Odd-even and just odd

Beyond a shred of doubt, the present rulers of Delhi, the Aam Admi Party (AAP) are just another bunch of political opportunists with a fair share of skeletons in their cupboard, like fake degrees and domestic violence.

However, their attempt to introduce the odd-even rule (allowing on road vehicles with odd number plates one day and those with even numbers the next) to reduce pollution is certainly a step in the right direction. Let's congratulate AAP for it.

I believe anyone who cares for the environment will welcome this step, even if it leads to some inconvenience. The common people of Delhi have accepted the law gracefully. Isn't it odd that our MPs, who make laws, are against this unquestionably positive legislation? Even when the government has arranged special air-conditioned buses for them? They, cutting across party lines, want exemptions from the law! Only one BJP MP, Anshul Verma hasn't joined this flock of sheep. (But I am sure there are others.)

Indians know that most of their MPs are ruthless fortune-seekers who care for lining their pockets and nothing else - including the grave threats posed by overuse of fossil fuel.

But dear MPs, do you have to prove it time and again?

Kolkata / 27 April 2016

The Spine

By Shankha Ghosh
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[I saw this poem on my friend Senjuti's Facebook page this morning. Here is my translation followed by the original in Bangla. Thanks, Senjuti.

I might add that Shankha Ghosh is one of the front-line poets in Bangla. In fact, he is even more than that. In the dystopia that West Bengal is today, he is a moral compass for all of us.]

I woke up with a start. Is there a storm raging outside?
The windows are thrashing about,
There are flashes of lightning now and again.
As I was about to go back to sleep, in the transient light of lightning
I felt there was someone in the room, crawling.
‘Who, who is there?’
The crawler didn’t respond.
I get up, go close, and ask him once again,
‘Who are you? What are you looking for?’
But he remains mute,
Just crawls from one end of the room to the other
He isn’t looking up, and is refusing to look into my eyes.
‘Are you searching for something, Sir?’
And I hear: ‘Yes of course, I am. And I must keep searching.
I’ll leave as soon as I find it – I will walk away on my own.’
‘What are you looking for?’
In a feeble voice, he says, ‘My spine.’
That moment, lightning flashes again. And I’m shocked to see
Not one, but lots of them
Crawling all over the room, from one corner to the other,
Looking for the same thing.

Kolkata
Sunday, 24 April 2016

হামাগুড়ি
শঙখ ঘোষ
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ঘুমটা ভেঙে গেল হঠাৎ। বাইরে কি ঝড় হচ্ছে?
দাপাদাপি করছে জানলার পাল্লাদুটো
মাঝে মাঝে বিজলি ঝলকাচ্ছে।
ফের শুয়ে পড়তে গিয়ে সেই বিদ্যুতের ছটফটে আলোয় মনে হল ঘরের মধ্যে যেন হামা দিচ্ছে কেউ।
'কে ওখানে? কে?'
হামা কোনো শব্দই করে না।
উঠে আসি কাছে, আবারও জিজ্ঞেস করিঃ 'কে আপনি? কী চান?'
সে তবু নিশ্চুপ থেকে এ - কোণে ও -কোণে ঘুরছে
মাথা তুলছে না কিছুতেই, চোখে চোখ নয়।
'কিছু কি খুঁজছেন আপনি?'
শুনতে পাচ্ছিঃ 'খুঁজছি ঠিকই, খুঁজতে তো হবেই -
পেলেই বেরিয়ে যাব, নিজে নিজে হেঁটে।'
'কি খুঁজছেন?'
মিহি স্বরে বললেন তিনিঃ 'মেরুদণ্ডখানা।'
সেই মুহুর্তে বিদ্যুৎ ঝলকালো ফের। চমকে উঠে দেখিঃ
একা নয়, বহু বহু জন
একই খোঁজে হামা দিচ্ছে এ-কোণে ও কোণে ঘর জুড়ে।

Welcome home!

Haroun, 7+, is a bit like a fizzy bottle. The moment he opens up, words gush out of him like a cascading waterfall in the peak of good monsoon. Yesterday, when I reached our Bengaluru home, he had had his lunch and was watching a cartoon channel as usual. After opening the door, he had to resolve the issue of dividing his loyalty between the TV and me. In the end, he told me, ‘Dadabhai, can I watch this final episode please?’

