Category Archives: Business & Economy

India’s first municipal archive

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All

The digitised municipal archive was launched in 2017 with copies of the Calcutta Municipal Gazette

A 1927 edition of the Calcutta Municipal Gazette / File photo by Subhasish Bhattacharjee

Calcutta’s East-West Metro line, the same that will connect Howrah and Dalhousie Square, was conceived nearly a hundred years ago by the British. “An expert had come down from London in 1924,” informs Deepankar Ganguly, who helms the Calcutta Municipal Corporation archives. He continues, “According to the original plan [which is to be found among the archival gems] too, a portion of the stretch was to run under the Hooghly river.”

The digitised municipal archive was launched in 2017 with copies of the Calcutta Municipal Gazette. The gazette’s founder-editor was Amal Home, who had been handpicked by Subhas Chandra Bose when he was the CEO of the civic body. “The gazette blossomed with all kinds of writings and contributions from within India and abroad,” says Ganguly. So you have Mahatma Gandhi writing on khadi and C.V. Raman on music. But primarily, the gazette carried news of municipalities across the globe.

Amal Home, Editor, Calcutta Municipal Gazette / File photo by Parimal Goswami

One such issue from 1931 is titled “Raman Number”. Among other things it contains the speech the physicist delivered at the Calcutta Town Hall. It reads: “A hot day in June is not an opportune moment to enter upon praise of the physical climate of Calcutta. But from the point of view of research, there is something more important than the physical climate, and that is the intellectual climate… For a hundred years, Calcutta has been the intellectual metropolis not only of Bengal, or of India, but of the whole of Asia.” The same issue has a clip about a Captain T.A. Joyce of the British Museum who had returned to London after an expedition in the British Honduras, where he possibly unearthed the ruins of a Maya civilisation; the third anniversary of Paikpara library; and an advertisement by the health department of the Delhi Municipality seeking tenders for rat traps.

Encouraged by the then mayor of Calcutta and a generous grant, Ganguly and his team of three digitised all gazettes between 1924 and 1975. But as he himself points out, an archive cannot constitute editions of the gazette alone.

In the days and weeks that followed, Ganguly started to digitise the 1,000-plus books, documents and maps that were in possession of the civic body and would have ended in the rubbish bin for sure. Gradually, rare civic body related documentation procured from elsewhere also found place in the archive index.

An archive is not an archive. It is like Sleeping Beauty waiting to come alive at The Heritage Enthusiast’s touch. Even a cursory scroll down the corporation archives’ online index conjures a different time, different places, a variety of issues. Somerset county’s war on T.B.: 1925. Program of Nutrition education in New York city area: 1946. Public health protection in Soviet Russia: 1946. Paris Street accidents: 1925. Municipal election in Rome: 1947. Tokyo municipality gherao by workers’ union demanding higher pay: 1946.

The bare bones of history mean different things to different people. When Gary Stringer and Ayesha Mukherjee of the UK’s Exeter University visited the archives, they were surprised at a detailed handcrafted map of Subeh Bangla from the 18th century that they were shown. Stringer offered to lend expertise to enlarge the map digitally to reveal details the naked eye could neither see nor appreciate.

Ganguly talks about an incident from the 1946 Direct Action Day that is recorded in the municipal archives. It seems when riots broke out in Calcutta, Tagore’s sister found herself in the crosshairs of the unrest. That is when corporation councillor Haji Md Yousuf came to the rescue of her and the entire family. When this archival finding was reported, someone from the councillor’s progeny got in touch with Ganguly and requested that he be allowed to see the report.

The longish room on the top floor of the CMC building in central Calcutta is teeming with nuggets. How way before Independence, the electric train was thought of by the British, but was axed by the coal syndicate. How the corporation commissioned one Bipin Behari Das to make three motor cars by hand. How one of them is to be found at the Banaras Hindu University. A photograph of Das’s workshop at 100 Bondel Road also exists. A six-line advertisement Tagore wrote for Tisco is to be found, as also news of a member of the Birla clan celebrating a marriage in the family by building a block for Calcutta University. And among the collection of advertisements is one of Dunlop selling pneumatic tyres for bullock carts.

