod Who?
Can’t blame you for asking that. But the Japanese know Radhabinod Pal verywell--his statute and a life-size portrait adorn the Yasukuni shrine that’sdedicated to Japanese soldiers who laid down their lives for their country. No,Pal wasn’t in Subhas Bose’s INA that fought alongside the Japanese. He was,as perhaps few Indians now know, the only Asian on the International MilitaryTribunal for the Far East that was created after World War II to try Japanese‘war criminals’. The tribunal, which had 11 judges from the Allied nations,passed harsh sentences on many Japanese, accusing them of committing war crimes.Pal’s was the only dissenting note that held the Tokyo Trials (as they werecalled) were a "barbaric ritual of revenge" against powerless Japan by thearrogant Allies. Pal became a hero to the Japanese, who also gifted a bronzebust of Pal to the Calcutta University in 1978 since he (Pal) was theVice-Chancellor of the varsity once. And what did the University do with thebust? Dumped it in a corridor along with broken discarded furniture! It wasretrieved earlier this week after a marathon search triggered by an emissaryfrom Tokyo who wanted to copy the bust and create its replica for ShimonakaMemorial Museum in Japan’s capital city.

Writer Wronged
Mahasweta Devi is angry, angry with the publishers of the Hindi translations ofher works for not giving her adequate royalty and mistreating her. She hasaccused Raj Kamal Prakashan of paying only five percent royalty and, thattoo, in installments. The publishers had, earlier, told her that the royaltyfrom her books is given to the translator, Chandra Bhushan, as well. They alsosuggested that Mahasweta would have remained obscure hadn’t her works beentranslated into Hindi! That got the mercurial writer’s goat and she has nowdemanded a termination of her contract with the publishers. Bhushan, meanwhile,has claimed he received only a one-time payment for his efforts. That wouldsurely have sent the publishers scurrying for cover.

Hip n’ Happening
After being down in the dumps for so long, Kolkata is stepping on to thefast lane. Shopping malls, multiplexes, upscale apartment blocks, swankyeateries, lounge bars et al have mushroomed all over and with it, a large numberof exclusive galleries. The latest to open its doors is Gallery Rasa, asprawling 4,000 square feet two-storied gallery that’ll provide more space toshowcase Bengal’s artistic creations, and that of the rest of the world aswell. The launch was kicked off with an exhibition of sculptures called ‘TheBengal Connection’ that has creations of Jamini Roy, Ramkinkar Bej, ProdoshDas Gupta, Kamala Das Gupta and Chintamoni Kar. A retrospective on the works ofRamendranath Chakraborty that’ll focus on print mediums like etching andlithography is next.

I Told You So
Not that I am filled with pride having said so, but you read it here all right.If proof was needed that the toppers in Bengal’s higher secondary examinationsdon’t fare well later on in life (as mentioned in Kolkata Korner last week),it came brutally fast this week. Many of those in the ‘top ten’ UchchaMadhyamik (as the Higher Secondary exams conducted by the state board are calledhere) list couldn’t fare well in the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examinations(for admissions to the state’s engineering and medical colleges), the resultsof which were announced this week. In fact, this year’s HS topper (SubhankarRoychoudhury, who scored an incredible 99.99%) ranked 1450th in the jointentrance’s medical list and 1647th in engineering list. Arpita Pal, whosecured the third place in Uchcha Madhyamik, ranked 1680th and 4569th in medicaland engineering respectively. Abhinandan Ghosh, who shared the third place withArpita, ranked 2500th while Subhrajit Mondol, fourth in the HS merit list,flunked the joint entrance examination! Only two of the HS toppers made it tothe joint entrance ‘top ten’ and, incidentally, both are from Kolkata. Somuch for the Left Front’s claim that students from the districts fare so wellin this Communist state!