Nano-logy 3 or gujubhais kick bong ass!

Mamata was jumping the gun when she claimed that the CPIM and Ratan Tata were hand in glove to keep her out of contention in the next assembly polls. Now it seems Narendra Modi, the craftiest Guju post Mohandas Karamchand, was hand in glove with Ratan Tata to fell both Mamata Banerjee AND Budhhadev Bhattachraya,in one fell stroke, for playing truant for too long with the mighty Nano! Otherwise how do you explain the alacrity with which Mr.Tata grabbed Mr.Modi's offer? All it took was 4 days between the bye to Singur and the hi to Sanand. Is this how big timers work? Mr.Tata certainly seems to be a man in a tearing hurry. But he also seems to be a man out to make a point. Have we missed something Mr.Tata? I think you are trying to tell us, the people of Bengal, that you cannot play around with a man of your stature. Point taken, Mr.Tata. You are vindictive. You show it when you are angry. Like you are showing the Greenpeace people because you are angry with them for not letting you build a port at Dhamra, Orissa. A port is development whereas the Olive Ridleys have been around for ages - they belong to history, pre-history infact. The choice is clear, they are expendable.

Quite the epitome of naivete, Mr.Tata even wrote an open letter to the people of our beleagured state asking us to choose between Buddhadev and Mamata. Wallowing in his new found role as the champion of the CPIM govt. Mr.Tata seems to have forgotten that we have chosen, repeatedly, for 30 long years, 'Buddhadev' over 'Mamta', to no avail. Industry still wont touch Bengal. And when giants like the Tatas run away,tail firmly tucked between rear wheels, scared by a few country made bombs, and a 'mad woman', to quote the Left leaders, there is no hope in hell for the 'unemployed youth' of Bengal, who were all hoping to get a job, and a life, in the wake of the Nano. High hopes, but that's another story! Jamshedpur has not changed Jharkhand and Singur would not have changed Bengal. But clever marketing can effectively derail logic. Even revered academics were filling coloumns, rooting for the Nano, as if it was the best thing to have happened to Bengal after Tagore!

If newspaper reports are to be believed the Tatas are being forced to pay through the nose for the land at Sanand. Serves them right. Why shouldn't they pay a fair price for the land? The Bengali bhadralok was bending backwards - as far back as his dhuti kurta would allow - to accomodate the Tatas. They have found their match in the willy Narendra Modi. He has shown that a patient beggar can be a chooser, at the oppurtune moment. He has also shown that business is done on equal terms, not when one party is genuflecting before the other

Enough about the Nano! Just two points before I sign off -

1)Whose hare-brained idea was it to build a cheap car? With depleting oil reserves and irreparably polluted cities who needs a cheap car anyway? Car prices should be hiked up and the money thus generated should be invested to build efficient and eco-friendly public transport systems. Mr.RaviKant said in any interview that the Tatas should not be expected to build roads. True Mr.Ravikant - you are only expected to expolit the roads built with public money. I know you pay taxes but no civilized person's responsibilities end with paying taxes.

2)My relative, who works and lives in Gujrat, narrated this little parable to explain what makes a Gujrati different from a Bengali. If he is to be believed if a Gujrati girl comes home one evening and says that she has been raped, her family,father mother et al,are most likely to say,"Wash up and sit down for dinner". No one will bat an eyelid and the matter will be completely forgotten by next morning! In a similar situation a Bengali girl will certainly contemplate suicide, her family will not know where to hide, how to react. Father will probably have a mild heart attack and mother will be on alpazolam, for days. Brother will blame the girl and promise to break every bone in her body if she steps out of the house ever again.

Nano-logy 2 or Give Us This Day Our Daily Issue!

"To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple."

Arudhuti Roy

With the Rizwanur issue put on the back burner, the chatterati of Kolkata were starved of issues, when lo and behold, the very dependable Mamata Banerjee has lobbed one right in their court – Singur! They were dying to put their signature, with permanent ink markers, in support of a ‘cause’, stand up for something, be an activist and amply demonstrate, 'We think not, therefore we are!'
Sweet somethings in tank-tops and low-rise jeans on a signing spree at tech-town Sector V of Salt Lake, Kolkata , where every second address is a hangout joint, cheering for industry, pleading infact, ‘Plz didi, don’t stop development of West Bengal’!.