Ganguly praises current mayor Firhad Hakim and his predecessor Sovan Chatterjee for supporting the initiative. A flip through the guest book reveals that the archive has got the attention of researchers from Dhaka to Cornell. It is a fact that as the first municipal archive in India, it has built some sort of a reputation. But as to whether the rest of the city is aware of the riches it has in its midst, there is serious doubt.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, online edition / Home> West Bengal / by Upala Sen / March 15th, 2020

Boston Ice Party

Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All, Travel, World Opinion

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

J.B.S. Haldane: Iconoclast, adventurer and a man of science

Business & Economy, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Leaders, Records, All, World Opinion

The book aptly presents the socio-economic background of Haldane, particularly his father role in shaping his young, curious and socially sensitive mind

J.B.S. Haldane / [Wikimedia Commons]

Samanth Subramanian’s book reveals a lot about the man who is its subject. It succeeds in conveying the multifaceted character of the protagonist, his dislike for conventional wisdom, his participation in World War I and the Spanish Civil War as well as his involvement in the British war effort during World War II and, of course, his pioneering contributions to the formative works of evolutionary genetics. Subramanian correctly points out that J.B.S. Haldane was a creative man full of new ideas who wrote many papers in reputed scientific journals. When he was not doing active science, he was busy writing about science for common people. The author also gives a lot of emphasis on the political work of Haldane which makes the book fascinating to read. It is rare to find such a vocal and politically active communist scientist in the history of science.

The book aptly presents the socio-economic background of Haldane, particularly the role played by his father in shaping the mind of the young, curious and socially sensitive Haldane.

Subramanian also succeeds in conveying the scientific nature of Haldane’s work which makes this book not only relevant to the general reader but also valuable for those interested in understanding the history of evolutionary genetics and biological sciences. This book is a good example of popular science writing and can be appreciated truly if the reader has an interest in the biological sciences.

To convey Haldane’s iconoclastic disposition, the author, at times, becomes a bit too harsh in his portrayal of the scientist’s idiosyncrasies and apparent lack of diplomatic skills. Creative minds often have their own set of idiosyncrasies and find social interactions difficult which reflects their complex thought processes.

A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J.B.S. Haldane by Samanth Subramanian, Simon & Schuster, Rs 799Amazon

Haldane had a special relationship with India. At sixty-four, he preferred to leave England and settle down in India, a fact that is difficult to believe as sixty-four years is rarely perceived to be an age when someone chooses to start afresh in a different country with a completely different set of languages. He spent the last part of his life (1956-1964) with his wife in India. He became an Indian citizen and worked in the Indian Statistical Institute in Calcutta and later settled in Bhubaneswar. He left England at the height of the Suez crisis in 1956 because he thought his country was on the wrong side of history. For Haldane, India was a new dream, a dream of Nehruvian socialist nation-building, where he could chip in with his scientific knowledge to help the country produce good biologists. This part of Haldane’s life is well-documented in the book.

Subramanian has tried his best to convey the main scientific beliefs of Haldane by pointing out that he was one of the pioneers who tried to implement the ideas of heredity as propounded by Gregor Mendel in the study of natural evolution. The relationship between genetics and evolution became clearer in the works of Haldane and his contemporaries.

In describing the character of Haldane, Subramanian also conveys his feelings about the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union is a recurring theme in this book as the protagonist was associated with the Communist Party of Great Britain for a long time and had played a role in the Lysenko affair. Subramanian describes the communist Haldane elegantly but fails to find anything positive in the Soviet Union. This is a bit strange. In this otherwise splendid book, Subramanian perhaps missed out the fact that if revolutionary Soviet Union, with all its faults, had not existed, then iconoclastic and adventurous scientists of the nature of Haldane, who fought for science and the liberation of the proletariat, may not even have existed on earth.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, online edition / by Kaushik Bhattacharya / April 10th, 2020

Kolkata gets its first ‘disinfectant tunnel’ at iconic New Market

Business & Economy, Green Initiatives / Environment, Records, All, Science & Technology

The walkthrough sprinkler uses Hydrogen Peroxide and not Sodium Hypochlorite.

A commuters stands in side a disinfectant tunnel  at the entrance of New Market ,spraying Hydrogen peroxide , a chemical compound during a government -imposed nation wide lock down as a preventive  measure  against the COVID-19 Corona virus in Kolkata on April 06, 2020.Express photo by Partha Paul

In a bid to ensure public spaces like markets are safe amid the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, there have been calls for broader sanitising measures. Now, in one of Kolkata’s busiest markets, a disinfectant sprinkler system has been placed to sanitise people entering and exiting the premises.

At one of the gates of Kolkata’s bustling, century-old, New Market, a walk-through kiosk has been installed with water-sprinklers spraying disinfectant on traders and customers. The sprinkler has been set up by Harley Sanikool, a wing of F Harley company, in collaboration with Kolkata Municipal Corporation. The firm specialises in misting and fogging of commercial plants.

