Category Archives: Arts, Culture & Entertainment

Patience on a stool, like a book on shelf

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy

Lives of others | Koyal can be considered a minor landmark, literally

Tapas Kumar Koyal at his bookstall at Golpark / Subhendu Chaki

You have seen him perched on his stool for the last 30 years or more, like patience on a monument, not exactly smiling at grief, but slightly frowning perhaps and looking contemplatively at the unending stream of humanity that is Gariahat Road.

If you are walking from Golpark to Gariahat, along the right footpath, Tapas Kumar Koyal’s is the first old books stall that you come across as you cross the first lane on your left. The cluster of second-hand books stalls here is south Calcutta’s answer to College Street’s purono boi para; smaller it is, but no less significant.

Koyal, 52, can be considered a minor landmark, literally. As he presides over his collection, arranged neatly according to demand, he grabs the passer-by in whose eyes he sees the slightest flicker of interest, and with practised ease quickly takes the potential buyer through a tour of his titles, starting at Amish, the blockbuster, then hopping on to Shashi Tharoor, Chetan Bhagat and then to Murakami. But if this pecking order fails to produce the desired effect, Koyal takes you to his other stuff, kind of hidden among the pile that is hidden behind the Amishes and the Bhagats. And there, in those columns made of books, you might find that one book that can change your life, slightly or more — an old copy of George Meredith’s The Egoist in surprisingly good condition or Voices from Chernobyl, long before its author became more than an unpronounceable name in these parts of the world.

Koyal has no idea how many lives he has changed.

He is surprised that anyone would want to interview him at all. He started work at the bookstall when he was about 12, having to leave school midway. The stall he now looks after belonged to his father.

Originally residents of Sarisha, Diamond Harbour, in South 24-Parganas, Koyal, as a child, had come over with his other family members to Calcutta, to join his father. They used to live in a room in Purna Das Road. Koyal was enrolled at Lake View School. He still lives in that room. His wife and children live in their family home in Sarisha.

“I had to give up school after Class VIII,” says Koyal. By that time his two other brothers were already helping their father, who would eventually own three stalls, two on the footpath and one a shop on the ground floor of a building on the other side of the lane. Their father has passed away. The three brothers now manage the business. Between them they have the stall where Koyal sits and two others, the old shop in the building and another in the same building.

The three stalls hold thousands of books together.

From the time Koyal has been at the stall, the city has changed much. And so has Gariahat. “I saw the Meghamallar building (one of the oldest highrises in the area) come up.” He was struck down by Operation Sunshine, like other hawkers in the city. Slowly, like his neighbours in Gariahat, he came back. “But previously I had a proper stall, with doors, like they have in College Street. This stall is only benches and my stool,” he says.

He saw the Gariahat boulevard getting razed and the Gariahat flyover springing up. He misses the boulevard, but considers the flyover a good idea.

And he has felt the onslaught of the availability of books online. “Book sales have gone down about 50 per cent compared to 20 years ago,” he said. And Indian writers writing in English have replaced foreign writers.

“Earlier people wanted Ludlum, Sidney Sheldon, Harold Robins and Jeffrey Archer. Now it is Amish. All his books do well.” And of course Bhagat and Tharoor. And the occasional foreigner like Michelle Obama, whose autobiography is doing well here too, he said.

All available at less than half the market price or less at his stall.

Old favourites, however, have not been abandoned, insists Koyal. “Ludlum, Sidney Sheldon, Harold Robbins and Jeffrey Archer are still popular,” he said, pointing at rows of these writers at one of the shops in the building. He points to another, longer row, filled with another eternal: Mills and Boons.

Once the M&Bs here were the lifeline for many pre-millennial young women: for as little as Rs 10 as deposit and Rs 5 as reading fees, one title could be borrowed for a month. The old book stalls functioned as lending libraries too. They still do.

“The deposit is Rs 100, the reading charges Rs 30 per month,” he said. One wonders if the readers remain the same in number.

The supply of old books was never interrupted, though. “We have a network. Those who buy newspapers from houses are often sold old books. If there are collections, the owner sends me a word through them,” Koyal said.

Many of them come from old houses where old families live. These days when old buildings are being brought down and replaced by multi-storeyeds, especially in the areas around Golpark, many families tend to sell their old collections.

The collections range from Encyclopaedia Britannica to finely produced art books to collections on photography. But who buys them in this age, especially encyclopaedias? “People do, sometimes only to decorate their houses,” Koyal said. Are his children interested in joining his business? “Why should they?” asks Koyal. “They are getting educated.” His daughter is in college and his son is still in school.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph Online / Home> West Bengal> Calcutta / by Chandrima S Bhattacharya / November 02nd, 2020

Father Gaston Roberge Retained a Lifelong Love for and Commitment to Indian Cinema

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All, World Opinion
Fr Gaston Roberge. Photo: chitrabani.net

The Canadian-turned-Calcuttan did not share the disdain arty Indian filmmakers had for commercial cinema.

