ONE NIGHT @ BAKRESHWAR

there have been so many times that i have wondered as to why i do not give up this rat race and go settle down to do something infinitely more peaceful, more meaningful and fulfilling, like working for the underprivileged children in the mountains or the remote villages of bengal. i guess thats just wishful thinking on my part because no matter how hard i try to fool myself, i am realist enough to understand that this rat race is all i know, its what i have been brought up to run and i will run no matter how much i dislike it. i would probably be lost among the men of the places where i yearn to be for its easier to be cunning than honest. anyways the one night i spent at bakreshwar highlighted two issues to me as clear as daylight. the first was the lack of actual government funding for the inner sanctums of bengal, leading to poverty, unemployment and crime. there were men standing in groups of 10-15 at corners just to ensure that cars were parked. if that many number of healthy men have no job other than parking a few cars over the period of the day, no wonder then there is an exodus of people towards the cities. if the bengal government chooses to ignore that fact then it does so at its own peril. bihar is a shining example of what good governance can do to a state. in the past 4 years it has become the beacon of hope that we have all beeen waiting for. it has a staggering growth rate of 11.03% in stark comparision to the rest of the country growing at 7.49%, and is second only to gujarat at 11.05%. if a state that has been languishing in apathy for so many years due to the negligence of its own sons can show such exceptional turn around in a matter of 4 years imagine what can be achieved over a much longer period through similar dedication.

its time we stopped shifting the blame and decided to own some responsibility at least.the states shift the blame to the centre and the centre to the states, the bureaucracy shifts the blame on the politica and the politica shift it on the bureaucracy. police look to armed forces to do their jobs and we all look to just earn a fat paycheck, and climb higher in that social circle. the economy has done wonders to our country. it has made a few businessmen the fattest cows in the country. almost all deals are made keeping their interests first. the middle class has really come of age and have a good life as of today and a chance to get into the next rung. its the poor however who are the real losers as little is ever done to assuage their needs. in bengal we have a saying, "tela mathay tel dewa". it means that everyone loves to oil the already oiled heads. however, enough of this cynicism. i cant help but think that at the end of the tunnel there has to be light, the people will realise in due time all the mistakes that are being committed. the dsamage to the climate will become more important than a few cash cows, the good of the masses will hold precedence over the best interests of the ambanis, and the people will see to it that no child goes hungry to bed and grows up illiterate.

bakreshwar as a place is really peaceful. like i mentioned in my last blog, it was the best of places where the bungalow was situated. when i climbed on the terrace, the view all around was breathtaking. there was no human habitation to be seen for most parts, only a few huts dotted the lanscape here and there. there was no noise, no pollution, no loud music and the air was like wine.i sad enchanted on the terrace until it got really dark. the greenery all around slowly dissolved as the sun went down and there was unmitigated darkness all around. however, a new sort of magic was already coming into play. you just had to look at the heavens and you would know why man in his primitive times looked to the heavens for all his answers. the night sky which under the brilliant lights of the mumbai skyline is almost non existent, foggy and uninspiring, regaled us in all its majesty in this little secluded place. the expanse was awe-inspiring to say the least and it seemed that infinite was just nothing until you witnessed this beauty. it was dotted with glittering stars which some ethereal seamstress had sewn on. it was like watching the grandest extravaganza of sorts and it took my breath away. my dad pointed out all the important stars and the constellations to me and i felt myself being transported back in my memories. when i was just a kid, our house was in a developing township called kalyani. it had hardly 3-4 houses as far as the eye could see and we used to take a farm cot out on the road and lie down to watch the night sky. dad used to identify all the important stars and constellations for me as i would lie, my head on my moms soft belly. it was like the years had been swept away with a casual flick of a magicians wand and i was till that kid watching that magnanimous night sky.

the coconut and date groves fanned a cold biting wind which seemed to suit the mood just right. small teemimg lights here and there on the horizon seemed bewitching and it felt like we had all been transported to some other age, some other world. we went out later in the night to have a look at the local market. i must mention here that my mom got some great deals in leather, wooden and other handicrafts, plus, we also had some pickle and decided to buy some more. when we came back we found out that my adventurous brother had cooked up a hare brained scheme. he wanted to roast a whole chicken over the fire and then have it. turned out that it wasnt that bad an idea. we got a rooster, some spices, cooking oil, an iron rod, leaves to burn and later that night we were sitting in front of a fire and having chapattis with chicken and potatoes and brinjal. it was just the sort of thing we should have had in such a place and the night was rendered more romantic by the appeal of the burnt chicken.

