Kolkata Roads & Flyovers

[gd_luks_high]

Bengali is the majority spoken language in kolkata. only some parts of central and the beginning stretch of north kolkata are full of bihari and bihari muslim hawkers and dalals. In these stretches only you will find less bengali speaking people(negligible to the whole of kolkata).

Regarding the above posted place(EM Bypass) is the outer line of the city and there around 90% of the residents and commuters are bengali speaking.

Now, J'NURM is a central body operating all over India. So, I think the boards are the common boards designed by their organization from center and are used and re-used for short time purposes.

And Kolkata was always and will always a bengali majority city. Stay here, work here, mix up with the people here and then understand the real demography scenario.

[arijeetb]

Originally Posted by gd_luks_high

Bengali is the majority spoken language in kolkata. only some parts of central and the beginning stretch of north kolkata are full of bihari and bihari muslim hawkers and dalals. In these stretches only you will find less bengali speaking people(negligible to the whole of kolkata).

Regarding the above posted place(EM Bypass) is the outer line of the city and there around 90% of the residents and commuters are bengali speaking.

Now, J'NURM is a central body operating all over India. So, I think the boards are the common boards designed by their organization from center and are used and re-used for short time purposes.

And Kolkata was always and will always a bengali majority city. Stay here, work here, mix up with the people here and then understand the real demography scenario.

gd, do you live in Kolkata? And how do you know 90% of those in EM Bypass region are bengali speaking? I will tend to agree more with Suncity's view regarding the proportion of bengalis in Kolkata. The city core and outward areas have an ever increasing number of non bengalis.

Bengali and bengali speaking are two different things. A vast majority of non Bengalis ( the settlers in the city coming from different parts of India) can converse in Bengali; it is only the "moving population" concentrated around the IT sector in Salt Lake and surrounding areas that do not know Bengali.

[IchimaruGin1]

wiki says 52% of kolkata (city proper) is bengali (in 2001)

[studdmanster]

Originally Posted by Samrat

Why they use Hindi(although not correct) and English only on these billboards ignoring the main local language? Has Hindi speaking population surpassed Bengali populaton in Kolkata? Or, does CMDA run by Central Govt. in Delhi?

Its simply becuz Kolkata is a cosmopolitan city...where people are more comfortable to read english than bengali or any other vernacular languages...areas of central Kol and eastern Kol has a lion share of people who are non-bengalis and muslims..not speaking bengali!
Over ans above the laborers who work for building these facilities are being hired from Bihar..so how can one expect them to know Bengali?
Even the drivers both hired private or taxis majorly hail from bihar and UP!

[SarafIndian]

Originally Posted by IchimaruGin1

wiki says 52% of kolkata (city proper) is bengali (in 2001)

Yes, it should be more than 40 %(Core city area).

[SarafIndian]

Originally Posted by studdmanster

Its simply becuz Kolkata is a cosmopolitan city...where people are more comfortable to read english than bengali or any other vernacular languages...areas of central Kol and eastern Kol has a lion share of people who are non-bengalis and muslims..not speaking bengali!
Over ans above the laborers who work for building these facilities are being hired from Bihar..so how can one expect them to know Bengali?
Even the drivers both hired private or taxis majorly hail from bihar and UP!

Still its kind of wired putting it in Hindi. Though alomost everyone understand Hindi but most people(like me) hardly can read it. Non bengali muslims in Kolkata can generally read Urdu/Bengali/English.

[studdmanster]

Originally Posted by SarafIndian

Still its kind of wired putting it in Hindi. Though alomost everyone understand Hindi but most people(like me) hardly can read it. Non bengali muslims in Kolkata can generally read Urdu/Bengali/English.

yes saraf u r true on ur point..HCC the co whch is bldng the flyovr is an all india co. so it cud b dat dey hv prefrd stckin 2 hindi n english...but its sheer neglience of KMDA being a Govt of WB co. still they are allowing caution messages in english and hindi, but not in bengali...dats bad!
i hv been to many cities in India, but have not seen any negligence to their local language...for eg: in chennai they use both English and Tamil, same goes for delhi, dey use english, hindi and urdu!
few days ago i spotted a Jnnurm bus in behala having sign board written in hindi..!

[Samrat]

Everybody is correct in his/her own point/opinion. My point was that Kolkata is the capital of West Bengal and Bangla should be there in any message meant for the local masses besides any other language whether it is Hindi or English. Can anybody imagine Hindi and English only boards/hoardings/banners/signboards in Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Bengaluru or Hyderabad. The answer is a big "No". This is because Kolkatans or in broad sense, Bengalis do not mind accepting or speaking other languages, may be sometimes at the cost of their own language. Now the result is here. Bangla is a second class language in their own land. For us, probasis, it is heartening...

