CHILDHOOD LOST - HUNDREDS OF HOMELESS CHIILDREN AT JAMA MASJID

With the penetrating sound of the pious azaan at 4.30 every morning, all comes to life in and around the magnificent Jama Masjid. The hustle-bustle of the colourful Mina Bazaar, the glittering stalls screaming their lungs out to sell their merchandise, and the deafening noise of hundreds of people walking and prattling is so captivating that amidst all these noises and activity, what goes overlooked and unnoticed are the hundreds of homeless children living in pathetically inhuman conditions in the lawns adjoining the mosque.
These children mostly belong to neighboring states. While some had come to Delhi in search of work, others had fled from their homes to evade studies. The rest are orphans. These children are often found picking garbage from bins in the hope of finding some edible leftovers, the older children bullying & beating the younger ones, hurling the vilest of abuses, and snatching away their food and belongings thus leaving the younger and weaker ones to perish in hunger– ironically, in God’s own abode (the Mosque), the rule of the jungle prevails (survival of the fittest). Few dedicated NGOs are working in the area to provide atleast the basic necessities (mid-day meal, clothes and toys) but they too have their limitations. They are dutifully imparting basic primary knowledge to this unruly and disinterested lot of children, but they fail to infuse in them the essence of humanity, civility and brotherhood sans which the children might at the most become literate but not educated. Because of the unhealthy conditions and unavailability of proper food and medication, most of them are suffering from one or the other internal or external disease. To make things worse, the local drug peddler has lured the gullible minds into drugs, thus making most of them addicts at this tender age. The penniless hungry young girls are being forced into prostitution by the local dictator-duo named 'Faujia' and 'Parveen'. The sheer enormity of these children’s woe is beyond the comprehension of the privileged lot and an exact picture of their anguish and destitution can never be painted with black letters on paper.
It’s strange that what calls for the immediate attention of so many NGOs, fails to grab even the peripheral sight of the government, thus defeating the entire idea of a ‘welfare state’. In troubled times, when help from all quarters fails to reach us, we are left with no option but to turn to God. Thus, I saw a blind child at the exterior gate of the masjid, who unlike all other beggars begging for money, stood facing the bright sky with the loose end of his tattered kurta in his hands and calling out ceaselessly “Allah rehem, Allah rehem, …….(Lord have mercy)”. The government and the system have turned a deaf ear to the miseries and plight of these little children but hope the SAVIOUR (Allah) lends a benevolent ear to their innocent pleas.

BY : SHUBHRO SEN

THE COFFEE REBELS

“A lot can happen over a cup of coffee” goes the punch line. Today’s youth seems quite keen to find out the possibilities and probabilities of this intriguing statement. One can spot these joints full of cash rich high school and college students at any point of time in the day (in North Campus, students are found in cafés even post midnight). Though the delicacies dished out by these cafés are quite high priced, unlike the ‘low-on–cash youth’ of the yester years who preferred the 5 rupees instant coffee from Nescafé stalls or college canteen, today’s unreasonably ‘cash-rich youth’ with an unbelievably high disposable income has no scruples in spending 60 to 100 odd rupees on a single mug of cold coffee in these cafés and “espresso bars”. But only few out of the countless who swear by these cafés would be aware of the fact that these happening and vibrant cafés of today owe their origin to the COFFEE HOUSES and Coffee taverns of the yester years.
A trait of pioneering thought, rebellion and agitation had always been ingrained in the tradition of coffee & coffee houses. Though the present day cafés have been reduced to mere ‘hanging out zones’ to have fun with friends and family and at times, a relatively cheaper place to hold business meetings, Coffee houses were once the hub of intellectual thought and the cradle of many revolutions (intellectual, artistic and cultural) and political mass movements. The Coffeehouses were drinking establishments that served the purpose of a center for cultural exchange in a particular community, often fomenting social and political change. In Delhi, one of the earliest coffee houses was started near Rajiv Chowk (at today’s Palika Bazaar) by Mr. I.K.Gujral and some of his friends who after getting terribly infuriated and disgusted by the incessant price hike at a restaurant named Alps, boycotted it, and laid the foundation for a coffee house that was named “Price Rise Resistant Movement – PRRM”.
The famous College Street Coffee House at Kolkata, apart from it’s adda sessions, is also well known as the breeding place of several political and cultural personalities and movements. It has been the most frequented hub of many a poet, artiste, literati, intellectual and people involved in the world of art, culture and film, out of which the eminent ones are Satyajit Ray, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Ritwik Ghatak, Soumitra Chatterjee, Narayan Gangopadhyay and Sunil Gangopadhyay. Several literary magazines owe their origin to the inspiration from the adda sessions there.
Worth mentioning here is also the Indian Coffee House (ICH) movement in Kerala where, when the Coffee Board decided to close down the ICHs in mid 1950’s (that were started by the Coffee Board during British rule in early 1940’s) due to a change in policy, the terminated workers under the leadership of communist leader Mr. A.K.Gopalan started a worker’s cooperative (the first of it’s kind) and took over the management of the ICHs.
Interestingly, Coffee Houses’ close association with movements and agitation is not specific to India alone but is evident throughout the world. The Cafe Le Procope, which was founded in Paris in 1689, is still in business and was a major locus of the French Enlightenment; Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot frequented it, and it is arguably the birthplace of the ‘Encyclopédie’ - the first modern encyclopedia. Jonathan's Coffee-House in 1698 saw the listing of stock and commodity prices that evolved into the London Stock Exchange. Lloyd's of London had its origins in a coffeehouse run by Edward Lloyd, where underwriters of ship insurance met to do business. Auctions in salesrooms attached to coffeehouses provided the start for the great auction houses of Sotheby's and Christie's. A number of well known performers like Joan Baez and Bob Dylan began their careers performing in coffeehouses. American coffee shops are often connected with the evolution of indie, jazz & acoustic music and will often have them playing either live or recorded in their shops. The political nature of much of 1960s folk music made the music a natural tie-in with the political action associated with coffeehouses.
So the next time you sink in at the comfy couch at the nearest café with a tempting coffee mug in your hand wondering at the possibilities and probabilities of the intriguing tagline, do remember that “a lot has ALREADY HAPPENED over a cup of coffee in history”.

