Kolkata: Cancel the Commerce of the Durga Puja Carnival!

Yes! We ask why shouldn't the pure Commerce show of the Durga Puja Carnival in Kolkata be canceled in view of the worsening medical crisis? For how long this cruel irony of continuing the worship of the Mother Goddess and continuing to torture/kill the Mothers in human forms going to continue? 

Greed, limitless greed of humans! Dear God! This time Goddess Durga came in a cradle which in itself implies ominous times, and further, the tithis from Mahasaptami onward came mixed in such a way that you get three days of worship, technically. Yet, the greedy and selfie-social-media-crazy crowds of 'devotees' were still not satiated, descending on the Puja pandals in uncontrollable hordes for as long as seven days, and to pander to their greed and to have the maximum of business, most of the Puja organizers disregarded the tithi break-up completely and have been celebrating Bijoya Dashami or the Dussehra well into Ekadashi, the eleventh day! They expect the hordes to descend tonight too into their pandals and continue to gorge on their food stalls, generating more business for them!

And, in came heavy thunder showers in the afternoon, probably washing away the pandal premises of various Pujas! Wrath of Mother Goddess and Mother Nature so clearly visible, not just this time, but many other times over the recent years. But to what human avail? The greed, the eternal insatiety, the moral degradation, the paralysing corruption and the tantalising hypocrisy are all irreversible: set seemingly in an automatic motion to bring the End inevitably. And, what can we fools do but for crying or making unreasonable demands? 

Social Media Visibility @ZERO!

Well! What the heck! Invisibility is infinite because our own God Himself is invisible! Some scientists say that even ZERO is a concept akin to being infinite! Therefore, both ways, it’s only great to be invisible! While God hides Himself behind whatever you don’t need to know, He has created the humans that are immensely visible; once you’re born as one you cannot hide anywhere in the universe until you drop dead in which case you’re either burnt to ashes or buried under, making you finally invisible as far as the ‘real you’ is concerned, because you continue to exist virtually in family albums and the social media, and if you happen to be a huge celebrity you continue to have an extremely dominant virtual existence till perhaps when earth itself gets obliterated. However, problems are more obnoxious when you and other ordinary mortals like us are kicking alive! Even if you wish to disappear instantly from all human views, like Sita in Ramayana did, you fail to accomplish that. In this digital world God has given us the great gift of the virtual existence like the one where He perhaps exists too, not for nothing. Here, you are empowered to do what you wish to do with your unwelcome physical appearance and other related attributes, not instantly, of course, but over a very short period of time. Yes! You can really make yourself disappear!

Now the question comes as to why you should want to disappear yourself from your very own fellow human beings! In mean virtually! Well, for that you’re quick to blame only them, because actually your fellow human beings is the primal cause. Moving on with the modern times and to keep yourself in circulation you do join the virtual world—the social media platforms you know. There you show your face, pen down your thoughts and tagging along other virtual creatures too. And most of you do quite well. But alas! Other fellas cannot tolerate your getting noticed and so, they turn themselves into fraudsters, hackers, cheats or whatever of that ilk to steal your profile from no one else than you only, steal everything possible of your enriching virtual existence and move on as perfect parasites, at times, achieving much more than the real you ever did! And then there come the dangers—looming insecurity for all your material wealth, for your pace of mind or for your possible loss of reputation, apart from the identity theft.

It is indeed hard to understand why God has gifted the Artificial Intelligence or AI tools to humankind at this vulnerable juncture, because, apparently, it immediately helps the fraudsters, cheats or whatever of that ilk to make your life worse! They can now be the real you, for all surreal and virtual purposes! Perhaps He wants to make your proposed ‘disappearance’ act fast-tracked. Obviously, the IT giants, the top CEOs or the industry tycoons would only sing hoarsely in praise of His gift! Why would they bother themselves for ordinary mortals like you? They wouldn’t stand to lose any of the customers either, because the real you will have to go on purchasing the essentials for your physical mortal cocktail existence! A bit complicated, you know!

Anyway, we can really fast-track ourselves too in the disappearance act thanks to all the gifts! Virtually, mind you! Maybe, God had sent the Pandemic to get us involved more intimately in the virtual world so that when the time comes we should be ready for the all-important act. Following your tragic example, this namesake writer has also decided to disappear himself from the virtual world—instantly from the main social media platforms and gradually from the other related terrains. Of course, he will always stick to his books or writings even if those are suffering from as much loss of visibility as his invisible self, and for that simple reason only he continues to write today here, particularly for you! The writer has still kept one platform, because there he has just a solitary follower there which fact would greatly discourage antagonistic-fellas from adopting, adapting, impersonating, taking over or whatever as well as safeguarding him from related dangers.

Let there be light, and there was light. Let them disappear, and they disappeared. God can be omniscient, omnipresent and so on, but He too has to adapt Himself to the changing times. Right? 

Megablock on a Metro!

 

It was early afternoon on a hot and humid day with the sun playing hide and seek with the non-threatening clouds. I hoped there wouldn’t be many takers for the special seats on the metro trains at this unfriendly hour, but I was wrong. As I boarded the seemingly empty train and marched toward the special section of the coach I found all the seats occupied, and more worryingly, a few oldies were standing, crouching hopefully and watchfully around the seats.

