Kolkata Diaries- A city stuck in time?

To be honest, I was never really interested in visiting Kolkata - at least after all the stories of the city that I had come across. Then in the past 2-3 years, I thought the only time I would come to Kolkata would be for a reason that I wouldn't mention in this blog. But life takes us down alleys that we dare not imagine and the reason I wanted to come to Kolkata was probably to understand more about Bengali's and what makes Kolkata so special to them. Moreover, I wanted to get over a fear and move on with my life.

My first impression of the city is simply of a one that has been stuck in time, the city reminds me of what Delhi used to have been around 15/20 years back - The city has not evolved or rather people have decided to not evolve. Probably the reason, Delhi/Mumbai moved ahead was because of the brands coming into the city, taking away the small vendors and the pretentious nature of the people. People in Delhi would now feel ridiculed going to a small road side vendor and would rather go to a big shop. This is a complete opposite of what I saw here in Kolkata, but that does not mean that nature was any better - The nature can best be described as that of an adamant senile person - who think that any change is bad and hence just don't want to do anything with it.

It's hard to say how much of it can be attributed to the government or just to the basic nature of people here, since a change has to be brought about by the people and hence supported by the government. This has been my first impression of the city - I will continue to add more as I see/witness more :)

Coming back to India

This is a long overdue post, but I guess that should have been expected considering how busy India tends to keep you. 

Its been a little more than a month that I uprooted my life in US and decided to come back to India for good. I wouldn't delve into the details of why I took that decision for that is irrelevant to this post for sure. Landing in New Delhi on 1st Oct 2012, the first reaction that I felt was - Finally ... back to where it all once started. 10 minutes into the airport the old familiar feeling of frustration had kicked in, the old habits of trying to rush was back. A friend of mine recently wrote how some things never change and some things change - the surprise was to hit me pretty soon. Over the next few days it was pretty apparent, India had not changed - the same old electricity cuts, water cuts, people lacking basic civic sense, absolute absence of driving sense. But as I said some things do change - the cost of living. I for the first time felt like a foreigner in my own country when I could not estimate the correct price of any thing. The price rise had taken me in for a big sad surprise, I could no longer tell when was I being ripped off and when was I getting the correct price. Driving in US had left me nervous about driving in India and I knew that I would definitely need some practice before I could get in the groove again. 

But well soon enough I was definitely back in the groove, settling down nicely - except the price rise piece ( to be honest I am still grappling with that one). This is when I had a chance to study the change in people and their behavior. It is a sad site for sure - people have started to take what they get as granted and be disgruntled that they are not getting enough. The later I can understand since the salaries have not matched the commodity price hikes, but the former has been brought down by the government and their policies. This is where we have to divide the masses into the age old economic groups of - poor, middle class and the rich. The poor, or I would most definitely include the reserved classes owing to their status have beginning to demand even when they have not earned it. A simple example - I went to a shopping store where the guy who was at the billing counter was most definitely not happy with his job, his job was to pack the items in a bag - (note: I did not ask him to - I was more than willing to do that myself). But the way he was packing was absolutely moronic, putting the butter (the smallest item) in first and putting the chips pack on top of it and then finally putting the glass ketchup bottle on top (just so that it was about to fall off). It was quite apparent he had no idea how to do that job, but at the same time he was expecting to be paid more for that job and felt that the job was beneath him - A job which he is not able to do well enough too. 

The reservation has given the reserved class opportunities to grab govt. jobs and sit as 'babus'. The first order of work they do is to act as Gods and decide who to serve and who to harass owing to their position. In the end, the high class does not get affected nor the poor but the middle class has one more thing to deal with now. 

Looking at my own locality, I couldn't at times help but feel as if there was a zombie apocalypse in recent past and the city has been left in the wake of it. The infrastructure if at best has been at a stand still for nearly 9 years now. Life still continues for the residents, they are neither happy nor sad around the affairs - simply because they have no time to feel anything. It is as if they have made a deal with their fate and are now just passing time and dealing every minute as it comes. 

I know my thoughts are a lot scrambled as of now (just like everything else in my life) but it definitely makes one think and creates in me a desire to do something. But with so many problems, the question that vaunts the answer is "Where to start, which problem to deal with first?" In all this madness, I just wish that I never adopt the moto of the scores of Indians "Chalta hai - translated best as "as long as it works its fine" " the laid back, casual attitude is perhaps one of the biggest reasons why the politicians are able to push the public into a deeper darker hole and what has killed in Indians the drive to lead a better life.