Mera Desh - II

Enough of Bangalore, lets come to Kolkata and WB. Well the papers always say it’s a new kolkata. Orkut communities are there on this but alas, I find no change. The flyover started 2 years back is still under construction and people say its going so fast. A 20 year old Bisharpada-Kodaliya station is still called a new station. But then I realized modernization of kolkata is not bangalorization of it. Its developing more in what they are good at. EVverything is BIG in kolkata. And so was the city center mall. It was 3 times forum Bangalore. And ofcourse, almost 30% of it was food court. Now that is Kolkata for you. Another was Sourav ganguly. Bengalis support him not because of he plays good, nor because he is a Bengali but because they are Bengalis. Even a novice to cricket will be ready to discuss the villainy of Chapell and Dravid. Thank god some do spare Sachin. But then no comments. It’s their choice. They are the kolkatans. Something bad is the open love culture. Earlier I thought what’s wrong. That’s just not Indian but definitely not bad. But later when Advay told that in the beautiful Millenium park which is on the banks of Ganga, overlooking Howrah bridge and Vidyasagar setu on either side, smooching was the most decent thing that was going on, I was spellbound. Comeon, liberation doesn’t mean this.

Another thing I learnt was everybody has a point. About Singur I thought, Mamata Bannerjee is just grabbing some attention, which any outsider also felt including my friends in other cities. I thought what crap, the way industries are extinct in WB, may be, govt should even hand out Victoria memorial to be demolished. But no, things are not that simple. Singur is one of the most fertile land in India. To give that away for industry is harmful for local people, the environment and the country when WB does have wastelands not very far away. I was also shocked to now that India is now importing food again thanks to our agriculture minister who is taking more interest in cricket than the most pressing problem of India.

During my stay, I learnt more and more. Many things made me happy, many irritated me to the core. You had to speak out everywhere even at the grocery shops, on with louder voice gets things faster. Inspite of all this, I couldn’t stop cryinig on the last day. After all in sab cheeon se hi tho life bani hai.