এখনও ভুলিনি

প্রায় ১২ বছর আগের ঘটনা। চাঁদনি চক মেট্রো স্টেশনের সামনে একটা এটিএম কাউণ্টারের বাইরে দাড়িয়ে অপেক্ষা করছি। চাঁদনি চক মেট্রো স্টেশনের খুব কাছেই এটিএম কাউণ্টরটি। হয়ত এখনও রয়েছে। যাইহোক আমি কাউণ্টারের ভিতরে ঢোকার জন্য অপেক্ষা করছি না। ভিতর থেকে টাকা তুলে যে ব্যাক্তি বাইরে আসবে তার জন্য অপেক্ষা করছি।

অবশেষে তিনি বাইরে এলেন। এলেন বলা ভুল হল- এল। বেরিয়ে আমার দিকে তাকাল। হাসল। আমিও হাসলাম। নিজেই এগিয়ে এসে আমার হাতটা ধরল। আমি তখন আনন্দে আত্মহারা। রোশনি নিজে থেকে আমার হাত ধরেছে। আমি ভাবতেই পারছিনা। আমি আবার তাকালাম রোশনির দিকে। হাতের তালু একটু রুক্ষ, খসখসে হওয়া স্বতেও আমার ভালো লাগছিল। মেট্রোতে উঠলাম, একে-অপরের হাত ধরে। মাস্টারদা সূর্যসেন স্টেশনে রোশনি নেমে গেল। নেমে যাওয়ার আগে বলে গেল, ‘কাল আমার জন্য অপেক্ষা করিস গড়িয়াতে। দুজনে একসাথে যাব’। আমি বললাম ‘ঠিক আছে’।

আমি আর রোশনি একই অফিসে কাজ করতাম। অফিসেই আলাপ। আমি রোশনিকে পছন্দ করতাম এবং তা রোশনিকে জানিয়েও ছিলাম। ও প্রথমে আমার প্রস্তাব নাকচ করে দিলেও, আমার ধারনা পরবর্তীতে রোশনি সেনগুপ্ত আমার প্রতি আগ্রহ দেখাতে শুরু করে। সেইদিনের হাত ধরা আমার ধারনাকে সঠিক প্রমান করে।

পরেরদিন আমাদের, অফিসের সকলের, এক জায়গায় নিমন্ত্রন ছিল। আমাদেরই এক অফিস কলিগের বিয়ে ছিল। রোশনি ঠিক করে, আমরা দুজনে একসাথে যাব। ওর কথা মতন আমি গড়িয়াতে গিয়ে উপস্থিত হই। আধ ঘণ্টা অপেক্ষা করার পর রোশনি এসে উপস্থিত হয়। আমি দেরি হওয়ার কারন জানতে চাইলে আমায় পাল্টা প্রশ্ন করে ‘আমায় দেখতে কেমন লাগছে?’ আমি উত্তরে কিছু জানাই না। বেশি কথা হয়না যাওয়ার পথে।

বিয়ে বাড়িতে পৌঁছেই সব কিছু পালটে যায়। আমাকে পাত্তাই দিতে থাকে না একপ্রকার। কথা বলতে চাইলেই এড়িয়ে যেতে থাকে। কিন্তু মাঝে মাঝেই ঘুরে একবার দেখে নিতে থাকে। যাকে ‘ঝারি মারা’ বলে। দুজনে আলাদা আলাদা লোকের সাথে কথা বললেও চোখ একে অপরের দিকে। কিন্তু যেই আমি কথা বলা শুরু করতে যাচ্ছি, তখনই আমাকে এড়িয়ে যাচ্ছে।

আমি কিছুটা বিরক্ত হয়েই অফিসের বাকি লোকেদের সাথে কথা বলতে শুরু করি। কিন্তু খানিক বাদেই রোশনি আমার কাছে এসে বলে, ‘বিয়ে শুরু হয়েছে। দেখবি না?’ আমি প্রায় চাবি দেওয়া পুতুলের মতন ওর সাথে চলে গেলাম বিয়ে দেখতে। আমি বিয়ে দেখতে থাকি আর রোশনির একটা ফোন আসে। ফোনে কথা বলতে বলতে নিচে চলে যায়। আমি ভাবতে থাকি কোথায় গেল?

