Humanity is not Dead Yet!

Picture this:


You had a stressful day at office, while retuning home you notice traffic is at its prime and some where your bike stops. You check and come to know you’re out of petrol. The nearest petrol pump is a KM away, you start pushing the bike to the pump and midway it starts to rain… now put this entire scenario in Kolkata. Get it… that was what I went through yesterday. The feeling when vehicles cross you spraying the mud water while you crawl on that very road with your boots is something you should not witness…

First things first Kolkata has petrol pumps in amazing awkward places, if you spot one chances are there will be five more in the vicinity but if can’t find one… it means on a radius of 2 Kms there is none and mind you Kolkata has more vehicles than the number of people it could sustain.

But this post is not about the traffic or road situation in Kolkata but how heart warming the people of Kolkata are… today if anything is precious it is compared to petrol, when you are out of it you know you have to reach that petrol pump and there’s no other way. Generally people don’t even bother looking at someone pushing a bike through the side of the road especially when you are returning home from office and its raining but I was actually offered petrol by two people. Yes, offering petrol is something honestly even I may not have done to a stranger but here I was a stranger in the city being offered fuel so costly and dear fuel by a complete stranger. On a highway in the dark of the night you may ay this could be expected but not in the city.

This small incident explains that humanity is still not dead and even if one does not wear those Being Human T-shirts they still have it in them. In my case since the petrol pump was few meters away I did not require the help, but it was still a very kind gesture and I salute the City of Joy for keeping the heart alive!!

Kolkata will be kolkata

Kolkata has the minimum road length among all the metros with 1,404 km, followed by 1,800 km in Chennai, 1,900 km in Mumbai and 25,948 km in Delhi. Hence the vehicle density in Kolkata is very high if not the highest among the different metro cities.

Therefore the Kolkata traffic police always have a hard time maintaining the traffic in order, but when ever a VIP or VVIP from the state government or similar (put anything here I don’t care) wishes to use the road they become hyper active in giving them a safe traffic less passage. While it may be important for their security and all, but in a state where road space is so low and every other person is a VVIP, where does the common man go?

At important intersections during office time one bloke wishes to have a ride on his Scorpio and the entire traffic is stalled. Alright the common man is habituated of suffering and sacrifices but Ambulances carrying patients should be given priority isn’t it! Well as the Bandh people have been doing this for decades, this may have become a standard among the traffic police also, but it’s just not acceptable.

Actually coming to think of it, the traffic police are helpless because the ground staff follows the orders of the top brass which is under political pressure. While the new government wants to give hassle free ride to the general public and the CM sets examples by traveling without the wireless relay ahead of her convoy some rather most of her fellow colleagues seem to enjoying the newly found taste of power. Among other things the party cadre who will always be party cadres irrespective of the party heading the government are also reaping in the benefits of coming into power. So much so that the thirst of 34 years is being quenched at one big gulp by them, What can we say except quote a line from Spiderman “With great power comes great responsibility”

Chemistry Lesson

Producing the awesome Chemistry cartoon I've seen on the net. The original is here: http://www.smbc-comics.com/

As I saw an option of putting this comic on my blog, so thought of keeping it for my own sake and the readers too.


P.S: I loved this comic so much because I am a chemistry graduate and I know how it feels for people who do want to learn this subject :-)

Bomb Blasts and Media Coverage

Bomb blasts have become a part of life for people in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Islamabad or Kabul. While these cities have terrorism in common among themselves, India has been a regular target of the terrorists. Here is a timeline of terrorists’ attacks in India by India Real-time


While in the earlier times there were few news channels and lesser media coverage of these attacks, many people used to get the news of such blasts/ attacks after some delay. Then came hundreds of channels, everyone claiming to have exclusive footage of the crime scene, first hand information from the eyewitnesses…

The side effect of such media hype and sensationalism in the name of journalism was first experienced by us during the attack on the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai when apparently the terrorists got critical information regarding the rescue operations by NSG through the news channel videos. There was outrage among the cyber-citizens various social networking platforms about the inhumane coverage of the attacks. Opinions were ripe that changes should be brought about in the reporting of terrorist attacks and bombings.

But the media houses seem to have dished these views in the bin and move ahead with the cold hearted reporting of attacks with all the exclusivity in bringing the news of the death to the relatives of the victims. Taking a hard view and satirical observation one would say that these news channels feel elated that a blast/ attack has occurred and they will have hours of emotional/ gory footage to telecast. Also the new trend is to house in a panel of speakers and debate on the timings and procedure of the attacks or mock at the helplessness of the government in handling these attacks.

It’s high time that the government should bring in some change in the way the media broadcasts the news of such blasts and attacks. One may debate on the rights of the media in pure and unbiased journalism but when the question of safety of the common people arises someone should take control.