Notes on some days past.

The past few days have been unnervingly busy for me. With a new festival called “year-ending”, we so have to compulsorily celebrate, I am almost beginning to wonder if it’s April 1^st when we should be wishing each other’s happy New Year.

Nevertheless, a lot of snippets of news have passed by in the recent past. Some of them; I wonder, could have a more profound impact in the geo-political and cultural space we occupy and breed ourselves in, at least more than bits of information on why Aishwarya’s baby doesn’t have Abhisek’s eyes and etc. I couldn’t help not referencing some of them below:

• ·         Government spooked over an un-informed movement of two Army units towards the capital.

Good. At least there’s something that can spook this government. Nobody wants to live in a country under a coup, but with literally lakhs of crores of rupees flushed down the toilet in scams; and the government seemingly unfazed (read PM) by it all, it’s good to know that there might have been something going on that stole the sleep of those scumbags.

• ·         Mamata strong-arms Congress into rolling back passenger fare hikes and axing the Railway Minister.

The equations are simple. I am one of your largest coalition partners. It is principally because of me that you get to milk the country. The Railways is a traditional hunting ground for us coalition partners. You screw the nation for all you want, we just screw the Railways.

On a more serious note, I have been personally processing railway freight bills (for transporting petroleum products across to our customers) for the last one and a half year now, and in this period, they have been increased by almost 40%! It makes me sad to think that at this moment, some dumb bloke, who just travels 5 times a year by rail, but uses petrol or diesel almost daily, is happy thinking he has saved 200 rupees a year on his train journeys. Not for a moment wondering why the heck is his fuel bill going up and up. Or perhaps why that stupid goods train across the tracks gets to move ahead while his passenger train just eats up time on the station. That’s Rail-politics for you!

• ·         CIL to sell coal at prices below market-rate to private power producers.

It’s only left for someone to shout out loud that something is seriously, seriously wrong here. CIL is one of the few remaining jewels in the government’s crown. And we are getting to see it mortgaged. To cash hungry, power starving industrialists. There’s no market like a free market. But a market must have its framework of rules, its ethics. That’s where the government decides it’s time to get blindfolded.

• ·         Cow eats answer sheets of Class X examinees of SEBA.

Someone please stuff a few of those cow-eaten rolls down Dr. Himanta’s mouth. Students are already devastated, and no one would like to hear his banter for even a second more.

(- Though all of the above items in bullets are true, the lines following are my personal statements only. Not to be taken even for a moment on a sentimental note. So what if you love Didi? You still get to be my friend!)

-Palash

10th April'12, Lumding.