BY : SHUBHRO SEN

GRAFFITI – AN ‘ART FORM OF EXPRESSION’ OR AN ANONYMOUS CRUDE EXPLICIT WRITING

Haven’t we all wondered that who writes and draws the innumerable vile abuses and graphically depicted private parts of male and female anatomy on the walls of public toilets in trains, market places, schools and Government offices? Don’t we all get terribly irritated when after freshly white-washing our boundary walls, we find names like Rajesh and Hari scribbled on them or some weird animations drawn purposelessly? The names of cupid-struck lovers etched or scribbled on tree-trunks and rocks at tourist spots, and walls of historical monuments are another common annoying sight. All these are instances of an act commonly referred to as “GRAFFITI” writing.
Graffiti is the application of media on publicly viewable surfaces. It is defined as being "a drawing or writing scratched on a wall or other surface". When done without the property owner's consent, graffiti is a form of ‘vandalism’ and is punishable by law in most countries. It has been used in the past to spread social and political messages. It is also considered a modern art form, and can be seen in galleries around the world.
Graffiti is at it’s crudest and most vulgar form in public toilets. The most noteworthy aspect about this boorish and coarse graffiti is that we all condemn the writer without knowing who he is, although he might quite possibly be the man relieving himself right beside us in the public toilet. Interestingly, we all read the loutish words scribbled on the wall and then, either get disgusted or simply laugh them off thinking that they must be addressed to somebody else, but not even once does it ever occur to us that the abuses might be directed towards nobody else but us, by some under-cover enemy of ours.
Inspite of it’s characteristic crudeness and vulgarity, Graffiti has undoubtedly played a vital role during our adolescence or growing up years. How can we ever afford to forget that the first abuse we ever came across, and the first thing that sparked our curiosity about the ‘untaught and taboo’ was not from a foul mouthed roadside urchin or an ill-mannered senior or a bold feature film, but it was from these very obscure and intriguing words and pictures drawn on the walls of our school toilet that had put our tender minds and imaginations to work overtime.
But graffiti wasn’t always this crude practice of scribbling mindlessly or insultingly, that haunts most unguarded public places these days. There are multitudinous examples of artistic graffiti in the history of mankind. Graffiti has existed ever since the days of ancient civilizations such as Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. Presently, the oldest instance of graffiti known to man has been dated as approximately 32,000 years old. They are the paintings of a large number of murals on the cavern walls of the recently discovered Chauvet caves in France. There are examples of scrawled prehistoric symbols on the walls of the Lascaux caves dating back 15,000 years. The Romans expressed their aversion to the dictatorship of Julius Caesar in scribbled messages on the walls of the Forum Romana, while the early Christians carved statements on Pagan temples and within the Catacombs. The graffiti of Pompeii, where the term was first used in context, gives an insight into the mechanics of this frozen culture at a grassroot level. Although much of the history has been lost due to the popularity of charcoal as a medium, other examples have been found at locations such as the Domus Aurea of Emperor Nero in Rome, Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli, and the Maya site of Tikal in Mesoamerica. . There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as the Signature Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail. Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s. There is also evidence of Chinese graffiti on the Great Wall of China. In this light, agnominal graffiti is unique in it’s ability to bring forth the age-old human practice of writing on a wall. Thus, it can be seen that various expressive symbolic modes throughout history and pre-history display trends similar to those of “contemporary graffiti”. Hence, graffiti has evolved over time from an ‘art form of expression’ into the present crude form that is known as "modern graffiti" or contemporary graffiti; the public defacing of a surface using spray paint, markers, and other materials.
Writers are aware of the seditious implications of their art form, but do not always choose it simply to vandalize. The destructive nature of graffiti is indispensable to its role as a catalyst for change, both symbolic and social. Hence, Graffiti also has a positive side to it which has come to the fore at times of political tension and social unrest. Graffiti is the result of very specific needs, and is about spreading a message and to draw attention to something of socio-economic or political relevance. Graffiti has been recognized by many contemporary critics as a form of public art that is an effective tool in facilitating social emancipation or in the achievement of a political goal. The murals of Belfast and of Los Angeles have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically and/or racially divided communities. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by Graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR. Another example includes the political punk band ‘Crass’, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist and anti-consumerist messages around the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s. An anti-capitalist art group named the ‘Space Hijackers’ did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements and it’s use of political imagery.
Graffiti is also used as a means of rebelling against authority. It can express or criticize a political practice or can simply form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. Political groups and individuals have used graffiti as a tool to spread their point of view. This practice, due to its illegality, has generally become favored by groups excluded from the political mainstream, for example, fascist supporters often scrawl ‘swastikas’ and other Nazi images. Both sides of the conflict in Northern Ireland produced political graffiti as well as slogans. Loyalist murals often refer to historical events dating from the war between James II and William III in the late 17th century, whereas Republican murals usually refer to the more recent troubles. Many freedom fighters involved in various freedom struggles and liberation movements across the world have used their prison sentences as a means to further protest by scribbling graffiti on the prison walls that voiced their radical views giving inspiration to fellow political prisoners fighting for the cause.
Therefore, there are undoubtedly a number of examples of artistic and revolutionary graffiti in the history of mankind, but now that has been replaced by crude abusive words. If we relate the present crude graffiti that is found in most unguarded public places – from tourist spots to toilets – with the earlier traditions of using graffiti as a tool to rebel against unjust and oppressive authority, and to show resentment against the ills of society, then we might find a strong connection. Even today, Graffiti is being employed by the underprivileged and deprived to reclaim public space where, being socially and economically marginalized, they have no right otherwise. The sight of a solitary public place/space, especially a wall, surfaces the pent up frustration and restlessness of unfulfilled desires in such people and they, being unable to contain the dissatisfaction inside any longer, unleash their anger and incivility on the walls by scribbling the vilest of abuses. The abuses ain’t directed towards anybody in particular because the writers themselves don’t know whom to blame exactly for their problematic lives, unending miseries and unfulfilled dreams. Since they have been unable in achieving what they pined for, the suffering proletariats derive sadistic pleasure by destructing public property and private belongings, and sardonic joy by insulting one and all. It is believed that even sex helps in releasing the bottled up frustration, helplessness, stress and anxiety in a person, but all that the sex-starved Indian middle class and lower middle class are left to do, is to vent their repressed ill feelings through spoiling public property - by crude provocative drawings and filthy abuses on the walls of public toilets, damaging the seats of trains and buses, spitting on freshly painted walls, and tearing leaves and grass in well maintained public parks. They neither have the money nor the capability to buy a space in a newspaper or magazine or some other public forum/platform to get their petitions, grievances and voices heard, and even if they somehow did, the "ruling class" or the "establishment in power" controlling the mainstream press, would systematically exclude and censor all radical and alternative point of views. Thus, the same graffiti-tarnished walls in public places that portray the bourgeois society’s declining moral code of conduct, are also the very walls that act as a ‘huge canvas’ showcasing the anger and frustration of the unheard-speakers and unread-writers who after years of silent suffering, have simply become disillusioned of the system, the judiciary, the ineffective five year plans, and false promises of politicians, and have ultimately resorted to such crude methods, out of sheer desperation, to make themselves heard. The graffiti-marred walls continually scream to us, the PRIVILEDGED DEAF, in “speechless MONOLOGUES” about the deprived comman man’s distress and agony and the frustration stemming from their helplessness.
Poor people who are oppressed or suppressed need an outlet, so they write on walls—it’s free. A city in which graffiti has been entirely expunged "embodies affection for authority”. However, people also have the right to protect their property. Thus, it’s a human dilemma. Therefore, finding a solution to this dilemma, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffiti artists and ordinary people so that petty vandalism is discouraged and yet people are encouraged to express their dissatisfaction and grievances, without the worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing. This might be the solution to the problem in our country as well. Hope one day the freedom of expression, rather “freedom to express frustration” will no longer be restricted to crude abusive graffiti on toilet walls, bus seats and narrow by lanes, but on special ‘WALLS’ assigned for such ‘LIBERATION’.
"Art has the ability to criticize the system of the status quo. Graffiti is without question the most powerful art revolution in the recent art history. And any revolution might be considered a crime.”

BY : SHUBHRO SEN

EDUCATION IS A RIGHT, NOT A PRIVILEGE

Among the six Fundamental Rights granted to all citizens of India by the constitution, there is this “Right to Education” by virtue of which, all citizens are entitled to compulsory primary and secondary education. But how far is it in practice in today’s commercialized scenario is the question? In today’s technology dictated world where ‘knowledge’ is considered ‘power’, it’s actually money that is capable of buying knowledge, just like it buys any other form of power. Money precedes even merit to gain access to quality education.
Today anybody and everybody wants to opt either for ‘medical’ or for ‘engineering’, and if in a degree course then it’s nothing other than ‘Economics (Hons.)’. Not because they are very compassionate towards the suffering, neither because they have a knack for mathematics and science, and strikingly most of them might not even be knowing the full form of “G.D.P.”, yet it has to be nothing other than these few elite ‘considered’ courses and streams for them. This is solely because of the absence of proper professional counseling, lack of awareness, limited access to right knowledge, and concocted pre-conceived notions about market demand and supply that forces students to think that Medicine (especially neurology and cardiology), Engineering (especially computers and electronics), and Economics are the ‘only’ courses having the brightest prospects cause medical practitioners are minting money these days, engineers are going abroad by the dozen, and Economics graduates are supposed to fetch high paying bank jobs if done a management course after graduation. The Result : record number of students - 3,00,000 candidates for just 5,000 seats in total - appearing for I.I.T. this year after spoiling one full year in preparations, refusing admissions to other good colleges, and wasting a huge sum of money on coaching and tutorials for IIT JEE preparations. Some pseudo-educationists, coaching institutes and private colleges are shrewdly cashing in on this very imbalance between the ultra-high demand and the super-low supply of colleges and seats because of everybody’s preference for the same few courses.
The blatant acceptance of lakhs of money as donation by schools and colleges, which they prefer to call “building fund” or “capitation fee”, in order to upgrade the rank of a student so as to make him/her eligible for a better and more sought after course is in popular practice these days. A person, by paying a few lakhs, becomes eligible for ‘electronics’ or ‘computers’ (if doing engineering) and ‘cardiology’ or ‘neurology’ (if in medicine), who without the donation might not have been worthy even of a seat in the ‘metallurgy’ or ‘paper-pulp’ branch of engineering and in case of medicine for ‘physiotherapy’ or ‘dental’.
In a country like India which is progressing at such a steady pace and which presumably has the ‘highest youth population’, why ain’t there enough good and affordable government institutes and colleges to absorb the total number of aspiring students? The students who unfortunately could not make it to any of the top-ranking government institutes can’t afford to risk another year to gamble on the unpredictable and super-tough entrance exams as their pattern keeps on changing and the number of students appearing becomes just the double every year. Thus, the only option left for them is to get into whatsoever college they are getting admission in. At the most, they can upgrade their ranks by donations and that’s exactly what the financially sound ones do, or are rather compelled to do. This is also because some of the states like Karnataka have forbidden admissions of outstation students to government colleges, and this has given liberty to the private colleges to unduly exploit the students who at any cost desire to get admitted to some college that very year. Moreover, the cut-offs are sky-high and very few seats are allotted to the courses which are most in demand, just to maintain their ‘exclusivity’ and ‘elite’ status.
Even after the heavy initial donation, the private collages don’t spare the students. The annual fees of IIMs is Rs. 1,30,000 p.a. whereas private collages like IIPMs charge about 7 lakhs for 2 yrs (3.5 lakhs p.a.). The annual fee of IITs is just Rs. 50,000 as compared to the Rs. 50,000 per semester fee of the private colleges in Bangalore and Pune. The cost of study material is also sky-rocketing. Earlier, students had the option to use second hand books but now the publishers cunningly change the cover and the chronology of chapters, and sell the same book with a ‘revised’ and ‘next edition’ tag. The education institutes also make them compulsory and pressurize the students to buy the prescribed ‘new editions’ which are hardly revised, just because they get a percentage of the profit from the publishers. One won’t get a decent dot pen below five rupees these days which will last for just about three days, and a three hundred page register will cost about Rs. 30. With so many subjects and so much writing work to do, and teachers demanding a separate register for each subject, one wonders how long can the middle class and lower middle class continue to cling on to their dream of educating their children.
All this suggest that in today’s corrupt and highly commercialized scenario, to avail quality education from any premier institute, one either has to be ‘brilliant’ or a ‘genius’ to be able to crack the tough entrance exam and score above million others, or else he has to be a millionaire to be able to afford a few lakhs as donation to secure a seat. Hence, quality education instead of being a ‘RIGHT’ has become an unachievable dream whose essential pre-requisites are privileges like ‘money power’ and ‘mental brilliance’.

