Basha Mukherjee is self-isolating for one to two weeks until she can return to work as a doctor to help in coronavirus pandemic. “There’s no better time for me to be Miss England and helping England at a time of need,” she told CNN.
Bhasha Mukherjee, who shifted from Kolkata at the age of 8, specializes in respiratory medicine. (Source: Instagram/Bhasha Mukherjee)
Indian-origin doctor Bhasha Mukherjee, who was crowned Miss England in 2019, has returned to the United Kingdom to help out on the frontlines in the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis.
The beauty queen, who took a break from the medical profession to focus on charity work abroad after competing in the Miss World competition last year, told CNN on Monday that she has returned to the United Kingdom to aid the medical professionals. She told that it felt wrong to be wearing her Miss England crown, even for humanitarian work, while people around the world were dying from coronavirus and her colleagues were working so hard.
As the COVID-19 situation worsened in the UK, Mukherjee was getting messages from former colleagues telling her how hard the situation was for them. “When you are doing all this humanitarian work abroad, you’re still expected to put the crown on, get ready… look pretty.” But, she added: “I wanted to come back home. I wanted to come and go straight to work.”
She is now back and is self-isolating for one to two weeks until she can return to work as a doctor at the Pilgrim Hospital. “There’s no better time for me to be Miss England and helping England at a time of need,” she told CNN.
Mukherjee, who shifted from Kolkata at the age of 8, specializes in respiratory medicine. Invited to be an ambassador for several charities, she had taken a break from her medical career briefly. She was in India at the beginning of March for a community charity. She also visited Africa, Turkey, Pakistan, and other Asian countries.
source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Coronavirus Outbreak / by Express Web Desk / New Delhi / April 07th, 2020
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee covers her mouth with a piece of cloth during a press conference in Kolkata, March 20, 2020. Photo: PTI
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has come a long way on the registers of political and administrative maturity. In recent months, she led popular agitations against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) from the front. And now, she is leading her state in attempting to contain the coronavirus pandemic. In this process, she is reinforcing the goodwill of her admirers and receiving praise from her detractors – remarkably even among supporters of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)].
This could well turn out to be a critical juncture for the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief.
Of course, Mamata is not the only chief minister providing such leadership in the present crisis. The chief ministers of Kerala, Orissa and Delhi too have admirably risen to the occasion. Still, what lends special interest to Mamata’s leadership is her transformed personality in a leadership role. The interest lies in her evolution from an opposition firebrand, a street fighter, and a somewhat unpredictable head of state, to a mature political and administrative leader. The kind of maturity that many, till recently, did not credit Mamata Banerjee with.
Last year, critics predicted an irreversible slide in the chief minister’s popularity at a time when matters did indeed look grim. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the TMC’s main adversary, won an impressive 18 of the state’s 42 seats during the Lok Sabha elections in Bengal. The Trinamool Congress’s tally slipped from 34 to 22. Public conversation increasingly veered towards the BJP stealing a march over the TMC in Bengal’s 2021 assembly elections.
Not surprisingly, the BJP’s new-found aggression rattled Mamata. The TMC chief made no bones about showing her displeasure at the sudden political inclemency coming her way. She showed her frustration in ways that, since her decades in opposition, had easily come to be recognised as part and parcel of Mamata’s temperamental persona.
Two days after the Lok Sabha results were declared, Mamata claimed 200 TMC party offices were “captured” by the BJP. By the following Monday, her party would “recover” them , the chief minister declared. In the days to follow, an enraged Mamata was caught on camera getting out of her car and hollering at men shouting Jai Shri Ram. A month on, the TMC leader ran into a fresh storm when she issued an ultimatum to Kolkata’s striking doctors, protesting an attack on one of their colleagues. Call the agitation off or leave your hostels, Mamata flatly toldthe agitating doctors. As she courted controversy after controversy, the BJP further dug its heels in Bengal, and the future of politics in the state looks increasingly uncertain.
The situation, however, turned as Mamata changed her style of doing politics. For one, she stopped reacting to every irritant thrown in her direction, stripping the BJP off the opportunity to attack her for her volatile temperament and erratic behaviour. Those who watch Mamata’s politics closely, attributed the behavioural and functional transformation – her measured tone, her not shunning meetings with top BJP ministers, including with the Prime Minister – to Prashant Kishor, the political strategist advising her. Her widely publicised Didi ke bolo (Tell Didi) initiative encouraged citizens across Bengal to share with their grievance about her party and government with the chief minister. As the BJP shored up a campaign against the ruling party’s corruption and ‘tolabaji’ culture, Mamata underwent a personality makeover.
The ‘new’ Mamata Banerjee seems quieter and more circumspect. This behavioural change, however, has not diluted her politics, focused on challenging the BJP government and its communal agenda. She recently called the Narendra Modi government out for its collusion in the violence in northeast Delhi. Describing the killings and arson as a pogrom, Mamata said: “The BJP government is trying to replicate its Gujarat model of riots across India, including in West Bengal.”
Over the course of 10 months, from May 2019 and March 2020, Banerjee has faced two serious challenges, one political, and the other medical. The serious challenge arising from the BJP-sponsored CAA-NRC-National Population Register (NPR) agenda drove the chief minister out of Nabanna, her administrative headquarters. She led huge marches in the streets, walking a tightrope between her responsibilities as head of state, and her opposition to the Narendra Modi government.
