Bong Connection...

I am not a Bengali but Calcutta is home.

Barman is my family name. So people are like,

“Barman?? You must be bong!!”

“Tch…tch…actually no…”

I might originally be from Uttar Pradesh but Bengal is where my roots lie. I speak Bengali as fluently as my Bong friends do. My best friend is a Bong. And if there were some pre-requisites to qualify as a Bong, I would have far cleared all of them. I’m a complete Calcuttan.

Music and literature is profusely stuffed in its distinctive panache, here. And this city is politically charged to the core. Every one has a political opinion. And Mamata Banerjee is one crazy lady. When she’s not too busy yelling her lungs out in Singhur or some such place, she indulges in her favorite activity-calling bandhs. No here in Calcutta we do not need a substantial reason to call strikes. We just do it. Just like that. And the Supreme Court doesn’t care bother either.

Matter of fact I hail from a college which lives, dreams, speaks and breathes politics- Presidency College. It’s totally soaked in politics. Or should I say choked…err…

I think I actually got to know what Calcutta really was all about only after college happened. And with college so much more happened. “Communists” is what they call themselves. Che is who they worship. The liberal interpretation of Marx’s comments is made a tad too liberally here. Most don’t know what State is all about. They have no idea what a communist society even means.

It’s just cool out here to wear a Che T-shirt and proclaim yourself Communists. So when I asked a senior to tell me something about his philosophy, all he could manage was, “Che is my hero…”

Your T-shirt told me that already. Bloody fakers!!!

But not all are thus. Some know what they are doing. Some understand. I think most of them should do a little bit of exploration for themselves and then talk about Che and his philosophies. And if they really are as intellectual as they pose, I think they can give the environment a break by relaxing on their cheap ciggis…

The canteen seems to be a far cry from a conventional college canteen. At first your eye brows spring up on seeing the place, and then you get curious and mostly succumb. The crowd if not interesting is queer enough. It’s dark inside and mostly smoky. I don’t need to explain why.

I don’t think I can immerse myself into all this. Not this way atleast. I don’t believe in Communism. And I don’t understand State Theory. And I don’t fag.

The College needs to wake up and realize that there is more than simply dragging the autonomy drama. Anyways they have already lost on the autonomy thingy and even partial or complete freedom seems a distant possibility. In the mean time they can atleast take the initiative of clearing the mounds of garbage in the College campus.

Sorry, but it’ll take some time before I can point to the building above and say it loud without any inhibitions, “That’s where I belong…”