India succeeds in obtaining rare original print of talkie version of ‘Devdas’
In a priceless acquisition, the National Film Archive of India (NFAI), after decades of negotiation, has finally succeeding in obtaining a rare original print of the country’s first talkie version of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay classic novella, Devdas, from the Bangladesh government on Monday.
The 1935 version was filmed in Bengali and was directed by the legendary Pramathesh Barua, who cast himself in the title role of the doomed, narcissistic lover. Mr. Barua’s film was a blistering critique of Indian feudal mores and customs.
Such was Mr. Barua’s passion for the literary classic that he remade it twice, helming it in Hindi in 1936 with iconic singer K.L. Saigal in the role of Devdas and in 1937 again in Assamese, with the renowned theatre actor-playwright Phani Sarma in the titular role.
All Indian prints of this version were lost decades ago in a fire that destroyed the Kolkata-based New Theatres, which produced this film.
A severely mangled copy of the film, the only one, was traced by the NFAI to the Bangladeshi Film archives in the 1970s.
A Bangladeshi delegation led by Ministry of Information Secretary Martuza Ahmad met with NFAI Director Prakash Magdum and handed over the print of the film.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Cities> Kolkata / by Shoumojit Banerjee / Pune – August 18th, 2015
Winners of the first edition of Siddha and Camellia Group present ABP Ananda’s Sera Bangali, Kalker Sera Ajke, 2015, at GD Birla Sabhagar on Thursday
(From left) Artist Pitambar Khan, International Junior Science Olympiad winner Debaditya Pramanik, shooter Ayonika Paul, actor Riddhi Sen, writer Ritika Nath and singer Lagnajita Chakraborty. The award salutes talented young Bengalis in the field of science, art and culture. Picture by Pradip Sanyal
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta,India / Front Page> Calcutta> Story / Friday – August 21st, 2015
How did Satyajit Ray cast Soumitra Chatterjee in ‘Apur Sansar’ ? How did Chhabi Biswas teach Chatterjee to say his dialogues? How did Tapan Sinha hand-hold him to teach him how to walk properly while preparing to act in ‘ Kshudhita Pashan’ ? On Wednesday evening, the 80-year-old Dadasaheb Phalke award winner came over to the TOI office for a chat and effortlessly dug into his life to relive the memories of his screen journey. Added to that was his rendition of two Tagore poems and a special autograph for the TOI family. It was one of the most treasured events at the TOI office in the recent past.
Director Shiboprasad Mukhopadhyay, who was the anchor of the evening, started off remembering how he and co-director Nandita Roy had approached Chatterjee to do a one-scene role in ‘Alikh Sukh’ that later on went on to become the heart of the movie. ” After hearing our script, he immediately asked us when we would begin shooting. That response was a huge gift for us. After ‘Alikh Sukh’ , we went on to do ‘ Belaseshe’ with him,” Mukhopadhyay said, before asking Chatterjee to share in his own inimitable style how Ray had got around to casting him as Apu.
Fascinating recollections of his tryst with Ray, how he has lost a diary that he had penned on Apu, some known and a lot unknown tales of his interaction with the master director flew thick and fast. ” When Tapan Sinha had offered to cast me in ‘ Kshudhita Pashan’ after watching ‘Apur Sansar’ , I had first told Manik-da (Ray) about it. Manik-da emphatically insisted that I do the film. Tapan-da was so methodical in his teaching. He had got the sets ready some 25 days in advance so that I could master the gait of my character,” Chatterjee said, before adding how Ray and Sinha had so many things in common.
” Neither of them wanted to repeat themselves. Manik-da was so protective about his actors that even the most insignificant actor would feel that his contribution was valuable. He treated everyone as equals. Tapan-da also knew how to get the best out of his actors. They both liked a sublime form of acting,” he pointed out.
Not many are aware of an incident when Ray, Uttam Kumar and Chatterjee had been given the responsibility by Tollywood to talk to the government to address the power-cut issues in the studios. ” While travelling together, Manik-da had admitted to us that he had stopped writing scripts for elderly actors after Chhabi Biswas had passed away. I was young then. On a lighter vein, I had told Manik-da that the day Uttam-da and I grow old, he might start thinking of writing movies with elderly actors.”
