Why do the Bengalis hate the idea of Gorkhaland?

The problem of Gorkhaland is not a fight between the Bengalis and the Gorkhas. It’s a fight of inclusion and non-inclusion.

Mainland Bengalis (from Kolkata) has a very weird idea of Bengal. For most elite, Bengali of Kolkata are the real Bengalis. Others are just Bengali speakers.

This mentality comes from the Bhodrolok culture of the mid-nineteenth century. The bhodroloks of Kolkata have their elite education from elite schools and colleges and they are always a dominant figure in Jobs, cinema, art and culture. Their dialect of Bengali is considered as the face of Bengali language.

On the other hand, there are Bengalis from districts, who speak in their own accent, often study in district level schools and colleges. They are definitely not a part of this bhodrolok culture.

Forget about the Gorkhas for a while. There are so many other tribes in Bengal who are integral to Bengal. The Santhals, Mundas, Lepchas. Are they considered to be part of Bengal fraternity? Certainly there are people who are compassionate with them, but are the bhodroloks concerned? (refer Agantuk, by Satyajit Ray).

Urdu, a language alien to West Bengal is being given priority in state affairs. Is Nepali being given the same status? Is Santhali being given the same status?

To support or not to support is purely an individual choice. But to make all the residents of Bengal inclusive, should definitely be a matter of principle. Start making them inclusive, show compassion to them, make them feel at home. We can make the Bangladeshi refugees a part of our society, why can’t the sons of soil?

Inclusion will definitely make the situation better for everyone. Unity among diversity, the motto that binds India shall bind West Bengal.

 

 

https://www.quora.com/Why-do-Bengalis-hate-the-idea-of-Gorkhaland/answer/Abhisek-Bhowmik-1

 

Biratnagar, Nepal

A few pics of Biratnagar Market in Nepal.

Any different from India?

Dawki, Meghalaya

A few more pics from my Meghalaya trip.

Umngot River

The beautiful clean river is flowing towards Bangladesh.

The boats.

Bangladesh view.

India view.

Again, Bangladesh.

The water is so clean, the river bed can be seen. But that morning, there was some rain, but still the water is pretty clean!

The place from where the boat journey started, The Ghat.

This is Bangladesh and Bangladeshis. Talked to them, they invited us to their land, but off course, we didn’t break the rules. A guy named Abdul Karim even offered us kuler achar, but we had to decline.

View of Bangladesh from the top.

The place, Dawki is really beautiful, with lush greenery and crystal clear waters.

Living root bridge, Meghalaya

Some pics from my Meghalaya trip.

 

When the whole world is trying to find out a way to sustain nature, the people of Meghalaya, for thousands of years have been doing the same. Instead of cutting down a tree to make a bridge, they fold the roots of the trees to create a living bridge. How natural!

While the developed world might be thinking them as underdeveloped, they are the actual fighters of climate change.

The living root bridge is an awe inspiring creation.

Corporations, hiring and background checks, need of the hour

Ma generally calls me in the evening. It’s my daily routine. So, today’s call was not an exception until she shared what had happened in our lake-town residence. The narration scared the shit out of me.
My sister in law (Jhilik) ordered food via Swiggy on tuesday. It was a COD mode of payment. She paid and took the parcel.
Today at around 2pm in the afternoon, the same delivery guy knocks the door and informs her that because of some billing issue, he needs to have a copy of the invoice.
She didn’t have the copy of it but in her mail she had a soft copy. While she was doing her search, the guy was inside the room. On showing the invoice, he further requested her to get him a glass of water.
Generally such requests are never turned down. She took out the bottle from the refrigerator and headed towards the kitchen to pour water in the glass.
Meanwhile, the guy went to the kitchen and took out his knife. The fellow held the knife to her neck, covered her mouth and dragged her to the drawing room. The motive was to steal her jewelries.
The guy kept threatening her that if she shouted, he will kill her. Asked her to take out all her ornaments.
My two year old nephew (Swachho) was sleeping in the room adjacent to the drawing room.
Suddenly, he woke up to the sound of an unknown guy and comes out. He started crying loudly on seeing his mother caught up like that. Immediately the guy held Swachho’s hand and started threatening her that if she did not keep quiet, he will kill both of them. Jhilik somehow made a narrow escape and pulled Swachho towards her. At that moment, Jhilik started shouting ‘help help’
The guy then pushed both of them and made an escape.
After all that had happened, my brother came back, and spoke to the manager of Swiggy. The manger sent them an image for identification. Jhilik readily identified him, as did the neighbors who saw him running.
Swiggy’s manager has shared his government ID proof with us. FIRs will be lodged at the local police station against the delivery guy. Swiggy has also come forward to lodge a FIR against their employee.

This incident teaches us one thing, how casual the corporates have become today in their selection and hiring process. Does possessing a government id only a condition for hiring? Why there’s a lack of exhaustive background check?

Today when home delivery services are becoming the key factor for any successful business transaction, why is the hiring approach so callous? Why there are no safeguards?
Anything could have happened to my family. A cautious hiring could have saved my family from the trauma!

Please be careful! We depend so heavily on home delivery services that we have to think wisely over who are we going to allow in our house!
Comfort of home delivery can have damaging repercussions! Please make it harder for crime to happen in your residence. Swiggy

 

Personal experience of Sumagna Bhowmick, PhD scholar, TISS and a childhood friend of the author. Published with her permission.

Pic- dreamstime.com

Need for two different time zones in India

Being born and brought up in Arunachal Pradesh which is the easternmost state of India, I think I need to answer this question.

The picture above speaks the whole story.

I have spent my whole childhood watching the sky getting dark at around 5–6 pm. Then when I moved to North India for further studies, I was astonished to see sun even after 7 pm sometimes. So, that’s how much variation in the time exists in our country.

So Yes, we really need a different Time Zone for North-East Indian states. A time zone which should be an hour ahead of the rest of India, i.e. GMT+6:30. Currently the entire India follows GMT+5:30 timezone, which is not at all efficient for a country that extends 2933 km from east to west. The “Dong” village of Arunachal Pradesh sees sunrise 2 hours before “Guhar Moti” village of Gujarat. The actual timezone of North east is about an hour ahead of the GMT+5:30 which in turn results in wastage of a lot of daylight, thus affecting the productivity. Many government and private offices are forced to open even when the daylight gets low, which results in unnecessary power wastage. By changing the time zone, they will be able to make most of the natural daylight.

Countries like United States, Australia already have multiple time-zones. Moreover, the concept of “Daylight savings” is used in United States in which they reset the clocks for different seasons.

Its high time we should get multiple time-zones.

 

This answer has been written in quora.

The link of the answer is:

https://www.quora.com/Should-India-have-multiple-time-zones/answer/Narayan-Sharma-27

 

Meghalaya, abode of snow…

Meghalaya is an extremely beautiful place to visit. Capital Shillong is a hilly city, extremely congested, but very picturesque.

I will be uploading my trip to Meghalaya pics in a few installments.

In my last post I published a pic f Mawsynram. Today I am publishing a few pics of Umiam Lake and the road trip from Shillong to Mawlynnong & Dawki.

Umiam Lake

En route Mawlynong & Dawki

A small hamlet (village) en route Dawki.

The pictures are breathtakingly beautiful. The place is mesmerizing and charming.

The cloud is extremely naughty and gets into the car if the window is kept open. What seems like fog or smog is actually cloud.

Meghalaya is a must visit for travel enthusiasts.