Kolkata Korner

Welcome Chill
After last week’s sudden showers that flew in the face of the met office’s predictions, a soothing chill has steadily descended on Kolkata and its neighbourhood. The mercury has dipped, and though it hasn’t really sent Kolkatans running to bring out their woolens, it’s a welcome change from the sweat-soaked days that we dread. And the pleasant weather has kindled fond memories of the winter season—the soft glow of the sun to bask under, the plethora of cultural and other events that dot the winter calendar, the cold nights and mornings that lure us to linger in bed, the tasty winter treats and, most of all, the Christmas and New Year’s celebrations that bring out the best of and in this city. But lest we go overboard daydreaming about the oh-so-cool winters, the weather office has put in adampener—it now says that the pleasant weather conditions may be a "temporary phenomenon" and that the mercury may rise by mid-November before dipping again. Let’s hope this ‘prediction’ by the met office also falls flat on its face. And may the temperatures go only one way—down. 

Un-Fair 
One big winter event in Kolkata is the Kolkata Book Fair. It’s in fact an affair that Kolkata is justifiably proud of and it outclasses similar fairs in other parts of the country in terms of footfalls, number of publishers and booksellers who participate in it, the volumes of sales and the enthusiasm that marks this event. But there’s a flip side to this, and it is, I must say, a huge minus point. Every year, the fair is held at the maidan—the only lungs this city has—and the lakhs of feet trampling on the green grass, the bamboo poles driven deep into the earth, the car parks, the scores of eateries that come up there and the temporary constructions all make the maidan a bloody mess. All fairs and exhibitions have been banned from the maidan, save for the book fair whose organizers have been promising to relocate to the permanent fair venue off the eastern Metropolitan Bypass every year. But they’ve never kept their promise. This year, too, they’ve said that they ought to be allowed to hold the fair at the maidan foe one last time in January 2007 and from 2008, they’ll shift to the new venue. There’s no reason why we should take them at their word. They’ve also been promising to restore the maidan to its pristine condition after the fair every year, but this undertaking has been repeatedly dishonoured. Kolkata can ill afford to have its lungs choked and damaged every year. The Booksellers’ & Publishers’ Guild who organize the fair ought to be told unequivocally that they can no longer hold the fair at the maidan. No more promises. 

Nothing Festive About This
Diwali has been an especially noisy one in Kolkata this year. In a stark and loud (nay, deafening) departure from the last five years, many residents of this city burst banned firecrackers, causing a din. Many irresponsible ones did so even in the vicinity of hospitals. According to police, the worst offenders were the residents of upscale multi-storied apartment blocks in south Kolkata. What a shame! If literate, conscious, socially aware and responsible citizens can’t exercise restraint and celebrate festivals in a way as not to inconvenience others, what will happen to this city? Since Kolkatans have shown that they can’t be relied on to exercise self-restraint, the police will have to crack down on manufacturers, sellers and buyers of firecrackers from next year. I’d say the cops need to be especially harsh on the buyers for it is they who’re the most to blame. The other villains this year were the organizers of the community Kali pujas who have been extorting ‘donations’ from people of their localities and even visitors, passersby and passing vehicles. Those who refused have had to face their wrath; two persons have died after being beaten up by the extortionists while others have been injured in separate incidents. It is high time this menace is brought to an end once and for all by not only booking all these criminals, but barring them from organising their pujas for all time to come. 

Bengal’s Bane
Commies (now, here I go again) are control freaks. Nothing can remain out of their sphere of influence and power. That’s how they’ve been clinging on to power for so long. The IT and ITeS sectors that CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has been so passionately wooing and which could drive the state to prosperity have remained outside theCPI (M)’s pervading, vice-like and destructive influence. And not liking it one bit, the CPI(M) has deployed its ‘army’ (the CITU) to raid these bastions of efficiency and excellence. The West Bengal IT Services Association—a trade union ostensibly of and for techies working in call centres and software firms in the state—will be launched on November 17. CITU leaders who’re office-bearers of this association (never mind that they’ll never be able to get any job in these two sectors) have already started making militant noises, accusing the IT and ITeS firms of exploiting their employees and violating labour rules. Hey, techies get good salaries and they’re in such short supply that they can ask for the moon. And get it too. One newspaper carried the techies’ collective reaction to the CITU’s attempts to step into their hallowed precincts: "We don’t need no IT Union…," they cried in unison. But that wouldn’t stop the CITU. If only the CPI(M) could realise what destruction the CITU caused to the state’s industries a few decades ago…

Schools, Too
It’s not just the hi-tech sectors that the commies want to control. They want to have their say in Christian missionary schools as well. They’ve been trying for years (thank God unsuccessfully) to control the affairs of these schools, including their admission policy and recruitment of teachers. The state government, after having tried unsuccessfully to bring about a law to compel these schools to recruit teachers through the School Service Commission (a government controlled body that’s a bastion of CPI-M activists and sympathizers and which follows the party’s diktat), now wants to examine the recruitment policies of the schools. For, the government says, complaints have been received about anomalies in these schools’ recruitment processes. The question here is that if these Christian missionary schools had been recruiting sub-standard teachers, as the CPI(M) leaders and those in the government allege, how is that they’ve been imparting much better education than those miserable government-controlled schools that have been recruiting such brilliant and dedicated teachers? Please, for heaven’s sake, let these schools function as they are instead of interfering in their affairs and reducing them to the status of mediocre or sub-standard institutions that similar interference has led to elsewhere. 

Goodbye To Floods
Now, this is a promise that’ll gladden all Kolkatans’ hearts. Our Mayor has held out the solemn assurance that from next year, the city’s streets won’t get waterlogged after even moderate showers. Waterlogging will be a thing of the past, hallelujah! Inshallah, we won’t have to wade through knee-deep, filthy water, all thanks to a Rs 400 crore grant the Mayor has managed to get out of theunion government to revamp the city’s drainage system. Most of Kolkata’s sewers are more than a century old and need urgent repairs and restoration. What’s more, this massive project will not entail digging up the roads to repair the underground sewers; the Mayor has said that ‘trenchless technology’ will be used and, after the project is completed, Kolkata’s drainage system will be at par with the best in the world. If this promise holds true, Kolkatans will have a lot to thank the present Mayor for. Never mind that he’s a communist.