 

I stood in front of the two-seater and immediately found a frustrated oldie arguing with one of the two seated seniors to make way for him to sit as he fervently pointed toward the three-seater where a fourth person was accommodated. The defendant argued that the two-seater is a new addition and very narrow making it extremely unhealthy to accommodate a third passenger. Finding no support coming his way the plaintiff slowly moved away in search of greener pastures in the next coach. ‘Shit! They’ve already unlearnt the Covid lessons!’ I thought ruefully. The other oldie that looked much older and emaciated, in his early seventies or probably more, seated next to the defendant was fully absorbed in his smart phone.

 

Suddenly there was some movement in the two-seater that I missed as I leaned against the steel railing looking at the full length of the coach, trying to enjoy the scenario. It was too late! I discovered that the emaciated oldie got up and the seat was taken instantly by the not necessarily nearest standee. In fact I was the nearest. The defendant smiled at me in a rather curious way, muttering something that I failed to catch.

 

After maybe around three minutes the emaciated oldie came back and the new occupier had to vacate, to his silent chagrin. ‘What’s he doing? Confused about his destination and asking around or what?’ I thought. I looked at the defendant. He again smiled at me, this time understandingly, although I again failed to understand, this time miserably.  

 

Hardly two stations passed by when the emaciated oldie stood up again on a new lease of movement. The standee, frustrated previously, made no move this time; looking glum and fearing a repeat if he went for it. Not knowing exactly about the correct course of my action, I, being the nearest, logically sat down. I thought even a two-minute comfort was going to do only good to my aching knee joints. Now, I could clearly hear the amused muttering emanating from the defendant, sitting next to me. He told me that the emaciated oldie was extremely preoccupied with his mobile and was showing it around to almost all the passengers, consulting them avidly. He also added that though he couldn’t figure out what the problem was he overheard something about ‘blocking’. ‘So, he is expected to resume his seat anytime soon!’ I muttered back to him now.

 

I saw him consulting the seated oldies in the opposite bench, showing his phone liberally. And obviously, getting fed-up perhaps, he came back for the seat reclamation. As I prepared to make way for him he motioned me to sit on and adjusted himself somehow in the middle. That move surprised me to no less bit; however, his next move explained why.

 

This time he showed his phone to me, opening up the WhatsApp message page. He pointed to a number that had no name to it.

“I want to block this number! Do you know how?” he asked me in utter helplessness.

“Oh! You really need to block him or her?” I confirmed.

“Yes, yes!”

I showed him how. Simple and sweet! The emaciated oldie blocked the number immediately and launched himself fully on his now-fructifying mission. If he was excited and elated by that simple discovery he didn’t show it. He just mumbled something without moving his eyes from the device and I interpreted it as a customary ‘thank you’. Most probably!

 

My station came and I alighted. My peripheral vision informed me that even though the emaciated oldie remained glued to his instrument with his newfound knowledge he was circumspect enough to not allow anyone to propel into the third possible spot. As I walked to the station exit I smiled to myself, thinking, ‘A lot of people could be going to be affected by his educated tantrums! But why should I be worried? I’d not be responsible at all for all the megablocks he may have already created or might be creating in the foreseeable future! And anyhow, ‘blocking’ has of late become a somewhat necessary exercise!’

My New Book This Festive Season!

Well, I have decided to be socially active again! Like in the case of political parties this can also be called a 'necessary evil', even though most of the younger people would never agree! Okay! It's necessary, one likes it or not! Virtual presence in this post-modern age is absolutely essential, more than the physical presence that can be beheld only by a few. However, this doesn't mean that I will be hyperactive with my old wine in a new bottle, meaning my new blog where I backed up almost all of my pieces! 

And, to continue with my die-hard habit I have to inform you of my new book, 'The Weirdos' which is a collection of short stories. I wanted to publish it before Christmas and I have succeeded in doing that! Like it or not, the links are put up below to celebrate the upcoming festive occasions:

In India:

In USA:

Blissfully Incognito!

This is indeed a huge relief! Like the Pandavas in Mahabharata had to undergo an Agyatvas (incognito exile) we're too having a similar phase without, of course, any kind of force or politics being applied in our case! We don't know how long this Agyatvas is going to last. But it was necessary to outsmart all those bots, malevolent elements, casual surfers and so on from visiting our erstwhile site uninvited and always with malafide intentions. They can no longer spot us and harm our virtual platform. All of my social media accounts have also been deactivated, because I was convinced that these spaces attract more enemies than friends, and also the extremely dangerous species of disguised friends, apart from the arrows of the malevolent fraudsters. No visitors, no issues; no readers, no cramps! Amen! 

All the Unknown Authors’ Money!

We’ve been very much used to lament ‘all the taxpayers’ money’ whenever we come across some embezzlement of public funds or plain acts of bribery and corruption. In this piece we’ve decided to confront a new but emerging phenomenon as should be clear from the title given. That day during a writer-authors’ conference one author made a disturbing observation on or perhaps lamented that ‘nowadays the number of authors has exceeded the number of readers’! That observation instantly found a sympathetic supporter in none other than this writer; because I’d dwelt on this post-modern phenomenon quite often and I’d even extended this realization to ‘there are more singers than listeners nowadays’ and of that kind. However, I don’t intend to analyze the nitty-gritty of such phenomena here apart from just saying that such brazenly emerging facts of life have been owed entirely to the social media and all digital formats that convinced a huge chunk of the users that they could indeed write and can be veritable authors, and due to which there’s been a tremendous boost in the recent decade in the self-publishing sector, indie sector, training agencies about how to write a book, formation of more and more award-giving organizations and in the advertising/marketing-of-books sector.

