In Kolkata, a group of six friends have come together to feed villagers in the state.
Ration distribution in South 24 paraganas village.
Kolkata :
The unprecedented lockdown in a bid to prevent the spread of coronavirus in India, has given rise to a humanitarian crisis, where thousands are going to sleep every night without a morsel of food in their stomach. Amidst the crisis, several good samaritans have come forward to do their bit to help the starving souls.
In Kolkata, a group of six friends have come together to feed villagers in the state. The group has so far raised more than Rs 4,000,00 through donations from their friends and colleagues and fed 1200 families in West Bengal.
Ritambar Das, Arijit Roy Chowdhury, Preetom Bhattacharya, Abhijit Sarkar, Sukanya Dutta and Rovers Chatterjee with the help of their friends from other cities in India, US and UK have been delivering ration to families in four villages which are completely cut off from the cities amid lockdown.
Three kilograms of rice, one kilogram of potato and some lentils go into a bag that is then distributed among the villagers. So far the group has managed to help people in Mallickpur, Joytola, Piyali and Betberia. From procuring the ration to distribution, these six people have been doing it all on their own with the help of local police.
“We decided to take this initiative after one of Rritambar’s employees asked for financial support for the people of his village. But for him, it was not possible to take the responsibility of the entire village. So he pitched the idea to some of us and we decided pool money and help them,” said one of the members of the team.
This group of young professionals have also started a Facebook page ‘Feed the Need- by willing souls’ to spread the word and collect funds. The members of the group added that it’s a close circuit network but they are deliberating the option of crowdfunding.
“We initially had a target to collect Rs 15,000 so that we could feed at least 150 families.Our friends passed on the information to their friends who started donating. We coordinate everything through a WhatsApp group. We add every donor to the group to keep them updated,” he added.
The group recently held a ‘thanksgiving’ event in South Kolkata for the essential service providers(police, delivery agents, et al) where they were given snacks and energy drinks.
“We have been distributing these rations on our own with the support from the local police. However, we have decided to engage daily wage labourers in distributing work so that we can pay them a fee to sustain themselves,” a member added.
We are not doing any religion-based distribution, the group maintains adding that it is imperative to look beyond such petty issues and help everyone who is less fortunate.
The group is scheduled to distribute more rations among the families of three more villages in South 24 Parganas district.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Good News / by Alisha Rahman Sarkar / Online Desk / April 19th, 2020
Two hundred years ago, after 20 failed attempts, the first consignment of ice arrived in Calcutta from Massachusetts
Blocks of ice for sale in a market in India. / Shutterstock
This was not very long ago, but a period that may well now be time stamped as BC or Before Corona. The exhibits at the Jadunath Bhavan Museum and Resource Centre in south Calcutta were arranged in a certain way to present the history of ice in the city — yes, it wasn’t such a taken-for-granted item as it came to be.
The photographs on display were pickings from Fulbright-Nehru Scholar Christine Rogers’s research. Exhibit 1, a black-and-white-photo of a young man driving a rickshaw laden with blocks of ice through the streets of Calcutta. “The boy is carrying the ice to the fish market. It is a photo from present-day Calcutta,” said Rogers. The second exhibit, a photograph of commercial projects of snow parks that are now being created for entertainment. The third, people sitting on the banks of the Hooghly where the ice used to be downloaded after it arrived all the way from the US.
Once upon a time, ice was a rare commodity, procured all the way from America. The exhibition, in consonance with Rogers’ talk, is a detailed history of ice trade in India. The now, followed by the then.
In the 19th century, the British army in India and people in the administration found it difficult to cope with the intense tropical summer. In a letter dated May 1833, Daniel Wilson, the fifth Bishop of Calcutta and the man who built St. Paul’s Church, writes to his family in England: “The weather is perfectly suffocating. None can pity us but those who know our suffering.”
Wilson’s immediate predecessor had not been able to endure the extreme temperatures and had died in office. Thus, to ease things for their own, the East India Company set about arranging for a regular supply of ice for all seasons.
