By Goutam Shankar
Kolkata remains a city of joy and oh boy! So it is. Every moment, not withstanding nocturnal times, there is enough ground to pick up a quarrel and expand it to fisticuffs, lathi charge, boma baji, pistol firing (by fringe political ‘workers’) and of course, the more common notoriety of police bashing.
A case in point is the latest of many fracases at one of the edifices of higher education, the Jadavpur University. It all started and continues, albeit a little subdued, perhaps, due to blistering summer, with the film show of ‘Buddha in a Traffic Jam.’
Two divisions of students belonging to different political camps, started a war for supremacy and that provided sufficient ground for politicians to strengthen their political clout or better, to lift their sagging profiles. The students’ unions, the teachers’ association, outsiders mingling with insiders, all let loose an environment of chaos with classes and education once again taking a back seat in future’s courtyard.
“Ki korbo dada � hok kolorob!” While the kolorob is still on, someone has lost the keys to the classrooms till the time of writing this piece of deceitful concept.
The latest venue of political ‘concern’ revolves on Diamond Harbor where a youth was beaten up by a frenzied mob and who later succumbed to his injuries in hospital. He was thrashed mercilessly for stealing a buffalo.
While the un-stolen bovine continues to graze unconcernedly in the vicinity of the owner’s home, the weeping parents and kin of the murdered youth continue to look on at the ruins of hope the poor peasant family had nurtured for better times when the deceased, a B Com graduate doing his IIT training would land a good job.
Meanwhile, going by the latest update, the Trinamool honcho who supposedly played a big hand in the crime, is absconding. Opposition party people, while consoling the bereaved family, are going out in their usual ways to castigate the state of mayhem unleashed by the, till now, ruling party.
With the Kolkata police earning long overdue accolades for conducting the later stage of the polls in a positive manner, their uniforms are open boards for blood stains. A couple of days back, a youth in his teens, when stopped by a traffic personnel for driving his bike on the wrong side, landed a blow on the cop’s face.
The cop’s nose bled and he received teeth injuries. Apart from the youth’s family rushing to his aid, some political nests have also been stirred.
According to one of the biker’s family members, he is only 16 years old and is a student of class 10. So, what was he doing riding an Enfield Bullet on a busy road? If he had a license, how did he procure it? These are just irrelevant posers in this city of joyous kolorob.
Squabbles in buses and metro trains, at street corner tea stalls and ‘watering walls,’ the sense of Bangali oikkota prevails in terms of debating over all issues under the sun including politics, physics and IPL. Nothing seems below-the-belt in this city of many happenings where mishaps are just stray incidents.
The views expressed are personal of the author. He can be reached at (goutam.shankar.das@gmail.com).