While Chatterjee continued with his talk, Mukhopadhyay requested him to repeat how Uttam Kumar had taught him to be unapologetic about asking for retakes if he wasn’ t happy with a scene. ” When Uttam-da asked for retakes, it seemed as if he was doing the director a favour by asking so,” Chatterjee smiled.
Another story on how Ray had drawn an impromptu replica of the postal stamp on an inland letter for ‘Sonar Kella’ was no less exciting. While Ray stories, obviously, took up most of the chat, Chatterjee also spoke at length about his interaction with Biswas. Stories of how everyone, including director Ajoy Kar, would be petrified of Biswas’ commanding personality on the sets were punctuated by micro-acting sessions of Chatterjee showing how exactly Biswas would react on the sets. ” Chhabi-da had a very sharp memory. Yet, on one day on the sets of ‘Atal Joler Ahoban’ , he just couldn’ t get the shot right. And everytime he got it wrong, he started scolding others around him,” Chatterjee recalled.
Chatterjee had understood that something was irritating the legendary actor. Risking everything, he had walked up to Biswas and told him to unbutton his coat and breathe easy while rehearsing. ” Imagine my audacity — I was asking an actor of his stature to do this! But he agreed to listen to me. Another day, he even acted out my scene and mouthed my dialogues to teach me how to get my act right,” he said.
On yet another occasion, Biswas had appeared a bit depressed on the sets. ” I asked him the reason, and he said he wanted to bid adieu to acting. I said he shouldn’ t think that way because there weren’t any crown princes around to take his place. He just looked at me and said: ‘ The crown prince is preparing for his coronation.’ ”
Biswas apart, the conversation also veered towards his assessment of Bikas Roy. Acknowledging his greatness as an actor, Chatterjee, however, mentioned Roy was at times trapped in mannerisms.
The session concluded with Chatterjee’ s rendition of ‘ Jhorer Din’ and ‘ Nimontron’ . As his baritone echoed in the room, the audience was left spellbound. Before leaving with the promise to return, Chatterjee left his stamp on canvas with the lines: ‘ Ki likhbo lekhar kichhu nai/ Sada kagoj bhoriye taate soi korlam tai’ .
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kolkata / by Priyanka DasGupta, TNN / August 20th, 2015
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will arrive tomorrow morning for a seven-hour visit to attend the funeral of President Pranab Mukherjee’s wife Suvra, who passed away today.
Hasina will land at 8am and fly back at 3pm, after meetings with Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his residence. She will attend the last rites at 13 Talkatora Road, the official residence of Pranab’s son and Congress MP Abhijit.
Pranab had visited Bangladesh on his first foreign trip as President in 2013.
Suvra, 74, breathed her last at 10.51am in the intensive care unit of the Army Hospital-Research and Referral, where she was admitted on August 7 after complaining of breathlessness. She is survived by, apart from Pranab, sons Abhijit and Indrajit and daughter Sharmistha, who is a Congress spokesperson.
Vice-President Hamid Ansari, Modi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Najma Heptulla, junior minister Babul Supriyo and CPM MP Brinda Karat were among those who paid their respects.
Mamata Banerjee arrived from Calcutta with minister Subrata Mukherjee and MPs Abhishek Banerjee, Subhendu Adhikari, Dinesh Trivedi and Derek O’Brien to offer her condolences. When she reached Talkatora Road at 9.45pm, the road was cordoned off as the President was at his son’s residence. The Bengal chief minister left her car behind and walked to the house.
Mamata had cut short a Trinamul meeting at Nazrul Manch this evening to leave for Delhi.
“Today, we have lost someone very close to us, someone who was a part of our family, a part of our home. Suvra boudi has seen many of us grow up. I will forever be indebted to her for the love I have received from her,” Mamata said.
“I have known boudi for more than three decades. She was simple, loveable and a caring housewife,” she added.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta,India / Front Page> Nation> Story / by Our Bureau / Wednesday – August 19th, 2015
Outgoing French Consul-General in Kolkata Fabrice Etienne, whose second innings in the city comes to an end this month, celebrates the cultural bond that links the city with Paris, but bemoans the fading French connection with Chandernagore.
Q. Your first posting was in this very city 20 monsoons ago. What was your first impression back then?
A. I was first impressed by the excessive sides of Calcutta — too many people, too many cars, too much noise, too much heat, too much rain. The old, and often decayed, colonial buildings of central Calcutta and what remained of the palaces of north Calcutta left its mark. I had the feeling I had been transported to a place rich with a thousand stories.
