Kolkata Korner

Soccer Mania

Millions all over the world have been gripped by football fever, but Kolkatans have, as is their wont, gone on an overdrive. For a city in a country that is hardly a football-playing nation, the voluble show of enthusiasm here seems to be totally misplaced. Localities have been decked up in flags of the countries the local club (that ubiquitous and typical Kolkata institution; mostly a hangout for unemployed and unemployable young men) seems to have taken a fancy for -- mainly Brazil, Argentina, Portugal and Italy -- and Kolkatans have got into a competitive frenzy to display their support for their favourite teams. The results are, very often, ludicrous: one ‘club’ took out a rath on Tuesday (the day of Rathyatra), but instead of idols of Lord Jagannath, Balaram and Subhadra, this rath had portraits of Brazilian players! Many others have organized yagnas to seek divine intervention for the favourite teams. In fact, the more absurd and farcical such shows of frenzy, the better is the coverage in local newspapers.

Don’t expect any work in government offices and establishments for at least the next one-week. The babus, like all other Kolkatans, have been and will be spending nights in front of the their TV sets, watching the soccer matches in Germany (and their replays as well). And, hence, the few hours they’ll be at office will be spent catching up on sleep or discussing the previous night’s matches. A large number of employees, say heads of government departments, have already applied for casual leave. This scourge, though, is not limited to government offices alone; quite a number of private offices have been reporting low attendance or poor productivity. A number of sleep-deprivation-induced road accidents have also been reported. Elderly and ailing residents of many areas have lodged complaints against youngsters bursting crackers and creating a commotion or indulging in loud revelries during and after matches. And to think that all this will continue till July 9!

But amidst all this brouhaha, at least one group of people are cashing in on the World Cup fever for a constructive purpose. Ashoknagar Natyamukh, a theatre group in the city, will stage a play on July 9, the day of the finals, to highlight the poor state of Indian soccer. Titled Operation 2010, the play is about a meeting of the All India Football Federation where a committee is formed to chart strategies to build a world-class Indian team that’ll participate in the next FIFA World Cup in 2010. The committee (like all such in actual life) is made up of marketing gurus, sports journalists, wannabe coaches, sports administrators and representatives of football clubs, but not a single footballer. And the committee members are shown busying themselves in protecting or advancing their selfish interests, not that of the game. In the end, it becomes a farcical exercise; no team is formed and Indian football remains where it is now -- in the dumps. Directors and lead actors of various renowned theatre groups make up the 18-member cast. The play, says its director Avi Chakraborty, aims at focusing attention on what’s ailing Indian football. At Sujata Sadan at 6.30 pm.

Talking about critiques, a documentary on Kolkata’s "white saviours"-- Mother Teresa and Dominique Lapierre -- screened for media persons the other day left a bad taste in the mouth. Titled Thinking Aloud/Allowed, the film claims to explore questions about Mother Teresa’s contribution and if the ‘Saint of the Gutters’ was a myth spun by a servile media that’s enamoured of white-skinned saviours descending on India with proselytizing motives cloaked in charity. Judhajit Sarkar, the director, says that Mother Teresa got far more publicity that she deserved and most of the funds she received for taking care of the ailing and homeless actually went to expanding the Missionaries of Charity and converting hapless people to Christianity. To achieve this objective, Sarkar quotes people out of context, relies on hearsay and people of questionable credentials, tricks with his camera and….well, nothing else. The film borders on the calumnious and would definitely warm the cockles of hearts of the likes of Praveen Togadia and Ashok Singhal. It’s hardly an objective one. Whatever be the case, the fact remains that Mother Teresa did bring succor to thousands of destitute people of Kolkata. Dominique Lapierre, too, spends large sums of his own money to run charities like mobile clinics for people in far-flung Sunderbans. The Judhajit Sarkars and their financiers could also do the same.

That’s a Sanskrit/Bengali term and the nearest English translation would read ‘Frog in the well’. And this would be the best definition for many a Bengali, including those who preside over the affairs of Calcutta University (CU). They decreed recently that only those who’ve had five subjects at the higher secondary level would gain admission to the varsity’s undergraduate courses. The move was meant to inconvenience ISC and CBSE students who prefer to study only four subjects at the Plus 2 level. The ISC and CBSE Boards do offer a fifth subject as an additional one, but it’s meant to be a buffer for weak students. The reactions of students under these two Boards should’ve been an eye-opener for the CU authorities: the students said they had no intention of enrolling in CU’s undergrad courses and planned to study outside Bengal! But the CU authorities remain firm in what will only be a self-defeating move; the best and the brightest will continue to migrate from Bengal, leaving the CU with only the mediocre ones. If only the CU, and other institutions and individuals of this state caught in this kupamunduk syndrome, would realize this…

