Café Commoners

By Ritwik Mukherjee

Diary writing has moved a long way from being discrete entries arranged by date and reporting on the events of the day gone by (originally in hand-written format), to blogs and vlogs (video blogs) on social media. Caf, possibly, hasnt. French philosopher founded Caf-Philo with the objective of bringing people together in a public friendly forum where they could discuss ideas, share experience and thoughts on wide ranging issues in a relaxed atmosphere. The idea clearly was and still is to add a dash of fun and excitement to the discussion. Here at such cafs, ideas exchanged are still in the spirit of tolerance and openness.
Like any other true and quintessential Bengali, Ritwik also loves to join such relaxed and widely diverse conversations among friends and like-minded people, often called adda. And believe you me, such addas would refresh, refuel and rejuvenate you. They would also offer some food for thoughts. Caf Commoners is a compilation of such food for thoughts, narrated in the spirit of adda. These are leafs out of a common mans diary, albeit without date, time and chronology and recollected later in tranquility. Who says life is to be seen in black & white? What can be more colourful than life? Caf Commoners seeks to discover or re-discover these colours in black & white

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: Apr 12, 2016
• ISBN: 9781482871548

Ritwik Mukherjee

A postgaduate in economics from Calcutta University and PG diploma holder in journalism, Ritwik has put in more than 26 years in the field, working for leading business dailies and magazine including The Economic Times, Financial Express, Business Today, Hindustan Times and Financial Chronicle, in different capacities. When he joined this profession while still in college, it was by accident, but the continuance has certainly been by choice and passionate involvement. He pursued his studies and his profession simultaneously, and in all these years, he has enjoyed overcoming challenges with a clear, logical mind and a practical approach. He has all along been driven by the broader perspectives and larger socio-economic impact that a particular event or chain of events is likely to have. Financial journalism in India was at its nascence when I joined back in 1989. It has come a long way since then, giving me the opportunity to grow with the profession. Over this period, he has also had the chance of working for an international news agency like AFP as well as the London Observer on a special editorial project. Ritwik has also authored a number of books in Bengali --- “Swore Byanjone”, a book of nursery rhymes, ‘Offbeat: Collection of Political and other anecdotes’, travelogues and novellas like ‘Grihabrobesh’, ‘Proyodarshini Toke’. One of them, Chin: Mao Theke Jemin, (China: From Mao to Jemin), tracing China’s transition from the Mao era to the Ziang Jemin regime, also received the Kavi Satyen Dutta Memorial Award. Ritwik has had the privilege of teaching financial journalism as a guest lecturer at Calcutta University and Burdwan University and was also invited to speak at The Economic Forum organised by The Institute of Eastern Studies, Warsaw, Poland, and at the Energy Forum organised by the same institute for three consecutive years (2014 , 2015, 2016).

Book preview

Copyright © 2016 by Ritwik Mukherjee.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Cover Illustration: Somnath Roy Chowdhury

Inside Illustration: Ajitesh Kar (Sentu)

www.partridgepublishing.com/india

Contents

A different ball game?

May Day

All for a byline

A Simple Business Model

Creating Identity

Burah na mano bhai, holi hai!!

Mother’s Mandate

Old is Gold

Titan Tussles

Pause and Ponder

Number Game

Catch ’em Young

Paradox of Thrift

Jhoota Hi Sahi…….

Numbers Crunching

Scaling New Heights

Hope is a winged creature

No Comments

Quandary!

Time Travel

Good Samaritan

Delve Deeper

Made in China

Weight Watcher

Good things come in small packages

Wish List

Stay Connected

So What!

PJ

Those were the days!

Affiliation Ahoy!

Red Letter Day

Turning the wheels

Soul Curry

Up in the Hills

Grand Feast

Role Reversed?

Sheer delight!

Numbers Don’t Matter, Always!

Best things often come free!

Being human!

Cut Uncut

Myanmar memorabilia

Net prancing

Food for thought

Behind the scene

Kindness knows no bounds

Think different to make difference

Don’t take it easy!

Smart Alec!

Survival theory

Kudos!

Poetic parenthesis!

Meeting the master

Joining the bandwagon!

The world is one family

The tradition continues

Love’s Labour

Countdown begins!

Lyric rescue

Fishing for compliments

Loosing Sharpness!

The Idea that is India

Good Old Days

Sobriquet Saga

Setting priorities

Old is New!

Old habits die hard!

Trip down memory lane

Consumption Ratchet

Twist in the Tale

Thinking Out of the Box

Face Palm!

Winter’s Tale

Here is to Life!!

Quote Misquote

Politickle

Staying Protected!

Refueling

Handle With Care!

