The news for an industry starved Bengal is that a firecracker industry is growing around Champahati and the claim that it will replace Sivakasi, the oldest fireworks manufacturing centre in India. The Government mandarins missed on humidity, which has to be low for fireworks manufacturing. Today the humidity in Sivakasi is 60% and in Champahati is 87%. That explains the planning in governments.
Be that as it may, Mamata Didi’s extensive walks during the elections are well known. But I was surprised to see her running, no, not being chased by any opposition leader. It was in Kurseong, where she had gone to conduct her administrative meetings. The posse of security personnel, officials all were making a Herculean effort to keep pace with her. I now know why a few XXXL sized party members avoid her during her walks and visits. A few spirited ones too stay back. Didi did 10 Kms at a stretch. At this rate she would need only 149 days to reach Delhi!
There was a storm, or so it seems, not in a teacup but a coffee cup when a waiter could have sought that he be addressed not in Bengali, but Hindi. Soon the Social Networks, slumbering for a while sprang up in action, after the sooner than usual return to India by Rahul from wherever he had gone for meditation. The viral post shared by a few erudite friends too questioned if Tamil Nadu would tolerate such an affront to language? Why Tamil and not Telugu the official second largest spoken dialect? I guess the Nobel winner Abhijit might have had something to contribute to the popularity of Tamil.
Abhijit Vinayak Chatterjee caused a stir on his mention of Tamils and Sir CV Raman. I wouldn’t know how relevant these to his theory of poverty alleviation were. The press was disappointed with no anti-Modi statements from the erudite scholar. The fact is, Bengal did shun Raman and has not even fixed a marble plaque on the wall of the building where he stayed during his research days. A street in the name of Raman? Is not that asking for too much?
Durga pujas ended, and Kali Puja has begun. With that, the race for the inauguration of Pandals by political leaders of the many parties has started too. I was amused to see a friend of mine, a retired senior IAS officer inaugurating a puja pandal in North Kolkata that once carried the label of a dreaded don. I always thought that for the scholarly friend, God and religion were only subjects of research and nothing beyond.
I read about the encroachment of Kolkata wetlands written by a journalist friend of mine in the Times of India and feel they touch upon the subjects, only when they have nothing else to do. It is like crying who could have impregnated, the conceived woman, who has carried the child in her ever-bulging tummy to deliver after nine months. Withdrawal of East Kolkata Wetlands as a Ramsar site could be a possibility, it indicates. Bengal lacks the guts of the Aarey protestors and has only activists sipping wine and biting cheese at party times, discussing the ecological degradation, again until the next party.
Singapore has banned advertisements for sugary drinks, which includes Coke and Pepsi. Will the Indian government have the guts to follow suit? It may depend on how Sharad Pawar would steer his party vis-à-vis Congress in the coming days. He has a substantial interest in the Sugar belt of India.
As I walk the streets, I’ve started observing men, following the news report that Indians are not buying undergarments and that how bad the economy was. I failed to notice anything irregular but couldn’t keep staring for long, lest I am misunderstood!
Happy Diwali to all of you!
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide Voix