BY : SHUBHRO SEN

NAME SAKE

Remember how we all used to write our names on our books and copies every year at the beginning of the session in school. The gesture was not only to prevent our belongings from theft, but also to put the stamp of our name on them permanently, and more essentially, to emphasize on the sense that the particular object belongs solely to us. Those who used second hand books must have experienced the strength of this bonding between the ‘name’ and the ‘object’, when faced with the ordeal of rubbing off the name of the original buyer with an eraser, and on being unsuccessful in doing so, scratching it off vehemently with a pen. But despite the thorough scratching, the name would still be faintly visible. Similarly from cricket bats, suitcases, silver utensils, vehicles, to name plates on the front door of homes, we find the name of the owner firmly establishing a relation and a sense of belonging between the ‘owner’ and the ‘object’. But unfortunately, this privilege of having one’s name inscribed on one’s belongings is only limited to a certain privileged class in our country who can afford to possess belongings that can bear their name.

All objects generally bear two names, one of the manufacturer, and the other of the buyer/owner. But what gets lost here, are the names of the numerous unacknowledged minds that have toiled rigorously to give the product it’s final shape. When we see a beautiful Ritu Kumar saree, we applaud her artistic genius but not the tailors who have also been inseparably instrumental in giving the garment it’s ultimate look; when we see a jazzy car or bike, we praise the company but not the engineers whose brain child the car/bike actually is; when we see a spectacular historical monument, we appreciate the ruler of that era but not the people who’ve carried the bricks on their head or the craftsmen who have done the engravings on the wall; on watching a thought-provoking film, we all admire the actors and at the most the director but not the story writer, screenplay writer or the spot boy, without whose vital contribution, the film would not have been able to make the powerful impact that it did. Do any of us know the ‘NAME’ of the person who has built the Statue of Liberty, the Peacock Throne, the Pyramids at Giza, the leaning Tower of Pisa, The Golden Temple, The Ashoka pillar, the Red Fort, the Taj Mahal, and for that matter, all famous historical monuments frequented by tourists? These historical monuments, cities and artistic wonders are not attributed to the genius of the artists who had conceptualized and built them, but to the reigning king or queen who had merely funded the piece of art.
Men have an innate tendency of criminally restricting the praise and adulation deserved by an entire group, only to it’s leader. Of not acknowledging the merit of an ‘individual face’ from amongst a huge ‘faceless crowd’, and a ‘particular name’ amidst a vast mire of ‘countless NAMES and faces’. We give Bill Gates the credit for inventing and upgrading ‘windows’ that has changed the face of modern technology and work culture around the globe but nobody acknowledges the genius of the team of technical experts assisting Bill Gates throughout his research and experiments. In our freedom struggle, weren’t there many more martyrs than just the famous few, and each with a heroic story of his own, who had as fearlessly laid down their lives for their motherland as Bhagat Singh, Bose, Rajguru, Sukhdev, Azad, Bismil or any other freedom-fighter of the well-known lot. But how many of their ‘NAMES’ do we really know and remember today? Gandhiji, being the leader, has got his due recognition for initiating the Satyagraha, Swadeshi and Civil disobedience movements but what about all those ‘insignificant ordinary people’ who perished during the non-violent marches by becoming fodder to the British guns and victims to their brutal lathicharge and died before being able to see the dawn of independence. Are their any roads named after them or do they have their photo on currency notes? Alas! We don’t even know their ‘NAMES’.
It’s not solely our deeds but the stamp of our name on those deeds that make people remember and acknowledge us even after our death. We all are working so hard in our respective fields not only to earn money, but also to earn a name for ourselves, appreciation for our good work, and recognition for our talent. It’s said that “strong towers decay, but a ‘great name’ shall never pass away”. But what if one is, unfortunately, not engaged in any such significant deed that can bring one a ‘great name’ so as to be recognized & remembered. What about all the non-famous, not well-known lesser mortals working in factories and farms, building roads and houses, painting hoardings on roadsides, and selling vegetables on carts who are “born unnoticed and die unsung”. Such men who won’t be considered eligible by history to be remembered and lamented anywhere in it’s multitudinous pages which exclusively acknowledge rulers, warriors, saints, scientists, philosophers and reformers. Such men who won’t ever be able to reach the level of affluence that is required to own a ‘possession’ that can proudly bear their ‘NAME’. It’s such insignificant men who scribble their names at some significant public place or public property like – on the walls of historical monuments, on rocks at famous tourist spots in hill stations, on trunks of trees in public gardens, on the seats of buses and trains, on tables in colleges and offices, and on currency notes - consoling themselves that if, by chance, someday someone luckily notices the name, then they’ll be known to that one person atleast, and won’t die completely unknown.
After all, everybody’s ‘NAME’ is not as BIG as Pramod Mahajan’s, to get extensive media coverage till one full week before and after their death. Infact, there are ‘smaller and less important NAMES’ of people who died in the recent Mumbai floods, and families of ordinary people who lost their sons, fathers and husbands in the recent Mumbai bomb blasts, who were impudently reduced to mere numbers, “NUMBERS OF CASUALTIES that unfortunately occurred”. Probably, those “NAMES” and lives were not as important as that of well-known politicians, industrialists, sportsmen and film stars to be made into “BREAKING NEWS” and “COVER PAGE” stories.
Haven’t we all seen characters at school, college, our work place or social gatherings who dress in a weird manner or behave abnormally just to give their personality that ‘trademark peculiarity’ with which they can stand out from the rest of the ‘homogenous crowd’ and get ‘public attention’. Although, it’s quite a crude trick to get noticed and to be known to people by their ‘NAME’, what is noteworthy here, is the intense urge in people to get noticed even at the cost of being a ‘laughing stock’. And at times, this overpowering urge to be known, to be recognized and acknowledged by one’s ‘NAME’ makes one choking with anonymity & oblivion so desperate, that he/she ends up writing his/her name just anywhere, no matter how insignificant the place is. No wonder while walking on Shivaji Marg opposite Lady Hardinge Medical College, I came across this man-hole with the name “ram singh” etched on it. Ram Singh must have been the mason who made the man-hole but unlike others, he had cleverly ceased this opportunity to jot down his name, if not in the ‘elitist’ pages of history in golden words, then atleast with a piece of stick on wet cement so as to make his ‘insignificant’ name ‘indelible’ somewhere, even after he dies. And what better place to have one’s name inscribed ineradicably than on one’s own creation, even if it’s just an utterly stinking man-hole. Atleast, by doing so, he was able to console himself with the faint possibility of someone someday reading his name and knowing that there exists or once existed on the face of earth an ‘unimportant insignificant ordinary man’ by the ‘NAME’ - Ram Singh. But the people involved in the construction of many historical monuments, especially Taj Mahal, weren’t as lucky as Ram Singh, to be able to tell their ‘NAMES’ by etching them down on their creations because of merciless rulers like Shah Jahan who had given orders to chop off the fingers of the architects, craftsmen and designers involved in the construction process so as to claim the entire credit himself. Otherwise, each marble of Taj Mahal would have similarly borne the ‘NAME’ of an ordinary person involved in it’s construction, groaning under anonymity and silently pining for acclaim & recognition. .
Today ram singh’s wish has been fulfilled as I, shubhro sen, have come to know that there lives an 'ordinary insignificant man' named ‘Ram Singh’ who has made a man-hole at Shivaji Marg. Only if I were able to tell this to Ram Singh, then he would have died a peaceful death.