Those days, what was available in the market was “Hooghly ice”. It used to come from Chinsurah in the winter months and was so named because it was made from the river’s waters. Said Rogers, “This ice was filthy and more like slush. It was made by freezing water in shallow pits and was dirty and unfit for drinking. This was not the kind of ice that the British were looking for.”
In 1833, a businessman in Boston, Frederic Tudor, arrived in Calcutta in a large vessel stacked with ice. Bringing ice to India was no easy task, not even for as enterprising a fellow as Tudor. According to Rogers, he failed 20 times before he met with any success. The challenge was to keep the ice from melting the entire length of the two-month journey to Calcutta and thereafter.
Tudor was not in this project alone; he partnered with Nathaniel J. Wyeth, a supplier of ice and a businessman. Together, the two cracked issues such as the technology of cutting ice, thereby making large-scale ice exports from Massachusetts possible. The two evolved the technique of harnessing horses to a two-blade ice cutter to cut more ice in less time.
David G. Dickason writes in his book, The Nineteenth-Century Indo-American Ice Trade, how Tudor took up this project only because he was in dire need of money after failing to dominate the global coffee market. Dickason writes: “He inaugurated his India venture only after experiencing a desperate need for adequate cash flows and profits in order to repay enormous debts incurred through his misadventures in coffee.”
With ice, Tudor got lucky. He was based in Massachusetts that had the requisite climate for producing natural ice in excess. Ice was cut from the Walden Pond, a lake there, where pure ice was easily found. Also, the Boston port was close by.
In 1847, when American essayist, poet and philosopher, Henry David Thoreau, was staying near the Walden Pond, he witnessed the cutting of ice. In one of his essays titled “The Pond In Winter”, he writes: “Thus it appears that the sweltering inhabitants of Charleston and New Orleans, of Madras and Bombay and Calcutta, drink at my well.”
The route was a long one. The ice, according to records, would be covered with fly ash and salt and then packed in jute to keep it from melting. Tudor earned such grand profits from Calcutta the next two decades that he came to be known as the Ice King.
The trade continued for almost 50 years. The price of the ice was only 4 annas per pound (one pound equals half a kilo), much cheaper than Chinsurah ice. It later came down to 2 annas per pound.
Records show that the ice was hugely in demand during that period and it had to be rationed at times as the ships were delayed and there would be a crunch. In fact, people had to produce a doctor’s certificate to get the ice. The British living in Calcutta even raised funds to set up an icehouse to preserve the cargo. Around this time, many Bengali businessman also got involved in the trade.
Rajinder Dutta was one of the pioneers of ice trade in Calcutta. His progeny, living in central Calcutta today, however, has no related documentation. Sanat Kumar Ghosh, who is one of the eighth generation Duttas, rattles off names of some others who eventually joined the trade — the Debs of DarjiPara in north Calcutta, Chhatu Babu and Latu Babu, and the Mitters.
“Rajinder Dutta was more famous as a homeopath. He had treated Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, the Maharaja of Jaipur and also Raja Naba Krishna Deb of Calcutta,” says Ghosh as he hands over a book titled History of Homeopathy in India in the 19th Century. The book has a few lines on ice trade too. It reads: “In 1836, 12,000 tonnes of ice was shipped to Calcutta and 10 years later, the figure spiralled to 65,000 tonnes.”
That day at the Jadunath Bhavan Museum, Rogers spoke at length about how ice was transported to Madras and Bombay from Calcutta. Dickason also notes how eventually ice came to be used by Indians too. It was used to preserve food, for refrigeration, in drinks. Rounding up he wrote: “Even Hindoos, otherwise so scrupulous, do not hesitate to mix the frozen waters of America with the sacred stream of Gunga, whilst the stricktest Mohummudans use it with unlimited freedom (sic).”
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, online edition / Home> Heritage / by Moumita Chaudhari / March 29th, 2020
In 2001, India, under Ganguly’s leadership, became only the third team in the history of Test cricket to win the match after being forced to follow-on.
BCCI President and former India captain Sourav Ganguly (Photo | PTI)
New Delhi :
Board of Control for Cricket in India president and former India captain Sourav Ganguly on Wednesday reminisced the famous win over Australia in the 2001 Kolkata Test. Ganguly retweeted a video of the Indian team at the time celebrating in the dressing room.
