This post was long overdue. But as usual I felt lazy to write it. Wish there was some sort of machine which could store whatever I though in some electronic form from where I can copy paste it. Ok enough of my wild thoughts. This post is about my trip to Calcutta (I still like the old English name, in Bengali it was always called Kolkata).
I had gone to Calcutta for the weekend (and Monday) to attend a marriage. In this trip I was expected to go to my Aunt's house as I had not gone to her house for more than 2 years now. So I decided that I will definately go to her house. Her house is about 25 Kms from my house. Me and my sister decided that we will leave early (10AM) so that we reach latest by 12.00 noon. That day Mamata Banaerjee decided to call for a Rasta Roko type of a thingy. Guess what, a strike or procession has been called is not unusual to me, what was unusual was that this road blocking exercise had a precise time - 11.00 AM to 12.00 Noon. So the major roads would be blocked by her supporters only during this time.
Well I didn't really care about the timings. But my sister was calculating how we could avoid all this and reach. Anyways next morning we left the house, I really didn't understand the calculations my sister did but still followed her. We got up in a Jadavpur Airport mini bus and would be getting down at LakeTown.
I was getting up in a bus in Kolkata after a long time. The last few years when ever I had come I used to go out in my Dad's office car. After retirement, it was back to the bus. So we boarded the bus and in the beginning everything was normal. Luckily the bus was not too crowded. Then after some time the bus driver was driving the bus like a motor cycle. Well It was fun in the beginning and then he went real crazy. Now I didn't understand that he was also doing his mental calculation to bypass the road blocks. Anyways the funny part is the bus was driven by not one person, but three people. One, the real driver, the man behind the wheels. Second one was the conductor, who was making sure that the passengers bought bought the ticket and got down at the right place. (Note: only passenger's getting down). The third guy was a helper, who made sure that the passengers boarded the bus and guess what .... he would shout and make the small cars, taxis, auto's move out of the bus' way so that the driver could drive the bus like a two wheeler. In his enthusiasm he sometimes actually forgot to drop the passenger. When the conductor realized this, he said that seems like all that passengers would have to get down at the airport only, the last stop. The helper realized his folly and cooled down a bit.
Then the inevitable happened. We got stuck in the road block at one intersection. The time was 11.45 AM. There was another side road, which would enable us to bypass the crossing, so I told the driver why not take it. The driver replied that this would get over soon. I got irritated, all it would take us would be 5 minutes and this guy was actually saying that these protesters actually followed time. In a state which is notorious for its work culture and punctuality, people were actually expecting that the protesters would follow time. Now my sister pitched in and told me why not wait and watch. Well she actually believed that the protesters would honour the timings. Wait and watch it was for me. Then the even more surprising thing happened. The roadblocks got cleared at 11.55AM (on time) and everything started to move.
For the last 10 years I have been living outside Calcutta. When I left, it was called Calcutta and I still had that image of Calcutta. But I realized it has changed. Processions, strikes and other forms of peaceful protests religiously follow the timings. Every one is now more proactive to avoid these and go to their work. I guess Buddhadev babu's reforms have definitely changed the mindset of some of the people. I hope he or his successor ( don't know if he (Buddhadeb babu) is going to get re elected looking at all the violence happening in Nandigram and elsewhere) can carry on the reforms.
I had gone to Calcutta for the weekend (and Monday) to attend a marriage. In this trip I was expected to go to my Aunt's house as I had not gone to her house for more than 2 years now. So I decided that I will definately go to her house. Her house is about 25 Kms from my house. Me and my sister decided that we will leave early (10AM) so that we reach latest by 12.00 noon. That day Mamata Banaerjee decided to call for a Rasta Roko type of a thingy. Guess what, a strike or procession has been called is not unusual to me, what was unusual was that this road blocking exercise had a precise time - 11.00 AM to 12.00 Noon. So the major roads would be blocked by her supporters only during this time.
Well I didn't really care about the timings. But my sister was calculating how we could avoid all this and reach. Anyways next morning we left the house, I really didn't understand the calculations my sister did but still followed her. We got up in a Jadavpur Airport mini bus and would be getting down at LakeTown.
I was getting up in a bus in Kolkata after a long time. The last few years when ever I had come I used to go out in my Dad's office car. After retirement, it was back to the bus. So we boarded the bus and in the beginning everything was normal. Luckily the bus was not too crowded. Then after some time the bus driver was driving the bus like a motor cycle. Well It was fun in the beginning and then he went real crazy. Now I didn't understand that he was also doing his mental calculation to bypass the road blocks. Anyways the funny part is the bus was driven by not one person, but three people. One, the real driver, the man behind the wheels. Second one was the conductor, who was making sure that the passengers bought bought the ticket and got down at the right place. (Note: only passenger's getting down). The third guy was a helper, who made sure that the passengers boarded the bus and guess what .... he would shout and make the small cars, taxis, auto's move out of the bus' way so that the driver could drive the bus like a two wheeler. In his enthusiasm he sometimes actually forgot to drop the passenger. When the conductor realized this, he said that seems like all that passengers would have to get down at the airport only, the last stop. The helper realized his folly and cooled down a bit.
Then the inevitable happened. We got stuck in the road block at one intersection. The time was 11.45 AM. There was another side road, which would enable us to bypass the crossing, so I told the driver why not take it. The driver replied that this would get over soon. I got irritated, all it would take us would be 5 minutes and this guy was actually saying that these protesters actually followed time. In a state which is notorious for its work culture and punctuality, people were actually expecting that the protesters would follow time. Now my sister pitched in and told me why not wait and watch. Well she actually believed that the protesters would honour the timings. Wait and watch it was for me. Then the even more surprising thing happened. The roadblocks got cleared at 11.55AM (on time) and everything started to move.
For the last 10 years I have been living outside Calcutta. When I left, it was called Calcutta and I still had that image of Calcutta. But I realized it has changed. Processions, strikes and other forms of peaceful protests religiously follow the timings. Every one is now more proactive to avoid these and go to their work. I guess Buddhadev babu's reforms have definitely changed the mindset of some of the people. I hope he or his successor ( don't know if he (Buddhadeb babu) is going to get re elected looking at all the violence happening in Nandigram and elsewhere) can carry on the reforms.
