Dogs in a Ghost Town

Last evening, the weather was turning pleasant anticipating the cooling storm that later came that night. I was at the gate of my good friend Diya and we were chatting about how oppressive the term papers and the tests were getting and how good it would be to just take a break from all this for a while. Our topics drifted from immediate murder of certain members (cough, one) the faculty to future endeavors to friends and eventually landing on the city itself. Of how great the place was... How simpler and open the people... How lively and how inclusive... How unpretentious the people, so much so that being pseudo-intellectual-pretentious is not exactly an abuse... How great the living in Calcutta was... In general... That is a pet topic of mine; a little thanksgiving, a little retrospection and a little celebration. Perhaps it was not the city but the part of it that I interact most with, Jadavpur university. But I chose not to believe in that option. Anyone who has been here during the Pujo would agree with me when I say, that it is Calcutta, who is life herself.

Cut 2 today. Not a single person from my apartment complex has stepped out of their flats. Forget going to work; there are no buses. The metro is probably facing a blockade at the gates. Taxis are all lined up at their stands. People have now, a Government sanctioned unofficial holiday. Say hello to the Bharat Bandh. Interesting choice of words I would say. For it means, Shutting down India. That is exactly what they are doing. I am not going to talk about how it is an unlawful activity. It is an illegal one as well. A Bandh is "enforced", i.e. quite literal to its word-meaning, it is forced. How ridiculous is it when Bandhs are planned to make a long-weekend? We laugh at our shame and have a nice day off away from the hot scorching sun. When you choose to protest, go ahead, shut your shops. By forcing a common trader/employee/student to forsake their work for a whole working day, how is it still not ruled that a Bandh is both a human-rights violation and a transgression against the fundamental rights of an individual? Calcutta is a city with a proud history of dissent. And still, we have not voiced our dissent against these fake-holiday-makers.

Why the fuck are we allowing ourselves to sit at home, castrated and defiled by our social inferiors? These second-rate citizens who violate the meaning of the word protest by forcing it on others deserve to whipped in roads by commoners. Of course it is an outrage in a democratic nation. So is a Bandh. Let us burn a bus. A PIL will be filed and nothing will be heard of. Of course, a bus is only a few lakh rupees of public money. Let it go to waste. Party-workers and leaders never pay tax anyway. We must make them sweat. Anyone burning a bus or causing damage to a public property should be made to pay a penalty of twice the cost of the damage they have caused. Jail terms are irrelevant to people who have little respect to the world around them.

What a villain is (s)he who uses societal norms and rules only to protect his/her interests while violating them when it profits him/her? I address this section to those bastard children of a perverted sense of universal ownership. Any protest has to be a voluntary one. Advertise your cause. Cry for justice. Let those who choose to support your cause at the cost of their one day's salary and livelihood come forward to join your protest. You will not do that because you are afraid. You are a spineless, useless, cankerous growth on the society which rots the bone. When protest becomes the order of the day, it is not protest at all. Only when there is a choice of not protesting along with the forum of protest, is there any real meaning to the protest at all.

Today when I was out on the streets to see ordinary people gritting their teeth in the sun, hauling some baggage at times, walking in the middle of one the busiest roads erstwhile, I was overpowered by a feeling that I do not experience often in Calcutta. I had it last Christmas when all my friends had scattered away in different parts of the world. I felt it when my best friend's sister got married and I was not there. And I experienced it today when we were all reduced to being dogs in a ghost town... I wish I was in Madras, because something like this would never happen there... Are the people braver or the police more efficient or the parties weaker? I do not know what the combination is. There is a decided lack of seriousness towards the policies of the parties when it interferes with everyday life. Maybe Calcutta should take a leaf from that book. I have often looked on with admiration when I note how few two-wheelers ply in Calcutta and how the public vehicles outnumber the private ones. Maybe it is time to bring out all those cars and bikes that are collecting dust in a garage. It is time to send a message. It has to be loud and clear. It simply says,

SHUT THE FUCK UP!