Talking to IndianExpress.com, company representative Apurve Kakkar explained how their solution is different from all the other existing tunnels in the country so far and safer. “The tunnels that have been installed elsewhere are spraying a solution of Sodium Hypochlorite (NaOCl). As you know, it’s a bleaching agent which even in diluted form is unsafe for humans. For our system we are using a diluted version of Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2), it also has antiseptic properties used for treating wounds, so is completely safe to be used on human beings,” he highlighted

A commuters stands in side a disinfectant tunnel  at the entrance of New Market ,spraying Hydrogen peroxide , a chemical compound during a government -imposed nation wide lock down as a preventive  measure  against the COVID-19 Corona virus in Kolkata on April 06, 2020.Express photo by Partha Paul

As of now, the company has installed only one gate at the market owing to the lockdown, but plans to install more gates as soon as it’s feasible and the government gives more orders for it. “The system will work on time-based and sensor-based technology as we don’t want to waste resources. Our intention is to kill germs effectively by not harming anyone or wasting water.” he added.

After the lockdown was enforced, migrant workers travelling back to their home states were sprayed with a disinfectant, and one particular incident in UP’s Bareilly sparked a huge controversy . The migrant workers were showered with water mixed with Sodium Hypochlorite , which is used on a large scale for surface purification, bleaching, odour removal and water disinfection.

Talking about the gate to The Indian Express , Debabrata Majumder, MMIC, Solid Waste Management said the kiosk has been installed on a trial basis. “We have put up just to see how it’s working. First, we need to be sure that it’s completely safe and only once we get proper certification about the chemicals used in the system, will we go ahead with the plan,” the senior KMC official said. “If the certification is proper and results are satisfactory, then we will install it in other markets around the city,” he added.

Rajib Singh, secretary of New Market Traders’ Association, called it a welcome move. “This is for the first time something like this has been done in Kolkata. There will be no fear of coronavirus if people are entering the market using that gate as the whole body will be sanitised. There are also talks to install more such gates in other markets too.”

Earlier, such tunnels have been installed in Mysuru  and Mumbai, while a mobile sanitising van has been made operational for Pune Police .

source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Cities> Kolkata / by Shreya Das & Joyprakash Das / Kolkata – April 07th, 2020

Jamsetjee Framjee Madon — a pioneer of Indian cinema and champion of Calcutta’s poor Parsis

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Leaders, Records, All, World Opinion

In Pioneering Parsis of Calcutta, Prochy N. Mehta chronicles the little-known lives of the first Parsis who came to the city during British rule.

Jamsetjee Framjee Madon | Niyogi Books | Prochy N. Mehta


Jamsetjee Framjee Madon was one of the pioneers of Indian cinema. He owned over 120 cinema halls at one time. Jamsetjee was very modern in his outlook and a reformist in his religious views. He was one of the first trustees of the Late Ervad D.B. Mehta’s Zoroastrian Anjuman Atash Adaran and was a supporter of the young Bella, to whom he left Rs 5,000 in his will to help her in her legal case. 

Jamsetjee Framjee Madon was born on 27 April 1856 in a very poor family in Bombay. The family being truly indigent, he had to seek employment at the tender age of twelve as a scene-shifter in the dramatic company of Cooverji Ratanji Nazir, at a salary of Rs 4 per month. The young lad got enamoured of the stage, copying the roles of the heroes and heroines of the plays and later playing small roles on stage. Since he had a good voice, he could act the part of a courtesan and became quite popular. 

He then joined Elphinstone Natak Company which toured the country and in 1875, on an auspicious day, he came to Calcutta with this touring company. Some time later he took over this company in partnership with a few others. This company prospered, thanks to his experience, far-sightedness and hard work, and made Calcutta its permanent home. Simultaneously he started dealing in auctioned goods and in 1885 started another business as wines and provision merchant at 5, Dharamtalla Street. His honesty, perseverance and gentle nature soon attracted important Indian customers and the shop became extremely popular among government officers and Englishmen. There were seven branches of this store including those at Calcutta, Darjeeling, Lucknow and Delhi. 

In 1903, at the time of the British invasion of Tibet, Jamsetjee opened food and provision stores all the way from Siliguri to Chumbi and assisted the armed forces in supplying food and provision to soldiers even at great personal risk. The British officers greatly appreciated Madon’s fortitude and bravery as a result of which Jamsetjee was given a large contract of supplying the army during the wars in Kabul. He carried out his work at great risk and in significantly difficult circumstances, to the utmost satisfaction of the military officers. In appreciation of these services, the British Government awarded him the Order of the British Empire in 1918.

On 30 March 1919, the Calcutta Parsis felicitated Jamsetjee at a function under the chairmanship of the trustee of the Anjuman, Seth Edulji Pestonji Guzdar. Madon Seth was congratulated on obtaining the Order of the British Empire and praised for his simple life, gentle nature, honesty and kindness and for his munificence towards the poor. 

