Rituparno Ghosh and Indraneil Sengupta in Aarekti Premer Galpo

Old man does what cops can’t

lKudos to the senior citizen for his heroic act that saved his granddaughter from flesh trade (62-yr-old in rescue act as police fail, December 24).

How can the police act in this cold winter? It is extremely unfair to expect them to slog, that too for saving a girl from forced prostitution.

The city police are just meant for protection of VVIPs and myriad under-the-table works. A jute mill worker had the common sense and gumption to proceed with his rescue plans, which the police lack. The cops, instead of helping citizens, harass them with trivial issues like demanding 24 photos of a missing person, as this case has revealed.

Trafficking is a major problem in the city. It is the negligence of the police and the government that has led to the flourishing of the flesh trade in Calcutta and the rest of the state.

Amrita Mallik,

Salt Lake

Adamant super censor

The Nandan CEO’s attempt at playing super censor for Aarekti Premer Galpo, which deals with homosexuality, echoes the mentality of some conservatives in a post-modern era (Nandan frowns on gay love story, December 20).

To openly defy the approval given to the film by the central government reveals the influence the adamant “rulers” of the state have over the Nandan authorities. The CEO’s comment: “I’m not bothered about what the central government has acknowledged”, also shows a blind acceptance of an imposed ideology. This is unfortunate when it comes from so-called “patrons of art”.

Such acts are not only insulting but also reflect how some groups tend to cling to the old ideology of branding homosexuality as a sin. They might as well start scrutinising works such as the Woolfian concept of “androgyny” or the Tagorean ideas expressed in Chitrangada.

Saptarshi Mallick,

Hooghly

To answer the question “Does Nandan have the right to play super censor?”, I feel Nandan does not have the right to refuse to screen a film when it has already got permission from the central board of film certification. The censor board is a government of India regulatory body and controlled by the ministry of information and broadcasting. Questioning or reviewing their decision is unacceptable and can be seen as protest against the central government.

Soham Ghosh,

Bally

 

No, Nandan doesn’t have the right to play super censor at all.

Playing moral police is part of Nandan’s tradition. Earlier too, Nandan had refused to screen films with homosexuality as content. The decision not to allow screening of Aarekti Premer Galpo only shows how adamant the powers behind the “culture hub” of the city are. No wonder we need “change”.

Bhaskar Roy,

Rabindranath Tagore Road

Aesthetics isn’t anybody’s lone preserve. If it were a film competition, a collective judgement by critically acclaimed personalities would have made sense. But in this case such evaluation, that too by an individual lacking the necessary credentials, is ludicrous.

The censor board is there to judge the suitability of a film. Who gives Nandan CEO Nilanjan Chatterjee the authority to judge the aesthetics of a film? When the Indian judiciary and society in general are endorsing and supporting the issue of homosexuality, such a hullabaloo is unnecessary.

D.K. Sarkar,

Tollygunge

The refusal to screen Aarekti Premer Galpo is unexpected of an organisation like Nandan. I don’t think the Nandan authorities have any right to play super censor. I support Kaushik Ganguly’s decision to withdraw his film from the Nandan release.

Nivedita Dutta,

Address not given

It is disappointing that when progressive human rights developments are taking place in the US with the ban of the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” regime in the American armed forces, the situation in Bengal is taking a regressive turn.

Aarekti Premer Galpo is a sensitive portrayal representing thousands of LGBTs, otherwise viewed casually and comically as perverts. The decision of the Nandan CEO comes as a great setback for Bengal, known all over the world for its liberal culture; more so when it comes from the chief minister’s favourite culture hub.

Pranab Dutta,

Barcelona

Sports in a shambles

The Eden Gardens is being refurbished and upgraded but the standard of sports in Bengal has come down (Look at Eden in new light, December 9).

Take for example cricket’s major domestic tournament, Ranji Trophy. For the last three years, Bengal is playing only to survive in the elite group.

National clubs Mohun Bagan and East Bengal are struggling in every football tournament. And let’s not even talk about other sports. Hockey is a non-entity in Bengal, which once produced players like Gurbux Singh, Leslie Claudius, C.S. Gurung, B.B. Chetry, Keshav Dutt. Bengal is nowhere in swimming and athletics either. Poor administration, political rivalry and interference, frequent strikes and poor work culture are responsible for the degradation of sports in Bengal.

Tushar Kanti Kumar,

Address not given

Airport trouble

It is indeed a nightmare travelling to and from Calcutta because of its airport (Tweet & text on terminal fret, December 20). Even if one reaches the airport early, there is no guarantee that one will not miss the flight.

The queue to the security check and collection of boarding pass become so long at times that passengers invariably miss flights.

Is it too difficult for the airport administration to improve these facilities? When airports in other cities are being run so efficiently, why is there so much chaos in Calcutta?

Subhabrata Dasgupta,

Hyderabad

Being a frequent flier, I have made some observations regarding the long queue at the city airport’s security gate:

• The bottleneck happens at the X-ray machine. The conveyor belt before the machine is about 5ft long and can accommodate four to five bags at a time.

• The conveyor belt beyond the X-ray machine is about 8ft long and can take six to seven bags.

• The time taken for a bag to pass through the machine is two seconds.

• It takes about 12 seconds for the flier to reach the body check area after putting the bag on the conveyor belt. There are two body check counters whereas one hand baggage scanning machine.

• Therefore every 12 seconds, while six pieces of luggage can be scanned, only two fliers clear security check. Their luggage gets stuck on the post-scan conveyor belt.

I suggest:

• Extend the length of the post-scan conveyor belt to 20ft.

• If that is not possible, get airline loaders to remove the scanned hand bags from the conveyor belt to a table next to it, thus freeing the conveyor belt.

In Bangkok, where traffic is much higher than at Calcutta airport, there are only two scanning machines. But the conveyor belts before and after the machines are 20ft long. There is never a queue at the security check.

S.S. Aggarwal,

AJC Bose Road

Rule of law

The report “Court reprieve for students”, December 22, reinforced our faith in the judiciary as it took steps to segregate politics from educational institutions for the sake of students. Indramahal Mondal, the principal of Sree Chaitanya College in Habra, should resign immediately for illegally debarring 130-odd students from taking their examinations. Sitting at the helm of affairs, he cannot afford to be a stooge of any political party. Salute to the rule of law.

Alok Pal,

Auckland Place

Body parade

It is a matter of great concern that never a day passes without a blockade by the Trinamul Congress or CPM. Regarding the report “Body parade stalls city”, December 21, it appears that Trinamul was more concerned with taking the body of Lalgarh farmer Sanatan Hembram on a tour of the city than in consoling his family. If the Trinamul continues to disrupt traffic this way, it will certainly lose popularity.

A.S. Mehta,

New Alipore

Calcutta has already earned a bad name because of its string of processions and meetings. The political parties are not ignorant about this adverse image. Still they resort to protest march and rallies, causing inconvenience to the people.

When will political parties make amends? If one wants to pay homage and respect to the dead, there are many other ways to do it. But organising a rally to throw traffic out of gear is not at all desirable. Mamata Banerjee must do away with rallies if she wants “paribartan” in the true sense of the term.

Indranil Sanyal,

Dhakuria

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