More than a hundred treasures from Victoria Memorial Hall, among them a painting by Johann Zoffany, will be showcased in a global online archive by Google featuring many well-known museums.
A team from Google was in the city last week, shooting at Victoria Memorial. A panoramic view of the inside as well as the outside area of the museum will also be available on the online platform.
Zoffany’s oil on canvas depicting General Claude Martin, the founder of the La Martiniere Schools, and his friends, will share space with paintings by European artists from 1770-1850-60, also known as Company Paintings, works of Thomas and William Daniell, Abanindranath Tagore, Jamini Roy, historic documents and Tipu Sultan’s handwritten and illustrated diary on the art of war and other treasures from Victoria Memorial on Google Cultural Institute, earlier Google Art.
Started by the tech giant in 2011, the institute is a not-for-profit initiative that partners with cultural organisations to make the world’s cultural heritage available online.
Victoria Memorial signed an MoU with Google Cultural Institute in 2013 and as part of the project 150 highlights of the museum would be found on the online platform. Fifty of these images will be available in ultra high-resolution images known as gigapixels.
“We are still deliberating on which 50 to choose. We are also planning to do a digital walkthrough of the museum,” said Jayanta Sengupta, the secretary and curator of Victoria Memorial Hall and Indian Museum. “The selection has to be balanced. We are choosing objects that are historically as well as visually attractive. The transformation into gigapixels of certain paintings, especially of the impressionist painters, will be extremely useful for art enthusiasts. Each and every brush stroke and intricacies of the paintings will be visible.”
The technology used by Google is expensive and patented. “Footfall at museums has been known to increase after digitisation. People are keen to check out the actual objects,” Sengupta said, adding that the Indian Museum would soon join Victoria for the project.
Courtesy the association with Google, Victoria Memorial can now put up exhibitions it is hosting on Google Cultural Institute. “We can select an exhibition, curate it and post on Google. Also, we can put up previews for our upcoming exhibitions,” Sengupta said. “Google is the most popular search engine. The project is not only beneficial for us but it also gives people a chance to go through our collection.”
Three museums from India – Crafts Museum, National Gallery of Modern Art and National Museum, all in Delhi – are already part of the association. Victoria and Google are aiming for a November launch, when a few more Indian museums will come on board.
The choice of German neoclassical painter Zoffany’s painting of General Claude Martin has made the La Martiniere family proud too. “This is a matter of pride and pleasure for us. We are delighted and it is a great honour for us,” said Supriyo Dhar, the secretary of La Martiniere Schools.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta,India / Front Page> Calcutta> Story / by Samabrita Sen / Saturday – September 05th, 2015
An advertisement in the PM Bagchi Directory Panjika proclaiming its superiority to other almanacs as pundits of all centres of learning depended on it
The last entry of the Calcutta Street Directory of 1915 published by P.M. Bagchi & Company Private Limited is on Halliday Street named after Sir Frederick James Halliday, KCB, the first lieutenant governor of Bengal (1854-1859).
The street was swept aside when the Calcutta Improvement Trust (set up in 1911) began the construction of Central Avenue, later renamed Chittaranjan Avenue. What only remains of this street is Motilal Seal’s Free College, whose headmaster in 1915 was Jagabandhu Ghosh, BA, according to the “directory”. This entry provides the names and sometimes the professions of the residents of each building on this thoroughfare, as it does in the case of all the other streets and lanes of the city of Calcutta listed in the “directory”. Its function, as scholar Gautam Bhadra pointed out at the launch of the tremendously value-added version of the original last Wednesday, was to “direct”.
Originally an appendage of the almanac or panjika published by P.M. Bagchi, the street directory in Bengali, unlike Thacker Spink & Company’s older one in English of mostly “white” neighbourhoods, covers the “native” areas too, and is part of the urban ethos, said Bhadra.
However, he pointed out that the first such “directory” was Bhabanicharan Bandyopadhyay’s satire published in 1823 titled Kolikata Kamalalaya where city slickers point out to country bumpkins the city landmarks. Marketing Bengali almanacs was a highly competitive business, and P.M. Bagchi had undertaken this huge survey of the city. Playwright and humorist Amritalal Basu had written in Kautuk Jautuk that sadly, Bengalis were losing their hold over Calcutta. But Basu was wrong, said Bhadra, for the city never belonged to Bengalis alone. This street directory presents a layered and complete picture of those living in the city. He congratulated Jayanta Bagchi, grandson of Kishorimohan Bagchi and current director of the firm, for bringing back to life this century-old street directory, adding valuable material to it. The book carries a wealth of old advertisements which indicate prevailing popular tastes.