the next morning we had a bath in the hot water springs of bakreshwar. the water was hot and really served to unlock the joints which seemed to have frozen in the cold. even as we sat there with our necks immmersed in the hot water, there was a feeling of achievement. right after our bath we packed our things and set off for shantiniketan. there was to be only one stop on our way and it wa to be tantipara. the place where all the weavers of that area worked. they produce what is famous as bengal tashar silk, and yet, once again. what struck me was the abject poverty of these skilled workers. skilled workforce all over the world are supposed to be paid their weight in gold, but not here. they produce clothes of such exquisite beauty yet, they hardly earn much benefits. every single house had a loom, and they were all sitting and patiently working away at those looms. we bought quite a few of their handiwork from the village. at around 3 in the aftrenoon we reached shantiniketan. more on the shantiniketan story tomorrow.

as i was writing about the hot water springs, i remembered something quirky about women. although there was a sign there that said no women allowed, quite a few cam down to the men's side. besides, there were quite a few unanbashed women roaming on the side walk next to the men's side. now what does this tell you? the women had obviously come to dry their sons or watch that they dont dron in that 3 feet deep water. but no matter what the excuse is, would a man be let off if he wandered into the women's side? does this not stink of dual principles in the society? women have more shame than men, so dont watch them take a bath, yet they are shameless enough to enter the men's side? i have seen the same thing happen in aquatica in kolkata. the women and girls entered the men's changing rooms as if it were a free for all walkway. now for a pervert like me its welcome news that they wanna watch us. but arent there any self righteous men, who feel embarrassed? or are we all equally shameless?

FINALLY BAKRESHWAR

i have heard of the hot water springs of bakreshwar since my chilhood. my mom always wanted to take me there on a trip. yet, somehow we never manged to visit the place. turns out that it was a good thing too as this time it was an unforgettable experience, the kind you get to read in books and dream of experiencing someday. even as this world is getting steadily mechanised, men are searching for new avenues to reach the solitude that lies in their hearts. the only places where that is still possible seems to be some remote corner of the earth, far away from the maddening crowd and the incessant hum of civilisation. i had no idea that bakreshwar had such a treat in store for me. the place has made me realise, in a whole new way, how beautiful rural bengal is. God bless the people and and the land.

since the decision to visit bakreshwar was only a last minute decision, there wasnt much chance to get any official accommodation. but me, i'm not one to give up so easily. i visited the SDO's office and got the number of the local PWD accommodation officer of Birbhum district from the SDO. bakreshwar and shantiniketan happen to be a part of the birbhum district. although the ploitical fault lines have appeared quite close to birbhum they havent penetrated the district as yet. the naxal menace isnt as apparent in birbhum as it is in neighbouring purulia. pulak babu, the accommodation officer was indeed a gracious gentleman who went out of his way to get me the inspection bungalow. we decided to travel from bakreshwar to shantiniketan daily. the only fallacy in my planning was that i had taken into account the distance from bakreshwar to shantiniketan, but not the standard of the village roads. what i had planned to be a hardly 1 hr long drive turned out to be a marathon 3 hr drive. travelling to and fro from bakreshwar to shantiniketan was impossible.

even as our car approached shantiniketan, the foliage started to get denser and the forest came steadily closer. temperature dropped and suddenly the cold wind had started to bare its fangs. the entry into shantiniketan was a rather tedious process encumbered by numerous police posts placed to ensure that no vehicle without the required clearance was allowed to enter. thanks however to my defence card, the car managed to unentangle itself from this complex mess and we crossed the shyambati canal and discovered my brother who was already in shantiniketan with his friends. once he was onboard we started off for bakreshwar. the road leading towards siuri from shantiniketan is more heavenly than my words can explain. the open roads, the red soil, the greenery all around, the barren slopes, rocky banks, gurgling streams, crystal clear ponds with white angel-like swans floating around, the clean air was like wine to the tired soul. it was all too much for my mumbai-starved heart and i kept jumping up in glee everytime something like a mustard field or a shady grove came across. the car sped along at too fast a speed i felt, too little time to drink in all this splendour. evry now and then we came across a bullock cart making its way slowly through the broken roads, or an impoverished village with mud huts.