BY : SHUBHRO SEN

SPARE THE ROD AND SPOIL THE CHILD

What makes school life memorable is not only the fun of it all – (bunking classes in the secluded junior school corridors, secretly eating your partner’s tiffin and then feigning innocence, making noises during the class from the last bench to disturb the teacher, breaking test-tubes in chemistry laboratory, burning noisy fire-crackers in the toilet, bringing chits to examination hall in socks, forcefully acquiring the seat from juniors in the school bus, giving a leave application saying you had severe ‘loose motions’ although you were feasting on a 'five course meal' the previous day), but also the day, or in some cases even days, when one was beaten black and blue by a teacher either for misbehaving or not completing his/her homework or for indulging in certain unprintable deeds. Alongwith the unforgettable memories of the first drink, first suit, first car, first salary, first date and first kiss, what one also finds impossible to forget is the first instance, when one was screamed at, slapped or severely thrashed by a teacher or the principal. It is not because of the bruised skin or the pain that one still remembers the “rod”, but because of the feeling of shame which came from the humiliation that one had to face before the whole class, and in some cases, even the school, that it still remains the 'worst nightmare’.
I was in K.G.2 then, and our teacher was Ma’am Talwar. She was one teacher who could give even Hitler a run for his money. We had been given words to translate from English to Hindi and I, being from a Bengali family, was a bit poor at Hindi. The first few questions didn’t give me much trouble, but then came “marrow”, and I was left at my wits end. We call it “potol” in Bengali, and I being in such a desperate and helpless situation, used the better of my discretion and giving the Bengali word a hindi touch, wrote “patal”. Mrs. Talwar was terribly infuriated at this insolence and had nearly chopped me off with her rasping slap. As far as I can recall, I was the first person who was a victim to her thrashing in our batch, and though too young to feel the humiliation, I certainly felt ashamed when till many days after the incident, I was made fun of by my classmates.
Then, while in school, my first rendezvous with corporal punishment was quite harsh. Our games teacher, Sir Virdi, was a national level boxer. He was notorious for thrashing students quite mercilessly, which was quite evident from the circumference of his biceps and triceps, that was greater than most of our waist-lines. That fateful day, I had woken up late and in the haste to reach school in time, I forgot to take my games dress along. When he asked me the reason for not bringing my games dress, my naïve answer was “Sir, I forgot”. The next thing that followed was a thundering blow from him, which badly shook all the nuts and bolts of my body.
But the worse was in class 10th when our maths teacher Sir Siddiqui hit a boy in our class so hard on his ear-lobe that he was rendered partially deaf. He had to be hospitalized and the teacher was on the verge of losing his job.
All these incidents of corporal punishment which have become so comman these days in schools and coachings, though even with the view to correct the students, have their root cause in the innate impulsive and violent nature of the teacher. No misbehavior, indiscipline, or irregularity in homework and classwork is as mammoth a reason, as to warrant as inhuman a beating that leads to fractured bones, and at times leaves the student physically retarded for the rest of his life.
It’s also important here to look into the psyche of the teachers who indulge in such inhuman behavior. Family feuds, personal tensions, financial problems, work pressure to complete the vast syllabus within the stipulated date, and the presence of certain disturbing elements in the class make the teachers, like any other person in any other profession, lose their self control and cool. But what the teachers forget here is that they aren’t dealing with grown up adults but small children who are physically much weaker to bear the atrocity of their bad temper.
I don’t disagree that in some cases where the child is less a student and more a ‘juvenile delinquent’, sparing the rod will undoubtedly mean spoiling the life of the child. But it’s for the discreet teachers to judiciously decide that to what extent should they resort to corporal punishment, in order to bring the child on the right track.
Student councilors and psychiatrists, who’ve studied child psychology, do strongly feel that harsh behavior, in most cases, instead of improving a child makes him/her more stubborn and vindictive. He/she becomes further obstinate, insolent and rebellious. In some cases, the student starts repeating his/her mistake intentionally, just to irritate the teacher.
The need of the hour is, for the teachers to find, a more effective and humane method to correct the perverted yet vulnerable minds of the students. If not done so, then incidents of students assaulting teachers in clandestine roads with a group of boys or kidnapping teacher’s family members to avenge the humiliation faced by them in class will become the order of the day. Children are not like a piece of iron that needs to be hammered repeatedly to be given the desired shape, but like clay that has to be moulded carefully and skillfully with both hands into the shape of mature responsible human beings.

BY : SHUBHRO SEN

PAUCITY, MISUSE AND RELIGION - NO RESPITE FOR THE COMMAN MAN

I, a management trainee of Ernst&Young company, have lost my job today because i wasn’t able to finish my ‘project report’ and ‘market analysis’ within the stipulated date. On top of it, i had been reaching late to office on a regular basis for the past two months. Out of twenty trainees, five of the most efficient ones were to be recruited by the company and i, inspite of being amongst the best of the lot, lost this golden opportunity which could have put an end to the drudgeries of my family permanently and transformed my life forever. But it’s not my ‘inefficiency’ which is to be blamed for my losing out on my dream job, as the real culprit behind all this is the M.C.D. and the Delhi Electricity Board.
I stay in C.R.Park in Delhi. In C.R.Park , and in most other parts of Delhi as well, there is serious power crisis and chronic water shortage. Apart from brief power cuts at regular intervals during day time, the electricity also goes off every night at 11 o’clock sharp. I haven’t been able to sleep well since the past three months as the power cut ends sometimes at 4 o’clock, sometimes 5, and sometimes even 6 o’clock in the morning. Sometimes I really wonder that since there is no fixed time of the start or end of a power cut, is it by any chance, the Electricity Board workers way to settle personal scores with the residents of a particular locality or does it, to a large extent, depend on the mood and good humor of the Delhi Electricity Board. After all, we’ve all been witnesses to the partiality on the part of the electricity board, which always makes sure to have negligible power cuts in V.I.P. areas or localities where an M.P. or a M.L.A.’s house is situated. The houses of these influential people might be having the most power consuming appliances and amenities but they are never subjected to even minor power cuts because of their high position. But as far as all the helpless unfortunate lesser mortals like us are concerned, we are destined to have unending sweaty sleepless nights with the mosquitoes continuously buzzing near our ears, waiting for the slightest of opportunity to feast on the little bit of blood that is left in our feeble veins after the politicians, police and inflation have already quenched their greedy thirst. It becomes so unbearably stuffy at times, that in the middle of the night, I go out on the street to have a bit of fresh air and there I find many a similar sufferers of the ‘ages yoke’, SILENTLY strolling.
But this is not the end to comman man’s suffering. The Corporation lets out water every morning at six, for just an hour or so. During this short span, hundreds and thousands of Delhi-ites pull water from the main pipe-line with electric pumps so as to have a greater share of the supposed-to-be equally distributed ‘controlled’ water. Unfortunately, my family’s economic condition does not permit us to buy those costly pumps and so every morning, the first thing I have to do after getting up in an utterly irritated state of mind due to lack of sleep or no sleep, is to make many trips to the far end of the parallel lane beside my house, to fill buckets full of water from the hand-pump situated there. Unlike some more affluent homes, we cannot even order the Delhi Jal Board water tankers as they are as costly as Rs.500 per tank. After not being able to sleep properly for so many days, and spending most of the morning in filling every utensil at home with clean ‘hand-pumped’ water, which man with ordinary faculties can reach office on time and then have the mental state as well to excel in his work.
The irony is that in our country, half the citizens are not able to get water from the corporation pipe-lines because of scarcity or in the absence of water pumps but still they have to pay exorbitant water tax bills just because the pipe-line is running through their house. Electricity is almost ‘extinct’, but still the electricity board tortures the citizens by sending faulty over-stated bills just to be able to ask for bribes in the process of rectifying the bill. During elections, several political parties shamelessly talk of bringing electricity to the villages to lure the uneducated villagers, although three hours of uninterrupted power supply in the cities is an unachievable target, rather a far-fetched dream.
We are a developing economy, and I would have believed all these problems to be ‘infrastructural hiccups’ as a result of ‘unplanned urbanization’ only if I had not been a witness to the sight I saw today. It was “Janmaashtami”, and after hearing the heart breaking news of my rejection at office when I went out, i was shocked to see a Delhi groaning under severe power shortage suddenly adorned with millions of bulbs across any and every street. Huge gates glittering with colourful lights to greet people on the occasion and hundreds of loud-speakers chanting bhajans. A city totally transformed. My anger knew no bounds. The shortage of this very “electricity” which was being wasted recklessly on a festival, if not misused and wasted, could have given me the sleep, and also my job. I might have become a big businessman or an industrialist eventually, and contributed to the country’s GDP. But all my dreams and aspirations were nipped in the bud because of the incapability of the ‘Capital city’ of the ‘largest democracy in the world’ to provide it’s residents with two basic necessities for survival - WATER and ELECTRICITY.
Delhi is aspiring to become New York by 2011 for the C’wealth games, but what’s the use of flyovers, sky-scrappers and malls in a city which is tormenting it’s residents with sleepless nights and killing them with thirst in the absence of clean drinking water. But what can one really expect from a country where millions of poor die unattended and unsheltered but millions are spent recklessly on stone temples and gold idols, where the comman man does not have clean water to drink but Gods relish on single- toned packet milk, where citizens suffer from power shortage but lords birthday is celebrated with zillions of bulbs.
Note : I, Shubhro Sen, am neither a management trainee nor have I missed out on any dream job. But through this imaginary personalized account of suffering, due to the sheer mismanagement on the part of the Municipal Corporation, of not only Delhi, but all cities and towns of India, i’ve attempted to aptly portray the basic and fundamental problems of survival which the voiceless faceless comman man of our country is facing, but is still SILENT.