The exchange between the little prince and the fox from the classic 20th century post-war French fable, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince, holds the key to how two men – Satyajit Ray and Fr Gaston Roberge – met every Sunday at 9 am at the residence of Ray on the Bishops Lefroy Road in Calcutta. Like the fox and the prince, they kept their ritual and explored the world of ideas. Alas, now with the passing of Fr Gaston Roberge, we will never know who was the prince or the fox between the two. This rite of friendship lasted for 22 years, ever since their first meeting in 1969. They institutionalised their friendship in the form of Chitrabani, the first development communication institution in the eastern part of India, and thus the lore continues.

Unlike their rendezvous, I encountered Fr Gaston Roberge on three occasions, serendipitously – in Pune, Ahmedabad and Goa – in the early 1990s. The third time, at an International Canadian Studies conference, I decided to record the moment in the form of an interview which was then published in the Sunday Magazine of the Indian Express on November 13, 1994.  Each time it was his Canadian cadence of directness, and unassuming presence, coupled with the mischievous smile and the phenomenal capacity to talk cinema that stood out.

Let’s take the case of the blockbuster hit Sholay. This year marks the 45th anniversary of its theatrical release in 1975, and I do not recollect anyone who has brought together the arrival of the train at the Ramgarh and the Lumière brothers’ 50-second shot of L’Arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat in Paris (1896) together in a sentence: It is in such moment of equivalence that one is deschooled and taken on a parallel journey of Indian cinema.

For Fr Roberge, “a proud Calcuttan”, embedded in culture and ethos of the host society – becoming native was a natural process. “I am at a loss when I am asked, ‘Where are you from?’,” he confesses. “I have been called ‘Fadar Gautam Roberjee’,” he said, recounting an incident of his earlier days after his arrival in Kolkata while learning the Bengali language and doing missionary work in the schools. When asked how he felt about that name, an accident of accents, he smiled. “I like it! I still use ‘Fadar’, he said to me. Fadar speaks Bengali with a French accent among other languages like Italian. Through interacting with Bengali people, I have come to know myself further,” he had said.

Writing about his journey to India, he said it was an “urge” to come over to India, to dialogue with her people, and learn from them whatever he might discover that he did not know, especially about God. “In return, of course, I was keen to share whatever my own tradition had given me. But my journey was one of discovery, not of colonization, religious or political. I had joined the Society of Jesus at the age of 21 years. I already had five years of religious life when I volunteered to come to India, and my superiors decided I would join the Jesuits of Kolkata.”

I recollect him telling me how the city was encoded in him in form of a tri-murti, an image with three faces: “the face of cineaste Satyajit Ray, Mother Teresa, the face of the rickshaw-puller in Dominique Lapierre’s The City of Joy—each representing the creativity of the intelligentsia, unconditional charity and the heroism of an ordinary citizen.”  He had a very close relationship with both Mother Teresa and Dominique Lapierre.

Fr Gaston Roberge with Mother Teresa. Photo: chitrabani.net

In drawing attention to the imperative to think about cinema, he implores, “thinking allows the mind to progress in its search for plentitude and unity. When one is dissatisfied with a particular social order, one is tempted to reject the type of thinking that is associated with that order. This is indeed a mistake. For, if one cannot transcend the limitations of a social order with the help of the ideology of that order, one is not likely to be able to transcend the limitations of the alternative social order either, with whatever ideology.”

Writing was his mode of thinking – at the last count he had authored 31 books – especially after he discovered his inability to do much on the field during the violent times of the 70s in Calcutta during which many conspiracy theories flourished, making him, his work and the institution of Chitrabani the suspects of an international conspiracy, ranging from cold war rhetoric to missionary conversions.

The confluence of Derrida and his missionary invocation produces statements like:

“A text always already defies the authority of its author. What is true of films is generally true of all texts. The author of a text, filmic, literary or dramatic, is not the author—God.” (original stress)

In conversations, his pauses and the idea of silence were eloquent and an exercise in listening, an endangered practice as Nuruddin Farah would say. His witty deployment – “I am a priest” – as a strategic reminder of drawing the line in refraining to speculate in a discussion despite being tempted intellectually.

Woven into his discourse were emotion and theology and implicit in his teleological imbuement of Cinema was the providentialism. Once I asked him about Kalaignar Karunanidhi writing out god from the Tamil cinema. He paused and alluding to the 17th century tension between Blaise Pascal and Rene Descartes, who tried to dispense with God in philosophy, and quoting Pascal said, “the heart knows of reasons that reason cannot grasp”. Much like a Bernard Crick, he elaborated the treatise in defence of Indian cinema. “[P]opular films are collective dreams and song and dance is an integral part of it. Song and dance are sight and sound,” he wrote, invoking Bharat Muni’s Natyashastra. He was the Master Preacher of Film Theory, as the 2017 39-minute long documentary by K.S. Das encapsulates the remarkable Father Gaston Roberge.

