Mother can cook

I am not going to write ‘in my opinion’ repeatedly or even once (apart from this once) in the course of what is to follow. It is my opinion that I write about. To improvise on Abraham Lincoln: I do shine my own shoes.

One of the shortest routes to emancipation for women is to retain their maiden name – or surname actually. One wonders what is achieved by such practice. Obviously the so-called identity that is linked to a name is preserved. Or it becomes a combinatin of one name and two surnames. Imagine what would happen if the latter two were to be, say, Roy Chowdhury and Bhattacharya. One long full signature, that! Jokes apart, there are perhaps more worthwhile things to do in this imperfect world of ours. I do not wish to be both misunderstood and despised, therefore I will clarify: a woman who has otherwise proved herself (to herself) by doing something useful – anything she decides is useful, has the right to assert her independent identity by keeping her surname intact after marriage. Those in regular jobs and regular lives and with no contribution out of the ordinary are taking a shortcut to emancipation. Further clarification: the typical housewife does a wonderful job of managing the homefront, and is in no way lesser than a career woman – not even one that manages both her career and her home. Still, what have these two classes of woman really done to claim a different identity for themselves than the usual? They have simply shown that they are good for something. That by itself does not constitute exceptional contribution, or usefulness. Loosely speaking, we are all useful, all good for something. However, if that usefulness is limited to one’s own survival only, then it is hardly anything out of the ordinary.

What I am talking about here is leadership – or passive following – for a cause larger than one’s own periphery of existence. It could be anything, don’t ask me. Begin with World Peace if you are ambitious. Failing that, devise a plan to take out the garbage from the immediate vicinity- not just your own comminity. Or perhaps get together some elderly folks to arrange for workshops to revive the lost art of hand woven sweaters. Anything larger than your circle of essential existence counts. However, once you are at it, you will probably have little time to worry about whether you want to revive your maiden name or not. Romeo (yes, the character was speaking, not Shakespeare) may not have been entirely wrong, but one must admit there is magic in a name. As the Americans are so fond of saying: You look like a Fred!

What I would like to know after all this pseudo intellectual staff is whether the children are going to inherit their mother’s maiden surname as well. A survey in some newspaper some years back showed all the emancipated ladies saying that they would like their children to bear their father’s name. Very curiouser, wouldn’t you say?

I have a solution, one that I did not try to implement in case of my own family because of certain very good but personal reasons: let the boy carry the father’s name, and the girl the mother’s. That way it will be possible for the mother’s father’s surname to live on if the girl takes after the mother and retains her maiden name after marriage too. The boy can try and see what he can do with his legacy – and his wife. The inevitable solution seems to be to beget two children per emancipated family, one girl and one boy. Perhaps astrologers will be of help here since the only other way of determining the sex of the foetus leads to someplace usually dirty and full of mosquitoes and humans with questionable manners and intentions sitting right outside.

Suitably confusing, I hope, but eminently sensible if I may say so. I should think identities are preserved naturally with one’s achievements: Jaya Bachchan was known always as Jaya Bhaduri to our generation and Tina Ambani is what we have recently adapted to. I can think of none of my lady Professors going the emancipated way although I can not in my wildest dreams believe to come anywhere near them in knowledge, or ability to impart education. I personally know very few males who can. Funny thing is that this is probably the first time in my life that I have consciously classified my Teachers into genders. They had always been individuals, and apart from what constitutes the argument of this article, they still are.

Collecting the previous line of thought here: I wonder if the concept of Daddy’s Girl has something to do with this phenomenon of preservation of identity. After all, the only thing that is being preserved is the father’s surname. The woman strong enough to assert herself cannot possibly be dumb enough to have not noticed that. If it were her own identity she wanted to protect in an otherwise male dominated society, she simply would have chosen to remain a name without a surname tagged on for effect. I don’t know if that is legally possible, but emancipation is not easy. If necessary, efforts ought to be made to pass relevant laws to that effect. You need to work for it if you want Identity of all things! Anyway, the way it stands, certain women simply cannot bear the insecurity that marriage may bring to them, the sense of losing oneself and surrendering to a whole new person and his household customs. The very way one is used to being addressed changes along with living space and routes for travel. The newly married woman is wrenched out of her former existence of her own volition – because people calling her husband ‘ghar jamai’ will simply not fit in her agenda of emancipation as also because that would be a more violent way of disturbing status quo. So here they are, leaving behind every little thing they grew up with and going away to begin a new life. It is not so unfair that they may want to retain a little something while that happens. The more self conscious and therefore insecure ones would. I will not talk about intelligence here: that is an elitist approach and not acceptable. Intelligence, like most other concepts, is highly relative. How come there are so many male chefs is a common point of argument. Women are not intelligent enough to choose as profession what they naturally acquire from their mothers. They leave that to the male: the intelligent monkey stands out. That was just a figure of speech by the way. Shaker’s Radhuni is my favourite show. Well, it is my mother’s, and I sometimes watch.

Mother can cook fantastic is a commonplace, but when the father does the occasional mutton curry, he is the hero who can do it all!-but does not, since there are people who are there for the job, namely, the mother-class.

Still, one must have something to write on… and emancipation and the shortcuts associated are a wonderful subject. It is easy to get noticed, and better than a scandal. I am referring to the likes of myself here, who cash in on such emancipation. May all the independent ladies live long and prosper!

p.s. I am male, and I have retained my maiden name after marriage, and you can contact me for cooking lessons via my website kapush.net

Games that we play with our furry friends

I simply must quote myself: a civilized society is primarily defined by its public transport system and by what it does that it does not absolutely have to do, like realizing that animals deserve a decent life as much as we do, and acting upon that realization. We are not bound to take care of our parents when they are old. Some of us do,out of love, and some, out of compulsion, either of a dutiful mind or of a fear of scandal. Animals have not been so fortunate. A dog burned alive is fun. Puppies crushed under vehicles are nuisance to be shoved aside, with a ‘tsk tsk’ if they are lucky, and disposed of when they die after hours of agony. Pouring boiling water over strays is fun too. The recent procession by some persons of note including actress Debasree Roy and Prof. Nabanita Deb Sen in protest against cruelty to animals only goes to show how far we are away from being civilized.

Cruelty to animals is not a novelty: we had the Colosseum, and we still have the Bull Fights. The difference between the Roman Games and the Bull Fights, and burning a dog alive is that the former are still a game where both sides are at risk. And no, this is not a subversive way to condone the killing of bulls by prodding them with several pointed objects first to damage the central nervous system and then heroically spearing them to death. I just wish to point out the difference between the idea of sport however perverted it might be, and the idea of fun.

A very close friend of mine confessed that he used to tie pieces of brick to frogs’ legs and watch them drown when he was a kid. He recounted this with guilt and shame, and explained that he had no idea that the frog would feel pain. For him, it was just an amusing experiment. Coming as he does from an area where there are, on an average, about two murders each month, he did not get to learn much about frogs from whatever was around him.

Something curious: there was this man, carrying his daughter, both watching the complete process of killing, skinning and quartering of chicken, the man all the while holding a conversation with the seller. No one taught me to be squeamish about chicken screaming while they are being trussed up and beheaded. It came naturally. Genetics perhaps. If this little girl grows up to become someone not affected by the real nature of food that we find on our plate while still caring about animals in general, so much the better.

Some people actually do not realize that strays feel pain as much as we do – or that they need medical attention when sick or injured. When you request them to do something like covering up open tanks after work, they sometimes oblige. I am referring to construction workers. However, I still could not convince a long time neighbour to cover his tank while he was promoting his own land. I bought four panels made of slit bamboo and did his job for him. I still had to go every night to put them in place. Sometimes I would find them missing: the workers had been using them. I finally got back three of them after the construction was over. He was not sure what had happened to the fourth one.

Then there are the sadists. A dumb unprotected animal is easy prey. The solution is simple as far as these people are concerned. Before anything else you must put the fear of God into them, or, in this case, the fear of the Law. As it stands, the Prevention of Cruelty Act is, well, laughable. Unless that is amended, no amount of work by lonely crusaders will bear fruit. I would like to think that not a lot of people thought of this before. Those that did somehow did not manage to see it through, as I have not. I am currently working on an alternative version of the Act to present it for review. If you think this might be a worthwhile idea, please do contact me.

To sum up, then, people are indifferent or sadistic, and there are a few lazy ones. And a handful care. There is another category. These people go for breeds. Pets are not family to them, but posessions. Once the pet grows old, IT is set free, in remote and almost uninhabited areas where the poor thing so far provided for dies slowly, without food, fighting off packs of strays. You would not expect them to spare a bread-crumb for the neighborhood stray.

There are quite a few animal lovers out there. I do not include pet lovers who actually love their pets but consider taking in a lost kitten a burden. I am talking about those eccentric individuals who somehow seem to have time to spare to feed the street-dogs or shelter lost kitties in cardboard boxes. They ought to collaborate to make better use of time and resources.