It was a huge sacrifice for him. And he kept his words. Soon afterwards he came into my room as I was unpacking my bag, and opened the fizzy bottle. … His school, classmates, ma’ams, the new day-care centre and the new friend he had just made. (It was the first day for him at a new day-care.) As usual, he had forgotten the name of his new friend. Incidentally, I know from whom he has got the gene that makes one forget names and faces. Ask my students, they will tell you. …

During an entire term, I kept calling Bipasha Visakha, and managed to get her name right only towards the end of the term. So when I saw her again in class recently, besides being happy to meet an old young student again, I took a vow not to forget her name ever. So in the course of a classroom discussion, I confidently addressed her as Bipasha with a sense of satisfaction and a bit of pride. From another corner of the room, Gurmeet, another former student, helpfully suggested, ‘No Sir, she is Visakha.’

For a moment, I stood in the middle of a classroom like an idiot, looking uncertainly at Bipasha/Visakha, not knowing what to say. Then the penny dropped as the class broke into a loud guffaw. See how naughty kids are these days!

Coming back to Bengaluru, Haroun had a lot more things to describe, including the 11 stages of skateboard. In the middle he digressed and said, ‘Dadabhai, Please don’t let your feet go too deep under the table.’

‘Why?’

‘Because, two velociraptors have built their nests under the table – their egg will hatch next Monday, when you have gone.’

(While writing this, naturally, I had to check the spelling of velociraptor in a dictionary. They are “small dinosaurs that move fairly quickly”.)

Anyway, after explaining the first six stages of skateboarding, pushing off, mellow turn, sharp turn and so on, Haroun vanished. The next moment, I found him fast asleep, hugging his younger brother Toto.

For me too, it was time for a siesta. So I dozed off. When I woke up, Haroun was still sleeping, but Toto was half awake. He said with a serious face, ‘Welcome Dadabhai.’

Then he went back to sleep.

Bengaluru / Tuesday, 19 April 2016

If you are a voter in Bengal, please save the state

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After living in this country for over six decades, I have no illusion that the Indian democracy is anything but for the rich, by the rich, and it feeds off the poor. It has always been like this, and we hardly see any light at the end of the tunnel.

But in West Bengal today, it is even worse: it is democracy for the goons and by the goons. Nowhere else in the country are voters openly threatened of physical violence as done by the illiterate and uncouth leaders of the ruling party in Bengal. (These are no empty threats - they are carried out regularly and with impunity.) And these criminals have the benevolent hand of the all-powerful chief minster on their head.

Already, the megalomaniac Chief minister of this state has destroyed as many institutions of democracy and governance as she could: from the Human Rights Commission to School Service Commission. The education system is in a shambles, it is controlled by ruling party goons and some spineless boot-licking teachers / administrators. The police machinery has been reduced to a bunch of personal valets of the ruling party. When a teen-age girl was raped and killed by ruling party goons in North Bengal for protesting against the humiliation of her father at a kangaroo court called by the ruling party, it was her father who was arrested. (The case has chilling similarity with the murder of Tapasi Malik, another brave girl who paid with her honour and life for protesting against CPM goons, who were in power in 2011. The CPM stooped to the level of accusing her father for her rape and murder). An ordinary housewife from Sattor was picked up from her home by police and ruling party goons, taken to a jungle and subjected to inhuman torture through the night. A few days later, the victim was arrested in a trumped up charge. These instances are not exceptions, they are the rule in Bengal today. Corruption is the only industry that thrives in Bengal today -- we have just seen almost the entire top brass of the ruling party pocketing wads of currency notes as bribe from a journalist masquerading as a businessman.

Are you a voter in the state? You would do a great disservice to the nine crore people of West Bengal if you didn't vote for anyone who had the best chance of defeating the ruling party candidate. Let the question "who shall I vote for?" not bother you. I am certainly not saying the opposition are angels. But at this hour of danger, what is important is who must go, not who might come in.

Please mark my words, if the present CM gets another term, in another five years, she will will have destroyed the state completely. Already, Bengal has been reduced to the state of Bihar under the worst days of Lalu-Rabri-Sadhu Yadav rule.

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Kolkata / 16 April 2016