Mediocrity and the hapless middleclass and their favourite television show.

14th to 16th August were declared holidays by my office

instead of getting away from delhi during the weekend to the hills or forests, i chose to stay indoors

and fate led me to surf the regional bengali channels on the idiot box

mithunda dominated the films screened during the afternoons on the major bengali channels

and reality shows during the evenings

apart from the sorry serials , it was painful to see that most of the programs were cheap and shoddy imitations of popular reality tv shows on hindi GECs.

Oblivious of the treasuretrove of bengali literature, new Directors are trying their shaky hands in remaking Hitchcock's 'Pshycho'.

Mediocrity and the hapless middleclass and their favourite television show.

p.s.'dadagiri' perhaps is the only show worth mentioning and only due to the freshness and dignified composure of the Anchor/quis master Sourav Ganguly.

14th August, 2009

Pakistan celebrates its Independence Day

a day before the largest democracy in the world celebrates its independence day

Bangla news channels following the Chief Cop of the town with vide0 cameras giving its viewers footage of the Top Cop inspecting the security arrangements inside the metro stations.

Cameras also show the Top Cop ride the metro

photography/video is strictly prohibited inside the metro stations

i am sure, in our country, there must be some innocuous rule for some requirement of permission in order to photograph/videoshoot inside metros

however, the question is , whether there was any requirement of allowing the cameras inside the metro while the drill/supervision was going on?

further, the Top Cop asserted that all vehicles at the entry points to the megacity were being checked.

the entire exercise was to prevent any possible terrorist attack

the terrorists who plan to blast the city on 15th would be entering the city only on the 14th

when shall we learn?last time in bombay,terrorists inside the hotels were briefed by their associates on the basis of live telecast on indian news channels

The location of my office at barakhamba road, new delhi is a few yards away from the site of one of the serial blasts which took place in delhi.The place chosen was one of the twin colourful garbage dumps juxtaposed to the busstop and next to the barakhamba road metro station entrance.

There were other bombs which were planted in similar garbage dumps, one at karol bagh and another at GK -I N Block Market, if i recall correctly.

Kolkata is so dirty that the entire city is a garbage dump

imagine how easy it would be to blow up the whole city following the above mentioned modus operandi .

Dont we need to clean up the city?

Even if it takes to pass laws akin to Singapore if necessary to get it done.

And for God's sake, there has been no significant architectural erection in Kolkata since the British days

Atleast the supposedly cultured and aesthetic babus and didis in the Assembly and the Writers' should ensure restoration of the grand buildings which today are both a shock and an eye sore apart from being dangerous to the pedestrian traffic of the streets of Kolkata , not to forget the countless hawkers who have purchased plots on the footpaths.

It is a little surprising to understand the ethos , intelligence and culture of the CM and his Cabinet

The Industry Minister , who is the person with the responsibility of bringing in foreign investment (pujir kono rong nei(sic puji nei jar tar abar rong ki thakbey) finds it extremely difficult to speak a single sentence in coherent and fluent english

a few days back , there was apanel discussion on why brilliant students from Bengal's engineering colleges were not being able to secure jobs with multinationals ....inabiilty to speak fluent english....poor communication skills...were the reasons cited....

whereas not so brilliant students ...travelling out of 'culturally' rich Kolkata and Bengal to faroff maharastra and karnataka have managed to secure jobs

the railway minister who sporadically realises the importance of securing and holding onto a central ministry ensured that Bengal's students can travel to these far off places.

The bengal government , in the last 32 years has systematically destroyed the three fundamental pillars of growth and prosperity of a State, viz.education,industry and infrastructure.

In Bengal the ruling Red has successfully brought down the city's intellectual, educational and industrial might to sheer mediocrity en masse

because , they,like all communist governments in the world, the only way to remain in power is to ensure that all kinds of brilliance,creativity, enterprise and intelligence , if not aligned to the communist agenda, is categorially and consistently attacked, alienated, sabbotaged till the same perishes

City of Joy!it is.