Category Archives: NRI’s / PIO’s

The personal and the public coalesce in Isher Judge Ahluwalia’s memoir

In Breaking Through Ahluwalia writes an account of her extraordinary life, career and fight against an implacable disease

n this together: A file photo of Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Isher Judge Ahluwalia at the Brihadisvara Temple in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. (Photo: PTI)

At almost the end of her long innings, wracked by grade IV glioblastoma, among the toughest of all cancers, Isher Judge Ahluwalia — grace, charm and subtlety personified, and, with widespread connections — took it upon herself to write this book. Courageous as she is, Isher did so in the most trying circumstances, while she was losing the ability to read and write on her own, relying extensively on help from the family to put down her thoughts.

Yet, thank God that she has written this book, for it is a story of grit, love, care and commitment. Grit, because who would have bet that a daughter of simple, traditional Sikh parents — one of 11 siblings — living in a small, rented flat near Purna Cinema, not far from Calcutta’s Kalighat, would reach where she did, entirely on the strength of her efforts and her intense determination to succeed?

Or, that she would in 1962, finish her West Bengal Higher Secondary Board examination from the highly-regarded Shri Shikshayatan Vidyalaya, coming eighth in the state? She writes, “My father had never shown any interest in our education but when I did well in the exams, he would often tell his friends with some pride that I had got the third rank among girls. While I approved of his new interest in education, I objected to the gender differentiation; I would correct him, saying I was eighth, not third.”

Breaking Through: A Memoir by Isher Judge Ahluwalia

Isher then went to Presidency College, Calcutta, to study economics with a scholarship of Rs 35 per month, which paid for her college fees and the tram ride from home and back. After the Presidency, she joined the Delhi School of Economics for her Master’s degree. “My family would never have let me go to Delhi to live in a hostel. At this point, I had a lucky break. In 1964, my brother decided to move to the capital with his family to start a business and my parents agreed to my going to live with them, attending DSE as a day student.”

As was the case with many of us, DSE was Isher’s road to Damascus — a point of revelation when she was determined to study further and apply for a PhD. Armed with a high first division in a year when seven of the eight ‘first-divers’ were women, Isher applied to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she was accepted with a fellowship. Thus began her journey in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a passage that took a bit longer than necessary because of an interlude in Washington, DC.

In the summer of 1970, Isher applied to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a summer internship. Instead of the usual three months, she got a special six-month break from MIT. With that came to love. Soon after moving to DC, she had a date with a super-bright young man, the clever, erudite English-speaking debater from St Stephen’s and winner of a congratulatory first in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford, one Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who had joined the World Bank as a part of its Young Professionals Program.


Montek impressed Isher sufficiently enough — lunch in the Bank’s Executive Dining Room, films, dinners, walks and drives. “It was during one of those drives, while we were picnicking off some bread and cheese and a glass of wine, that I decided that Montek was the man for me.” Soon, Isher secured a full-time job at the IMF; and, in 1971, she and Montek married in Washington.

Four years passed in setting up home in Georgetown, going with IMF delegations for Article IV consultations in the Caribbean, and working long hours at the Fund. Suddenly, it dawned upon her that she had left her PhD programme behind. So Isher applied for a fellowship at Brookings and completed her MIT thesis from there in 1976 — which was published in 1979 by Macmillan, titled Behaviour of Prices and Outputs in India: A Macro-Econometric Approach.

Then came care. Of parenting two boys — first Pavan, who was born in November 1977; and, then, Aman in October 1979, after the three of them had returned to India for good. Of taking charge of what was an immaculate home and hearth; of looking after a growing family that eventually extended to daughters-in-law and grandchildren; of being a partner to Montek, who would return late at night with stacks of government files.

Then, there was a commitment to her profession. “Being a mother is a full-time job. Being a working mother is two full-time jobs.” Even so, Isher completed two major books: Industrial Growth in India: Stagnation Since the Mid-Sixties (1989, Oxford University Press) and Productivity and Growth in Indian Manufacturing (1991, OUP).

She worked at the Centre for Policy Research, then took over as the head of Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), an institution which she strengthened by attracting excellent full-time fellows and garnering some very serious grants from abroad and the Indian corporate world, that made ICRIER financially comfortable. If these were not enough, Isher got into urbanisation and published two books on the subject.

Breaking Through is a beautiful read because it is so honestly written, so touching in content — a wonderful mélange of the personal and the public. It is, in effect, a signing off. Of a great life. Of struggles. Of success. Of love and caring. Of building families, values and institutions. And, of Montek.

Thank you, Isher.

