The phoenix land

Have never seen this a big change other than the 9/11, in my lifetime. It’s still hard to believe my state has rejected a rule... a way of life rather, after 34 years. Because, in West Bengal, you’re either a man, woman or a leftist. And in Kolkata, even that pigeon sitting on the roof of that very old house is a leftist.
I have heard people saying the nastiest things about the state government and still letting them happily rule year after year. Apart from their party cadre and some firm believers (mostly the ones who think to be a Bengali is to be a leftist) ever single person had a grudge against the people’s party and its people. The veterans cribbed about the state running out of resources and degenerating from their times. The youngsters...about lack of opportunities. People in general? About the existing system, the education, industry, in fact everything. Me at my level? Fortunately or unfortunately I never had to stay in Bengal or Calcutta per se. Thanks to my parents’ jobs, I had the privilege of growing up in a very remote but cosmopolitan township in the very backward state of Jharkhand. I saw my cousins of my age who studied in the state board schools shying away because they didn’t know English. Oh yes...they get to study the queen’s language from the age of 11/12 when we get to solve unseen comprehension passages in our exams! A handicap enough, to retain them within the state. Only some hardworking ones move out (that too after spending fortunes in spoken English courses) and the rest? They either find themselves writing the SSC( School Service Commission) exam and travelling to some unknown village to an almost imaginary government school in the name of teaching, or lay out a grocery shop in the house garage (that was once made by the father with a hope of their son buying them their first car...but then again...Nano never happened!!!)
My 87 year old grandfather has seen it all. The rise and fall of an era. And from the time I know, he refuses to vote because in the last 35 years the potholes in front his house have not blurred by an inch and people have been murdered and taken in broad daylight from in front of the house. My father, who studied in multiple universities in the Kolkata, happened to be an uncontested leader of the students’ union...but then life definitely changed after he passed out and walked beyond the university main gates! And that’s not all...my educationist grandparents couldn’t admit my uncle to Presidency College in the mid 70s because the campus still had blood stains of a student, killed, the very same day.
My tryst with Kolkata happened a couple of years back when I shifted base to the city of joy. My advertising career had just started taking off after working close to 2 years with one of the most reputed agencies in the country. I joined another big name in the business. Only to witness...NO! not great advertising campaigns...but random processions, strikes, riots and everything political and nasty from the office balcony. Most of the weekends turned out to be long one because of the strategic ‘Bandhs’ on Fridays or Mondays! The only good part of working in the most religiously sensitive area in the city was the Biriyani bit! And not to forget, the CM of the state, a member of the very people’s party couldn’t stand people on streets while he crossed the busiest crossing of the city. So the streets we cleared of people atleast twice in a day. All this and I couldn’t stretch my stay beyond 8 months.
So Didi, Rajdhanis and Durontos are fine...but we hope for a lot more. Lesser ‘Bandhs’, broader better roads, more food in Purulia, Bankura and Midnapore, better work, more investments in the state. I want to take my children for a fearless drive to mystic jungles of Kakrajhor and Jungle Mahal whenever I want to. And not just Nanos but Vernas and Endeavours being manufactured in the state...so that people like us can dream of going back to amar Poshchim Bangla...some day...for good.