The City of Joy

If you are an Indian, you must have recognised the well-known sobriquet. Yes, this is the name with which Kolkata has been dwelling in our hearts since time immemorial; the land of Rabindranath Tagore, Jagdish Chandra Bose, Satyendranath Bose, Mother Teresa and many great scholars and saints. I have had the good fortune of living in this great city for almost 14 years. This great city has seen more history than any other city in our country. "What West Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow". Who would realise this fact better than I? Atleast I thought so.......Recently I read a book by Dominique Lapierre having the same title as this blog. I was astonished about how little I knew about Kolkata. First of all, Kolkata got its name from the word "Kalikata" meaning the village of Kali, the goddess of love and death in Indian mythology. This book was basically about a suburb in Kolkata, when Indian was still a young country riddled with false bureaucracy and corruption. It was a time when its most commom mode of conveyance were the human-horses i.e. rick-shaws pulled by humans. Oh, yes! "Human Rights" may be, what is coming to your mind right now. I had the same feeling too. But then, Dominique explained the reason why these human-horses had to do this job. They were previously simple peasants who grew rice and vegetables, and lived a simple but contented life. Frequent floods and draughts, and blood-sucking moneylenders compelled them to migrate to the merciless city which was already teeming with a population of more than 10 lakhs (a large number at that time). Surviving in such a cruel environment seemed impossible but for these rick-shaws. Their life was an epic journey of incessant struggle and infinite hope (nothing keeps a man alive in such harsh conditions but hope). The account was heart-rending but history has its way of telling stories. What we can do is learn from it. I hope our "netas" read this blog!