I saw a bus burn today

I did. And I took a video of it which is up on ilovekolkata.in. In the process I also learnt one of the first tenets of videojournalism (is that what they call it?): Do not talk while the camera rolls. Do not. Do not. Do not. And certainly do not carry on conversing while the cops disperse the crowds and the fire engines clang-clang there way into the line of fire and set free gallons of smoke that billow into verandahs housing curious onlookers.

Here are excerpts of the thoughts that were lost during the video editing process:

1.Bells are a ringing. The fire engines appear in the camera's line of vision.
Poojo (Suppressing a 'Yay'): The whadya-call-it's come. The domkol I mean.

2. As smoke covers the face of the camera and threatens to come home for lunch.
Poojo: There's so much smoke.
Shreya's dad (Not in response to my tidbit): The cops are dispersing the crowd.
Poojo: Oh. Is that tear gas? Haw!
Poojo (Realising no tears have appeared and noticing that the firemen are rushing around with their massive hose): Oh. It's the firemen at work.
Shreya: Papa abhi aapko maarenge.

For a girl that's supposed to be soft-spoken and who doesn't talk too much, I must've broken a record somewhere... all in the course of one exclusive ILK video that happened due to very very good luck. (Psst: Our official photographer turned up much after the flames had died a fireman-wrought death in this not-so-bitter cold.)

Two buses in the Park Circus area had been burnt on Saturday morning. Excitingly enough (or scarily enough), the third bus was torched a bare two minutes after I crossed the flyover. Even before I rang the bell outside Shreya's house's door, the bus was ablaze. She gave me this horrified look: 'You came through all that?'
Poojo: All what?
Shreya: They burnt the bus. You didn't see?
Poojo: What bus? Where bus? I was looking for a burning bus. There was no bus when I came. I crossed in front of a truck.
Shreya: How come? I saw it burning just as you pressed the doorbell.
Poojo: Haw!
Shreya: There were all these changra boys on the street...
Poojo: I crossed the road with the changra boys. I thought they were there to catch all the action.

The theory Shreya and I now hold is that I crossed with the bus burners.
Poojo's reaction to the above-mentioned theory: Whoa!

What I want to know is how they did it. No one was hurt. Well, not enough anyway to warrant a line that goes: 'Auto operators protesting the High Court ban on two-stroke autos torched a bus on the Park Circus flyover injuring 7 including a child.' Thankfully, that did not happen. But what this meant was, these dudes had to wait for me to enter Shreya's building, find a state bus coming their way, get all the people out, set fire to the box on wheels, and have it blazing away by the time I rang Shreya's doorbell. My theory is that these guys weren't just angry, insecure auto drivers fighting for their livelihood. I think these were professional fire-setting bastards... the kind that are ordered to start mob riots in all those movies where Shakti Kapoor plays a villain politician.

It's not funny though. No political party ought to be allowed to disturb the peace like this. Hunger strikes, factory sieges, and simply sitting outside the CM's house (ostensibly braving the cold. hah!) are just either destructive or irritating tactics. We don't want strikes or slugfests. Give us a solution Ms. Banerjee. It may be a tad unfair to say all the violence is thanks to TMC-backed cadre; it's very likely that CITU Men and Co. are also involved, but somehow, the blamegame always comes back to Mamata Di. Did you know she's been trying to sign her name as 'Mamataa' these days? A Jayalalithaa-like numerological try at the Chief Minister's post. Hah! Fat chance missy. The Left may not be the best option in this so-called democracy of ours where no party is worth a vote, but at least it has a respectable grey-haired Buddha Babu of Palm Avenue to earn our respect even if its folks go around majorly troubling folks in the Nandigrams and Singurs of Bengal. It's not a great option. But at least there's a main man that you can respect and look up to, even if he makes mistakes every now and again.

This post wasn't meant to kick off the Left's pre-election campaign, though it seems to have turned out that way. I'm just pissed off with Mamata's 'Aaj ka gundaraj' style of politics. I wish she'd turn her attention to the terror problem. So the next time terrorists get into some hotel in the country, let's send Mamata to plonk outside till her demands are met. Demands that probably even she will not know. She should soon manage to terrorise the terrorists into surrendering for all eternity. Mamata should be our weapon in the war against terror. At least for this cause she has my vote.

Btw, here's the link to the bus burning video by yours truly: Bus burns in auto-ban protest. And that's Shreya doing the voiceover.