The author is the founder and chairperson of CERG Advisory Private Limited

source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Books and Literature / by Omkar Goswami / August 30th, 2020

The brave heart centenarian

The Second World War, the Korean War, the Indo-Pakistan wars… Major General Premangsu Chowdry has seen them all. A salute to the Indian Army veteran, forever young at 100

Major General Premangsu Chowdry of the Indian Army is an extraordinary man, with a military and corporate career par excellence. He took active part in the Second World War operations in North Africa, Middle East and Italy; did post-war General Staff assignments in Japan with the British Commonwealth Occupational Forces (BCOF) and in the Headquarter of Supreme Commander Allied Forces (SCAP) commanded by General Douglas McArthur; with the British Commonwealth Division during the Korean War 1950-53; and fought in all the three India-Pakistan wars of 1948, 1965, 1971.

I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend quality time with the 99 years young ‘fighting fit’ General and relate to his extensive war experience. He with his contemporaries shaped the Indian Army since Indian Independence in 1947, notably, General (later Field Marshal) KM Cariappa, OBE, the first Commander-in Chief of Independent India; General KS Thimayya, DSO, Chief of Army Staff (1957-1961); and General (later Field Marshal) Sam Bahadur Manekshaw, MC, Chief of Army Staff (1969-1973), legend of the India-Pakistan war in 1971.

The General is to be applauded for his amazing and sharp memory to recall dates/years, names and places from his military career since 1941. The General celebrated being 100 years young on 1 May.

General Chowdry hails from Barisal town on the banks of Kirtan Kola river, then in East Bengal, now in Bangladesh. The family was well known as the ‘Chowdrys from Loha Ghar’ in Comilla District having zamindar credentials in that era. The General’s grandfather was the Superintendent of Prisons in Dacca, Bengal, the first Indian to have held that post in the 19th century. His father was the treasurer to the District Commissioner of Barisal in the early 1900s.

After completing his schooling at Barisal, where he received the gold medal for standing first in his matriculation exam, young Prem did his Bachelors and Masters at St Xaviers College, Calcutta University. Prem studied Arts with English Honours and was placed in the order of merit in the Bachelors programme.

A soldier is born

While he had plans of joining the Indian Civil Services (ICS), recruitment to the ICS had ceased due to the emerging World War in 1939. Prem instead opted for and joined the 1st batch of the Bangalore Cadet College, structured as a British Public School and which became the Officer Training Academy (OTA) for commissioning into the British Indian Army.

On 21 December 1941, Prem was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant into the ‘Royal Garhwal Rifles’ and joined at the Garhwal Regimental Centre at Lansdowne, which is present Uttarakhand. He was one of the first commissioned Indian officer into the ‘Royal’ Regiment.

After the initial training at the Regimental Centre, in 1942 Prem was posted to the 3rd Battalion Garhwal Rifles and served with them in the Western Sahara desert, Egypt, Cyprus, Iraq, Syria, Palestine and finally in the Italian campaign. In North Africa, the battalion was part of the 5th Indian Division and took part in the ‘Battle of Tobruk’. The fierce battle cost the battalion dearly, and they lost 12 officers and over 500 soldiers. The battalion was withdrawn and moved to Cyprus to rest, recuperate and await reinforcements from the Garhwal Regimental Centre.

Prem was sent for a Weapons Course at the Military School at the Allies military base in Gaza, where he excelled and then was ordered to be transferred to the Gaza Military School as an Instructor, a rare accomplishment because he was one of the first officers of Indian origin to be posted as an Instructor to the School. However the posting order was withdrawn at Prem’s request since he wished to remain with his troops involved in operations. After six months ‘Rest, Relief and Reinforcement’ in Cyprus, which included ‘Raid Operations’ in the Greek Islands, Prem and his battalion were deployed for training under the 9th British Army in the Middle East. From 1943 the battalion, as part of the 10th Indian Division, was actively involved in the ‘Italian Campaign’, where the Division was part of the 8th British Army commanded by General Bernard Montgomery, later Field Marshal, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein.

Prem’s outstanding performance in the Italian Campaign earned him a recommendation for the ‘Military Cross’

Onward to Italy

Prem and his battalion were involved in the Italian Campaign for almost two years until May 1945. The battalion was deployed for operations in the Taranto Sector and in the Eastern and Central Sectors along the Apennine Mountains; they fought battles in ‘River Crossing’ operations at Sangro, Garigliano and Senio.

