The Purple Wave of Happiness: Let the Best Consumers Win

The color of the city is changing quite frequently these days. The Red of Shame was replaced by the Youthful Green after a struggle of 35 years and now after a wait which was not so long, Kolkata turned Purple. But the agenda here is different, though the celebrations are equally vibrant. It was only a year before on this same month, the city was painted Green and the people were dancing up and down under the harshest of the summer sun. Now it is yet another May and the city again celebrated and the emotions poured as if they are throwing the kitchen sink to it. No wonder it is called the City of Joy!

But being a relatively uneducated and stupid person I sometimes wonder why these Bengali intellectuals choose such a malicious weather to celebrate? Be it the expensive birthday celebrations of dead literary idols or the historic first anniversary of an ever-promising new government, May always makes it way to the top. Now adding to this list is this record-breaking win of the City in a franchise tournament. I have very short memory and also I am delusional at most of the times, but I guess there were other state level successes of Bengal in some recent national level sporting events. Be it football or cricket, the team from this state made some in-roads in the recent past. But of course they are of much less importance or rather they should be of no importance at all, as the Chief Minister did not pay much attention to them. But this fantastic, fascinating and overwhelming victory outscores everything else. The noble prize win of the Economist Amartya Sen was a faded event of glory compared to this win of the franchise team from Kolkata. Also who the hell cares about noble prizes and academy awards? The perfect marriage between business and politics served in a platter of Bollywood and Cricket is indeed something special and tastes much better than the boring lectures about global economy.

I don’t know the reason for the long and stupid 35 years of wait for the Green brigade, but the 5 years of anxiety for the Purple army was too much to bear. After all in this Game, as they say, the “best consumers” always win. I should be proud to say, that this particular franchise, representing our city already had all the spices and drama added to it, which ideally could have made them the perfect consumption package. But what they lacked was the political support which could have taken them to the desired height in the consumption ladder. But everything changed for a good reason, now as the political and economical forces are combining well it is enough to let us forget the agony of the oil price hikes and the increasing rates of inflation in the market. This month is only for enjoyment and celebration. When the Government and the mighty King is blessing us with their affections and the Knights are there to serve our wishes, we should not worry about petty price threats. After all we are the winners and true winners are scared of none!