I landed in the "City of Joy" on this day, 5 years ago. I still remember that sultry, humid air when I stepped out of the aircraft at something past 7pm at Dum Dum Airport. The sight of my first yellow cab outside the terminal was reassuring that I was in the right city. A city at that time that I had just accepted a job in after spending 12 years in the Indian Capital, New Delhi. This was going to be my first working experience in the City.
I mean I wasn't completely alien to Kolkata.
So what if, when I left it was Calcutta and on my return after a 12 year hiatus, it had changed its name to Kolkata. Well the Red Flags were still flying high, but more in a capitalistic manner than as a sign of being comrades with the common man!
Ofcourse 5 years after, it's all gone to crap! Dada has become Didi and Red has turned into Blue and the CPI(M) has lost power to the TMC. The promise of an emergent Bengal's hopes have been dashed by the exit of the Tata Nano Plant, and Singur bears witness to the death knell of Industry in Bengal.
Well I wonder whether I should celebrate having survived in this dismal State of affairs, or revel in the fact that we've hit rock bottom, so there's only one way to go; UP!
So that said, I'm still optimistic that the future holds hope and Bengal can rise from the ashes and Kolkata can once again bask in the glory of it's erstwhile name "CALCUTTA" that is known the world over as "THE CITY OF JOY"
I mean I wasn't completely alien to Kolkata.
So what if, when I left it was Calcutta and on my return after a 12 year hiatus, it had changed its name to Kolkata. Well the Red Flags were still flying high, but more in a capitalistic manner than as a sign of being comrades with the common man!
Ofcourse 5 years after, it's all gone to crap! Dada has become Didi and Red has turned into Blue and the CPI(M) has lost power to the TMC. The promise of an emergent Bengal's hopes have been dashed by the exit of the Tata Nano Plant, and Singur bears witness to the death knell of Industry in Bengal.
Well I wonder whether I should celebrate having survived in this dismal State of affairs, or revel in the fact that we've hit rock bottom, so there's only one way to go; UP!
So that said, I'm still optimistic that the future holds hope and Bengal can rise from the ashes and Kolkata can once again bask in the glory of it's erstwhile name "CALCUTTA" that is known the world over as "THE CITY OF JOY"
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