Prem’s outstanding performance in the Italian Campaign earned him a recommendation for the ‘Military Cross’—but the vagaries in the fog of war instead earned him the gallantry award ‘Mentioned in Dispatches’—his first of the three, two of which follow in the 1948 and the 1965 India-Pakistan wars. Thereafter, in 1944 Prem was promoted out of turn to the rank of a Major when he was just 24 years of age, the youngest officer to achieve the rank at that age.

Prem was the first Indian origin Major in the ‘Royal Battalion’, superseding fellow British Officers in the battalion, thereby exemplifying his high officer leadership quotient.

At the end of World War II, Prem was selected as one of the three officers, with 10 Battalion Commissioned Officers (BCO) and 25 Other Ranks to represent and lead the 10 Indian Division in the Allies Victory March in London in 1945.

Return to India

In October 1945, Prem and his Battalion 3 Garhwal Rifles returned to Lansdowne. The Battalionwas thereafter deployed in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP—currently in Pakistan) at Campbellpore forming part of an experimental Infantry Brigade responsible for testing new weapons and tactics in Waziristan and the Swat Valley. The core task of the Battalion and the Brigade was to suppress the Hazara tribal uprising in NWFP region. At the end of the tenure, Prem was posted as the Training Commander at the Garhwal Regimental Centre at Lansdowne.

After the India-Pakistan Partition, in 1948, Prem was posted back to his battalion 3 Garhwal Rifles deployed in the Kashmir region for the 1948 India-Pakistan war. The Battalion as part of the 160 Infantry Brigade was responsible to clear the Baramullah-Uri axis which they accomplished under heavy odds. Prem earned his second gallantry award ‘Mention-in-Dispatches’ in the Kashmir operations.

Prem as a 28-year-old Lieutenant Colonel was given the prestigious offer to command the 3rd Battalion the 5th Gorkha Rifles (Frontier Force). The Battalion provided support to the Hyderabad State police in their action against the Nizam-ruled princely Hyderabad State to ensure that the State remained in the Indian Union.

Prem thereafter undertook the entrance exam for admission into the Defence Services Staff College (DSSC) at Wellington, Tamil Nadu. In 1949-50 Prem underwent the 3rd DSSC Course where he attained the second position in merit and was subsequently posted as the General Staff Officer Grade 1 to Headquarter East Punjab Area in Jullundur commanded then by Major General SPP Thorat.

In December 1950, Prem was chosen by the Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army, General KM Cariappa to take up the post of General Staff Officer Grade 1 (GSO 1) at the Headquarter British Commonwealth Occupation Forces (BCOF) in Japan. The appointment was another feather in the cap for Prem and his military career, and he was the first and only Indian origin officer to have been part of the BCOF.

Prem’s position as the Liaison Officer at the Headquarter UN Forces enabled him regular professional interaction with General Douglas McArthur, an honour and privilege which Prem recalls with clarity and great pride. In 1951 Prem was posted as GSO 1 to the 1st British Commonwealth Division in Korea. The Division was actively engaged in the ‘Korean War’ in the peninsula. Prem spent a year in the Division and excelled.

Return to India, and finding love

In October 1952 Prem returned to India and was given his second command of an Infantry Battalion, the 2nd Battalion the 5th Gorkha Rifles at Ferozepur as part of the 43 Infantry Brigade. In 1953, Prem got married to Sheila Devichand in New Delhi. The General won the heart and mind of Sheila, in fact he was a dashing and suave gentleman able to leave a lasting impression on anyone who met with him. At 100 years Prem still carries that aura and gentry to win over people. The love of his life for 57 years, Sheila passed away in 2013.

Ethiopia and the emperor

At the end 1960, Prem was appointed by General KS Thimayya, DSO, the Chief of Army Staff to be Commandant of the Ethiopian Military Academy in Harar, reporting directly to Emperor Haille Selassie of Ethiopia. Prem was also an unofficial military advisor to the Emperor. This tenure over the next three years built a lasting association between the Emperor and Prem.

Back to India

After the Ethiopian tenure Prem was posted for the second time to command a brigade, the 120 Infantry Brigade at Rajouri, as part of 25 Infantry Division. In 1965 Prem was posted as Brigadier General Staff (BGS) and acting Chief of Staff of 1 Corps at Mathura which took part in the second India-Pakistan war in the same year. Prem earned his third gallantry award ‘Mention-in-Dispatches’ in this war for his exemplary contribution to the war effort.

