Work?No thanks! We're from Kolkata!

Gosh. Ever considered working? Of course you have. Ever feared that everytime you make an effort to work you would have to take eight steps back for every step taken forward? Of course you haven't, unless you are from or have been to Kolkata.

Sigh. Strike. Bandh. Power cuts. Broken roads. Traffic. Protests on streets. Adda Sessions. There always is a solid and valid reason for a Kolkatan to not work. And no matter how much some of us miscasts try otherwise, end of the day,we look like foolish people.

Take for example the last week. Mamta Banerjee has been giving the Tatas a lot of grief over the Singur issue. (Not aware of it: come on, stop being one of us. Google it! NOW!) As if scaring the industries away was not enough, Mamtadi (as she is rather affectionately called..hmm) thought it would be a brilliant idea to stall traffic and shut down th city, bringin everything to a complete halt. So, if you were driving at that point of time on a Thursday afternoon to go meet you girl friend or you were taking your grand father to the hospital, it was your too-bad. Come on, you should be aware of what the politicians are doing. Our Hon'ble Chief Minister spoke againt the strikes and road blocks, an the poor guy was given more than a mouthful from his own party members. And all this was followed by some procession on the main streets of Kolkata, followed by statements to the media, followed by more protests on the steets.

Some other prominent businessmen spoke in support of the Tata plant in Singur, and bam! their stores were damaged. Most Tata Motors ditributors are requesting a Z level security. And why not? They are currently more at threat than many others in the State.

Aah! My 10AM meeting would take place now. Its 17:30, and my client has just about made it now. You see, there was some protests all day long on the streets. The city was brought to a standstill. Bravo, I say. This is the image of the new Kolkata. Modern, developing, and full of bottle necks.

Oh, and as if the political turmoils aren't enough, a leading media channel thought it was a wonderful idea to have a road show to launch their new channel. Nothing wrong with that. But geniuses, a road show in a residential area that has many old people and infants, and is about 500 metres away from a major hospital: good idea, eh? Okay, you'd say forget the noise. The traffic snarls, diversion, inconvenience etc should be overlooked too?

I guess it should all be overlooked. Afterall, this IS the modern Kolkata. Nicely splashed all over the globe "we're changing and progressing".

You see, work happens here, but a little late. Sometimes years late, sometimes decades late. You see, we are like this only. We like to make deals about smallest of things. We write articles, blogs, have adda sessions abuse each other, but hey, we kind of never leave the city. This is THE metropolis that doesn't work constantly. And why should we? Heck! We're from Kolkata! We're the initelligent race. We are cultured, educated, and yes, we're too busy with our social agendas to work all the time! :-)

So, with a smile on my face I welcome you all to Kolkata, the land of strikes and bandhs, the land of babus and adda sessions..the land of culture and the land that has become regressive!

Cheers!