Q. Cut to 2015, how much has the city changed in your eyes?
When I first returned to Kolkata in 2004, I was pleasantly surprised — the streets were cleaner, some shopping malls had come up, some flyovers were built, some old buildings renovated and repainted that gave the city a more modern look. In 2012, this impression was confirmed and yet at the same time, I felt the very soul of Kolkata was still very much there, and the soul of Kolkata, is its people and the great culture they carry within them.
Q. Do you have any bitter memories during your stay here?
A. Road accidents that have struck my Bengali friends. Nothing really has been done to improve the road conditions in India—it is not only a Kolkata issue—and reduce the number of fatalities. This bothers me to no end, especially because the social and economic gains are directly related to a fluid traffic flow. It is true for environment protection. And of course, I do feel a little bitter about the lack of any concrete fruition of the projects earmarked in my tenure between France and Bengal.
Q. What has been your impression on the former French colonies of Chandernagare. Do you think the preservation work is satisfactory? If not, what are your suggestions?
A. As a Frenchman, I am of course much attached to the remnants of our past in this former trading outpost. The banks of the Hooghly are very nice and I feel something from the French “art de vivre” (art of living) each time I go there. I sadly do not see any serious preservation work done there, and it is even sadder when you think about the huge tourism potential of this area. Every 10 years or so, the government shows an intention to develop cultural tourism here by improving connectivity, renovating heritage building, promoting this unique destination. Nothing takes place afterwards. A few years ago, the French embassy commissioned an inventory of the French heritage building in Chandernagore to Indian architect Aishwarya Tipnis. Of the 100 building she listed, many have been destroyed. Tipnis, with the support of French NGO Vieilles Maisons Francaises is digitalizing the database.
Q. During a meeting with the CM, you expressed France’s interest in investing in Bengal. What’s the progress?
A. I cannot speak on behalf of the many French companies in India. It is true certain companies did not consider Bengal as the best possible place to invest in their fields. The ABG-LDA case in Haldia did not contribute towards sending the right signals back home. Fortunately, there are some success stories: The Accor group opened its first hotel, Novotel, a few months ago and plans to open other hotels in near future; Decathlon (sport equipment) will open stores here in the next few months.
Q. What in your opinion has been your greatest achievement as Consul-General?
As Consul General, that France is back in Kolkata and now active in a wide range of subjects of bilateral interests — culture thanks to Alliance Francaise du Bengale, students exchanges thanks to Campus France, tourism thanks to a very effective visa section that processes all applications for Indian tourists within 48 hours, science — and many others areas of mutual interests and cooperation building blocks laid down in the past few years.
Nothing really has been done to improve the road conditions in India… The same is true for environment protection. I do feel a little bitter about the lack of any concrete fruition of the projects earmarked during my tenure between France and Bengal
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kolkata / by Showmak Ghosal, TNN / August 20th, 2015
Sanjiv Goenka, chairman of RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, speaks to youngsters at the Yi-India@75-CII Confab
Sanjiv Goenka, chairman of RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group and a former president of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), urged the youth to dare and dream big at an interactive session at Yi-India@75-CII Confab, The Importance of Youth Entrepreneurship in Shaping India’s Economy, in association with The Telegraph.
Edited excerpts from his speech.
Entrepreneurship
It is not the preserve of people who have capital. Today’s technology, today’s venture capital funding… just make sure if you have a good idea, if you are organised, you will get capital.
All you need to do is believe in yourself, believe in your idea, dare to dream and dream big, don’t dream small. And if you do that…. I think there’s no stopping you.
Entrepreneurship is about trying something interesting, innovative and succeeding in it. Whoever would have thought, 10 years ago, that Anjan Chatterjee (of Mainland China) would have a valuation of Rs 1,000 crore ….
Look at Anamika Khanna… today she does profits of Rs 50 crore…. Look at Sabyasachi Mukherjee, he does profits of Rs 50-60 crore…. But 10 years ago they didn’t have that much capital. So it’s possible.
The youth
I think the great difference between us and the next generation is impatience. You can call it speed. You can call it a very quick desire to succeed. There is a kind of confidence, which stems from knowledge that you all have, access to knowledge that you all have, which borders on arrogance. You have minds that challenge convention, that challenge routine. You are not scared of the unknown. You are not scared of an unpleasant answer. You have minds that dare to dream and that has the confidence to succeed.