“Current histories on Calcutta are sterile and irrelevant,” said scholar Sukanta Chaudhuri, on the occasion. There is hardly any material on the city’s growth and development, its present and future and public utilities. However, this street directory, unlike websites, telephone directories and Yellow Pages, presented a total picture.
Scholar Samik Bandyopadhyay, who is one of the two editors of the street directory, said when one goes through the book one gets a clear idea of community building. It initially projects a macro history, and a micro history thereafter.
The other editor, urban historian Debasis Bose, has written the preface which presents a history of P.M. Bagchi and that of other such directories. He traced the rag-to-riches story of the entrepreneur, Kishorimohan Bagchi, who had established the firm in 1888 and became a resident of Masjidbari Street in Darjipara, where he specialised in making rubber stamps, stamp pads, various kinds of inks, syrups, glue and toiletries.
The brand was so much in demand, fakes swamped the market. So he got the inimitable labels printed in Germany. Kishorimohan named the firm after his father, Peary Mohan, who had once disowned him for he feared his son would turn out to be a loser.
In mid-19th century, people could not think of beginning the day without consulting an almanac or panjika. But to give his products a cachet, Kishorimohan imported two printing presses from England. Besides churning out typical Battala fare, he also brought out Harisadhan Mulhopadhyay’s popular history of Calcutta in novel form titled Kolikata Ekaler O Sekaler. Kishorimohan died at the age of 55 in 1923.
During the days of the East India Company, the pundits of Bhatpara, Nabadwip and other centres of learning, on an invitation from Maharaja Krishnachandra, put their heads together and standardised the dates of all festivals. Almanacs began to be printed probably at the beginning of the 19th century. To make them even more popular, invaluable information on postal and legal fees and suchlike, began to be added as these tomes became weightier. Thacker Spink’s almanac dominated the scene for 80 years.
Among Bengalis, Ramanath Das was the first to publish an almanac with a treasure trove of information needed all the time. When Kishorimohan first published the street directory priced at one and half rupee (against Rs 24 for the Thacker Spink one), a review read: “A Bengali Directory with a Bengali Almanac on the model of Messrs Thacker, Spink and Co’s work on the same line. This is perhaps the first attempt of its kind that has been made by a native of Bengal.”
But Kishorimohan did not ape the English. His team of field workers fanned out all over the city to gather information and nothing was untouchable for them. Even the names of the denizens of Sonagachhi and other red-light areas are mentioned here. Sadly we have no inkling about the identity of these field workers.
In those days, when there was no compulsion for being politically-correct, there was no reason for concealing regional chauvinism, and derisive nicknames for settlers from our neighbouring states in eastern India were freely used. Many neighbourhoods were named after the caste which perhaps dominated that area. Take for instance Chasha Dhobapara (now Girish Park north) from No. 146 Baranasi Ghosh Street. It was intersected by Brahmanpara Lane. Nothing escaped the attention of those who did the field work – thus vacant plots, ponds, slums…everything was indicated along with the address.
There are interesting nuggets on the history of Calcutta. There are several entries on the Banaji family, the first Parsi family to settle down in Calcutta – Parsi Church Street, where Rustomji Cowasjee Banaji established the first fire temple of the city in 1839, Parsibagan Lane near Maniktala, Parsibagan Street. Falgun Das Lane, which intersects Sankharitolla Street, was named after a man from Odisha who made a fortune by supplying coolies to ships.