BY : SHUBHRO SEN

THE 'BURDEN' OF EDUCATION

“Who was the first President of India? In which year did the first Indo-Pak war take place? Where in India is the Meenakshi temple? What is the name of the first astronaut who went to moon?” are few questions, unanswerable even for many a well educated adults, are actually asked to students who have just passed K.G.2 and are appearing for the interviews in various schools for admission. And it’s not only the students who have to be extra-ordinarily prepared, but it’s also their parents who have to undergo a grueling test and interview to ensure the best of education for their wards in the best and costliest of schools. Earlier students generally started taking coaching from pre-board classes (i.e.) 9th or 10th but now, it’s as early as at pre-school level to prepare the students for the toughest of questions that might be asked during the school admission tests. But disappointingly enough, even the best of coaching and preparation won’t guarantee the student a seat in one of the premium educational institutes if he lacks exam temperament, and inspite of knowing all messes everything up. Worst is, if one’s ward figures in the waiting list, as then it’s further difficult to decide whether to stick to one’s hope or take admission in a lower ranked school.
Once in school, to cope up with the ‘burden’ of the ever increasing syllabus is also an ordeal for students as well as the parents, and also the teachers. The level of subject matter is getting tougher and tougher with each passing year. I remember having studied about ‘vernier caliper’ in physics in class 9th which my father was shocked to see as he had studied it at graduation level, and who knows, at this rate, it might be that my children will have physics as a subject in class 2 or 3 with the difficult numericals of ‘calorimetry’ and ‘specific gravity’ in their syllabus. Many of the most difficult questions on geography, history and science which forced the contestants to quit or lose most of their already won fortune in Kaun Banega Crorepati and the likes, did find an answer with the school going kids as they are infused and ingested with so much information about anything and everything at such an early age, and strikingly, most of it is present in their syllabus or curriculum books and they need not even look the encyclopedia or internet to find answers to such difficult questions.
Moreover, it’s not just about the high level of information and study material being taught to young kids at tender ages but also the relevance of it all. Sadly, education in our country is not at all job oriented. Till class 10th, a person wanting to do engineering has to unwillingly study social studies (that too things like – in whose reign did invaders like Chenghiz Khan and Tamur Lang invade India, the various pilgrims sent to India in different eras, the soil and climate conducive to the growth of cotton and coffee, the type of vegetation found in the northern half of deccan plateau, and the number of permanent and rotating members in the General Assembly of the United Nations). Similarly, a person wanting to pursue a career in arts or commerce is forced to do the difficult sums of physics and maths, and to cram the innumerable molecular reactions of chemistry till class 10th. Because of the study material and subjects not suiting the students aptitude and liking, his/her performance in exams is adversely affected and then he/she is under further pressure and stress to work even harder for securing just in 60’s or 70’s.
The format of present day education is such, that students don’t study with the view and intention to gain long term knowledge and to have a better understanding of things around them, but just to somehow cram up the study material in their syllabus only to vomit it out verbatim on the answer sheets in the examination to secure good marks. And once the exam is over, not even one percent of the things learnt and studied for an entire year is retained or implemented constructively. Haven’t we all studied ‘Sanskrit’ or some other ‘regional language’ quite extensively for three long years from 5th to 8th with it’s several dhaatu roops and kaals, but is there a single person who can claim to remember even a bit of all that was taught and put that knowledge to constructive use.

In such a scenario, where students are not keen to learn what they are being taught, it becomes the onus of the teachers to try to make the subject as interesting as possible. As it is, out of twelve months in an academic year, the schools remain open only for about eight months as the rest four comprise two months of summer holidays, twenty days of winter vacations, numerous festivals and national and regional holidays throughout the year, exam preparation leave, half yearly and annual exams, and the year ending gap. Therefore, the teachers get extremely worked up because of the immense pressure on them to finish the vast syllabus and also save sufficient time for revision within the stipulated date. This affects the quality of teaching as teachers cannot devote sufficient time that is required to properly explain a particular topic, and it’s the students who really have to bear the brunt of the situation. Often, the burden of the mammoth syllabus and other worries combined, make the teachers lose their self-control, and it’s then that we hear incidents of students being admitted to hospitals because of a teacher’s unrestrained assault.
The burden of studies is so much that the teachers, students and parents cannot bear it even collectively, and hence they turn to home tutors or coaching institutes. These days, even coaching institutes take admission on merit basis, therefore, providing guidance only to the crème de la crème of the students. This deprives the average and below average from the best of guidance and therefore, on one hand the good performs better, the bad performs worse. But it’s not that the not-so-good students are the only ones bearing the ‘burden’ to somehow pass, as even the good students are under an immense ‘burden’ to maintain their position/rank in class.
Tough competition, peer pressure, parent’s expectations, teacher’s fear, the vast and difficult syllabus, and insecurity of the future are leading to nervous break down and chronic depression among school going children, which was totally unheard of even ten years ago. Passing or failing in an exam has become a matter of life and death for today’s generation. Students are so very terrified of the consequences of failing that they are committing suicide before even the results are out, just out of fear and dread of a faint chance of failing. The numerous incidents of students caught cheating in exams and so many competitive exam question papers being leaked have their root cause in this very desperation of student’s mindset to pass, and only PASS. The emphasis is not on gaining knowledge or wisdom, but on passing a particular exam, even if it requires them to resort to illegal and unethical means. And the perpetuators of this line of thought is not the student’s notorious group of friends or conscienceless family, but the “faulty education system” itself.
The solution to this problem is neither setting up multitudinous ‘helplines’ once every year during annual exams which are accessible only to a limited few, nor holding periodic counseling sessions throughout which most students either sleep or are uncomfortable to share their innermost anxieties and dilemmas. The only solution to this is revising judiciously the whole format and subject matter of the entire Indian Education System. If simplified relevant subject matter is taught as per the personal choice of subject made by each student, then nobody will fell the pressure of studies as students will understand fast and do their homework regularly, teachers won’t have to try too hard to get the subject matter into the student’s head, and since most of the learning process will be complete in the class itself, the parents will also be relaxed. Student’s liking for the subjects will definitely translate in their performance and therefore, the overall results in exams would be much superior. Thus, the students, teachers and parents will all be spared from exam anxiety, and study or education will no longer remain a ‘burden’. It is the hour’s need for us to give more importance and weightage to the journey (i.e.) the interactive process of learning, questioning and understanding, than the mere destination (i.e.) passing an exam.

BY : SHUBHRO SEN

REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE

The eighteenth century England witnessed the rise of Industrial Revolution. The invention of machines, like the Spinning Jenny and the Steam Engine, catering to economies of scale, gave way to an Utilitarian mindset among the industrialists, resulting in a considerable decrease in the importance of the only ‘active factor’ of production–LABOUR. Thus, the dehumanization, oppression and exploitation of labourers and factory workers at the hands of the capitalists and factory owners led to the need of a body which could look after the interests of the labourers and fight for their rights. Hence, the Trade Unions were formed. The Trade Unions put political and economic pressure on the management so as to persuade and coerce them to comply with the requests, demands and petitions of the labourers. Traditionally, this persuasive method comprised – discussion, deputation, petitioning, gathering, meeting, marching, and if none of the aforesaid methods yielded fruitful results, then only a “STRIKE”.
The “STRIKE” is an economic weapon wherein, production is boycotted by workers so as to compel the industrialists to pay heed to their demands for fear of incurring heavy losses due to a prolonged stoppage of the production process. Though, the industrialists are at the receiving end in such situations, it’s the workers who suffer the most, especially if the strike is prolonged. The workers are daily wage earners and therefore, have to sacrifice their pay for each day of the strike. The price paid by the poor workers for observing a “STRIKE” is to sleep with an empty pocket and an emptier stomach.
Because of the economic relevance and political significance of “STRIKE”, it was adopted even by Gandhiji as a non-violent economic weapon to fight against British imperialism. The Civil Disobedience movement, Non-cooperation movement, Swadeshi movement and the Dandi March were all a refined and reconstructed form of the traditional “strike” wherein, the draconian British laws and imported British goods were boycotted to nullify the existence of British authority over India and Indians.
But sadly and disappointingly enough, the very “strikes” that have been used in history for honourable and valid socio-economic and political causes, for the interests and needs of the perennially oppressed proletariats, and against the exploitative attitudes of the plutocrats, are today being misused by insincere Trade Unions, dishonest politicians and certain other unscrupulous groups for their vested interests and selfish personal gains. The very proletariats, for safeguarding whose interests were the “strikes” traditionally observed, have now become the victims of the same “strikes”. They are misguided, and lured by non-existent and misconceptualized gains into observing a “strike”.
Whether it be the pseudo-nationalist politicians who lie down on railway tracks to show their false concern for people’s causes, or it be a strike by associations of the various modes of transport, or the recent prolonged strike by the employees of a nationalized bank, the people who actually bear the brunt of such protests are the general public, the faceless comman man. The longer the strike continues, greater is the inconvenience and suffering caused to the comman man. It’s the general public who suffer the most without registering their protest in the queues of stopped buses, halted congested trains, and out-of–order ATM machines.
Drawing inspiration from and treading on the footsteps of such immoral endorsers of unnecessary and unethical “strikes”, students of colleges have started declaring “strikes” for as invalid and illegitimate an issue as holding a poet’s conclave instead of a jam session for the college’s annual fest. The very people who are always keen to declare “strikes” at the slightest of instances, may not even be aware of the fact that a legal notice needs to be filed with the Labour Commissioner forty days prior to the actual day of “strike”.
Can anybody justify the blocking of the peripheral Ring Road (the Life Line of Delhi transport) by tees hazaari court lawyers that caused immense inconvenience to thousands of commuters every day, just because a bench of the Delhi High Court had been opened in Rohini, and that too, for better convenience of general public and speedier judgements by the judiciary.
Can anybody justify the losses worth crores of rupees incurred by the five markets- Sarafa, Kirana, kapda, galla and loha when “Bandhs” are called by R.S.S. to propagate it’s concept of “Hindutva”, by B.J.P. when they want to register their resentment and protest against a bomb blast at a religious site, and various other similar instances.
Can anybody justify the annihilation of multitudinous factories and industries in Bengal, which used to be the trade capital of India during the days of the Raj, just because of recurring and prolonged strikes called by political parties and trade unions under the cover of peoples’ causes.
Such meaningless and unscrupulous “strikes” have put hard work and toil in the back seat and changed people’s mindset so much so that students in colleges, workers in factories, and clerks in offices wait wishfully for a “strike” as “strikes” no longer depict a day of registering resentment and revolt against oppression and exploitation but is an “unofficial Sunday” – a welcome holiday on an otherwise working day. A “strike” has ceased to be the fight of the poor, oppressed and underprivileged for their fundamental rights but has become a hoodlum tact of dishonest trade unions to economically blackmail the factory management and extort money from them at the cost of the poor factory workers’ daily wage. It’s no longer an act of struggle and agitation for a legitimate social cause but a shortcut method of conscienceless politicians for gaining instant popularity, mass sympathy and political mileage.

