CPI(M), Singur, Coal Mining in India & Marquez

In One Hundred Years of Solitude, which, thanks to some Professors of Comparative Lit at Jadavpur University, where my wife was reading for her graduation, I read a year before that greatest genius of novel wrting so far, Marquez, got the Nobel prize, says at one place that the people of Macondo began forgetting everything. And they started labelling everything, like CHAIR, TABLE, etc.

I am brought to this analogy time and again. In the current state of coal mining in India, we have forgotten the common efficiency that was taken for granted in the industry as it existed then, till Madam Gandhi nationalized the coal industry of India. And 35 years after the first round of nationalisation we are moving further and further away from normal simple things that are a matter of course in any industry. The Deputy Chief Personnel Manager in charge of administration of the largest coal mining company of India does no work at all and senior national level TU leaders scream before a coprorate meeting that they have been put up in guest houses, two to a room, that have become shabby because of apathy of the Admin Deptt staffed by blokes with just a graduation degree from unheard of places called Muzffarpur or Bhagalpur, (no HR degree, mind you, may be just a dimploma that can be had in Ranchi or even Kolkata for a pittance). Why ? Because the Director(Pers) is a very rough, very corrupt person whom no one approaches to complain because the complainant would be packed off before he can bat an eyelid to a jungle beyond Dibrugarh in Assam.

I hope, with all the faith in the progress of humanity that my father instilled in me that may be one day we shall recover and reach the state of managerial excellence of the IT industry sometime within the next 15 yrs ( I cant see it happening in a decade).

The same analogy is true of the state of WB. First the CPI(M) destroys all industry existing in the state through virulent Trade Unionism, which though it has admitted, but is yet to come out with a clear apology before the people, not to talk of compensation, not to the capitalists who lost their property, but to the people whose fathers and brothers committed suicide out of poverty because their factory was closed and there was no hope of its reopening.

And then it takes over rich agricultural land to lure capitalists back to open factories so that the voters of CPI(M) must now be provided with jobs and this cannot be delayed much longer.

We have to rediscover things. Time and again. Because some hot-headed people who remained adolescents all their lives and created a very efficient party called the CPI(M) which grabbed power, mislead the people, coerced and corrupted the Government servants and even the Police and continued to mislead the people through their total control of everything, now even the principal opposition news-media house called Ananda Bazar, through their street corner propaganda machinery more efficient than that created by Goebbels and destruction of all opposition through a spy system more efficient and more ruthless than that of Saddam Hussein, so that no voter of rural Bengal can dare to vote for the opposition.

Marquez, a communist, is a genius. The above is another proof that One Hundred Years of Solitude is a classic that will stand the test of time.

Being Grown Up

Bloggerhead said something about nothing having changed despite her grown up status. I said 'What is being a grown up ? Grown ups are so ugly.'

Their faces dont show anything. Grown ups are people who feel the same things that we feel but hide their feelings. Grown ups would also dip their toes in the stream. Only its not a done thing and they only do things that are done. Grown ups don't do the things we do because when they did those things they were laughed at or lost money or status.

Basically grown ups are insecure people who don't do things that are not accepted by society. They have accepted the dictat of society and like society watch Hema-Dharam/ Shahrukh Khan movies, speak Hinglish/American. A male is expected to have a big job/business/career, have a big car, a big house, a big bank balance and the female is expected to maintain the bungalow/apartment ship-shape, be a good host for parties thrown for office/business contacts besides taking care of the kids and in-laws.

A grown up would rather get into analytical discussions instead of enjoying a discourse on the many meanings of the word 'fuck'. A grown up would use his time reading ET than watching porn. Poetry was for weirdos. Art? How much did you pay? What is its value today? He has read Camus when he was a college student at IIT/IIM because his girl was discussing it and he didn't want to be left out. He forgives himself for having wasted that time because he was so young. The last book he read was the Alchemist / the Monk who sold his Ferrari because someone's wife mentioned it in a party.

His only preoccupation is getting up the ladder or becoming an Ambani, and when he has time left over, he worries about the kids careers. Adultery is disgusting and is indulged in by losers. If his eyes light up when he sees a woman he checks himself right away, bad boy he tells himself, you have a wife and kids, and is soon lost in his job related worries and when he is done with the day he wants to come home, eat and have sex if she insists and he cant avoid it and knock off.

Grown ups are ugly people.