Among the critical three decades of the 70s-90s, it was in the 80s that his work bore much meaning as filmwallahs, writers, academics, critics and even politicians were flailing in an effort to keep their feet on shifting ground, as everything was up for question.

At the beginning of the 80s, the film society movement, having spread across the nation fostering an orientation of an alternative film culture with an international outlook, found itself in a crisis as it embattled the state bureaucracy’s wrongful interpretation of its activities – sites of commercial entertainment. At the same time, as questions about Indian cinema became part of a milieu for the 800-odd graduates who had come out of the Pune Film Institute, brandishing “a consciousness of the social responsibility of the artist”, as Jagat Murari wrote about as the mandate of the institute. Fr Roberge countered the dismissive and patronising gaze of the film society-wallahs, as he sought answers in a fuller engagement with the popular Indian cinema. In response, Fr Gaston offered Another Cinema for Another Society, a militant manifesto of sorts: “A new cinema can only be born along with a nascent society and a new cinema can contribute to the growth of that society. ”

Similarly, the two key reports – the Patil Report of the Film Inquiry Committee (1951) and Karath Report of the Working Group of Film Policy (1980) – are like bookends to the bureaucratic rationalisation of the political economy of the Indian film industry. Often the disdain was visible, as the Karath report framed the film industry, “vulgar, trivial, reactionary, tasteless and exploitative”.

With his trademark clear-headedness, Fr. Roberge defined his position:

“Every effort should be made to salvage from total oblivion the report of the Working Group on National Film Policy (1980) for a new Indian Cinema. The report has ideological limitations but argues well for ‘another’ Indian cinema. This cinema would take on the social tasks which critics of the so-called commercial cinema want the latter to perform. In our socio-economic system, commercial cinema functions best when it is is spared the irritant of false expectations, and when the social value of the commodity it produces—entertainment—is recognised.”

He was a faithful witness to these turbulent times as Indian cinema was in the throes of its identity crisis – “good Indian cinema” vs “radical cinema” – as the questions of a ‘third cinema’ began floating around.

There were many endeavours in that decade in search of the quintessential Indian idiom.

Earlier, Satyajit Ray laid out the schema in Our films, Their films. As Chidananda Das Gupta was Talking About Films, we read that Kishore Valicha had pronounced Amitabh Bachchan as the urban machine. In the context of the Sikh pogrom, Nirmal Verma proclaimed at the Gandhi Peace Foundation the need to address “religion, the most prestigious thing in the life of every Indian. Why should we in the name of this faithless secularism try to deny the deepest, the noblest quality of Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, every religion?”; K.S.Singh and Bapu Jayasinhji Jhala were trying to institutionalise visual anthropology in India; G.N. Devy was calling out the amnesia in literary criticism; Arundhati Roy scripted and acted in, In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones; and, Pankaj Mishra was still on his way to Ludhiana for his butter chicken!

Satyajit Ray and Fr Gaston Roberge. Photo: chitrabani.net

Despite cinema as his apostolic calling, he resonated with Arturo Escobar in the critique of development: “Sustainable development is an oxymoron and is not some project but a quality of human mind”. In the same vein, he added, “Spirituality is not a part of any religion but a quality of humans.”

With his friend Apu and uncle Bharat Muni, he made his way through the cinematic maze, addressing the poverty of Indian cinema, enriching the Indian people through a mass literacy in the means and technologies of communication as tools of conviviality.

Displaying admirable epistemic fluency, patience, discernment and prescience, the way Verrier Elwin responded to the tribal question, Fr Roberge did on the question of communication, and for him, the modality of cinema became a point of entry into that communication—human communication. All his life, Fr Roberge argued and endeavoured to define the social contract of image making in India, which unfortunately is under duress once again.

Narendra Pachkhédé is a critic and writer who splits his time between Toronto, London and Geneva.

source: http://www.thewire.in / The Wire / Home> Film / by Narendra Pachkhede / September 01st, 2020

How a suicide in Calcutta in 1800s sparked a debate on applying English laws in India

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Leaders, Records, All, World Opinion

The East India Company wanted the law of forfeiture to apply in the colonies, which would have allowed a suicide victim’s property to pass to the Crown.

The Court House, Calcutta, where the case would first have been heard. A hand-coloured print from the Fiebig Collection: Views of Calcutta and Surrounding Districts, by Frederick Fiebig in 1851 | British Library Online Gallery

In a delicate case from 1864, the Privy Council considered whether the English practice of forfeiture following a suicide should apply to a subject of the British Raj.

