Banalata Sen

Jibanananda Das

I’ve been walking the paths of this world 
For a thousand years. Much have I travelled
From the waters of Ceylon to the Malaya seas;
In the withering worlds of Ashoka and Vimvisara,
Where I lived in the still more distant city of Vidarva.
A tired soul am I, spindrift raging all round me
I’d but moments of quiet, with Banalata Sen of Natore.

Her hair was like the distant dark nights of Vidisha
Her face, sculpted lines from Sravasti.
Like a ship-wrecked sailor who’s lost his compass
Finds a green patch of cinnamon island on a faraway sea,
I’ve seen her in darkness. Said she,
‘Where have you been for such a long time?’
Looking up with her bird’s-nest eyes,
Banalata Sen from Natore.

As the day drifts to an end, darkness descends
Like the sound of dewdrops.
Kites wipe the smell of sunshine off their wings.
As the colours of the day fade, manuscripts take over.
And then the glimmering fireflies gather for stories.
All the birds come home, all the rivers.
All exchanges come to an end. Darkness reigns
And there remains, to sit face to face, Banalata Sen.

[This translation was done long ago and published in INDIAN LITERATURE, the bimonthly journal of Sahitya Akademi]

VYAPAM Scandal and We

In May 2014, millions of Indians heaved a collective sigh of relief after dislodging a bunch of thieves from the seat of power in New Delhi. Now, after a year and the 42 mysterious deaths of people who were either accused or suspects or investigators in the Madhya Pradesh VYAPAM scandal, we cannot but feel we threw away the thieves only to elect a bunch of ruthless robbers to rule us. Please don’t accept or reject this rather strong view off-hand, but allow me to take you on a short journey along the bare facts of the case, which I have gleaned mainly from the online edition of the DNA newspaper dated 2 July 2015.

VYAPAM (an acronym for the Madhya Pradesh Vyavasayik Pariksha Mandal, aka MP Professional Examination Board) conducts recruitment exams for posts like sub-inspectors of police, typists, and for departments such as Agriculture, Women and Child Development, Jail, etc. It also conducts the Pre-Medical, Pre-Engineering, and other entrance tests for government colleges.

VYAPAM has been facing accusations of fraud since 2009, but the big revelation came in June 2013 when a racket that helped many examinees pass their pre-medical tests came to light. The fraudsters employed a range of modus operandi from exams being taken by impersonators (called “scorers” – this is a scam so vast that it had to invent its own lingo!), to answer scripts being written outside the exam hall, to final marks being tampered in the computers at the board headquarters.

For example, VYAPAM's Assistant Programmer CK Mishra, System Analyst Nitin Mahindra and his associate Ajay Sen, who were arrested at first, allegedly used to change original mark-sheets to get some examinees passed. Many documents including computer hard disks were seized from VYAPAM at the time of their arrest.

As the dots were joined, names of big businessmen as well as prominent politicians came up. Investigation based on the data obtained from the hard disks reveal that many candidates who appeared in the examinations had the backing of influential politicians. It involved names like the former CM Uma Bharti as well as lots of administrative officers. During his interrogation, Mahindra revealed that many students had been backed by the state's former education minister​ Laxmikant Sharma. Sharma was arrested and is still in jail.

It's the only scam in the history of India where close to 2000 accused have been taken into custody and yet, the hunt is far from over. These arrests mostly include students, parents, and some middlemen. Several news reports indicate that what has been uncovered so far reveals only the tip of the iceberg and masterminds behind the scam are out and trying to derail the investigations.

VYAPAM is being investigated by a Special Task Force (STF) under the supervision of a Special Investigation Team formed by the MP High Court. So far the proceedings by the STF don't seem promising, as all deaths of witnesses, suspects or accused have been categorised as NATURAL. As many as 42 PEOPLE connected to the case, most of them young and healthy, died either in accidents, or after a twenty-four hour illness, or “liver infections”, or simply committed suicide.

SIT Chief Chandresh Bhushan has reportedly admitted that over 40 deaths related to VYAPAM have taken place. Of these, 25 deaths related to cases that the SIT is probing. He reportedly said the possibility of murder cannot be ruled out in these 25 cases, and that these will be probed and a full report submitted to the High Court.

