Pankhudi Kolkata takes off

Chaos is new in town of Kolkata. So are many of his friends studying mostly at iimcal. He was telling me on and off about how they are trying to put up a real good show, trying to set up Kolkata chapter of Pankhudi, an NGO that tries to reach out to visually impaired children. Dreamer had been a member of Bangalore chapter since inception and it's now in full swing reaching out quite a few. I also gathered that they're facing slight hump on the road with language issue. I had been sitting for a while as always and finally i recalled the words of Halmos on how one who sharpened his pencil was never a researcher, and jumped the gun to get my bengali language skills [who would have thought !] :-s used
for a good cause.

From whatever I gathered ahead of my first session is we are going to lighthouse blind school, affiliated to west bengal school of secondary education for a brief ice breaking session. and i would not be ashamed admitting that it was goosebumps all the way for me ahead of it. am known to be master of faux pas. and i was scared to extreme this being a new yet very sensitive domain. but .. it was all fun all the way  the school is doing real good work all in itself is what i took home. we were promised a session on saturday 3-5. but on our arrival we found that kids are busy rehearsing for their upcoming cultural show for 15th august. probably the first time in my life i did not mind being refused an already scheduled appointment and much to my own surprise was happy for the cause it's cancelled for.

anyways we did at last have a chance to meet the tiny taughts after a small wait. and well it was fascinating. addressing kids from several parts of bengal [most i saw is from malda, one from urban kolkata, one from
shantiniketan] with ambitions as varied as becoming a matron to an airhostess, while some played low key and wanted to become bengali teachers. one girl was all serious when she wanted to become a cricketer. there was this girl moonmoon who really kept us spellbound with her brilliant rendition of a tagore song 'asha jawa r pother dhaare' - am a song freak. very rarely have i come across such purity of voice is what i can say. we also had a chat on what is going right what more could they ask for. lalit who otherwise was keeping silent most of the time volunteered to tell us that it takes him 3-5 minutes to write in braille, while it takes
him [he actually computed these !] 2-3 minutes to type on a braille computer. so he perceived more hands on he can get with computer for his daily activity, better off he is. an entrepreneur in the making ? who knows.

but impressive the entire session was. am thankful that they tolerated us and were patient with old haggards like us were trying to act funny and conduct chinese whisper for them. but i hope this start sustains and grows
into the big tree with time.

now, yes we need more hands, better if you know how to speak bengali, as the students at this point are too shy to interact in any other language, and have a calling for this. get in touch.

East side story ..

I have been watching a lot of woody allen flicks recently.I was introduced then to this old man from Russia in 'Love and Death', who walks around the village, vehemently opposing any buying offer that comes his way for the 'piece of land' ['chunk of earth' in his hands] that he loitered around with; not to mention the indirect reference to the short story from Tolstoy, 'How Much Land does a Man Need ?'

I remember a friend, on the verge of earning his Phd from a prestigious school in the US, going frantic over how cost of living in India has splurged over the years and how he needs a LOT of cash before hitting back. That I know he is not hitting back is another story. But I was disturbed as I intended to hit back myself for sure and pinched myself for not waking up earlier...

I was relaxed after reaching home to see that not much [sometimes some things to your anxiety] has changed here.

Just the other day, as I was moving around the city along a friend from the US for a long planned photo shoot, we happened to pass South City by [For the uninitiated, it's been the talk of the town for years now on Kolkata real estate landscape] and gathered that two of my college mates have been or have bought properties in the highrise. Sounded pretty cool. Really. A photographer's mind was lured as the prospect of a great vantage point to capture the southern horizon.


But a cynic always steps back end of the day and gets into some weird computation. Here then I look at the profile of both of my friends who have bought it for themselves and realize that both are well settled abroad and do not see in the distant horizon when is it that they can hit the city. But they bought one all the same.

Let's get into the grinding details and one will find that equation is simple. With socio-political scenario of Kolkata becoming hostile again, industry giants turning deaf ears to ministerial invites, the so-called new economy giants being overcrowded to the point of suffocation, and the city gloriously topping the charts of various surveys as the destination choice of the enterprises, only read bottom up, there is hardly anyone making money in the city that can afford south city luxury, save the business community perhaps. But then look at the sprawling campuses boasting of
sauna and spa and shopping malls and rooftop air-taxis and what not, that are bombarding you down every morning as you start your day with front page of a newspaper.

Puzzling. How on earth can a city not earn enough but can afford more than that.Easy answer to that is the eleventh avatar of lord Krishna as credits that comes to one's rescue. I had been watching all my friends who need a shelter in town and those who needs just one more haggling around for credits for years now. The first thing that I have seen people do with their first job is book a car and chase it down in rapid succession with booking an apartment in XYZ project, that flaunts the best in its kind accessories, forgetting basic nuances about some fundamental infrastructural chokepoints otherwise. Look at pre/post south city traffic influx at Prince Anwar Shah Road or the waterlogged Rajarhat roads for an answer. Now even the builders who were not offering swimming pool with jacuzzi can advertise at least a smooth-cruise experience at stone's throw [just let it rain. wait for 10 mins and happy sailing ! :)].