Following the death of Rajah Christenauth Roy Bayadoor in Calcutta on October 31, 1844, a second will was discovered, written by him that morning, which left a portion of his estate to the East India Company. Since his death was by his own hand, Bayadoor’s widow, Ranee Surnomoyee, disputed the validity of this will on the grounds that it was not written in sound mind. The court found in favour of Ranee Surnomoyee, declaring the second will to be invalid.

An appeal was then made to the Privy Council against this verdict on behalf of East India Company, citing the law of forfeiture in cases of suicide. A digitised copy of the response of the Council is available to view on the website of the British and Irish Legal Information Institute.

Known as felo-de-se within English common law, meaning “crime of his-, or herself”, suicide in England was associated with restless souls. Confirmed victims were historically buried at crossroads with a stake through their heart, possibly in an effort to stop the soul from wandering. The law was only changed to allow burials within churchyards following the tragic death of Foreign Secretary Viscount Castlereagh in 1822.

Even then, restrictions still applied. In her book on Victorian attitudes to suicide, Barbara Gates states that churchyard burials were allowed without Christian rites and restricted to “at night, between the hours of nine and midnight, and his/her goods and chattels must still be turned over to the Crown”.

Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, took his own life in 1822, probably due to stress and depression caused by the strain of his political career and public unpopularity. The suicide of such a public figure inspired the re-examination of related English laws. Image from Jonah Barrington, Historic Memoirs of Ireland (London, 1833) Photo credit: British Library flickr

Intended as a deterrent to criminals, the law of forfeiture passed the deceased’s property to the Crown and away from inheritors. It also applied to suicides, which were considered a crime against the individual, God and the Crown. Abolished by the Forfeiture Act 1870, the practice was applied infrequently, even at the time of our case.

In the appeal, the representative of the East India Company did not further contest the second will. Instead, he argued that English law, including forfeiture, applied in the colonies. The privy councillors, therefore, had to consider the application of these laws in India.

They examined cultural differences between Britons and Indians to find examples of where British law did not fit with Indian traditions. The main examples given by the Council were polygamy and child marriage. Although shocking to Victorian sensibilities, these were part of the culture and beliefs of Indians at the time and so the East India Company had allowed them to continue. Therefore, by adapting English law to suit Indian culture, the East India Company had set a precedent.

In conclusion, the Privy Councillors expressed their surprise at an effort to enforce forfeiture following a suicide as late as 1844 and their confusion at its application to an Indian Hindu. They found in favour of the descendants of Rajah Christenauth Roy Bayadoor and allowed them to retain possession of his property.

The author is a Cataloguer of Modern Archives & Manuscripts.

This article first appeared on the British Library’s Untold Lives Blog.

source: http://www.scroll.in / Scroll.in / Home> History Revisited / by Matthew Waters / October 12th, 2020

Quest to build a ‘beautiful society’

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All, Travel

Birth centenary of children’s museum founder Jugal Srimal

The portrait of Jugal Srimal that was unveiled on Friday / Bishwarup Dutta / Jhinuk Mazumdar / Calcutta  

A girl in her early 20s seated on a wheelchair came to Nehru Children’s Museum in 1992 because she wanted to learn how to operate computers. She could not speak but had a compass fitted to her head and a book of letters on her lap, which she made use of to point out and express herself.

The person at the museum who was approached did not want to refuse her but was unsure whether they would be able to accommodate her. So she approached the director.

Founder Jugal Srimal took the girl to the class she wanted to go to and told the students that the “main objective” of Nehru Children’s Museum was “to build a beautiful society’, not to train them in operating a computer.

Members and staff of the museum paid tributes to Jugal Srimal, the founder-director of Nehru Children’s Museum, on Thursday on the occasion of his birth centenary. 

“That society will be built by all of you. No matter whatever the challenges are for a beautiful society, each one of you has to hold hands…,” Sikha Mukherjee, the administrative secretary of the museum quoted Srimal as telling the class, back in 1992.

Memories and anecdotes were shared about Srimal, who was also the founder trustee of Tagore Foundation, a trust formed to promote Bengali culture.

Srimal got the land on Chowringhee Road, on which the museum stands, from the Bengal government in 1969. The museum was inaugurated on November 14, 1972.

The museum has clay models that narrate the stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata and costume dolls from over 96 countries, some of which were collected by Srimal. Various embassies have also presented dolls to Nehru Children’s Museum.

“There are over 1,000 dolls now, about 350 of which were collected during my father’s time,” said Srimal’s son Sudip, who is now director of the museum.

Jugal Srimal was born in an “aristocratic and cultured zamindar family” of Azimganj, Murshidabad, on October 8, 1919. “If my father would have been here today he would never have allowed us to celebrate this day. He was always against publicity…. For his centenary, we had planned a five-day programme with 1,200 invitees, but because of Covid-19 we had a small programme remembering him,” said Sudip Srimal.