১০ মিনিট পর আমার মোবাইলে ফোন আসে। আমাকে নিচে যেতে বলে (বিয়েটা একটা হোটেলের দুই-তলায় হচ্ছিলো)। আমিও যাই। গিয়ে দেখতে পাই রোশনি একটি ছেলের সাথে কথা বলছে। আমি এগিয়ে যাই। আমাকে দেখে রোশনি ছেলেটাকে উদ্দেশ্য করে বলে, ‘এটা বিপ্লব। আমারা এক অফিসে কাজ করি’। আমি হাত বাড়িয়ে হ্যান্ডশেক করি ছেলেটার সাথে। এরপর রোশনি আমার দিকে তাকিয়ে বলে, ‘এটা ত্রৈলোক্য। আমার বয়ফ্রেন্ড’। 

Where is Kolkata Style Haircut?

Kolkata needs its signature haircut. If we want to revive the cultural sphere of this great city, we need to have our distinct hairstyle. Kolkata needs to show the entire world that she is different. Kolkata is proud of its cultural activities like literature, music, cinema, paintings. But not with its haircut. When it comes to haircuts, we tend to copy haircuts of the west. It gives me a lot of pain. Why do we have to copy haircuts from the west?

We need a hairstyle that is entirely come out from the scissors of hairstylists of Kolkata. We need a revolution in the salon industry.

I believe the reason for not having a Kolkata style haircut is the mentality of the people who want to look like a Bhadralok. They somehow stop the hairstylists from experimenting. Their problem is that they only want to look like their colleagues and friends. The idea is to look different, not similar.

Give the hairstylists the chance to flourish.

 

What Do You See?

Natural calamities are becoming regular affairs for the people of India. We, the unaffected luckier ones, get to see the devastation and loss on our television screen lying on the sofa. Undoubtedly, television journalists risk their lives and show us the loss. Be it flood or cyclone or something else- most of us get to know about the calamities through the cameras of television journalists. I’m sure the politicians also see such news to take stock of the situations. It is OK!

But what keeps me intrigued is the visit of ministers in helicopters to see the devastated areas.  I wonder what they see from such a distance. Army use helicopters to rescue people or distribute food. But what good the ministers bring by hovering over the places in a helicopter? They see the areas via the window of the helicopters. But can they see or understand what had happened?

If they want to see the affected areas, then they should reach the place via road. Some people will argue ministers go with their bodyguards that will hamper the rescue operations. But I would say to them that ministers can go with 1-2 bodyguards to see the loss. They don’t need an entourage to go to the affected places.

I’m sure that the ministers can’t get to know what happened on the ground from helicopters. Maybe they want to send a message to those people that ‘I’m with you.’ But does it matter or even help? I will not buy the agreement that people who have lost everything need an ‘I’m with you’ type of gesture. They need serious attention. If a minister wants to see what happened, then they should be on the ground with the affected people.

                                                           (Source: Pixabay)

Barbaric Bengal

Barbaric Bengal. Yes, the people of Bengal are barbaric and medieval in their thinking. I’m talking this with respect to political killings. The number of political killings that occurred every year in West Bengal is unprecedented. You look at any other states in India; you will not see this amount of hatred. A person gets killed just because of s/he posses a different political ideology. This is bizarre. This is just unfathomable. It means a party in power couldn't tolerate people with different political ideologies. It started in the 70s when congress was in power and the legacy is still going on.

In the 70s communists used to get killed by congress workers. This ‘practice’ is still going on. 

People of West Bengal are fed up with the killings. Most people don’t bother with the killings. It has become part of daily news for us.

But this should end. This medieval mindset should change. This can’t go on forever.

A Complete Waste of Time

I’m a B.Com (Hons.) graduate. I graduated in 2007. I believe it was the worst 3 years of my life. I learned nothing, nothing really from the course. My major was accountancy.  The 3-year course was poorly structured. It didn’t even teach accounting software. Just think, a B.com (Hons.) graduate didn't get to learn accounting software. I had to learn Tally separately from a private organization. Imagine a scenario, in which a B.com graduate looking for an accountant job after the successful completion of the course. To get a job at a company, s/he has to learn accounting software separately. I still don’t understand what research the course developers did while framing the course. What stopped them to include accounting software in the course? Didn’t they aware that organizations have stopped keeping accounting entries manually? Everything is computerized. Or, they just don’t want students to get accounting jobs. But I don’t blame the professors for their pre-internet era style of teaching.

