Tell me your dream
…………………
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Sunday, August 14, 2016
RIO Olympic 2016..my take
RIO...my take
Mrinal Kar was the 100 meter dash champion in 1960 of IIT,Kharagpur when I joined the institute... Mrinal Kar was resident of Patel Hall where I was alloted accommodation...one day Mrinal spotted an African boy C B Simpson in the hostel...he confronted him in dinning hall and asked him has he ever taken part in Athletics..an emphatic No was the reply...Mrinal Kar who was in prefinal year then encouraged this 2nd year African student Simpson to come to the track...well that was the introduction of an athletic power house to our hostel team..he started winning all 100,200,400 plus long jump not only in inter hostel but also in inter IIT sports meet...those days he used to clock 11. something secs in 100 m...here is this boy never took part in competitive athletics at the age of 19 or so started and dominated IIT sports scene for next 4 years... it's all in the genes of the people of that continent...watching Usin Bolt winning the 7th heat so easily showed the effortless easy way doing a job in World arena ...
It is great that our sportsperson have met the minimum criteria for taking part in RIO Olympic but then competing with those natural sporting persons from all those highly physical country is another matter... those countries keep on producing sportsperson like a factory....as usual China has caught on and streamlined the production house like all other engineering products from that country.....
Our case is story of one off like a Dipa Karmakar here or rich person Abhinav Bindra doing his bit...yes we rightly focussed on archery,rifle shooting,wrestling which has traditional base... let's see if tennis and badminton players can do anything ,till then let us enjoy watching the excellence in sports after all those people winning gold are the best unlike say in India where people manipulate the system..good that Goel fellow has been recalled back,enough of Tom foolery ...
Thursday, August 04, 2016
Blue Gold
Blue gold
……………
It was late
in the evening when we approached the
last rice mill for rice husk survey. The mill owner Mr.Mandal enthusiastically
showed us around the rice mill where boiled rice is produced. He invited us for
tea in his house adjacent to the mill. I noticed a ruin of two storied brick
shed with wild growth around.
“What is
that shed?” I inquired.
“That’s Neel
Kuthi, our ancestors were Indigo planters.”
“Oh I see,
that is the warehouse where the Indigo cakes were stored.” I said.
After
finishing tea we came out and got into our car for returning to Bolepur. I was
curious to know more about Indigo farming but realized Mr.Mandal being the
zamindar whose ancestors would have been ruthlessly exploited the poor farmers
so would not give the real picture. Our car had hardly moved a few 100 meters
when a young man in shabby cloth waved at us for stopping the car. The driver stopped
the car, the young man came at the rear and requested for a lift to the next
village. It was dark so I took pity; the driver invited him to sit in the
front. After a few kilometers he asked us to stop, the village was very near to
Ajay River.
In the
meanwhile he told us his name was Joy Biswas and he was returning home from the
rice mill, he was an operator there. I got interested in him and asked, “Do you
belong to a farming family?”
“Yes, my father
is a farmer, we grow rice.” After travelling for about 20 minutes Joy signaled,
“ Please stop here my house has come. Why don’t you come in and meet my
father.” He politely invited us.
It was a
typical thatched roof house with a clean courtyard in the front. We could see
cow shed with a few cows and a chicken coop. The house was having electrical
connection. His father came out hearing the sound of our car stopping; with
folded palm he led us to the front room. It had two cane chairs and a wooden
cot. We took the cane chairs, Joy went inside to arrange tea. His father who
was more or less of my age sat on the cot and inquired the reason of our visit.
I explained him how we were surveying the availability of rice husk in Burdwan
and our subsequent visit to Mandal’s rice mill, where we met his son.
My curiosity
was about Indigo farming so I eagerly asked senior Biswas, “Other than rice
what other crops your forefathers grew, let us say a century back.”
“I heard
from my father that my great grandfather was growing Indigo plants, it will be
around 1840 or so. The Mandal family was the zamindar and he was representing
an East Indian Company to collect the produce from here.”