Seth Jamsetjee, like the other Parsi elders of the community, had a generous nature and was always anxious to assist the needy. Having grown up in poverty he felt for the poor and gave employment to many poor Parsi youngsters in his cinemas and shops. He was thus responsible for the livelihood of a large number of Parsi families. Many of his charities were done secretly and it can be truly said of him that his left hand was not aware of what his right hand gave away. It was estimated that such secret handouts averaged Rs 5,000 every month. This help was not restricted to Parsis exclusively; all the needy benefitted from his charity, irrespective of caste or creed. Many institutions of public welfare owed their existence and prosperity to him. 

In 1907 Seth Jamsetjee took up the mission of building a second Tower of Silence in Calcutta. Starting a subscription list with his personal donation of Rs 5,000, he went from house to house and managed to collect a lakh of rupees from the Calcutta Parsis. It was due to his influence that the municipality gave a grant of Rs 27,000 towards the purchase of land for this second Tower of Silence, and he personally bore the expenses of Rs 20,000 towards building it. Seth Madon’s efforts and far-sightedness resulted in bringing together the priests of the Kadimi and Shahanshai sections for the first time in Calcutta. The Kadimi priests performed the religious rites at the time of the foundation and the Shahanshai priests performed the consecration rites. 

In 1912, at the time of the building of the Mehta fire temple, Seth Jamsetjee provided his devoted services. The building attached to the fire temple used as a residence for the priests was built and donated by him and his family to the Atash Adaran. He presented several chandeliers, lamps and carpets for the main prayer hall and also many tables, chairs, large cooking utensils for general use. This generous-hearted Parsi also had the foresight to start funds with initial personal donations to take care of the future maintenance of the Atash Adaran.

Seth Jamsetjee was deeply sympathetic towards the poor Parsi families in Calcutta. In Dharamtalla Street he built Khorshed Madan Mansion at an expense of Rs 1,10,176 in memory of his beloved daughter, Mrs Khorshed Rustomji Maneckji Mehta, who had died on 14 January 1920 during the lifetime of her parents. Seth Jamsetjee donated this house to the Anjuman on the understanding that the flats be rented out to the poor and middle-class Parsi families of Calcutta at a low rent. Further he set aside a sizeable fund for the maintenance of this building. 

He also secured the land for the ‘aramgah’ for the Parsis in Darjeeling and donated funds towards its maintenance. On several occasions he gave donations to the Anjuman on behalf of his friends and relations. Seth Jamsetjee organised several ‘benefit nights’ in many of his cinema houses to collect funds for charities for Parsis as well as other communities. 

In 1923, the British Government honoured him with the award of Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his many cosmopolitan charities. 

About twenty years prior to the advent of cinema on a commercial basis in India, Seth Jamsetjee experimented with this new media and perfected it for public viewing. He was truly a pioneer of the cinema industry in India. 

The young lad of twelve, who started his career as a scene-shifter at a salary of Rs 4 per month, aided by some lucky turn of events and greatly due to his own inherent ability, perseverance and hard labour, became, in the evening of his life, the owner of a hundred cinema houses in India. Seth Jamsetjee’s life is a shining example of Parsi adventure and philanthropy. Upon his death which took place in Calcutta on roz 22 Govad, Mah 10 Dae, Year 1292 y.z., corresponding to 28 June 1923, Calcutta lost a true benefactor of the poor. 

This excerpt from Pioneering Parsis of Calcutta by Prochy N. Mehta has been published with permission from Niyogi Books.

source: http://www.theprint.in / The Print / Home> Page Turner> Book Excerpts / by Prochy N. Mehta / April 04th, 2020

Kolkata: RBI Money Museum promotes people’s knowledge of banking system

About Kolkata / West Bengal, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Records, All

Inaugurated on March 11, 2019, the Museum remains open from 10 am to 5 pm for visitors.

RBI

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Money Museum at Council House Street in Central Kolkata, which opened earlier this year, has been drawing a lot of attention for its unique initiative. The museum has been built with an aim to improve people’s knowledge of the banking system with the help of interactive displays.

Inaugurated on March 11, 2019, the Museum remains open from 10 am to 5 pm for visitors.

The main attention of the museum is a huge tree made using defunct coins and demonetised notes attached with a computer model depicting how money gets transferred to the account digitally.

Money Museum is divided into three sections, the first section depicts the evolution of the barrier system and the use of grains as currency in medieval ages. In continuity, the museum shows the evolution of money in modern times.

Its printing and bond making machines catch the attention of visitors. The bond machine is said to be the only machine which was used to print bonds for different states.