today when we see a village we wonder how much improvement has actually taken place and proof that the government is actually at work. true and, yet, saddening. the development in the cities isn't the work of corporate houses alone. its the government that plans, builds roads, transport, public facilities etc. yet, whenever we talk of amenities, the first thing that comes to our minds are the private ones and how good they are. the government cant charge as much as they do and carry out the unscrupulous tactics that they employ because it has to act like the responsible parent. yet, compared to the rate of development in the cities, the development in the villages has been peanuts. its not just the government's fault. equal blame is to be shared by us. when a son grows up and is capable of standing on his own feet he is expected to share the family's burden. then why should the same principles not be applied to our society? we as a society have actually grown up, at least in the cities. although there isn't any end to our demands, we can still say that we have sufficient. yet, no one takes the time out to go and help out in the villages in whatever way we can. why hasn't the concept of gap-year, gap-month, gap-week taken root in our society? is it because we are too selfish to notice our brother's agony? i like to believe that it's actually because we are still in our teenage and we need some more time to learn what our responsibilities are. lets hope we start sooner than later.

the accommodation in bakreshwar was better than what i had anticipated. admitted, there was no geyser, no great furnishing in the rooms. yet, the bungalow was located in the most picturesque place possible. alone, away from the rest of humanity and traffic. only empty fields and greenery as far as the eye could see. we had the most fabulous time in this isolated bungalow. but more on that in my next blog. i had mentioned in my last blog one quirky fact about women. i read in today's paper that women feel worse after having an emotional transgression and not so bad after sexual infidelity. with men its the other way around. any takers on why this is?

yesterday, was new year's eve, and i wish all of you a happy new year. a certain lady i know, happened to have a serious leg injury the last month,. yet, she went partying wearing her high heels. but if you tell them that they are all about their looks and very little else, they will give withering stares and cold shoulders. mrs v, a certain woman i know has been complaining to me for the whole of last week that her husband isn't responding to her emotinal tactics as well as he used to. she claims the cold war has become that much more difficult ever since her husband has started to pick up the rules of the game. in her opinion her husband would have relented in a day or two at max in the good old days. so, she feels she has to take it to new heights considering her status as the WOMAN OF THE HOUSE. she feels she has to either fall seriously ill or go shop for a huge amount or maybe go for a party and not take her husband with her. which one do you think would be the best possible idea?

BREATHTAKING

if there is one place that can inspire instant poetry in me it is rural Bengal. swami vivekananda has mentioned it in his travelogues, Tagore has immortalised theses places through his poems and prose, jibonanondo das has written the graceful and lyrical poem,"oi dhanshiritir tire".... the list is endless. yet, nothing actually compares to the beauty that is inherent in rural areas of Bengal. no disrespect intended to the great writers of Bengal, but no language can produce words lucid enough to capture the glory of nature in its resplendent best. i have always felt that if there is one thing on earth that can make me forget all else and just be at peace with myself, all ambitions, dreams and rat race forgotten, its the calm serenity of narure, its the ennervating fury of raging nature, its the boundless passion and seamless synergy of nature.

this year i had no hopes of getting leave and i was making do with small weekend trips in the sahyadri hills in and around mumbai. they are also one of the most pristine spots in maharashtra. however, i finally managed to pluck up the courage to ask for leave, and voila, i got it! for 10 staight days too. so, i went staright home and then proceeded to laze away to glory for if there is one place where you are king no matter how big and idiot you are, it home. mom kept stuffing me like a pig being fattened for slaughter on christmas day. all my trousers started getting tight after a mere two days. yet, my mom's cheif accusation remained that i do not have sufficient food. let me tell you something about bengali moms. they feel the fatter their kids are the better they look to the rest of the world. the word healthy has a completely different meaning in their vocabulary. when i was in academy and at the prime of my health, i was regulalrly chided by all moms around me to be weak and thin. so, when they give you food you are supposed to finish off the whole plate and ask for another plateful.

even as these shenanigans were on, we decided to go on a trip to shantiniketan, this being the time for poush mela and Tagore's birthday. for all you uninitiated, Rabindranath Tagore happens to be the poetry that runs through the veins of bengalis all over the world, at least till my generation. he built a small village called shantiniketan where he made a model of society should be in his eyes. its was sans all trappings of vulgar wealth, only th beauty of nature and man harmoninsing. he also built an university called vishwabharati, which is still one of bengal's premier institutes. so this time of the year is very special for all bengalis and a huge mela is celebrated in shantiniketan in memory of Tagore. its called the poush mela.

the first installment of my travelogue shall come up in my next blog. before i leave, here is an interesting thought.i mentioned in my previos blog that i will highliht the basic differences among men and women. so, why do men join mathematics for higher studies and women join biology? i know that there are some exceptions, but they just go to prove the rule. any interesting observations?