At the same time, the legal aspects must be taken care of, with a formal request to the Chief Minister – or even the President if necessary so that the issue of amendment may be taken seriously. I am not referring to endless virtual signatures in online campaigns. We do not need superior numbers to demand something that is only fair. Even one person is enough. Five are probably better. Fifty applications/ requests from fifty different local unofficial outfits are likely to draw slightly more attention. I repeat: amendments are necessary. People are mostly not saints, and they very often have to be coaxed and forced at the same time. In addition to that, the Police must be instructed to take the Animal Rights Laws seriously. My experience with the Police says this will be more difficult than gettting the amendment done, so we can cross that bridge when we come to it. Also, the indifferent class of people, one may hope, will transform into a slightly less unfeeling lot when animal welfare is in fashion.

In Germany, they have fishing competitions. The hooks are made in such a way as not to hurt the fish. The fish, when caught, is placed in a container that has water in it and the hook taken out. After it has been weighed (in order to decide the winner), it is released back into its habitat. If you are caught manhandling fish that you have caught and are taking home to consume, you will be penalized. Now compare the scene in our fish markets where live fish are kept for sale, gasping for breath, proving to the happy customer that they are indeed fresh. If the seller is benign, he will kill the fish before cutting off the fins. It takes very little to kill a fish, just throwing it on hard ground or beating on its head with a club is enough. If the seller is not inclined to waste his time, then the live fish is scaled, its fins chopped off, the gills ripped out and finally a slit is made where the head joins the body and the guts pulled out. It is not always this gruesome, however. So that the fingers do not get nicked if the fish struggles too much, the seller will sometimes kill it first to protect himself. He does this to protect himself, not so that the fish does not suffer further.

I say let us have our chicken and our fish and what not, let us wear leather jackets and shoes and perhaps even wear fur. Let us kill them all for food or comfort, but please, not torture them for fun. And when we do live up to the dictum of survival of the fittest (read the most cunning and ruthless), let us kill with kindness. Amen to that.

(Published in OPINION, Hindustan Times, Kolkata, November 27, 2008).

A Vanishing Essence

Being a somewhat embittered man fast approaching middle age, it is difficult for me currently to have the Puja Spirit – as they have the Christmas Spirit in the West. Still, even bitterness must have its place (because it is there); one perhaps ought to give vent to it from time to time and on different occasions. And what better occasion than the Pujas: what better context? The essence of Durga Puja is supposed to be the celebration of a cleansing and a new hope. I refrain from using the word regeneration since the killing of evil only shows a new beginning. The only regeneration in this context was by Raktabeeja .

Well, we have our own ideas of cleansing today. We call it culling. We also do it in front of children, and even employ children to do it: to hunt down and wring the neck of a live hen or duck in lieu of money and the obvious fun involved. Many years back, there was a television serial, which showed the events that led to the Partition. One of the ways that the extremist outfits were depicted as employing to toughen their young recruits was to ask them to kill a hen – by chopping its head off with a sharp weapon. Either they had not thought of the more primal (or modern) method of using the bare handed wringing technique or the director/scriptwriter had not.

We also cut down trees for progress and plant saplings. We do many other things, but that is hardly the point. The point is that nobody seems to care. When an ‘Artist’ displayed a live dog as an exhibit and starved him to death, he was invited by a reputed organization to repeat his ‘artistic feat’. Acts being endorsed, carried out and applauded make me wonder if I am the one who should seriously consider changing – for the better, of course. Some years back an advertisement emphasized the value of its product being small and compact. To drive home the point, a young lady was shown shoving books off a shelf like so much rubbish and replacing them with compact disks with a smile on her face that spoke of some supreme achievement. A Television Channel has put up an advertising campaign recently. Huge billboards on roadsides mention incidents and persons in irreverent manner and dubious rhyme and say that none of them is news unless this channel broadcasts it. One such billboard has Rizwanur’s photograph, and his name rhyming with another, with the very same message. An Advertising agency (with real life people who would perhaps like to call themselves artists) created the campaign, and the Channel in question found it appealing.

Which brings my ramblings to the incident last year when a certain Puja was inaugurated by Rizwanur’s mother. She allowed herself to be turned into an exhibit because she is a mother. Every little bit of public exposure helped to bring her that much closer to getting justice. And the Puja Managing Committee must have been beaming with the brainstorming that added such a unique twist to usual celebrations. This is creative thinking today, and Aesthetics.

I have this idea about a civilized society: that it is primarily defined by its public transport system and by what it does that it does not absolutely have to do, like realizing that animals deserve a decent life as much as we do, and acting upon that realization. Fortunately for a lot of people, I am a rather insignificant person, or they would all be uncivilized.

When we were children, the Puja season could always be felt, and smelt. There it was in the air, in the sunlight, in the sky and the lacey clouds and in the green of the trees. It was all pervading, and no matter what one’s station in life, pretty much everyone felt it too deeply. Before the advent of Satellite Television and ‘Promoting’, time moved relatively slowly. It only picked up pace during the early ‘90s. For me, it was as if I lived in a different place altogether, not just time. Perhaps I did. The landscape has changed so much that it is difficult not to believe that that was a different world altogether. I am not exactly waxing nostalgic here: anyone in their mid thirties would know, especially if they grew up in the suburbs. Change, they say, is inevitable. The more things change the more they are supposed to remain the same. I disagree on both counts.

When we were students of Literature, there was this question that demanded a thorough discussion: Why Does Tragedy Please? One of the answers to that question is what might justify this acerbic piece of writing during a time of imminent festivities. Without going into Academics proper, it probably pleases because it makes us think. We don’t often do that. Just as we don’t often realize that we are breathing. When we do, the process so instinctive becomes almost laborious. Try it and see for yourself. Clutton Brock’s essay on Art is still in the Calcutta University curriculum. The author says that the most significant point about Art is that it allows you to stay in the present and appreciate that moment without your thoughts wandering off into the past or the future. Art is still taken very seriously, but like car owners, artists are numerous today. For those of us that drive two wheelers, the roads are a trifle distressing with so many drivers and so little driving ethics. Today everything, including income, is valued by how much it is disposable. Things are not built to last. They are built to serve, and make way for newer models with more functionality. Sometimes it is a good thing too. Welcome to the age of ‘free’ gifts where one has to wait holding a token to receive the gift. And one is, or shall I say, more than one is happy to do just that.

Art and Aesthetics were seriously reflected upon at one point of time, and there used to be lots of debates around what Art is. Today, probably because the artists and art critics of the yesteryears have already talked so much, we tend to DO. There seems to be less thought involved, because there is this deadline lurking somewhere in the next minute or so, and of course, the question of novelty. Even in tradition, there must be novelty. In this age of TRP, Success and failure are defined by how many sponsors one can draw, and how many advertising slots one can successfully offer. Tradition by itself has become meaningless. Not just tradition, the old value system, whatever flaws it might have had, has been, quite simply and easily forgotten and wiped out. No one seems bothered about anything anymore. Art is everywhere, in the billboards, in your drawing room in the form of television commercials and masterclass prints, in your carefully landscaped housing apartments, and in the clothes that you buy from the many boutiques that are so easy to find today. Everyone is constantly thinking about Art. Artists never had it so easy. It is irrelevant what is produced as Art so long as it sells. I am not an Artist per se, but I do my doodles, and one budding agent had once asked me to copy my own painting for sale. I was flabbergasted then, but learnt later from one of my Artist friends that it was a common enough practice, especially among Bengali Artists.

Holding an Art Exhibition at the Puja site is nothing criminal. Somehow, it brings Art closer to the masses and demystifies it. Much as today’s Television Channels and its Talk Shows have demystified the big screen actors. However, whether it is Art on Canvas or on screen, the illusion that is integral to it makes it what it is. Demystifying it, even if it is essential somehow, also robs it of much of its charm. Almost like explaining the tricks a magician is going to perform before he does it. This also makes it a commonplace. Elitist as this may sound, Art is not supposed to be a commonplace. It is supposed to bring out the best in you; it is supposed to be a creative force that transforms reality and transmutes it through an alteration of the viewer’s perception. A whole new world is created when a painting is viewed, really viewed, in a gallery or simply hung on the wall in all its dignity. There was a reason that the Mughal architecture employed and encouraged the use of actual space, space that made you realize that where you stood gaping was grand, and you were not. The sheer vastness of things, their exclusivity, and their own niche is what adds to grandeur, and class. If you merchandise something that is supposed to be part of a long standing heritage, you are bound to market only that part of it which is marketable and lose the essence of it that in fact is IT.

