Starting from the end

Today, December 31, 2025, another year is coming to an end, starting tomorrow with the new year. We are the unlucky people who are somehow still trying to survive in this world. Six years ago from0 today, we welcomed the New Year with fireworks, parties, dances and songs. With all of this, at 12 o’clock we wished everyone a Happy New Year and prayed to God that we could spend this year in a very good and peaceful way. But now, the meaning of January 1 has changed for us, now it has become like any other day, the risky, exhausting, dull and busy struggle to survive.

Indeed, we call ourselves unlucky, because those who have left us may now be in much peace and we who have seen so many people die, we are all still alive somehow but there is no peace in our minds. When we all close our eyes, the images of those dead people are repeated in our minds. Even if we want to forget, the memory of those people does not allow us to forget those people. But life goes on, people have now accepted everything, been cautious, started to respect nature. Because we all know that nature has given us another chance, we will never let that opportunity go to waste.

In March 2020, the population of the whole world was 780 million. Like the last time when I heard the news on TV three and a half years ago, only one quarter of the people in the world were alive, now I do not know how many people are alive. Now I don’t know about the whole world, but in the area where I live, there are only 1750 survivors. Some of them have left the area and do not know where they went. So now there are only 900 to 950 people in our area. The mortality rate for the disease has continued in the same way since 2020, the only change being that with the change of population the mortality rate has dropped significantly.

We do not really know what is happening to our people outside our city like West Bengal, India and the rest of the world. Three years ago today, The Chief Minister of our State, decided that from that day no people in Kolkata will go out of this city and no one from outside will enter Kolkata. Now Kolkata has become a small country. Just as the countryside is surrounded by barbed wire fences, Kolkata is also surrounded by barbed wire fences. So that no virus infected people can come to Kolkata and spread the virus.

Three years ago, when the fence was first constructed in Kolkata and it was decided that all kinds of relations would be cut off from outside Kolkata, every single person living in Kolkata raised the same question, “Where can I get the necessary food items?” At that time there was no rule in our city, no government, no police, no one was able to answer thousands of questions in people’s minds. So people started going out of the room to find answers to all these questions. They really needed answers. Need to talk to make any decisions or answer any questions. It is not possible to make any decision without words or discussions.

Minimal communication is the most important means of communicating with one another. The infrastructure was not available to anyone at that time. At that time all kinds of mobile services were shut down, no internet service was on, buses, trams, cars, subway, rail services were all closed. Everyone in our neighborhood was worried about how everything would be possible, then some old and intelligent people called a meeting in our neighborhood. This meeting was held in a small field called Golap Mohini maath in our neighborhood.

Seven years ago, the last time the assembly elections were held in West Bengal. Winning by a huge margin of votes in that assembly election,...