This self-defeatist tendency seems to have rubbed off on CU’s neighbours, the 1500-odd booksellers who clutter College Street (on which the varsity’s central campus is located). The state government came up with a win-win idea of constructing a book mall in the area to house all the small booksellers as well as bigger publishing houses. The foundation stone of the mall, christened Barnaporichoy, was laid by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in February. Now, when construction is about to begin, the booksellers have thrown a spanner in the works -- they don’t want to shift temporarily to a nearby park. But the temporary shift is necessary to allow unfettered construction of the mall and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, which is a partner in the project, has rejected the booksellers’ plea of constructing the mall in bits and parts so that they’re not displaced. The booksellers, it seems, are satisfied doing moderate business from their ugly, makeshift pigeonholes and clogging the busy road rather than occupying larger spaces in a swanky mall to earn more. Talk of people being unable to look beyond their noses.

Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen, who’s made Kolkata her second home, seems to have a penchant for courting controversy. The latest, over her alleged remarks against Islam and the Quran, has evoked strong reactions from Muslim organisations and clergy in the city. Kolkata’s most important imam, Syed Noor-ur-Rehman Barkati, has even issued a fatwa against her -- he announced a cash award of Rs 50,000 for "anyone who blackens Taslima’s face and drives her out of the country" at last week’s jumma namaz. But Taslima denies having made such remarks and accuses hard-line Muslim organisations of blowing innocuous comments she made at a seminar earlier this month ("When I was very young, my mother warned me that if I abused Allah, I would be punished. I did that, but nothing happened," she had said) out of context. Earlier, she angered Kolkata writers by writing about her liaisons with some of them. Taslima would be well advised to be careful about what she writes and says in future;Kolkata is not as liberal as its citizens like to claim it is, and as a host hasvery clear notions about what is an abuse of hospitality. By the way, Outlook had interviewed Barkati a few months ago for a story on fatwas. That time, he had spoken out against the tendency of issuing fatwas at the drop of a hat. Wonder why he’s changed his mind on that now.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee belongs to the dying ‘simple living, high thinking’ tribe. He continues to live in a nondescript two-bedroom government flat. The four-storey apartment block has been in urgent need of repairs and paint and though the housing department had received sanction for the long overdue works a few months ago, Bhattacharjee himself had asked the department to defer the project. It would look odd, he contended, to repair and paint a building the CM stays in just before the elections. Officers had to bow to his wishes and now that the polls are over and Bhattacharjee is firmly in the saddle once again, the department has started the repair works. Very soon, the building on Palm Avenue would wear a new, sparkling look. And guess who’s very happy about it? Another Bhattacharjee, but a (political) foe of the CM. He’s Pradip Bhattacharjee, the president of West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee, who resides just above the CM’s ground floor apartment. The inevitable comment: a Congressman supporting the Marxist CM from top, much like the Marxists supporting a Congress PM from the outside!

But Palm Avenue, the CM’s locality, has turned into a highly unsafe one over the past year. A spate of burglaries has left Bhattacharjee’s neighbours rattled. Two families have even shifted out of the locality. The fear has heightened since the police (Bhattacharjee holds the Home portfolio, by the way) have been unable to solve most of these crimes. The cops claim they’ve identified two gangs who’re behind the burglaries and both, incidentally, are led by illegal migrants from Bangladesh! The two families who have shifted out of Palm Avenue were ones who had taken up residence in the area after Bhattacharjee became the CM. That time, they had assumed that with the CM in their midst, the locality would be very safe. Now they know better.

While on cops, a report in a local newspaper the other day on their shooting skills, or the deplorable lack of it, wasn’t surprising at all. The men of the Rapid Action Force, Special Action Force and commandos who guard VIPs and vital installations, were made to undergo a five-day shooting exercise earlier this month. At the end of it, they were made to fire from 9mm Browning pistols at static targets from 75 feet, the closest allowed in a shooting test. The results were shocking -- just two of the 12 could score above 30 (considered to be a moderate score), while a few flunked and most just about made it to the ‘poor shooters’ category. Things haven’t really changed much since January 22, 2002, when armed cops were sitting ducks in front of the American Center here -- a young man in a motorcycle rode up, pumped bullets into them and not a single shot was fired in retaliation by the two dozen-odd cops on duty there that morning, who were captured scampering off on the security cameraslater.

A recent survey has thrown up that Kolkata’s fairer sex visit chat rooms far more frequently than the males. Women, it appears, make up 30% of the user base of chat and dating sites here, as compared to 25% in western India, 22 % in northern India and 20% in the south. Bengali women are far more adventurous than their sisters in other parts of the country. And have been so for many decades now, one might add.