In 1967, at the age of 47, Prem was posted as the General Officer Commanding (GOC) Madhya Pradesh Area. The following year Prem took command of the 3 Infantry Division at Leh which he commanded until 1970. Prem earned his Param Vishisht Seva Medal from VV Giri, the President of India during this command for his overall meritorious service and the specific job of organising and personally directing the relief programme for the local civilian population after an earthquake struck the Ladakh region. Prem’s efforts saved many lives.

In December 1970, Prem took over as the General Officer Commanding (GOC) Bengal Area. This was a vital responsibility since the Area was required to deal with the violent Naxalite problem in Bengal State. In order to do so, Prem was given significant responsibility and authority, and had under direct and indirect command, the three Army divisions then based in Bengal, the Railway, State Police, CRPF, BSF and the Home Guards. During the 1971 India-Pakistan war which led to the creation of Bangladesh, Bengal Area under Prem’s leadership provided vital support to Eastern Command. Leading into the war, the Bengal Area had the crucial responsibility of managing and attending to thousands of refugees pouring into India from East Pakistan.

From the battlefield to the boardroom

On 30 April 1974, after 33 years of meritorious service, Prem retired from the Army and pursued a successful career in the corporate world. In civil life, initially in Calcutta, Prem held senior executive positions in the corporate and public sector including, Director of Shaw Wallace; Managing Director of Durgapore project, a public sector undertaking to which he was appointed by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and the Chief Minister of West Bengal Siddhartha Shankar Ray; and Managing Director of Sankey Wheels. Prem’s contribution to the undertakings enabled them to turn around their losses and be profitable enterprises.

In 1979 Prime Minister Indira Gandhi directly appointed Prem as the Chairman and Managing Director of Incheck Tyres & National Rubber. The position held equivalence to a Minister of Industries and was part of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet at the federal level.

In 1983, at 63 years Prem took permanent retirement. The General and his wife spent time with their three sons Rahoul, Drone and Kunal who lived in Sydney and Dubai. The General currently resides in Sydney with his eldest son Rahoul. An avid golfer into his mid-80s, Prem never missed a chance to swing his golf clubs at the Delhi Golf Club and the Manly Golf Club in Sydney. The Manly Club honoured the General over an evening sit-down dinner with all the members in 2010.

Prem is associated with many charitable organisations and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society United Kingdom. The General was also an active member of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies in Sydney.

A salute to the centenarian.


The writer is an Indian Army Veteran

source: http://www.theindiansun.com.au / The Indian Sun / Home> India / by Colonel Joseph Malhews / August 14th, 2020

Versatile musical genius – Kamal Dasgupta

With a career of about fourteen years, Dasgupta have approximately 8,000 songs under his belt including 80 Bengali movies – his unique contribution was the invention of a shorthand method for swaralipi.

In the 1940s, he was a star composer. He had many firsts to his name. He was the most educated man across the industry in those days. He came to the rescue of singers who were trying to break into the music world. He gave music in the most successful films of the 40s. The sale of his private records touched an all-time high. Yet the man behind many unforgettable melodies has been forgotten – he was Kamal Dasgupta.

Kamal was born on July 28, 1912, in Kalia village in the district of Jasore, then in British India (now in Bangladesh). He was initiated into music by his father Prashanna Dasgupta. He later learnt it from his brother Bimal Dasgupta. Afterwards, he became a disciple of the legendary Dilip Kumar Roy and Ustad Zamiruddin Khan. He did his matriculation from Calcutta Academy. Later, he completed his B Com from Komila Victoria Collage. He joined Banaras Hindu University (BHU) for his masters. He earned his PhD from BHU for his work on Mirabai’s bhajaans and music.

Kamal Dasgupta was a versatile musical genius. He used to sing modern songs in Bangala, Hindi, Urdu and Tamil.

He was a brilliant composer who composed around 8,000 songs. His first composition was recorded in 1932 in the voice of Satyaboti. His composition was classical based and folk music. Later he tended to lean towards Thumri style and Naats.

In 1935, Kamal Dasgupta joined the Gramophone Company of India in Calcutta as a music director. During this stint, he developed a close and lasting association with the poet Nazrul Islam. They became fond of each other and the relationship lasted for eleven years (1934-45). The culmination of their friendship were 400 songs – inspired by the works of the poet.

Calcutta was the major hub of Indian films produced in the 1930s. New Theatres and Madan Pictures were the main studios along with the other companies. After earning a name with his compositions, Kamal tried his luck in films. His first picture was Pandit Moshai (1936) in Bangla which was followed by Sarbjanin, Vivahotsab and Devyani between 1936-1942.