Many years back, I came across with a owner of a paan thela at Howrah station. While conversating, I came to know that he can not speak Bengali despite the fact he had been living in Howrah for the last 14 years.

Mumbai and Kolkata are the two megacites in the whole world where you can live for generations (if you know Hindi) without knowing the local language. Because you can manager everywhere without knowing Marathi/Bangla respectively.

The outsiders in Kolkata never felt that they should learn Bangla(if they happen to be from the Hindi heartland).

AFAIK, at present, there are about 55% Bengalis in Kolkata core area(141 wards, 187 sqkm). The areas like burrabazar, kashipur, garden reach, tiljala-topsia, khidirpur etc etc. have more non-Bengalis than Bengalis(but that is fraction of whole of Kolkata). Besides the (erstwhile) industrial belt of Barrakpur, Kardah, Naihati,Bansberia, Hoogly, Bhadreshwar, Howrah, Bali etc. have a sizable non-Bengali population . However, Bengalis still have a slight edge over non-Bengalis in these areas.

Lastly, I have no ill-feelings for other Indians who live in Kolkata and do not know Bengali. All are welcome in Kolkata. Nonetheless, you are always in a better position if you mix up with the local populace and knowing the local language is the first step towards that direction.

[gd_luks_high]

Originally Posted by arijeetb

gd, do you live in Kolkata? And how do you know 90% of those in EM Bypass region are bengali speaking? I will tend to agree more with Suncity's view regarding the proportion of bengalis in Kolkata. The city core and outward areas have an ever increasing number of non bengalis.

Bengali and bengali speaking are two different things. A vast majority of non Bengalis ( the settlers in the city coming from different parts of India) can converse in Bengali; it is only the "moving population" concentrated around the IT sector in Salt Lake and surrounding areas that do not know Bengali.

I just wanted to say that HCC & J'NURM are national organizations. The board they have used in the construction site are used by them everywhere. Even in Chennai, you will see English and Hindi written on their work site.

But if you really want to check the use of Bengali language in Kolkata, then have a look on the numerous advertisement hoardings in and around the city.

Regarding "Core Kolkata" = "Central Kolkata", its mainly covered with commercial places and not Residential. So, obviously one can find the cosmopolitan culture most out there.

And yes, I live in Kolkata and on EM Bypass. Majority of the traffic moving along the Bypass hails for Sec V and Salt Lake area(Where maximum offices are of WB Govt. departments). Naturally, 90% commuters along that stretch are bengalis.

Even I go to Sec V daily, so I am quite sure about it.

[Abhishek901]

I don't think they would transport such a small thing (boards) over 1000s of kms. They would use locally available boards and then paint them. And if HCC is a national company, it doesn't means that it should use national language for a regional project. All the users of the project are local people, so there is nothing national in it. You have to customize yourself depending on region to region.

When even national highways (which are actually national, as in used by people of more than one state) can have local language and English (instead of Hindi and Eng), then why a local project needs to have national language.

Moreover, many of the north Indians working there are in labour class, who are mostly illiterate. So what's the use of putting a language which few people can read there.

[gd_luks_high]

Actually, it depends from company to company. HCC is the same company which has built the Mumbai(bandra-worli) sea beach. Similar kind of board design was used in that construction site.

[Samrat]

Evidently, the hoardings in question are made and written locally. The Hindi used here is incorrect and might have been written by some non-Hindi speaker(s). Nobody with proper knowledge of Hindi writes "Karya Pragati path par hai" instead of "Karya Pragati par hai" and instead of choti "e" ki matra he has used badi "e" with the letter "ta"

"Pragati Path" is normally used by Bengalis whereas Hindi speakers use "Pragati" for the word "progress" in terms of construction work etc.

[dibdigc]

am a bengali but i am more proud 2 an indian first....
hindi is our national language, we should respect it more than our regional language...
this type of regionalism promotes people like RAJ n UDHAV...

where is the problem if HCC uses hindi and english as its medium??
one is a worldwide recognised language and other is our national language

[studdmanster]

one hording says "karya pragati path par hai sunhare kal k liye" and the other says "karya pragati path par hai dheere chalo" but with some spelling mistakes and i didnt knew that "pragati path par" is a single word!
even if they are using hindi vernacular at least they shouldn't make a mockery of the language..and for the probasis like me, it seems strange!