The museum is built to make people aware of the various aspects of banking and the history of RBI, said a senior RBI official.

Interestingly, the museum has everything to entertain children. There is an interactive games centre for kids with an aim to promote financial literacy. 

source: http://www.dnaindia.com / DNA / Home> India / by ANI / July 31st, 2019

Two decades of Sabyasachi

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Leaders, Records, All, World Opinion

The designer rewinds with The Telegraph to pick 20 landmarks that made Sabyasachi the brand that it is today!


Sabyasachi Mukherji / Telegraph file picture
  • Sabyasachi considers his graduation show at National Institute of Fashion Technology, Calcutta, as the first landmark of his career. The show had won him three awards — the Best Design Collection from NIFT Calcutta, the Ritu Kumar Award for Excellence in Textile, and the critic’s award in Confluence, which was the best among students from all the NIFTs. “That gave me my first foray into the fact that I could start becoming a designer, it gave me the confidence and the boost that I will not take up a job but start my own label. If those awards did not come my way I would probably be working in an export house now. It made me believe in myself,” says Sabya.
  • The second was being adjudged best designer at a contest called Khadi Goes International, which won him a scholarship to go to London and an internship with the Victoria and Albert Museum. “It was my first trip outside India… I had never really been anywhere except for Delhi and Bombay. So it was my first international flight. I got a lot of independence, because you know, Bengali kids are very protected, in the middle class you don’t really go out that much, so I didn’t have much exposure. So it opened my eyes about possibilities that there exists a market outside India as well.”
  • Sabya feels that his debut at Lakme India Fashion Week with his collection Kashgar Baazar in 2002 was the third and possibly the biggest landmark. “I became a star overnight. It put a lot of pressure on me. Because I did not even make it to Page 3, I made it to Page 1. I remember, The Telegraph coming up with the headline, ‘Fashion star rises from the east’. It came on the main newspaper, not in a supplement. It became a national news everywhere… I became a big star. It catapulted me into the brand that it is today.”
  • His first Bollywood film, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Black, which won him his first ever national award for costumes, is very special to him. “When he (Bhansali) had first called me for the movie I did not even know who he was and what kind of films he made. I was a big fan of Mr Bachchan and the fact that I got to work with Rani Mukerji and Mr Bachchan in my first film was enormous.”

A scene from the film, Black
  • Retailing from Espee, one of the first multi-designer fashion stores of Calcutta by Sangita Kejriwal and Purnima Chawla, holds a very special spot in Sabya’s heart. “I remember I used to cycle to Espee to see my clothes hanging; I could not believe that a store would actually put my clothes in their window.”
  • Winning the Mercedes-Benz Asia Fashion Award in Singapore got him a ticket to Paris and the chance to intern with global fashion stalwarts Jean Paul Gaultier and Azzedine Alaia. “I came back feeling much more confident about my body of work.”

Sabya’s Spring/Summer 2005 collection Frog Princess / A Telegraph picture
  • His Spring/Summer 2005 collection Frog Princess got him his first ever international store display — Browns in London. “Ms Burstein, who owns Browns, is considered to be a fashion legend. She was the first person to retail John Galliano, Alexander McQueen and all of these people, and legend has it that if Browns puts somebody in the window of the store during London Fashion Week, that person is supposed to be a huge star in the future. She put me on the same platform. I was in the window of Browns during London Fashion Week. Of course, I became a big star in India, I did not become a big star internationally, but she must have seen some potential.” Frog Princess opened many doors and he got a chance to showcase at his first ever international fashion week — Milan Fashion Week. His next collection after that was Snail in Autumn/Winter 2006, with which he had the opportunity of showing at New York Fashion Week.
  • It was Chand Bibi in Autumn/Winter 2007 that saw Sabya flirt with a full Indian show. “Chand Bibi and much later Bridal Sutra were my first taste of how beautiful Indian clothes could be. Full Indian shows I did and I think they paved the way for the future of the brand. And if I were to give a collection for commercial success… Chand Bibi actually paved the way for the brand that Sabyasachi is today. It consolidated my position as an emerging bridal-wear designer.”

The Calcutta store was about 40 per cent retail and 60 per cent experience /
A Telegraph picture
  • The next big landmark was Opium, which he had shown at the India Couture Week in Delhi and which got rave reviews everywhere. Till today, it is one of Sabya’s biggest commercial successes.
  • A big feather in the cap of the brand was his collaborations — Christian Louboutin, Pottery Barn, Asian Paints, Forevermark — each of these have been very big landmarks for the brand. His collaboration Sabyasachi X L’Oreal Paris in 2018 was his foray into beauty.

