It was not that the Parsis had a particular upper-hand in global affairs at the present moment, to cause such disturbance worldwide.
Sir Ronald Ivelaw-Chapman of the Royal Air Force had been mentioned as a source of possible intrigues against the Pentagon. It left the British poet Ted Hughes, his passion for destroying Ukraine and the nefarious role Lenin had played in supposedly protecting the Treasury, which made Hughes have a low regard for the Pentagon.
As with all Communists, there was no clear thinking in Ted Hughes about what would replace the rules-based international order. Hughes might prefer the ACJ Batch of 2006, those that dozed through the lectures of a diploma course in journalism and later collected the phone number of the visiting lecturer for 'access journalism'. Antara had written about it earlier, so she'd have to discuss the interactive sessions at the end of every lecture, when questions were asked by the students, the visiting faculty had to answer them.
Antara complained every evening to her yet-to-be-spouse over the mobile phone, "You should have been at these interactive sessions at the end of every ACJ class. You could have taught them a lesson, I was way too decent. They were always ready, someone was providing them with the questions, they just picked up a phrase from the lecture and started off in a different direction."
The yet-to-be-spouse had suggested, "Why didn't you ask a question about New Journalism, or Gonzo Journalism, about Hunter S Thompson?" Antara did as instructed, her parents had not considered her to be qualified for her narrative, she didn't know where such information came from, if the US Congress left genocide victims out of it.
For the next ACJ lecture, Antara went up to the desk of the lecturer and asked, "Was the former ACJ-topper-turned-cricket writer going the way of Gonzo Journalism?"
You should have seen the effect on the lecturer, he was south India's finest, friends with the Chinese Communist Party, close to the classical dancers and British intelligence. He was completely taken aback, "ACJ-topper-turned-cricket-writer was a fine writer, in my opinion."
(Later that year, Antara had met him at one of the ACJ events at the Taj Connemara, the lecturer had shaken Antara's hand for a minute or so, the grip so firm and angry, Antara thought her hand would be crushed to dust. Who'd say that southern Indians or the Chinese Communist Party never warned about the Jan 6 2021 US Capitol Rioting?
And Chetla, it was still the INC in power, so yes, they had to allow someone like Antara to enter a Taj Connemara event. Maye Jake Sullivan could write an oped about those challenging times, 2005-06, in the next Foreign Affairs issue, when people of South Carolina were enthusiastic about the War on Terror and ignored the CPM and its close connection with the Irish, Ireland had its own Connemara? Would the Irish in the US always be apologetic about their love for cryptocurrency?)
So if you pushed back a little against the Ted Hughes and the Leeds and Reading Music Festival and the many other ways of humiliating Ukraine,
if you brought up Gonzo journalism and the fact that like Novotny, that too might be the sponsored work of the Morgans,
then unnecessary discussions about who the Morgans backed and who they didn't back, why they went to Formosa Place but not to Rashmela Purulia, could be avoided. The Morgans were unpredictable, there was no knowing what they'd do next.
If you pushed back against the ACJ lecturers, they retreated into the comfortable environs of the 1957 lease in favour of NS Road and Larry Ellison's support.
Chetla was in better hands when the desire to humiliate Antara got the better of CPGB and Alimuddin Street in Kolkata. No one ever trusted the Irish except the Bengalis of Kolkata!
September 14, 2025.
No comments:
Post a Comment