The Hindu Business Line : Light on sound

The first thing you notice about people in Kolkata is that they talk at the top of their voices. It can be puzzling if you are a visitor. You gradually realise that they are only trying to make themselves heard above the constant din of vehicular traffic.

There is no ear-shattering noise of aircraft in my village. The only sign of the Wright brothers' invention is the flaky streak that sometimes appears mysteriously across the distant sky. It is different in Chennai. Large and small aircraft are constantly grating past the piece of sky above our second-floor flat, feeling like a thousand Sivamanis inside the head.

In the interlude between aeroplanes one is perforce entertained by the steady train-like rhythm of film music spewing from the TV channels being watched by neighbours both opposite and adjacent to the flat. A car backs out of the narrow street, its loud `reverse horn' set to the Bollywood latest hit. A milk-cooker decides to let off steam, shattering the remaining bit of silence. A neighbour on the roof raises his decibel on the mobile phone to compensate.The mobile phone is truly becomingthe last resort of the `yakkety-yak' Indian. A variety of ring-tones on the public transport remind you that Goddess Saraswati has truly bestowed her treasures on the Indian people. Every one is a music lover. Competing with Saraswati is her sister Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. One has to be in Chennai during Diwali to witness her prowess. Apartment dwellers bringing down the very skies with `Lakshmi bombs' and other weapons of `caas', from which perhaps emerged cash, destruction. One wonders why the Finance Minister or the Health Minister hasn't thought of levying a surcharge on airlines, mobile phone operators or fireworks makers to finance the cost of hearing aids and subsidise mental hospitals.Meanwhile, if you don't want to go crackers, I suggest you run away to Kolkata at Diwali time. No crackers will assault your ears there, thanks to a judge who wisely ruled that Diwali is a festival of lights, not of noise. No doubt the people of Kolkata are a cheerful lot, even if loud. The dogs too.

Karunamoy

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