I had to visit Esplanade yesterday. This has been a week of rallies. One after another. And while the Police and general public have been berating the constant use of the "Metro channel" (the area in and around the Metro cinema etc) as the chosen spot for rallies, the organizers have been obtaining permission (from the police) and, arranging for the mass 'protest' and demonstrations.

When we were relatively young and, used to visit the Brigade Grounds and the Maidan for the casual playing of cricket and football, the elders accompanying us used to be averse towards visiting these spots till a week after the big rallies. The reason was practical - rally organization logistics demanded that participants needed to be brought to the city in buses and other vehicles. The basic amenities arranged for included open pit latrines across the various patches of green. The ugly remains of a "successful" rally was there for everyone to see and the very unfortunate to step upon/into. Years have passed by, the scene hasn't changed. And, yesterday, the pavements and lanes of all the connecting pathways between J L Nehru Road and, Red Road were filled up with folks in tents, camped there to await the rally for the next day. And, the unmistakable scene of open-air defecation. Along with the stench. Either the wind wasn't blowing across the river and across the Eden Gardens or, the stench was horrendous.

What will happen to a city that revels in the most stupid way in such display ? Near the CESC office there was an agitation of the contingent workers. Led and organized by CITU. The usual cursory "Zindabad, Zindabad" litany was on when I turned towards the Ayakar Bhaban. When I came out, the crowd was dispersing in various four and three wheelers. And, the ground was red with chewing tobacco spit. That segment of road, hardly 20 feet is actually very well maintained and cleaned. That piece was full of spit - red and god-awful to look at. The wall of the Metro station right near the Peerless Inn is another gallery of chewing tobacco art.

I'm not generally the one who'd berate his city of birth. But, there is a limit till which one can turn a blind eye and keep telling fondly "but oh ! that is so Kolkata". That doesn't work not any more. Simple civic sense seems to have floated out of the brains of the citizenry. I've had a well dressed, well spoken gentleman walk into a shop smoking a cigarette and then arguing that the shop was a public place because it was open to the public ! On a side note, the ladies I've noticed smoking tend to be more careful about not blowing smoke into your face and up your nostrils. Try the stretch between Asiatic Society and, The Park, especially right opposite the ICICI Chowringhee Branch. You'd be hard pressed to see anything other than swirling curls of cigarette smoke and be assaulted on your nose by the astringent smell. It is the same you'd see in auto rickshaws, buses and, taxis. 

It amuses me to sometimes hear side conversations about the impending political change. As if things will be wiped out and a happy life would begin. Two things jump out - that the population is frustrated with the incumbent government and desperately hope that a change would be good and, in their eagerness to self-delude themselves about a change being good, they forget that the political actors haven't changed, the equations haven't changed and, that they all originated from the same cesspool of Bengal politics.