Senior Artist Shri Niranjan Pradhan was seen answering a few queries on the modern ‘artistic’ depictions of Maa Durga these days. What he put so succinctly is what I have been trying to get at thus far: the myth of Durga is that of a warrior, a destroyer, and above all, a Mother. The question that one should ask while appreciating the novel efforts is whether the popular ways of depicting the idol have been successful in incorporating all the elements. The answer is perhaps easy to find when you look around yourself even without looking at the efforts (which, admittedly, is unfair to the artist and the puja committee members). This trend began with the advent of colour television when the traditional audio rendering of the Mahalaya was so exquisitely transformed into the visual medium and broadcast triumphantly. It continued with marketing of Mahalaya cassettes and then compact disks to enthusiastic consumers who broadcast the same loudly on their own audio devices continuously both before and after the Pujas, and yes, even in the afternoon. The essence of a thing was fast losing importance, and soon it was completely forgotten.

This is the new world of freedom of personal choice where one is not compelled to wait with anticipation for the moment when it time for the ritual to be heard in the pre dawn state and in between waking and falling asleep again. I don’t know if there are many people of our age who heard the ritual in its entirety without falling asleep somewhere along the way and then waking up to its magical strains nearing the end, heralding the beginning of the wait. Those seven days following the Mahalaya seem to me very different from the seven days that we have now.

For me, this year, the Puja has already happened when workers at a certain factory worked one extra day to contribute their pay as well as almost the entire amount collected for Vishwakarma Puja (the usual budget is around two lakh rupees) to victims of flood in Bihar. Apart from the obvious self importance that a published work gives to the author, this, more than anything else is probably why I have even bothered to write this article at all.

(Published in Utsav 2008, a Hindustan Times special supplement magazine).

Then and Now…

I was never in faovour of taking away farmlands to build industry. I still am not. However, the situation in Singur is not so cut and dried as Mamata may want to make it seem. A few days back, around the 28th of August or so, a friend of mine was in Lindsay Street in Blue Print (a medicine shop). There he was witness to a curioius exchange. The salespersons in the shop were talking to a man who was from Singur. They asked him what he was up to. He answered that he had been sitting with Didi to get his land back. The salespersons, perplexed, asked him if he hadn’t already been compensated for his land. He replied that he had indeed received the money, and now he would get his land back as well.

I wish the CM would think of reopening the many factories rotting away in weed and rust in Dum Dum instead of taking away farmlands. I wish he would focus on what we already have in abundance and turn it into a resource. I really wish people would see that industrialization is not the only inevitable path to salvation for West Bengal, especially when it is achieved at the expense of extensive streaches of extremely fertile farmland. I see only a kind of sorry desperation in jumping at the Tata’s offer by providing them with land wherever they (presumably) wanted. The Nano, in my opinion, would only add to the ever increasing congestion in the already overcrowded Kolkata roads. More than once and on various occasions car pools have suggested as a way out. It escapes me why in such a situation the Nano should shine as such a brilliant ray of hope for us. Driving ethics are a thing of the past, and no one realizes it more than us, who drive two wheelers. Anyone can buy a car on hire purchase these days, and there is simply no class left among those that wheeze along in those shiny boxes leaving us at the mercy of fate and their own moods. But I am digressing.

Question is whether Mamata is doing something selfless and at the request of the ‘victims’. Question, indeed, is whether there are victims that actually conform to Mamata’s definition of the term. I received something from a confidential source which I believe is reliable. It is reliable insofar as a Party Manifesto is reliable. However, the author of this piece belongs to the old guard, to the era when Communist Party members were educated and with morals and scruples. Unbelievable as it may seem, there still are a few of them still hanging on. I have double checked the facts and have found them authentic enough to publish in my own blog. I couldn’t care less if people call me names. It is after all fashionable to be anti CP(I)M these days. And never mind if Mamata has created a inexplicable figure of 400 acres. Has she actually provided anyone with an alternative rehabilitaion plan apart from her demand about the land return?

The relevant statistics against the 400 acre demands are:

the Government has acquired 997.11 acres of land in Singur. There are 10, 852 raiyats (cultivators) on the land parcel taken over. Of them, 8, 890 covering land area of 691. 64 acres have accepted the compensation package. 2251 have refused to accept compensation for a total area of 305.47 acres of land. Mamata has conveniently rounded that off to 400 acres.

The following are a) a letter from the CM to Mamata, which, as far as I know, she did not release to the Press ( I could be wrong: I am at present trying to deal with both local small time chameleon CPIM covert operators as well as a sub-inspector who ought to be stripped both of his skin and uniform) and b) a report on the curent situation at Singur with respect to Didi’s dharna.

a) Letter of the CM to Mamata:

DO No.  – 97/CM

25 August 2008

Respected,

Earlier we have discussed the problems arising out of the small car manufacturing factory at Singur with representatives sent by you, following my appeal.  We decided then at that meeting that there would be continued discussions towards a just and proper resolve of the impasse.

You are already aware that in view of Shri Ratan Tata’s statement on the issue, different state governments have called for the project to be shifted to their respective states.  You will surely realise from all this how important it is for the state to complete the project early.  Surely as a responsible leader of the opposition of the state, you would desire that the project should be completed in this state.

In view of this, keeping the project completely unaffected, acting within the legal framework of the land, and safeguarding the interests of the landless families affected adversely by the land acquisition, I would like to have a direct discussion with you to find out a formula that will be acceptable to all.

I hope that in the interest of the quick implementation and completion of the project and to ensure that the reflection of our state’s image remains untarnished, you would withdraw your present movement and agree to sit for a discussion again.

With best wishes,

(Signed)

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee

b) current report on Singur situation:

AN ISOLATED TRINAMUL CONGRESS PONDERS THE NEXT MOVE

The sit-in demonstration suddenly started to draw less men and women– discontented kisans or otherwise.  That happened on and from 2 September.  The reasons were clear for everyone to see.  Certainly, we had little trouble doing this.

An increasing number of the local populace, including the Trinamulis’ vaunted ‘disgruntled kisans,’ and all of them angry, hateful, and aggressively abusive of the Trinamuli chieftain and her Maoists-SUCI-Indira Congress cohorts – had started to organise a huge periphery, and densely peopled, as part of  what we can call a ‘counter-blockade’ around the Trinamuli blockade of the highway.

‘We shall not anyone of the gang that is out to bring an economic disaster to our state run away from Singur, and it is we who had voted for them.’  This was the common refrain of the young and the old, men and women, of the villages surrounding the motor vehicles project.

UNHEARD OF ANTI-MAMATA SLOGAN

An unheard of slogan rent the drippy, cold, and cloudy skyline of Singur from that day onwards: ‘Mamata Banerjee, Singur thekey dur hato, abhi hato, jaldi hato!’ The slogan-shouting brigade, none of them — we spoke to them and found to our great amazement — has ever voted for the Left.  Mamata does have cause to worry.

‘We have no quarrel with the truckers or indeed with any vehicular traffic – once we see a single Trinamul-flag wielding SUVs (ironically all Tata Sumo models of various vintage), we shall block its passage, and make it park on the grassy curb.

‘We shall feed them, allow them to take rest in our hutments in the villages — but they shall and must remain confined away from their beloved didi – whom we had loved too, once before, during the rural polls, but– never again.’

The speakers ranged from the 80 plus Ahsan Ali Mollah to the 20 something Raghu Majhi, from the elderly and purdaansheen, burqah-naqab-clad Nazma Biwi to the kurti-salwar-dupatta-wearing Rina Murmu – all, all of them former supporters of the Mamata brigade, but no longer.

DISTRESS LEADS TO SUICIDE

What was going through the mind of the 85-year-old Sushen Santra when he went to the small manohari dokaan (a tiny ‘variety store’ — very typical of rural Bengal, a shop that remains inevitably closed in the noon hours [and until sundown] when the owner-salesperson takes a dutiful nap), at Pakhirapara, knocked on the jhaanp or thatched hinged-on-top front shade of the shop, and hesitantly asked for a bottle of cheap, locally-produced pesticide.

The owner, mildly disturbed even disoriented at having his routine afternoon bhāt-ghoom (or restful slumber after a rice-and-curry meal) being unsettled, sleepily handed over the small recycled bottle of the deadly chemical, yawned, accepted the currency notes, gave back the change in small coins, yawned again, and went to slumberland.  Dada, he was later to tell me, regret pouring out from his reedy voice, had I been a little more alert I would realised that Sushenkaka was upto something, something bad.  Sushenkaka had been in a very, very depressing mood for the past week or so.

TRAGEDY UNFOLDING

After all, please understand, dada, continued the dokaan-malik, kaka’s entire family cholto or ran on the wages, his three married sons brought home from the motor vehicles factory where they had found jobs in the ancillary sector, and they had given away their land, never paying heed to the local Trinamul toughs against doing it, and had not joined the oi jey ki sab krishi-rakkha samity korechhey Mamata didi.

The whole family, we were quick enough to learn, went on convincing others how the LF government’s rehabilitation-compensation package plus the high wages they would draw from the industrial set up and its peripheral units, would be nearly seven times the income they would squeeze out of their tiny plots of shariki-bibadi jomi (agri-land under internecine dispute within the family).