PM Narendra Modi and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee. Photo: PTI
After meeting the prime minister at Raj Bhavan, which Mamata described as part of her “Constitutional responsibility”, she joined anti-CAA protesters who were sitting outside in a dharna. She stayed away from the anti-CAA protests at Park Circus, while ensuring facilities like drinking water were provided by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation at the site.
That was two months ago.
Since then, like every other chief minister in the country, Mamata has been thrown into the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. As in the anti-CAA agitations, she is leading this battle from the front as well. The state government has adopted a string of decisive measures , ranging from enforcing quarantine and lockdown to delivering financial help to the underprivileged. Mamata did not mince words when faced with the case of the teenage son of a bureaucrat in Nabanna who initially dodged testing, and was later found to be coronavirus positive. “You can’t claim VIP status and avoid COVID-19 tests,” she sternly said .
When a second person tested positive for coronavirus in Kolkata earlier this month, the Bengal government issued a strict warning that all persons returning from abroad in recent days should quarantine themselves for a fortnight. “Persons who do not follow the advice will be liable for action, including forcible quarantining… under the West Bengal Epidemic Disease Covid-19 Regulation 2020,” according to the police advisory.
Unlike the abstract tone and tenor of the prime minister’s two national addresses on the epidemic, Mamata explained what quarantine would mean for people. Quarantine is not jail, she emphasized. Whether or not people find comfort in that explanation is a different matter. But that, as chief minister, Mamata finds herself obligated to reassure and comfort citizens on her watch, has struck a chord among the people of Bengal.
“Remember, quarantine does not mean jail. Quarantine simply means to keep oneself healthy, staying in a separate space, where many people don’t have access. Those there, other than them, no outsiders,” she said . Given the appalling state of quarantine facilities that have come to light across the country, Mamata assured people that facilities at the “brand new building” in New Town would meet the acceptable standards: “Bathrooms, beds, food … just like home. That is quarantine, like your own home. Not a jail, [you] must remember this.”
The coronavirus awareness campaign she initiated has reached villages as well. Block and district officials have been instructed to ensure that outsiders entering villages should quarantine themselves for the requisite amount of time.
Alongside these measures, the government has decided to distribute foodgrains for free for six months among 7.85 crore people eligible for subsidised grain through the public distribution system. Government employees now giving up their leave will be entitled to special leave around Durga Puja, while at least 50% of government employees will work from home on a rotational basis.
Additionally, Mamata has urged the Centre to send required medical kits to the state, arguing : “We have been repeatedly asking for testing kits. We have now 40 kits. I know ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) is saying that there is no dearth of kits, but that supply must reach us.” In an innovative move, the chief minister also identified the Calcutta Medical College as a facility for exclusively treating coronavirus patients. The state government is preparing a 3000-bed isolation ward in the hospital.
In the short-term, such moves by the Bengal chief minister and her counterparts in other states bodes well for those who are put most at risk by the pandemic. In the long-term, one has to wonder whether nuanced policies like these might also help Mamata Banerjee regain lost ground and stem the onslaught of Hindutva, that other viral force in Bengal’s contemporary political culture.
source: http://www.thewire.in / The Wire / Home> Opinion> Politics / by Monobina Gupta / March 26th, 2020
In Pioneering Parsis of Calcutta, Prochy N. Mehta chronicles the little-known lives of the first Parsis who came to the city during British rule.
Jamsetjee Framjee Madon | Niyogi Books | Prochy N. Mehta
Jamsetjee Framjee Madon was one of the pioneers of Indian cinema. He owned over 120 cinema halls at one time. Jamsetjee was very modern in his outlook and a reformist in his religious views. He was one of the first trustees of the Late Ervad D.B. Mehta’s Zoroastrian Anjuman Atash Adaran and was a supporter of the young Bella, to whom he left Rs 5,000 in his will to help her in her legal case.
Jamsetjee Framjee Madon was born on 27 April 1856 in a very poor family in Bombay. The family being truly indigent, he had to seek employment at the tender age of twelve as a scene-shifter in the dramatic company of Cooverji Ratanji Nazir, at a salary of Rs 4 per month. The young lad got enamoured of the stage, copying the roles of the heroes and heroines of the plays and later playing small roles on stage. Since he had a good voice, he could act the part of a courtesan and became quite popular.
He then joined Elphinstone Natak Company which toured the country and in 1875, on an auspicious day, he came to Calcutta with this touring company. Some time later he took over this company in partnership with a few others. This company prospered, thanks to his experience, far-sightedness and hard work, and made Calcutta its permanent home. Simultaneously he started dealing in auctioned goods and in 1885 started another business as wines and provision merchant at 5, Dharamtalla Street. His honesty, perseverance and gentle nature soon attracted important Indian customers and the shop became extremely popular among government officers and Englishmen. There were seven branches of this store including those at Calcutta, Darjeeling, Lucknow and Delhi.
In 1903, at the time of the British invasion of Tibet, Jamsetjee opened food and provision stores all the way from Siliguri to Chumbi and assisted the armed forces in supplying food and provision to soldiers even at great personal risk. The British officers greatly appreciated Madon’s fortitude and bravery as a result of which Jamsetjee was given a large contract of supplying the army during the wars in Kabul. He carried out his work at great risk and in significantly difficult circumstances, to the utmost satisfaction of the military officers. In appreciation of these services, the British Government awarded him the Order of the British Empire in 1918.
