Beta

Ooof! Kolkata

“Its been seven years since the Supreme Court directed all states and Union territories issue orders banning smoking in public places and public transports. Since then, Writers’ Building (the official Head Quarters of West Bengal Government) has tried time and again to implement the ban within its blocks. But has failed to cut the ice.. And now the Policemen on duty inside the Secretariat have thrown up their hands saying that they have failed to implement the order due to lack of stickers ands signboards announcing the ban”. Indeed there is a cigarette shop right inside the Mukhya Bhavan! Asok Bandopadhyay, assistant commissioner of police, Writers’ building says he is trying to identify places in the building where people chew paan and spit and also put no smoking signboards. However, he says he will first put on in the corridor right outside the Chief Minister’s Office. “ We will put up stickers and signboards, but there is no point imposing a stricture without proper awareness. There are VIPs here who prefer to smoke inside their chambers. Further, the policemen on duty in front of the CM’s office are spotted smoking” - - Ajanta Chakraborty in Times of India, Kolkata, Tuesday, January 1 , 2008

So, what is the point I am trying to make here? Why am I talking of failure in the Writers’ Building and the inhabitants of its chambers, in this presentation? My reason is simple. I have no words to speak of the filth, dirt, decadence, irresponsible and shameless inheritance we now call Kolkata. Except for few parts of Kolkata, everywhere, the city smells of neglect and carelessness. It sticks of an irresponsible government, and unenlightened populace who are contributing to an environment thick with smoke, smell, diesel emission – a city choking with air that is dangerous to breathe, a sky overshadowed with a thick cloud of fog. Most of the emission checks are defunct, and really nobody cares. Everyone is passing the buck to everyone else, while its CM is spending more time day after day, apologizing to the public for his failures but being able to do anything about anything and everything at all.

Therefore, Oooof! Kolkata! There is noting left of her to see. She sits under a thick blanket of pollution, both environmentally and politically. Yet, my heart weeps for her and therefore, I have captured her fading beauty, from her outskirts –