Then Sushen babu heard the bad news.  Mamata Banerjee has set up a road blockade.  The factory hands were being beaten up and their families harassed.  This was followed by the terrible news in the form of the distorted versions ran in the local dailies — about the entrepreneur of the factory leaving Singur and Bengal – for ever.

A BLACK MARK ON TRINAMULI ACTION

‘One man less would mean one mouth, less to feed, and at any rate I am getting decrepit, old, and constantly having to take pricey medicines – I am becoming an expensive luxury that my family should be rid of.’  Then he took the terrible decision, and took his own life.  His death remains a widening black mark on the Trinamul Congress’s anti-people foray of the worst kind.

Mamata must realise that if the impasse continues, and the factory entrepreneur does stick to his resolve to have the small car roll out from Panthnagar instead of Singur, if the future of the factory itself is made to confront a menacingly large question mark, then Sushen Santra’s death may well be followed by the death of others in the areas like Joymollah, Ratanpur, Singherbheri.

In the meanwhile a solicitous and sympathetique governor, after having quit his earlier programme of two hours of saving electricity — as the summer becomes muggy and stickily warm – has declared himself agreeable to Mamatadidi’s proposal of acting as the ‘facilitator and not the negotiator,’ as he was careful to explain to the media glare now pouring on him, to ‘solve the Singur problem.’

INTERNECINE SQUABBLING

The solution is, the governor must have realised by now, three sessions and four days later, far to seek, as different voices are heard from the Trinamulis, the Naxalites, the SUCI, and the various fractions of the ‘save farmland committee’s disparate and squabbling leadership.  The state government is as always quite open to suggestions from the opposition, provided such proposals materialise at all beyond the puerile clinging to the cry for ‘return the land — and let the entrepreneur go away, what we care if he does.’

Elsewhere, throughout the state, a vast people’s movement led by the Bengal unit of the CPI (M) and the Left Front has started to unwind like a coiled spring with mammoth participation by every cross section of the people including technologists, scientists, engineers, doctors, lawyers, IT professionals (three of the latter when they had gone to seek a brief interview with the didi, had the experience of being verbally abused in unprintable words, called Communist spies, and shoved away), students-youth-women, in cities and towns, in villages and hamlets—every day — every morning, afternoon, and evening.

A different form of campaign, too, is going on via the internet and the cell phone network.  Dozens of websites with the theme ‘we want industrialisation,’ have been launched and they are drawing thousands of ‘hits’ every day.

PEOPLE’S MOVEMENT STATEWIDE

The irate people whose ranks cut cross political affiliations, leanings, sympathies, obsessions, have but a single slogan: ‘we want industrialisation in Bengal and we want the Singur factory to be made viable again.’  The entire state has witnessed large whiteboards come up at street crossings where people are putting on their signatures calling for industrialisation, and prevailing upon Mamata Banerjee and her underlings to end the anti-people sit-in.  Marches are taken out with lighted candles.  Artistes and performers have put on shows in solidarity with the people’s movement.

The people’s movement in Bengal for industrialisation based on an augmented agrarian foundation shall go on — and the people shall put in the final word, let no one doubt this—to their peril.

Maurya and I

You will probably find all this ridiculous if you cannot think of your pets as family. Regardless, I believe I owe it to my family to publish certain things…

This is Chew .

He and his two sisters came to us when they were about two months old. Their mom would come to our garden with them and leave them to play there. Once she realized they were safe she left them with us. Chew was a gentlemanly cat. When other kitties crowded our home he would stay away for long periods. He simply could not bear the divided attention, and was too dignified to ask for more. We never realized he was sick. We could see that he had lost weight, but he looked and behaved normal. Once, he did not come home for two days. This was about two months back, in May 2008. On the third day my mother went out looking for him, found him too weak to move and carried him home. We never took him to a vet. We had our reasons – which I intend to enumerate in a separate article. We could have taken him to Moitri but he looked too weak. Instead, we took him to our family physician who is a homeopath, and has cured many of our cats. My own reasearch on the Net revealed Chew had symptoms of diabetes. Dr. Roy assured us it was a case of paralysis that was affecting both dogs and cats these days. We were reassured. Chew appeared to improve. He did not leave home again. Sometimes he would sit outside, in the sun.

Around the last week of May his condition deteriorated rapidly. I still did not want to move him because he was too weak. We called Dr. Soumen Chatterjee who came highly recommended. He found nothing particularly wrong with Chew and told us that he was merely in shock because of some fight with other tom-cats that he must have had. Chew was prescribed Resource Powder – a high protein supplement. He did not want to eat that – in fact he resisted the extra protein. We force fed him, because surely it was good for him. Didn’t the Doctor say it was? He seemed better for a while. After that we were forced to call Dr. Chatterjee again. A whole week was wasted already. He could not understand what was wrong and lamented that this was the problem with animals: they could not tell us of their troubles. He prescribed fluids to take care of the acute dehydration and anemia that was now apparent. One of the fluids was Haemaccel®. I somehow managed to find someone who could administer the fluid. This very competent man held Chew like he was cattle and put in the needle and expected us to keep him still while he took a call. The needle slipped and then he tried poking it in again. We decided Chew was better off dehydrated than tortured. We paid the man Rs. 200 for his troubles. I had brought him home on my two wheeler. He expected me to reach him to the main road so he could go home easily. I gave him clear directions and bid him goodnight.

The next day we went to Moitri. Dr. Sourav Banerjee understood what was wrong with him even before the blood tests were done and prescribed the proper medicines and fluid. When the test results came out we found Chew was suffering from diabetes, chronic renal failure and accompanying non regenerative anemia. He was NOT supposed to have been on a high protein diet. Haemaccel® would have killed him sooner because of its crystalline nature. It is contraindicated in case of renal problems. (Here is a page that provides relevant information on it). Dr. Banerjee was almost apologetic and nodded his head while looking at the report: ‘ I don’t know what to say’ he said. And i could see that he saw his patients as patients, and that he was a doctor, not a businessman. Chew died two days later, at five to four in the morning of June 12, 2008. His eyes had gone still and had remained that way for the last four hours of his life. I don’t think he recognized any of us any during those final hours.

This is Two.

Why he has such a curious name is a different story. Two had not been well for a very long time. He had been treated by so called doctors, including Dr. Soumen Chatterjee when he visited us for Chew. Two was prescribed an antibiotic and a mouth gel and a spray which I could not locate in any of the Medical Stores that i went to. There was apparently nothing seriously wrong with him except for some mouth/tooth infection, and perhaps he had also caught a bit of cold. After Chew died we did not delay further and took him to Moitri. Dr. Sourav Banerjee, as before, did not need a blood test to diagnose his condition. The test results were less unfortunate than Chew’s: Two was suffering from chronic renal failure with a creatinine count of 10.4  (Chew measured above 14) and acute anemia (5.8). Two was kept on medicine and mostly fluid – twice daily- for a month. I took leave from work during the last phase to look afer him constantly as also to turn the Net upside down for some remedy. I went to work on July 11, 2008 and called home. Two had passed away at quarter to eleven in the morning.

He would put up a fight whenever we tried to administer the fluid. The solution was simple, which we should have found out earlier than we did: we only had to put him in my mother’s lap – or should I say, his mother’s lap, and he would be quiet. He was on her lap when he died. He had looked around, just before death. Ma thought he was looking for me. Possible. Guests, who heard him call ma were always surprised to hear him call calling ‘maa’ and not ‘meow’. He was four and a half years old when he died. He had never really grown up. Liked to sit with ma in the kitchen. Would sleep beside her, with a paw on her. He was the big healthy baby who did not like his mother talking on the phone. He would keep meowing whenever she did, and even tried to take the receiver away from her with his paw.

I am glad Chew and Two died the way they did. It could have been much worse. They could have drowned, like Meemee. Or poisoned, like Lomba Lej. Or dumped somewhere – probably in a lake, by our neighbours, in a sack, like at least four others. We are thankful they died amongst their family knowing always that they were loved and cared for.

Chronic Renal Failure in Cats

Feline CRF can happen because of a number of reasons. The symptoms are quite clear, however. Increased thirst, weight loss, wounds that refuse to heal, foul breath usually accompanied by dental tartar, weak hind legs in many instances – which is also a clear symptom of diabetes. I have also noticed other symptoms which may or may not be clinically acknowledged. Cats thus affected tend to go for raw fish or meat. The reason being, protein, generally speaking, is not particularly healthy for CRF cats since the weakened kidneys cannot get rid of the toxins produced through protein metabolism. On the other hand, without protein, cats are weakned further. They seem to know instinctively, which some doctors also know, that the protein content in raw meat/fish is absorbed almost completely by the body leaving little or no toxic waste for removal. If you are unfortunate enough to have a CRF cat in your family, please do not force him to eat the usual Renal Diet which he will probably find unappealing.  A raw fish diet is just fine. They seem to know their health better than we do. Chew had stopped eating rice almost completely. It was not until the blood work was done that we knew he was diabetic. Please don’t force your cat to eat what he doesn’t want to. Understand that he may be terminal, and he needs all the love and care that you can give him. He might not understand why you have put him on a restricted diet, especially when his inbuilt mechanism is telling him to go exactly for the food that you will not let him have. Dr. Banerjee tried his best, but after the final blood work, he simply said, ‘There is nothing more that we can do; give him whatever he wants to eat; let him remain happy and comfortable’. We hope we were able to do just that.