Let me once more turn my eyes towards the credits we were talking of.
I was talking to this colleague of mine who is first generation in town and understandably enough had to go for a shelter. On showing some interest in these loan patterns, I gathered in reply an agonized mind who is fretting over why the bank is taking most of the money he pays for deduction of interests and not principle. I understand instantly enough that yes there's cause of concern. I patted his back and asked him to look up at the sun, with a discomfort in mind. Are we coming a full cycle to serfdom ?

I remembered the excitement that in between my return from UK and journey to US I witnessed chic malls coming up every corner of my birthtown and disturbance at listening to an economist friends, who was back after a semester teaching in Singapore and went on an extensive backpacking around that region, talk of the ghost towns in remote Thailand that has seen most of the shutters close down in just a matter of few years. 'Just wait and watch' he had laughingly said. He talked of this three years back and you do see 'Next' closing in there shop in the city.

Is the same fate waiting for the real estate ?

After all, "Six feet from his head to heels was all he needed".

PsychedeliA ..

..and then there was a pause .. u choked at the utter impotence of ideas or the lack of it ... n u still knew u gotta write. about 'something' - something that never happened - random thoughts - random strokes as u keep penning down a chain of thought - ideas. or the lack of it.

something tells me i should write about avik tossing the cigarette butt off as he pensively gazed out at the incessant rain through the window pane. reluctantly enough, he sipped through the coffee mug in silence, and stared at
himself on the ripples he made on the surface of the coffee. have you read 'identity' ? by kundera ? did you really notice how he kept writing the same chapter - well the same sequence of events seen from two different observer's perspectives ? well if you've read it you know exactly what i feel like NOT writing about. not. at all. why write then ? is it because someone told me u lose shine when u dont write ? well no. i never shone anyways. then why write ? is it because you want someone to hear you. i couldnt care less. you write. cause u gotta write. so. here's to whoever said that the show MUST go on :D - well worth a hearty laughter - to you the oldest haggard of all - 'the' toast.

a sadness grips you .. u realize u r inching back to a non-generative degenerate mode - back from the wilderness - the tamed YOU. there's a struggle. u ask why suddenly ? within yourself. u know not. u suddenly feel like tuning on to the sadness and isolation - 'tristan und isolde' ? wagner ? u feel like picking 'desolation angels'up and try read into the meaning of life or the lack of it. u want to take a closer view of the void. aah quantum dot. heisenberg. uncertainty principle. no. seriously. i gotta recollect it clearly enough. wait a sec. what was it then ? light is not just wave - it could also be considered as particles. and now when you hit subatomic particles with light in order to 'observe' it - what u c is not quite what u want to c. c ? it's perturbed already - it's on a collision course with what we know as light. 'light'. 'light'ness of being. brings you back to kundera. life. they say do come full circle.

Weather report, a close brush with hurricane, Aila

near itc sonar bangla



towards chingrighaTa



onward strokes ..



near nicco park



sector V

a short story of three parallel lines

there were three parallel lines - yes, three were they with two nincompoops tidly and wiki standing hand in hand gazing blankly at them. they thought 'chalo lets go skiing' you take the rightmost two and i take the leftmost two - well that makes us share one ! is that fine ? they nodded at each other.

they also chose to name the lines family, us and career to avoid confusion. and off they went skiing around happy with the sail.

family though thought career was too arrogant and started whistling merrily, bending outwardly to the river - career was silent. he didn't
like his stolid stand being misunderstood but he kept firm on the ground. this got tidly confused - she was going off wiki ! pheww ..and it was all happening rather fast - she asked wiki to join hands - wiki too impressed with the firm stability of the career asked tidly to let go off the whimsical family instead. 'Why dont you let family go talk to the river instead ? they chose to do that ? they started the break in the ice ? come on now and the storm is coming up we gotta rush ?' - Right then the offended family bended slightly more to the river. Us ruptured into two halves. And off shot tidly-wiki skiing happily alone ever after.

to their journey called life ahead ...

amen.

Reality check ...

My short and sweet tenure at Kharagpur after almost two years of UK and another two in US has been that of an eye-opener - coming down to ground reality - for those [including myself] who had always thought ankle-deep waterlogged city is next to God's curse, come see entire south bengal today - submerged beneath what is still not declared a 'flood' :)

My journey today started at 7.30 from Kolkata and soon after we left Santragachhi it was all the same story till Kgp. What bothered me more is people seemed acquainted with living on the edge and have taken it for granted. They know that each monsoon is probably going to bring home a tide, and they will flow with it. They probably even don't know that there is a 'flood' in someone's dictionary. In their own way I saw many of them netting fish that came home with this tide. With this positive attittude [probably stemmed from a mix of ignorance and helplessness] and a smiling face they kept on fishing for years. And would probably dwell another century in their silence.

Rilke after a pause

In times when you are with yourself I have seen Rilke to work wonders - take you off to a distant land [dikshunyopur for whoever understands bengali] At a time when I was reaching out to the horizon found another gem on my way - happy reading..




'Already the ripening barberries are red
and the old asters hardly breathe in their beds.
The man who is not rich now as summer goes
will wait and wait and never be himself.

The man who cannot quietly close his eyes
certain that there is vision after vision inside,
simply waiting for nighttime
to rise all around him in darkness –
it’s all over for him, he’s like an old man.

Nothing else will come; no more days will open
and everything that does happen will cheat him.

Even You, my God. And You are like a stone
that draws him daily deeper into the depths.'

(Source: Selected Poems)