What we know as Loudon Street was actually Loudoun. The wife of Lord Hastings was in her own right the Countess of Loudoun. The “u” was dropped at some point of time. An entry recounts how electric lights were introduced in the Kalighat temple (Kalighat First Lane). At No. 15 Gobinda Sarkar Lane near Banchharam Akrur Lane was a Philharmonic Orchestra, and a Bengali circus company belonging to Nabagopal Mitra operated from Canal West Road. Asutosh Mukherjee’s slum at 1-6 Kankulia Road included paddy fields, and the man owned other properties on the road. Was this Mukherjee our ” Banglar Bagh”
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta,India / Front Page> Calcutta> Story / by Soumitra Das / Friday – September 04th, 2015
The Nahoum and Sons bakery is one of the last vestige’s of Kolkata’s Jewish heritage – but it still attracts the odd very important patron
Dough Calcutta … Nahoum and Sons bakery, Kolkata. Photograph: Leisa Tyler/LightRocket via Getty Images
Stepping inside the Nahoum and Sons bakery in South Kolkata is a trip back in time. The legendary confectioner’s shop hasn’t changed much since it first opened 113 years ago; the same teakwood furniture and display cases remain, and the same list of sugary treats based on old family recipes.
Kolkata’s region, Bengal, is known throughout India for its delectable sweets – from rosogolla (spongy milk balls soaked in sugar syrup) to shor bhaja (deep-fried milk cake) to chenna (a moist and crumbly sweetened cow’s cheese), though in a majority-Hindu city it’s unusual that the most popular dessert haven is run by a Jewish family.
But a taste of a rum ball or a slice of lemon tart explains exactly why Nahoum’s has been going for over a century, despite the local Jewish population dwindling to just 20 in recent years.
Between the late 18th and mid-20th centuries, Kolkata was home to a small but significant community of Jews – a consistent 4,000 over that period. Nahoum’s, the city’s last remaining Jewish bakery, is a symbol of this disappearing heritage.
The bakery’s most famous offering is a rich fruitcake. At Christmas queues span three streets to buy it and “our rich fruit cake is internationally known,” says owner Isaac Nahoum.
“The cake used to be supplied to government houses. When Archbishop of Canterbury Geoffrey Fisher came to Kolkata, they served him Nahoum’s fruit cake and he said it was the best fruit cake he had ever eaten.”
• Bertram Street, New Market Area, Taltala, Kolkata, +91 33 6526 9936, no website
source: http://www.theguardian.com / The Guardian / Home> Travel> Kolkata> The Foodie Traveller / by Lauren Razavi / Sunday – August 30th, 2015
For the last 11 years, this entrepreneur has experimented with sweets, taking his traditional yet popular family business to the next level. Today, this 33-year-old director of Balaram Mullick and Radharaman Mullick Sweets has made it to the list of six most promising entrepreneurs in the country selected by Forbes India Magazine.
Sudip Mullick displays some of the innovative sweets at his shop.
While working in the Oberoi Grand kitchen, Sudip Mullick picked up a European taste for desserts and dreamt of fusing them with the typical Bengali sweets their family shop was famous for. Now, the once-traditional sweetshop has become a one-stop destination for new age fusion mishti in the city.
Sudip is ecstatic that his efforts have got the 130-year-old brand recognized by Forbes India.
Names like strudles, pudding, truffles and souffles are now common on the Balaram Mullick racks and though they are mostly variants of the traditional sandesh and Bengali rosh er mishti in their myriad forms, you will be confused as to whether you are tasting a European delicacy or a Bengali favourite.
Sudip has mechanized the entire process by using machines he imported from Denmark, Taiwan, Japan and Italy, and fused various processes to churn out his own delicacies.
The Japanese machine used to make rice dust desserts there is used to make the jol bhora sandesh with a Japanese twist, the machine from Denmark that is used to churn out pure chocolate truffles is used to make chocolate-coated sandesh and rossogolla truffle and the Italian machines designed to make cookies are making golapi pera sandesh. There is a type of singara being made by a German machine originally used to bake patties.
“People have become health conscious and they avoid deep fried savories. The baked singaras have a big fan following,” Sudip said.
Other promising entrepreneurs on the Forbes list are Rahul Gonzalvez of Bangalore, for his digital design agency, Ashoke Thakur, for churning out vada paos by thousands in Mumbai’s Dadar, Sirish Duttatreya who is a third-generation second-hand book shop owner with over 9,00,000 titles in Pune and Parvatlal Kanhaiyalal Dubey who is the country’s biggest wedding planner.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kolkata / by Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey, TNN / August 14th, 2015
The ancestral home of Asutosh and Pramatha Nath, sons of the legendary Ramadulal De. Photo: Indranil Bhoumik/Mint
In the 20th century alone, hundreds of banks went belly up in the city, leaving many landed families in ruin
Photographs by Indranil Bhoumik.