*I think this above mention is more than enough to indicate the kind of money the authors, unknown obviously, have been made to shell out in their dream of becoming successful authors. First, if they are not fully convinced by their skills embedded in social media posts they spend money on learning how to write a book in both fiction and non-fiction genres or how to write a novel or how to write a children’s book or whatever.

*Second, they spend a sizeable amount on their hard-earned money or in the case of the fortunate ones surplus money on publishing their books through the self-publishing or independently or hybrid publishing companies. Now, even though books should be considered as the genuine assets of any publishing company by promoting which they only stand to gain the maximum, such publishers put the onus on the authors on every possible opportunity of squeezing more and more money out of the hapless authors: like asking the authors to buy authors’ copes after dishing out the miserly complimentary copies or none at all; promote their books through marketing at their expense; asking for more money on the authors’ intention to change the cover page design or the blurbs or anything; asking for additional funds for reviews and press publicity; asking for astronomical amounts just to include their books in the international book fairs; and so on.

*Third, the authors, unknown mind you, are always vulnerable because after publishing their books they’d naturally want those to be read by as many as possible and to get some feedback, and therefore they easily fall into the ‘squeezing traps’ mentioned above. The publishers concerned understand this craving and so they keep on organizing interactive author events for which, again, they ask the authors to shell out more money just to attend and much more if they want to interact or launch their books or give self-promotion speeches cum display or participate in panel discussions.

*Fourth, the unknown authors never give up hope even after being handed out no-sales reports for months/years, and they naturally crave for some official recognition at least. Therefore, they give in to the lure of the award-giving companies some of whom sell the awards directly while others disguise it as taking the money for nomination/registration/participation fees, with some of them, again, are cruelly brazen enough to charge the authors even for nominating their books without a guarantee to win the awards. In the good old days authors, both known and unknown, used to get nominated for awards and get good prize money on winning the awards; but now one has to nominate oneself and that too after parting with a good sum of money.

*And not the least, although a few lucky writers, unknown of course, do get published by the traditional publishing houses who don’t charge money for the favor, these traditional publishing houses know very well that these guys are unknown entities or rather nonentities and so they do nothing to promote such books imposing the burden of the same plus innumerable ‘paid self-promotion drives’ on the already heavily-taxed authors.

 

While there’s no escape from the squeezing entrapment for which I cannot give any cure simply for the fact that every author has the right to aspire for attention or fame or recognition everything is not as bleak as seemingly suggested here. There are now several international digital self-publishing platforms like the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) where an unknown writer/author can publish their books absolutely free of charge and in the case of KDP they get both e-book and paperbacks published with a free e-book enrollment in KindleUnlimited. Of course, the authors, as usual, crave for their books to be read and generate regular sales, and for that that they go on spending on advertising and marketing. The good thing is that on such marketing exercises one need not go for huge budgets and on account of the low-cost ads they can very well earn well through sales or being read on KNEP through nominal spending.

 

One must remember that even otherwise, meaning without having to go to make oneself an author by oneself only, every author or every book cannot expect to make it big; the tag of bestsellers is more of a magic than a thumping reality even for the celebrity authors. To not give up and keep on writing against all odds must have two basic considerations: that you are a writer by profession or passion or both, possibly making a living out of it, and it’s not just a hobby or pastime or ego; and that whether you are rich or not you must maintain a strict tab on your spends and expected earnings, preventing yourself from going over the top to finally succumb miserably to the luring offers from the publishers/trainers/marketers/reviewers/award-givers and so on. To end more positively, there's now no shame in self-publishing or indie publishing or anything of that kind; a good book can be a success irrespective of the platforms used. 

[Disclaimer: All the celebrity authors and all the authors that have made it big irrespective of the platforms chosen are respectfully excluded from this rather weird preview. And above all, this is not at all about complaining, it’s only about a fact of life in post-modern digital age.]

Senior Citizens: Have Conversations of the Khatak Variety!

“Hello! Is this Mr. ----?”

“Yes, speaking.”

“Sir, I’m calling from the Khatak Life Insurance Company…!”

“Oh, welcome back! So, you’re giving me a job again, right?”

“Well Sir…it’ll be a part-time job…!”

“How much salary would you be giving me per month?”

“Well…err…Sir! First you’ll have to come to our branch to discuss it over!”

“Nah, my dear lady! I won’t come again to any branch of yours. Since you know everything about me please send me the appointment letter!”

“Hmm…mmm…um…ugh…ooh…!”

“Enjoy your day!” (Cuts the line … Khatak!)

 

*

 

“Hello Sir! I’m -----, calling from Khatak Bank. Can I have a minute with you please?”

“About what?”

“We’re giving you a credit card with a lot of benefits, specially designed for you…!”

“So, nowadays you’ve started issuing credit cards to granddads too!”

“Pardon Sir?”

“What pardon? I know a bit about how you get our phone numbers. Now, once you get my number you have to be knowing a bit about my user profile too, no?”

“Your privacy and security are our most important concerns, Sir! ...”

“Whoa! Really? Then how come you don’t know I’ve crossed the age of 65 and am a pension-earning senior citizen?”

“Sorry Sir…um…ugh…ooh…!”