Tailpiece

DEDICATION

To my parents

Foreword

Ever since I took to reading non-text books, one of the most fascinating books so far has been Letters from a father to his daughter written by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru wrote these letters from Naini jail to his daughter Indira Gandhi (who also went on to become India’s Prime Minister) who was in Mussoorie at that point of time. He spoke on a wide range of topics including languages, trade, history, geography, science, epics, evolution, his understanding of the world, among others.

Consider this particular part of a letter:

"My Dear Indira,

You know sweetheart, how I dislike sermonizing and doling out good advice. I have always thought that the best way to find out what is right and what is not right, what should be done and what should not be done, is not by giving a sermon, but by talking and discussing and out of discussion sometimes a little bit of truth comes out. I have liked my talks with you and we have discussed many things, but the world is wide and beyond our world lie other wonderful and mysterious worlds. None of us need ever be bored or imagine that we have learned everything worth learning and become very wise."

The world is truly wide—wider than we can think of. As you grow you realize that there are wonderful and mysterious world beyond the mundane world. You never get bored with what you get to know or learnt. There is no end to learning and you can always become wiser.

I was highly engrossed. I read and re-read. Never thought I would also be a father of a beautiful daughter some day.

One of the first few habits that I developed (or made to develop) as I began my life in a hostel at the age of 10, was to write diary on a daily basis. Who would have thought that such a boring routine affair can one day be so much fun-filled, charming and exciting? Life is like a boutique house, where each event is different from the other, each character is unique in its own way. They are all priceless.

My diary features some such hilarious and not-so-hilarious, priceless incidents and characters, recollected in tranquility. Like Nehru, I also hate to sermonize. These characters and anecdotes only let me learn newer and newer things of life in their own special ways. This is to keep my diary for my daughter and others.

You can do the same if you feel like.

Ritwik Mukherjee

Kolkata.

Acknowledgements: I would be failing on my duties if I don’t acknowledge the invaluable contributions made by Baishali, Tanwistha, Sentu, Taniya, Somnath in letting this book see the light of the day.

As I moved along in life, I have had many experiences and have gained some wisdom. It’s always ‘some wisdom’, because there will always be more lessons ahead. Anyone would appreciate that wisdom can always be gained through experiences. These experiences are like beautiful, valuable pearls lying in the sand by your feet. These are like those pearls we often step over without noticing, without stopping to pick them up.

These pearls are placed in our paths when we need them the most, as if sent as lessons, meant to aid us and guide us on our paths.

I never picked them up as pearls. But as I look back and glance through what can best be billed as a ‘common man’s diary’, I discovered or re-discovered these little, beautiful and invaluable pearls. Here are some of these pearls for you.

A different ball game?

In one of the recent adda (informal gossiping) sessions amongst friends, one of my close friends narrated what he had experienced recently. This friend of ours with a creative bent of mind has been planning to make a film and has been on the look-out for the right producer who would finance the film with the right kind of creative freedom to him. In the process he was introduced to this man, a lawyer by training and profession who is extremely keen on finding a toe hold in the tinsel town. He readily agreed to produce (or get it produced) the film—without even going through the script—on condition that he will have to be made the director of the movie. He even promised a couple of awards for that yet-to-be-made film. This friend of ours, who had been struggling to get a producer for his film, was in two minds on whether to make this compromise and threw it up for discussion amongst us.

We were immediately reminded of another friend of ours, who joined us in the college from a very rich family of businessmen. He used to come to college everyday in different cars. He always aspired to be in the college team in soccer and cricket, with hardly any prior exposures to these sports and games. We also knew that, for sure. But we used to keep him in the team, just to ensure that there were enough good cars to take us to the ground, there were enough snack and soft drinks of our choice, there were parties after the game, there were some additional sporting gears and kits for all of us, so on and so forth. He was not too demanding either. He would just field for 10/15 minutes and he would be happy!

We are yet to check out what this friend of ours who aspires to be a movie maker finally decided after being narrated this story of our college days. Or is it a different ball game altogether?

May Day

Bulbul Da is a simple man. But he is driven by extra ordinary philosophy and incredible enthusiasm. He does not necessarily make an attempt for that but he naturally stands out in whatever he does and says. His current address is well within the urban agglomeration of the city, but he hails from one of the most picturesque and agriculture-rich places of rural Bengal. And it’s not too difficult to make out that his heart still stays along the serene and tranquil banks of river Jalangi, near Dhubulia in Nadia district.

On May 1, which is celebrated (not too sure if that’s the right word!) worldwide as the international labour day, Bulbul da gave me a call pretty early in the morning, to share another of his simple-yet-extra ordinary plan of action. As he was explaining to me his POA for the day, I could hear those innocent voices, which sounded like chirping of the birds. He was already out with 19 kids including his son Zidane and daughter Jemima. These wonderful kids vouchsafed that they would clean up their village (Kalika Nagar) from