It is historically documented that one Ramdulal De (1752-1825) rose from penury to become one of Kolkata’s wealthiest businessmen ever by wagering on the wreck of a ship.
As a manager in a shipping company, De was a man of modest means when he bid an astounding Rs14,000 to snap up a sunken ship. Within hours, he managed to sell it to a European with better knowledge of its cargo for almost Rs1 lakh.
No one knows what happened to the European who bought the ship, but De never looked back.
The more recent emergence of Chandra Shekhar Ghosh as an entrepreneur is equally fascinating.
Even in the early 2000s, he was travelling by public transport into the interiors of West Bengal and neighbouring states to stabilize the operations of a fledgling microfinance institution.
In only 15 years, Ghosh’s Bandhan Financial Services Pvt. Ltd is turning itself into a bank with bruised and battered Bengali pride riding on it for redemption.
West Bengal has a chequered history in banking. It was in Kolkata—then Calcutta—where the first deposit-taking bank was founded in the early 1770s.
Alexander and Co.—a British managing agency, or a diversified conglomerate—launched Bank of Hindostan in partnership with local moneylenders, or indigenous bankers called shroffs or banians in those days.
De was at that time one of the leading banians.
Many more banks were launched in the late 18th century, but all of them collapsed within 50-60 years. The reason? Speculation and overtrading by their founders. Bank of Hindostan survived three runs, but eventually went under in 1832 along with its founder Alexander and Co.
In 1806, Bank of Calcutta—one of the forebears of today’s State Bank of India—was established by a government charter. But because it was risk-averse and wouldn’t lend for more than three months, local businessmen—both British and Indian—continued to launch private banks.
The result was the same—more bank failures. The most storied failure was that of Union Bank Ltd (1829-48), founded by illustrious Bengalis such as prince Dwarkanath Tagore (poet Rabindranath Tagore’s grandfather) in partnership with British companies.
When it collapsed, De’s sons Asutosh and Pramatha Nath had to pick up the tab for its bankruptcy. Whereas their father remained a banian, they had become shareholders of Union Bank.
According to some historians, Bengalis turned to safe-haven investments such as real estate following the collapse of Union Bank. Property prices zoomed.
Described by many historians as reckless destroyers of wealth, Bengalis returned to banking again in the early 20th century, ostensibly with the noble purpose of backing Indian businessmen to compete against the British.
These ventures were even more short-lived. Some wound up within years.
Between the early 1940s and the mid-1960s, West Bengal had gained unparalleled notoriety in bank failures, and former SBI chairman D.N. Ghosh blames it on greed, corruption and lack of regulation.
In the 20th century alone, hundreds of banks went belly up in Kolkata, leaving many landed families in ruin.
The state’s inglorious past has weighed on the minds of regulators, according to D.N. Ghosh.
Bandhan is a break from the past. It has earned the regulator’s confidence, and its conservative and risk-averse founder, Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, is the Bengali community’s best bet for redemption.
The headquarters of the erstwhile Calcutta City Banking Corp., founded in 1863. Among its founders was Durga Charan Law, a wealthy banker and banian.
source: http://www.mintonsunday.livemint.com / Mint On Sunday / Home> Photo Essay / by Aniek Paul / Sunday – August 23rd, 2015
The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) announced the winners of South Asia ‘Present around the World’ competition on Friday. Present around the World (PATW) is the IET’s presentation competition for young engineers and technicians aged 18 to 26 years.
This year, the competition witnessed participation from engineers across India and Sri Lanka vying for the top honours. Individual competitors give a presentation for 10 minutes on a subject related to engineering and technology and answer questions posed by the jury for a further five minutes. The focus of the competition was on presentation skills of the young engineers and their ability to convey technical ideas to a non-technical audience.
Vishnu Hurkat from Techno India College of Engineering, Salt Lake, Kolkata, was declared the winner of the South Asia PATW finals. He was awarded a cash prize of Rs. 40,000 for his presentation on CMOS image sensors and will now compete in the global finals to be held in London later this year for a cash prize of £1,000 (approx Rs 100,000).
Angelin Indira J, student of St Xavier’s Catholic College of Engineering, Kanyakumari, was declared runner up for his presentation on “An outclassed hexacopter design with specialized robotic arm’ and received a cash prize of Rs 30,000.
