BLOGAM

  [With inputs from Shri. Soumendra Choudhury, Scientist F (Retd.)] Bubu or Bubu-na as we lovingly called him, left for his heavenly abode on the 9 th of May 2024 after a brief but painful illness. It was the cruel hands of Cancer that took him away. Truly, the world of Western Medicine hasn't yet matured to handle a disease like Cancer yet. It is with deep grief that we mourn his untimely demise especially, that it is affecting all young hearts beyond what is common in such cases. I take this opportunity to narrate and describe our best moments that shall be cherished forever. We're great friends. His elder brother Raja was my colleague during his posting in Gangtok, Sikkim. I used to visit them quite often and often stayed the night enjoying with food and booze as friends do. Being constantly in touch, it is nightmarish plangencies to believe that he is no more. He was an extremely polite and affable person throughout. His health was deteriorating fast but, the doctors t...

  [Thank you Joseph Thumpassery for your inputs] Everyone loves taking naps. The deeper our naps are, better it is the time to facilitate looting, quite unaware. Looting is a multilayered term that's used to debunk our mortal truths and indoctrinated brainwashes. Further it is used to garner greater profits by many in the high echelons of power. While truths are like dreams, the brainwashes are nightmares and, vice versa. Life has become risky by the day as quick profiteering is kicking out the ethics of conducting good business. The Great Indian Riddle? Ask yourself![ 1 ] Take the case of the car industry. Despite all the progress made on the technology front, Indian cars do not pass through rigorous tests. This is very much unlike the ones that are manufactured in the same plant for export. It is perhaps for such poor quality standards that we place our Gods of Worship on the dashboard, seeking protection from pitfalls to save us from such double standards. The beauty and angui...

LIQUORIFIED [This is purely an act of fiction. Names, characters, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Content designed may provide helpful information on the subjects discussed along with presentations/illustrations for highlighting the plight of an aggrieved. The author assumes no liabilities of any kind with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents. Any resemblance to persons living or dead may be purely coincidental] With credits to Bibhash Chandra Tripathi Money at hand was scarce in the days that we spent in college. But that wasn't a deterrent when it came to go on a drinking binge with batchmates. After all, it was our four years at stake to build and establish ourselves. The timespan was huge, little we realised that we had to appear in six challenging subjects per semester. While many reign supreme this day in various organisations worldwide, the days spent in the college were never forgo...

[This is purely an act of fiction. Names, characters, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Content designed may provide helpful information on the subjects discussed along with presentations/illustrations for highlighting the plight of an aggrieved. The author assumes no liabilities of any kind with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents. Any resemblance to persons living or dead may be purely coincidental] With credits to Prasun Chakraborty I think, therefore I am – Descartes I was on my way back home from the site office, where construction of an airport was underway on the outskirts of a capital city of a State in India. On the way was my uncle's house and decided to pay my cousin a visit, that was long due. My uncle departed for his heavenly abode a couple of years before the mandemic and left the house to his only son who stayed there with his wife and son. As I was entering the house, ...

[This is purely an act of fiction. Names, characters, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Content designed may provide helpful information on the subjects discussed along with presentations/illustrations for highlighting the plight of an aggrieved. The author assumes no liabilities of any kind with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents. Any resemblance to persons living or dead may be purely coincidental] With credits to Mrs. Papia Kundu nee Mondal a friend from childhood Dipak had barely completed his diploma in civil engineering when he landed in a job as a junior engineer in a central government department. Such personnel were the eyes of the organisation at the ground level. It was a mass recruitment of sorts where, the country was reshaping itself, a couple of decades after independence. Observing his deft skill-sets, he was selected by his peers for a foreign posting, most immediately. Every...

[This is purely an act of fiction. Names, characters, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Content designed may provide helpful information on the subjects discussed along with presentations/illustrations for highlighting the plight of an aggrieved. The author assumes no liabilities of any kind with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents. Any resemblance to persons living or dead may be purely coincidental]   Sparkling under the morning sunshine, barely had I taken out my beauty out of the garage when a #juvenile or just beyond, rammed into my car, severely paralyzing it on a beautiful October morning in his playful gesture. Barely had my son completed the honours of closing the garage gates that I usually do and, settled down in the co-driver’s seat while I was at the wheels. It was parked momentarily by the road near my residence, before intending to take off to attend to an appointment wit...

[This is purely an act of fiction. Names, characters, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. C ontent designed may provide helpful information on the subjects discussed along with presentations/illustrations for highlighting the plight of an aggrieved. The author assume no liabilities of any kind with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents. Any resemblance to persons living or dead may be purely coincidental] With vivid inputs from Zuam – Amit Chaudhuri Times were difficult those days in securing a job and more so, when the family income was starved of a decent living. That was suffocating for the members of Joy’s family that saw loss of jobs with dwindling family income in a very short time. The frame of mind was inexplicable. Dearth of jobs was a nationwide syndrome with opportunities getting scarce. Sustenance was getting difficult by the day with spiraling prices and hope of getting a job r...

We celebrate 15 th of August 2018 as our independence day every year. But, are we really independent? This has made the mind restless for many. Of the factors many that intrigue us, confront us, harass us in many of our transactions of daily life, is the cost of commodities that we pay for that rules over all. After all, its our hard earned money that we toil for day in and day out. Almost as many ecommerce or brand-shops in the country carry huge and explicit advertisements either in print or eAds right under the nose and watchful eyes of the regulators in place, who prefer to look the other way, offering majestic discounts and cashbacks to lure the gullible us. Mailed ads, newspaper inserts, online banners, emails, in-store displays and price tags scream for our attention every moment of our lives. How can it be true that merchandise can be sold at 80% - 90% discounts? Insanity rules!! The coexistence of discounts with purchases has become an integral part of attaining customer go...

[With avid inputs from Sanjay Choudhury, my friend and batchmate from REC (now NIT) Silchar] The place of posting was more than 150 kilometers from home. But roads were good and the car strong, that would barely take three hours to reach on weekends to the comforts of sweet home. That was a regular practice since my posting here as my family couldn’t join due to educational obligations of my only child. I never gave a second thought due to easy accessibility and, otherwise disciplined traffic. They would also join me whenever they felt like. Another week was about to end for me to show up at home. But then, it was difficult to gauge from the moods of madamme and my child on arrival, whether they were happy or the other. The travel bag, a duffel, was small but had enough space to hold a few essentials. It was quite usual to keep a couple of sets back home so that, everytime I’d visit, there wasn’t any dearth of garments that would enbrace my body on the three nights that I stay put forg...

Delivery of public services calls for servants of the government to do service to the various citizen centric programmes formulated for social emancipation. It should be understood that for active delivery of public services, they need the blessings of political and administrative pillars in any country. These deliveries require public servants, who assume humongous powers by tweaking the mechanism of delivering the goods to the public, realising less that somewhere in the chain, their own are affected too. It's a well coined term in English “running from pillar to post” to get a job accomplished in any sector. Kudos to the makers of Kagaz starring the quintessential Pankaj Tripathi. Many wild cases as such, depicted in the film released on OTT platform, exist till this day. Movies and shows over such platforms have become bolder, encouraged their general acceptance by the grieving citizens who till this day in a digital India, have to face a burnout due to existing red tapeism f...