BY : SHUBHRO SEN

TOILET MONOLOGUES

Is there anybody who does not like to relish the steaming hot headlines of the morning newspaper while answering nature’s call every morning in their bathrooms? Bathrooms and toilets, at home or outside, always bring out a different person in us, and at times it surfaces the real uninhibited self in us. At home it turns a shy introvert into a Abhijeet Sawant (bathroom singer) and outside, it brings out the real devil in an otherwise good civilized man. After all, we all have wondered that who writes and draws the innumerable vile abuses and graphically depicted private parts of male and female anatomy on walls of public toilets. The most noteworthy aspect about this crude graffiti is that we all condemn the writer without knowing who he is, although he might quite possibly be the man peeing right beside us. Also, we read those words and then, either get disgusted or simply laugh them off, but not once do we ever feel that the abuses might have been directed towards us, and not anybody else, by some unknown enemy of ours.
In my school life, the school toilet used to be the unofficial ‘conference room’ where everything, from the game plan of an inter-school football match to the routine for exam preparations, was extensively discussed and debated. It was the Mecca of unscrupulous students who brought chits to the examination hall but lacked the guts to cheat right under the invigilators nose. There was least risk of a surprise check by the Principal in the toilet so it was our favourite and safest place to bunk the utterly boring chemistry period. And how can we ever afford to forget that the first abuse we ever came across, and the first thing that sparked our curiosity about the untaught and taboo was not from a foul mouthed roadside urchin or an ill-mannered senior or a bold feature film, but it was from these obscure and intriguing words and pictures drawn on the walls of our school toilet that had put our tender minds and imaginations to work overtime. The blacklisted and notoriously mischievous students of my school sometimes burnt noisy fire crackers inside the toilet that would shake the whole school building. In our school lives, although the toilet was the den of all wrong and mischievous activities, it was also unmistakably the most effective destress zone for the students. To be really true, it wasn’t a mere “toilet” but a "surrogate classroom" where students read, learnt and scribbled all that was condemned and criticized by the ‘actual classroom’.
It does seem that the sight of a public toilet wall surfaces the pent up frustration and restlessness of unfulfilled desires in people and they, being unable to contain the dissatisfaction inside any longer, unleash their anger and incivility on the walls by scribbling the vilest of abuses. The abuses ain’t directed towards anybody in particular because the writers themselves don’t know whom to blame exactly for their problematic lives, unending miseries and unfulfilled dreams. It is believed that even sex helps in releasing the bottled up frustration, helplessness, stress and anxiety in a person, but all that the sex-starved Indian middle class and lower middle class are left to do, is to vent their repressed ill feelings through spoiling public property - by crude provocative drawings and filthy abuses on the walls of public toilets, damaging the seats of trains and buses, spitting on freshly painted walls, and tearing leaves and grass in well maintained public parks. Since they have been unable in achieving what they pined for, the suffering proletariats derive sadistic pleasure by destructing public property and other’s belongings. Although, the walls of the public toilets portray the bourgeois society’s declining moral code of conduct but nonetheless, the writers are people belonging very much from among us, who have just become disillusioned of the system, the judiciary, the ineffective five year plans, and false promises of the politicians, and therefore have resorted to such crude methods, out of sheer desperation, to make themselves heard. The walls of these toilets continually scream out aloud to us about the comman man’s distress and agony, and in “speechless MONOLOGUES” try to convey to us, the PRIVILEDGED DEAF, the frustration stemming from their helplessness.
My school authorities did exactly what the present day 'sulabh-shauchalayas' struggling to tackle the same “graffiti” problem have done. They put floor-to-ceiling tiles to ensure the stoppage of any further scribbling, and thereafter made the walls of our school toilet mute and speechless forever.

BY : SHUBHRO SEN

"THE END" OF INNOCENCE

I go to a park regularly where children of class 1 to 6 play around. Many a times, i witness the hush-hush talks taking place in gender based huddles. Sometimes I overhear conversations that can well be termed as obscene or vulgar in many ways, and even alarming, if considered the tender age of the speakers and the concocted information they have on the on the subject.
A class two student gets into a fight with a classmate and utters some of the vilest abuses that can put to shame even the most uncultured of tongues. A surprise checking in school results in the confiscation of a porn magazine from a class three student. A group of boys from class four caught visiting an illegal explicit site during a police raid at an internet café. Are these mere incidents of the increasing curiosity in the minds of the “children” to know the unknown, or simply the mental prematurity of the Gen Now. Whatever one may wish to believe, one must not overlook the ill effects of this trend on the young vulnerable minds, more eager to learn the untaught, and their resultant harmful experimentation to unravel the mystery.
The puberty age in children is lowered, giving rise to enquiries and inquisitiveness at a much younger age. Technology and modernization, meant for the betterment of the society, are instead spoiling the young by catering wrongly to their growing inquisitiveness. The slight push of a button enables them to have the knowledge of the entire world before them, courtesy the World Wide Web. The launch of the satellite channels has led to the showcasing of English cinema (where such scenes are somewhat mandatory), titillating serials (like Desperate Housewives, Sex and the city, Baywatch), and various talk shows and comedy serials where the ‘three letter word’ is often hinted at or openly talked about. When well-reputed national weekly’s raise the issue of sexuality on their cover page just to boost their sales, it’s the children who out of curiosity buy those magazines the most, but are left further puzzled and bewildered as nowhere do the write-ups talk about the modus operandi of the act. Even ads made in public interest with youth idols like Dravid and Sehwag to endorse the use of a certain contraceptive in order to curb the spread of sexually transmitted diseases has led to children’s mind working overtime on the “taboo” subject. Moreover, with a computer at every home and a mobile in every hand, it has become easy for children to access porn videos through net and GPRS, respectively. The large number of adult jokes circulated through messages and internet are also corrupting the minds of children who don’t even know what ‘the thing’ is all about. Fifth estate, concocted version of the fourth estate, which includes blue film cd’s, MMS clips, etc have done further damage by projecting a major human activity of evolution in an utterly crude manner, and criminally reducing it to an indiscreet act of ‘jumping and pumping’.
Our culture has labelled “it” as an indecent subject, leaving no other option for the knowledge- hungry and curiosity-rich children, than to resort to such inaccurate and corrupting sources for information. Knowledge on the subject is absolutely necessary from health and safety point of view, to make children aware of sexually transmitted diseases, sexual disorders, child abuse, rape, and avoid unwanted pregnancies. But the “right knowledge” should come from the “right quarters”, in the “right manner” and at the “right age”. And to ensure that everything goes “right” in this process of questioning and understanding, the parents, the teachers and also the school curriculum has to play a vital role. Children often turn to their peers or the corrupting internet because they are not comfortable talking to their parents or teachers on the subject. And sometimes, it’s also the parents who remain so busy in their respective careers that they seldom find time to spend with their children, and to understand their problems and curiosities of the growing up years. That’s why, often it’s the children from such families of working parents who misuse the technology available at home (internet, dvd’s and mobiles) in the absence of proper and constant monitoring of their activities by their parents. Hence, so many fatal mishaps take place due to children’s experimentation with the concocted and incomplete knowledge gained on the ‘sensitive issue’ through early and over exposure to several perverted mediums, and their lack of maturity to handle it. Infact, the whole DPS episode was the result of a young girl’s lack of maturity, unanswered curiosity, forced ignorance and compelled experimentation with sex and sexuality, which was taken advantage of, by her partner. The episode not only proved disastrous for the two people involved but also heaped disgrace on their respective families.
Like Hindi films, the children of today have moved much beyond the conservative concept of flowers and bees for depicting kisses and love making. The parents must come to terms with the fact that with every generation, it’s also the beliefs, traditions and social norms which are changing. Yesterday’s “taboo” is today’s “norm” and tomorrow’s “law”. With more and more youngsters becoming open and casual about live-in relationships, pre-marital sex and one-night-stands, it’s necessary for them to be aware of the good or bad consequences of such instinctive and indiscreet decisions taken by them. So in an era where “innocence” has come to an end and where children know much much more than they ought to, it is of paramount importance to make sure that the knowledge gained by them is always through the right sources and neither half-baked nor concocted. Together we can, and we must make the KNOWLEDGE on ‘the subject’ A BLISS for a better and safer tomorrow of our children.

