Who Rules Your Sidewalk?

I belong to the group called "youth of Kolkata." It is no Union, and no political affiliation. It is just because of my age and place of residence.

What do the youth expect from the city and its government? Quite a lot perhaps.

Sharing an experience that I have had would perhaps begin the journey of stating the required change. I was in Sector 5 in Salt Lake to watch a movie today. On other days I go for work. There is something very interesting I have been observing on these streets and elsewhere in Kolkata.

Hawkers!

I would not say I am against hawkers. But when hawkers become "rulers" of the sidewalk, that makes me think about the great comparison of Kolkata and London!

There is a stretch of road from Infinity Think Tank Building to RDB Boulevard. The two sides of the road has sidewalks (footpaths). When they were newly built (I believe more than 2 years ago) I could walk on one of them comfortably. The second one had big trees in the middle of the sidewalk stretch, so it was, and still is, very difficult to walk on it. There is always a risk of bumping into a tree and very little space between the trees and the sidewalk railing to squeeze through.

Of course the new government was formed with slogans of "change." And change I did see atleast on this stretch of road. The first sidewalk (the one without trees) that I talked about has "changed." It is now absolutely, completely, undoubtedly impossible to walk along that! Why?

Hawkers!

So, if you want to walk from Infinity Think Tank Building to RDB Boulevard you must walk on the road. The road, by all rules, is supposed to be for automobiles, and the sidewalks for pedestrians. But pedestrians and automobiles have to jostle for space to pass through on the road itself, because hawkers are rulers of the sidewalk.

Sector 5 represents the Information Technology Industry. Many of the folks working here have visited Western countries, and definitely you have the people who have been to London. I am one of them. I know how London looks. And if Sector 5 is what I have just described, imagine how it is in other parts of Kolkata.

Time for further change. Visible change can begin from the streets. Do it for the people please!

Unions in Bengal (& Kolkata)

Dreams are made of idealistic goals. Transforming idealistic to realistic requires meticulous planning and an action oriented task force. Let us begin with the first major challenge in Bengal (forgive me respected CM for not writing Paschim Banga, as I prefer a name without a directional bend, whether east or west, right or left). The challenge is of removing unionism.

It’s appalling to see that the traffic police are unable to control the auto rickshaws and their hooliganism on the roads. The reason being the fact that they are all members of some union or the other and that they seem to have more “power” than the police themselves! Irony is irony no more; this has become part of our lives.

Look at the helplessness of the same policemen when they want to remove the hawkers from the footpaths. What is the reason behind this? Unions again!

Unions can do what the common man cannot. Unions are politically affiliated. Unions have power. Unions can stop work whenever they want. But why were they formed in the first place? What is the objective of having such groups?

If fair treatment of workers and the right pay is what unions fight for, do they have the right to use whatever means they want? On the other hand, does it mean that unions misuse their power to break basic rules and the law?

Think about the rogue auto-rickshaws. They flout rules like anything, from carrying more passengers than allowed to driving recklessly, stopping and parking at any place they want, playing loud songs that make the passengers go deaf, abusing passengers, and giving that wicked smile to the traffic police which indicates how helpless the police are.

Political parties who back these unions would probably have logical reasons to support these groups – votes of course! Anything for votes!

I was thinking about the figures of the number of people who belong to unions and the number of people who don’t. Which is the larger number? So, for a small percentage of people breaking laws in the name of political and union affiliation, the larger mass of people are suffering everyday!

In the age of technology and knowledge workers, the form of protest can change. Kolkata can change, but first the unionism has to stop. A small step towards achieving a greater good. Whichever Chief Minister would be instrumental in the transformation of Bengal and Kolkata, would definitely go into the history books as the greatest. So who will do it?

Why Kolkata 2 London?

Out of all the cities in this world, why did politicians choose London as the city to convert Kolkata to? Why not take other places as an example, like New York, or Paris, or Singapore, or Berlin? Why London? Why choose a city from a country that ruled us for more than 200 years?

Pondering over such questions I realized that it is not so much about a specific city as far as the development is concerned. But choosing London perhaps has a significance. It is one city that everyone seems to know about. It is easy to relate to. Whether it be because of the colonial rule that educated us about their country, or the popularity of London as a well-developed cosmopolitan city. No matter what, people in our country do have a fascination for the Sahibs and the Memsahibs, so why not try to be like them!

So London it is! Kolkata has to be transformed to London. But where do we begin? What are the challenges that we will face to do so?

There are numerous points that come to my mind. As I have spent a significant amount of time in London, and more so in Kolkata, sometimes I get shivers to even think of the magnanimity of this task of transformation. Almost everything needs to change, and we all know how easy it is to change!

So change is needed in infrastructure, the police system, the transport system, the roads and footpaths, the beautification of the city, the airports and stations, the sewerage system, the parks, the education system, the buildings, the schools, and above all, the people and their habits.

Do we have a plan for this? Have we done a thorough analysis of the changes required? Where is the implementation plan? How long will it take to convert the 2011 Kolkata to even a 2011 London? Have we set a target by when Kolkata and London would be just the same?

I am hoping our dear ministers who make promises of such transformation read this and give us some answers. Meanwhile, in the posts to come in this blog, I will dutifully point out the changes required as per my analysis, albeit with help from my friends, acquaintances and ofcourse you, dear readers!

This is Mission Kolkata2London!