The legendary actor, director Prathmesh Chandra Barua was impressed by his music and gave him a break in Jawaab in 1942. PC Barua directed both the version in Hindi and Bangla. The film was an instant hit. It had cult numbers like Toofan mail ye duniya toofan mail, Ae chand chhup na jana and Kuchh yaad na rahe.

Kamal Dasgupta’s next film was MP productions social, Hospital, starring Kanan Devi, Ahindra Choudhary and Heeralal. Its hit number was, Ghata chhayi ghanghor. The very same year he did another Barua Production, Ranee. The cast included J Ganguly, Kalawati, PC Barua and Jamuna. Like his earlier films, his music became popular.

Kamal Dasgupta was as successful in films as he was in his private recording career. In 1944, he moved to Bombay and did the film Meghdoot (1945), based on the Sanskrit poet Kalidas. Leela Desai and Sahu Modak were in the lead. The film was directed by the legendary Debki Kumar Bose.

During his stay in Bombay, he did several films across different genres. His next film was Arabian Nights, directed by Niren Lahari. The cast included Kanan Devi, Nawab and Robin Majumdar. All the numbers of the film became very popular – Suno suno kya ek naya fasana, Hum dil ko, dil hamko samjhaye, Mujhe sapno se kaun jagaye re and Aankhon ki roshni hai dil ki ye ye chandani hai. The same year, he did a social film Bindiya, starring Ragini, Amar, M Shakeer and E Billimoriya. The film was directed by CM Luhar. Kamal Das Gupta used the voices of Anima Dasgupta, Kalyani Das, Hemant Kumar and Amar. Its hit numbers were: Hanso hanso ae kamal kali, Jeevan sargam pe aye jaa geet suhane, Meri aankhon mein ye aanshu nahi dil ki kahani hai and Chand pass hai raat andheri kyun.

His next film was the mythological Krishna Leela (1946) which was directed by Debki Kumar Bose and had Kanan Devi and Paresh Banerjee in the lead. The popular hits in this film were: Man mein basa le manmohan ko, Prabhu teri maya jo chahaye, Sawan ki rani aaiye, Chanda door gagan mein bulaye, More janam janam ke saathi, Bahein churaye jaat ho nirmal mohe jaan and Tera ghar man mera.

1946 was the busiest year for Kamal Das Gupta. He did Zameen Asmaan for director Dwarka Khosla, starring Ranjana, Jeevan and Kusum Deshpande. Its hit numbers were: Ek raat kabhi aisi aye, Papiha papiha to pee ko pukaar and Ek geet sunana hai hamein. Coming back to Calcutta, he did Faisala (1947) followed by Manmani. The film had Ragini and Jairaj in the lead. The film was directed by Sarvottam Badami. Its hit numbers were: Ishare ishare mein duniya bana li, Baiman tori batiya jadu bhari and Ae chaman bata kyun hansta hai.

His last film with his mentor PC Barua was Iran Ki Ek Raat (1949) – a costume drama, starring Jamuna, Narang, Chandrakant and Chandrawati.

Its melodious number were: Ulfat mein jise banaya tha, Chhalke chhalke sarabein jawani ke palaye, Kaun hai teer andaaj bada, Ae dil kya and Khel hai ye zindagi.

His last release was Phulwari in 1951. He had 40 films to his credit. Following this, the maverick composer got completely disillusioned by the film industry and recording companies. His favourite songs which were sold in the lakhs didn’t carry his name on the jackets.

At the age of 44, he married his favourite singer, Firoza Begum and embraced Islam. Kamal Dasgupta, by now, became Kareemuddin Ahmed. He kept on doing movies whenever an offer came. His last film in Bangla was Bodhu Baran in 1967. He shifted to Dhaka. When Bangladesh became independent, he became a citizen in 1972.

The composer was a man of taste. He owned a Buick, a rare thing in Calcutta in the 1950s. He was a great human being. He fed hundreds of people during the Bengal famine. He was also extremely fond of cricket. He was blessed with three sons – Shafin Ahmed, Hamin Ahmed and Tahsin Ahmed. They followed their father in music and cricket. Two brothers played cricket at the state level and Hamin Ahmed was selected for the national team of Bangladesh.

Kamal Das Gupta with his failing health and lack of proper medical treatment succumbed to his ailments and passed away in Dhaka on July 28, 1974, at the age of 62.

source: http://www.millenniumpost.in / Millennium Post / Home> Sunday Post> Beyond Bygone / by Sharad Dutt / March 07th, 2020

Kolkata Boy Forms A Part Of Research Team Featured In Prestigious ‘Nature’ Journal

Proud to state that Alumnus of Heritage Institute of Technology, Swapnadeep Poddar had been a part of the great Research team on ‘Super Human Biometrical Eye with a Hemispherical pervoskite nanowire array retina’, at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology under the leadership of Professor FAN Zhiyong.