“Enjoy your day!” (Cuts the line…Khatak!)

 

*

 

“Hi Sir! I’m calling from No-Khatak Bank! We have a pre-approved and lifetime free credit card ready for you!”

“Arre yaar! Why do you keep on harassing me? I’m 70, don’t you know that?” (Cuts the line…Khatak!)

 

*

 

“Hello! Am I speaking to --- please?”

“Yes?”

“Sir, I’m calling from Khatak financial services! Is this the right time to talk with you?”

“Forget what’s right or wrong! Tell me what you’d like to talk to me about?”

“Sir, there’s a great offer for you! A pre-approved personal loan of up to a million bucks with discounted interest rates and easy EMIs…!”

“You know my age?”

“Pardon Sir?”

“Let me know how exactly I’m supposed to utilize your loan since I’m 75 and so I hardly have any plans or aspirations of purchasing or investing or anything of that sort!”

“Hmm…mmm…um…ugh…ooh…!”

“Enjoy your day, dear!” (Cuts the line…Khatak!)

 

*

 

“Hello! I’m calling from Khatak heavenly travels and luxury resorts club! Can I speak to you for a moment?”

“What do I have to with you heavenly company, I’m heavily down on earth only and am sticking to that!”

“Oh Sir! This offer is irresistible! For a nominal annual membership fee it’ll offer you travel packages round the year in five-star resorts for 25 years, along with…!”  

“Hey my heavenly brother, wait! Why didn’t you check my age in advance? With a pension how do you expect me to afford your heavenly benefits? I’ve just crossed 80, you know!”

“Hmm…mmm…um…ugh…ooh…!”

“Enjoy your day, darling!” (Cuts the line...Khatak!)

 

*

 

“Hello Sir! I’m ---, from Khatak developers-builders!”

“Yes, how can I help you?”

“Sir, we have a huge project coming up in ----- site. Are looking for investing in property? You can book a flat early to have the early-bird discounts!”

“Are you providing me the millions of bucks needed?”

“Pardon Sir?”

“At the age of 85 how on earth do you think I’d manage a huge home loan to buy your property?”

“Hmm…mmm…ugh…um…ooh…!”

“Enjoy your day, honey!” (Cuts the line...Khatak!)

 

(Note: The hordes of leeches have unfortunately multiplied manifold thanks largely to the long pandemic slump. They pester you on whatever phone you’re using on a daily basis, asking for your money; they litter you text inbox with countless messages containing promos/videos/ links, asking for your money; they infiltrate your WA space too, inviting you to spend your money on a daily basis; you visit your favorite internet sites and suddenly they start asking for your money too; and even the money-rich famous religious places start hankering after your donations with daily reminders. You cannot possibly blame many of them as they’re desperately trying to make a decent living, apart from the downright hackers/fakers/fraudsters/greedy-for-money entities. Most of the other firms/apps are doing a thriving business by providing their databases liberally to the so-called telemarketers. In our modern digital age you cannot prevent that. However, my point is that when the service providers sell their databases why they don’t emphasize on the age-factor of the users so that at least the senior citizens are not harassed every day!

But to make matters worse, the senior citizens, mostly who’ve recently retired, are on special radar of some of the predating vultures like the life insurance companies. Their target is to blood-suck you dry, squeeze the last penny out of the varying pension packages hard-earned by the victims and reduce them to beggars on the street. Now, pensioners heavily depend on their savings to eke out an independent living and the tension increasingly gets heightened if they happen to live for many years after retirement. Beware then, senior citizens! Do never fall prey to their offers; never click a suspicious link; never seriously consider their job offers as they only want to make you spend at every step, indefinitely; never hand over your personal details to any entity; never make personal posts on social media. Remember that poverty among the pensioners has been rising worryingly across the globe.)

Digital Violence, News Channels and Hypocrisy!

It’s a case of wholesome insensitivity, amounting to zombie-like behavior on which subject we dwelt over much earlier, of nearly all of the so-called digitally conscious citizens of the country, but also nearly all the stakeholders including the national media irrespective of how you’d like to describe them. Apart from this looming post-modern characteristic, the other equally portentous factor of hypocrisy has also been rampant across, primarily, the television news channels and other stakeholders. For the last few years at least the insensitivity factor has been colossal: any kind of tragic incident happening in public places is always ravenously video-graphed along with the selfies of the ‘proud’ beholders and circulated instantly in their digital spaces, instead of trying to help the poor victims many of whom stay alive during such digital orgy. The news channels then get hold of those clips, in direct or indirect ways, and start building ‘stories’ around those while putting the clips continuously on their screens. Therefore, the insensitive and the often sadistic citizens including us have been getting used to ‘treats’ of such endless clips relating to the most horrendous cases of lynching, murders and assassinations, police torture, accidents, shootings and even crimes against women in the last few years.

 

The hypocrisy of the news channels becomes bluntly obvious when they choose to debate on a particular tragedy that they never ever fail to do actually: while the ‘conscientious’ anchor and the panelists keep on emphasizing the need to keep such dastardly clips out of social media and any other public digital platforms the channel producers keep on running the clip in an endless loop, in a prominent window created on the screen.  Till even the most sadistic viewer gets tired and switches to a different channel! Doesn’t at all matter even if you happen to watch the same on many other channels too! Some still less-scrupulous channels even watermark the inhuman visuals as ‘exclusive’ or ‘first on this channel only’ and like that. Why such mind-boggling hypocrisy? Well, very simple. They know the dominant facets of the psychology of their viewers and so would definitely like to pander to them, just to generate more ad revenues.