From the oldest employee of the museum Ramendra Das to senior employee Dipti Biswas, each one had a story to share. Jugal Srimal’s work was not restricted to the museum but went much beyond that, said Prabal Dutta, joint director of the museum.

Dutta spoke about the founder-director’s reading habits. “He would not be able to go off to sleep at night without reading but he had noticed that the habit of reading was going away…. He thought that people were not interested in buying books or borrowing it from library, but if the books reached them the interest of reading would sustain. So he formed Tagore Mobile Library,” Dutta recalled. Jugal Srimal gave away his collection to the library.

Those who attended the programme said they were missing the children. The institute has 1,400 students learning various activities like song, dance, painting and drama.

On Thursday, a portrait of Jugal Srimal made by 20-year-old Sourav Saha, who has been learning painting in the museum since 2015, was unveiled by Rotarian R.K. Bubna.

A book titled “Shishuder ja prappo ta jeno tara paye”, written by the founder before in the 1940s, was released on Thursday. Granddaughter Indrani Sengupta, now the secretary of the museum, found it among his manuscripts.

“I was young and not ready to take the responsibility but he told me it was not about age but how I handled the responsibility,” said Sengupta.

“…Last eight months have been difficult but we have paid our permanent staff and used up our savings to tide over this period. We have appealed to our friends and well-wishers and many have responded,” said Sudip Srimal.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com/ The Telegraph Online / Home> West Bengal> Calcutta / by Jhinuk Mazumbdar / Calcutta / October 10th, 2020

Veteran sports journalist Kishore Bhimani dies

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All, Sports

The septuagenarian suffered a cerebral attack recently and was undergoing treatmentK

Kishore Bhimani / Twitter / @t2telegraph

Veteran sports journalist and cricket commentator Kishore Bhimani died at the age of 74, family sources said on Thursday.

He is survived by his wife Rita and son Gautam who is also a well-known TV personality.

“He had suffered a cerebral attack a few days back and was undergoing treatment,” a family source said.

Bhimani was one of the most recognised English voices of the 1980s.

Following his death, a pall of gloom descended on the country’s sports fraternity, with tributes coming in from all quarters.

“RIP Kishore Bhimani..he was one of the good Old Fashioned Crkt writer who took Crkt writings like a player who takes to playing…Condolences to his Spouse Rita & Son Gautam.. GodBless All Always.. Fondly,” legendary Indian spinner Bishan Singh Bedi tweeted.

“Farewell Kishore Bhimani. Cricket journalist and a true lover of #Kolkata,” politician Derek O’Brien wrote on Twitter.

Bhimani was commentating when Sunil Gavaskar became the first player to reach 10,000 runs in Test cricket, during the drawn match against Pakistan in Ahmedabad in 1987.

One of the most sought-after Indian cricket writers who would be wooed by British publications in the 1980s, Bhimani was also on air during the final moments of the famous 1986 tied Test against Australia at Chepauk.

It is said that Imran Khan, during his captaincy days, was a regular at Bhimani’s residence whenever he was in Calcutta.

Bhimani had worked for Calcutta daily ‘The Statesman’, was a noted columnist and wrote ‘The Accidental Godman’.

He was the president of Calcutta Sports Journalists Club from 1978 to 1980.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph Online / Home> Sports / by The Telegraph Bureau & Agencies / Calcutta – October 15th, 2020

Bengali OTT platform Hoichoi makes the most of the lockdown

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All

The video streaming service has registered a growth in its subscriber base and international audience

While the pandemic has posed a challenge to the television and film industry, it has come as an opportunity for the Bengali online video streaming platform Hoichoi. The Bengali entertainment platform that completed three years of operation this September has registered an increase in revenue and revealed that 40% of the revenue comes from international subscribers.

Last week, the Bengali OTT (Over the Top) platform unveiled 25 web shows and two films — Kolkata Underground and Tiktiki — to be launched in the coming months.

Vishnu Mohta, co-founder of Hoichoi, told The Hindu that the platform has provided the Bengali diaspora an opportunity to connect to its roots through these productions.

“About 40% of our direct revenue is coming from international customers. We have subscribers in more than 100 countries including Japan, Sweden, Argentina, Iceland, where we did not think we would have much traffic,” he said. Mr. Mohta said that the OTT shows were a “ great way to connect” the Bengali community, as films and plays in the language may not be available in theatres in other countries.

Even since the lockdown, the platform has been showing a big spurt in growth on most matrices and the subscribers across all platforms are now 13 million. In recent months, it released nine world digital premiers of feature films and showcased the first direct-to-digital film release from eastern India.

Actors Swastika Mukherjee, Parambrata Chattopadhyay and Saswata Chatterjee and directors Srijit Mukherji and Mainak Bhaumik are some of the film personalities behind the programmes to be launched soon.

