Oh my lonely heart!

 

To continue the saga of law enforcers of my housing complex being prime law violators of environmental laws: 

https://b-b-dash.blogspot.com/2025/12/aqi-and-lack-of-iq.html 

Well, all my entreaties for sparing my ears (and that of many in the complex) fell on “deaf” ears – pun intended. My protestations were ignored as mere errors in taste and of no consequence. Until I sent a legal notice to the Secretary of the Owners’ Association, the concerned Commissioner of Police and West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB). The next thing I knew, there was a call from the DGP urging me to “negotiate” and not to go the legal route. 

“Negotiations” meant being summoned to a Nuremberg trial with the 12 members of the Board of Managers ranged against little old me. I refrained and invited the Secretary to my house and home for a one-on-one. I suggested that the function be held inside the Club house building even though that was not fully as per the rules. However, he had come essentially to inform me that they’d go ahead as planned. My being a Cancer survivor and having developed Tinnitus after moving into this complex and my aged Mom being a dementia patient, etc. were considered of no import and were countered with the argument that New Year Eve happens only once a year. I thought, yes, Durga Puja celebrations happen for only four days a year, Diwali happens only once a year, Chhat Puja happens on only one day or for a week, Holi happens only once  a year, each person’s birthday is on one single day for himself/ herself although I’ve known a particular SP’s son having a birthday every month so that the SHOs could get at least 12 occasions to bestow their bounty and pledge fealty and so on … essentially, the “meeting” was a case of irresistible force meeting an immovable object and ended in an impasse. 

There was one more phone call.  I was asked to practically vacate myself from my own house and whether they could “very graciously” arrange for my accommodation – free of cost, presumably – at ITC hotels. Imagine the discourteousness! 

I didn’t want to go to the High Court and the Green Tribunal. These are vexing propositions at my age and very expensive too. Two of the newspapers carried the story. However, this didn’t deter the organisers the least bit. I presume, they must have managed a “special permission” from you-guessed-it, the Police, although there was no scope for that under the High Court orders. So, I sent out RTI applications for a copy of such order/s. 

I also thought about how to prove the violation in Court. Just an averment or recording of the decibel level by me would be laughed “out of Court.” I googled and found some agencies who measure pollution in air, water and noise level. I contacted several of them but drew a blank after initial promises. I was not even sure whether such measurements would carry any heft in the courts. In desperation, I checked the WBPCB website and found that they had an approved list of such certifiers. I rang each one of them. Some of them agreed but backed out, probably because of cops being involved; however, two of them agreed to arrange the measurements on the appointed date at the relevant times. Until I paid up and they landed up, I was still on knife’s edge but they finally did. 

I also explored the possibility of lodging a formal complaint with WBPCB. What I found was hilarious. There’re a phone no. and an app to do so. The phone no. takes you round and round through “press 1,” “press 2,” etc. until it says, “all our operatives are busy, kindly leave your name and phone no.” Well, I did, over three days and left my name and phone no. and was “left out” by WBPCB. I lodged a complaint twice on the app, received “token nos.” but those disappeared promptly – were they tokens of appreciation, or mere tokens? 

On the day of reckoning, I saw the DJ sets and high-pitched sound boxes being put up. The two agencies I'd engaged did turn up and set up their machines for continuous reading of the decibels. I braced myself for the entire Court ka chakkars. 

Just on the off-chance, I tried the phone no. of WBPCB again. Lo and behold, someone actually did pick up. He was as surprised as me. He told me to hold on so that he could gather a pen and paper – and his thoughts; diligently noted down my name, no., address and the complaint and assured that their team would visit within the hour. I asked him if he’d give me a token no. or a registration no. and he said mine was the first and only complaint so far on the date so 1/(date) was the token no.. So much for “all our operatives are busy.” 

The sound blast started off well before the scheduled time. It was getting progressively unbearable, until suddenly, there was “deafening” silence. I presume, either someone from WBPCB or the Police Station visited or there was wiser counsel. About an hour or so of silence later, there was fairly muted noise – they’d shifted everything indoors into the Club building! 

Even though this was not strictly as per the law and rules, my ears and I could live with this. Saved me a lot of bother – and costs – of doing the legal rounds. All this takes a toll on the nervous system of all concerned. There was a snarky comment on WhatsApp by a member next morning, “Had a lot of fun in the bash! And the best part was that we had it without breaking the law 😂” 

Glory be!