On 30 March 1919, the Calcutta Parsis felicitated Jamsetjee at a function under the chairmanship of the trustee of the Anjuman, Seth Edulji Pestonji Guzdar. Madon Seth was congratulated on obtaining the Order of the British Empire and praised for his simple life, gentle nature, honesty and kindness and for his munificence towards the poor.
Seth Jamsetjee, like the other Parsi elders of the community, had a generous nature and was always anxious to assist the needy. Having grown up in poverty he felt for the poor and gave employment to many poor Parsi youngsters in his cinemas and shops. He was thus responsible for the livelihood of a large number of Parsi families. Many of his charities were done secretly and it can be truly said of him that his left hand was not aware of what his right hand gave away. It was estimated that such secret handouts averaged Rs 5,000 every month. This help was not restricted to Parsis exclusively; all the needy benefitted from his charity, irrespective of caste or creed. Many institutions of public welfare owed their existence and prosperity to him.
In 1907 Seth Jamsetjee took up the mission of building a second Tower of Silence in Calcutta. Starting a subscription list with his personal donation of Rs 5,000, he went from house to house and managed to collect a lakh of rupees from the Calcutta Parsis. It was due to his influence that the municipality gave a grant of Rs 27,000 towards the purchase of land for this second Tower of Silence, and he personally bore the expenses of Rs 20,000 towards building it. Seth Madon’s efforts and far-sightedness resulted in bringing together the priests of the Kadimi and Shahanshai sections for the first time in Calcutta. The Kadimi priests performed the religious rites at the time of the foundation and the Shahanshai priests performed the consecration rites.
In 1912, at the time of the building of the Mehta fire temple, Seth Jamsetjee provided his devoted services. The building attached to the fire temple used as a residence for the priests was built and donated by him and his family to the Atash Adaran. He presented several chandeliers, lamps and carpets for the main prayer hall and also many tables, chairs, large cooking utensils for general use. This generous-hearted Parsi also had the foresight to start funds with initial personal donations to take care of the future maintenance of the Atash Adaran.
Seth Jamsetjee was deeply sympathetic towards the poor Parsi families in Calcutta. In Dharamtalla Street he built Khorshed Madan Mansion at an expense of Rs 1,10,176 in memory of his beloved daughter, Mrs Khorshed Rustomji Maneckji Mehta, who had died on 14 January 1920 during the lifetime of her parents. Seth Jamsetjee donated this house to the Anjuman on the understanding that the flats be rented out to the poor and middle-class Parsi families of Calcutta at a low rent. Further he set aside a sizeable fund for the maintenance of this building.
He also secured the land for the ‘aramgah’ for the Parsis in Darjeeling and donated funds towards its maintenance. On several occasions he gave donations to the Anjuman on behalf of his friends and relations. Seth Jamsetjee organised several ‘benefit nights’ in many of his cinema houses to collect funds for charities for Parsis as well as other communities.
In 1923, the British Government honoured him with the award of Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his many cosmopolitan charities.
About twenty years prior to the advent of cinema on a commercial basis in India, Seth Jamsetjee experimented with this new media and perfected it for public viewing. He was truly a pioneer of the cinema industry in India.
The young lad of twelve, who started his career as a scene-shifter at a salary of Rs 4 per month, aided by some lucky turn of events and greatly due to his own inherent ability, perseverance and hard labour, became, in the evening of his life, the owner of a hundred cinema houses in India. Seth Jamsetjee’s life is a shining example of Parsi adventure and philanthropy. Upon his death which took place in Calcutta on roz 22 Govad, Mah 10 Dae, Year 1292 y.z., corresponding to 28 June 1923, Calcutta lost a true benefactor of the poor.
This excerpt from Pioneering Parsis of Calcutta by Prochy N. Mehta has been published with permission from Niyogi Books.
source: http://www.theprint.in / The Print / Home> Page Turner> Book Excerpts / by Prochy N. Mehta / April 04th, 2020
Dev Sen had announced she was suffering from cancer
Nabaneeta Dev Sen / Telegraph picture
Nabaneeta Dev Sen, poet, novelist and academic, breathed her last at her south Calcutta home on Thursday evening. She was 81.
Dev Sen had announced she was suffering from cancer.
Her spontaneity, unique style of expression, vast and varied experience of life are evident in her poems, short stories, novels, plays, travelogues, literary criticism, essays and works of children’s literature. Some of her well-known works are Bama-bodhini, Nati Nabanita, Srestha Kabita and Sita Theke Suru.
Her Radhakrishnan Memorial Lecture series at Oxford University, a pioneering work on The Ramayana seen from women’s viewpoint, in 1997 started a new school of studies on Sita across the world.
Dev Sen is survived by her daughters Antara and Nandana, from her marriage of 17 years to economist Amartya Sen. Her last rites would be performed on Friday, before which she would be taken to Jadavpur University, a family friend said.
The daughter of the poet-couple Narendra Dev and Radharani Devi, Dev Sen grew up in a literary milieu and graduated from Presidency College. She received her masters degree from JU in 1958, where she later taught in the comparative literature department till her retirement in 2002.
She was also an alumna of Harvard University, from where she took a masters with distinction, and of Indiana University, where she did her PhD. She then completed her post-doctoral research at the University of California in Berkeley and Newnham College, Cambridge University.
