The Colours of Peace are Beautiful...

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A Lockdown Remix Experience In Peoples’ Land Kolkata!

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If we can assume that people are already familiarized with the concept of lockdown as it has been more than a year since the national lockdown was imposed in India in March 2020, on the basis of this assumption we can go on to opine that the present version of the lockdown in Kolkata and the state of West Bengal has been a remix. Of course, the local media here has been terming this as only a ‘near-lockdown’, and we also know the kind of ‘mixed’ approaches adopted by various states of India to lockdown, but the experience here is unique and not related to most of the other states. We have decided to call it a remix, because under this process the old is often presented in a new getup to attract and excite the common people, and the state lockdown here has been a genuine remix with continuous tweaking to make it more and more user-friendly for the larger interests of the common people of West Bengal, particularly the state capital of Kolkata.   Yes, peoples’ interests. Nothing moves
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Cat O' Nine Tails!

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                                                                                                                                                                                                            Neighbors'  Woe!   Non-Owners'  Cat  Vow!   
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Loving The Rains!

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After a long spell of humid heat you get thrilled seeing dark clouds hovering above you and finally becoming a huge mass snuffing out bright daylight. As the dark clouds build up making rains imminent you are welcomed by a cooling breeze. And, when the big raindrops hit the ground in a scattered way first and then get into a heavy downpour the hard soil start emitting a deliciously sweet fragrance that many of us are accustomed to (you may call it a stench in concrete jungles!). You become ecstatic! Those were the moments back in Guwahati, our home town, we enjoyed and cherished ! The scenes were in and around our ancestral home there.  Meanwhile, Mumbai got into a most lucrative rain-mood three days back, but gave it up soon afterwards due to some unknown reasons! Or maybe El Nino ? This is becoming a real scare for the Indian Monsoon this year. On that particular Mumbai mood the met department did forecast heavy to very heavy downpour for the
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Darbari Politics: Do Not Go Overboard, Mr. Kejriwal!

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Emperors or Kings of ancient and medieval India used to have their ‘ darbar ’ or ‘courts’ to hear and address the subjects’ problems. These autocratic monarchs had full authority to decide action or punishment on the spot and nobody dared question the verdicts. However, modern Indian democracy is much more different, and Arvind Kejriwal’s brand of ‘common man rule’ is the extreme contrast with everybody having the right to ask, question or contest. Besides, Indian mob behavior is only too predictably well known. In an almost unmanageably overpopulated country plagued by unemployment and inflation the huge crowds at the employment exchanges, freebie events and public transport stations are only to be seen to be believed. And then the ‘me first’ mentality has been a constant witness to innumerable stampedes at religious places, fatal road accidents and huge traffic snarls. Having a Chief Minister within a touching distance you can lucidly imagine how desperately the crowd would b
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Indian Politics: More Cartoons Out Of The Cupboard!

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The cartoon was first published in 1949. It was aesthetically done and genuinely humorous. Therefore, it was included in Indian textbooks meant for eleventh standard school students in 2006 to make education informative as well as enjoyable. After 63 years from first publication and 6 years from inclusion in textbooks the ‘issue’ of the cartoon rocked and disrupted the Indian Parliament on May 11, 2012. The reason or motivation seemed to be obvious—to embarrass the tottering ruling coalition further in light of impending General Elections of 2014. The cartoon involved two all-time greats in Indian history. Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar , popularly known as Babasaheb , donned the role of a real father of the Indian Constitution and fought tirelessly for the Dalits or the Untouchables or the oppressed all his life. Belonging to a backward caste of Maharashtra he struggled at every stage of his life to rise to eminence as a sociopolitical reformer, scholar-philosopher, writer-
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"Bura Mat Suno...Bura Mat Dekho..."!

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Long back Mahatma Gandhi advised us ‘Do not listen to bad, do not see bad and do not speak bad’ ( "Bura Mat Suno..Bura Mat Dekho...Bura Mat Kaho" !). Now in modern hyper competitive times we are helpless about the first two don’ts. And persistent exposure to the first two makes us lose the third too! We cannot help but listen to or watch an endless stream of ‘bad’—all around us from home to the streets, in the newspapers and news channels, in the television serials and in the movies and at every act we have to do like walking praying jogging or driving—everyday and every step of our existence. Such continuous barrage of ‘bad’ is fast making us speak and utter a lot of ‘bad’ too. We are becoming doubtful and suspicious of everything around us and we are learning to blurt it out freely and openly. The main ‘bad’ drive comes from politics. We are hounded constantly by all sorts of stories being hammered into us forcing us to form our opinions or go on changing t
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Mumbai: Rainless Monsoon Continues…!

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This year the South West Monsoon seemed to be obsessively focused on covering the whole   of India as fast as possible, and in in fact, after arriving dot on time and reaching the state of Maharashtra on 11 th June, 2020 the monsoon started its journey covering region after region and finally arriving in North India 12 days earlier—thus successfully covering the full country in record time. Now, the point is about doing what it’s supposed to do, that is to say, providing the much-needed rains for the cultivation season all around. It had rained in the first days in Maharashtra in good measure helping the farming community, but later it relaxed and lapsed into a mode of fits and starts. As we pointed out in our last piece the monsoon has been kind enough to provide just one good shower to Mumbai and adjacent areas so far . The Met department noted this and made a forecast that the relaxed monsoon would be active again from 28 th of June. However, this has not happened so far cau
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House Sparrows Going Extinct?

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We have been used to be woken up by the staccato chirping of the house sparrows that jump and trot around the windows in the mornings. They have always been lovable small birds living in our roofs spending the full day with us, but over the years their numbers are getting less and lesser and in most of the towns and cities of India their morning alarms are almost non-existent. Environmental experts all over the world have expressed the fear of the sparrows getting extinct and the species already figure in the endangered list. Proliferation of the mobile phone towers and increasing pollution are believed to the main reasons for this sad happening. Concrete apartment blocks replacing the traditional independent houses could also be seen as another factor.  While in Guwahati, Assam we were lucky to see a lot of sparrows in their normal gait and talkativeness, but definitely not to the extent as earlier. But in Nagaon , just two and half hours journey by road from Guwahati, th
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Fish In Water!

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Man wanted to know about a crucial difference. Wanted to know for a long long time. So Man asked God, 'Oh Lord! Can you please tell me the difference between your love and my love?" God smiled and replied sweetly, "My dear Son! If you insist I must tell you! My love is fish in water and your love is fish in your plate!"                                                   (Courtesy: Based on a short text message from a friend!) 
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IPL Cricket Spot Fixing Verdict: BCCI Fries The Small Fish!

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The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) held a crucial meeting today in Mumbai and banned five domestic cricket players found guilty of corruption or indulgence in spot fixing. BCCI’s new anti-corruption Unit gave its report to the disciplinary committee and after deliberations in the meet the decisions were taken. The five players were charged with varying degrees of culpability to negotiating or bargaining for money for spot fixing in domestic cricket matches and to loose talk or bragging bringing the game of cricket into disrepute. TP Sudhindra , the chief offender, was banned for life while Shalabh Srivastava was banned for five years. The other three namely Mohnish Mishra , Amit Yadav and Abhinav Bali , charged with lesser offence, were banned for one year each. These players were notionally suspended on May 15, 2012 after a television news channel sting operation exposed their involvement in spot fixing. The BCCI verdict has been hailed as a tough measure to cr
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