After the course, many go for higher studies. Some go for chartered accountancy and few go for MBAs. And those who don’t want to further study mostly join the pharmaceutical industry as a medical representative. That means they directly go into selling. But the course didn’t teach anything about how to sell goods. So how they learn selling? By hustling. And those who study chartered accountancy need to learn everything about commerce from scratch. And to become an MBA, students need to learn different aspects of a business.

So does the B.com (Hons.) course help students? My answer is NO. The course developers were so sure that students won’t get a job after the completion of the course, they didn’t even teach interview techniques. There is no focus on improving business communication. There was a subject as business communication but that was it. No hands-on training. You just get the tag that you are a graduate. You become eligible for jobs. But in reality, no one gives you a job. In Kolkata, only a C.A. (intern) gets the job of an accountant at a company.

I don’t know whether the course curriculum has changed or not but those 3 years was a complete waste of time for me.

North Bengal Was Fuming

In 2016 I traveled to Kalimpong. It was a solo trip, and I was quite happy with the facility that I got at Ramdhura, Kalimpong. To catch the train to Kolkata, I had to spend one night at Siliguri. I booked a room at a lodge near to NJP railway station. The night I spent at the lodge was the same day when polling (assembly election 2016) happened in Kolkata. Polling of assembly election happened earlier in north Bengal as it was multi-phased.

Kolkata saw polling-related violence. Everyone saw the violence on television. People in north Bengal were also discussing the incidents. The receptionist at the lodge was also discussing with the locals about the poll-related violence in Kolkata. I was undeterred with news as poll-violence is common in West Bengal.

Anyway, inside my room, the TV was not working properly. So I went to the reception to tell him about the problem. When I approached him, he told me, ‘what is the point of watching TV? People of Kolkata always fight. The people of Kolkata are not potent enough to rule West Bengal. Give us the power; we will rule the state better’. When he finished, I saw he was fuming. Later I realized, I understood that it was not his words. It was the words of the people of north Bengal.

For those who are not from West Bengal, what he said is like this- people of Kolkata, capital of West Bengal, are not able to handle to state. By saying people of Kolkata, he meant TMC, the party in power who was involved in the fight. And 'give us the power' means transferring power to the people of North Bengal from Kolkata.

Only the future can tell if TMC party workers are strong enough to keep their chairs, but his anger was evident that there is anger among North Bengal people towards south Bengal. The receptionist knew that I’m from Kolkata. So he vented out his anger. And that was completely OK! He took his chance.

When the lockdown began, people from North Bengal were also furious on social media about the availability of COVID-related treatment in north Bengal. The anger is real.

The time has come for the people from South Bengal to solve the frustrations of the people of North Bengal. And when I say people of South Bengal, I mean the ruling party in power.

 

Time For A Change

Writers are grossly underpaid in India. As a content writer, I started my career with just 10 paise per word. Just imagine 10 paise per word. Content writing jobs sound cool but in reality, they are bullshit jobs. These are target-oriented jobs where you have to write a specific number of words in a day. As agencies pay peanuts like remunerations to writers, writers tend to focus on quantity rather than quality. So if a content writer gets paid 10 paise per word and he completes four 500-word articles in a day, it means he earns Rs. 200 per day (500*4*.10). Naturally, to earn more, writers like to increase their daily word-count. I knew a writer who used to write 5000 words daily. However, this is not possible for everyone. To stack up the number of words, content writers cheat. If I copy three consecutive words from a blog available online, only then plagiarism checking tools can find it. Content writers don’t copy three consecutive words to avoid getting caught in the plagiarism tool. However, the content idea remains the same. The idea gets copied which is also a form of stealing. This way mediocre and bullshit content gets generated in India daily. Those are just copies from the articles published in the west. The research that content writers do is basically from which article they like to steal the ideas. This way every day, many clichéd articles and blogs get generated.

I’ve worked as a digital copywriter. Digital copywriting is one of the hardest works in the advertising industry. The reason I am saying this because, digital copywriters in an agency work with digital marketers, not creative directors. Digital marketers have little understanding of copywriting compare to a creative director (copy). This is affecting the creativity factor in digital marketing. You won’t get to see highly creative works in digital marketing. First of all, the life of a creative in the digital world is lesser than in print which forces the agencies to create more works every day. It is responsible for creating cliché-ridden creatives. As digital copywriters have to follow a content calendar that means they have to produce copy more often than a mainline copywriter. As a result, you put less time behind in brainstorming and ideating. I believe digital copywriters should get a creative director (copy).