 

I was shocked beyond words, sad as I was to hear the news of the assassination of Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, when I found the video clip showing the cruel shooting in broad daylight and in public getting much more importance across the screens of the Indian news channels than the tragic incident itself. Some anchors even wanted to draw our attention particularly to the violent clip being shown endlessly as if to make us understand the sheer audacity of the murder. Their justification was that this involved a huge breach of security. Well, from the Indian point of view this was indeed a breach; but you have to consider Japan where such acts almost never happened and the only news that we keep on hearing about the country is that relating to earthquakes. Had it happened in the trigger-happy and abortion-unhappy US such an approach could’ve been alright; but Japan’s been always trigger-wary and guns in public hands in the country are almost a rarity.

 

However, the glorification of the violent clip just cannot be justified on any ground. Shinzo Abe is one of the most prominent visionary statesmen-politicians of the world and has been a very good friend of India since 2006-07. He’s been a friend of the former Indian PM Manmohan Singh and a closer buddy to PM Narendra Modi. The Government of India had also declared a one-day national mourning in his memory. For some personal reasons this writer, Abe being an almost household name for him as he was actively engaged in the role of a news editor in a national channel during those years,  could not give a fitting tribute to Abe in time, and so is airing his thoughts through this related piece.

India Post: Alert For Social Media Users About Fake URLs/Links!

India Post over the recent days has been observing various URLs/Websites getting circulated in social media such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram and through emails / SMS containing tiny URLs/ Short URLs, claiming to be providing Government Subsidies through certain surveys, quizzes.

 

We wish to inform the citizens of the Country that India Post is not involved in any such activities like announcing Subsidies, Bonus or Prizes based on Surveys etc. Public receiving such notifications/messages /emails are requested not to believe or respond to such fake and spurious messages or share any personal details.   It is also requested to not share any personally identifiable information such as date of birth, Account numbers, mobile numbers, place of Birth & OTP etc.

India Post though is taking necessary action to prevent these URLs / links / Websites to be taken down through various prevention mechanisms.   Public at large is once again requested not to believe or respond to any fake / spurious messages / communications / links. 

 

Source: India Post Press Release Dt. 23.04.2022. 

Top Comments As A Writer’s Dilemma Gets Resolved!

My recent posts reflected a dilemma building up in my innards as to should I go on writing and posting those on apparently a dead wall. I’ve never been a pursuer of ‘success’ in the modern context where it’s a relative term, meaning (in my point of view, similar to Swagata Dey) that ‘success’ does not necessarily match the most integral term ‘merit’, except for some glorious examples in world history. In modern times ‘success’ just happens, maybe due to elements of luck, coincidence, rabid self-promotion, vital links in the network and accidentally appealing stories or videos or whatever, and that success can come overnight or may not come in one’s full lifetime. As far as my work during my service career and my writings since my childhood days are concerned, I do consider myself a success, in my way.

 

Neutrality has been the defining feature all my life, both in my service career and writings, which gives me the freedom to air my views freely. Therefore, I tend to expect neutral or objective views about my work, primarily because English is not my mother tongue and guided by some praise and eulogies early in my life I made it a professional job, even daring to author two English books. However, except for a few positive feedback from my known readers I’ve not been getting feedback from the unknown ‘reading’ readers. As an add-on my neutrality earned me many powerful enemies in my service career! And, even after requesting quite a few writers/journalists/friends to write reviews of my book entirely objectively in their way I have got nothing, good or bad. This site presents my main writing platform, and an utter lack of responses or comments from the readers (if any, was my thought) since years created this dilemma.

 

Very satisfactorily indeed, after presenting my ‘writer’s dilemma’ here and the links in social media I’ve got blessed with a few extremely helpful and kind comments. Very few, but the knowing readers matter a lot still. I consider it my duty to do justice to their thoughts, and so I present their views for you all below:

Sanjit Narwekar Says

“I think you are judging yourself too harshly. I don't think you have failed as a writer just because much of your work has been journalistic in nature. You did a good job of editing the MIFF catalogues. That apart from your other work at Films Division. We can't all write great books but the work we do as writers and editors also provides the grease to make the system work ... And that is no mean contribution.”

Jagdish Jawaswal Says

“श्रीमान सरजी.... अपने कर्तव्य ऒर बॊद्धिक स्तरपर आप आजभी सतर्क ऒर चिरतरुण हो.... यहं हमारा अनुभव रहां हैं... हमने आप के मार्गदर्शन में जो काम कियां है....”

Manas Ranjan SenapatiSays

“Sir, please start your Autobiography.”

Swagata Dey Says  

“I only read a few blogs on the internet, and yours is one of them. It is very difficult to find someone with whom you find yourself in tune with. Your writing makes me feel that way. I respect your decision, but please don't hold it against yourself, sir. Success is frequently viewed as external validation and there are a few things over which we have no real control. Please continue to do what you enjoy and direct all your energy on to it.

PS - I used to read biographies of successful individuals. But I realized that luck plays a big role in every story of success; even a minor change in the story can turn a remarkable achievement into a mediocre outcome. Daniel Kahneman discussed the same in his book ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’. Later I discovered a video on YouTube that forever changed my mind and I've stopped reading success stories since then.