While the OTT platform celebrates different genres, thrillers and detective stories are high in demand. “The Bengali community always loves detective stories and thriller shows. Some of the most iconic characters like Feluda and Byomkesh have been detectives. This goes very well from an episodic point of view,” Mr Mohta added.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Other States / by Shiv Sahay Singh / Kolkata – September 24th, 2020

Women make Bengal government doorstep delivery a hit

Agriculture, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Green Initiatives / Environment, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Records, All

A state government agency delivering essential items has outsourced its entire operation to the women of Self Help Groups in various districts.

A state government agency has been promosing everything – from locally produced vegetables and select fruits to grocery, fish and meat products – at the doorstep. Freshly-cooked meals, too, are available. / Sourced by the Telegraph

A doorstep delivery of essential items for senior citizens during the lockdown has now turned into a full-fledged delivery system for the entire city and parts of Howrah.

A state government agency has been promising everything — from locally produced vegetables and select fruits to grocery, fish and meat products — at the doorstep.

The West Bengal Comprehensive Area Development Corporation has been delivering such items and more to people in Calcutta within hours of them placing orders on WhatsApp or on the department’s website.

The corporation is an autonomous organisation under the Panchayat and Rural Development Department.

Freshly-cooked meals, too, are available. The entire operation has been outsourced to the women of Self Help Groups in various districts.

The corporation, which has been training members of Self Help Groups in agriculture, fishery and animal resource development, used to sell their produce in New Town before the pandemic struck. They sold at fairs and haats (Ahare Bangla and Saras), too.

The corporation started doorstep delivery for the elderly once the Centre announced the lockdown. A WhatsApp group was formed.

Also, the state government began an exercise to create a database of all senior citizens living on their own in Calcutta, Howrah and Salt Lake.

Orders are placed on the WhatsApp group or on the corporation’s website.

Women SHG members prepare meals at the CADC canteen for doorstep delivery. / Sourced by the Telegraph

The corporation started expanding from vegetables, essential items such as pulses, cereals, and oil, and fish and meat to cooked meals, moringa powder, Mecha sandesh (a GI product from Beliatore in Bankura), crabs, Kadaknath chicken and fresh hilsa.

Before Durga Puja, the corporation intends to introduce chicken dust, mango flake, and dried fruits.

Primarily, Self Help Groups were trained in pisciculture and rearing animal husbandry. “We are into research, output and production,” Soumyajit Das, special secretary, Panchayat and Rural Development, said.

Das personally responds to every WhatsApp order. “The initiative here is to empower women, the entire operation is run by women from Self Help Groups handpicked by us.”

Piu Bag from Birohi Mahila Samannay Samiti in the Haringhata Block has been supervising girls from her Self Help Group in the supply of vegetables to the corporation this month.

“We cultivate bottle gourds, ladies fingers, onions, cauliflowers… we have been supplying to the corporation after the lockdown. We are getting a better price here than elsewhere. My girls are helping out in the corporation canteen, too, and they get a monthly salary,” Bag said.

Salekha Khatun from Hariharpara in Murshidabad is part of Nil Akash Mahila Samannay Samiti, which supplies spices and pulses to the corporation. “We have leased out 50 bighas this time in the hope of getting more orders from the corporation.”’

The department is now trying to grow the produce locally and Self Help Groups are being trained in vertical gardening and maintaining bioflock ponds at Mrittika Bhavan, the corporation headquarters.

“We have noticed we need to produce locally to maintain quality. So, we are training them to grow here in Calcutta where they are supplying,” Das said.

All customers give their feedback on the WhatsApp group and every complaint is attended to.

Indranil Hazra from Belgachhia said: “A friend sent me the link to the WhatsApp group and I have been ordering since April. I am very impressed with the professional service as well as the range and quality of products.”

His neighbour Subhasree Banerjee, a Corona warrior, along with her husband, too, have benefitted from the service.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph Online / Home> West Bengal> Calcutta / by Anasuya Basu / Calcutta – October 11th, 2020

Bengal woman creates Taj Mahal image with over 3 lakh matchsticks

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Records, All, World Opinion

Saheli Pal an MA English student at Calcutta University, created the image on 6 feet by 4 feet board. She had started her work in mid-August after receiving the guidelines from the Guinness World Records authorities and completed it on September 30

Saheli Pal of Ghurni locality in Krishnanagar seeks to break the Guinness World Record of Iran’s Meysam Rahmani, who had made a UNESCO logo with 1,36,951 matchsticks in 2013. (Photo by Getty Images/Representational)

A 22-year-old woman in West Bengal’s Nadia district has created an image of the Taj Mahal using more than 3 lakh matchsticks.

