1. What kind of visits did Asansol AG organise for school students?
School visits were only for the sibling's batch. They were taken to a hydroelectric dam nearby, also to the manufacturing facility of a fabric whitener (Reckitt), located in Asansol's suburbs, the allusions had indicated that the latter was for indigo plantation reasons.
Antara's batch was merely taken for a computer exhibition, it was an insult. They were already in Class 10, only a few months left for their high school days to end. They should have been offered Computer Science as a subject, which they weren't, and having denied it all, they went to a boys' school to learn computers from them.
2. Never any visit to any military exhibition, its parades and drills, its educational programmes?
No.
3. Antara didn't perceive it as strange because of her north Bengal days, where she spent her early childhood.
Yes, Antara's parents were full of anecdotes about fighter jets and recon helicopters.
"So close to several international borders, such stress, I used to wonder that when you (Antara) were born, how would you be able to nap?" Anjali would say.
"But it was about getting used to things, even as a newborn, you slept peacefully as surveillance and recon helicopters created a racket 6 pm onwards, every evening, flying low over the locality."
There were several such anecdotes so Antara didn't feel the need for school-sponsored military discussions.
4. Why was Antara's batch treated differently?
It seemed they were considered close to railroads, so as much as could be taken away from them.
5. Why was Noida brought up for discussions?
It would have happened anyway. Both Antara and Noida were in Blue House, 1987 onwards, they were the best of Blue House, so to say, and spent considerable time together as a result, activities, House-based games etc.
However, in the House election of 1991 (for Captain and Vice-Captain), Noida won, defeating Antara by one vote, otherwise Antara had always been Blue House Captain for her class.
It was thereby assumed Noida would get some north Kolkata support but that's not the way the previous decade played out.
6. And Antara knew it would be so?
Antara had consumed enough social media by 2016 to realise it was only about 'gully boyz' and 'north Kolkata boys'.
Even when Sealdah railway station (in Kolkata) apparently got a swanky makeover, no north Kolkata person remarked on it.
7. These men would approach the lease only through hydrocarbons, railroads wouldn't be mentioned at all.
Yes, it was confirmed.
They rode motorbikes and drove automobiles within city limits, they drove between cities in India as well, else they used aircrafts.
"I try to avoid trains as much as possible," Antara had been told at HT.
June 25, 2026.
****
No comments:
Post a Comment