Shekhar Sanyal, director and India head, the IET, issued a statement stating they were delighted to witness a peaked interest from engineers in a competition that focuses on soft skills of engineers.
“In an increasingly competitive world, we require engineers who possess not just technical skills, but are able to articulate technical ideas clearly and solve real-life engineering problems,” he said.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> Education> News / by Vinayshree Jagadeesh, TNN / August 21st, 2015
Bankim’s house at Panchanantala Road. Picture by Anup Bhattacharya
The house where Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay lived during his stint as deputy magistrate and deputy collector of Howrah has been declared a heritage building.
The 17-cottah park adjoining the house at 218 Panchanantala Road – called Bankim Park – has been included in the Howrah Municipal Corporation’s “demand register” for development grants.
Bankim Chandra, who wrote the national song Vande Mataram, had worked and lived in Howrah between 1881 and 1886.
“We have granted heritage status to 218 Panchanantala Road. The park adjoining the house will also be developed and a grant of Rs 5 crore has been sanctioned for the project. An archive on Bankim Chandra along with a library and other facilities will be set up,” said mayor Rathin Chakraborti.
A bronze statue of the litterateur and administrator will adorn the park while the heritage structure will house a conference hall, a guesthouse and the proposed archive.
At the beginning of his first stint as an administrator in Howrah in 1881, Bankim Chandra would travel from his Calcutta home to his workplace every morning. He later decided to shift to the rented house at 218 Panchanantala Road.
Bankim Chandra lived in the same house during his second stint in Howrah from 1883. He wrote Muchiram Gurer Jibancharit while living in Howrah.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta,India / Front Page> Calcutta> Story / by Dalia Mukherjee / Saturday – August 01st, 2015
Two red wild flowers were what the city had on offer for Job Charnock on Monday, the day that marked the 325th birth anniversary of his landing in Kolkata.
Nobody knows who the kind-hearted soul was who made it a point to pay homage to the founder of the city (though the high court had quashed the claim in 2003), but unknowingly he turned out to be an exception in a city that has forgotten the day for good.
Till 2003, Charnock was considered as the founder of Kolkata. Programmes were organized at the grave to mark the historic landing, which was even considered as the birthday of Kolkata. In 1990, the tercentenary of the city was celebrated on this day with global fanfare. But post the court order, the celebrations turned muted and headed for a slow death. And on Monday, Charnock’s grave inside St John’s Church near Dalhousie Square lay as non-descript as it has been lying for years now.
The grave is certainly older than the church since Charnock died in 1692, two years after he had landed on the eastern bank of Hooghly and discovered a cluster of prosperous villages that he thought would help him set up trade for the British East India Company. It’s another matter that other European traders had already set foot in different parts of what is now known as the Hooghly district, but there is no denying that this chance decision by Charnock was to change the fate of Kolkata and the entire country.
“Despite the controversy, there is no denying the importance of the day. Had he not done that, Plassey would not have happened in 1757 and the entire history of India would have been different. The day should definitely be specially remembered,” said historian Arun Bandopadhyay, president of the Society for Preservation of Calcutta that was set up by historian Nisith Ranjan Ray. Ray, along with historian Barun De, was among those who had argued the case in favour of Charnock in 2003.
St John’s Church, too, is sad with the neglect. “Apart from maintaining the grave as a heritage structure, what else can we do? The day has a great symbolic importance and the city should come forward to observe it. The structures with which we identify the city were mostly built by the British, can we deny that? Would all this have happened had Job Charnock landed somewhere else?” said priest of the church, Pradip Nanda.
Mayor Sovan Chatterjee agreed that the KMC did not do anything to commemorate the day. “Actually there is a controversy related to whether the day is actually the city’s birthday since the court has quashed that claim, but yes, Job Charnock can be certainly celebrated for his contribution and we will collaborate with St John’s Church from next year,” Chatterjee promised.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kolkata / by Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey, TNN / August 25th, 2017
India succeeds in obtaining rare original print of talkie version of ‘Devdas’
In a priceless acquisition, the National Film Archive of India (NFAI), after decades of negotiation, has finally succeeding in obtaining a rare original print of the country’s first talkie version of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay classic novella, Devdas, from the Bangladesh government on Monday.
