Serendipity : Musings of an Islander

How a Little Oversight Cost Bittu Both His Arms - but Brought an Entire Community Together By Debkumar Bhadra There are accidents, and then there are accidents that rewrite a life entirely. For Gaurab Kumar Paul — fondly known in our neighbourhood as Bittu — a single unwary moment on the morning of June 21, 2018, did exactly that. What began as a gesture of goodwill to help a friend ended with severe high-tension electrocution injuries that ultimately result in the amputation of both his arms. I have watched Bittu play as a toddler and grow to adulthood in my small neighbourhood in South Andaman. Writing this is not easy. But his story deserves to be told — not just as a personal account of tragedy and resilience, but as a larger reflection on how our healthcare system, administrative machinery, and community respond when one of our own falls. The Accident That Changed Everything It was a Thursday morning when Bittu went to lend a helping hand to a village mate wrapping up the pr...

Celebration in the time of pandemic By Debkumar Bhadra Festivals and festivities are an integral part of Indian culture. In the words of Sadguru significance and importance of festivals in Indian culture was such that there was a time when there used to be a festival every day of the year. If today is ploughing day, tomorrow will be planting day, day after tomorrow weeding day - 365 days, 365 festivals. The sole purpose of these festivals is to bring peoples closer to one another, break the monotony, socialize, celebrate and unite into a fabric appreciating and rejoicing each other’s tradition, festivals and cultural diversity . In the coming month, we have Durga Puja between 22-26 October, 2020. Celebration of Sharadiya Durga Puja in the islands and elsewhere in the country is unique in the sense that more than those five auspicious puja days, preceding months spent in preparation are also an event in itself. Secondly almost all Durga Puja is performed in temporary pandals put ...

Unemployment, Hunger and accumulating EMI’s stare at islands self employed autowallas By Debkumar Bhadra The COVID-19 pandemic, associated lockdown and restriction on economic activity impacted different sections of the society in varied proportions. While the government is staring at a steep economic slide, the working class specifically those who have been working daily to make ends meet are reeling under abject poverty due to loss of job. The lower strata of the society comprising daily earners have been hit the hardest. Autorikshaw, Jeep, Taxi operators are one such affected group who have been at the receiving end since day one of the pandemic.   According to 2018-19 edition of Basic Statistics there are 4738 registered autorikshaw, 31766  LMV’s including Cars/Taxi Omni & Jeep out of which an estimated 15-20% is engaged in commercial (Point-to-Point) transport sector,  257 Government owned State Transport Service (STS) Busses and 143 Privately owned busses ca...

Open Invitation to demonstrate speed prescribed under QoS BB service regulation is provided Dear Sir It is submitted that am a BSNL subscriber having a BSNL Postpaid Mobile (943428xxxx) connection since July 2003, BSNL Landline Phone (258xxx) since March 2005 and BSNL Broadband (BB) connection since November 2008 in my name. During the past decade and a half I have been a loyal customer always paying bills within due date. But won’t claim am doing something extraordinary because I believe when service has been availed, timely payment is an obligation which I must honour as a customer. However, when I look at the service side, specifically during the past year or so, it has been a continuous downslide on your part. Be it 2G, 3G, LL or BB service, frequent call drops, poor voice quality and non-conforming data speed is all am getting in the name of servic e. Highly unstable and below standard connection speed, combined with high latency ranging between 600-1000ms and packe...

The business of Ullu – Banana… By Debkumar Bhadra ­­ Murari Lall needs to build a structure for which he need 10 bamboo poles, neither one more, nor one less. He finds there is only one company in the town namely BEESYNL selling bamboo poles @ Rs 100/- a piece with the condition that the order has to be placed online and the entire quantity required has to be bought altogether and the company will deliver it at the doorstep and that bill once raised has to be paid. Finding no other alternative, Murari Lall agrees to the monopolistic company's conditions and buys 10 poles required to build the structure. Company sends them on a truck to his home. The truck arrives. Against required 10, Murari finds only 5 poles have arrived loaded on an open body truck. Upon asking, the driver said 5 poles might have fallen off the truck hence consider them lost in transit. He then goes on to add, press refresh, the company will resend them. Since the quant...

Electricity Billing and Payment, stuck in the past! By Debkumar Bhadra According to local media reports, Electricity Department, A&N Administration is contemplating raising electricity bills by direct meter reading or provisional bill in the islands ostensibly to ramp up the cumbersome process, which as of now is labour intensive and require repeated visits to customer premise, first for taking meter reading and then for distribution of printed bills. With the instant initiative, it seems the department aims to finish meter reading, billing and distribution all in one go. It is a welcome step, but addresses the actual billing-payment issue only partially. Let me explain . According to data accessed from Basic Statistics, A&N Islands have 1,33,990 consumers during the year 2018-19 of which 91,270 is in South Andaman, 32,660 in N&M Andaman and 10,060 in the Nicobar District. Every month personnel from the electricity department visit each of these indivi...