Recently the research team and their research was being featured in prestigious science journal ‘Nature’. 

The article link https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2285-x

The article link https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2285-x

Swapnadeep completed his B. tech in Electonics and Communication engineering from Heritage in 2016 and now pursuing his PhD at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology…. 

Now this biometric human eye will give a pathbreaking development in science and technology. India shines with Swapnadeep now.

source: http://www.youthkiawaaz.com / Youth Ki Awaaz / Home / by Partha Sarathi Bhowal / June 29th, 2020

A Burning, the breakaway novel that everyone is talking about and its Indian-origin author

How New Yorker Megha Majumdar went from being ‘not good in English’ Kolkata girl to talk-of-the-town debut novelist.

Majumdar grew up in the communist party-governed Kolkata in the Nineties, when the country was waking up to the charms of liberalisation.

Days before Safoora Zargar, the Jamia Millia Islamia student in jail for protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act , is denied bail for a third time, and while protests against the murder of George Floyd, an African-American man, are spreading across the USA, I am on a video call with Megha Majumdar. The buzz around the 32-year-old New Yorker’s debut novel, A Burning (Rs 599, Penguin Hamish Hamilton), that releases tomorrow, has been dizzying long before its publication. Generous blurbs by Amitav Ghosh and Yaa Gyasi have lauded the book as a zeitgeist of our times; James Wood of The New Yorker remarked on its “extraordinary directness and openness to life” that lays out a patchwork of inequalities in which we might recognise the patterns of our communal lives.

Yet, there’s a strangeness to this time in which fiction’s grip over reality has begun to appear jaded. As an incessant stream of horrors in our sociopolitical lives inures some to its potency and wears others out with outrage, nothing, it seems, can be more aberrant than the present. “This is a difficult, fatiguing time across the world,” acknowledges Majumdar, “So much of this moment here in the US is about historical reckoning. And, of course, I have been following the trajectory of the right wing in India. Scholars and journalists have made the connection between Hindu nationalism and white supremacy. In my book, I wanted to write about people. I wanted to write about how people dream and strive and laugh under oppressive systems.”

A Burning is a quiet, searing study of the underclass and the aspiring middle class in India, whose tentative stake in the capitalist economy is complicated by the many tyrannies of gender, religion and class endemic to society. When Jivan, a Muslim girl from a Kolkata slum, one of Majumdar’s three protagonists, reacts to hate posts against her community on Facebook  after a suspected terror attack, with anger and sorrow, but also with a bit of bravura, one knows there will be consequences. “If the police didn’t help ordinary people like you and me, if the police watched them die, doesn’t that mean that the government is also a terrorist?” she writes on Facebook. Retribution is swift — the police come for her soon after. Her social-media friendship with a stranger linked to the case is documented as her complicity and her presence at the railway station on the fateful evening that a train is torched, leaving nearly a 100 dead, as evidence. In one swift action, Majumdar takes readers to the heart of New India, where personal and political ambitions are served or upended by a growing Hindu nationalist churn.

A Burning pulsates with the cadences of everyday life, the ebb and flow of ambitions, aspirations, disparities and disappointments.

Majumdar’s assured narrative is propelled forward by two other characters linked to Jivan — PT Sir, the physical-education instructor in the school where she was an EWS student, who is drawn to the local right-wing political party, and, Lovely, a transgender woman, whom Jivan taught English, and who dreams of becoming an actor. “I wanted to explore specific questions with each of my characters. Jivan works hard to achieve her goals, which are pretty straightforward — she wants to rise to the middle class. She wants to own a smartphone and work at a mall. Unfortunately for her, she is caught in an oppressive system in which you can do everything right and still be thwarted. With PT Sir, I wanted to examine what a small taste of power could do for a middle-class man like him. What would he surrender, whom would he betray?” says Majumdar, who works as an editor in an indie publishing house, Catapult.

Majumdar grew up in the communist party-governed Kolkata in the Nineties, when the country was waking up to the charms of liberalisation. Change was also afoot in India’s political narrative. In December 1992, kar sevaks aligned to the VHP and BJP would demolish the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, that would set off a chain of reactions across the country. Majumdar doesn’t elaborate on when she became politically conscious. “We watched the news that our parents did. We were aware of what was happening around us,” she says. She would leave the city for the US in 2006 to study social anthropology at Harvard University and to graduate school at Johns Hopkins afterwards. But she would carry with her the minutiae of life on the city’s streets.