My my, so touching! You could have knocked me down with a feather! Are they for real? Translated, all it really means is Plz didi lay off, so that papa can buy me that ooooooh so cute canary yellow Nano real quick!
Mamata Banerjee’s modus operandi may be wrong and it is also true that her heart doesn’t exactly bleed for the peasants (it certainly bleeds more than the techies from Sector V though). But there is substance in her stance. Agricultural land, especially in a small and densely populated state like West Bengal should not be taken over by industry. It does not happen even in advanced industrial nations. Good agricultural land is always left alone because once lost, it cannot be recovered. Hoogly is not Chotanagpur. What was Jamshedpur before the Tatas? A god-forsaken place of laterite soil with no vegetation, leave alone agriculture. They could have picked such a place in W.Bengal - in West Midnapur, Purulia, Bankura or Birbhum. Why Hoogly? The district with perhaps the richest soil in the state? The answer is simple enough- the Tatas are planning to build a cheap car and it is only natural that they’ll pick a site with existing infrastructure, such as, proximity to highways, airports, railheads and ports, to keep the overheads low. Singur has all these. Reason enough to set up shop there.
Mr. Ratan Tata was complaining that the factory was water-logged for many months last year, derailing work. What did he expect? If paddy fields are walled in where does the water go? If water-logging bugs him he should have picked a dry and arid place. Unless the ground level inside the factory complex is raised this problem will come back repeatedly to haunt them. The Tatas want everything on a platter. Did they get everything on a platter when they went to build Jamshedpur?

PS: I have nothing against industry but please read Arundhuti Roy's qoute once more.

uday

Nano-logy 1

Everyone has something to say about the Nano. I too want to join the cacophony! Please!

If the i-phone is lovingly, and cheekily, called the ‘Jesus’ phone, the Nano certainly deserves to be called the 'Jesus' car!
You have a problem with Jesus?

Okay we’ll settle for 'Hanuman' or the 'Ram' car! Little Nano has brought out the Che Guevara in us all.

Nano will not let you fence sit – even if you are on ‘dharna’ at Singur- you are either for it or…. (damn you!), against it.

Mr. Tata has cast a wondrous spell on us and we all seem to be smug in our dream that soon we’ll be zipping around town in our own little wunderkind automobile!

"Take that Maruti!"

" Take that Hyundai!"

"Take that Fiat, GM et all!" Peoples’ car is passé. Nano is a poor peoples’ car! Two and a half cars for the price of one. Two and a half litres of fuel for the price of one……? Oh oh , therein lies the pain in the wrong place my fellow dreamers! That’s where the carnival comes to a screeeeching stop!. Every time you drive the Nano into a petrol pump and have to fish out 500 bucks, that old, stinking, rich-poor divide will slam home!
I pity Buddhadev Bhattacharya, a dyed in the wool commie having to fight for the ultimate bourgeoise status symbol - a car!.

Caught between the radical left, the ultra chic left, the neo left, the mothballed left, the -left -of centre- left, the rightist left, the feeling-left-out-left(RSP, FB….etc) on the one flank and the spectre of Wont-Take-No-For-An-Answer- Mamata- Banerjee on the other, he decidedly looks lost. No wonder Buddha is not smilin' no more!.
If he fires a few bullets in the air, Aparna Sen, and her shades, will be out on Red Road with Rituporno Ghosh, shades precariously stuck on his shaved pate, and Pallav Kirtania and Sanoli Mitra also in tow, marching in protest. (I am told that the candle makers are already on overdrive and the candle lobby clamouring for a price revision- but I think it’s a rumour!) Ms Sen may even skip her birthday celebrations as she did after the Nandigram shooting (by policemen, that is, and not film makers). That’s what she said on TV with a straight face, anyway.
If he doesn’t fire bullets, or atleast the water cannons,(what a photo-op for the lensmen!) and the Tatas say ta ta or goodbye, if not outright f*** you, he and we the people of Bengal, will become the laughing stock of the country(if we are not already). Quo Vadis Bengal? What says Das Kapital? What says the adda brigade at 'Kaloda', or 'Khokonda', or 'Bechada's' tea stall?

Post E=mc2 ,Nano must surely be is the biggest brain-twister for us Bongs. Is it good, is it bad?(it is certainly not ugly!). It is decidedly bad for the environment( where are we going to park those cars?) and probably good for the economy. If we destroy the environment who do we build the economy for? Good question, don’t you think?
uday