Another symptom – very important when you have to diagnose a doctor: a real doctor will not lament that animals cant talk , that they cannot tell us of their grief. A real doctor will know. And in spite of his knowing he will insist upon tests just to make sure that his diagnosis is correct. Both Dr. Chatterjee and Dr. Banerjee are associated with Moitri. I really have no idea why Dr. Chatterjee could neither diagnose the problems nor bother to get blood tests done when he could see that the animal that was his patient could not talk to us.

This article may be found in my website in this page. There is much that I would like to put in here, including a review of vets that I have come to know personally, and where one can find decent facilities for animals in Kolkata, as also what to avoid. I also intend to publish my own experience with Alternative Remedies and their efficacy as far as animals are concerned. Please visit in a month for updates.

STOP THE SEAL HUNT: please follow the link below…

I got this through email first, and then came upon this site: please let us do something. Visit the link below to learn more:

http://www.stopthesealhunt.com/site/c.ihKPIWPCIqE/b.3958845/k.CFC9/Stop_the_Seal_Hunt.htm

Reminder:

It has been some days since the Pavlov incident. For those who do not know about it: female inmates were found without their clothes on because clothes were being laundered. Such is apparently the norm. The doctor who protested was threatened/ beaten up by the class IV staff. A protest meet was organized in front of the Academy of Fine Arts on March 15 this year. A handful of us turned up.

I am not really part of the ‘us’. I do not as a matter of principle concern myself with affairs of human beings.  This was an exception, because, like I told anyone who cared to listen, the inmates were like animals, without voices of their own. I thought this was more in my line of work. Anyway, it was a pitiful gathering, some signatures were collected.  There was a Press Meet next, and another meet which I could not attend. Others did, I am sure.  You will find that this is not a very informative article. I have not mentioned any names, nor other details – not much anyway.Well, as the title says, this is just a reminder. I could have written an article with everything in it when things were ‘happening’. I thought I would wait and see if something else – something more could be done.

We need to keep reminding ourselves that there are too many things getting forgotten everyday. Perhaps another candlelight vigil to ensure that the law is taking its course without unnecessary delay? Public awareness, at least? An ex-inmate at the Press Meet said that the personnel at Pavlov would line them up without their clothes on and have fun at their expense. A doctor at the Meet explained this behaviour coming out of ignorance: people who did / do this are not aware that the mentally unbalanced can feel embarassment or shame or ridicule. Which probably means such behaviour would be fine if that were true. If you have no self awareness I can parade you naked and laugh at you with my friends. Right. This same doctor, when asked that if she knew about this all along why hadnt she protested, said that it was impossible to do anything alone. A public outcry was needed. Else, the very patients that she tried to protect suffered at the hands of his/ her toruturers the moment she left. Valid again.

On a different note, we have seen thousands of chicken culled over the past few months. ‘Culled’ is a euphemism for murder – by twisting their necks or burying them alive. ‘Pernicious’ is the word used to describe the human race by the Brobdingnang King in Gulliver’s Travels and I tend to agree. This ‘culling’ was done in front of children and sometimes, by children. A lot of money exchanged hands. I dont know if there wasnt a civilized method of culling. It became a festival of sadism. They were all out to get the chicken and wring their fragile neck. No discrimination was made between sick and not sick: kill them before they fall sick, and wring their neck because the basic assumption is that they are sick already. Now if these same children who have seen and shown no respect or empathy for life grow up to be vicious murderers or policemen or teachers or doctors.. who is to blame? Only Adhir Chaudhury protested, but of course, he is the bad guy, so how does it matter what he says? Right again.

I was wondering if I should title this article ‘Of Pavlov and Chicken’.

Fw: How low can humanity go – please sign this petition

this is what i received via e-mail. i would say “the prestigious Visual Arts Biennial of the Central American” is what ought to be boycotted. one sadistic pervert practising his ‘art’ is one thing, but an association endorsing it-and the viewers appreciating it… i just dont know what to say.

the ‘artist’ defended his action by saying that he wanted to show the hypocrisy that allows dogs on the street to die unnoticed and cries foul at what he has done. well, he failed, apparently: the visitors took no notice of the dog. still, i wonder: how many of the people signing the online petition ever really cared to feed a stray? ever? when i signed there were 547620 signatures total. quite a lot. i didnt know there were so many animal lovers in the world. nice to know. nice indeed. i wish they would (perhaps they do already) take care of just one stray animal in their lifetime. that would be 547620 poor creatures saved from starvation and torture. if i were younger i would probably write a blog and send e-mails around on this. today, this will have to do i guess…

Subject: How low can humanity go – please sign this petition

Hi All,

this is a very serious matter…
In 2007, the ‘artist’ Guillermo Vargas Habacuc, took a dog from the street, he tied him to a rope in an art gallery, starving him to death.
For several days, the ‘artist’ and the visitors of the exhibition have watched emotionless the shameful ‘masterpiece’ based on the dog’s agony, until eventually he

died.

Does it look like art to you?

But this is not all… the prestigious Visual Arts Biennial of the Central American decided that the ‘installation’ was actually art, so that Guillermo

Vargas Habacuc has been invited to repeat his cruel action for the biennial of 2008.

Let’s STOP HIM!!!!!

Copy and paste this link into your computer web browser http://www.petitiononline.com/ea6gk/petition.html

You’ll come onto the page where you can click on “sign the petition”,

On the next page you need to “preview your signature”, so click on that, then click “approve signature”

Please do it.
It’s free of charge, there is no need to register, and it will only take 1 minute to save the life of an innocent creature.
Please also send this e-mail to as many contact as you can… Let’s stop him!!!
If you want to double check all the above information you can Google the name of the ‘artist’ to see all I have just said corresponds to truth, .
Thank you

Nandigram: ‘intellectual’ reflections

DISCLAIMER:

I vote for the CPI (M).

I am not a Party member nor do I intend to be in the near or distant future.

I do not believe there is an opposition good enough to rule West Bengal, therefore I do my bit to ensure that a worse administration does not come to rule the State.

It is important that the principles remain sound for a Party, any Party, to function. As far as I have seen, CPI (M) is not more corrupt than any other political party has a right to be; it is not corrupt at all in its founding principles; a lot of its members are corrupt.

So… there is hope yet.

I have been harassed by a section of the corrupt party members for the last seven years. Fortunately, the Party itself is not corrupt (and this is not mere word play: there is more than just a subtle difference), and I am close to coming to a solution – and always, my request has been ‘let there be a neutral investigation’ which hasn’t beeen forthcoming in all these years.

The following article will be on Nandigram not because I am alarmed at the plight of the people there: I havent been to Nandigram, and in any case, I cannot share the grief of a homeless people. I have lived in my own home since childhood, and it is beyond my comprehension what a person may feel like if he is uprooted so entirely as these people have been. I can say this much, however, that the thought of losing my own home is terrifying. I work in a college that is around three and a half hours journey from my place, and yet, I have never been able to come to terms with the sound fact that settling down somewhere nearer to my workplace could be a viable solution.

I am not typing away at the plight of the people of Nandigram. I am concerned about us, this city, its people, the so called intellectuals, and the self proclaimed intellectuals. Every public face is that of an intellectual these days. I wonder if I could call myself an intellectual simply because I earn a living through lecturing and blog a little. Probably.

I am alarmed that the voice of the people as reflected by chosen sections of the mass have become so powerful that they can distort the truth at will and present a biased and emotionalized / dramatized point of view as the truth, and, what is worse, be applauded as well. In a few years from now they will probably be able to create an Amrapali at will and be righteous about it and with popular support too.