“Yes I have
seen the Neel Kuthi of Mandal’s. From the books I understand the farmers were
not very eager to plant Indigo as that would mean not planting paddy.” I said.
“Yes we were
forced to plant Indigo in major part of our land. As you know our lands are
very fertile, being very near to the river , found to be suitable for Indigo farming
by British. Those white men with their Indian accomplish like Mandal would
force all the farmers to plant that wretched herb. They would give us dadan(
sort of advance against a contract) and we will purchase seed with that money.”
“Yes I read
in Nil Darpan, the play by Dinabandhu Mitra, how the families were tortured to
grow Indigo. The process of fermenting the leaves in vats, straining after
fermentation and finally the sludge will be dried to form cakes as end product.
The process of fermenting has to be completed before sun rise. It was a back
breaking labour but farmers got hardly 2.5 % value of the market price.” I
shared my bookish knowledge.
“Yes babu it
was shear torture and so our ancestors revolted.”
“Yes I know,
the Indigo revolt in1858 to 1860 against the British. By the way are you any
chance related with Bishnucharan Biswas of Nadia who was one of the leaders of
the revolution?”
“No babu but
my great great grandfather gave shelter to a revolutionary who finally killed
the Mandal, zamindar of that time, of the same family whom you visited.” He informed.
In the
meanwhile his son had brought tea and some biscuits. We enjoyed their
hospitality but my curiosity was not quenched, I wanted to see a plant.
“ Is there
any Indigo plant around?”
“Yes, as a
reminder we have a few of those in the corner of our field, but in the darkness
of night I can’t take you there. Why don’t you come tomorrow morning?”
“Ok,we will
come tomorrow.”
Taking leave
from them we got into our car and drove off to Bolpur.
After
finishing breakfast in Camelia hotel in Prantik we proceeded to our destination
for project Indigo.
Senior
Biswas was waiting for us,his son had left for his work in rice mill. We walked
for about a kilometer deep in the village. We entered a paddy field, some palm
trees were there by the side of a pond and a shrub. He took us near the shrub.
The trees were two to four feet in height, green leafs, small pea like fruits.
Biswas plucked a fruit and peeled it show small pods inside. He explained
inside the pods are the seeds of the plant. They pluck the fruits for seeding
of future plant and leafs are fermented to produce Indigo.
He
explained,” The stench of the work vats, where the Indigoplants were putrefied,
was so offensive that the processing area was kept more than a mile away from
habitats. The odor from the rotting weeds drew flies and other insects.”
While he was
explaining I was trying to imagine the toiling poor villagers in the field
during those turbulent times. India was the major exporter of Indigo to Europe.
East India Company had a monopoly on Indigo trade to the world. More than 80%
produce was exported. In 1897 the export from Calcutta port peaked over 9.5 million pounds.
We went back
to his house. Then Biswas brought a letter which had yellowed by age was pasted
on a parchment paper. It was a letter informing that one Subinoy was happy by
the treatment he got from Biswas family so he was leaving behind a handi full
of some precious substance known as Blue Gold which was costlier than gold. He
has buried it in the courtyard. After reading the letter I looked up at him and
asked, “Could you find it?”
“No, I could
not.”
I smiled at
him and said, “Keep trying to find out. The vessel may fetch money but the
content will be of no use to you now.”
“Why, he
wrote it is costlier than gold.”
“Yes it was costlier
than gold when he wrote this letter. The vessel contains Indigo which was
costlier than gold in 1850s or so. That is the reason it was called Blue gold
then.” I informed him with a twinkle in my eyes.
I could see
he was upset by my observation.
We thanked
Biswas and drove back. On the way back I was thinking though British government
had banned Indigo cultivation by 1860 because of the peasant revolution and the
graphic presentation of the plight of farmers in the play Nil Darpan which was
translated in English and was presented to British parliament but still there
were farming in Champaran,Bihar.As a matter of fact Mahatma Gandhi started his
first Satyagrah from Champaran, Bihar and Kheda, Gujarat in 1917 against Indigo
farming.