Saheli Pal of Ghurni locality in Krishnanagar seeks to break the Guinness World Record of Iran’s Meysam Rahmani, who had made a UNESCO logo with 1,36,951 matchsticks in 2013. Pal, an MA English student at Calcutta University, created the image on 6 feet by 4 feet board.

She had started her work in mid-August after receiving the guidelines from the Guinness World Records authorities and completed it on September 30.

A video of her artwork has been made and it will be sent to the Guinness World Records authorities soon.

“I have used matchsticks of two colours to depict Taj Mahal at night,” she said.

Pal had in 2018 created a world record by making the smallest clay sculpture of the face of Goddess Durga, measuring 2.54 cm by 1.93 cm by 0.76 cm and weighing 2.3 gm. Her father Subir Pal and grandfather Biren Pal had won the President’s Awards for their sculptures in 1991 and 1982 respectively.

“I want to carry forward the legacy of my father and grandfather,” she added.

source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Cities>Kolkata / by PTI / Krishnanagar / October 03rd, 2020

A collab on a jazz standard

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All, World Opinion

Two Bengali musicians from Calcutta, one Israeli sax player in Berlin and a Russian contrabassist in New Delhi got together, the outcome is the hauntingly beautiful Detour aheadS

Shooting the music video I had an idea on how to go about it . I had a dark backdrop and my studio lights set-up and then I set up the camera on a tripod and shot in multiple takes and from different angles. I wanted to keep the look classic and retro. So I went with a long black dress with lace trims wore my hair the way it is, naturally curly, and went for a dark red lip and a smokey eye. It was fun dressing up for the video, definitely an experience ! — vocalist Rupsha Sen / Sourced by the Telegraph

Vocalist Rupsha Sen heard the classic Detour Ahead for the first time in April 2020. “I was transported to that special place where powerful art can take us sometimes,” she says. Soon Rupsha got together with musicians Soham Dey, Omri Abramov, Ekaterina Aristova to work on a version of the song. On September 19, the music video for Detour Ahead dropped and has met with heartwarming feedback. A chat with Rupsha…

What was the starting point for this collab?

As the pandemic hit, we were forced to retire to our homes, lock our doors and ride out the storm. Subsequently, all establishments were shut down along with venues that hosted live music in the city and thus we were all forced to stay apart and put a halt to rehearsing and performing live music. This birthed the surge of virtual performances and collaborations including ours. Although some of us knew of each other distantly, Soham, Omri, Ekaterina and I officially met online and came together for this collaboration based on our shared love for this genre of music.

Why pick this song to perform?

Firstly, because it’s a gorgeous jazz standard that all four of us love. Secondly, it is harmonically rich, evocative and beautifully structured with such simple yet poignant lyrics and lastly, it is not very often performed or covered, which makes it an interesting choice.

Do you remember the first time you had listened to this tune?  

I actually heard this song for the first time back in April 2020 when Soham posted a rendition of it online and I was immediately hooked. This made me look up the different versions available online, such as Mark Murphy, Ella Fitzgerald, Kurt Elling but I have to say the version I ended up channelling for this collaboration and also my favourite is the rendition by Sarah Vaughan. It’s hauntingly beautiful.

It’s safe to say that when I heard the song for the first time I was moved and could feel exactly what Sarah was singing about — comparing love’s progress to a motor trip… of course credit for the lyrics goes to the composers of the song — Herb Ellis, Johnny Frigo and Lou Carter.

I remember Soham telling us about his memories of how he listened to the song on his long bus rides back and forth from his work in 2016 and how this song was a constant companion to him at that time.

Music definitely has the power to evoke all kinds of emotions in us, including nostalgia, which is beautiful in a melancholic way.

How did you put together the group and why pick them?

The line-up of this collaboration includes Omri Abramov, an incredible saxophone and EWI  (electronic wind instrument)  player originating from Israel, currently residing in Berlin; the wonderful Ekaterina Aristova on contrabass hailing from Russia, currently living in New Delhi; Soham Dey, a talented singer and guitar player from Calcutta, and of course me on vocals. Omri, Soham and I had already collaborated on a song before and we had a wonderful experience working together so it was a no-brainer really that we wanted to work together again, which manifested in the form of this collaboration after we decided to bring in Ekaterina on double bass, as we really felt the song needed the sound of a double bass to make it wholesome.
We had a particular vision and sound in mind for this collaboration and we were fortunate enough to be able to bring together the people who we thought would help us get as close to that as possible.

How did you record the song? How did you rehearse for it?

The song was recorded in parts as we were all situated in different parts of the world. Having the benefit of living in the same city, Soham and I recorded the guitar and vocal tracks at Blooperhouse Studios, after which we sent the track to Ekaterina over at Delhi.

She was able to record her parts with the help of her friends at Chizai who have a studio set-up.