[Samrat]

One should not forget that Bengali is as much an important language as Hindi if not more, in Bengal. So, preference should be given in that order. I have no objection putting Hindi every where but not at the cost of Bengali, at least in Bengal.

I know one certain gentleman originally from Nadia district, whose parents were living in a city in Bihar for many years, has now proudly declared Hindi as his mother tongue(in official records).

However, certain people are also there who live thousands of kilometres away from Bengal's border for the last half century or so and love their mother tongue and can read and write in their original language and feel proud of that

[IchimaruGin1]

Originally Posted by dibdigc

am a bengali but i am more proud 2 an indian first....
hindi is our national language, we should respect it more than our regional language...
this type of regionalism promotes people like RAJ n UDHAV...

where is the problem if HCC uses hindi and english as its medium??
one is a worldwide recognised language and other is our national language

india has no national language......

as an Indian maybe you should know such things....


In any case guys lets get back at the topic at hand which are flyovers cause this Hindi non hindi thing is a totally unending topic as hindi speakers and non hindi speakers will rightly or wrongly always stick to their own points. No point discussing it in this thread. If you want maybe make one in the chaibar or in some thread in the kolkata or Bengal section

[gd_luks_high]

Many languages are disappearing world wide because of negligence. This happens because people are adopting other cultures and tradition over their own.

I have seen bengalis in kolkata itself who speak in hindi among themselves. They say that they love their national language. I say that they hate their own language.

I love bengali more than any other language and at the same time respect and speak Hindi or English whenever required.

Neglecting own's language or culture can be found only among the bengalis and in no other community. I really don't know what is the reason.

Even today, statistical reports say that Bengali is the second most spoken language after Hindi in India. And world wide, it comes before Hindi (reason: including Bangladeshis). But I think its rank will fall down from the next generation onwards.

[Samrat]

(Suncity , please delete if you find this post irrelevent or unneccessarily hijacking the thread):

The following is a real life story, experienced personally and meant specially for those who harbour or advocate in favour of national or international language.

In November 1994, I was accompanying the Sikh Jatha(Sikh pilgrims) coming from India to Gurdwara Panja Sahib to celebrate the Guru Nanak Jayanti at "Gurdwara Panja Sahib" (the place is called Hasan Abdal in Pakistani Punjab)

We were travelling by train from Wagah . At Lahore station, on way to Panja Sahib, one elderly sardarji went to a book stall to buy some Punjabi magazines published from Lahore. The vendor showed him some magaznines and the sardarji could not understand as these were in Urdu. On asking why there is no Punjabi magazine, he said all are in Urdu and English only and nothing is published in Punjabi. Both of them were talking in theth Punjabi and the sardarji, a little bit puzzled, wanted to know whether the people of Pakistani Punjab still speak Punjabi or shifted to Urdu. The man proudly said we speak Punjabi but read and write in Urdu.

The emotionally charged sardarji felt pity for the people of Pakistani Punjab province as the Punjabi lieterature has vanished from his birthplace

[Samrat]

I share similar feelings like yours gd luks high. Today's young generation don't read and feel the richness of their mother tongue. They don't read poems by Rabindranath, Nazrul, Atul Prasad Sen or D.L.Ray and thus don't inspire by the essence of the Bengali literature. What is French to Europe that is Bengali to India. Bangla literature is far ahead of Hindi literature. But who cares? People are busy to make their career and for that Hindi is better placed than Bengali.

Imagine this scene circa 2050 AD

One Samsul Huda comes to Kolkata from Dhaka. After getting his mother admitted to a private hospital on EMB, he went to College Street to collect some latest Bengali literature and also “Sananda” patrika for his mother which she was fond of from her early college days.

He asked for a copy of Sananda and the young shopkeeper says he has not heard of such a magazine. Samsul says it’s a Bengali magazine from ABP publication. “Oh sir, you mean Bengali magazine”. There is none as all Bengali magazines are stopped publishing because there was no demand as Bengali readers diminished and only a handful over 80 years of age are left.

Samsul was dumb and felt like half of his body was numb with the thought the literature in which two national anthems were written has died a unnatural death in its own land.
(many of you may not know that a few days ago UNESCO has declared “jana gana mana adhinayaka”as the best national anthem of the world)

Comment: Bengalis are running after Hindi and Hindi walas after English. You will see no Devnagri script nowadays in Hindi films/TV serials. English has already replaced them. As a result no one in the upper crust of the society of the Hindi world reads Devnagri script. Even majority of the Hindi film stars can read dialogues written in Roman script only

No further comment from my side on this topic

[studdmanster]

same post twice!!!
boss keo taratari kono flyover er pic lagao...else ei topic r sesh habena!!!