“What a win…” Ganguly said in his tweet.
In 2001, India, under Ganguly’s leadership, became only the third team in the history of Test cricket to win the match after being forced to follow-on.
India were all out for 171 in reply to Australia’s first innings score of 445 at the Eden Gardens. Steve Waugh enforced the follow-on and India ended up declaring on 657/7 in their second innings, largely thanks to an extraordinary 372-run stand between Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman.
Harbhajan Singh, who had become the first Indian to take a hat-trick in Test cricket in the first innings, led the way once again with the ball. He took six wickets as Australia were all out for 212 and India ended up winning the Test by 171 runs.
The match is regarded as one of the greatest Test matches ever and one of the most significant in the recent history of Indian cricket. The Australian team of the time was regarded as one of the greatest teams of all time and Waugh had termed winning a Test series in India as the “final frontier”. While they were unsuccessful in doing it that year, they went on to finally break the 35-year jinx when they came to India in 2004.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Sport> Cricket / by IANS / April 15th, 2020
Subhash Bhowmick, Gautam Sarkar, Subrata Bhattacharya and Shyam Thapa, some of the best players in the 1970s were coached by the legendary Banerjee.
File image of PK Banerjee | Indian Football/ Twitter
Subhash Bhowmick, a robust and lethal forward in Indian football in the 1970s, was down in the dumps with no visible light at the end of the tunnel until Pradip Kumar Banerjee gave his career a new lease of life, something he is grateful to this date.
Bhowmick, who later became an accomplished coach, owes his stardom to Banerjee’s skills as a coach that brought out the best in him. Similarly, Gautam Sarkar, an absolute feisty character who would send those pin-point passes to Bhowmick playing for Mohun Bagan also benefited from Banerjee’s astute coaching.
Thus, as the 83-year-old veteran lost his battle against prolonged illness, his students, who were stars of Kolkata maidan in the 1970s, an era that was a witness to some of the best matches in Kolkata football, celebrated the accomplished life by narrating several anecdotes from their time with their beloved “Pradip Da”.
“I was kicked out of Mohun Bagan after we lost the Durand Cup final to East Bengal (in 1972),” Bhowmick said, as he went down the memory lane in an interaction with PTI.
“He was the person who picked me up from ‘gutter’ and told me ‘you’re the best player in India, come and play for ‘East Bengal’,” he added.
Bhowmick was one of the key figures in East Bengal’s famous 5-0 demolition of Mohun Bagan on that fateful IFA Shield final on September 29, 1975.
The ‘vocal tonic’
Known for his vocal tonic, Banerjee spurred Bhowmick on by recalling the insults hurled towards him by Mohun Bagan officials. The rest, as they say, is history as Bhowmick played like a tiger on the prowl handing Bagan supporters a day that they have lived on to regret even after 45 years.
Bhowmick did not find his name on the score sheet in that great win but was instrumental in setting up the first two goals scored by Surajit Sengupta and Shyam Thapa.
“Death is always sad. His demise has left all of us sad,” Bhowmick said.
“But the way he was suffering, he did not deserve this pain. For me, Pradip da was dead since the day he left talking about football with me,” he added.
Ahead of his times
Banerjee also fashioned memorable treble for Mohun Bagan two years later in 1977 and this time it was Subrata Bhattacharya, who was the star of the show after three quiet years.
The Mohun Bagan captain was a big let-down in the 1977 Calcutta Football League derby, that the team 0-2 in front of a packed Eden Gardens and was a reason for unhappiness among the fans.
“The fans would not let us enter the field in protest… Such was the atmosphere,” Bhattacharya said.
“The practice would begin at 7.30 am at the Eden Gardens but he (Banerjee) would come one hour before and pay extra attention to me, he made him do some different pieces of training.” he added.
“We went on to defeat East Bengal thrice that season and won the Shield, Rovers and Durand. Nobody dreamt of such a turnaround. Only Pradip Da could do it. He was ahead of his time and crystal clear in his thinking.” Bhattacharya said.
