Resurgence

Insecure?? Within minutes of Delhi bomb blasts, I saw sudden changes in the status messages in gtalk of many of my friends. Some of them read “Delhi blasts…….. WTF”, “Another terror attack…….. Are we safe?”, “Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and now Delhi…. What is happening?” etc. Going through the gtalk status messages is my new timepass and it was through them that I came to know about the blasts at the first place. This reflects one thing that people are now better informed and up to date regarding the happenings around them. Some of my friends were however apprehensive about their safety. A conversation on gtalk with one of my friends went like this: My Friend : thr? Me : Yeah. My Friend : Is the flood relief money still being collected? Me : I don’t know. Ask VS. He was collecting the money…….. :) My Friend : I want to contribute to the cause. The people must have suffered a lot. Me : You are most welcome to help. Yeah the people have suffered a lot. But m...

Rebranding Kolkata (Calcutta)!!! “Who will funds all these projects?” the Danish girl raised the question. We were having a guest lecture on city planning and development and an eminent city planner was putting forth his vision for the city of Kolkata (I would rather use the colonial version of the name -- “Calcutta” as it sounds more appealing to me). The planner asked the reason behind the apprehension. ‘I know that most of these projects which you talked about will not take place because of the political compulsions.’ The girl replied. ‘Even after being one of the largest cities of this part of world this city lacks basic amenities and people here seem to lack courage to implement good plans on map.’ The planner smiled at this. ‘I think this is perhaps not the best time for you people to visit this part of India. The whole Singur episode might have left you with a very negative impression regarding the administration and politics of this state. And I am not advocating that the city ...