A Burning pulsates with the cadences of everyday life, the ebb and flow of ambitions, aspirations, disparities and disappointments. As an editor, Majumdar has been familiar with the publishing process, but the book’s reception in the US — touted as one of the best literary debuts of the year — did catch her by surprise. “I’ve been grateful for the positive early attention,” says Majumdar, who has begun work on her second book.

Her editorial expertise shows up in the craft of the novel, in the teasers she throws in by way of episodic interludes, in the cinematic pace with which she alternates between the narrative voices. A Burning is a novel firmly of the here and now, but Majumdar packs in layers of history in her idiosyncratic use of the English language. In West Bengal, the Left-front government had abolished the teaching of English at the primary level in government and government-aided schools in the state since 1981.

It would be brought back to primary classes nearly two decades later, but entire generations grew up with a shaky hold over the language. Overnight, Kolkata would see a proliferation of tuition classes offering lessons in English. Majumdar remembers attending one as a child. In the first year that her parents applied to put her in primary school, she didn’t make it anywhere — “My English wasn’t very good,” she says. So, she was enrolled for English tuitions. The next year, she joined a private school. It was the beginning of a deeper engagement with the language. “A lot of my childhood was spent in public libraries and in second-hand bookstalls, borrowing all kinds of books to read,” she says.

The subtlety with which Majumdar moulds language to the spirit of the city and its inmates rings out best in the voice of her most endearing character, Lovely, who speaks in broken pidgin English that fits into the nooks and crannies of her life. Lovely’s vitality relies on visceral experiences acquired during her travels through the city, and minute observations that make up for a lack of formal education. It is here, in the authenticity of the polyphonic voices that people her fictional landscape, that Majumdar’s novel soars.

Like Deepa Anappara’s Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line earlier this year, the exhilarating response to A Burning in the West owes a hat tip to ticking all the boxes that make the India story familiar — jagged inequality, religious roil and irrepressible hope. “I wanted the book to be legible and inviting for those who have never been to India and do not follow Indian news, as well as to those who have lived in India all their lives. I wanted the book to be an act of invitation, to open imaginative doors to the many different, complex stories that one might follow,” she says.

source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Books & Literature / by Paromita Chakrabarti / June 14th, 2020

Art is about beauty

Artist Anita Gopal, who divides her time between Calcutta and London, talks about her charmed childhood in Calcutta

Gopal as a child / Sourced by the Telegraph

In part one of her story, artist Anita Gopal, who divides her time between Calcutta and London, talks about her charmed childhood in Calcutta, a chance meeting with artist David Hockney and her moment of truth

I was brought up in a very visual household. My father Prem was a British Raj dandy. He only wore Chinese silk shirts, sharkskin suits and bow ties that were hand-tied. He scoffed at the American clip-on versions. Never short-sleeved shirts: he considered it too vulgar for men to show their arms.

He dressed me and my brother Paul and my mother. He would take me to New Market in Calcutta and buy me dresses and matching knickers, shoes and bags…often six at a time!

I was told that there was a clear distinction between good and bad taste. It was not a matter of opinion.

Anita Gopal / Sourced by the Telegraph

My mother Rosalie was a beauty and glamorous. She was English and came from a family in which beauty was highly prized. My parents met and married in London and travelled to India on a P & O liner in 1947 to land in the middle of Partition. My father’s family were Punjabis from Lahore and were Hindus, so they left everything and ended up in Delhi. My grandfather Nand, who had also been a British dandy, followed Gandhi and started wearing dhotis!

Eventually my parents moved to Calcutta where they became a glamorous couple. They went to parties every night. They went to the Grand, the Great Eastern and Spencer’s and Firpo’s and the nightclub Golden Slipper.

My mother always wore beautiful saris in the evenings. I still remember the smell of Lanvin’s Arpege and the rustle of saris when she kissed me goodnight. She gave me a golden slipper charm from the nightclub which I kept for years. My birth certificate states place of residence as Grand Hotel! My parents knew M.S. Oberoi, who kindly let them stay at the Grand for six months.

Later they lived in Ballygunge and my father designed the flat with cream walls and dark red sofas; the verandah with a bar and cane furniture, which later featured in my life.

With this background it was fairly inevitable that I became mad about fashion and glamour and beauty.

My father died tragically young and my mother, brother and I moved to London.

I went to Kingston School of Art to do a B.A. Hons. in fine art. During my foundation course fashion was one of the elements. I was asked to do my BA in fashion but I refused as I thought it was trivial and frivolous! I thought fine art was a much more serious vocation!