BY: SHUBHRO SEN

COLLEGE BLUES - THE REALITY CHECK

If schooling comprises the formative years, then college definitely is the finishing school where children are packed and packaged as ‘men or women’ to be brought out into a huge unpredictable market called “society”. And if, the finished product is defective, then they’re rejected and doomed for life.
College-portrayed as the most glamorous and happy go lucky period in a person’s life by films, the very word which makes the school going kids drool over, and the mention of which takes the elderly to an effervescent world of nostalgia. This is what I, an outstation student of first year, thought about college and college life. But the reality is not so rosy and goody-goody, and one only comes to know the “inside story” if one has stayed there and seen all that “with his very own eyes”.
College is generally associated with a life sans responsibility and full of fun, adventure and “FREEDOM”-not only to cast vote but to do all sorts of good or bad things which a person always wanted to but couldn’t, due to restrictions imposed by age, parents, teachers, school and family. But once in college, the bird is set free to soar high up in the sky, to explore all exotic shores and exalted peaks. Freedom always comes with responsibility, as rights come with duties. But youngsters often get so intoxicated with the taste of this ‘new found freedom’ that they forget the significance of responsibility which refers to “the self imposed restrictions and limitations”.
When we’re out of the confines of our secure home and beyond the protective supervision of our parents, it’s then that we get to know this “Big Bad World” full of wolves under the skin of men. We are then exposed to all sorts of evils which are irresistibly tempting. They start from a mere cigarette which we had seen Sanjay Dutt or Amitabh Bachchan stylishly smoking but never had the courage to take a puff during school life because we feared somebody passing by might watch us, or the same old chilled beer can which always used to beckon us from inside the refrigerator but we never dared to touch it as our dad’s angry eyes flashed in our mind. And these evils are not just limited to the cigarettes and booze in the roadside shops but have also come in within the college premises in the form of drugs which are sniffed privately during rock concerts. Any party in the hostel premises is incomplete without dirty dancing and buckets full of cheap alcohol. The flesh trade is also steadily catching up with the youngsters, mainly college goers to earn fast and easy money. Everybody knows who these so called “young, educated and decent models” of massage parlors are.
Most of these temptations initially start as an adventure with “it’s just the first time” attitude but in the absence of self imposed restrictions, gradually make us groan under their servitude.
The core of any revolution throughout the world have always been students - grown up, decision making, opinionated college students. They are the very future of the country and society. But what sort of future and progress can be expected from today’s youngsters who are themselves enslaved by intoxicants and evil practices. Such students can only take the country back to the ‘dark ages’.
It’s high time that the gym going, adventurous and cash-rich youth awakens to the ills of these evils and boycotts them completely. Gone are the days when college going youngsters like Mr. M. K. Gandhi used to promise their mother to refrain from all intoxicants and to hold all women in high regard, but today’s modern, tech-savvy generation next can at least make a silent resolution to themselves not to give in to such temptations for their own good, for the good of their country, and above all the happiness of their parents.

BY:- SHUBHRO SEN

INDIA IS SACRIFICING IT'S FREEDOM TO WESTERN COMMERCE AND CONSUMERISM

The revolutionary Swadeshi Movement, the Satyagraha and the patriotic slogan of “Be Indian - buy Indian” have today been replaced by “Be Indian – buy foreign”. Today, the Indians no longer feel proud to see the tag ‘Made in India’ on any product or commodity they purchase and instead, consider it to be a status symbol and prestige issue to say that a particular commodity bought by them is ‘imported’.
The slave mentality and the attitude of self pity of the native Indians and their staunch belief that ‘West is Best’ has led to this fascination and obsession for foreign and imported products. People presume the Indian products to be sub-standard and the foreign goods to be tech savvy.
The adventurous foreign market is basically pioneering and goes wherever opportunity beckons. Labour, the only active factor of production is very costly in foreign countries. India and other Asian countries, with huge population and less job opportunities, provide them with adequate cheap labour. Our people act as ‘Labour Warehouses’ for the foreign economies which exploit us and our potential for their benefits and profits. Global Giants are setting up their ‘call centres’ and doing extensive ‘outsourcing’ to cut down on their expenses on manpower, and hence decreasing their cost of production to earn Super Profits.
The low cost of production of the foreign firms as compared to Indian industries is attributed to cheap and easily available resources and raw materials, proper efficiency of labour, modern mechanized methods of production, and specialization and division of labour which leads to minimum wastage and optimum
utilization of resources. Because of this, the price quoted by the foreign firms is much less than the indigenous firms which lack skilled labour and proper technical know-how. As it is, that the purchasing power of the Indian consumer is very low due to low wages, underemployment and unemployment, so there is a greater demand cheaper durable products than expensive ones. Thus, the foreign products get an edge over the Indian products due to their competitive price.
Moreover, the foreign companies with highly developed infrastructure and sound financial standing, resort to cut-throat competition by aggressive marketing strategies and speculation to rise above local producers and products. The extensive ad campaigns of the foreign firms, with top film and sports stars and various innovative methods of their product promotion, leave a lasting impression on the minds of the consumers. They declare special incentives, festival offers, discounts and various attractive instalment schemes to capture the Indian market and boost up their sales. The advent of plastic money, that is, credit cards and debit cards have further facilitated the expansion and diversification of foreign firms in Indian markets and has retarded the growth of Indian firms.
The foreign firms have firmly established themselves in the highly unpredictable Indian market and are annihilating the Indian firms at a steady pace. Every year, several Indian firms are being declared as ‘sick industries’ and Indian entrepreneurs are constantly suffering heavy losses. Our small scale and cottage industry craftsmen are starving to death due to unemployment and poverty. Indian farmers are committing suicide in despair and despondency. Even if a single multinational closes it’s office or call centre in India, then hundreds of qualified and professional Indians will be force to roam jobless on the streets. Indian companies will not have the potential to absorb the excess workforce, and this will further increase the unemployment problem of our country. The unemployed and jobless will go astray and resort to illegal and unethical means for fast and easy money causing economical, social and political unrest in the country.
People are so much addicted and obsessed with foreign and western products that Indian industries are failing even in the consumer goods market, that is, soaps, powder, cosmetics, beverages etc. The influx of foreign companies and commodities is causing widespread unemployment and poverty, and further decreasing the standard of living of industrial labourers and producers.
Thus, this so called ‘globalization’ and ‘liberalization of economies’ is fatal for developing countries like India who are striving hard to keep pace with the advanced products and latest technologies in the Indian and International markets. The western commerce and consumerism is not only wiping out our indigenous industries but also making our country dependant on their products and job opportunities. History is repeating itself. The East India Company came to India to establish friendly trade relations, but gradually enslaved India by making Indians first economically, and politically dependant on them, and ruled for 200 years. Now it’s the turn of western industries and multinational companies to rule India - economically, socially and politically. And who knows? This time, it might take more than 200 years to attain ‘FREEDOM’.

BY: SHUBHRO SEN

JIHAD

A 17 year old girl lived in Kashmir, the real heaven on earth,
Every agony and pain could be cured by whose soulful mirth.
She went to the village primary school, took the sheep for grazing,
Learnt to speak Hindi and Kashmiri, and helped her mother in the evening.
Bought apples from the orchard, read namaz five times without a miss,
Such a sweet, loving, innocent girl was Nilofar Hussein, in a dishonest country like this.

It was a perfect harmonious life with boundless visual splendour,
The lives and minds of innocent villagers swelled with bounty and candour.
There were peace initiatives by both the countries and confidence building rallies,
Concrete bureaucratic steps were taken to put an end to this age old malice.

But one fine day, when misfortune befell,
The innocent villagers were tormented by terrorists dressed as military personnel.
Unspeakable atrocities were inflicted upon the helpless villagers,
Husbands executed, sons assaulted, and young girls molested before their mothers.
The genocide and holocaust could not be stopped by treaties and bilateral parley,
Gory barbarianism and unleashed brutality still pervaded in the valley.
The unfortunate young girls were left to lament on the mutilated corpses,
With emotional scars, physical blows and lustful thrusts on their bust and bodice.
They ran from police station to circuit houses for security and justice,
But the government turned a deaf ear to the pleadings and petitions of the plaintiffs.
The obscurity and obliviousness of the obnoxious situation, left the tender minds confounded,
And in their perplexity and helplessness were roped in by the terrorists, and stranded.

By the articulate rhetoric of the anti- social elements,
Were the girls convinced to take up arms, to avenge the death of their parents.
They condemned India and it’s governance by painting farce as truth,
And brain-washed the tender minds of the vulnerable youth.
They justified Jihad as a holy war to protect Kashmir and ‘Kashmiriyat’,
And do justice to the ill treated muslims who were no longer alive or ‘chaste’.
“So that no more Nilofars were born as consequences, to the aftermath of such atrocities,
And Kashmir and Kashmiris are no longer degraded by the invasive criminal ‘blasphemers’.
It’s time to declare a holy war on behalf of Islam and sacrifice the sons of Allah,
For the ‘freedom of Kashmir’ and the injustice done to the followers of Allah.”

For one and a half years, Nilofar was trained along with seventy other Kashmiri girls,
Who were victims to the same brutality, in Muzzaffarabad, P.O.K., at their headquarters.
Their regiment did a lot of destruction for three years at many key places of border security,
Bombing national highways, attacking military camps, and doing other agitating activity.
But for the first time were they assigned a job of such magnitude,
When they had to obstruct the peace process, confining people in enemity’s servitude.
They never wanted peace between the two neighbouring countries,
Only wanted, the people on either side of the border to live forever-‘as enemies’.
They were instructed to bomb the confidence building summit,
So as to spread distrust regarding the agendas in the meeting’s ambit.

