Kumartuli or Kumortuli is located in the northern part of the city of Kolkata . The locality is a traditional habitat of the potters for nearly three hundred years. The potters or the artisans or the artists settled here during the restructuring of the Kolkata colonial region by the British East India Company . Earning a livelihood by making earthen pots and utensils first they gradually shifted to the making of the idols of Gods and Goddesses for various festivals round the year. With increasing demand and quality of their creations over time the artisans became famous and Kumartuli came to be known as the hub of idol makers supplying thousands of idols, particularly of Goddess Durga , to whole of the state of West Bengal and to NRIs of around 90 countries across the globe. At least three months before Durga Puja , the biggest festival of West Bengal and one of the biggest across Eastern India, more than five hundred workshops come alive with hyper activity day and night. Fir...
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| Say No To Tea! |
We have already seen how some snobbish and ludicrous bosses try to cut down on wasteful office expenditures. All such characters necessarily boil down to the entirely harmless cup of tea. They deprive their lesser colleagues and visitors of their intrinsic right to a cup of tea as if by doing that they manage to save a whole lot of expenditures. This is only an extreme case of being pound-foolish and penny-wise. At the moment we would like to regale you with another classic example concerning your harmless cup of tea.
The boss in a local production house wanted to adopt austerity measures and it was factually doubtful if he was actually directed by his headquarters to do so. And he came down heavily on the tea served now and then from the hospitality budget. Maybe he wanted to show his tea-clout as some of his furious colleagues would like to say. The office hospitality account was available to him and the next two in the hierarchy, but suddenly the boss started book-keeping keeping a register close to his heart and checking it every alternate hour for possible tea entries. There was an immediate austere impact as the eligible colleagues gave up on the hospitality and decided they earned enough money to buy and serve their tea. Meanwhile the boss continued to have his breakfasts, lunches and snacks from the hospitality apart from the tea.
There was a recording that day which involved a VVIP, and a large entourage, as usual, was expected. The officer in charge of the recording thought that since it was strictly official the boss would order tea for all in the rehearsal.
The tea did come indeed as the peon entered with the tray and placed a cup of tea in front of the VVIP. Then the peon went out and the officer in charge hoped that he would reenter with more cups for the other visitors. But that never happened. In huge embarrassment and anger he stormed out and shouted at the peon for such uncouth manners. The hapless peon stammered that the boss ordered him to bring only one cup of tea. The furious and frustrated officer took out his purse, handed out a note and instructed the peon to bring tea for all and a cup specially offered for the boss. And, he took a resolve then and there never to take tea from the hospitality account.
Well, what people do to save a few cups of tea! In India, normally a full cup of tea is never offered and people are used to take only ‘cutting’ tea and in most offices in India the rates for ‘cutting’ tea is 4 rupees per cup. Therefore, if you serve tea to ten people per day your office incurs a cost of 40 rupees and maximum of 1200 rupees a month—a little more that 18 dollars (at current rates). There go your austerity measures!
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