Work Culture in West Bengal

Being a student of anthropology, I know the meaning of culture better than any other graduates. I have studied not only the present culture but also the prehistoric ones of different countries in my days of graduation in Bangabasi College. I have heard the term "Work Culture" first from the mouth of our Chief Minister of West Bengal. We work to make a livelihood and I don't think that there should be a new culture for work. Work should be done so that a city progresses, a state progresses and if a state progresses, it will motivate the country to progress. Do the people of Gujarat talk about work culture? Do the Europeans talk about work culture? They just do their work quietly! I will be talking about more of this later but first let me tell you how a strike made things complicated on October 31.

In early morning I woke up to go to my office. My office is in Gariahat and an arrangement has been made to catch the car arranged by my company which will come at a point close to my house around 5:30 p.m. My sleep in the night was disturbed. I was in tension of how to go to office the next day. The office is a medical transcription company. It was not a normal day especially October 31. Trinomul Congress called a bandh or strike for 12 hours started from 6 a.m. and ending around 6 p.m. So the cars have been arranged to pick up the workers around before six in morning and enter the office around 6. You know this strike is being made by the TMC in protest of the violence of Nandigram but it disrupted the normal life. It does not hamper the government employees who enjoy this strike and the salary without work. But it really affect an employee of private company who has to take the risk and go to the office in a car arranged by the company.

I came out of my house around 5:10 a.m. in the morning. It was dark as winter was closing it and days getting shorter! So I could not get a rickshaw as most of the rickshaw pullers are sleeping. I walked all the way to B.T. Road where the car is scheduled to come. The road was empty. There are hardly any people. One could hear the barking sounds of dogs who see a stranger with a big bag. Sometimes I wonder why these dogs should at these strangers!!! Do they think that these people with bag will take them away? It is still a mystery! Do you have any answer? Anyway as I walking through the road lit by yellow neon lights. There was hardly any breeze blowing. The leaves of the trees are still. I thought that it would rain today. The skies are cloudy. But I do not have the plastic slippers nor the umbrella. But later this day it rained heavily. Though I was lucky when I came out of office around 5:30 p.m. It was dry and the road was partly dry as the rain stopped a few hours ago. In my childhood, we used to say, "Rain, rain go away, come again another day..." but now life has got so mechanical that we lost touch with nature. The life cycle goes on like this: Sleep, breakfast, office, home, sleep .,....this cycle goes on and on till you become tired.

In this festive season, my parents went for a trip of 6 days in Darjeeling in West Bengal. I couldn't go as I was busy with my office in the puja. Among the four days of Puja, I got off in Saptami and Astami. The puja held in October is Durga Puja and it is greatly celebrated by the Bengalis. Lights and pandals and lot of merry making is connected with this puja. Beautiful idols and pandals and beautiful themes of pandals in different clubs in Kolkata make the Durga Puja an unforgettable event in October. The best pujas are rewarded by different companies like Berger, Asian Paints, etc.

The time moves so fast as fast as the light which takes only 8 seconds to reach earth from the Sun. Our company spent so much time in preparation for the cars and the canteen facilities on this strike day. It all passed away.........and there was another day! Life moves fast these days as you remain engaged in work. I never felt the pain to work from 6 a.m. instead of 7 a.m. So the work culture that our Chief Minister Budhdhadeb Bhattacharya talks about is only confined to words. It has hardly been converted to action. All words and no work has become a part of a government job. People hardly take the initiative to work. With the number of holidays they get, they hardly work in the working days which is often a declared holiday as in strike and heavy rains. I think most of these government workers are like school boys!! They feel happy when their no work and frown when they have to work more! Sometimes they need to be bribed for doing their "so-called duty."

Though some government offices are computerized, you will still see government offices full of stacked papers in shelves and tables. It looks so dirty when it is flashed in televisions. The news channels show that in the days of strike, the offices are empty. So the strike is supported. Though the strike as claimed by all party excludes IT sector, which is the sector I am working for more than 2 years, I feel that no special initiative has been made. The drivers who drive us to our office are afraid to drive. They feel that their life will be taken by the supporters of the Trinomul Congress. In spite of assuring them that nothing will happen, they are not going to listen. For this, the car that lifted me should have taken 11 people but we were 3 when we reached office! Sometimes I am worried what to do with these timid and stupid drivers! He was saying, "I am not going to give my life for Rs. 100." So I came to know that this poor man was given Rs. 100 for covering the places of pick up and he also is not doing his duty and he is trying to avoid the places of pickup stating that Dumdum Road is a lane and he will not enter. In reality, it is a big road!