A disfunctional Tuesday in Kolkata

Its Tuesday morning and this is what I saw when I looked down the otherwise busy street through my window. Everyone is too scared to go out. No, its not last evening's rain that was actually quite a relief from the heat. It is what we refer to, as a Bandh(strike). This time it has been called on for 12 hours all over India. Its obviously a political strike and hence as usual the civilians suffer.

People who survive on daily wages are losing a day's wage. The whole country is losing on trade and there is an approximate loss of over Rs.700 crores.People are stuck in airports stations and even inside trains because of this nuisance called strike.Toilets are locked down in the city airport and people cannot even practice their basic human right. Private or public transport has been stalled and party people(not the night club and disco party people) are rallying down the streets to show their importance .

Unfortunately,all that I can see is the loss.Its not helping anyone or any idea at all.Strikes should be banned in India.But then people will say that strikes are the basic rights of a democratic republican country but where the basic survival rights have been taken away from the civilians democracy can only be a myth.

While political parties quarrel, we the people suffer and cannot do much about it.During elections it feels like choosing between a thief and a robber to reign over us because no one is straight(all sorts of puns intended).So, here I am, writing about Kolkata's piece of suffering in the strike instead of the happiest of times that Kolkata celebrated last evening for the rain after the scorching heat of Summer and the daily fight in sweat and humidity.

The Haunting of the School Memories

Yesterday, I was sitting on my terrace and was thinking of all the things that I could recollect about my school life, at that moment.
The moment was not very romantic because of the GREAT KOLKATA POWER CUT which lead to a lot of perspiration leading to desperation to get some fresh air.So there I was thinking of all the weird stuff that happened in school life:

My first recollections were all the horrible ones.The ones where I got slapped by my teacher in school for not doing my homework which was a very patent thing for me.Then there were memories of falling down from the bed:Lots of different ways and positions of me falling off my bed and it actually made me laugh!I don't know why I mentioned them together....actually I thought of them simultaneously...maybe because both were equally painful.

The most horrible one was me waiting to show my terrible report card to my parents.It was like a nightmare for me.I was probably more scared of seeing my parents disappointed again than actually getting the yelling or being grounded.(P.S.Indian Grounding includes not being allowed to play with friends or watch T.V. or use the computer.)

Then there were these terrible fights with friends at school or should I say classmates at school.Till around 14 years of age I never really had a close friend or best friend at school inspite of being an extrovert.Maybe being an extrovert made other girls more uncomfortable being with me.The fights normally ended with me either slapping someone or me crying and returning home and saying..Ma I hate school...please change my school.

Then the electricity was back!

So I stopped thinking about these terrible memories not just because of the power cut but also because of the fact that all these things helped shape the person I am today...regardless what YOU think of me after reading this.Or what I have really turned out to be!