For those who are not likely to read the admittedly long and probably boring article in its entirety, here is a synopsis of what I intend to put in:

 

1. There are two sides to most stories / so called facts.
2. There are two sides to most stories / so called facts.
3. The repetition above is not inadvertent.
4. It is probably a fact that a lot of CPI (M) supporters spent the last eleven months as refugees driven out by BUPC members.
5. It is probably a fact again that the intellectuals did not protest when this was going on.
6. I have nothing against the fact that finally they did choose to protest.
7. I have everything against the fact that they chose also to make it look like the ‘recapture’ was the only reality that was disturbing.
8. I personally believe the administration DID NOT do all that it might have done to ensure that peace returned to Nandigram; however, I do not believe it is as easy a task as writing a blog.
9. Mr. Buddhadev Bhattacharya is not a king: he is a Left Front Minister who does not and cannot act on his whims / wishes or even rational judgement all on his own. It is absurd to target him as a dictator for anything that the State Government has or has not done.
10. Ms Mamata Banerjee ought to take a crash course on how to address resignation letters.
11. The recent communal violence is the THIRD phase of a calculated move towards destabilizing the West Bengal Government. and, finally,
12. Those that are hyper over the CM talking about ‘his’ party members might do well to remember that the term ‘Left Front Government’ is used by most people at least as frequently as ‘West Bengal Government’. We are very aware of the fact of the CM’s affiliation to ‘his’ party, so why pick on him for a tactless comment? If he were more a politician than he is a gentleman, he surely would not have spoken thus. and finally yet again,
13. The intellectuals in Bengal need to take a more active role than simply alienating themselves from the Leftists. The Party is going through one of the worst phases ever, and it would be fine if one could provide West Bengal with an alternative to the current ruling party and its ideologies. If not, then it is time to join in and make an effort to correct whatever appears to be wrong instead of standing aside.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

I am not the one driven out of my home, therefore i can afford the luxury of writing in separate sections to drive home the point – whatever point I am trying to make. I can afford to make this look like an article of some importance, and that is precisely what I intend to do.

SECTION I:

LET US NOT SQUINT

Please consider the following:

1)

UNCERTAIN FUTURE

Reign of terror and reprisal

CPM Supporters Return To Ruined Homes

Krishnendu Bandyopadhyay | TNN

Nandigram: It was a homecoming few had expected. After spending 11 months at Khejuri relief camps, CPM supporters returned to Nandigram only to find their homes reduced to rubble. They alleged that Bhumi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) members demolished their homes before fleeing.
“There is nothing left for us that we could call home. Only a few crumbling walls are left standing. Just before leaving Satengabari, BUPC members demolished most of the houses in the locality and set the rest ablaze,” said Mir Iliyas, a local villager.
For those who stayed back in Nandigram after the BUPC takeover, the horror was even greater. Sixty-five-year-old Mir Akram Ali, a CPM supporter, refused to leave his ancestral home even though his family took shelter at a Khejuri relief camp. He thought that BUPC supporters would spare him considering his age. “They fined me Rs 5,000 on the very first day for staying back. But that was not all. Every day, they would insist that I join their rally. Moreover, I had to join the BUPC’s night patrol duty. It was 11-month-long servitude. Perhaps, even my forefathers had not suffered so much under the British rule,” he said.
It was a much greater shock for Mir Kayum Ali. BUPC supporters set his house ablaze while he was sleeping inside. Recounting the horror, Ali said BUPC men threatened to kill him if he tried to come out of the house. “They carried arms and went on the rampage, demolishing houses at will. Finally, they set fire to my house and I was trapped. They were hurling abuses and warned that I would be chopped to pieces if I came out. I managed to sneak out of the house through the rear window and hid in a bush behind my house. I did not know why they were so angry. Next morning, I got the answer when my family returned from the Khejuri camp.
They said BUPC men attacked CPM supporters while fleeing Nandigram,” he said.
Even a week after their return, Ajmira Bibi, Rahila Bibi and Heram Bibi of Satengabari live in fear. They are not worried of another BUPC attack. But their mud huts, which came under BUPC attack, could collapse any moment. “Our children are also living in the open. In the evening, we take shelter in a neighbour’s verandah,” said Ajmira Bibi. Mir Saibul — a staunch supporter of BUPC — and his family left their house during the CPM recapture operation. “We did not want to leave our home. But the terror unleashed by BUPC members forced us to leave the village. They would not let us live,” he said.
The anger is palpable and the reprisals have started. “We will allow everyone to return barring Rausan Ali, Rezaul and Kaharul. They are the ones who led this rampage. They did not allow us to sow paddy and invited the Maoists. We have demolished Rezaul’s house. We will demolish Kaharul’s and Rausan’s homes as well. No one can stop us from doing that,” said Mir Azamu Ali, a villager.

and 2)

Nandigram women live in fear of rape

Krishnendu Bandyopadhyay | TNN

Nandigram: CRPF deployment has done little to restore law and order in Nandigram. And, it cannot get more unsafe for the women there. Rape, it seems, is the most preferred form of reprisal for CPM cadres — better known as harmads.
On November 12, a woman and her teenaged daughters were allegedly raped by CPM cadres in Nandigram. Recounting the night of horror, she said, “All the men had already fled to the relief camp. Around 8 pm that evening, five CPM men barged into our house while another 25 stood guard outside. They abused me and hit me with the butt of their guns. They dragged me out by the hair.” And then, one of the cadres raped her. Four others pounced on her two daughters and gangraped them.
She was lucky to find a place in Nandigram hospital on Saturday. But, there is no trace of her daughters.
“I don’t know where they have taken my daughters,” said her husband Akbar, a casual labourer. “We have submitted a list of accused she could identify even in the dark. But police did not arrest them,” complained her brother Sheikh Mohasin. Finally, Anup Karan, one of the accused, was caught by CRPF men when he entered Nandigram town on a motorcycle.
A woman in Gokulnagar was at the receiving end on Friday night. She is now under treatment at Tamluk Hospital. She was sleeping alone in her house when CPM cadres barged into her house. Six goons overpowered her and then gangraped her.
“We took her to Nandigram hospital when she came to us. The doctors at the hospital referred her to Tamluk hospital,” said Mantu Pahari and Sheikh Golam Hossain, who are now at the BUPC relief camp at Brojomohan Tiwari Siksha Niketan in Nandigram. The traumatised woman is not in a position to speak to anyone. She could barely murmur that she was gangraped.
“The government says peace has returned. Where is it? CPM has decided to unleash a terror that is unparalleled in the history of mankind so that no anti-CPM movement can ever raise its head in rural Bengal. We had asked for 18 CRPF pickets to be set up in Nandigram. Only then can these homeless people return,” said Bhabani Das, office secretary of BUPC, who also runs the camp.

Both articles from The Times of India, November 19, 2007, page 4

SECTION II

THE STORY SO FAR (AND THE FACTS)

 

You get to decide which is what…, and,

if you have believed the media without having visited Nandigram yourself, why would you have a problem believing in my story and facts?

(I have drawn heavily upon other people’s writings, changed the language, sometimes the content, to suit my needs: with their permission)

===========================================================

Please visit this location for the original article presented below: http://www.merachaman.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=606&Itemid=43

 

Nov 21-07 : AMUTA Meets to Resolve Issues…
Written by Dr. M. Abdus Salam
Wednesday, 21 November 2007

November 18, 2007 : The Executive Committee of the AMU Teachers’ Association at its meeting held on November 18, 2007 at 06.30 p.m. in the Staff Club resolves the following:

This meeting of the Executive Committee (EC) of the Aligarh Muslim University Teachers’ Association (AMUTA) expresses its dismay and concern over the recent events in and around Nandigram in West Bengal’s East Medinapur District. The manner in which the anti-social elements carrying the Red Flag and acting under the protection and encouragement of the ruling front attacked the residents exposes the party’s hidden agenda.

This meeting condemns the assault by anti-social elements on the group of eminent writers, intellectuals, social activists and artists, who were on a visit to Nandigram to get the first hand information on the happenings and to express their solidarity with the helpless residents evicted from their homes and were subjected to physical violence and intimidation. They were also prevented from entering Nandigram.

The whole unfortunate incidents took place while the State Government remained a silent spectator, which is highly undemocratic, unconstitutional and irresponsible. The EC demands that the CPM leadership both at the Centre and the State must ensure that these undemocratic acts of their cadres are immediately stopped and prevent their recurrence. This meeting also demands that a detailed discussion must taken place in Parliament to restore the democratic functioning of the State Government. The EC also demands the payment of the compensation to the victims at the earliest as per the direction of the Hon’ble High Court of West Bengal.

(Dr. M. Abdus Salam)
Hony. Secretary
AMU,Aligarh-202002
Mobile: 9412876786

==============================================================

I present below the CPI (M) side of the ’story’. And as I wrote earlier, if you can believe that you can probably believe this – if not, better still, simply choose to be informed of the two sides of it.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

 

There is no doubt about the fact that the Nandigram developments over the past 11 months have been unfortunate. The larger issue at stake is what brought the incidents about. The perspective and the train of events are important. It is important to reiterate the first sentence: the past ELEVEN months have seen unfortunate developments – or stagnation – as you choose to look at it. NOT the past few days beginning with the so called ‘recapture’.

The plan was to set up a chemical complex in four of the 11 mouzas of Nandigram, with heavy saline content in soil and having little in the way of fertility.

It is however, that important to note that this site was unanimously recommended by the Subjects Committee of the Bengal legislative Assembly, comprising MLAs of all political parties and headed by Sudip Bandyopadhyay of Congress (formerly of Trinamul Congress.)

This plan was immediately withdrawn by the state government and publicly made known by the chief minister who said that the chemical hub would not be set up at Nandigram if the people there did not consent to the proposal.

