Flowers from grass - I wonder which one.

Im angry. On a lot of people, on a lot of things and I dont know how to express it all.
I left home to study after high school. Its been almost 5 and a half years since then and today in order to learn more about my country and state's news I have to access the internet because I am in a different continent altogether. And the first thing that I find out when I read the updates over the last few days news is about the shameful way in which the last effort to rejuvinate industry in West Bengal is being demolished and destroyed. And by whom ? By a bengali herself???

I will be lying if I say Im not political. And so will you if you are from India. Politics is somehow in our blood. May it be conspiring about the neighbour next door who cooks great food but doesnt share her recipes, or may it be choosing a cricket team for the evening matches but keeping only friends on one side so that the boy that I dont like is the odd one out and therefore has to sit for the first match and watch. We politicise education, we politicise love, we politicise emotions, we politicise relationships, we politicise sports, we politicise industry, we politicise religion, we politicise food (!) and eventually we politicise life. It doesnt matter if we have a flag with one colour or three or no colours. It doesnt matter if we are kids, housewives, officers at big companies or grandfathers. It doesnt matter if its during the morning adda under the local "bot gachh" or its the cycle stand or in front of "gonoshokti" or its millions of miles away at a Subway Restaurant at new york.


And in all this politics we forget what its supposed to mean. We forget the idea of common good. We forget the idea of reason and we become emotional about that one thing which glorifies non emotion and practicality.

I am not an economist. I am not an agro analyst. I am not a Communist. I am not a social worker. What am I? I am one of those who are very far away from the commotion and points fingers at others. I dont think I really care about the farmers of Singur because I have never met them and wont either and I have been informationally overloaded with counter views about the land they tilled being or being not fertile. I dont think I really care about the Car that comes
out of the factory at Singur because its small and if I ever buy it it would only be to celebrate India's indigenousness. I am not working for the Tata and none of my immediate relatives work for them. So I am one whose comments can and will be completely ignored. Because I am a member of a small minority of people probably all over the world whose only common maybe that of unbiasedness and a third person attitude. I looked at the scenario from the eyes of a student who has grown up in Calcutta and then left for Delhi and currently residing in the United States. So for some I'm supposed to be the escapist. The one who doesnt care but still comments. But Im happy with that because at least you think I dont care. What good is it to care and then not do anything about it ? What good is that sympathetic tone of voice when all it does is increase the pain? What good is a comment which is made out of emotion and doesnt help matters in all practicality.

Today when I hear the news that the private establishment is thinking on the lines of coming out from West Bengal because of the problems a certain political party is posing for them a lot of different analyses come to my mind. Some of them are modified versions of informations dug up or rumoured by the media. Others are original thought. But all of them are my opinions and I will stand by them. Alongwith it comes a strong sense of hatred for all those educated individuals, those intellectuals, who at one point had started supporting these "social activists", glorifying their cause to be the single most revolutionary act since the Naxalbari Andolan.

But since I dont have enough knowledge on history I will refrain from substantiating my conclusion about the absolute stupidity and imbecility that reflects from such comparisons.
I would rather vent my opinions.

When I was trying to decipher the reason why a sane individual or group of individuals would try to do something that would not only jeopardise the cause of one's own state (so much so that it might paralise the industrial future of the state completely) but also their own future, I realised my assumption that these people were sane could be brought under scrutiny.

Assuming that they were sane , then why? Well my opinion would be that these people are paid off by a competitor. If that is correct do we realise how untrue and misguiding these individuals and groups were. Do we now have the authority to ask them why money (however big it might be) is so important when its not even coming from someone from our state but another businessman who has no care or concern about the progress of the state. And if one is being funded by him does it not mean that one is taking his side and therefore equally not concerned about the state. And if that is true what good does it do to have a name that suggests of grassroot cooperation and yet does a mockery of trust at the top order. Is this not the characteristic of a worm who feeds on the grass and attains all its nutrition from it and once it realises that the grass is going to do hops on to another one and sustains. What happens to the grassroot then if its not strong? What happens to all those others who thought it was? What happens to those paid youths waving the tricolour in roads in calcutta protesting against the government whose very industrial future is now blurred and they probably dont even know they are waving against their own future?

Lets assume this is not true either and no money was involved. In such a case let it be a completely altruistic mission our lady affection has been conducting. In such a case why would the very people for whom this help is directed is revolting against the very struggle that apparently relights their cause? One might say they are being paid .. well ok.. paid to suicide?

Are you serious?
Actually who is serious here?

This entire deal looks like a joke except for some of us who are supposedly the future of the state in concern and who has no say in it. Those who do and our of our age or comparable are either too deep into the political jungle to put forward an unbiased opinion or are stuck in an indecision between make believe morality and cut throat unmerciful practicality. I dont know the history of the rise of Chinese communism and the bloodshed behind it. I have only heard stories about it and how the chinese politburo were unmerciful. What I do know is the present and the impending future. Studying at a place that boasts of its academic brilliance and re-reminding myseld that its the USA every morning, even though 80% of my fellow passengers in the bus or colleagues in the library or students in my classroom makes me feel that Im in Beijing or Seoul, makes me think, even if they went wrong somewhere ... they must have gone right somewhere else. And it must have come at a price. A price that was democratic in a way that it helped the majority.

But we? We are confused of our majority because the majority is confused in what they believe in. The future welfare of the state or the pseudo-welfare of the individual. What is our majority? Educated individuals? Or Immoral backbone less intellectuals? Are we shameful of our agrarian economy or are we too shy to boast about it? Are we still confused about our roots or are we just hypocrites to acknowledge that sometimes its right to be unmerciful. Who are we really?

I have a more or less fair idea about those who read my blog and unless my blog has been really popularised outside this circle not too many people making decisions for the grass roots are going to read this. But just in case they did, I have one question for them and a few comments. Innocent suggestions.

Do any one of you care of any one but yourself? Do any one of you have any idea what the next generation is thinking about you or going to do about this state. Even if its not for the youth at least realise that you have become a joke to everyone in the country and the best that you have done is to have brought the state to a newer depth of industrial mismanagement. And if you still happen to have the brain cells to feel anything, feel sad. For yourself. Because not only have you proved yourself to be the biggest Don Quixote of our time, you have not done anything good for anyone at all and even if you did provide humour at one time today we arent laughing. So why not just leave??

Anyways . Those were my opinions. And well if they are not altruistic, not insane and not driven my money, maybe they are they just driven by grass....That makes sense doesnt it?


The opinions mentioned in this blog are purely mine and under complete senses. I make these comments with the same responsibility as some of your political newspaper do. The only difference is that your reader base is a flock of sheep and my readers are self respecting individuals who can make decisions for themselves.