Kolkata: my homely project!!

Recently I had been asked to prepare a presentation as a College project. After hours of thinking i finally selected the topic suggested by my friend Nilakshi. According to her we should select topics close to our heart. So, I finally settled for the topic "Kolkata"...what better than my home sweet home...

Thank you Kolkata for being my Home and being the topic of my College project. Where would i be without you!!??

Ohk...here's a short summary of the project i finally made...

I called it "Kolkata: a City in transition...a journey from Kalikata to Calcutta...to Kolkata"

This project shows the changing face of the city over the years...right from the British Era to the present Metropolitan City.

Two major aspects of the city have been highlighted here:

• the identity of the City as the Cultural Capital of India.
• the socio-cultural life of the City

These two aspects have been focussed upon because:

• any change that creeps into a city so culturally rich is bound to get reflected in the culture of the City
• "a city is what its people make it..." so obviously the changes will be evident in the life of the citizens

hence the socio-cultural references.

This project is a tribute to the City that gave India her first martyr of the Struggle for Independence, Khudiram...its a tribute to the City that was home to the first Nobel Laureate of our country, Rabindranath Tagore...its the city of the first Modern Man of India, Raja Ram Mohan Roy...Netaji, Vidyasagar,Vivekananda, Mother Teresa....n so many others...

Excerpts from the project:

"It is believed that India as a whole did not witness Renaissance...but Bengal did, and Calcutta was the centre.  The growth of the Bengali Intelligentsia due to the introduction of Western Education in India under the initiative of men like Raja Rammohan Roy led to an intellectual awakening...popularly known as the Bengal Renaissance..."

"The existence of a distinct duality in the City is evident through the ages. Be it the Babu culture (a group of Bengali intellectuals who though Indian by blood were British in nature) or the Bongs (the globalised/westernised Bengalis)...be it the intellectuals or the modernists...a distinct duality persists."

"Penurious...prosperous...progressive...

a culmination of diversities...

a harmonious coexistence of deep rooted culture and modernisation...

that's the city for you...

Welcome to Kolkata" 

"Kolkata Kolkata dont worry Kolkata...amra tomari Kolkata..........tumi je naya Kolkata..." ~Usha Uthup

i had wanted...

time was not with me...
or perhaps the time was yours.

i had wanted to say so many things to you.
i had wanted to laugh once more.
i had wanted to remember those walks...
through the sunset in the busy city streets.
i had wanted to remember your smile...
i had wanted to hear you speak to me.
i would have had loved to watch you when you talked.
i had wanted to feel you...the warmth of your presence...
the feel of your touch.

its the same street today...the same sunset.
but this time, the time is mine.
i'm walking still...but walking alone.
no regrets...no wishes...no desire to know...
all i know is that i'm alive and i'm living...
you are somewhere, happy in your world.
perhaps, i dont remember you anymore.

-----------------

realisations...

i used to think that i can survive alone. the word "lonely" had a very
different meaning in my dictionary...to me it was synonymous to freedom. to me, being "alone" was being independent.
to me, my decision was the last word. i could consider other's views but the final decision was always mine.
the only two people who had (and still have) the right to veto my decisions were my parents. i'd never given anyone as much importance as that i'd given my parents...and i never will. being alone gave me the freedom to carry out my decisions and plans into action. not allowing me to exercise my free will was like intruding in my personal world. a crime i can neither forgive nor forget. in short, i loved being alone...cut off from the rest of the world...
it is perhaps because of this habit of mine that i have so very few close friends. i'm very careful with the people around me. i value trust most in the world...
if anyone breaks my trust he/she loses my faith in him/her forever...i do not disregard the person totally or misbehave or ignore them...i just don't trust them any more. in my eyes breaking some one's trust is the worst crime a human can commit.
but things are changing...ever since i started staying in the hostel my outlook changed. hostel is a completely different world...with so many people from so many different places with so many different cultures coming together to live under one roof...
i've realised that no human can be true to another human...deceit and treachery are the two most common features of the human race.
so if i wanted to cut myself off from people who betray me...i would actually have to renounce the whole world!!
that meant that i would have to survive completely by myself...as a single friendless (no matter how fake human friendship be) soul...hated by all...ignored by all! i tried living the way i used to and failed...i realised that to live in this unfaithful world i would have let go of the life i'd created for myself...i would have to accept the world as it is...i would have to accept the unreal reality around me. i would have to learn to pretend to be like them all... i cannot be lonely... i have to accept company...
with my changing ideas i'm changing too...for better or for worse i do not know...i'm learning to pretend...i'm learning to value company and companionship.
i'm learning to be passive...

Our Tryst with Destiny

"Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge......

At the stroke of midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance..."

-Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (1st Prime Minister of India)



A chill runs down my spine every time i read this speech...the first time i read the oration in full was in class 12 when i was assigned the task of making this speech at the Independence Day celebration in my school... when i made the speech that day infront of the entire school and others guests...i understood the speech in the whole...i realised the sentiments behind it....the blood shed, the love, the patriotism....the feeling of belonging...i realised what it meant to be free...i realised our Tryst with Density...

imagine the night of 14th August 1947...the anticipation...the excitement...

my late grandma was just 10 then...even after so many years she could always clearly recall the very first independent day that India lived in after 100 years of struggle... that night... "at the stoke of midnight hour"...fireworks commemorated the birth of free India...

63 years...not a short time....we've already crossed the half century mark...but have we...ever tried to realise our independence? have we really been able to be free?? r we not still bounded by imperialistic thoughts...?? we may be a secular democratic socialist republic...but are we not still dependent on the System?? ask yourself this question..."Am i free?"

thoughts are still bounded...so are visions...aspirations are confined to the Colonies of Dream...our world is still bounded by "narrow domestic walls" of communalism!! regionalistic ideas...and manipulative political schemes for the achievement of personal glorification...has still not brought us the peace and security that should come with independent existance...

why do people from developed countries call us third-world?? why are we still "developing" and not "developed"?? why do we Indians still criticise India...why are we still dissatisfied with ourselves and our country?? why do we look down upon our fellow Indians? why are we harassed in the name of religion? why do we fight over issues in the name of God and land, and make them issues of national importance? why do we not give breathing space to all cultures? why cant we be independent? where is our freedom?


That night, Nehru had said," The future beckons us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavour?...... We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of india what destiny intended them to be..."



The pledge has not yet been redeemed in full...the struggle for true independence still continues...within us...from us...and by us...

Jai Hind.