Another huge collection was Big Love in 2015 / A Telegraph picture
  • Another huge collection was Big Love in 2015, when the brand started flirting with modern Indian clothing. It was still lehngas and everything, but it was a modern concept, which is still continuing today. A big landmark for the brand was introducing the Royal Bengal Tiger logo and it started with Big Love. “I thought the brand was getting bigger and bigger and it was important to anchor the brand with a signage which could replace my name Sabyasachi. And the Royal Bengal Tiger was a beautiful logo and it has become a bestseller because we have started putting it into the waistbands of lehngas, on belts and bags. I think the logo would find many iterations in many things to come.”
  • The brand’s first Cannes red-carpet appearance was with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan wearing a Sabyasachi sari. “That was my first red-carpet moment. She wore a sari of mine at Cannes and the kind of traffic it generated it has never generated that kind of traffic again.” His first public criticism was dressing up Vidya Balan for Cannes and Sabya considers that a landmark, too. “I learnt a very important lesson that when you are a very big brand the onus lies with the public too. So the people who praise you today are the ones who are going to criticise you tomorrow. You need to understand that people are going to criticise and you have got to respect that but you still got to move on and do what you want to do and not get shaken by public criticism. It made me stronger.”
  • The first interior designing project that Sabya did was for Taj 51 Buckingham Gate in London. Sabya designed the hotel’s iconic Cinema Suites.
  • A game-changer for the brand from the communication point of view was opening Sabyasachi Instagram and the first Instagram show that was Firdaus (2016). “I think I changed the format and a lot of big designers ever since have shifted away from doing fashion shows and switched to doing shows on Instagram. So we changed the way fashion communication was done in India.”

Sabya started his jewellery line in 2017 / The Telegraph picture
  • Sabya started his jewellery line in 2017. “I have ambitions to make it India’s number one jewellery brand. I started it two-and-a-half years ago and it is already over-performing. There are conversations with big stores overseas to stock Sabyasachi jewellery.”
  • The year of the big weddings in India saw Sabyasachi become the go-to name for weddings. In a span of a year he did the wardrobes for all the big weddings in India —Anushka Sharma, Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra and then Isha Ambani and Shloka Mehta. 
  • One important personal landmark for Sabya was speaking at House of Commons and going to Buckingham Palace for dinner. “(The experience was) surreal! I had always seen Buckingham Palace from outside, to go inside… I remember I went with Manav (from his team), and Manav pressed his nose against the glass window and said ‘Oh so this is how it feels to look at people outside’. We could see all the people outside staring at the palace and we thought we could have been one of them.”
  • His show Band Baajaa Bride has been one of the most popular programmes on Indian television. It ran for eight seasons and won numerous awards.
  • His foray into the Far East with Lane Crawford and his White Wedding line with them was very important because “I want to own the wedding space not only in India but internationally as well”.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, online edition / Home> Culture / by Smita Roy Chowdhury / April 27th, 2019

Tallest tower gets four more floors

Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Records, All, Travel

The 42, the 61-storeyed residential building on Jawaharlal Nehru Road will now have 65 storeys


The 42 / The Telegraph picture

The 42, the tallest building coming up in Calcutta, is getting taller with the civic body sanctioning the construction of four more floors following a change in a rule related to buildings within a kilometre of the Metro Railway corridor.

The 61-storeyed residential building on Jawaharlal Nehru Road will now have 65 storeys. The tower will be 249m tall, 12m more than the height in the original plan.

The Calcutta Municipal Corporation approved the proposal for the extra floors last year.

“We have started constructing the additional four floors,” said Subir Basu, one of the architects of the project, being developed by a consortium named Chowringhee Residency Pvt Ltd.

Mumbai-based Hafeez Contractor is the other architect.

The civic body could allow the construction of the additional floors because of an amendment to its building rules last year, which allows extra floor-area ratio (FAR) for buildings within 1km of the Metro Railway corridor.

“Fifteen per cent extra FAR is allowed if the road in front of a building is 15m to 24m wide and 20 per cent extra FAR is allowed if the road is more than 24m wide,” a CMC official said.

The 42, the city’s tallest structure, is just a building away from Maidan Metro station and the road in front — Jawaharlal Nehru Road or Chowringhee Road — is nearly 30m wide.

FAR denotes the ratio of a building’s gross floor area to the size of the plot on which it stands. More FAR means opportunity to build more floor space in a building.

“Following the amendment, we have got 20 per cent more FAR,” architect Basu said.

The building plan for The 42 had been approved in 2014. Subsequently, the CMC building rules had been amended twice. The first amendment, in 2017, allowed extra FAR to properties within 500m of the Metro corridor. In 2018, buildings within 1km of the corridor were brought within the ambit of the revised FAR rule.

