Guess what stopped traffic yesterday afternoon on busy Rashbehari Avenue for close to 90 minutes! Not ‘Valentine’ celebrations (notwithstanding love-oozing young couples in hordes out on streets), not also the enthusiasm of street-people watching India’s batting prowess at Goa on roadside TVs, but the 3 km long procession it was to celebrate Swami Pranabanandaji’s birth anniversary. Swami who, I can hear you asking.
Swami Pranabananda founded Bharat Sevashram Sangha (let’s say BSS, though there’s another BSS in the vicinity, Ballygunge Shiksha Sadan, which is a more popular BSS), its office located near Ballygunge Station. So for any on-road celebration, it’s the long stretch of Rashbehari Avenue that they choose. Convenience plus good exposure, not bad that!
I, traveling in a worn-down public bus, was among the unfortunate hundreds stranded with nothing to do. Up ahead the story was same, which meant I would not have any mode of transport unless I decided to walk all the way, which clearly I was in no mood doing, at least not for Swami Pranabananda.
These were times when you could test your stock of juicy abuses. There were plenty floating around, not all of which tasted good. But the one that evoked instant laughter went thus:
I spoke to Pranab (referring his friend) this morning. He never said his birthday is celebrated this way!
Well, not all ‘Pranabs’ are so lucky, not even our own Pranab da, who was busy confabulating with the Russian and Chinese foreign ministers in Delhi around the same time yesterday.
City of traffic stopper!
Technorati Tags: bharat sevashram sangha, kolkata, calcutta, gariahat, ballygunge
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