A great motivator
Banerjee’s rivalry with another great coach Amal Datta was well known in Maidan circles but Bhattacharya reckoned that the former knew how to deal with stars and adapt to situations.
“Amal da may have been a great coach and hugely respected for his tactical and aggressive football, But Pradip da had the horses-for-courses policy. He was sharp and was quick to adapt. It showed in his results. I won 37 of my 58 titles under him,” he said.
Former midfielder Sarkar recalled yet another famous win for Mohun Bagan under Banerjee in the 1978 Calcutta Football League.
In his prime, Sarkar was dropped for three-four matches, a decision that caused quite a lot of chatter. He was suffering from giardia, an acute stomach bug that was prevalent in the 70s in Kolkata especially among the lower middle class that didn’t have access to clean drinking water.
“I panicked, everyone was asking why Gautam Sarkar was not playing. I was indispensable then. But he kept quiet,” Sarkar said.
It was just on the eve, Banerjee met Sarkar at the entrance of the club tent.
“He told me that he had kept me for next day’s match as I was a big-match player. He called the kind of the big games,” Sarkar said.
“I again felt that spark, the fire inside me, despite lying low due to my stomach illness. It was as if I was transmitted some supernatural power,” he said recalling how his crucial saves played a huge role in their 1-0 win where Shyam Thapa scored the winner.
Thapa also remembered how Banerjee played a key role in Mohun Bagan’s famous 2-2 draw against Pele’s New York Cosmos team.
“I was given an extra responsibility to stop Pele. The whole team put up a vibrant show. He would sit and plan with us with a board. He was way ahead of his time,” he said.
With Banerjee’s passing, a huge void has been left on the Kolkata maidan, but his legacy in the form of the impact he made on the football there lives on.
source: http://www.scroll.in / Scroll.in / Home> Indian Football / by Press Trust of India / March 20th, 2020
Anandibai Joshi, who was the first female physician in India, was the first Indian women to complete her studies in western medicine from United States.
Anandibai Joshi was the first female physician in India
Anandibai Gopalrao Joshi was the first female Indian physician. She was also the first woman in India to complete her studies in western medicine from the United States. Anandibai has a rich legacy and inspired many women to pursue the field of of medicine in India and in the United States.
Anandibai also became the first woman from Bombay presidency of India to study and graduate with a two-year degree in western medicine from a foreign country.
Anandibai’s inspiration to pursue medicine
Anandibai was born with the name ‘Yamuna’ but was later given the name anandi by her husband Gopalrao Joshi. She was born in a family of landlords and due to parental pressure, she got married at the young age of nine.
Anandibai bore her first child at the age of 14 but due to lack of medical care, the child passed away after ten days. This incident was a turning point in Anandibai’s life and she chose to pursue medicine, with the support of her husband.
Gopalrao, who was a progressive thinker and supported education for women, enrolled her in a missionary school, and later moved to Calcutta with her, where she learnt how to speak Sanskrit and English.
Gopalrao’s support for Anandibai’s education
In the 1800’s, it was very unusual for husbands to focus on their wives’ education. Gopalrao was obsessed with the idea of Anandibai’s education and wanted her to learn medicine and create her own identity in the world.
One day, Gopalrao walked into the kitchen and threw a fit of rage when he saw Anandibai cooking instead of studying. This made her even more focussed on her education.
Gopalrao took the decision of sending Anandibai to America to study medicine in utmost detail with a missionary from Philadelphia named Mrs. Carpenter.
(Source: Wikipedia)
I volunteer myself a women doctor: Anandibai Joshi
Before she went to United States, Anandibai addressed a public hall in 1883, where she expressed her dissapointment for the lack of women doctors in India. She said,”I volunteer myself as one”, in the gathering.
She had also expressed her views on how midwifery was not sufficient in any case of medical emergency and how the instructors who taught women had conservative views.
Anandibai’s journey in America
After her motivating speech in the public gathering, she expressed her views on studying medicine in America. She also stressed the need of female doctors in India and stated that Hindu women can be better doctors for other Hindu women.
