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.

I took a bus ride yesterday. It was that simple. I had somehow forgotten that there was a holiday and had scheduled some works with the government departments. It was a mistake. And, in the end I decided to take a bus ride to meet a friend. I've never used the bus during my earlier visits. The metro-train combination for Madhyamgram was convenient, easy and quick.

This time I took a bus. As is the habit with me I asked the conductor to call out when Madhyamgram Chowmatha (the four-lane intersection) came up. While he happily and with some mirth said that it was 90 minutes away, the co-passenger said that since he would be getting off a stop before it shouldn't be a problem. The WBITDC/JNNURM bus was pretty comfortable. It may have been carrying a lighter load than usual (and, the detour via EM Bypass due to Moulali-Sealdah being closed down for processions) could have contributed. By the looks of it the passengers were a familiar bunch. Perhaps they all travel together like they do in trains. Small talk, banter and snatches of words and phrases not usually heard in the city buses abounded. The day was nice, the journey long and, the window seat was mine. That was probably required to ward off the feelings of being let down by the snag in the scheduling of work - when one has a hard timeline to adhere to, any complications can either be taken in the stride (swalpa adjust maadi) or, just cribbed over. I had ended up doing the latter but half an hour in the bus did away with all the feelings of general unhappiness.

The bus was on time. More importantly, the short journey allowed me to see a bit of suburbia that I haven't had the chance to see in the intervening 6 years. Lot has changed. But then again a whole lot hasn't - read infrastructure (sanitation-sewage), street lights and so forth. And, the walk to dipankar-da's house was made with light trippy steps (as much as my girth would allow). We meet only when I am in town and conversations generally end up being more unstructured than what we have over email. Yesterday was no exception. And, with a wonderful mutton curry and some lovely mellow Earl Grey tea it was time well spent. And, probably because I was a happy camper did the return journey have all the links clicking together like clock-work (managed to snag an earlier train which led to obtaining tickets for the metro right on time and thereafter getting a seat for the entire stretch and, getting comfortably to an auto).

Sometimes just taking a journey to chat can make one feel better.

There are mornings when you wake up and see the room flooded with sunlight and the little wisps of fog outside being sliced and diced by the sun rays.

Today was one such day.

There's a lot to be thankful for. Just that we sometimes forget to realize that our going to sleep each night and waking up the next day to see the smiles of the ones we love or, hear their voices is a gift. And, we need to take a moment to cherish such presents.

It is incredibly easy to feel bitter about something. Actually, it is easy to be bitter about anything :) What is difficult is to be able to train oneself to look for the bright spots, the moments-of-joy areas within something that you could feel every justifiable reason to be bitter about. And, once these are discovered, it is an uphill climb towards purging the soul of the sour feelings. 

Feelings that aren't constructive do little to help in self development.

The step zero back from the abyss of such personal hell is the writing down in pure and simple terms as to what caused these feelings to be developed. And, then estimate their importance in one's life. This form of reasoning generally helps in an increased comprehension about the need to keep a balanced head. And, a demand to be happy.

I generally wake up early in the morning to catch up on work and also finish a bit of reading. Over the past 4 months I noticed a dangerous pattern emerging - I would wake up (if I could at all) and then chew a bit of mails. While the mails were being downloaded I'd end up going through the Google Reader feed or, steal a glance at micro-blogs. And, before I knew it, a good 30-45 minutes went past. That ended up eating into various other tasks/chores of the morning.

Not now though.

Which is why I think that there should be an online petition to ensure that John Poelstra posts a single helpful blog a week. This guy is so amazingly spot-on with his observations and life hacks that one could just read his posts and feel upbeat. This is a strong recommendation to follow his blog.

Anyways, for the past month or so I had a system whereby I write down a couple of ToDo/ToComplete tasks on my phone the previous night right before I go to sleep. The intended agenda of this system is to ensure that:

• I have a plan of work for the next day
• I know that the tasks are atomic and their completion is measurable
• I can see visible results of the tasks being completed

Guess what ? The first couple of days were a bit of a painful affair in figuring out what to accomplish within the early morning hours. But once there was rhythm it was fairly easy to get into the habit. The incentive at the end of the time window - seeing that I've made progress.

You can read John talking about it here.

The first steps towards getting the groove back were exhilarating and liberating. Gone was the sourness of knowing that I was getting distracted and work was being impacted. This was good enough to make me ambitious to try and see if I can now improve the velocity of getting work done. Accepting the fact that I was being a lazy ass and then trying out the simplest of steps to attempt to address the issue helped a lot. Getting a routine and adding self-discipline to it was a good insight. There are a couple of more problems I could solve with that combination.