Articles by Gurvinder Singh

World Environment Day on June 5th this year held a different significance altogether for the city of Kolkata. For the city battered by Cyclone Amphan, one of the worst storms to hit Bengal in over three centuries, the usual observances that mark the day, such as planting of trees, were no longer mere token activities but a critical need, an attempt at reversing the incalculable ecological damage it had suffered just days back.  But will Environment Day pledges and other plantation drives that have since been undertaken in the city prove enough? Are they even advisable as they are being…

“The lockdown may end sooner or later but not our troubles”. Arijit Khan, 32, a wedding photographer by profession, is one of many such people in Kolkata who used to earn their livelihoods from social gatherings and events, which are now banned to contain the COVID pandemic. “Photographers could be eliminated from the curtailed guest lists during wedding and other occasions,” worries Arijit. ““Even payment for completed work is not being cleared, besides cancellation of around 10-12 bookings made prior to lockdown. It is becoming difficult to run the expenses of my family that includes two minor twin sons.” Alternative…

Just days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a nationwide lockdown from March 24, states like Punjab and Telangana were looking forward to a bumper harvest and smiles on the faces of their farmers. And on the faces of the owners and workers in West Bengal’s labour intensive jute mills. But the lockdown dashed everyone’s hopes. Farmers are unsure of how and who will procure their products. Especially given the acute lack of jute bags, given the complete shut down of West Bengal’s jute industry, putting lakhs of its workers out of jobs and income. It is during harvest time…

Sheikh Serafat Hussain is a 70-year-old typist who operates from the footpath outside the Calcutta High Court. Even as the court premises teem with litigants and lawyers, Hussain, who has been sitting outside the high court for over 40 years, finds ample time to talk to visitors over a cup of tea or go for a casual amble during the court’s working hours. Hussain is the last of the typists who were once ubiquitous outside the high court, typing out people's petitions and other documents needed by litigants at the court. “We typists belong to a bygone era that will…

In a recently-released popular Bengali flick Gotro (The clan), a prisoner who had spent nine years in jail is eventually accepted and welcomed into society, wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, real life is vastly different from such portrayals. Ask people like Aparajita Ganguly Bose, who shudder to think of the time spent in prison. Aparajita had been convicted on charges of murdering her husband and the 50-year-old can never stop lamenting the loss of several years in her prime, for a crime she didn’t commit.  Aparajita’s husband Kunal Bose, whom she married in 1992 after a brief love affair, went missing on May…

Shankari Halder finally dreamed of steering her life in the right direction when she became a commercial cab driver in Kolkata, early this year. The 36-year-old was one among the 10 women who were trained to operate a first-of-its kind cab service in Kolkata. Christened as Pink Taxis, these 10 cabs were launched primarily with the aim of providing a secure and safe commute environment for women, who often find it risky to travel in cabs driven by male chauffeurs. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee flagged off the first fleet of 10 taxis painted in pink and white from Nabanna, the…

25-year-old Aparajeeta Bhattacharya lives in New Town, a fast growing satellite city on the fringes of Kolkata. She works in a private company just four kilometres from her house within the New Town limits and regularly travels in the newly-introduced air-conditioned electric buses, which she says are convenient and also good for the environment. “The electric buses are almost silent and also friendly for the environment, as they do not consume fossil fuel and emit toxic gases. We should all strive to do something for a better environment,” she says, adding that the fare is also reasonable at just Rs…

The weather is sultry and the temperature is scorching in the Raipur locality of Jadavpur, off South Kolkata. The furnace-like conditions have forced residents to stay indoors. But Meena Nag is unmindful of the heat and is getting ready to wash a bucket full of clothes near a pond in the locality. The 60-plus woman says that water supply is often erratic in the locality and the low pressure of water in the taps means it takes a long time for the bucket to get filled up, causing long queues that often end in mild altercations. “We face water crisis…

Milan Bhowmick has been farming on his two acres of land in the East Kolkata Wetlands for over thirty years now. He grows brinjals, cauliflower and other vegetables. His land lies close to the Dhapa dumping ground where the solid waste of the city is dumped. The 45-year-old says that the solid waste from Dhapa was composted to produce fertilizers for the farm even till a few years ago, but the increasing presence of plastic and other toxic waste in the dump has now forced him and other farmers to discard the practice. “A proper mechanism to deal with the…

Raj Kumar Jena resides in a slum close to Noapara metro station at Baranagar in Kolkata. Standing on the narrow viaduct below the station he watches several trains chugging into the last station of metro connectivity in the northern fringes of the city. Under the cemented viaduct, flows the Bagjola drainage canal carrying blackish water full of household waste and emitting a putrid smell. Jena however does not look to be as hit by the smell as you would expect him to be. Perhaps, because he lives with it. More than the polluted canal, he says, the unbearable stench from…