Code Red
CITU, the CPI(M)'s trade union affiliate, has covered the Kolkata airport withan ugly red blanket. Red flags, posters, buntings and placards have been plantedeverywhere and some structures, like a traffic island at the entrance to theairport complex, have been painted a communist red. Landing at the airport, as Idid early this week, one can't help gather the impression that s/he has landedin the citadel of a tin-pot communist dictator. Bands of airport employees--allhighly unionized, undisciplined, gross and slack--were going around shoutingslogans. It seems a conference of the employees was on. Worse, the CITU isgloating over the red cover it has given; some of its leaders were quoted inlocal newspapers wondering aloud if the airport doesn't look better with thisnew coat of red.
Advertisement
I guess that's what the Left Front government means when it talks of amakeover for Kolkata airport. But it's not only the CITU that is to blame forthe red cover. The gigantic 'Welcome to Kolkata' hoarding that greets visitorson emerging from the airport complex has been taken over by the BSNL whosecorporate colour is red. So that's one huge red space staring in your face. Andthe other commercial spots in the airport complex, including inside the domesticlounge, have been taken by Airtel and Vodafone--their corporate colours are red,too. Isn't that too much of a coincidence: the confluence of CITU, BSNL,Vodafone and Airtel at the airport? Enough to make a lot of people see red, Iguess.
Envoy's Rap
Talking about landing at Kolkata, British Deputy High Commissioner Simon Wilsonhas to be applauded for putting in bluntly what we have known for so long: thatthere's a significant difference between Kolkata's air quality and that of othercities, Delhi included, and air passengers perceive this the best. It is a knownfact that pollution levels are high in Kolkata, but what is perhaps moreunpardonable is the state government's apathy and unwillingness to do anythingabout it. Thanks to a number of vested interests, especially transporters andtransport workers who resist enforcement of pollution control measures, thecommunists in power in Bengal have not done anything to clean up the city's air.Wilson also pointed out, correctly, that many other cities in the country havedone much more than Kolkata. What's galling is that in order to protect theinterests of a few on whom the CPI(M) depends for material and other support, itis sacrificing the interests of the majority of citizens and pushing themtowards untimely deaths. Predictably, at the end of the seminar at which Wilsonspoke, state government officials chose to utter the same inanities that they'vebeen mouthing for so many years now--Kolkata's problems are peculiar, effortsare on to do the needful and all that blah. Problem is, Kolkata's main problemare those controlling its destiny and they're a peculiar lot.
God Forbid
The Calcutta Tramways Company (CTC), which has turned to plying buses in thecity in order to stay afloat, has put forth a dangerous proposal: it wants toply buses on Park Street! This is one road in the city that's navigable, andthat's because it is out of bounds for Kolkata's ugly buses. Had our buses beennon-polluting and presentable and been driven decently by humans instead ofbeasts, allowing them on this road could perhaps have been considered. Eventhough, of course, it's always desirable to maintain Park Street'sexclusivity--many may disagree at this elitist and un-egalitarian concept, butkeeping intact the upscale individuality of one small pocket in a city ispermissible, I guess, even in a communist dictatorship/people's democracy.
Advertisement
The very thought of buses plying on Park Street would make any Kolkatanshudder in horror--imagine buses racing with each other, mowing down people,stopping anywhere and everywhere to pick up and disgorge passengers, belchingblack noxious fumes and making for a detestable and sight amidst the genteelambience of Park Street. They'd rob Park Street of its glamour and cause itsdownfall. Calcutta Tramways Corporation must be, for God's sake--well, at leastMother Teresa's sake, for the road has been re-christened after her--stopped inits tracks and its evil intentions defeated. Better still, the CTC ought toreturn to running trams till the day nostalgic Bengalis turn practical andbanish those contraptions (and the CTC) from Kolkata's face.
A New Craze
Parents here, as is well known, drive their children too hard. Extremely luckyand equally rare is the kid who's not herded by his/her parents after school toprivate tutors, sports coaching, piano/guitar/drums lessons or even paintingclasses. In sports, cricket has been the prime choice of parents--everyoneharbours fond dreams of his or her son becoming a Sourav Ganguly. So off goesthe poor kid--he may well be myopic or flat-footed--to cricket coaching everyafternoon. A new sport has been added to the Kolkata parents' aspirations--golf.A collective sigh went up in every middle-class Bengali household in Kolkatalast week when newspapers and TV channels went to town with news of the Rs 1.6crore that the son of the green keeper of Royal Calcutta Golf Club (RCGC) won atthe Indian Masters in Delhi.
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.