A charge was levelled against the State Government by the Trinamul Congress, the Congress, the SUCI, and the Naxalites back in January nonetheless, of setting up a SEZ at Nandigram. Under such suspicion they chose to run riot attacking Gram Panchayats, assaulting the police, and indulging in arson. That set the shape of the things to come.

After that, what followed was what appears to me a calculated political move to ‘occupy the Nandigram blocks’ and set up ‘liberated zones,’ as Maoists leaflets later claimed. They cut off all road communications from and into Nandigram, and destroyed bridges and culverts.

 

 

The CPI (M) supporters were ousted from the area in a pogrom, and for eleven months, the police were not allowed entry, nor was the administration given room to run its writ there. The 14 March incident when the firing claimed lives was the last time the state police entered the area to bring back law-and-order, and allow the evacuees to return home. All developmental work came to standstill. The health and education services gradually halted.
The refugees eked out a happy happy living at the relief camps, and they faced attacks by the opposition conglomerate-formed and Maoist-led ‘Bhumi Ucchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC).’ Besides the Maoists, the combine consist of Trinamul Congress, Congress, SUCI, Siddiqullah fraction of the Jamiat-e Ulama-e Hind, and the BJP. The eleven months witnessed more villages attacked by the Maoists led BUPC cadres, armed with rifles, guns, and bombs, and more CPI (M) supporters ousted. The BUPC members indulged themselves in wanton acts of murder, rape, arson, and looting. In all, 27 CPI (M) supporters were killed, and several women raped, with one having been raped and then killed.

The Maoists added a violent dimension to the events of misery at Nandigram. They started to assume leadership of the BUPC with joint chains of command with the Trinamul Congress down the line. Arms training were imparted to villagers. Land mines and IEDs were manufactured in a machine shop that also produced country-made guns, bomb-making material, and IEDs. Their presence and activities have been carried in the corporate media where no friendship exists otherwise for the CPI (M).

Repeated calls by the Bengal Chief Minister to convene all-Party meetings were boycotted by the Trinamul Congress and a few other opposition parties.

To bring back law-and-order, the LF government asked the union government for a battalion of CRPF back on 27 October, and with at least one Union Minister from Bengal going public with reluctance to see the CRPF deployed at Nandigram, the actual deployment was delayed beyond two weeks and by then the disposed living in misery had become desperate.

In their desperation, they took enormous risks to march back to their villages. The BUPC struck back viciously. They massed women and children to the front and attacked the returnees with gunfire, four people died virtually when yards away from their doorsteps. Four others including three returnees were blown up in a landmine burst.

To respond to some specific points put up in the AMUTA EC resolution, no attacks were organised on the intellectuals and artistes who had gone a-visiting. They were asked by the local villagers, wary and scared from past experiences, not to proceed and go in for provocative moves by visiting areas that were seething with anger and frustration at the completely one-sided frame of mind of a section of the artistes and intellectuals especially when on earlier occasions their visits had been routinely followed by the BUPC indulging in more violence and killing.

and finally, this part i present unchanged and therefore within quotes:

“The CPI (M) and the Left Front government have always spoken of an early return of peace and normalcy at Nandigram. The state government remained pro-active and did all it could to counter the murderous flow of violence and anarchy emanating from the opposition activists at Nandigram. The state government had never condoned violence and would restrain the police severely on the aftermath of the sad incident of 14 March. WE note that earlier to the High Court of Kolkata passing judgments on compensation for the affected, the state LF government had put in place its compensation payment structure for the victims of violence at Nandigram, violence that was an overwhelmingly one-side affair.”

We can debate on how much who did and for what, later. I have put two sides of the story on my blog to

1) speak on behalf of the leftists, because it seems fashionable these days to not listen to them and,

2) i wish to draw attention to the fact that there ARE usually TWO sides to every story.

SECTION III

tHE rETURN oF tHE iNTELLECTUAL

From Calcutta Times, November 15, 2007.

I have put in the whole article but for my purpose I need the reader to kindly focus on the sections in red.

Hirak Rajar Deshe?
From the exploitation of poor farmers to sycophant courtiers and ruthless armies, Buddha might be smiling, but not his disciples
TANMOY GHOSH Times News Network

Remember the Magaj Dholai Yantra (brainwashing machine) in Satyajit Ray’s masterpiece Hirak Rajar Deshe? The machine when applied to the king’s dissidents made them sing his praises. The present Left Front government in West Bengal probably has taken a cue from the film. The only difference being that instead of the Magaj Dholai Yantra, it has chosen bullets and muscle power to force ‘rebels’ to surrender to the red bastion. Ironically, the 1980 film was produced by the West Bengal government.
SANDIP RAY FILM-MAKER
I really don’t know whether the person I am thinking can actually act or not. But it would be really nice if he can act as the king of Hirak Rajar Deshe (Part II). The film was made during 1989 and after 18 years, the administration has proved that the king can always do wrong. I must credit my father who had a vision like Nostradamus to make this film, which pitifully, is a reality now. In fact, very soon I will start my next project of Goopy Bagha and I am sure the recent violence in the state and the reaction of the authorities will find screen space.
MALLIKA SENGUPTA WRITER
Our CM can never be compared to Hirak Raja. Yes, it’s true that his government has made mistakes, but one has to see the good he has done for the state as well. This is not the time to make light of the situation. Forget about innuendos regarding Hirak Raja; all of us should help the government to stem violence.
KAUSHIK GANGULY FILM-MAKER
I don’t think this film has to be made again. Everybody is now watching Hirak Rajar Deshe in West Bengal, real time. It’s become a reality show for all of us to weigh and watch. It’s sad that there aren’t any SMS polls in this case to whip up a frenzy. Film-makers will need time to shoot, edit and screen a HRD remake. So, why bother? I just hope the reality show is more sensitive than the movie.
SUNIL DAS PAINTER
I’m confused. While some intellectuals are comparing the CM with Hirak Raja, another section is perennially publicity hungry. In a television show, I saw everybody claiming that “amra budhijibira” are organising a protest rally. But who has given them the right to represent the entire community? If a section of people protests, it doesn’t mean that all intellectuals are supporting them. I have doubts whether they know the actual facts or not. Fanaticism and hype are playing a vital role here.
PRABHAT ROY FILM-MAKER
Don’t expect me to say that I would like the CM to play Hirak Raja. Many actors and even some intellectuals can do justice to the role. I wonder whether these protesters have attended any programme after March 14 or not. Even after March 14, film-makers have sought the government’s help and police protection while shooting with Amitabh Bachchan in Kolkata. All of a sudden, these intellectuals are crying hoarse against the CM. Why point fingers at one particular person? We all know that an individual can never control the entire government. Why didn’t we raise our voice and try to identify a person as Hirak Raja just after March 14?
BUDDHADEV GUHA WRITER
Sobbai ekhon Goopy Bagha hote chaiche in Hirak Rajar Deshe. Anybody who is somebody wants to portray the CM as Hirak Raja. This is a classic example of hypocrisy. Most of the intellectuals have taken personal help from the CM against whom they are now raising a voice of protest. A mediocre painter got the CM’s help to buy a luxury apartment in Raichak. A film-maker was caught stealing the camera from a film institute. A young film-maker now wants to give his career a fillip by riding piggyback on this protest march. And now, they have suddenly become the conscience of the state. All of them have a personal axe to grind against the CM and are triggering the emotions of the masses.
tanmoy.ghosh@timesgroup.com

I received the following via e-mail:

 

Background:

Many of you are roughly aware of what has been happening in Nandigram,
in East Midnapur district of West Bengal, since January this year.
However, the scale of the tragedy continues to escalate, and now it
has taken on the aspect of a state sponsored genocide of inhuman
proportions that almost supersedes the Gujarat violence in the sheer
inhuman efficiency of the theatre of violence that the CPI(M) has
unleashed with impunity, with no interference and tacit support of the
administration which it, in any case, controls. For many months now,
Nandigram has been outside the rule of law – with an utter breakdown
of all administration and an utter contempt of fundamental human
rights and civil liberties. I am at a loss for words when I try to
describe the true horror of the situation because my rational mind
finds it inconceivable that something like this is happening in my so
called democratic country in the year 2007. Suffice it to say that
armed militia belonging to the ruling political party have turned the
place into a war zone, firing at will at any time of day or night,
raping, burning women alive, tearing infants in half, and other
atrocities that the mind cannot comprehend. In the latest burst of
violence, they fired at an unarmed, peaceful demonstration. Officially
the death toll stands at three, whilst the unofficial count goes up to
beyond one hundred and fifty. What is most horrifying is that all
access to the region is blocked by the CPI(M), so that even the media
is unable to get in. The police and district administration are
completely passive by-standers in all this. Today, i.e. November 11th,
a peaceful protest march was taken out in Calcutta by many leading
intellectuals and artistes, including Aparna Sen and Rituparno Ghosh.
The police swooped down on this protest march, indiscriminately
beating up people for the offence of speaking their minds and singing!
Ms. Sen, Mr. Ghosh and many others were arrested.

