I've been living for more than five years in DumDum - the heart of North Kolkata now and have been a spectator to many festivals held round the year here. 'Were they held from time immemorial ?' I wonder. Almost all of these pertained to worshipping of deities. But what dominated people's minds over devotion was the pomp and show, the puja being just an auspicious date marked in the almanac; an excuse for feasting and merriment.
Mikes would start blaring days ahead since dawn, resulting in peevish mood of residents who reached home late and went early for work. Men and young boys would be found dancing to the beats of bollywood numbers, oblivious to their spilling into the narrow bylane outside and causing traffic snarls. Gorgeous pandals would be erected with chairs adorning either side of the entrance like in a reception and the idol placed at a remote corner, posing challenge to passers-bys' eyes.
Men and women from the nearby bustees would be found busy since the morning - washing rice, chopping vegetables and stacking in huge pans and buckets; all set for the cooking of khichdi and vegetable curry. No family cooked meals for the day, while in the evening a spoonful of rice-dal concoction would be served to all agog passers-bys' to go with a piece or two of vegetables in leaf bowls.
The source of donations for such community welfare apparently a mystery (since these pujas didn't depend on local clubs' fundraising campaigns of taxing office goers and businessmen like in Durga, Kali, Vishwakarma or other prominent pujas of bengalis), was not difficult to guess after all going by the vested interests of political parties in securing the support of urban youth.
I've no qualms in admitting that even being a hindu I didn't know so many Gods and Goddesses to be worshipped publicly, other than the existence of 330 million deities according to hindu scriptures. Kolkata has been showing influence in cultures of the North and West since long. But while Ram Navami, Hanuman Jayanti, Jagrata functions are being popularised since a couple of years; wedding festivals are straying the traditional bengali route and adopting 'Mehendi', 'Sangeet', etc. rituals of Punjabi and Marwari weddings.
There have been continued amalgamation of bengali language with English and Hindi as well. The pure bengali dialect is used by eminent bengali scholars, a few professors, some old writers and art film makers alone, collectively termed as 'bangali aantel' (bengali intellectuals) by the bengalis themselves who despise speaking their mother tongue. The middle-class and bengali elites who have earned the title of 'bong' in the West and their language to be 'banglish' in the country use an appreciable number of English words when speaking in bengali. Now the inclusion of hindi (in pathetic bengali accent and grammar of course) left few bengali syllables in the dialect. The bengalis have embraced a new vernacular now - a mixture of Bengali, English, Hindi, indifferent to lampooning by others.
The youth seemed to be happy with festivals, turning a blind eye to governments blatantly hoodwinking people into believing recession to be GDP growth in the state, using cooked-up theories and manipulated data. These were of course other than those serious about their careers - who joined the ruling party's bandwagon and made a fortune on building materials supply or from extorting promoters and shopowners. It was only a matter of years though before they had started to join processions wielding swords and machetes, changing boats when they had the inkling of wind blowing in other direction.
It is not that the character of bengali youths has changed much from earlier decades or the political parties has turned worser. During my childhood at Kharagpur (around thirty years back), there were young men in my locality who squandered their parents' money over grooming themselves to become lookalikes of bollywood actors, pestering for the latest two-wheeler in the market and idling off their times by squatting on culverts and flirting with girls; causing much discomfiture to the residents. Today's generation of bengali youths have only adopted to displaying their valour in a virtual world.
Though no denying the fact that organizing blood donation camps, flood relief campaigns, grand feasts for slum children continue to be in the cards of many clubs, what was absent was the mingling of politics into everything like of now; social work and education being no exceptions. Also education hadn't been commodified then. While there have always been some mollycoddled boys (labelled as 'bourgeois' by the left front activists) who stayed away from active politics and world issues in schools/ colleges ; there were many who respected their political idealism and left no stone unturned towards realizing them, carrying forward the legacy of Independence and Naxalite movements. Looking back at the past now, the once integrity and passion towards a cause has been replaced today by indifference and self-interest.
Industries were still gasping for breath and job availability was perhaps only a little less scarcer than now. While bengali youths have adapted migrating to other states/ foreign countries for jobs since Independence, there've always been some who found it safer to stay back within the security of their parents' homes rather than embrace a nomadic life, being contended with clerical jobs offering peanuts remuneration; entrepreneurship always being the bitter potion the bengalis had shied away from. Yet it would seem like a fairytale that Kolkata's early infrastructure viz. palaces, parks, roads, bathing ghats etc. were all built by Bengali businessmen and landlords.
Jobs or no jobs, bengalis at least had the far-sightedness to judge the implications of anything new and the wisdom to choose the right over the wrong. At our times we had known only of few Gov Engg. colleges. / Polytechnics of repute in the State. Granting licences to private colleges mushrooming in every square and lane hadn't occurred to anyone even in their nightmares as was the commodification of education. If an aspirant had a poor ranking, he/she didn't quality for counselling and had no other option other than to sit for JEE the coming year. Of course there were affluent parents who send their wards to private colleges in the South India. The fees in government colleges were nominal and donations were unheard of. Though the fate of industries were sealed under the alleged militant trade unionism of left rule, yet campus interviews held at the colleges picked up deserving candidates; unlike the fact that few private colleges can actually convince companies to be interested in them today due to obvious reasons.
Since long a community has been prone to acceptance and adoption, slowly losing their own identity and turning into flawed clones of other cultures. Known widely all over the world for their hospitable, amiable and accommodative nature; they are now being forced to retreat from their own home in Kolkata to far-flung suburbs of North and South 24 Parganas. The poor, uneducated kolkattans living in slums have little hesitancy in surviving on donations thrown at them in return for illicit favours but the educated middle-class is getting increasingly degraded, de-cultured and disheartened as opportunities are getting limited and life getting tougher. Like always bengalis are left with nothing other than to grumble over being reduced to 'kangalis' (destitutes) and all due to their lackadaisical, apathetic, inveterate and mind-bogglingly tolerant character.
Once an epitome of creativity and revolutionary ideas which have shown the way to the country and given the world some of the greatest litterateurs, scholars and scientists; the bengali psyche is showing signs of regression now; evident from its failure to dream, imbibe new ideas and rekindle the true Bengali spirit - striving against all odds. Despite everything ask a bengali and he will always be all smiles, proud of his culture and brimming with optimism for the coming times.
The bengalis have always learnt to persevere to political ideologies - the left rule of 34 years bearing a testimony to their belief in a political party which promised to bridge the wide economic disparity between classes. Tired of the atrocities of cadreraj (cadre-driven politics) they opted for a change only to find the old tactics and practices of CPM's goondaism to have been served to them in a new bottle. Eight years after the historical change in favour of Singur 's downtrodden peasants and the people of West Bengal are being lured for a change again, this time on the basis of caste and religion.
Card playing and adda session go simultaneously. All the problems under the sun are solved in such congregations, amidst puffs of cigarettes and innumerable cups of tea. Picture representative only and doesn't refer actual persons.
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