The recipient of the Padma Shri and the Sahitya Akademi award was a polyglot, reading Hindi, French, German and Sanskrit among other languages.
A friend of over 50 years, author Sirshendu Mukherjee reminisced: “She had an unbelievable sense of humour and spontaneity. So infinite was her vitality that sitting next to her was like sitting by a dynamo. She had a lot of health issues, always going around with an inhaler. Yet nothing seemed to touch her. She was without fear and beyond prejudices.”
Lauding both her poetry and prose, Mukherjee said he had lost “a favourite author”. “She may not have written for children as much but what she has written is amazing. She also spoke up for a definite place for women in society through her work.”
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee expressed grief over Dev Sen’s death. “Saddened at the passing away of noted litterateur and academic Nabaneeta Dev Sen. A recipient of several awards, her absence will be felt by her myriad students and well-wishers. My condolences to her family and admirers,” Mamata tweeted.
Her last photographs made public were with Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, when the economist came to meet her at her home Bhalo-Basha on October 23 during his brief sojourn to Calcutta after winning the Nobel Prize.
That photograph of her smiling radiantly through an oxygen tube attached to her nostrils will endure.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Online edition / by Special Correspondent in Calcutta / November 08th, 2019
The Hope Foundation was founded in 1999 by Irish humanitarian Maureen Forrest to provide protection and safety to 14 young girls in Kolkata who were forced to survive on the streets.
Miss England 2019 Bhasha Mukherjee (Photo | Instagram)
World :
Indian-origin Miss England 2019 Bhasha Mukherjee helped raise funds for a UK charity working with street-connected and slum children in Kolkata as part of her beauty with a purpose mission.
Mukherjee, a doctor by profession who spent her childhood in Kolkata, took time out from preparations for the Miss World contest next month to join the Hope Foundation’s annual fundraiser in London on Friday night.
The evening raised over 20,000 pounds for the charity through ticket and auction sales and also received several pledges to sponsor children in India.
“I think it’s destiny that brings people together. I am from Kolkata, so Hope Foundation is very special to me,” said the 23-year-old, who moved to UK as a nine-year-old and is currently employed as a junior doctor in Lincolnshire, eastern England.
“Hope isn’t just about the children of Kolkata, it’s about children all over the world as well. And, my beauty with a purpose project is health education, which I am very passionate about as a doctor.
“I want to take this platform of Miss England and empower people to take control of their own health and stay well in the community,” she said.
The Hope Foundation was founded in 1999 by Irish humanitarian Maureen Forrest to provide protection and safety to 14 young girls in Kolkata who were forced to survive on the streets.
It has since grown from just one protection home to 12 homes and also operates a range of other outreach work, which has impacted the lives of millions who reside in Kolkata’s slums and on the city’s streets.
“I suppose it was my dream, and is my dream, to live in a world where it would never hurt to be a child.
“Our legacy will not be the buildings we have left there (Kolkata), but the thousands of children that we have introduced to education, these children are in turn breaking the cycle of poverty,” said Forrest, honorary director of the foundation.
The fundraiser, which was backed by historic India-connected tea brand Britannia and UK fitness retailer DW Sports, raised nearly 9,000 pounds through an auction of lots including a holiday to India and signed sports memorabilia.
The rest of the profits raised are also intended to go towards implementing the work of the foundation, which has offices in the UK, Ireland, US as well as India.
“This evening is not just about celebrating the great part that Hope (Foundation) plays in the lives of these street-connected children.
“It’s also about the inspiration that these children provide us so that we can endeavour to make changes to their lives, said Reza Beyad, London-based entrepreneur and the foundation’s UK ambassador.
“Hope offers, through its various programmes, opportunities for these kids to step out of the social bubble created for them by injustices in society,” he said.
source : http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> World / by Press Trust of India / October 06th, 2019
The Gaudiya Mission, a spiritual and philanthropic organisation established in 1935, propagates the teachings of Sri Chaitanya and the Vaishnava faith.
Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
Kolkata :
The world’s first museum dedicated to the life and teachings of 16th-century saint and social reformer, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is ready to be inaugurated at the city’s Baghbazar Gaudiya Math on August 13, an official said.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will inaugurate the technically-enabled ‘Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Museum’ built to preserve information related to the great saint. “The museum is the dream project of Gaudiya Mission which will be a reality after it’s inauguration on August 13. Amidst the prevalent cruelty, clashes or say intolerant situations in our society, we wish to showcase Mahaprabhu’s teachings and vision and serve the society,” Bhakti Nishtha Madhusudan Maharaj, the mission’s assistant secretary and museum in-charge told IANS.
The Gaudiya Mission, a spiritual and philanthropic organisation established in 1935, propagates the teachings of Sri Chaitanya and the Vaishnava faith. It has many centres in India and temples in London and New York.
He said that they aimed at spreading the message across society and not just keep it restricted to the devotees. They want researchers, intellectual and scholars to avail of the library facilities and experience a detailed life of Mahaprabhu by visiting the museum.
The museum is a three-storey structure built on an area of approximately 1,350 square metres and includes galleries, public utility areas and a library. Each floor is dedicated to different phases of the saint’s life starting from his birth, his marriage with Vishupria, journey throughout the country up to the period after he attained ‘Sanyasa’ (sainthood).
