Dead serious

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has brought in some radical changes at Writers’ Buildings, the state secretariat. Chronically work-shy employees now have extended working hours, often stretching to 9 or 10 p m. But Banerjee has ensured that it’s not all work. Every now and then, these functionaries get to unwind by celebrating the birth or death anniversary of Bengal’s cultural icons on the premises. Kishore Kumar, Debabrata Biswas, Sambhu Mitra, Uttam Kumar, apart from personal favourites like Rabindranath Tagore, have made it to the list so far. And it’s Banerjee who leads the celebrations from the front, often seen breaking into a song. Paribartan has swept through Writers’, in more ways than one.