I painted from the model for three years, using a method of measuring known as the Coldstream method by William Coldstream, an English painter. It was a very strict and precise way of painting based on the school of philosophy called Logical Positivism started by A.J. Ayer, an English philosopher. This style was not approved of at Kingston School of Art. It was considered reactionary. One was supposed to paint in the house style of abstract expressionism.

After college I lost faith in the idea and stopped painting.

I travelled back to India with my partner for the first time since childhood. We started a small business importing cane furniture from Calcutta to London. It was a successful business, but I also started painting again in a very different way. Whilst travelling all over India I fortuitously met David Hockney, who told me to do whatever I liked, as that was what he had always done.

This was a release for me from the self-imposed Coldstream method.

I started using different viewpoints like Cezanne and local colours like El Greco and rhythms like Delacroix.

I suddenly realised that art was about beauty. I painted again from the model and from fashion magazines like Vogue which are full of beauty and glamour.

So full circle back to my childhood upbringing!

Needless to say I have hundreds of clothes shoes and bags!

I also am very particular and fastidious about the decor in my flat!

This is part one of my art story…the second part is how I came to invent my eventual style, which I call Fractism. It is made entirely of paper and is cut paper relief, but of course it is all cut from glamorous magazines.

(To be concluded next week)

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, online edition / Home> Style / by The Telegraph / April 30th, 2020

Indian-origin doctor, who won Miss England 2019 title, hangs up crown to fight COVID-19

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

Kolkata-born Miss England helps raise funds for city’s children in UK

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

Nobel winner Abhijit Banerjee to come home to Kolkata on October 22

Abhijit Banerjee’s mother Nirmala said that she is personally preparing the room where her elder son will stay at their home in an apartment.

Indian-American Abhijit Banerjee won the 2019 Nobel for Economics. (Photo | Twitter)

Kolkata :

Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee will come to his paternal home in the city on Tuesday to visit his 83-year-old mother after winning the global award.

Banerjee will be in the city for two days and his mother Nirmala Banerjee, an economist in her own right, is busy overseeing the last minute preparations to welcome him.

She said she is personally preparing the room where her elder son will stay at their home in an apartment.

Banerjee, who was declared to be winner of the Nobel Prize on October 14, is now in New Delhi.

He will be at his home on October 23 and leave for the US early next morning, a family member said.

Nirmala Banerjee told reporters that she would be preparing fish items for food to welcome her Nobel laureate son.

“He loves fish and eats fish items whenever he is in Kolkata. I will prepare Katla fish curry and other fish items and some sweet dish,” she said.

The family and his friends have decided not to make it a gala affair this time as he will be on a tight schedule.

“He will be in the city in December-January and we are planning some big celebrations then,” Banerjee’s childhood friend Bappa Sen said.

“For now some of us who are his friends have decided to meet him and congratulate him in person,” he said.

Banerjee, an Indian-born American professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has won the Nobel in economics for 2019, jointly with French-American Esther Duflo, his wife and Michael Kremer of Harvard University for “experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”.

Banerjee did his schooling at South Point School and had graduated in economics from the famed Presidency College (now University) in the city.

On Saturday he had visited his alma mater Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, where he completed had completed his Masters.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Nation / by Press Trust of India / October 22nd, 2019

Amartya Sen awarded Oxford University Bodley Medal

The Medal is awarded to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the fields in which the Bodleian is active, including literature, culture, science and communication.


Noted Indian economist Amartya Sen. (File | PTI)

London :

Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen has been awarded the prestigious Bodley Medal, the highest honour bestowed by the University of Oxford’s world-famous Bodleian Libraries.

The Medal is awarded to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the fields in which the Bodleian is active, including literature, culture, science and communication.

“The honour was awarded (to Sen) during the Founder’s Lunch on 15 March, an annual event commemorating the birth of the Libraries’ founder, Sir Thomas Bodley, and his legacy of philanthropy,” the Library said in a statement on Wednesday.

The 85-year-old winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, who is the Thomas W Lamont University Professor at Harvard University and a member of faculty at Harvard Law School, received the Medal from Lord Patten of Barnes, Chancellor of the University of Oxford, and Bodley’s Librarian Richard Ovenden.

This year’s other winner of the Bodley Medal is Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, who will hold an in-conversation event with Ovenden next week to celebrate the honour.

Past winners of the honour include physicist Stephen Hawking, novelist Hilary Mantel and inventor of the World Wide Web Tim Berners-Lee.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> World / by PTI / March 28th, 2019