If you feel like watching the video, please look up these keywords on YouTube – ‘We Are All Made by Accidents Pursuit of Wonder’. It has something that will give some more meaning to your story.

Thank you very much for sharing your story with us, sir.”

 

Simanta Adhyapak Says  

“I guess like me there could be lot of followers who enjoy your writing. Feeling sad reading this and on the decision you've taken. I Shall still follow your posts/updates.”

There have been many other positive responses as well in the social media. Well, for a humble writer this is enough encouragement to move on. This is, of course, apart from the surge of renewable energy I got from the ‘telephone calls’ that was mentioned in my earlier story! Thanks a trillion, to all you!

(Note: The photo is only symbolic as a salute to whom all it may concern.)

Law Of Mutuality Extended: Like For A Like Or Read For A Read…!

 

Why should I go on writing? This question has been haunting me for quite some time, and this led to an unintentional break in the first week of this month when, in a very unprofessional way, I left the phrase ‘Budget Tomorrow!’ in my last post in January unexplored and unwritten! Well, I am a humble being and never daydreamed about becoming a great writer what they call ‘bestselling’ and all that. Indeed, I had written quite a few ‘solicited’ articles/papers in both English and Assamese newspapers/periodicals over the decades. However, I discovered that in such ‘ventures’ the merit part gets thrown out of the window and only influences/contacts/references matter. Therefore, I had not been a great success in that line. As a writer you send something to a publication in high spirit and hope, thinking that your item had some merit thanks to opinions of a few of your learned friends, for at least a response, but eventually when it sinks in a bottomless well with not even a rejection letter you feel disillusioned. And as an inevitable consequence in my case, I opened this blog and started writing and publishing on whatever I wanted and loved. Now, the question mentioned above becomes rather an existential crisis as it concerns this platform too.

 

A writer is as normal a social animal as any other social animals inhabiting this planet. If s/he does something or writes something or sings a song or paints a picture or comment upon something a minimum of feedback or response is naturally expected by her/him. Like in my case, I’ve been writing on my site for nearly 14 years, quite regularly; but I hardly ever came across any feedback from my ‘readers’ which raised doubts in my mind about the nature of the ‘readers’. Are they genuine readers or casual surfers or just bots? I don’t know. I get a good number of hits daily, but no responses, forget about appreciation or interaction. Even known genuine friends or kin, barring of course a few sincere ones, just don’t bother to take even a look. Only for a brief period, years back, we constituted a group of like-minded bloggers/writers and made kind of a ‘deal’ to read and comment upon each other’s blogs. So, for a few months there had been a flurry of mutual commenting and appreciating.

 

That kind of a ‘deal’ brings us to the subject-matter of this piece: the Law of Mutuality. As explained in an earlier piece this law of mutuality used to influence only relationships; but now, this affects everything possible on planet earth: from the abysmally growing social media to all forums or groups or anything online.  Recently we discussed with a few musical buddies about the fact that the class of ‘innocent listeners’ has been gravely threatened by the mushrooming growth of ‘singers’ with almost everyone turning into a singer thanks to the social media and other platforms. Unfortunately, the same syndrome is appearing in the field of writing, perhaps any creative field for that matter, too, with almost all ‘innocent readers’ converting themselves into ‘writers/authors’ thanks, again, to the social media and also the mushrooming growth of self-publishing platforms. This has been an emerging conflict of providers vs receivers.

 

So then, it just amounts to the most needed action on your part: you must be hyperactive on the social media and other similar digital forums, donating away as many likes as possible on your friends’ creative works to generate some likes for you too. In both cases, however, it doesn’t really matter if you really go through the works in full. Most regrettably, in most of the writers’ forums too you must manufacture as many comments/reviews as possible on the writings of others to generate some comments/reviews for your items. To make it worse for a starter, the most successfully interactive stalwarts don’t even bother about your friend requests, and anyone would definitely like to expand one’s network after joining a platform. If you lie low, your works would die down slowly, finally forcing you to leave the site, utterly disappointed.

 

Honestly speaking, I don’t have the time to indulge in such digital exercises to create some artificial interest in my writings, even after I retired from my service two years back with the firm resolve to become a full-time writer. I devote my available time to thinking, writing, marketing-shopping for the household, kitchen help, some news viewing and limited socializing. That leaves me with no time to embark on a spree of mindless liking and commenting/reviewing on writings that I really like or not. So, I’ve indeed emerged as loser in this ‘digital race for attention’. I published my first book on humor while in service and then the second book in the same genre after retirement, and one of these books has already sunk in the bottomless well with the other steadily marching in the same direction.

 

But of course, genuine listeners or readers still exist in large numbers. Although the traditional book-reading or buying albums has declined the new generations have been doing reading-watching on mobile/tab/computer screens. As is very natural, they go for the works of the established ‘bestselling celebrities’ rather than turning any attention to less-than-mediocre cum digital-offenders like this writer. They are right. And I’m not complaining or bursting out in frustration either. This is the way modern times move, and it’d not change even if you are honestly unaware if you were a mediocre or poor or merit-less writer, because even you closest friends won’t tell you if your work is good or bad. The way out for you is go on a paying spree: pay for the self-publishing firms; pay for publicity; pay the emerging class of reviewers; pay for awards, in most cases; pay for participating in book fairs; pay for promoting your profile and writings in various forums; and so on. Even then you cannot be assured of attention unless you do indulge yourself fully in the ‘like for a like or read for a read’ competition.