THAT MAN CALLED MSD

That man called Mahendra Singh Dhoni, he’s a phenomenon in a cricket crazy India. He leads the cricket team and the hopes of a billion Indians. No matter what the boxers, shooters, footballers, golfers, tennis players, squash players, badminton players or any of the rest of the players of any other game do, cricket still rules the spirit of Indians like nothing else. They are speaking of TRPs dropping in cricket games and the players not performing well enough, but the very fact that there is such a lot of speculation going around, proves the fact. We have the cricketers bagging as many sponsors as any Bollywood star. Just the other day, Dhoni was in Mumbai, at some place that I’m not allowed to reveal and doing something that I’m not allowed reveal (again). Archana, who happens to know him, invited me to this undisclosed location. I took up invitation with glee as its not everyday that you get to meet someone like MSD. Besides, I wanted to meet Archana as well (as if! ). So here is one pic of that memorable day. By the way, for all it matters, all those journalists ahev been feeding us crap. He’s a really nice guy.

In case you are wondering who that kid is, NOT mine!! Its always safer to make that clear at the onset. He’s a friend though and a great kid. His name is Akash. So, I guess its safe to say,
HONI KO ANHONI BANAYE
AUR ANHONI KO HONI
AKASH, SHAYAK AUR DHONI

DESTINY'S CHILDREN

I WROTE THIS ONE WHEN SHE WAS ILL. BUT THAT'S OBVIOUS. WHAT ISNT IS WHAT LIFE BRINGS TO YOU. SO ENJOY WHAT YOU HAVE.

When you have flu
And you have no clue
You sit and sneeze
You stand and sneeze
You lie on your bed and sneeze
That's when you need it.



When you have flu
And you have no clue
Your nose is stuck like super glue
All the world seems blue
And your bed seems like slue
That's when you need it.

When you have flu
And you have no clue
Your throat itches like sandpaper
And you need to have some pamper
You need that warm soup and blanket
That's when you need it.



When you have flu
And you have no clue
You need some love and care
You need a hug and some hot fare
You need a warm bed and a warm chest to curl into
You need me more than any thing else.

I am sorry I am not there to take care of you when you obviously need me so much and are in so much of discomfort and pain. That is why I promise to you that I will never leave your side once we are together and will always hold you tightly to my chest while you sleep. Nothing shall cause you discomfort and you will love to fall ill just so that you can be comforted by me. But then you will get warm soup and lots of hugs and all the love in the world.

MOCKING THE GODS

I WROTE THIS ONE WHEN I WAS HAVING A GREAT TIME. SEE HOW I MOCK THE GODS? WE ALL REFUSE TO BELIEVE THAT WE ARE HUMANS UNTIL WE'RE FORCEFULLY REMINDED OF IT. SADLY, I LEARNT THAT LESSON TOO LATE.....



The first time I saw you,
You wre a cocky little gal.
A little too confident and sure
A little like you needed comfort.
You came up to me and said,
"How much did you score in your exams?"

I hated you then, and I thought,
"I will show her...."
Sadly it hasnt been much of a showing
You havent been impressed much,
And you know what I'm talking about.

Yet, there were times when I thought
"She's so lovely that I could love her forever"
You frustrated me, the same as I did',
We were a right pair, fighting like kittens,
Yet, we never realised the games that Gods play
They had a great time as well!!

They made two jokers out of us,
And never did we realise when we fell in love
Yet, each demonising the other,
We passed the time which should have been the best
We wasted the greatest time we could have had.

Somehow, I dont regret it today,
If I didn't do it then, I do it today
I have the greatest time of my life whenever your'e around,
If we didnt realise how good we could be then
We definitely do now and thats what counts.
We foughtb with each other then
We fight for each other now,
The gods may have had their fun,
Its our turn now, to have the best life that a man and a woman can have.