The 1935 version was filmed in Bengali and was directed by the legendary Pramathesh Barua, who cast himself in the title role of the doomed, narcissistic lover. Mr. Barua’s film was a blistering critique of Indian feudal mores and customs.
Such was Mr. Barua’s passion for the literary classic that he remade it twice, helming it in Hindi in 1936 with iconic singer K.L. Saigal in the role of Devdas and in 1937 again in Assamese, with the renowned theatre actor-playwright Phani Sarma in the titular role.
All Indian prints of this version were lost decades ago in a fire that destroyed the Kolkata-based New Theatres, which produced this film.
A severely mangled copy of the film, the only one, was traced by the NFAI to the Bangladeshi Film archives in the 1970s.
A Bangladeshi delegation led by Ministry of Information Secretary Martuza Ahmad met with NFAI Director Prakash Magdum and handed over the print of the film.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Cities> Kolkata / by Shoumojit Banerjee / Pune – August 18th, 2015
Outgoing French Consul-General in Kolkata Fabrice Etienne, whose second innings in the city comes to an end this month, celebrates the cultural bond that links the city with Paris, but bemoans the fading French connection with Chandernagore.
Q. Your first posting was in this very city 20 monsoons ago. What was your first impression back then?
A. I was first impressed by the excessive sides of Calcutta — too many people, too many cars, too much noise, too much heat, too much rain. The old, and often decayed, colonial buildings of central Calcutta and what remained of the palaces of north Calcutta left its mark. I had the feeling I had been transported to a place rich with a thousand stories.
Q. Cut to 2015, how much has the city changed in your eyes?
When I first returned to Kolkata in 2004, I was pleasantly surprised — the streets were cleaner, some shopping malls had come up, some flyovers were built, some old buildings renovated and repainted that gave the city a more modern look. In 2012, this impression was confirmed and yet at the same time, I felt the very soul of Kolkata was still very much there, and the soul of Kolkata, is its people and the great culture they carry within them.
Q. Do you have any bitter memories during your stay here?
A. Road accidents that have struck my Bengali friends. Nothing really has been done to improve the road conditions in India—it is not only a Kolkata issue—and reduce the number of fatalities. This bothers me to no end, especially because the social and economic gains are directly related to a fluid traffic flow. It is true for environment protection. And of course, I do feel a little bitter about the lack of any concrete fruition of the projects earmarked in my tenure between France and Bengal.
Q. What has been your impression on the former French colonies of Chandernagare. Do you think the preservation work is satisfactory? If not, what are your suggestions?
A. As a Frenchman, I am of course much attached to the remnants of our past in this former trading outpost. The banks of the Hooghly are very nice and I feel something from the French “art de vivre” (art of living) each time I go there. I sadly do not see any serious preservation work done there, and it is even sadder when you think about the huge tourism potential of this area. Every 10 years or so, the government shows an intention to develop cultural tourism here by improving connectivity, renovating heritage building, promoting this unique destination. Nothing takes place afterwards. A few years ago, the French embassy commissioned an inventory of the French heritage building in Chandernagore to Indian architect Aishwarya Tipnis. Of the 100 building she listed, many have been destroyed. Tipnis, with the support of French NGO Vieilles Maisons Francaises is digitalizing the database.
Q. During a meeting with the CM, you expressed France’s interest in investing in Bengal. What’s the progress?
A. I cannot speak on behalf of the many French companies in India. It is true certain companies did not consider Bengal as the best possible place to invest in their fields. The ABG-LDA case in Haldia did not contribute towards sending the right signals back home. Fortunately, there are some success stories: The Accor group opened its first hotel, Novotel, a few months ago and plans to open other hotels in near future; Decathlon (sport equipment) will open stores here in the next few months.
Q. What in your opinion has been your greatest achievement as Consul-General?
As Consul General, that France is back in Kolkata and now active in a wide range of subjects of bilateral interests — culture thanks to Alliance Francaise du Bengale, students exchanges thanks to Campus France, tourism thanks to a very effective visa section that processes all applications for Indian tourists within 48 hours, science — and many others areas of mutual interests and cooperation building blocks laid down in the past few years.
Nothing really has been done to improve the road conditions in India… The same is true for environment protection. I do feel a little bitter about the lack of any concrete fruition of the projects earmarked during my tenure between France and Bengal
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kolkata / by Showmak Ghosal, TNN / August 20th, 2015