 

I do, indeed, the most basic parts. Like after I publish something in my site, I share it on the very limited platforms that I still stick to for sheer survival, and the I do get the expected ‘views’, but no responses as usual. At times, I also share it in my friends’ groups; but, again, hardly any comments apart from some views that I can gather from my stats.

 

Therefore, all these ‘issues’ have contributed to the emergence of the question raised at the outset. My prolonged introspection on this tells me that I cannot possibly quit my writing as it’s been my passion since childhood days. It may get sparse or even rare, but I’ll go on. My argument also remains: I’m still giving you funny, thought-provoking, sports-related, political etc. pieces on a regular basis, totally free of cost. If you still prefer to not read or respond, it’s your problem, not mine. Right? Anyway, I’m sure this this piece too won’t earn any response! Ha! Ha! 

(PS: Of course, I've learnt from my limited digital experience to put my own photo to garner more attention!!)

Bulli Bais, Sulli Deals…Zombies Thrill, Bullies Drill And Shrill!

Honestly, I knew absolutely nothing about an App called the ‘Sulli Deals’ which reportedly appeared in around middle of  the year 2021 and created, as I came know now, quite some thrills around our haplessly vulnerable country. My ignorance, blissfully, is perhaps because of my healthy contempt for most of the Apps, thanks to the simple reason that once you fall prey to an app the latter keeps on disturbing you with endless reminders for updates and messages about how to spread the ‘appeal’ of the app to your friends. For the last week almost all the news channels of the same country have been crying hoarse and shedding crocodile tears about another App called, very captivatingly, the Bulli Bai. Such was the din created by the channels with daily news headlines, visuals, debates and updates that I was forced to search for what it actually meant. And I found that what the concerned Apps, Bulli or Sulli, tried to do was heinous, targeting the prominent women of a minority community.

 

Those heinous and offensive things that the currently-raging Bulli Bai app tried to project are universally condemnable and it should ideally have ended with that condemnation, particularly after the hosting web platform which was misused banned the app along with the links to it like they did last year too. However, it is a different issue altogether as to how the same platform could be misused again and again without its knowledge. But unfortunately, the media upsurge continued unabated, and even now they are spiritedly continuing with the update headlines with the arrests of some of the culprits behind. Why? Well, obviously because they know that the people of our haplessly vulnerable country are much more attracted by negative news rather than positive developments, and the ‘names’ involved here really were so mysteriously bewitching that they thought this could generate wonderfully lucrative TRPs.

 

One of the arrested accused reportedly said that he wanted to have some good publicity generated about him through this venture that could eradicate the stamp of ‘nonentity’ from him forever. And the media upsurge fulfilled his wishes to the fullest extent possible. We witness in our ‘digital India’ nowadays numerous instances of the ‘vulnerable’ citizens taking selfies with dying victims of accidents or for that matter any victim of any tragedy rather than trying to help those fellow human beings, and they also videograph the lynching of unfortunate victims with unrestrained sadistic glee, and the visuals later find the mainstream media and the social media where these are welcomed with matching glee, showing the horrible clips in loops endlessly. Therefore, we must amend our earlier dictum of ‘vulnerable people being more attracted by negative happenings’ by saying that most of the news channels are equally attracted more by the negative incidents.

 

We referred to such perverts of our countries as the ‘Zombies’ much earlier in these pages, and very disconcertingly, the Zombie class has been growing steadily over the last few years. They are becoming mechanized or programmed animals rather than human beings, and they venomously loathe the human values and the society. Shockingly, such perverts are being nurtured and looked after by a lot of other mechanisms of this unfortunate country. Some of the Zombies are real wizards as far as the digital media is concerned, and perhaps due to the lack of enough opportunities during the raging pandemic they have been devoting their idle brains more to such sullying or bullying acts that bring them instant ‘fame’ (notoriety being synonymous with fame for them), thanks to an obliging media, social media and the vulnerable netizens thereof.

 

I don’t care to explain the shit that these perverts are doing in their sullying and bullying acts. If you are interested you can easily search it out in the internet, as the latter is full of details about these, in the most exhaustively extensive way. I’m sure, the majority of our progressive and empowered women are blissfully unaware of such heinous crimes against humanity. And those who have fallen prey to the media outburst should ignore it completely. No evil force on earth can ever touch them; it’s definitely not for nothing that they are called the ‘better halves’ universally. The media, the social media and all of us would do better by generating more respect for them and by protecting them from all other heinous crimes committed as ever by the perverts only who always try to indulge themselves in thrills and drills. No more sullying please!

COVID-19 Second Wave: India Continue To Reel Under A Spell Of Death And Disease!

It has been the most horribly painful and depressing week of my life. There has been the spectre of death and unimaginable sufferings of fellow countrymen across India, from which you cannot turn away; reports are there in all news channels, something even the decidedly pro-government media cannot but report, reports and personal accounts across all social media platforms, the dread of the sudden telephone calls and so on. I am reminded of the horrors suffered by Italy and Spain last year, and shiver to imagine a full repetition in a vast and densely populated country like India; the saving grace so far being that the fatality rate here is fortunately still much lower than witnessed in Italy, Spain and other European countries; but even then, in terms of population the Indian numbers in infections and deaths are numbing, and the mutants are more lethal taking toll equally on the young and the old.      