The petition:

We are horrified by the barbaric attack on the people of Nandigram by
a veritable army of CPI(M) cadres and anti-social elements. In a
clearly pre-planned move, co-ordinated with the West Bengal
government, the CPI(M) is out to recapture what it identifies as lost
territory, and to teach the people of Nandigram a lesson for
originally resisting the acquisition of their lands for establishment
of an SEZ.

The ongoing atrocities, which includes the surrounding of Nandigram
from all sides, penetration by armed brigades of CPI(M) cadres,
widespread firing, looting, destruction and burning of homes and
eviction of thousands of people all signify this absolutely fascist
move. The attackers have erected road-blocks all around Nandigram and
have physically assaulted and prevented human rights workers and
social activists from entering Nandigram, and have also prevented the
injured from getting medical attention. More disturbingly, the police
has remained a silent spectator, suggesting direct abetment by the
state government of West Bengal. These horrifying atrocities, which
have given rise to a humanitarian crisis, are being committed by the
CPI(M) in collusion with the state government, which is a government
of Left parties like yours, and would become a permanent blot on the
history of the Left movement in India.

We have seen, and greatly appreciated, the courageous and pro-people
stand your respective parties had taken after the 14th March massacre
in Nandigram. Together with the outpouring of indignation and protests
by all sections of the people, it was your constant pressure that made
the West Bengal government back off from acquiring the land of
Nandigram. At this critical juncture in front of the Left in India,
when all the gains made by peoples’ struggles and sacrifices in
creating the Left Front is in danger of being lost by the unilateral
and fascistic action of one party, we appeal to you to take a stand
and clearly come out on the side of the poor and working people. We
request you to condemn the actions of the CPI(M) and demand a halt to
the atrocities in Nandigram, withdraw from the Left Front, withdraw
your ministers from the West Bengal state cabinet and act in unison
with the greater peoples’ movement that is taking place around
Nandigram and other mass struggles.

The CPI(M) is already isolated from the people, it is up to you to
isolate it from the Left Front. It is up to you stop these brutalities
being inflicted on the people and to prevent the collapse of peoples’
trust in the Left movement in India. History has put a great
responsibility on your shoulders today, and we sincerely hope that you
would take these actions which would express your long-standing
commitment to the common people of India.

 

I dont know who wrote this stuff, but the person must be privy to some really inside information and that too, first hand:

“I am at a loss for words when I try to
describe the true horror of the situation because my rational mind
finds it inconceivable that something like this is happening in my so
called democratic country in the year 2007. Suffice it to say that
armed militia belonging to the ruling political party have turned the
place into a war zone, firing at will at any time of day or night,
raping, burning women alive, tearing infants in half, and other
atrocities that the mind cannot comprehend.”

 

Even I find it difficult to comprehend – apprehend – whateverhend what the hell is going on here. ‘Noroker Naam Nandigram’ proclaimed Star Ananda: and showed some vague footage in the name of ‘blood curdling atrocities’ and the guests at the show digested it all – not one of them asked what exactly were they showing on screen. What was most terrifying was the nature of the show: they show you rubbish, they speak rubbish and spin a yarn and do it so confidently and complacently that you feel uneasy if you have doubts. Fortunately, most or all of the people I talked to about the show appeared bored and disenchanted with the anchor’s charisma. That will hardly stop him though.

 

SECTION IV

?

That is to say, WHY? Why is it that people are so put off by the CPI (M) leadership? Why is it that the media can so easily present a one sided view of the situation and be easily believed? Why is it that there is very little sympathy for the CPI (M) men and women and children who suffered for so long and so very little happiness at their homecoming?

Have we lost every bit of humanity that we can look away from such obvious plight simply because they belong to a certain party that we may not exactly adore? Not really: what we have lost, as a fellow blogger has so aptly written, is Faith. Today there are too many Party members.

Today, when the Government says that it tried to bring back the ones driven out by the BUPC, but could not because the opposition would not talk to them or the Maoists were involved, or because other political parties sent in their goons to fortify Nandigram against legitimate State action, we cannot help but wonder if it is the entire truth. Is it possible that a section of the Party chose to let them stay exiled to gain political mileage? and it backfired?

I really have nothing against cadre militia taking over their land and home – yes, at the cost of sounding primitive and anarchic, i dont. I believe in the act of paying back in own coins. I believe in justice that is served in the guise of revenge. Legal action that might have facilitated the ‘recapture’ would not have either satisfied the exiled ones or pointed out to the ones that exiled them how terrifying it is to be bullied and driven out. But that is partly because I have very little respect for human beings in general being more comfortable in the company of animals (and therefore having ideas of justice that are more akin to the animal kingdom), and partly because I have not taken upon myself to represent the administration.

I have been told that the method adapted by the Government / Party is the one that was likely to be the most efficient and would lead to least bloodshed. I do not have sufficient knowledge of military or political strategy to debate that. It could be true, however, given the sole incident when the Police did manage to launch an assault: wasnt exactly civilized. The final takeover seems tame by comparison – however it might have been achieved.

The question here goes deeper than what, into why. The Red flag was supposed to be one that was associated with the common man, the son of the soil. Today that same son of the soil has become part of the new naxalite movement, and it is spreading out probably because of that very reason: the movement has not originated from the (sacrificed) comforts of the city or the Presidency College. The BUPC is not the capitalist class that they would drive out CPI (M) members mercilessly. They are the common human beings with their normal flaws and goodness. The fact that they could be made into a violent mob speaks volumes of the Left’s failure at -not reaching to -but being with the masses. If you look around, the next door promoter is connected in some way to the Party, so is the big businessman, the landowner who sold his property in Singur to the Government, and in general, everyone that is making a bit of money in a markedly Capitalist mode. The present Communist has taken back the farmer’s bit of land that he had given to him.

I am not sympathetic though. The farmer probably did not pay much rent to the landowner in the first place, and that is a peculiar human trait. Still, ideologically speaking, the revolution has been reversed in favour of the landlord. It is amusing at best. not for the farmer – just for me and my kind.

If the CPI (M) had a proper base, the BUPC would not exist today. The fact that it could have been created shows how far the Left is dependent on an inefficient pipeline of information and network of political workers. A message has been been sent through out the years, ‘either Red or Dead’. Ok, so I made this up. Agreed. Still, in many areas it is either you be Red or you find it difficult to exist. And that goes for so called intellectuals too. I am referring to teachers and college lecturers here. The Red takeover is fine by me – what would you prefer? a Saffron takeover? No thank you, not for me. But the takeover has been just that, a takeover. People have somehow got the message that the P in Politics stands for Power, and that they are expected to bow before it. It has ceased to be primarily the People’s Party and become The Party. And that, I believe, has bred less respect and more fear – which is so very unfortunate given the fact that once upon a time of struggle, ‘Comrade’ stood for an address of respect and a certain bonhomie. I personally would want that word to regain the same connotation before long, or it will in all likelihood be too late. Only the other day while crossing VIP road at Baguiati where I live, I heard something that sounded extremely familiar and equally odd. I was too tired after my usual three and half hour journey from college to note immediately what was amiss. It took a couple of seconds to register. This is what I heard:

Jawab chai Jawab dao… Larai Larai Larai Chai, Larai Korey Banchtey Chai… Inquilaab Zindabad…[and the usual rapidfire demand phrase: blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah JAWAB DAO!]

And it was coming from a roadside rally by Trinamool Congress supporters.

Is this amusing OR IS THIS AMUSING??!!!

 

to be continued shortly… watch this space while i spin THE FACTS and gather the STORY

Tacit Retraction?

“Ashok Todi in his recorded statement to the CBI has recounted how after meeting Gyanwant Singh (then deputy commissioner of police, headquarters) on September 4, he was resigned to his daughter not returning home, when he got a feeler from Pappu.”

This is from

How deals were struck behind Rizwanur’s back – Who got cash & how much

DEVADEEP PUROHIT, IMRAN AHMED SIDDIQUI AND ZEESHAN JAWED

The Telegraph Investigation

published on November 19, 2007.

I think the least they could have done was – well, what they have done. They might have written something to take back all the blame so far heaped on Mr. Gyanwant Singh. They might have written a short paragraph on how it is pretty clear from their ‘investigation’ that Mr. Singh did not take any steps to coerce Priyanka to separate herself from Rizwanur. They might have clarified that Mr. Singh had not interfered with a couple’s personal life when the girl’s father sought help from him to separate the two. Instead, they have printed a single sentence, almost as an afterthought. Good beginning, I am inclined to say. This is more than what could have been expected of The Telegraph. If the authors of the article are reading this post: Thank You – and congratulations on showing a tacit inclination at ethical reporting.

As far as the ‘investigation’ is concerned, I’ll wait for the CBI report.