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It has been a long long while since a politician graced our blog.
And what a politician!....Mamata Banerjee, as young as my youngest sister, but of course she is the Didi for all. Coming from a lower middle class non-superior-intellectual background, she stormed the formidable Writer's Building manned by the aristocratic JB once, and now the intellectual BB.
I simply adore her.
For a spectator like me who watched her career from close at hand in West Bengal (I think it is high time that they drop the West from Bengal...the only surviving East Bengal being the Football Club) she is the most colorful of all the current crop of pale politicians.
And she is colorful despite her colorless dress, makeup, car, home, and Bank Balance.
Nano comes in three colors:
Blue, white and red;
A splash in Mamata's metaphors
Turns them all Bloody Red!
That brings us to why my sudden interest in her after more than a year and a half:
It is because of her piquant statement a couple of days back that she would love to have Pranab-da as the next Chief Minister of Bengal.
Mamata Banerjee left Congress terming it the B Team of CPM. But didn't drop Congress from the name of her new party: Trinamul Congress. Note it means the Grass Root Congress: not Flower or Fruit but Grass Root.
That brings us to the B Team folks.
In every sphere of life it is the B (not the A) that is the most colorful and influential; and she knows it: hence the offer of the A Post to Pranab-da keeping the B Post of Home Minister to herself.
Britain has been the wisest and the most graceful nation. She acquired the biggest empire in history without meaning to do so, almost dreamily, for a 'Nation of Shopkeepers' as Napoleon called her. She managed it with minimum force and dismantled it with minimum bloodshed (of Englishmen).
Contrast this with the American fiasco in Vietnam and the hapless downfall of the untenable Soviet Empire like so many ninepins.
And Britain's most powerful person, her PM, is a B and not A. The powerless A Post is reserved for her King or Queen. And her most powerful agent in her empire was the Viceroy (note he is the Vice...and not the Roy).
In our own country it the PM (the B) who is most powerful...not the A (the President)
And what a politician!....Mamata Banerjee, as young as my youngest sister, but of course she is the Didi for all. Coming from a lower middle class non-superior-intellectual background, she stormed the formidable Writer's Building manned by the aristocratic JB once, and now the intellectual BB.
I simply adore her.
For a spectator like me who watched her career from close at hand in West Bengal (I think it is high time that they drop the West from Bengal...the only surviving East Bengal being the Football Club) she is the most colorful of all the current crop of pale politicians.
And she is colorful despite her colorless dress, makeup, car, home, and Bank Balance.
Saturday, March 28, 2009:
Humpty-Dumpty of West Bengal
Singur people want Nano back: Buddhadeb
Buddha-Mamata fought on a wall
Buddha-Mamata had a great fall
Not all their wits
Nor their big sticks
Can lure Tata back to their stall!
Buddha-Mamata fought on a wall
Buddha-Mamata had a great fall
Not all their wits
Nor their big sticks
Can lure Tata back to their stall!
Friday, April 3, 2009:
Mamata's Bloody Pledge
"I will never ride Nano; it is made of peoples' blood": Mamata
(With apologies to Christina Rosette's 'Rainbow')
Boats sail on the rivers,
Ships sail on the seas;
But Tata's cute Nano
Stolen by Narendro
Sails on the blood of W.Bees!
(With apologies to Christina Rosette's 'Rainbow')
Boats sail on the rivers,
Ships sail on the seas;
But Tata's cute Nano
Stolen by Narendro
Sails on the blood of W.Bees!
Thursday, April 9, 2009
"Nano makes a Big splash on Day 1": DC Front Page Headline April 10
"I will never ride Nano; it is made of peoples' blood": Mamata April 3
Nano comes in three colors:
Blue, white and red;
A splash in Mamata's metaphors
Turns them all Bloody Red!
That brings us to why my sudden interest in her after more than a year and a half:
It is because of her piquant statement a couple of days back that she would love to have Pranab-da as the next Chief Minister of Bengal.
Mamata Banerjee left Congress terming it the B Team of CPM. But didn't drop Congress from the name of her new party: Trinamul Congress. Note it means the Grass Root Congress: not Flower or Fruit but Grass Root.
That brings us to the B Team folks.
In every sphere of life it is the B (not the A) that is the most colorful and influential; and she knows it: hence the offer of the A Post to Pranab-da keeping the B Post of Home Minister to herself.
Britain has been the wisest and the most graceful nation. She acquired the biggest empire in history without meaning to do so, almost dreamily, for a 'Nation of Shopkeepers' as Napoleon called her. She managed it with minimum force and dismantled it with minimum bloodshed (of Englishmen).
Contrast this with the American fiasco in Vietnam and the hapless downfall of the untenable Soviet Empire like so many ninepins.
And Britain's most powerful person, her PM, is a B and not A. The powerless A Post is reserved for her King or Queen. And her most powerful agent in her empire was the Viceroy (note he is the Vice...and not the Roy).
In our own country it the PM (the B) who is most powerful...not the A (the President)
In our university the Principal had only a humble 'Home' but our Vice-Chancellor had a regal 'Lodge'. The Governor-Chancellor, a mere figurehead, is an A with rubber-stamping and rebuking power. But it is the B, the Vice, that holds enormous powers of appointment and disappointment.
And in day-to-day affairs it is again the Vice-Principal whose office is most crowded. Please the Vice-P and you get your work done automatically through the virtual-P.
At IIT KGP it was the DD and not the D who was to be buttered...D being unapproachable to commoners like me.
In Halls of Residence it is not the Warden, who rarely comes, but the Asst Wardens who hold the fort and manage things.
It is not the President's Gold Medalist (who is a bookworm and a geek) who is colorful and goes places but the Best All-Rounder B C Roy Medalist who oozes charm.
It is not the Deity but the Temple Pujari (having direct access to the sanctum sanctorum) who is the most powerful...marry into his family and you don't have to stand in the mile-long queues at Tirupati for shaking hands with the Lord from close quarters.
In every well-oiled household it is the mother who wields real power but not the father who is busy winning bread and a little butter.
In every hive it is the Queen Bee that rules....
In chess it is the Queen and not the King that has the most mobility and killings. The King is castled most of the time...
In the newspaper Industry it is not the Proprietor but the Editor (and perhaps the sub-editors) who make thing happen.
In the film industry it is not the Producer but the Director who rules the sets.
In most businesses it is the VPs not the P who brings home the bacon.
In the Indian Railways, the First AC is infested with rats and vermin but it is the AC Two-Tier that is most comfortable.
And Buddha says it is the Middle path (like the middle lane on the Hyderabad Roads) that is the safest.
Always aim to be a B (B for Bengali) for maximum happiness instead of an A (A for Andhra)!!!
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1 comment:
Blue, white and red;
A splash in Mamata's metaphors
Turns them all Bloody Red!
- Read a bengali poem that came in some newspaper (or magazine) during the 2008 Durga Puja.
Chaturthi te Nano gelo,
Ashtami te Sourav,
eke eke hariye jachhe
Bangla r sob gourab
aar kichhu ma na niye tui
tule ne sudhu 'Mamata' ke
notun kore bachbo mora
bachabo ei "Bangla" ke