For the CMC, the additional floor space would result in more revenue.

The work at The 42 site was stalled for some time in 2017 after the Airports Authority of India had imposed a height restriction of 198m on structures within a certain radius of the airport. The order would have resulted in demolition of the top 12 floors of the tower.

The AAI later revised the height limit to 260m and sent a no-objection letter to the developers of The 42 in January 2018.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, online edition / Home> West Bengal / by Subhajoy Roy in Calcutta / March 11th, 2019

Metro rake on way to Calcutta from China

Business & Economy, Records, All, Science & Technology, Travel, World Opinion

The train manufactured by CNR Dalian Locomotive & Rolling Stock Co. is the first of 14 rakes to be shipped to Calcutta


The China-made coaches being loaded on a vessel at the Dalian port / Sourced by the Correspondent

Consignment: Calcutta Metro’s first foreign-made rake

Origin: Dalian, China

Status: In transit

Calcutta Metro’s first foreign-made rake is sailing towards Chittagong on its way to the city from China.

The rake is scheduled to arrive at the Calcutta port on March 1. From there, it will be taken to Metro Railway’s Noapara maintenance base for trial runs, Metro officials said on Thursday.

The train manufactured by CNR Dalian Locomotive & Rolling Stock Co. of China is the first of 14 rakes to be shipped to Calcutta.

The prototype rake was loaded onto cargo vessel Han Zhang at Dalian port.

The vessel, which had set sail from Dalian on February 1, is now sailing towards Chittagong in Bangladesh after touching Singapore. It is scheduled to reach the Sandheads on February 28 and wait for the high tides.

At noon on March 1, when the high tide sets in and the water level rises, the vessel will enter Netaji Subhas Dock at Garden Reach.

The rake, like the existing Metro rail fleet, will have eight coaches.

“The train is being carried in two tiers of the vessel’s deck. Each tier has four coaches,” Metro spokesperson Indrani Banerjee said.

Once the cargo ship anchors at Calcutta port, special cranes will be used to lift the coaches and load them on to a container. “The coaches will be assembled in the port area to form the rake before a diesel engine pulls it to Noapara,” Banerjee said.

Metro will use Eastern Railway’s tracks to roll the new rake into its Noapara facility. The rake will be taken to Majerhat and from there to Chitpore, Belghoria and Dum Dum, before entering Noapara.

Calcutta Metro’s rakes, unlike other Metro trains, run on broad gauge tracks used by passenger and long-distance trains. “So, it’s easier to bring the rake into Noapara from the port using Eastern Railway’s tracks,” a Metro official said.

Engineers from China and Japan would be present when the coaches are unpacked and assembled into a train. Although CNS Dalian has manufactured the train, the components have been made by Toshiba of Japan.

“Once inside the maintenance base, the trials will begin,” Banerjee said.

Metro officials could not say when the first train would start commercial runs.

The 14 Chinese rakes will replace the snag-prone old non-AC Metro rakes and reduce the burden on the existing AC rakes.

The new rakes will also be used in the expanded network of Metro. The Noapara-Airport and Noapara-Baranagar-Dakshineswar lines are scheduled to be commissioned by next year.

The Chinese company is manufacturing 14 low-maintenance rakes for Calcutta Metro, breaking the monopoly of the Integral Coach Factory in Perambur, near Chennai, where the current snag-prone AC trains were built.

The trains will run at an average speed of 65kmph, 10kmph faster than the rakes in use. The aerodynamic design of the rakes will help them hit peak speed faster than the existing ones and reduce energy consumption too, the Metro spokesperson said. The doors will be 20cm wider than that of the existing AC rakes.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, online edition / Home> West Bengal / by Sanjay Mandal in Calcutta / February 22nd, 2019

7 floors of organic yield

Agriculture, Business & Economy, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature

A market cum food court is being planned in New Town


Baskets of organic vegetables on NKDA’s CB Market terrace. / The Telegraph picture

The West Bengal State Agricultural Marketing Board has tied up with the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) to start an organic market between the Harley Davidson showroom and Eco Park. The name of the market will called Joibo Haat meaning organic market in Bengali.

Minister of the agricultural marketing department, Tapan Dasgupta, laid the foundation stone on January 17 in presence of ministers Sujit Bose and Purnendu Basu.

The plot, that has been leased from NKDA, measures around 14.77 cottahs, the building will be a G+6 one and the project should take two years to complete. The estimated cost is Rs 11.40 crore and funds are being raised from the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana.

“People are falling sick these days due to chemicals in fertilisers. Going organic is a much safer option,” Dasgupta told The Telegraph Salt Lake. “Also, we wanted to give a platform to those involved in organic farming.”