Somehow I
like visiting places connected with history but never imagined an obscure
village of Bengal would ignite my interest so much.
Monday, August 01, 2016
Cows don't vote but Dalits do
Cows don't vote but Dalits do
....................................................
Sometimes one wonders whether BJP does not know this truth about vote bank but then one starts pondering whether there is some other game plan hatched by intelligentia. Let us firs admit Congress and Left has more intellectuals who can create khurafati in their stable than NDA and then look through the prism of dalit.
NDA came to power riding on the vote share of Dalit and other backward classes and certainly not the upper caste. The upper castes consider themselves as intellectual and secular so their vote share is fragmented. Looking at this some backroom boys of so called secular parties hatched this plan.
This Dalit thing started with Rohit Vermulla suicide and as the UP election is fast approaching so it is getting drummed up by ever obliging liberal press and channels. There is most urgent issue of floods in Assam,Bihar and Odisha but there is hardly any ground zero report. For the last 2 days i was surfing channels to get some real time feed on floods . All the channels were busy analysing either the issue of stone pelting in Srinagar and the ban imposed by small boys on the girls riding scooter in Kashmir or some cow related mob justice. Today i read in the paper that the new kid in the block Kanahiya is planning to launch all India movement on Rohit Vermulla so once again TV camera, discussion Azadi protest in Hyderabad,JNU,Jadavpur highlighting Dalit suppression etc will start.The well planned script is already written and if BJP is smart then they have to control the loose cannons in UP mainly as it does not matter much in rest of the state as of now. Hope Prashan Kishore is not scripting it, the other day Rahul found sitting wioth a grieved dalit woman in Gujrat but later on it came out that the woman was plant by the local congressmen and was not the real victims mother, so this game of inciting and advertising will go on till UP election.
Disclaimer; I am nether a cow rakhshakh or bhakhsakh.....i am just one of those who wears a different glass than what is offered by so called pseudo intellectuals. I am for free thinking , clean administration and livable neighbourhood.
This take is kind of take it or leave it.
....................................................
Sometimes one wonders whether BJP does not know this truth about vote bank but then one starts pondering whether there is some other game plan hatched by intelligentia. Let us firs admit Congress and Left has more intellectuals who can create khurafati in their stable than NDA and then look through the prism of dalit.
NDA came to power riding on the vote share of Dalit and other backward classes and certainly not the upper caste. The upper castes consider themselves as intellectual and secular so their vote share is fragmented. Looking at this some backroom boys of so called secular parties hatched this plan.
This Dalit thing started with Rohit Vermulla suicide and as the UP election is fast approaching so it is getting drummed up by ever obliging liberal press and channels. There is most urgent issue of floods in Assam,Bihar and Odisha but there is hardly any ground zero report. For the last 2 days i was surfing channels to get some real time feed on floods . All the channels were busy analysing either the issue of stone pelting in Srinagar and the ban imposed by small boys on the girls riding scooter in Kashmir or some cow related mob justice. Today i read in the paper that the new kid in the block Kanahiya is planning to launch all India movement on Rohit Vermulla so once again TV camera, discussion Azadi protest in Hyderabad,JNU,Jadavpur highlighting Dalit suppression etc will start.The well planned script is already written and if BJP is smart then they have to control the loose cannons in UP mainly as it does not matter much in rest of the state as of now. Hope Prashan Kishore is not scripting it, the other day Rahul found sitting wioth a grieved dalit woman in Gujrat but later on it came out that the woman was plant by the local congressmen and was not the real victims mother, so this game of inciting and advertising will go on till UP election.
Disclaimer; I am nether a cow rakhshakh or bhakhsakh.....i am just one of those who wears a different glass than what is offered by so called pseudo intellectuals. I am for free thinking , clean administration and livable neighbourhood.
This take is kind of take it or leave it.
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