Comments on: Calcutta blues

By: JP

JP — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:18:06 +0000

@dominic and here we differ. Pajamas? Just not cricket. Soon we’ll have people wandering around town in pajamas, shopping in pajamas, dining in pajamas. Did I say soon? It’s happening already. Test cricket in pajamas and under floodlights is not something I plan to be part of. I would rather do handstands on beds of nails while listening to disco music. Whatever next? The Open, at night, with pink balls. Puh-leese.

By: Dominic Sayers

Dominic Sayers — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:12:13 +0000

There’s an argument for saying that test matches should be played under lights sometimes. It would perhaps help people attend if they didn’t have to give up a day’s work to do so. I’m in favour for that reason.

Therefore a white or pink ball would be necessary.

Therefore pyjamas might be an inevitable consequence.

I’d rather have test cricket in pyjamas than no test cricket at all.

By: JP

JP — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:37:26 +0000

Patrick, yes I remember the 70s, the good bits and the bad bits. Remember I don’t live there any more, so my opinion is suspect. Sorry if my argument was somewhat rambling. Let me try again. (1) The decision is taken, it’s already happening. (2) This action of painting the town blue is to be seen against the backdrop of quite a lot of political unrest. (3) So there’s a lot of negative emotion out there, frustration, depression, anger. (4) This should never be about the colour, that’s politicising it too much. (5) All in all, maybe it’s worth looking at the positives that can be brought out of all this, not the negatives.

I was taught to encourage. As in: when walking into a teenager’s bedroom, remark on how clean the ceiling looked….

By: JP

JP — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:31:47 +0000

Sam, agreed. If the political undercurrents weren’t there the conversation would be different.

By: JP

JP — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:31:10 +0000

Thanks Harish. As Sam says in the next comment, some cities have chosen to live in one colour, and it can have a startling and attractive effect.

By: Patrick Ghose

Patrick Ghose — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 08:08:12 +0000

Hi JP
Nice piece but I failed to see the connection. (I can be a bit dense now and then!) The unfortunate thing is that the blueing of Calcutta is actually going to be a cosmetic makeover, and one more way for all sorts to make their commissions. It’s pretty evident not much has been achieved by the new ruler and even less is going to be achieved in the following months, so the unwritten is to make hay while Didi is still shining. In fact, you will definitely remember what it was like in the mid 70s in terms of crime in the city and how unsafe it was. It looks like it’s a return to those days, full scale turf wars. That’s more or less what we citizens have to look forward to before some political jugglery and change overwhelms us once again. This poriborton, this change we voted for, is probably just a change that will lead to another change. And to be optimistic about it, a change, I hope, for the better.
Cheers!
Patrick Ghose

By: Sam

Sam — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 03:50:04 +0000

How Interesting. Have you heard of Chefchaouen? It’s a town in Morocco which is all painted blue. It looks beautiful and I dream to go there someday! If you haven’t seen it before you should google it!

Like you said about yourself, I can’t really say anything about Calcutta either, but even more so as I have never been there before! But I imagine that painting a town or city blue would have some kind of an impact on society with things like crime rates and quality of life (like it says in the article, it is a ‘soothing’ colour) as well as bringing more tourism to the place.

However, it does seem somewhat radical to paint a whole city blue just because of the new governments motto.

But as I said, I can’t say anything until I have been there!

Sam

By: Harish

Harish — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 01:25:44 +0000

Hi JP

I like. Having a color associated with the city is good branding of course. Can do a huge lot of good for the city.
The second point you make about being proud of one’s appearance is one that I hope your ex home citizens, and government, hear and adopt. That will have the greater impact than the color itself.
Nicely written as always.