Kolkota Diary-5

Sunday it was.

In Bongaon/Petropole, sun is out very early.

Crack of dawn is around five a.m.

Construction workers at the site behind my guest house are already at work.

Sun plays a bit hide and seek.

Working on Sunday? In India?

Is Sunday not a holiday in India?

"Not in Petropole," reminds the guest house desk hand.

Why?

"Because Bangladesh works on Sundays and it is closed on Fridays," I am told.

Oh! It takes me back to my Gulf days where we used to observe Fridays as weekly offdays and work on Sundays!

"For me, seven days' work," quips Deputy Commissioner of Customs Uttara Chand Das (see pix below. Extreme left), with two more years service left, in his chambers at Petropole, hardly 50 metres away from the Zero Land - linking India with Bangladesh.

How come?

"Look, my family lives in Kolkota (100 km away) and I live in Petropole in government guest house. Fridays when our offices here is closed, I have to rush to Kolkota for meeting with my seniors there. They don't work on Saturdays and Sundays. I leave for Kolkota on Thursday night, stay at my home, meet officials on Friday and return Saturday morning back to Petropole. So it is a 7-days week!", explains the portly, tall official who has served in the entire north east.

Das' take on life is interesting. Actually, this kind of lifestyle is not taxing, claims he.

How? "When you love your work and passionate, you don't notice the passage of time," says he.

Sitting in the huge hall where customs house agents are eagerly awaiting his signature on documents, already vetted, inspected and assessed by inspectors and superintendents, I look outside the giant window. Over 500 plus trucks - carrying Hero motorcycles, steel rods, girders, Caterpillar machines and what not - are standing in a long queue to exit out of the 17-acre CWC parking lot.

Das, who is holding additional charge of exports in the absence of the previous officer having shifted out, is spending more time in Exports building since, "exports are more important and the volume is also more compared to imports" as he points out.

The chirpy and most powerful - I wish to call him human dynamo - Kartik Chakraborty, Secretary of CHA union - (see at the start of this dispatch) ambles into Das's cabin. For a change, his eyewear is most noticeable thanks to the red frame. I pull his legs saying, "By mistake you have come into this field. You should be in Kollywood or Bollywood".

Catch hold of Kartik and your worries will vanish is what one hears everywhere. I heard his name in Delhi and then in Kolkota Customs and of course in Bongaon. The early 30s Bengali does not walk. He is always on a trot. Like his walk, his talk is also on a 'fast track'. Beautifully switching between Bengali, English and Hindi, he directs all and sundry. Even Das and his officers listen and respect him.

Out in the CWC Parking lot, he tells you so much about happenings you wish you can record every single word of his for a possible book on the Indo-Bangladesh trade through Petropole. At the export entry gate, he halts and gets us engaged with security officials. Then he quietly slips in a private security agent - Jeeban Kar - and when he begins to tell his tale, Kartik babu moves a few steps behind me to wink at him signalling 'not to tell more'. I catch him redhanded and he is embarassed.

"No, no. Jeeban, tell eveyrthing," he goads now. Very down to earth guy.

If anyone tells they have not heard of Kartik, don't beleive them. They are bluffing. He is so popular.

Past lunch, he ushers in three Bangladesh clearing and forwarding agents (see above) into the Das' office conference room for a frank talk with us. Indian side also present. Das along with his colleagues is also present. Sohrab Hussain, the only Bangladeshi with fluent Hindi, tells his side of tale, ably assisted by his seniors in Bengali.

By the time, the 90 minute meeting gets over, we have pinned issues that need quick redressal.

We step out of all meetings and find the Sunday sun has ready to bid goodbye.

A terrific Sunday it turned out to be.