 

The heart wrenching scenes are everywhere to behold: people crowding the hospitals for admission and on being denied forced to lie down on the streets/pavements/corridors and dying there due to lack of oxygen and medical treatment; patients dying in ambulances after waiting hours for admission and an oxygen cylinder; people dying in many hospitals, mostly in the national capital Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, due the erratic supply of oxygen; no relief even after dying as relatives of the dead patients have to wait hours, first for the ambulances or at the unending queue before the crematoriums with the ominous pyres burning day and night; people watching helplessly their inability to save their near and dear ones either in hospitals or in home isolation as they have to struggle for the precious oxygen cylinder; and huge queues before the vaccination centres with the most vulnerable senior citizens thus exposed for hours as the shortage of the vaccine doses continues still.

 

For the 7^thconsecutive day today the daily new infections in India have been in excess of an incredible (as compared to the first pandemic peak of around 97000 last year) mark of 3 Lakh, that is 3,00,000, and the daily deaths crossing the 2000 mark and even the 3000 mark in the last 24 hours. Such daily figures of new infections and fatalities are never witnessed before in any country of the world. Two days back the daily new cases crossed 3.5 Lakh and the next day a sense of a false relief was created with the new cases coming down to around 3.23 Lakh, because it has again risen to 3, 60,960 in the last 24 hours and the devastating figure of fatalities at 3293, with total COVID-19 deaths also crossing the 2-Lakh mark. The total number of active cases is approaching the never-before 3 million mark, and total pandemic infections closing on the 18 million mark, with the last few millions added in just days.

 

Whatever ‘light’ we seemed to see in our last post turned out to be a mirage, because all shortages of vaccines, oxygen, hospital beds, medicines, burial or cremation spots continue unabated. Despite the decision to cover all above the age of 18 for vaccination from the 1^st of May 2021, the shortage of the doses is yet to be resolved, with the seemingly crucial decision to decentralize the buying/distribution of vaccination turning out to be discriminatory. Within days of the decision the two vaccine manufacturers of India, the Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech, announced the prices: the SII fixing Rs.400/- per dose for state governments and Rs. 600/- per dose for private hospitals while Bharat Biotech fixing a quite a high price of Rs. 1200/- per dose for the states and private hospitals. The feature of the discrimination is that both the firms are going to continue selling the vaccines @150 INR to the Government of India, the biggest bulk purchaser, and that the vaccines are going to be free at all government hospitals across India.

 

While the vaccine manufacturers have no other option but to increase the prices to make the production economically viable, the Indian states, with their limited resources, have been singled out for discrimination; and most of the states have already been forced to declare free vaccines due to the politics of vaccination started by none other than the national ruling party. The Government of India has been boasting of ‘one nation, one identity’, but it has failed miserably to ensure ‘one nation, one vaccination’ ideally based on a uniform buying price and then the provision of free vaccine doses for everyone everywhere across the country. It is feared by many economists/experts that such a differential discriminatory pricing policy would lead to lopsided distribution and even black marketing.

 

Further, although the supply of oxygen can done only by the central government there has been politics of allegations and charges between it and the state governments, as patients continue to struggle, gasp and die from the continuing shortage of oxygen. The bone of contention is apparently clear: while the medial liquid oxygen or oxygen 02 is never in shortage in terms of overall production across the country, the problem is of transporting it to the desired destinations through the extremely limited tankers and cylinders which are mostly at the disposal of the respective state governments.

 

There has been no admission of the naked shortcomings or apology for the unfortunate deaths from the central government whose supreme leader continues to speak his mind to the nation every month, but never wanting to know the minds of his citizens or deciding to admit the hardship and deaths caused to his subjects due to the scarcity. Some state governments also cannot escape the blame of indulging in mindless politics. For example, the Chief Minister of the worst-hit Delhi region by oxygen shortage seems to have only allegations to make rather than doing something concrete, and besides, he has been doing the unpardonable act of appearing in advertising spots across the news channels and spending tons of money at that. The Delhi High Court had to come in the act by severely criticizing both the central and the state governments.

 

And yes, polling yet to conclude in West Bengal with the last phase taking place tomorrow, the 29^th May. With just two phases and around two days left for rallies the Election Commission of India (ECI) finally had done the ‘too little too late’ act, banning political rallies, but still allowing public meetings of up to 500 attendees, it is not being clear under which COVID protocol. This too, had come after scathing attack on the ECI by the Kolkata and then the Madras High courts respectively.

 

Experts are hoping for a peak in mid-May for the second COVID-19 wave in India; however, at what more costs we are even scared to guess, if it comes at all. This huge man-made human tragedy (warnings available early as January 2021 regarding new mutants from UK, Brazil and South Africa that in the meantime having had the Indian forms of the devastating 'double mutant' or even 'triple mutant' were totally ignored) has, obviously, put the health infrastructure under the severest of pressures that led to avoidable loss of precious lives. Accidental hospital fires and other accidents arising out of the chaos add to the absolute disaster. But our ‘leaders’ would not still budge from politicking, and would rush to take credit whenever the second wave comes under control and the peak reached. We have to ask the question: are we Indians the citizens of a democracy or are just the expendables, considering the hopeless numbers of us thronging the miserable country? A question our imperious rulers would never bother about; the onus is on us only to pray and stay safe.