But the state government has called the deaths natural.  An, ex-CM and current Home Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Babulal Gaur recently said, rather philosophically, "All the deaths are natural deaths. Whether in jail or in a rail, everyone has to die someday".

Cases under VYAPAM scam date back to 2009. BJP has been in power in Madhya Pradesh since 2003. Their arch rivals, the Congress Party, past masters in corruption themselves, have asked ten questions to the MP Chief Minister. Since they are acknowledged experts in this business, let’s take their questions seriously. Here is a sample:

“The Vyapam scam was of a huge magnitude, wherein the future of 76 lakh was blocked, naked corruption took place, naked bribery was taking place, scorers were being appointed, papers were being changed. How could such a mammoth corruption scam be carried on without the complicity and knowledge of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan?

“An FIR in the Vyapam case was lodged on a close aide of Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the then Technical Education Minister Laxmikant Sharma in 2013. After six months, he was arrested. CM’s former personal secretary Premchand Prasad too was arrested, but released on bail later. Will the Chief Minister explain why and how his close aides are involved in the matter?

“Shivraj Singh Chouhan … was the Medical Education Minister between December 2008 to March 2012 (sic). So why should the investigation … exclude the Chief Minister?

*

There is little doubt that loud proclamations notwithstanding, the present BJP government is as corrupt as the previous Congress government. The difference between the two can be brought out only by an earthy Bengali idiom: they are two sides of the same shit!

And returning to my original proposition, they present government is perhaps run by better organised and more ruthless criminals. How else can you explain scores of people being “bumped off” to protect the real crooks behind the VYAPAM scam safely hidden behind?

Kolkata

Tuesday, 07 July 2015

Balur Estate, 1853, Chikkamagaluru / Chikmagalur

As you drive towards Hassan, a district town a little under 200 kilometres from Bengaluru, you go through half-a-dozen tollbooths. But you are keen to reach your destination fast and so you don’t mind paying a few hundred rupees to use the mostly four-lane National Highway 75 that’s smooth as a ribbon. But Hassan is not your destination. You take a deviation just before: off the highway, on the way to Mudikere.

The road is more “normal” here, narrower and often broken at the edges, but still very fine. The only problems are the drivers born out of wedlock, desperate to overtake other vehicles … they pass dangerously close to you from front and behind. While you’re wondering why these idiots are in such tearing hurry, you weather a few near misses and turn left at Mudikere towards Kottigehere. You take a right turn there and start climbing the Nilgiri Hills towards Kalasa.  After seven short kilometres and the first hair-pin bend, you are greeted by a stone slab on your left that says:

Balur Estate, 1853

I have given a somewhat graphic how-to-reach-there because if you get an opportunity to visit Balur in Chikkamagaluru, you must not miss it. And if you don’t, you might look up my blog sometime in the future and fulfil my ambition to be of some use to humanity.

Balur is an 800-acre coffee plantation cradled in the Blue Mountains. It’s just off the road, but when you enter the estate hidden behind silver oaks and thick bushes, you feel you are hundreds of miles from the rest of the world. There is absolute stillness but for birds’ trill. Peace.

On the slope of a hillock, an enormous bungalow in the middle – home for generations of planter “sahibs” – is flanked by two smaller structures on either side. There is also a swimming pool behind. The coffee planters who ran this place obviously took material comforts seriously. In front of the bungalows are a number of rectangular red flats made of brick. They are for drying the produce, namely, coffee beans, cardamom, and pepper. The estate office is a little below in a thatched cottage, in front of which about a hundred workers, men and women, assemble every morning, After a roll-call, they melt into the jungles to cut weeds and spray pesticides. They will harvest the crop in the winter. It’s jungle all around. You see thick shrubs of coffee and cardamom plants and tall trees around which pepper and other creepers climb. … A world in myriad shades of green!

The main bungalow – we were lucky to be allotted this – has a large hall in front, a more intimate parlour inside, and bedrooms on either side. The rooms are about fifteen feet tall with some glass panes fixed on to the tiled roofs. So even the rooms inside get natural light during the day and at night when you lie down, you get a glimpse of the universe beyond. In the rear of the bungalow is a dining room that opens into an enormous kitchen. On the long table in the dining room a fabulous lunch had been spread out by the time we reached. And an exquisite Coorg cuisine is not the only thing that’s special about the place.

