Some of you may know about the the Pink Chaddi Campaign aginst Sri Ram Sena founder Pramod Muthalik (see for example, http://www.thepinkchaddicampaign.blogspot.com/ and the Facebook group, ‘A Consortium of Pub-going, Loose & Forward Women’). Going around in Calcutta I was amused to sight the related Amul ad, `Pink Chaddi Yellow Buddy’ and ‘Pub tu toh gaya!’ (see, http://www.amul.com/2008hits/page17.html). Amul, for those of you who haven’t grown up in India, is the most popular brand in milk products. I cannot name a single other butter brand in India besides Amul butter.
One morning I strolled into a Barista caffe ( http://www.barista.co.in/) in Kolkata and paid enough money for a cup of cafe mocha to buy two decent meals in Kolkata. I was curious about these new swanky cafes with an unmistakable Western ambiance. The contrast is sharp. I am still used to drinking milk-tea in clay-cups from little tea-stall on the sidewalk at four rupees. And here I paid eighty rupees fora cup of coffee! Granted, it was good coffee, but the price feels undeniably sinful. Sitting at a table that morning I noticed an ad across the street that made me chuckle, “Valentine’s Day Special, Ayurvedic Facial for… “. That would surely vex Sri Ram Sena, Valentine’s day and Ayurveda? Or may be they will find some consolation? That morning, I must have been in a rather odd mood. When I walked up to the counter to order my coffee, the server didn’t respond to my Bengali. I spoke in English and placed my order, but then realized from his name-tag that he was a Bengali. I was irked. Why won’t he respond in Bengali when spoken to? I confronted him in Bengali and asked him whether he knew the language. Of course he did. Because Barista was an Italian company the staff was directed to speak in English, he said. I was not willing to give up so easily. What is this strange obsession with English as the language of the elite and nobility even after fifty years of India’s independence? When will we begin to appreciate that a language is just a language and cannot be a symbol of superiority or inferiority? And when will we learn to love what is our own as much as what we absorb from other cultures? I ended up submitting a suggestion card and expressing my views. I also tried to convince the server that there is nothing intrinsically noble about replying in English when spoken to in Bengali and pretending he doesn’t know the language. And when he mumbled something like, ‘Oh, but this is an Italian company’, I snapped, ‘Have you been to Italy? Do you think the Italians would much rather speak in English with a fellow Italian? And what does it matter what company it is? You are in Kolkata, aren’t you? You are a Bengali, who, under a little persuasion is speaking the language as good as any native speaker should. So why subscribe to this idea, that somehow, speaking is English is high-class?’ This is a trend in India, and particularly West Bengal. We don’t value our language and culture enough. N.C. Chowdhuri (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirad_C._Chaudhuri), a great scholar who lived mostly in Oxford, wrote a notorious book, ‘Atmaghati Bangalee’ (Suicidal Bengali). I think the name is very apt.
Anyway, that morning was brightened by another discovery, a exclusive bookstore of Motilal Banarsidass (http://www.mlbd.com/) on Camac Street! This publisher is probably the largest on Indology in the world, and for me it is cady store. An impressive collection of spiritual and Eastern philosophy books, some dusty and pale for long day of waiting to be touched and felt by a passing reader, greeted me on the stacks. There were books on Buddhism, non-dualistism (Atdvaita), Qualified non-dualism (vishitatdvaita) , Tantra, Kashmiri Shaivism, Zen, work of modern saints like Ramana Maharishi, Nishswargadatta Maharaj and so on. I bought a very interesting book on non-dual Kasmiri Shaivism, ‘Paramartha Sara (The Essential Truth)’ by Abhigyanagupta.
Coming back to ads, the Indian government has a catchy series of AIDS and HIV awareness ads which features Buladi in West Bengal (http://www.telegraphindia.com/1041221/asp/atleisure/story_4152103.asp). These ads are just everywhere in Kolkata now! ‘Have a single sexual partner or the demon of AIDS may destroy you!’ one says. On the noisy polluted jammed roads in Calcutta, squeezed between people on buses, I was eagerly eying the cityscape whenever I could. Lots of ads by jewelery and Saree brands. Their appetite for ornaments and fabric seems to be a defining characteristic of Bengali women! The concept of obeying traffic rules is somewhat alien here. Lots of ads on such matters. One reads, ‘Treating traffic lights as decorative lighting? Have you gotten it right?’. ‘Please obey traffic rules’ is printed on the backs of buses and trucks. Not much effect is obvious. Traffic mayhem fails to quite capture the state of affairs here.
I like the street names in Kolkta, though lot of them have been changed after independence, but some of the old names still circulate. There is Harrison Road, Amherst street and so on… I was passing by Hindu college and remembered Derozio (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Louis_Vivian_Derozio). You must read about him and here is lovely thought expressed simply in one of his poems,