Life-size models, 3D films, audio tracks and animatronics will ensure maximum engagement of the visitors. The museum has been designed by the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM). “While the museum seeks to play a key role in creating awareness among the present generations, its primary objective is to preserve all the evidence of Vaishnava heritage, living traditions as well as the intangible heritage which are disappearing very fast,” the official page of the museum said.
A rich collection of resources such as the saint’s memorabilia, artefacts, manuscripts, rare books, pictures and other valuable exhibits are on display. People can even get a glimpse of hsi original hand-writing. Also, there is an auditorium, archive, meditation room, Library, space theatre and a canteen.
Multimedia display, light and sound illustrations have been used for an immersive experience. There is Virtual Reality to depict the ‘Nagar Samkirtan’ (religious chant) where visitors will feel that they are participating in ‘Kirtan’ along with Mahaprabhu. The budget of the state-of-the-art museum is somewhere around Rs 12-14 crore, a mission official said.
While laying the foundation stone in 2013, the then president of the Mission Bhakti Surhid Prabrajika Goswami Maharaj had said that it was the world’s first museum on the saint with modern communication methods which will collect, preserve and disseminate archival literature of the Sri Chaitanya cult.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Kolkata / by IANS / August 08th, 2019
17-year-old creates group to give kids choice of education
Children take part in a guitar-building session during a music workshop conducted by Humanities of Tomorrow, a Dallas-based group floated by Kaushiki Roy to spark interest in the humanities through creative activities. The students also made and decorated maracas, flutes and drums at the workshop.(Pictures sourced by correspondent)
A teenager with roots in the city is changing mindsets among students in Dallas, Texas, where she lives now.
Kaushiki Roy, 17, believes in giving children a choice in education. A former student of Calcutta International School, she created a group last month to help under-privileged children develop a taste for art, dance, theatre and music and pursue the arts stream in college.
Her goal: To rid students of the pressure created by the school curriculum and parents to opt for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) subjects.
Kaushiki floated Humanities of Tomorrow with the help of some like-minded friends. Together, they involve children in diverse activities from art and craft to music and theatre.
“There are many non-profit organisations that coach underprivileged children in STEM subjects so that they can pursue college education in science and technology. However, none of them creates any interest in the humanities. I decided to do just that,” the Grade 12 student said.
The daughter of an IT professional, Kaushiki had felt the pressure to excel in science and maths during her schooldays in Calcutta.
“I studied there for two years — classes VI and VII. Right from that stage, I could sense this urgency among my classmates and their parents to work harder on science and maths. Most of the parents were doctors and engineers, like mine, and the kids wanted to follow the tried and tested path too,” said the fan of Ariel Lawhon of I was Anastasia fame.
“I remember attending an algebra class on my first day in school and feeling at a loss while my classmates aced the problems,” she said.
Kaushiki, who discovered her love for the languages early, felt kids in the US were also under pressure to excel in STEM subjects.
“The emphasis intensifies from Grade 8. My school caters to a diverse range of students. There are many Asians, too. Most kids are striving hard to excel in physics, chemistry and maths. Humanities subjects are often neglected,” said the girl who enjoys playing the piano.
Kaushiki Roy
Kaushiki, along with six friends, have designed a two-week arts curriculum for children. Surprise awaited her at home when her father supported her initiative despite his science background.
Workshops conducted by their group engage the children in mandala-making, playing the drums and encourage them to dabble in different theatre genres. Zumba and impromptu acting sessions are also held. The idea is to appreciate the creative qualities of the kids.
“There are different teachers for each subject. The teachers are all students like me. We also have volunteers. Together we try to train the children in forms of dance (contemporary and popular) and music. They learn to express through art. The training is meant to give them a good time and encourage them to speak up,” Kaushiki said.
“They should at least be given a choice. Liking humanities does not make you a loser. The mindset must change. Let them learn everything and then decide what they want to take up in college,” she said.
Kaushiki’s greatest gift — when students express an interest in pursuing humanities in future.
Humanities of Tomorrow has already conducted sessions for two different clubs of underprivileged children. The last day of each session ends with a carnival where the trainers and students have a good time together.
“Till now we have touched the lives of nearly 80 kids (between 9 and 18 years) in our locality. All of them are now looking at humanities from a different perspective. These children don’t get the kind of exposure we enjoy in school. So I am giving it to them in my way. We are thinking of inducting some of these children into our group as volunteers,” Kaushiki said.
She is already planning cultural awareness and environmental awareness weeks in her fall and spring breaks, respectively.
Kaushiki hopes to leave Texas for higher studies next year but wants her organisation to continue working. “My school has been very supportive. We are in the process of training juniors. I will help them when I come home during breaks. I will try to set up a branch of Humanities of Tomorrow in the state where I study,” said the girl, who dreams of being a journalist.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, online edition / Home> West Bengal / by Chandrayee Ghose in Calcutta / August 28th, 2019
The Brahmo Samaj was founded on 20 August, 1828 in Kolkata by Rammohan Roy and Debendranath Tagore
The Sadharan Brahmo Samaj prayer hall in Machuabazar, KolkataSadharan / Brahmo Samaj website
The Sadharan Brahmo Samaj was denied the status of a minority religion in an order issued by the West Bengal Minority Affairs and Madrasah Education Department in September 2017. The context was that of the Samaj constituting the governing bodies of eight prominent colleges in Calcutta. The order proclaimed that as the Samaj was not a “separate minority religion”, the colleges governed by it should be treated as “non-minority Government-aided Colleges.” It further stated that the governing bodies of these institutions, run by the Brahmo Samaj Education society, be dissolved. The Samaj decided to take the West Bengal government to court, stating the government was in an utter state of “confusion”. It is rather ironic that an institution, time and again divided over its vision and constitution, arraign others for getting bewildered by its habitus.