Anandibai’s health had started to decline but Gopalrao had urged her to go to America so that she can set an example for other women in the country.
Anandibai was urged to apply to the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania but learning about her plan to pursue higher education, the Hindu society of India decided to censure her very strongly.
Anandibai was enrolled in the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania and completed her two-year course in medicine at the age of 19. She graduated with an MD in 1886 with the topic of her thesis being ‘Obstetrics among the Aryan Hindoos’.
In her thesis, she covered information form Ayurvedic texts and American textbooks. On her graduation, Queen Victoria sent her a message, expressing her delight.
Confusion between Anandibai Joshi and Kadambini Ganguly
There is a major confusion between Anandibai Joshi and Kadambini Ganguly, with regards to who was the first female doctor of India. Anandibai got her degree in western medicine from Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania while Kadambini completed her education in India.
Kadambini Ganguly
Tragically, Anandibai passed away due to tubercolosis at the age of 22, before she got a chance to practice medicine.
Thus, Kadambini Ganguly was the first female doctor to practice medicine while Anandibai Joshi was the first female doctor who got her degree in western medicine from the United States.
Anandibai Joshi’s legacy in the world of medicine
Anandibai passed away due to tubercolosis at the age of 21, on February 26, 1887. Even after her death, several writers and researchers continued to write about her to raise awareness about the importance of educating women in India.
Doordarshan also based a television series on her life and American feminist writer Caroline Wells Healey Dall penned down her biography in 1888.
The Institute of Research and Documentation in Social Sciences (IRDS), Lucknow has been awarding the Anandibai Joshi Award in Medicine in honour of her contributions towards the advancements of medical sciences in India.
Anandibai Gopalrao Joshi has been an inspiration to millions of Indian women who found the motivation of stepping into the field of medicine. She created history by making huge strides so ealry in her life, in a field which required precision and extensive education.
source: http://www.indiatoday.in / India Today / Home> News> Education Today> GK & Current Affairs> Personalities / by India Today Web Desk / New Delhi / March 04th, 2020
A forgotten chapter of the Indian military history was retrieved from the oblivion and feted at a brief function organised as part of various events held in the city on Remembrance Day today.
The memorial erected by the British at College Square in Kolkata to honour members of the Bengali Regiment who died in the First World War is hard to locate on an ordinary day. Today, however, it saw visit by WB Minister Sadhan Pandey, who paid floral tributes to the soldiers, most of whom fell not by bullets but due to various diseases.“The 49th Bengali Regiment would go on to have a rather inglorious record. It reached Mesopotamia in September 1917, but never saw combat and struggled with the desert conditions and diseases. A commanding officer divided the regiment into ‘Measles Squad’, ‘The Whooping Cough Squad’ and ‘Scarlet Fever Squad’.
More seriously, there was infighting and a junior member opened fire on three senior colleagues while they were asleep. The regiment was demobilised soon after the war,” said Santanu Das, professor at London’s King’s College, who is known for his work on the first great war.
Ashok Nath, military historian, who is on the faculty of Stockholm University, however, said except for the Kumaon Rifles, all other army regiments raised by the British in India in view of the First World War were disbanded after the war.
Muhammad Lutfur Haq, retired Bangladesh Army officer, said 10 per cent of the members of Bengali Regiment were Muslims. The rest were all Hindus. “Bengalis were never put to the frontline. They were given static and security duty at rear,” Dhaka-based Haq, an expert in military matters, told this reporter.
It is likely that because of the poor show by the regiment (known as Bangali Paltan) in the war, the memorial at College Square does not arouse excitement among the city residents.
In honour of Bengali Regiment
A memorial was erected by the British at College Square in Kolkata to honour members of the Bengali Regiment who died in the First World War
The 49th Bengali Regiment reached Mesopotamia in September 1917, but never saw combat and struggled with the desert conditions and diseases
The regiment was divided into ‘Measles Squad’, ‘The Whooping Cough Squad’ and ‘Scarlet Fever Squad’
source: http://www.tribuneindia.com / The Tribune / Home> Nation / by Tribune News Service / by Shubhadeep Choudhury / November 11th, 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
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
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
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
