Intrigued

The vision is certainly not meant to be such adamantly blurry as we step into this festive season. Life has taken an unduly path of dumb stricken paranoia. The very air I breathe is clustered with advertent artificialities and precarious pretentions. It is irrational to think death is bad for us, because we do not think the nonexistence preceding our births is bad for us, and when we compare this period of nonexistence to death, we see the two are mirror images, alike in all respects.
The blossom atria crossed the swords and axed the wings of my narrow escapade from all the sins that I have done. No offense and no regret as it had to settle the personal feuds one day or the other. The smile was perfect for the winged and arrow tailed creature as the fight was drawn in his favour. I am wounded now, tired of blood and death heads. The unfathomed blasphemy married to the desecration has become one of the most talked about couples amongst the angelic boulevard. And I am so numb today that I can no longer hear the music of rain, I don’t cherish the taste of honey and I can’t see the colours the earth displays.
I dig deep to look for answers inside this cave of fortunes and now when the lights has faded, it’s dark ahead. When I tried to turn back and it is equally dark behind. I spin all around to see a glimpse of light to guide my way and realized this is no mirage of dreams. I am clutched under the merciless paws of darkness where there is no path ahead or probably I don’t carry enough glow with me to identify the path. I shout, I scream and hear my voice echoes back to me with more pitch and shrillness. And this is where the godsend idea sleeked through the rocks. I lighted my joint rolled out of weed with the phosphorous stones lying at my feet. This is when I felt may be watching the football match on ESPN can be much more fun than looking for these answers. One might argue that at least part of the harm for which death is responsible is incurred precisely when death occurs. But it is implausible to say that the harm of posthumous events is incurred when those events occur. A more promising strategy is to say it is accrued while its victim is alive.

Probashi Bangali

“Probasi Bangali”…or. .. A term which has recently been incarnated in neon and glows, as it has become one of the finest ingredients of self marketing strategies…. Staying few grass fields away from Bengal may be in Jharkhand, Orissa, Assam or thousands of miles away in New York, London and Berlin comes under the same flavor of probasis…..

• One will be amazed to see that these so called the society cream (how come? If they are not attached to the society at all) putting up funds and associations to reassess their attachments in a glamorous way…. How artificial can one be???
• They would say they miss the parar more cha adda (local tea cafes), whereas these days a lot of youth doesn’t actually brush the caffeine turf moreover they might not know the taste even……
• Just as they move away from Bengal, suddenly the Kolkata streets becomes crowdy and full of chaos and somehow Bengal doesn’t know how to handle traffic even if they are living in as busy cities like Delhi, Mumbai or Bangalore where office time vehicles find it hard to move an inch…..
• I was wondering that in the city they lived for some 30 years has suddenly been clutched with the worst weather and becomes impossible to survive without an AC (just in case if they plan a trip back)…..
• And you will notice a common term while conversing with them “your city….. my city” even if they might have just landed for a day or two in foreign or even planning to relocate….
• They would claim that they are advance as they can hear all Bengali songs in CDs and DVDs whereas all of them are more or less manufactured and marketed here itself or even bought out here (Advancement huh!!!) and also organizing Biswa Banga Sangeet Sammelan I never came around to understand as to why they need to organize such music festivals and manifest they love for Bengali music and how they miss it… Since when reading ebooks over black and white letter imprinted on fibres from woodpulp accounted for advancement……..
• They would invariably miss fish even if they don’t know the names and how does it taste…
• You would come across quite a few probashis who would talk about Tagore, Bamkim, Tarashankar….. Without knowing what they actually say as they find it hard to read a single line in Bengali….
• And of course you can easily spot them in the high priced restaurants offering Bengali cuisine… without the basic ingredients and taste missing (mind it…. The names of dishes are maintained with high values)……
• And of course you will surely find a huge number of Bengali’s changing their names to adjust to the foreign standards( Madhusudan Nandy changed to Mod Nandi) for easy pronouncing……
• I came across one such probashi who doesn’t like to eat dishes which are dark in colour…. With all my potential used I failed to make him understand that eating bright coloured dishes will not make his skin fairer as he is very hard to spot where there is no sun…..

They still complain about the shortcomings of Bengal without actually giving a thought for a solution…. What is use of teaching them culture and values with such high cost when they are to serve some other country, buy cars, flats and complain about Bengal being backward….. Hypocrisy has sneaked into them to such extent that some of them even finds it livelier to deny their roots and likes to call themselves as NRI ‘s rather Indian….. I wonder where would any of these land up finally???

Indian Railways At Your Service

History shows that Trains started with those healthy horses pulling railed wagons charming it’s way through the streets…. But the gradual transformation and amendments has paved it’s way from Polish steam engines to British 153 class DMU … from Chicago SP freight to German class 423 EMU sets…….. from V43 Hungarian locomotives to Japanese high speed Shinkansen 500 series and finally banking on Monorails….. But amidst all odds Indian Railways had it’s own ethnicity ….. A charm which reminds me of 16th century swashbucklers fighting every prejudice and creating a pride for themselves …… Indian Railways boasts for it’s second largest connectivity in the world…. And sometimes it is said that the present tracks if put back to back, will revolve the Earth twice……
Let me share some of my travelling experiences and tricks I learnt for Indian Railways…….
· No matter when you try to get a ticket, you would invariably find yourself in the waiting list category…. Guess your hard luck or you are always too late to decide for the trip
· Just in case if one do wish to travel in General compartment do not worry ….. it’s served free… you will hardly ever find a checker up there…specially if it’s superfast
· Waiting list ticket??? Indian Railways’ black coats at your service… cost may vary from Rs 200 - Rs 250 for a berth … depending upon your bargaining skills
· Waiting list ticket??? Couldn’t manage the checker??? You might get RPF do the work for you with the bribe ranging Rs 250 – Rs 300… rates might sometimes go down…bargain buddy…..
· Finally if nothing works try out the handicapped compartment with a cash of Rs 300
· Wanna smoke??? Problems with RPF and TTI ….bathrooms at your service… or sometimes people like to smoke standing just below no smoking board…. Bravo Bravehearts …
· Getting bored in general compartment??? Ask for 29…. Sure you gonna get enough players to even stand and play… no matter what the situation, or position is ….always up for 29
· Wanna seat in general compartment??? Pay the coolie Rs 15 - Rs 20 for the wood and Rs 25- 30 for the bunks…. Great sleep …ahhhhh!!!
· Don’t wanna spend extra cash… carry newspaper and find yourself the compartment with some extra space between berths and bathrooms…
· “Hijre”…. beware!!! Be stubborn n arrogant… but don’t shell out a penny on them…. No matter what the pestering is…. One needs to persist
· Oh!! You can always find women washing utensils and men carrying bathing accessories … as if they are in home… what a home at a rent of mere 250 bucks
· And children …. Their allowance is unlimited… they can go anywhere wearing the shoe..even in bed… and of course use the whole train as bathroom…. Anywhere and everywhere….
But in spite of everything railways still remains one of the major transportations in India and the cheapest ………………..