It will be an understatement if I say the place is well-appointed. The furniture is a combination of the old and the new, and the new ones have been carpentered to match the earlier antique pieces with intricate carvings. The people who run this place obviously have taste and an eye for details.

The eye for details was further confirmed when it became dark and suddenly the resort came alive with millions of crickets making a huge noise that only made the place even quieter. There are books to read and a carom board and board games like chess and Scrabble which you put to good use in the evening. You are closer to the elements when you are at Balur. The human species is two million years old and except for about just two hundred years or so since Thomas Alva Edison invented the light bulb, our life was neatly divided into two parts: work during the day and relax when it’s dark. At Balur, you follow this simple primordial routine and wonder why we should run around sixteen hours every goddamned day!

So that’s what life should be. Relax in the evening, sleep early, wake up with the chirping birds to go on a long walk through the plantation. The breakfast is ready when you are back. And then you have the entire day before you for more walk or to feed stray dogs with broken biscuits. Can you think of a more enchanting holiday?

Bengaluru

Monday, 01 June 2015

Notes to my students: # 12 Writing about writing

Yesterday was the last day of yet another term at our English Language Centre. For seven weeks, I worked with a group of 20 students, from under-eighteens to over-fifties, but most of them in their early twenties. If you are around twenty, you are in that wonderful phase of life when you haven’t lost the innocence of childhood, yet you’re ready to explore the myriad possibilities that life offers. It is always a great experience to work with them, and in this particular group too, there were some chirpy exciting people I loved to work with.

They were all brought together – not by fate, but by their common desire to learn English. As the term drifted to its inevitable end, there was a tinge of sadness, and everyone would have asked in their head, ‘What next?’

As we all know, a second language – like cooking, driving, computers, or any other skill – is not taught, it has to be learned. And there are these four steps that people normally follow.

(A) Listen to and read good speakers / writers of that language, 

(B) Note new language,

(C) “Think” about the new language you’ve come across, and

(D) Use the new language when you speak or write.

Unfortunately, most Indians learning English do not get the opportunity to interact with good speakers. On the contrary, they get to listen to and read a lot of inaccurate language everywhere. So it may be a good idea to add one more step to the list above: have a grasp of the basic grammar. This will help you to check and analyse the English you hear or read. And it is essential that you speak and write English.

Yesterday, one of my students told me she had no problem speaking English; but when she got round to writing something, she didn’t know how to begin and what to write. Let me try to answer her.

First, what to write? My answer would be: anything. You can write about people, places, things, and of course, your thoughts and feelings. Think of a person, anyone, maybe, your mother. What kind of a person is she? What has been her life experience? What has she tried to achieve? How far has she been successful? What qualities in her do you admire? Would you like her to be different?

Think of the first school you were in. Think of the first day in your office. What thoughts went through your mind when you started working? What dreams did you have? What fears? And how has reality panned out? Are you happy about what life has had to offer you?

Or you can just look out of the window. If you sit back and think, you will see there are stories all around us. Look at that man in a funny yellow shirt carrying an umbrella, observe him minutely. What is he? What kind of house does he live in? Can you imagine the story of his life?

So you can write on anything, but HOW will you write? My answer to this is quite simple. Just begin. Pen and paper have their own dynamics. And so do key-board, computer screen, and your fingers. When I began typing this in, I knew what I wanted to write, but I had no idea how I would go about it. As it happened, first I wrote about an entirely different topic. I completed it and then came back to this. I don’t know what I have written; I don’t know whether it’s good or intolerable. But I know that as I was writing this, I was having a virtual dialogue with a chirpy young girl with bright eyes and curly hair.

In a few minutes, I will print this out and read it closely, maybe twice or even three times. If I think it’s rubbish, I would crumple the sheet of paper and throw it into the bin under my table.

If I think it’s tolerable, I would pester my wife to read it. I would also polish it and then upload it on my blog. If it’s readable, I would derive a kind of pleasure that nothing else in the world gives me.

So, Dear Student, WRITE. Writing is its own reward.

Kolkata

Monday, 11 May 2015