By Naba Bhattacharjee
The few days following Christmas and culminating to New Year’s Eve, reflect a complacent and easy approach to life. In an effort to break the monotony, few friends from school and college days decided to revive the good old days of hiking We set out early morning last week, to trek down the path which we would often tread in the past. As we were walking through one of the innumerable openings in the once thick vegetative cover; I suddenly tripped and fell flat on my face, pinned down by the weight of my knapsack. A minor commotion ensued and my friends who were ahead or following soon gathered around, as I struggled to rise in an effort to restore my credibility of a functioning sportsman. One of them quipped, before I could be on my feet, “You spend a lot of time in playgrounds and this is the consequence? While another added, “Idea of the hike was his …….. so …” but stopped short after seeing the growl on my face. I was curious to find out what was the cause of my fall from grace as the fittest among friends of my age. On removing the dried grass, pine needles and foliage, what emerged was a concrete structure with familiar “carvings”, cracked at the centre and broken at the edges. It was indeed a foundation stone which had fallen off its pedestal and lying prostrate and concealed like the reason of its origin. We tried in vain to decipher the wordings through intensive “digging” and “cleaning”, except for words like ….. PMG….. Centre ,,, ef.. Minstr and 1998. It was clear that after inauguration of this foundation stone, like hundred of others, no one bothered to visit or even give a second thought to whatever project it was not meant to be. It was created to fall flat on its face – it was curtains the day the satin curtains were drawn apart at the laying or lying ceremony – only to trip the unsuspecting common man like me. Together with my friends, we have decided to start a commercial venture of retrieving all such foundation stones, plaques etc like, “pre used cars”, particularly during election year with a pledge to deposit all taxes and duties on sale value to ensure some recovery of public money spent on these stones and usher in a Prosperous New Year 2013.