About 3 weeks after the cyclone Aila struck Bengal and created an impact that left parts of the states gasping, this myopic creature found himself rummaging through the newspapers of the last month trying to find something useful for the archives.
As I was sleepily browsing through the lot, muttering away (‘death, destruction, storm, storm, storm…’) I noticed the absurdly large number of times the word ‘naked’ and its synonyms were mentioned. Now, this being rather deviant from the regular dosage of the 101 popular derivatives of doom, I was forced to don my glasses to get a closer look.
It started off normally enough. It was mostly in reference to the residents of the Sunderbans after the devastation wrought by the Cyclone Aila. The terrifying storm has left more than 1 million people homeless throughout the state in its wake. The Relief Operation was also as wonderfully messy and irregular as any endeavor of the West Bengal Government in recent years has been. A week down the line ‘naked starving villagers’ begging for water (food was a luxury they did not dare expect any more) was the term that I found most commonly.
In the second week, things took a rather horrific turn. The starving and still ‘naked’ villagers started getting visits from the VIP s of all colors of the political spectra. The media coverage for these events was, as expected, immense. While in reality these visits achieved nothing of substance as far as the villagers were concerned, they did manage to hold up Relief Operations, shabby as they were anyways. After a round of visits from both the sparring leaders Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and Mamata Banerjee, and no progress whatsoever, the people of the delta truly lost their cool. The next visit by a CPM MLA Gopal Gayen saw him get smeared with mud, as the audience indulged in some very literal mud-slinging. He was also forced to walk in the knee-deep muck by the villagers while some tore at his kurta.
‘Naked anger’ had arrived.
All Hail His Highness, The Great Indian Politician ...
Meanwhile, elsewhere, a different drama was unfolding. So, even before the bloated rotting corpses of man and creature had been buried or burned, it had gradually been banished to the mid pages.
Strangely enough, ‘naked’ seemed to be in no mood to leave the front page.
The Lok-Sabha elections had seen the TMC-Congress sweep to a majority after demolishing the Left in many parts of their so-called strongholds. Before the desperate cries of the victims of the victims of the cyclone had stopped, a terrible turf-war broke out throughout the state with both sides leaving no stones unturned to increase their territory or reclaim lost ones. The brutalities continued unabated for a week will the death tolls showing a steady increase as the politicians played their favorite blame-games to perfection.
And the highlight of the show?
The brutal death of Yudhisthir Dolui, a TMC worker in Arambagh, who was mutilated and murdered in front of his family.
The politics of revenge saw the deaths of several CPM workers in retaliation.
‘Naked Aggression’ was on the cards.
As I continued looking after that, ‘naked’ seemed to have taken a hiatus. I had nearly given up, when suddenly, in the last paper, something caught my attention in the spot where I had found most of my earlier ‘naked’ news. But this came with a bit of a twist…
It read –
‘ STREAKER SHOCKER IN SCHOOL
Young intruder strips in front of Class X girls and scoots
… As he stripped down to his birthday suit, the girls screamed - out of fear, the authorities asserted - drawing the attention of students in the other classes.
The rest also caught a glimpse of the streaker as he sprinted like Usain Bolt without his spandex and flashed through the rear exit…’
Upholding Traditions ...
As I was sleepily browsing through the lot, muttering away (‘death, destruction, storm, storm, storm…’) I noticed the absurdly large number of times the word ‘naked’ and its synonyms were mentioned. Now, this being rather deviant from the regular dosage of the 101 popular derivatives of doom, I was forced to don my glasses to get a closer look.
It started off normally enough. It was mostly in reference to the residents of the Sunderbans after the devastation wrought by the Cyclone Aila. The terrifying storm has left more than 1 million people homeless throughout the state in its wake. The Relief Operation was also as wonderfully messy and irregular as any endeavor of the West Bengal Government in recent years has been. A week down the line ‘naked starving villagers’ begging for water (food was a luxury they did not dare expect any more) was the term that I found most commonly.
In the second week, things took a rather horrific turn. The starving and still ‘naked’ villagers started getting visits from the VIP s of all colors of the political spectra. The media coverage for these events was, as expected, immense. While in reality these visits achieved nothing of substance as far as the villagers were concerned, they did manage to hold up Relief Operations, shabby as they were anyways. After a round of visits from both the sparring leaders Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and Mamata Banerjee, and no progress whatsoever, the people of the delta truly lost their cool. The next visit by a CPM MLA Gopal Gayen saw him get smeared with mud, as the audience indulged in some very literal mud-slinging. He was also forced to walk in the knee-deep muck by the villagers while some tore at his kurta.
‘Naked anger’ had arrived.
All Hail His Highness, The Great Indian Politician ...
Meanwhile, elsewhere, a different drama was unfolding. So, even before the bloated rotting corpses of man and creature had been buried or burned, it had gradually been banished to the mid pages.
Strangely enough, ‘naked’ seemed to be in no mood to leave the front page.
The Lok-Sabha elections had seen the TMC-Congress sweep to a majority after demolishing the Left in many parts of their so-called strongholds. Before the desperate cries of the victims of the victims of the cyclone had stopped, a terrible turf-war broke out throughout the state with both sides leaving no stones unturned to increase their territory or reclaim lost ones. The brutalities continued unabated for a week will the death tolls showing a steady increase as the politicians played their favorite blame-games to perfection.
And the highlight of the show?
The brutal death of Yudhisthir Dolui, a TMC worker in Arambagh, who was mutilated and murdered in front of his family.
The politics of revenge saw the deaths of several CPM workers in retaliation.
‘Naked Aggression’ was on the cards.
As I continued looking after that, ‘naked’ seemed to have taken a hiatus. I had nearly given up, when suddenly, in the last paper, something caught my attention in the spot where I had found most of my earlier ‘naked’ news. But this came with a bit of a twist…
It read –
‘ STREAKER SHOCKER IN SCHOOL
Young intruder strips in front of Class X girls and scoots
… As he stripped down to his birthday suit, the girls screamed - out of fear, the authorities asserted - drawing the attention of students in the other classes.
The rest also caught a glimpse of the streaker as he sprinted like Usain Bolt without his spandex and flashed through the rear exit…’
Upholding Traditions ...
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