Copywriters and content writers of India should have a platform where they can put forward their grievances. Film writers have a platform. But not content writers. Especially writers those who work on a freelance basis should get a platform through which they can establish contact with the government.

The government also needs to acknowledge the growing numbers of writers in India. In the west, if a writer is asked for a change after their first draft then they charge more. In India, writers are asked to change in their writing as much time as the client is not satisfied. Writers need to get their due respect.

Writing jobs needs to get recognized. And the pay scale needs to be formalized. There should be minimum rates for freelance content and copywriters determined by the government.  Time has arrived for a change mentally.

Kolkata Needs a Tea House

Bengalis are known for their adda. And addas are incomplete without tea. You can find a tea shop on almost every corner in Kolkata. Darjeeling only hosts 78 tea estates. Darjeeling tea is renowned all across the world. Different types of teas get distributed all across the world. A large portion of West Bengalis’ livelihood is dependent on the tea. In any normal household in West Bengal drink tea at least 2 times a day. A portion of Bengali youth spends time at small tea shops in their area while having adda.

Bengalis adda is incomplete without tea and cigarette. The place that is known for its adda is Coffee House. Though it is known as a coffee house the place also offers tea. You can get tea, coffee, and food at the coffee house. But this piece is not about the coffee house.

This piece is about a tea house. Kolkata badly needs a tea house. It will not only be a counter to the coffee house but to show to the world our heritage of tea. The magnanimity of the tea house should surpass the coffee house. Kolkata should proudly boast its tea heritage. In Darjeeling, there are some good places to drink tea but not in Kolkata. In recent years, Kolkata has seen the mushrooming of coffee shops where you can get tea and coffee both. But when I say tea house, I mean to create a center where people will visit to relive the glorious past and present.

Kolkata deserves a tea house.

Why Biswa Bangla Sammelons Are Successful

Naysayers will say that I’m crazy. But I always ignore them. Naysayers don’t bother me. Naysayer can’t stop me from writing how successful were Biswa Bangla Sammelons. I will give you a 5-point explanation.

Number 1- Businessmen like Bengal:  You might have seen businessmen across India sharing the podium with the chief minister of West Bengal at the Sammelons. This suggests that experts who say businessmen don’t like to come to Bengal are wrong. Businessmen don’t like to invest in Bengal.

Number 2- It Is Huge: Biswa Bangla Sammelons are huge events. Huge because it has the word Biswa in it. Biswa is a Bengali word that means the world in English. Although in terms of size and magnanimity, Biswa Bangla Sammelons are tiny in size. But still, biswa is biswa.

Number 3- Great Event Management Exercise:  Though all the Biswa Bangla Sammelons have successfully failed in attracting big industry players undoubtedly those were true tests for the event management companies. It was like a once in a lifetime chance for the event management company to become a participant in that great event.

Number 4- Killing Time: Didn’t you understand that those events were meant to kill time? But philosophers may argue what is time. But who cares about philosophers. The main idea was just to show everyone how to kill time.

Number 5- To Shine PR Skills: The entire thing was to polish the PR skill of the West Bengal government. The way they conducted the event is a great example of a successful PR exercise.

                                     (Image source: Bangladesh Canada and Beyond)

 

More Is Less

Last evening I went outside for a walk and also to buy some grocery items. I was walking on the street, suddenly a mini-van passed me honking. It was so loud that I became irritated. I thought of throwing something at the driver. But he was well beyond my reach.

This got me thinking- how to regulate honking. It is not possible to get rid of the horns. So I’m giving you a crazy idea. If implemented, then I believe the sound pollution will decrease.

First thing first, this idea can't be implemented on the existing vehicles. A new set of two and four-wheelers needs to created. Now the idea. Connect the horn of a vehicle with a petrol tank. Make sure when a driver crosses a particular decibel of sound, the car will consume more fuel. This will make the drivers think twice before honking. More honking means more consumption of fuel. More consumption of fuel means spending more money. Car owners quite obviously will try to curb down the consumption of fuel to save money. In return, car owners will honk less to cut down the fuel cost. This will eventually reduce sound pollution.

What do you think?