But we will refrain from rallying on those walkways, and instead look back at the checkered yet fascinating history of this once reformist movement, founded on this very day in 1828 by Ram Mohan Roy, Tarachand Chakravarti, and Dwarkanath Tagore among others.
Emerging from the gatherings of educated, upper-caste elite bhadraloks and their newfound belief in religious reform and congregational praying, the Brahmo Samaj in its earliest avatar organised weekly services with marked segregation. The recital of vedas were performed by orthodox priests, only for the Brahmin members of the congregation. It was followed by commentaries on the Upanishads and the singing of songs and hymns which were open to all. This did not fit very well with the greater idea of universal worship that lay at the core of the Samaj. After Ram Mohan’s departure for England in 1830, and his subsequent death in 1833, it was Debendranath, Dwarkanath’s son, who took charge of the Samaj. Debendranath established the Tattwabodhini Sabha, which became the hub of the cultural elite in Kolkata, gathering some 800 members at one point of time.
Ram Mohan Roy and Debendranath Tagore / Wikimedia Commons
The era of the Tattwabodhini Sabha (1839-1859) thus ushered in a significant and creative epoch in the history of the Brahmo Samaj which had for once come to receive the sincere co-operation of nearly all the progressive sections of the contemporary Hindu society. The unification of these diverse elements of national life on a common platform was certainly an organisational achievement which reflects credit on the tact, foresight and earnestness of the young Debendranath.
Rituals and Adi Brahmo Samaj ceremonials of the new church were formulated, the most prominent among these being the system of initiation. It started with the initiation of Debendranath and his friends in 1843. The initiated Brahmo was a new phenomenon in the history of the faith. Along with initiation came the special status of membership system and compulsory subscription for the initiated was introduced. A notable doctrinal change that took place was the abandonment of the belief in the infallibility of the Vedas. It was decided and formally declared that the basis of Brahmoism would henceforth be no longer any infallible book, but “the human heart illumined by spiritual knowledge born of self-realisation”.
The Brahmo movement spread rapidly in the country and by 1872 the church had succeeded in establishing altogether one hundred and one branches throughout India and Burma. In one respect however a notable change had taken place in the nature of Brahmoism from this epoch. The Samaj had now definitely taken the shape of a religious sect or community with its own creed, rituals and regulations. This began increasingly to mark it out as a separate religious unit, distinct from other existing sects.
The next phase of the Brahmo movement is dominated by the dynamic personality of Keshub Chandra Sen (1838-84) who joined the Samaj in 1857. Debendranath loved the young man and appointed him an acharya of the Samaj. Keshub was the first non-Brahmin to be given that position. In 1864 he undertook an extensive tour of the presidencies of Madras and Bombay and prepared ground for the spread of the Samaj in Southern and Western India. But serious differences regarding creed, rituals and the attitude of the Brahmos to social problems had arisen between Debendranath and Keshub, men of radically different temperaments and the Samaj soon split up into two groups – the old conservatives rallying round the cautious Debendranath and the young reformists led by the dynamic Keshub. The division came to the surface towards the close of 1866 with the emergence of two rival bodies, the Calcutta or Adi Brahmo Samaj, consisting of the old adherents of the faith and the new order (inspired and led by Keshub) known as the Brahmo Samaj of India.
Keshub Chandra Sen / Wikimedia Commons
In spite of the dynamic progress of the Brahmo movement under Keshub, the Samaj had to go through a second schism in May, 1878 when a band of Keshub Chandra Sen’s followers left him to start the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj, mainly because their demand for the introduction of a democratic constitution in the church was not conceded. The body led by the veteran Derozian Shib Chandra Dev comprised some of the most brilliant and talented young men of the time including Sivnath Shastri, Ananda Mohan Bose, Dwarkanath Ganguli, Nagendranath Chatterjee, Ram Kumar Vidyaratna, Vijay Krishna Goswami and others. They were all staunch democrats and promptly framed a full-fledged democratic constitution based on universal adult franchise, for the new organisation. It was declared in Bengali mouthpiece of the Samaj Tattwakaumudi that the Brahmo Samaj was about to establish a ‘world wide republic’ by replacing inequality with equality and the power of the king with the ‘power of the people’. The new body displayed, considerable vitality and dynamism in making inroads into fresh fields of philanthropy and politics. Quite a few of its leading figures took part in the activities of the Indian League (1878), the Indian Association (1878) and the nascent Indian National Congress. It has proved up till now, as demonstrated at the outset, a powerful and active branch of the Brahmo Samaj in the country.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, online edition / Home> Culture / by Abhirup Dam / August 21st, 2019
Chandrima Shaha, the president-elect of the Indian National Science Academy, says she will take initiatives to combat pseudoscience.
Chandrima Shaha | @PrinSciAdvGoI | Twitter
New Delhi:
As a young scientist, Chandrima Shaha often “felt invisible” when she sat among her male colleagues. Only a few acknowledged her presence. But little did it deter this feisty woman from fighting her way through gender biases and achieve heights that only some dare to reach.
