Abhinash plays a little game with himself. Before the 13-year-old tucks in at night, he stands at the edge of his house in Beraberi village of Singur and looks at the neon lights and vehicle flashlights streaming in from the ‘site’. He then goes to bed and plays a game: will I wake up to find something new tomorrow?

That’s probably a secret indulgence in Singur these days. From lungis to local jeans, 8 p.m. bedtimes to night shifts, from three nationalised banks to 13, from a quarterly spike in income and spending to a monthly one—Singur is in journey and Abhinash and many other families in the block are part of it. It’s a journey that began when Tata Motors decided its Rs one-lakh car, Nano, will roll out from its Singur plant. Today, the project is caught up in uncertainties but Singur has moved on.

A row of paddy fields separates Beraberi from the Tata plant, an awe-inspiring blue and white structure in steel. His father Akhil Chandra gave away three bighas of his land to the project and continues to till the four bighas that are left with him. The 41-year-old farmer does not have the skills to work in the factory but he knows it will create jobs and new means of earning an income. He even worked as a security guard for 14 months when work on the project began.

In 2006, the 16 gram panchayats in Singur block had their share of bad roads, no drainage, and pitch-dark villages where the last bulb would be turned off at 8 p.m. Farming was the only work most of the villagers knew—Singur has 14,000 farmer families, apart from a few government employees and small traders. Then, in April 2007, the makeover began. Over 3,000 villagers were hired to build a boundary wall around the project area, lined with rows of halogen lamps. At least 2,000 villagers got jobs as security guards. Gradually, a cottage industry sprouted around the site—nearly 30 tea and snack stalls came up near the factory gates to cater to this workforce.

... contd.