The Majestic Brigade!!

The day started lazy and early today. I had to reach the office before 10 am or else get stuck in the huge endless flow of humans walking the “Brigade”. Though I woke up early the chill of the morning forbade me to get ready and leave fast. So, I had to travel in the rush hour, and the sights form the Metro at every station was a bit threatening. At every station there stood groups of strange looking people, well not really strange, but getting a glimpse of them was enough to understand their purpose of travel. They were heavily clad in woolens and mufflers, carried stuffed bags, and looked extremely excited; and to speak the truth, I found them uncivilized and horrifying! Every time the Metro halted, these people somehow clustered and like magnets stuck to the outer walls of the Metro, and before people could get down they pushed and rushed their way in! In the hustle-bustle many office goers started screaming at them, but they simply ignored these abuses and fought their way into the metro all the while grinning and jumping! Once I was out in the road I started walking fast to avoid the flow of millions of people walking, against this human tide! Thankfully I reached safely. But during the break my Boss asked me to visit the crowd with the others on the road. Initially the idea sounded silly, who goes to see a crowd? But then as I witnessed it, I found it quite interesting.
The road was closed post 10am. And I had already seen huge buses overloaded with people who even sat on the roof, shouting and laughing loudly on their way to the “Brigade”.
I saw groups of people walking, running, sprinting; some very happily, some dutifully and some playing and cooing cheaply at women. One hassled commuter was walking helplessly pushing aside the spacious crowd with a trolley bag. I had pity on the man, the tint of scare in his face indicated that he was about to miss his train to some important destination.
Amongst the supportive Brigade walkers were young and old, men and women, even more surprising was the fact that there were a handful of children as well. A woman carrying a toddler on her back was walking with a fairly quick pace. Huge flags were being waved by the holders; there were numerous banners with various messages which I could not read due to the crowd. Each group had a separation from the other of about a few yards. With the passing by of every group the messages and cheering changed. My ears caught a funny one “Brigade Cholo, Cholo something, Dak Diyeche Mamata”. Later on pondering on the line I discovered it was “Brigade Cholo Janata, Dak Diyeche Mamata.”
There were some people who enjoyed the walk, they playfully hit each other, ran about in circles and joked and laughed. Some of these walkers talked of the political conditions and the chances of the political parties in the Lok Sabha Election.
A hilarious sight was that of the loyal Mukul Roy supporter who wore a mask of Mukul Roy and had cut outs for the eyes and the nose. His large nose stuck out from the mask even though the nose of the mask laid pasted on his own nose. Some said that the strength of the crowd would be as strong as 12 lakhs!!
On my way back I met two friends of mine, Tiyash and Tushar who had gone out to celebrate Tiyash’s birthday, which as she exclaimed was partly ruined by walking the brigade!

T.E.T Massacre

The sudden explosion bombarded in the form of breaking news by 24 Ghanta on Saturday lead the state to rise up in protest against the severe betrayal, they have undergone while giving the Teacher’s Eligibility Test (for the primary teachers). The audio tape which was broadcast on the channel; is now being denied by Suranjana Chakraborty, claiming that the voice that is doing all the partial and messy talks is not hers, but a tampered voice, as said by our honourary Higher Education Minister Bratya Basu! “Interview te k 9 pabe r k 2 pabe seta sampurna amader bepar”(Who gets 9 and who gets 2 in the interview is completely for us to decide); after this outrageous statement which examinee will not feel cheated?
Now in all this scepticism where is the famous lady who opens and never shuts her mouth and goes on and on screaming without any solid content? Where is she, who ran into every incident; be it a fire in the market place, or cases of violence against women or supporting farmers deprived of land by fasting? How did she become so quiet all of a sudden? OR is she losing control on her “DAL”? What happened to the “Shatata-r Pratik” (symbol of honesty), where did all the honesty vaporize to?
They pointed to others at every drop of a hat and blamed them for whatsoever evil happenings around the city, and demanded CBI investigation every now and then; isn’t it unnatural for them to believe one of their friend’s words -of-mouth and ignore what the media has to show with evidence? Did the CBI craze just drop off the brave hearts? Are they scared of the leaks those are finally tearing away the tight shell of their “Ganatantrik dol” (Democratic Party) and not “Dalatantrik” (groupism)? Do these people think that the common men are all fools and illiterate? Or do they consider themselves to be over qualified to deal with the mass at all? How could they even think of betraying the people of their basic human rights and carry on with these cheap poly-tricks without getting caught? Finally when a solid and evident incident was revealed, they are nowhere to be found to comment!

Walking on the streets is not always a bad idea; you often come across many extraordinary sights worth noting in your memory. While heading back to the metro station from the office I am interning at, today I witnessed some very cute scenes of action. On the wide footpath, dwell a lot of less fortunate people. They sleep, eat and enjoy their simple lives there. There lay a little boy wrapped up in his tattered shawl sleeping, and towards him was approaching an even tinier figure or rather one of the fabled cloth ghosts with its baggy hands up on the air. The boy was suddenly up and looked terrified in his trance, but with the faintest of his presence of conscience he tried to look into the straightened striped clothing towards him intending to scare him. No doubt it was his younger sibling, a very small figure walking, almost strutting blindly towards the little elder brother covered fully in his disguise. The horror in the face of the elder child was worth watching, though I couldn’t catch a glimpse of the younger one’s face, but the intelligence he/she showed was very worthy. You may be rich or you may be poor, but every kid enjoys their share of good time with their siblings. Then again moving ahead in my journey towards the metro, I caught a glimpse of a very small head, with comparatively large eyes, and a very pink pair of open lips in the shape of an ‘O’ which is even smaller than the tip of my finger! The head of this baby was covered with an orange woolen hood, and the baby looked so engrossed in looking at everything, everything its eyes could get hold of! As if it had to scan and experience all visual pleasure with that outing it had on its mother’s arms.
I know these sights are quite obvious and common, but how often do we actually stop by and notice what is around us? Rarely! But sometimes when we do we cherish that decision in the core of our heart and recapitulate that we haven’t become all mechanical, deep down we all fall prey to emotion and very humane.