From being a vice-captain of West Bengal’s first women’s cricket team to becoming the first woman cricket commentator for All India Radio, Shaha has added another first to her illustrious career. The president-elect of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) will be the first woman to hold the post. Her appointment was announced last week.
“Women have to first believe in themselves in order to take over leadership positions. I have been elected by a council consisting of mostly male members,” Shaha tells ThePrint.
With a scientific career spanning more than three decades, Shaha, 66, now looks forward to becoming the face of Indian science.
Along with the newly-elected council of 30 other members, Shaha will assume her new office from 1 January, 2020. During her stint at the INSA, she wants to encourage collaborations between scientists of different fields so that problems can be solved using a multi-disciplinary approach.
To get people more interested in science, Shaha wants to increase the outreach of scientific communities. She pointed out how various government initiatives have given a push towards innovations but the learning system is not designed to encourage research.
Also on her agenda is a push to combating pseudoscience.
Love for adventure
Born on 14 October, 1952 to a photographer father and an artist mother, Shaha credits her parents for inculcating in her a scientific temperament and “streak for adventure” from a very young age.
Her father, Shambhu Shaha, was especially known for the photographs he took of Rabindranath Tagore in the last years of the Nobel laureate’s life.
“My father could not pursue a career in science but he always wanted me to do it. He would bring books from the British Council office and also talk to me about the universe,” Shaha recalls.
She fondly remembers her father gifting her a simple telescope one day. “I kept looking at the stars. At times, I felt very strange thinking how vast the universe was. I thought I was going to be an astronomer,” says Shaha.
But it was an antique microscope that eventually helped Shaha find her calling. She used to collect water from different sources near her house and observed these samples under the microscope. “That really made me transform into a biologist,” she says.
“My mother, Karuna Shaha, was a painter and probably a feminist even before the concept was even born,” Shaha adds.
Karuna was one of the first women students at the Government College of Art and Crafts in Calcutta and also among the first women artists who insisted on claiming professional space in their own right.
Karuna’s biography In Her Own Right: Remembering the Artist Karuna Shaha, written by Tapati Guha-Thakurta, says the artist is best known for her studies of the female nude. For Karuna, it became the prime symbol of artistic freedom and a shedding of inhibitions.
“My mother went to jail during for pulling down the British flag. She was very adventurous. I probably got this zeal for adventure from her,” said Shaha.
To understand cells
Shaha graduated with a Master’s degree from the University of Calcutta and completed her doctoral research in 1980 from the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology.
For her post doctoral work, she went to the University of Kansas Medical Centre (1980-1982). From 1983-1984, she was at the Population Council, New York City. Shaha joined the National Institute of Immunology in New Delhi in 1984 as a scientist.
The main focus of Shaha’s research is understanding the mechanisms that cause cell death. “Cell death is something very fundamental to our bodies. If you can identify the mechanism behind cell death you can also develop drugs to counter various diseases. Cell death pathways have been used very successfully to make cancer drugs,” she explains.
Shaha has extensively worked with ‘Leishmania’ parasite — which causes Kala Azar — and has authored over 80 research papers.
“The excitement of looking at the core of your life — cell — was clearly something that inspired me. I used to sit with the microscope for hours, staring at cells. It was that sheer excitement of looking at life that inspired me,” she says.
Passion for photography
Growing up, Shaha did not let any stereotypical expectations stop her from reaching places she always wanted to go. During her time at the Calcutta University, Bengal was in the middle of the historic Naxal movement. The unrest in the early 1970s meant colleges were frequently closed. It took two extra years for her to complete her under-graduation.
“I got interested in photography because of my father. I took the camera and went to different kinds of places where women wouldn’t usually go. I just hopped on to buses and went to different villages to photograph,” she said.
Shaha had also been the vice-captain of West Bengal’s first women’s cricket team for three years.
Fight against gender bias
“Initially, when we started our careers, nobody would shake hands with women scientists,” Shaha recalls, adding they would be completely “ignored” by her male colleagues.
Even scientists married to career women would greet everyone else but not their female colleagues, she says.
Shaha, however, never thought of giving up her career. “I was internally driven. I knew this (gender bias) wouldn’t stop anywhere. I always thought that I have to keep going forward. I am doing that even now.”
She, however, thinks “attitudes” are changing and the society is on a “self correcting mode”. “I think diversity in science is very important — both men and women need to participate in research. Women, by nature, are more sincere and particular about things. They must participate in a larger way towards the country’s scientific endeavour.”
Plans for INSA
Shaha believes the country’s scientific community is extremely talented. Given the limited amount of funding that is available, Indian researchers have made remarkable achievements, she says.
She also thinks scientists need to reach out to the people in local languages for better understanding of issues.
When Shaha became the director of the National Institute of Immunology (NII) in 2012, she initiated a programme called ‘Science Setu’, as part of which scientists would go and teach undergraduates. The students were also invited to visit the NII laboratories.
As the president-elect of INSA, Shaha now hopes to take similar initiatives at a much larger scale to effectively combat pseudoscience.
“What needs to be inculcated in schools and among public too is the fact that while ancient texts can tell us about cures to various things, in science — where things have to be proven via experiments — we have to provide evidence,” she says.
source: http://www.theprint.in / The Print / Home> Science / by Mohana Basu / August 10th, 2019
A view of the stately Raj Bhavan in Kolkata. File | Photo Credit: Victoria Memorial Hall
Some of the policies that shaped colonial India, including the introduction of English education in India through Thomas Macaulay’s Minute of 1835, the Doctrine of Lapse, and the Partition of Bengal, were plotted in the Raj Bhavan.