Lastly the track was sent to Omri, who has a studio of his own where he was able to work on the piece and come up with a combination of saxophone and EWI, which he used to simulate sounds of the clarinet, cello, violin and viola, giving the song a beautiful bed of sound to flourish on.

We were not able to rehearse together but we listened to different versions of the song to familiarise ourselves with the essence of it and came up with a way of how we wanted to approach it and also discussed all of it together so that we were all on the same page about the final piece.

How did you shoot the video? Did you have a theme for it?

Again as we were all in different locations we all had to shoot it ourselves from our respective homes/studios. It was definitely not easy and involved a number of challenges. I’m grateful to each and everyone for taking the trouble to follow the guidelines we had discussed, not only for the musical part of it but also for the video. It was also definitely an uphill task to edit the video but thankfully it all came together in the end. The theme I had envisioned for the video was always something that had a distinctly noir feel to it, so that is what we discussed and that is what we all tried to achieve.

You must have heard/watched some inspiring lockdown collaborations in the last few months. Which were your favourites?

Yes, this lockdown has definitely inspired some great collaborations, the ones that come to mind are definitely an online concert that I watched by Bireli Lagrene Trio comprising Bireli Lagrene and Adrien Moignard on guitar and William Brunard on contrabass. It was a bevy of amazing musicians creating magic together and was absolutely a treat for the ears… loved it completely.

Apart from that I have been following some Brazilian and French artistes on Instagram who have been dishing out some beautiful collaborations, namely Vanessa Moreno and Camille Bertault. From India I enjoyed a number of collaborations by the Delhi-based band The Revisit Project. I’ve been following their work online and through the pandemic they have been doing some great work and are also about to release a new album, which is a testament to their hard work.

How important a role did music play in your life in the last few months?

I felt like a teenager again, listening to music all day, watching incredible musicians come live and host free concerts, watching musicians collaborate with one another to make beautiful music.

Music has always played an incredibly important role in my life and it did more so in these last couple of months as when you take everything else away only the most important things remain.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph Online / Home> Arts / by Arindam Chatterjee / September 27th, 2020

Cruise down the Hooghly river offers a peek into Kolkata’s history

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All, Travel, World Opinion
From October 1, the West Bengal Transport Department (WBTD) commences a 90-minute Heritage River Cruise that starts from the Millennium Park Jetty.   | Photo Credit:  Special arrangement

Affordable 90-minute guided experience guide launched by Bengal Transport Department on October 1

It is along the bends of the river Hooghly that the city of Kolkata grew from three villages to a bustling metropolis. Now a cruise on the Hooghly will take people past the different ghats of the river, providing a peek into the history of the metropolis.

From October 1, the West Bengal Transport Department (WBTD) commences a 90-minute Heritage River Cruise that starts from the Millennium Park Jetty.

Sailing upstream and downstream, the vessel will pass beneath the majestic Howrah Bridge, and go past ghats such as the Armenian ghat, Nimtala ghat and Mayer ghat. Each ghat on the bank of the river has a bit of history attached to it.

For instance, the Armenian ghat was built back in 1734 by Manvel Hazaar Maliyan, a trader of Armenian origin. The ferry ghat stands testimony to Kolkata’s cosmopolitan culture in the colonial times, and the Armenian community’s contribution to the city.

There is also the Mayer ghat (the mother’s ghat), which draws its name from Maa Sarada Devi, wife of Ramakrishna Paramhamsa. She would visit the ghat daily, and stayed near it from May 1909 to July 1920.

Similarly, the Nimtala ghat is a historical landmark where the cremation of Rabindranath Tagore and other important cultural icons was performed. The famous Bhootnath temple is located here.

The cruise’s itinerary also includes Chandpal ghat, located just on the northern side of Babughat, the very place where Lord Cornwallis, the first Governor General of India, landed on September 12, 1786. Guides on board the cruise will tell people about the ghats, and visitors will also be provided with complimentary cruise heritage navigation brochures.

Officials of the Transport Department said that tickets have been kept affordable at ₹39 for the entire cruise to attract more people. “The idea is to make the heritage river cruise experience affordable, and popular among the youth,” said the Managing Director of WBTD Rajanvir Singh Kapur.

Following physical distancing norms, as of now, not more than 150 people will be allowed on each trip.

Attempts have been made in the past to boost waterfront tourism in the city by State governments and different agencies. About 17 km of the Hooghly river’s waterfront lies within the metropolitan corporation’s boundaries, of which about a 10 km length of riverfront, from Taktaghat in south Kashipur and Pramanik ghat in the north, represent the most active and vibrant portion of Kolkata’s diverse engagements with the river. There are dozens of ghats on both banks of the river that not only provide a rich slice of history but are associated with the way of life of the city’s people.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kolkata / by Shiv Sahay Singh / Kolkata – October 01st, 2020