Bengal and bomb

Football, literature, poets, singers are already a piece of history in Bengal while Calcutta is now good at producing lumpen elements.

The city, like its myriad crumbled edifices, is only left with its history to boast.

“Parar dokane boshe aajkal Mohun Bagan ar East Bengal niye adda hoina. (Bengalis don’t discuss Mohun Bagan or East Bengal nowadays). The youths are more interested in politics,” said one of my co-passengers in Rajdhani Express two summers ago.

There’s something wrong with the Bengalis, who still take pride in being the cultural conscience of the country, though their domination in literature, films, football is all but a part of folklore.

“I was born and brought up at Arambagh in Hooghly district, but I shifted to Siliguri to study engineering from North Bengal Engineering College in the early 90s. I stay in Sodepur as I wanted to stay close to Calcutta. But the transformation of the villages into small battlefields baffles me more than what I see on a daily basis in the city,” added the middle-aged engineer.

“Dada somoi palteche (Brother, time has changed). Banglar mati, Banglar jol is just a poem. Bengal has lost it. Calcutta has lost it.”

Probably, he’s right. Be it sports or in social life, Bengalis now have a different taste.

As violence has spiraled across the state, you’ll find more crude bombs in villages than some talented footballers or writers. Bengalis are now adept at wielding pistols.
The chotolok now outnumbers bhadrolok as I recently noticed some traded abuses in uncouth Bangla bhasha on a social-networking site over the superiority of their respective political parties and football teams.
Moreover, iconising and myth-making have been perfected into fine arts while others will boast of past glories at every available opportunity. 
Manicktala

“1911 saale IFA Shield final e Mohun Bagan ingrezder hariyechilo (Bagan had defeated an English side in 1911 IFA Shield final.”

Probably, any visitor to this iconic institution will have to hear it over and over again, but the bheto bangaali won’t talk on the club’s fall from glory.

Since I-League started in 2007-08, Bagan won it just once (2014-15) while their traditional opponents East Bengal is yet to claim the title. 

When you can't maintain consistency, why so much potor potor kotha?

Bengalis not only have become insular, there’s a deep-seated depression and frustration among the youths. Newspapers headlines like “a school-girl or grandmotherly 75-year-old nun raped by dacoits” will give you a scary feeling about your safety.

Moreover, Bengali’s secular outlook is now being challenged thanks to the current state government’s Muslim appeasement policy.
So it wasn’t surprising to read a post like this one.

“You want to play the Bengali card with me? I’m a Bengali and always shall be. You may be an Indian, but, you’re not a Bengali. You’re a Mullah. You lost the right to call yourself Bengali on August 16, 1946, and then again at Noakhali, Barisal and Khulna. I know the full extent of your Bangaliyana. I spit on it,” a party activist from Moulali wrote in one of his social site posts. 

Joy Bangla!

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