A large room in the south of Raj Bhavan, Kolkata overlooking its gardens has a beautiful oil painting of Mahatma Gandhi by Jamini Ray, hung on the wall just above the desk of the Governor in a room that is called the Governor’s study. Not any people know that some of the most fundamentally transformative policies that shaped colonial India, including the introduction of English education in India through Thomas Macaulay’s Minute of 1835, the Doctrine of Lapse, the Ilbert Bill, the Partition of Bengal, and many others, were plotted in this very room. In words of Lord Curzon himself, the room ‘has witnessed discussions as agitated and decisions as heavily charged with fate as any private apartment in the wide circumference of the British Empire.’
Other rooms in the Raj Bhavan, Kolkata like the Council Chamber in the North-east wing of the first floor, which hosted the swearing-in ceremony for each new Governor-General or Viceroy, the Ball Room which from the very beginning was fitted with the original chandeliers and mirrors that once belonged to the French General Claude Martin and the Throne Room where the so-called throne of Tipu Sultan, captured from Seringapatam in 1799, is kept have all been witness to major historical events of the subcontinent in the 19th century.
Several anecdotes about the Raj Bhavan, Kolkata, the building that remained the principle seat of power for entire subcontinent from 1803 to 1912 have been the documented in the book titled “Those Noble Edifices- The Raj Bhavans of Bengal” which was unveiled by Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi here on Thursday. In the foreword of the publication, The Governor said that, this volume was planned because “we wanted to share these ‘secrets’ and inside stories of Kolkata’s most hallowed precincts with the public” and “ the purpose is to bring the Raj Bhavan – including its exteriors and interiors – closer to the public”.
Jaynata Sengupta, secretary and curator of Victoria Memorial Hall, who has written the book ,said that this publication is an attempt to “ lift this shroud of mystery and show what lies beneath, what the Raj Bhavan really means as a residence, to its exalted overlords as well as to its humbler inmates and workers”. Mr. Sengupta, in the publication about throws light of three Raj Bhavans of Bengal, the Raj Bhavan build by Lord Wellesley in Esplanade in early 19 th century which is similar to architecture of the Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire and the Raj Bhavans at Barrackpore and Darjeeling.
Full of maps, hundreds of archival photographs, letters and manuscripts the 200 page publication also refers buildings older that the existing Raj Bhavans where Governor General and officials of the East India company lived, from the Old Fort located between the river Ganges and today’s BBD Bagh (erstwhile Dalhousie Square), a house on what is on the street that subsequently came to be named after him (Clive Street) and the Old Government House which was also known as the ‘Buckingham House,’ . It was at this very spot at the Old Government House that Lord Wellesley constructed the Raj Bhavan. The cost of building Raj Bhavan then to between £1,70,000 and £1,80,000, that is, between Rs. 22 and 24 lakh which angered the East India Company’s Board of Directors.
In fact Lord Wellesley had similar plans of making another Raj Bhavan at Barrackpore, which derives its name British barrack or cantonment, but the plans were rejected by the Board of Governors of East India Company. The first bungalows at Barrackpore, was bought by the Bengal Government in 1785 for the occupation of the British Commander-in-Chief. After assuming the title of British Commander-in-Chief, which was conferred to him after the Battle of Seringapatam in 1799, Lord Wellesely took over the house British Commander-in-Chief was Sir Alured Clarke. “Wellesley later described Barrackpore as ‘a charming spot which, in my usual spirit of tyranny, I have plucked from the Commander in Chief.” Mr Sengupta writes in the book. Documents like a minute dated 1 April 1857, in Governor-General’s Lord Canning’s own handwriting, “regarding the outbreak of the ‘disturbance’ (the Revolt of 1857) at Barrackpore on the occasion of the disbandment of the 19th Native Infantry” have been highlighted in the book. It is believed that Lord Canning’s note was written at Barrackpore not far from where the “disturbances” have broken out. Mr Sengupta said that the Government House at Barrackpore was a mere shadow of what Wellesley’s grand and ambitious plan could have produced, it was still spacious enough to serve as a country residence for Governor-Generals and Viceroys. After independence, the Raj Bhavan at Barrackpore came under the care of West Bengal Police, housing the police training academy. Now the academy has been shifted out and the building has been restored. The restored building now houses a museum.
The third important structure the book discusses in detail is the Raj Bhavan in Darjeeling which came up on what was not of the conquered territory of the British. After the introduction of Tea to Darjeeling in the early 1840s and the British negotiating treaties with both Sikkim and Bhutan in the 1860s, Darjeeling became formally a part of British India in 1866. By the 1870’s Darjeeling became the summer seat of the Bengal Government and a suitable accommodation for the Lieutenant-Governor was built in the late 19 th century. Unlike the Raj Bhavan at Kolkata, which was built without a Garden the Raj Bhavan at Darjeeling always had a Garden.
“The main house was so extensively damaged by the Nepal-Bihar earthquake of January 1934 that it had to be entirely demolished, and replaced by a new Government House built in ferroconcrete during the tenure of Sir John Anderson (1932–37),” Mr Sengupta writes.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National / by Shiv Sahay Singh / Kolkata – July 18th, 2019
