Ten days after I first flew to Kolkata to report on what the Kolkata press is calling the Seige of Singur, there's a hint of fever on my brow. The crew and I have been working non-stop for what seems like weeks. There is distinctly a cold coming....
 
But the woman on the makeshift dias outside the Tata Nano plant seems undeterred. She seems neither tried nor ready to give up. What makes some politicians so resolute and some others so accomodating? Could it be their causes?
 
There is no doubt that Mamata Bannerjee is today Kolkata's most hated politician. In the last few days, wherever I have gone and whoever I have met have abused and abused her with venom...
 
Yet, when the middle class abuse with such passion, usually there is more than one side to that story. No one in Kolkata seems to understand what land means to a farmer. They cannot, and perhaps it is too much to ask, seem to comprehend that there is more to the issue than the machinations of one "mad" politician.
 
Could it be that none of them have ever been to Singur?
 
There are lessons that Singur can teach all of us who live and despair in the city. It can teach us how out of touch we are with the realities a few kms away from us.
 
Today, the sneeze of Singur and Nandigram seems to be spreading. I went deep into the villages of Dankuni today. I was returning to Dankuni after 13 years. Once upon a time, my old school in Kolkata used to have a branch there. All that no longer exists... but the buzz now-a-days in Dankuni is a 4,840-acre industrial township that DLF wants to build there. The total worth of the project is a mammoth Rs 33,000 crore.
 
As it so happens, there's huge opposition to the project from the poor farmers who live here. It always amazes the rich when the poor refuse to industrialise. Why not, we ask. How can you be so stupid?
 
And yet, when we speak of new jobs for the people who live there, think about what we really mean - jobs like cleaners, sweepers, peons, perhaps security. Very few get the right kind of training to get real jobs - jobs with dignity, jobs that they would be happy with.
 
Of course, this is not entirely true. Jamshedpur, where I was born, is a great example of how industrialisation can change thousands of lives. How one company can be the benchmark of changing the face of a town - so much so that the town comes to be called Tatanagar.
 
So, what is going wrong now?
 
Part of the problem is lack of information. The overwhelming impression in the Bengal hinterland is that most people whose land would be taken have never been really told how they will benefit from this.
 
Even in Dankuni, part of the problem is that very few people know what will happen to them when the land is taken away. Also, over the years, a sense of mistrust has grown among the rural heartland about modern industry and the monied class, which is what people like Mamata Bannerjee and Mayawati exploit.
 
Why has this happened? Perhaps, its inevitable in a fast changing country where the rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer.
 
The point that needs to be made now is that industry must make a special effort - not merely to win or gain land, but also gain trust and hearts. No business can survive in the 21st century if it does not have inherent empathy towards the ecosystem in which it operates.
 
Business is not, cannot survive in isolation from the natural environment it inhabits.
 
And if that does not happen, the sneeze of Singur will cause many, many more colds.