Londonisation of Kolkata

Kolkata will become London and North Bengal will become Switzerland. Apparently work will start for the Londonisation of Kolkata from 1^st of this August. Are you happy with this piece of news? Oh and one more thing, this is the promise of the new CM. Now there must be a smile on your face.

Well I don’t know if the above statements will become reality or not but I sincerely hope and pray for them to become reality. But how will that become reality when the entire city is nothing but pits and falls among something called roads or is it the pillars and “under construction road/metro/sewage” that should be called the stepping stone of becoming Kolkata?

Frankly I did not give a damn thinking about it, till the bug came to my doorstep. Yes my Doorstep. While I happily returned from work on a Monday, I found the road leading to my house and garage dug up. Now I don’t know where to park my vehicle and how to commute through the Mud Mountains.

Yes the general answer would be something like the department works and people question and when does not they question. But the thing is every work has a process. What if they dig up the road leading to Didi’s home? Oh my can they even dare to do so… but then I am not asking preferential treatment, its just one expects the civic body to have the minimum civic sense.

I guess the simplest solution would be to rename Kolkata to London. Yeah as they did to the metro stations, now when you go to Tollygunge from Dum Dum all you ask at the counter is দাদা দুটো উত্তম কুমার দেবেন আর একটা সূর্য সেন. (Two Uttam kumar and one Surya Sen please in the Queen’s Language)

Mere dreaming and planning of change will not bring change but implementation that is precise of a plan that is accurate will keep the smile and admiration on everyone’s lips. Ok my ranting is over but my problem is not. Where do I park my Vehicle?

Help a child

If you read and follow news then you would definitely know about "Super 30" which has gained attention among the major cities of the world and has been praised all over.

The idea is talented students should get the opportunity to showcase their talent. But, sometimes finances get in the way. I have studied under an education loan. I was lucky to get a loan and fulfill my dreams. Not everyone is Lucky or financially able to get a loan. But there are immensely talented students out there. The following is an NGO working for the dreams of such students.

Help A Child to Study sponsors the higher education of meritorious underprivileged students, supporting them to achieve dreams of a better future. We sponsor all formal courses above 10th, including 11th and 12th, diploma courses, degree courses, B.E., M.B.B.S. and Postgrad. Through education our students are able to escape the cycle of poverty through their own talents.

We are very proud of our students - who are the children of labourers, small scale farmers, weavers and other families with low incomes. These students have enormous potential to succeed and only need financial support to do so. We are thrilled that today some of our graduates are placed with large companies such as Mahindra Tech, L&T, and TATA Consultancy Services.


Support: Education, higher education, sponsorship of students.

For more details you can visit them here: Help a Child

This post is a part of BlogAdda's Bloggers Social Responsibility (BSR) initiative. I am exercising my BSR. You can too with three simple steps. Visit http://www.blogadda.com/bsr/ and support the NGO's.

Being "inhuman" to Being Human

This piece of news got me writing after a short break of dull routine life. No no… this is by no means something hip and happening. Actually it’s a matter of shame.

Crowd watches as goons kill man on street in Coimbatore



photo courtesy hindustan times



This piece of news is not from a farming village of UP or from the small towns of yeateryear Bihar. This is form the one state which boasts of very high literacy rates, educated and cultured people and very less violence. Fortunately there was electronic eye-witness that helped the police.

Although we are now at ease with watching violence and deaths on TV, where the media reaches a remote accident spot before the administration and now we have on lookers who would enjoy the live action rather than helping someone in need or at the least call the cops.

There have debates that people generally keep themselves away from such situations due to various reasons. One of them being the harassment of becoming an eye-witness, basically the problems faced by eye-witness always goes unnoticed. First, once you become witness, you invite the wrath of the goons and become their next target. The police instead of engaging into witness protection programs will harass them with visitation to the police station umpteen times just for the sake of it.

But, this has to end somewhere, because the violence will rise just like inflation and no amount of policy changes can reduce them. People need to be more “human” when such situations arise. It is not expected that some heroic young guy will beat the goons and help the victims, but at the very least get the police to help them and the police should also try and provide lesser hassles for people who help a wounded on the street or take and accident victim to a hospital.

The more we think of ‘only’ the safety of ourselves the more we put us in risk. There has been much such news in the past where people from one apartment suffered and others in the vicinity did not even notice for months that things were going wrong.

Reminds me of the poem/quote by the anti-Nazi theologian Martin Niemöller:

First they came for the Jews,

and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists,

and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for the communists,

and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.

Then they came for me

and there was no one left to speak out for me