The lackadaisical Bengali babu: Will he ever change?

West Bengal’s big industrialists are busy conducting a mahayagna to change the state’s business climate. Nine days. 100 yagna kunds. 500 pundits. 1.25 lakh ahutis. The Mahalaxmi Mahayagya is burning bright under the guidance of Swami Prakhar Maharaj of Haridwar who promises all this will “ turn the fortunes of the state.” Prakhar Maharaj-ji has already taken on some monumental campaigns – making India a nuclear power, driving corruption out of the country. But turning the tide in West Bengal might prove to be the ultimate challenge for God, man and godman. West Bengal is just not used to going to work. The Telegraph pointed out that October with its Durga Puja, Lakshmi Puja, Kali Puja and Bhai Phonta (Bhai-dooj) was a particularly happy month for the babumoshais. [caption id=“attachment_120804” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“October with its Durga Puja, Lakshmi Puja, Kali Puja and Bhai Phonta was a particularly happy month for the babumoshais. If you played your cards right, and snuck in a well-positioned Casual Leave you didn’t need to show up to work for 20 days out of 31. Image for representational purpose only. Deshakalyan Chowdhury/AFP”]  [/caption] If you played your cards right, and snuck in a well-positioned Casual Leave you didn’t need to show up to work for 20 days out of 31. “October has been incredible” one clerk told The Telegraph. “This is most certainly the maximum number of days off from work I have enjoyed in my career so far.” He’s been working with the state’s finance department since 1985! The only person who could have interrupted this holiday bonanza was Mamata Banerjee, the workaholic CM who has the bad habit of making surprise inspections. But Didi was away in north Bengal, Jangal Mahal and Delhi. And when the cat is away, the Bengali mice play hookey. Between October 10 and 27 attendance at Writers’ Building dipped below 40 percent. Those who came logged out by 3 pm. Before Mamata had swept into power, when change was the buzzword in the addas of Kolkata, I remember asking historian Bharati Ray what really needed to change. “The number one requirement in Calcutta life is discipline,” she said. “Number two is the will to work. If that happens our children will come back on their own. We won’t need to ask them. We have to make the city worth coming back for them.” Now almost six months into the new administration there are some hesitant signs of change. If you walk into a government office at 10 in the morning you will see people rushing in, scrambling to sign their names on the attendance register before they are marked absent. Unfortunately all the change is logjammed at the top. If Didi’s spine is jolted on a ride along the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass then suddenly the babus start wondering how to fix it. If Didi walks into a hospital and sees patients lying on the floor, red-faced hospital burra sahibs need to come up with explanation. If Didi walks into an office and sees too many empty desks, heads start to roll. That’s a beginning. But that’s just about a new sheriff in town. Not a cultural change. Not paribartan. Part of that problem is Trinamool’s steep learning curve. It’s a party that cut its teeth on being the opposition – it can obstruct, barricade, conduct dharnas but can it make the trains run on time? Bharati Ray told me a story about a debate between Tagore and Gandhi. At that time Gandhi was going full bore on the goal of political independence. Tagore told Gandhi that he was not saying political freedom was not important. Of course, it was. But civil reform was even more important. Unless you remove the fundamental evils that have crept into society, then when you are free all of them will come back. If you teach a whole nation only disobedience, when you come to power what will happen? West Bengal’s charm has been its laidback attitude to life. Unfortunately that’s its undoing. Other states have a can-do spirit. We have cholchhe cholbe (it’s sorta working, that’s good enough). It percolates down from Writer’s Building to the local plumber. For a month I’ve been trying to get the manufacturer to fix the missing hinges of my new bathroom cabinet. First it was Vishwakarma Puja in September.  “All the craftsmen are away, sir,” beamed a salesperson. “But as soon as Puja is over we’ll get it taken care of.” Then came the promises to call within hours. Or by tomorrow, for sure, sir. But that was just a ruse to take us into the happy haze of Durga Puja, Lakshmi Puja, Kali Puja, Bhai phonta. I might be able to open my bathroom cabinet’s door sometime in mid November if I am lucky. Of course, there’s still Id and Guru Nanak’s birthday to negotiate around. I am hoping the craftsmen don’t observe Children’s Day as well. West Bengal needs paribartan. But unfortunately a mahayagya might be too much smoke and not fire enough to rouse us. The state needs a good sharp kick in the rear before it can splutter to life. And that medicine is not going to go down well. As one office assistant told The Telegraph “We have had to spend long hours in the office, sometimes beyond 5.30 pm and work on many Saturdays since the new government took charge. Please don’t grudge us this break.” He took 24 days off this October.