According to an official of the state agricultural marketing board, they have already called for a tender to build the market. “We expect construction to start within the next few weeks,” said the official.

Organic supermarket

The market will have separate floors for a variety of organically grown fruits, vegetables, rice, pulses, flowers and even honey. The idea is to create an organic hub in New Town. According to the officer, the organic produce will not only taste better but will also be healthier.

“We want to give a super market-like experience to shoppers who come here. Everything stocked will be organically produced with zero use of chemical fertilisers or pesticides. All racks will be properly labelled,” the official said.

Organic produce growers and self help groups from all over the state will be welcome to showcase and sell their produce too.

“The farmers’ markets organised in Calcutta get good response from both buyers and sellers so we believe there is a ready market for organic products. “Organic farming is being undertaken in large scale in North and South 24-Parganas and we’ve observed that people of New Town are ready to pay higher prices for quality products. So setting shop in New Town would guarantee more buyers,” the officer said.

The ground, first and second floors will house the organic market. The third floor will house an organic food court. The fourth floor will have training centre for skill development. The fifth floor will house an advanced laboratory and office. The sixth floor will have a guesthouse.


Gourds hanging from the overhead structures. / The Telegraph picture

The laboratory will not only conduct research on organic farming but also verify whether a vegetable is organic or not.

This will be the first laboratory in the state to conduct such tests. Currently, to conduct such tests samples are sent to other states. This adds to expenses.

The laboratory will also work to develop organic fertilisers and the facility will have regular workshops to encourage farmers from the villages to shift to organic methods.

Sikkim has managed to become India’s first fully organic state by implementing organic practices of farming on around 75,000 hectares of agricultural land. It had taken Sikkim around 12 years to achieve this feat and Bengal is now taking baby steps towards organic methods.

Farm on your rooftop

Debashis Sen, the chairman of NKDA, said such a market in New Town would give plenty of opportunities for residents to buy fresh produce and also motivate them to have roof-top gardens where vegetables can be grown.

“We are already in talks with agencies to develop rooftop farms on individual plots and buildings. Farming and gardening on the roof of a building will enhance the look of the terrace and provide quality food to residents. It will also keep the building cooler in summer,” said Sen.

NKDA runs a farm on the terrace of CB Market near Novotel and Sen says hydroponics and other alternative methods for container gardening are being used there extensively. This farm was started by Owl Spirit, a company formed by the NGO Uthnau, in 2017. They grew gourds, spinach, beans, cucumbers, carrots, brinjals etc in baskets up there.

At present, they are working on tower planters at Karigori Bhavan opposite Uniworld City. These are containers stacked one above the other and they are growing brinjals, chillies, gourds and spinach on trial basis there.

“We have been approached by the NKDA to help residents grow organic food in their balconies and terrace,” says director of Owl Spirit, Kunal Deb. “Chemical use in commercial crops has spread to such an extent that even if you have money today you can’t buy healthy food. It’s best if you can grow your own food then.”

Hari Mitti is another agency that has been approached. This Sector V-based company prepares crates of fruit, vegetable and herbs to sell to residents. “The nascent stages of plants are the most delicate. We shall look after the plant at this stage and hand them over when they are older and hardy. We also provide lifelong maintenance of the plants,” says Suhrid Chandra, the founder.

That there is a demand for organic farming is clear from the fact that Hari Mitti has started managing 82 rooftops over the past two years. “If a family takes in 30-35 crates, it won’t need to buy any vegetables from the market besides potatoes and onions.”

Both the agencies try to avoid using soil. Instead they use coco peat, vermin compost, hydroponics etc. “These options are lighter than soil and also, if we use soil, no matter where we source it from, it will be contaminated with chemicals,” says Chandra.

But the agencies are wary of practical problems. In 2014, Owl Spirit had started an urban farm on the terrace of Siddha Town in Rajarhat. They had to discontinue after nine months after residents refused to pay for its maintenance. “Residents can also complain about insects, those living on the top floor may complain of disturbance,” says Deb. “So we have requested minister Firhad Hakim to allow us to carry out urban farming atop government buildings.”

Residents are keen to give organic farming a shot. “I shall be retiring in six months and thereafter would love to indulge in gardening. When I moved to New Town I had about 25 pots but most of them didn’t survive. With help from these experts I would love to grow lemons, chillies and other fruits and vegetables,” says Chaita Mukherjee, a resident of Sree apartments.

Inputs from Sudeshna Banerjee

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Online edition / Home> West Bengal / by Snehal Sengupta and Brinda Sarkar in Calcutta / February 15th, 2019