We leave for Kharagpur and Kolkata and we reach the highway
to Kharagpur at a place called Narayangarh on NH5 when all of a sudden the
traffic stops and there’s a crowd beginning to collect and we start to hear
some shouting and commotion. Then we hear a muffled-ish voice shouting
feverently in Bengali over a loudspeaker. Sister actually thought it was the
welcoming committee for us until we realized that the traffic had stopped on both sides of the road. Apparently,
we’ve been caught in a bandh. A
what-seems-to-be-impromptu bandh. And
Rakesh translates what the guy in Bengali is saying – Give us the transformer or we will stop traffic for 12 hours.
We’re all looking out of the windows and all around us
there are trucks, and swarms of people growing out of the vehicles, flocking
around to understand the reason of the conflict. Some of our team venture out
and 10 minutes later we find out that the farmers are staging this protest. They
need a way to irrigate their fields, and had pooled in some money on their own
and requested the Electric Department to provide a transformer to pump the
water. The Electric Department gave a date on which they’d arrange for the
thing. It had been 10 days since the due date and the farmers were out of
patience. This entire protest was premeditated.
The shouting on the loudspeaker is constant. They kept
shouting for justice and moreover just what was due to them. We’re a little
confused wondering what’s gonna happen to our program in Kharagpur. But despite
the uncertainty of the whole situation, everybody’s calm, munching on some channas, waiting..
Some police people show up and they’re majorly
outnumbered by the crowd. Besides, they dont have orders from the guy above to
take any action. But once they reach, we hear the loudspeaker man shake things
up and say if their demands aren’t met, they’re gonna keep the traffic on halt
for 24 hours now.
Very clever.
About 3 hours into the bandh, a whole gang of police guys show up with lathis and hold their stand, waiting for
the protestors to back off. The loudspeaker chap begins to grow desperate. His
last attempt, his last plea, as Rakesh puts it. He starts shouting about things
like how it will affect the education of their kids if they don’t get the
transformer, coz all work will stop and that way money will stop and all. This
pleading goes on about 40 minutes, then the police swarm in, dissipating the
crowd. Luckily, the police don’t have to use the lathis, so nobody gets hurt. But the mob does start to pelt stones
at all the vehicles. Lucky for us, we’re two of the first few vehicles in the
line, so we’re out of harm’s way pretty fast.
Alan started recording interviews of all of us, asking
how we felt about the whole situation. The general consensus was that such kinds
of protests are actually needed coz
the common man doesn’t really get heard otherwise. I felt that what they were
doing was right, but the method was wrong. Rakesh also spoke in the same vein.
He said instead of stopping traffic on the highway, they should have gone to
the concerned official’s place of work and sat there instead, asking for their
voice to be heard. After a few hours, they would have at least got somewhere.
Here, their issue is still unresolved, plus now some of them might be facing
charges for disrupting traffic and all.
We reach Kharagpur way off schedule, but the welcome
wasn’t any less warm or sweet. We missed the whole program that was arranged,
but the people were understanding.
After lunch we head out to Kolkata. It’ll take half a day
to get there, but the energy is high. Really looking forward to it.
On the way we passed Kharagpur Railway Station. This is
the station with the longest platform in the world! 1072.50 metres in length!
Woah! We couldn’t even get the whole thing in 1 shot..
We reach Kolkata at the end of the day and learn that we
are staying at this place called Seva
Kendra. I like the name a lot.. It inspires of working from the heart, for
the benefit of the next person without prejudice, and without a vested
interest. But what I liked even more was all
the energy being used here was solar. Like ALL of it! Lights, fans.. Even water
heating..
If they can do
it here in Kolkata, and it can be
done, it should be done everywhere.
At least that’s how I feel.
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