When Nilofar reached there equipped with R.D.X. and other ammunitions,
Was dumbstruck to see a terrorist outfit surrender, thus stopping the unethical destructions.
Said the Politician to the people and the surrendered anarchists:-
“Kashmir is the major factor behind cross border terrorism and political instability,
Justice will be meted out to the Kashmiri muslims and pandits, by punishing the guilty.
Pakistan, Kashmir and India should open a bilateral dialogue to find a plausible solution,
Through Confidence Building Measures, and refraining from third party mediation.
We declare rehabiliation package, jobs, Rs.2000 stipend, and vocational courses,
So that their children are saved by benefiting policies from political sources.
Exclusive treatment be given to the Kashmiris by a special committee to guard,
Their interests and benefits, and without much hype clean the mess in our backyard”

She was moved by such a speech, realizing how wrong she was in her assessment,
The Government was eager to set up fiduciary relationships, giving up the ‘step child treatment’.
Because of the erosion of love, clemency, morality and ethics, was she filled with remorse,
Deciding to renounce arms and weapons, from terrorism, she seeked divorce.
She went back to the headquarters to inform them about her atonement,
And was immediately paid obeisance, by a bullet to her astonishment.
In her last breath, she got the clear cut view of her self appraisal,
Understanding Jihad of the terrorists, to be selfish motives and prejudices very personal.
The terrorists do not have the moral legitimacy to rule the hearts and minds of Kashmiris,
The holy Jihad does not refer to the illegitimate bloodshed of innocent children and ladies.
Neither Allah, nor Jihad preaches us to spread moral terpitude,
Wiping out blasphemers, by a gory unethical war, is just a handful’s ghastly attitude.
Catastrophic disasters are not a part of Allah’s errand,
Both ‘Democracy’ and ‘Jihad’ are battle of ideologies and superstition.
Through PLEBISCITE and a CONSENSUS, end this holocaust of the past 58 years,
Instead of fighting and terrorising, we should try to wipe off people’s tears.

BY:- SHUBHRO SEN

POLITICS

Politics is a dirty and dangerous game,
Whose players pride themselves in their lack of shame.
For in the use of unprintable words do they indulge,
With black money and bribes do their pockets bulge.
Politicians are rich – in wealth do they roll,
Their deeds are often as dark as coal.
They hesitate not in spending taxpayer’s money,
Their public speeches though – are sweeter than honey.
Before the BIG VOTE, they campaign from place to place,
Promising to change the entire country’s face.
They tour the country to win ‘hearts and votes’,
They visit in Raths, tribal areas remote.

Absence of political ideals like Gandhi and Nehru in khadi kurtas & gown,
Has forced the parties to campaign with filmstars of the ‘tinsel town’.
Political parties bribe with liquor and tandoori chicken,
To attract and win votes of the poor, hungry and poverty stricken.
They resort to illegal practices like booth capturing and proxy votes,
Giving contesting tickets to prisoners, in lieu of bundles of notes.
Millions have been recklessly spent on advertising campaigns & party promotion,
Which otherwise, could have been channelized for employment, infrastructure & education.

Once elected, they keep all their promises aside,
Throughout the campaign they had blatantly lied.
Ministers appoint their relatives and personal favorites to high posts of authority,
Leaving the competent and deserving candidates jobless, to perish in poverty.
The money granted for building highways and roads,
Is used for buying personal Mercedes and Fords.
The money kept aside for the alleviation of the poor,
Pays for expenses of Mrs. C.M.’s foreign tour.
They spend huge sums on their extra-tight security and lavish conveyance,
Compensating the paucity through social welfare constraints.
They are the ones solely responsible for ‘State Sponsored Terrorism’,
By instigating and misleading the people with thoughts of communalism & racism.

Case files of scams, corruption and crime have been opened and closed,
But the authenticity of the charges & allegations have never been disclosed.
Many cases like the ‘Bofors’ and ‘Fodder scam’ have made news and faded away,
The police and C.B.I. investigations till date have nothing to say.
Regarding corruption, new records have been set,
We’ve lost all hope of any benefit we’ll get.
Political ideologies and principles have gone down the drain,
People are expecting justice and development just in vain.

But it’s “we, the people of India” who should come forward and choose,
And elect the deserving candidates, the corrupt ones be hanged by the noose.
Only a new breed of educated and honest politicians can revolutionalize the present Indian politics,
Bringing back the glory and essence of ideologies, principles of social welfare, and human ethics.
Then only, dishonesty and corruption will take a back seat,
Politicians, instead of air-conditioned cabins, will work in the scorching heat.

Amidst this corruption, dishonesty and poverty,
We dream of prosperity, affluence and unadulterated food.
Till we come across the next ‘Political Renaissance’,
Let’s be happy and FEEL GOOD!!!!

BY:- ZOHRA AHMAD & SHUBHRO SEN

SECULAR INDIA - A MERE DREAM OR REALITY

“Where the mind is without fear
and the head is held high …..
….. Where the world has not been broken up
into fragments by narrow domestic walls …..
….. where the clear stream of reason
has not lost it’s way…..
….. into that heaven of freedom, my father,
let my country awake.”
Will this dream of Tagore’s ideal India and Indian society ever come true? India – considered as the largest secular democracy in the world. But how far is it true? Our holy motherland India, which used to set the ideal example of ‘unity in diversity’, is today captivated by the shackles of religious and ideological conflicts of the various communities.
The dirty politics and the orthodox beliefs of the Indian people are to be blamed for the current political and social scenario of our country. In the summer of 1947, the first major clashes between the Hindus and the Muslims broke out. A well planned move of the British wherein, out of ten million people in flight, almost a million were dead. The Muslims said that the Hindus had planned and started the killing, where as the Hindus thought that the Muslims were to be blamed. But the fact was that both sides were killed, shot, stabbed, speared, clubbed, tortured and raped. The same incidents of brutal killing and ghastly barbarianism have been repeated many a times over the years, since the Independence and partition, though at a much smaller scale but with the same intensity of hatred and bitterness.
To make matters worse, the politicians of our country instead of bridging this socio-religious communal gap have made all possible illegitimate contributions and efforts in further deepening and widening the gap. Whether it be the demolition of Babri Masjid, Ayodhya Ram Janm Bhumi controversy and the Godhra incident during B.J.P. reign, or it be the 1984 riots during Congress reign, none of the parties did ever make any plausible and genuine efforts to calm down the two communities. Instead, they provoked their favoured communities to carry on, to gain their faith and sympathy, in order to increase their vote banks. Even the pointless never ending discussions and debates, and the unscrutinable Supreme Court verdicts could not do any good to solve these matters. As it is, that the inhuman incidents at Godhra, the numerous communal clashes and riots, and the ceaseless religious and ideological controversies have shaken the very foundation of Hindu-Muslim unity, integrity and brotherhood, still the selfish, greedy politicians are further discriminating by opting for separate representation in the Government instead of secular representation, just to win the ‘minority vote bank’. Politicians, who are wolves under the skin of men, are making the two communities fight with each other and then sympathizing with the plaintiffs to win their hearts, faith, trust and most important “their VOTES”.
Today, the greatest threat to this communal and religious unity comes from religious sentiments and ideologies which seek to divide the people. The religious heads of Muslims like Shahi-Imams and Muftis are giving their communal verdicts and denouncing Muslim nationalism and patriotism by declaring the pronunciation of ‘Vande Mataram’ as taboo and offensive to the Islamic principles. On the other hand, political heads like Bal Thackerey are striving hard to give India the status of a “Hindu Rashtra” and drive away the Muslims as according to him, India is not their motherland.
Such offensive, communal and controversial statements and verdicts have led the Muslims and minorities to consider themselves as Muslims first and then Indians instead of an Indian first, and a Muslim or a Christian or a Sikh in the second place. Moreover, in spite of being a secular nation, we discriminate between communities by having a separate Muslim penal code, separate set of rules and laws for Muslims (like allowance of bigamy), and separate treatment meted out to them at various levels of administration. In a unified and secular India, where everybody has the equal status of an ‘Indian citizen’, firstly why should someone or some community consider itself a minority and secondly, the discrimination at the judiciary level should be put to an end as this will give a feeling of oneness to all.
The politicians must make prompt and genuine efforts to restore the faith, confidence, trust and belief of the poor, neglected, unattended and down trodden Muslims through better justice, education, health and sanitation facilities, employment opportunities and subsidies so as to integrate, unify and amalgamate the vast, segmented Indian population into the realm of civil society. The politicians should try to secularise politics instead of asking for separate parties for the minorities. Reservation of certain number of jobs in seats in colleges should not be assured for minorities and all the seats should be allotted on merit basis as it will give them a feeling of oneness. Incompetent politicians who have polluted and communalised the political and social environment by communal and religious segregation and discrimination should realise that the nation is much bigger than the individual selfish interest and power game of political parties. Politicians must put an end to the appeasement and window-dressing of Muslim demands, rights, aspirations and expectations.
On social grounds, labelling and stereotyping sections of the society on the basis of caste, creed, religion, complexion and status should be stopped. By brotherhood, love and peace, we can try to mould the segregated, discriminated, dispersed and disintegrated Indian society into a profound, compact and united society consisting of Indians, just Indians and not Hindus nor Muslims nor Christians nor Sikhs.
It is not the fight between multitudinous religious beliefs, sentiments and ideologies, but is the conflict between fundamentalists and liberalists who are finding it difficult to accept one common religion, impartially and unanimously, which is the religion of humanity, brotherhood and love. People must understand that the central theme of any religion is spiritual well being and right path to reach God to seek his mercy by honest, pure and sinless mode of living. By using religion as a fighting tool, they are not being true their culture, their religion, their God, and above all to themselves.
Hope, the rising Sun of enlightened India will bring with itself a new breed of Indians who will have no prejudices or biases against people of other caste and religion, leading to the formation of new awakened India, where humanity and nationalism will be placed above religion. Where people of all religion, community, cast and creed, committed to the values of secularism, democracy, freedom and brotherhood will live together in peace, harmony and prosperity, with fearless and impartial minds, with their head held high with confidence and trust. An India which will not be broken into fragments by narrow, trivial domestic walls of communalism and racism, and where mature reasoning will not lose its way into the insane thoughts of conflicts and clashes. That will be the day when Tagore’s dreams of ideal India will turn into reality.

BY : SHUBHRO SEN