When I interacted with students at IIT Kharagpur… when I interact with students at IMI (International Management Institute), I actually feel a sense of great pride, a sense of great optimism, because the minds are so sharp.
And I think we as elders have the responsibility to give you the freedom of operation, freedom to think, freedom to actually just go out and perform without being bound by convention, rules or regulation.
If you are scared of making wrong decisions, you will not land up making decisions. Out of 10, if you get 6 right, you’ve done very well. I mean 6:4… 6 right, 4 wrong is a fantastic ratio.
First day at CESC
When you are 27 you are somewhat stupid… not in this generation, but in our generation certainly. It was this whole thing of wanting to prove to myself that I can turn a city that is notorious for power cuts into a city that doesn’t have power cuts. I believed I could do it.
It took me longer than I thought… but I must tell you when I entered the CESC office the first day…. At the building’s entrance, the workers had built a funeral pyre. They had an effigy… they kept saying ‘Sanjiv Goenka murdabad’.
When I entered the office, they lit the funeral pyre. So that was my baptism…. It was horrific to say the least. I was viewed with suspicion. I was viewed as somebody who was a rich man’s son and therefore an upstart. I was greeted with hostility.
I must confess I got fazed; I didn’t let anyone realise it, excepting my wife…. The fact that today Calcutta is free of loadshedding gives me the greatest amount of satisfaction. And I think somewhere up there, my father must be pleased.
Renewable energy
When you look at solar or wind (energy), you are not dependent on anyone to supply you fuel. Today, coal is one of the most precious things and it’s an expensive thing and thereby it means that the power that you generate from coal will be expensive.
Technology is bringing down costs…. Give it another couple of years and costs will go down further. I think that’s the stage when solar and wind (energy) will take off in a big way….
The challenge there will be land…. With the new land acquisition bill, as it is proposed, it’s going to be difficult or almost impossible to get land; and if you don’t get land, solar (energy) will certainly become out of the question.
Music World was set up for a purpose and I can’t afford carrying on businesses that make losses. Nobody buys physical CDs, and cassettes and DVDs anymore…. It’s not what one can afford to do; it’s about what is sensible to be done.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta,India / Front Page> Calcutta> Story / by A Staff Reporter / Monday – August 17th, 2015
Finally, the Mamata Banerjee government has initiated the process of bestowing heritage tag to the house where Vande Mataram creator Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay lived during his stints as deputy magistrate and deputy collector. The house is in ruins and desperately needs restoration. Even as Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) has sanctioned Rs 5 crore for it, but work can’t be started unless the building is included in the heritage list.
Ten years ago, the house-owner, Pranab Mukherjee, sold the house to a developer. Just then, locals and an NGO, Howrah Citizen’s Forum, put up stiff resistance and stalled demolition of the property.
On Tuesday, at the behest of the chief minister, a Heritage Commission team visited the premises to start the tagging process. Basudeb Malik, OSD, heritage commission, told TOI, “Although the house doesn’t have much architectural significance, it is associated with a great man. It must be protected from falling apart, at any cost. We are looking for substantial records to prove that the creator of Anandamath had lived here.”
Chattopadhyay wrote the iconic novel became synonymous with the struggle for Independence and banned by the British. The song, Vande Mataram, originally a Sanskrit stotra personifying India as Mother Goddess, was first published in this novel. Bipin Chandra Pal named his patriotic journal after Vande Mataram in August 1906. Lala Lajpat Rai also published a journal of the same name. Chattopadhyay is also regarded as a proponent of Bengal’s literary renaissance for his versatile writing.
Efforts have been on to have Chattopadhyay’s stay in Howrah (between 1881 and 1886) officially recognized and commemorated. But confusion has been prevailing over his residences at 218 Panchnantala Road (about 2 km off Howrah Station) and 212 Panchanatala Road, in the same locality.
Pranab Mukherjee (63), who lives on the first floor of 218 Panchantala Road, that threatens to fall apart any day, said, “We had no idea that the building was associated with Bankim Chandra. If the state government wants to take it over, me and my brother and sister who co-own the house, should be compensated.” Chunks of concrete keep peeling off the house, forcing the other two Mukherjee siblings, Prodyut and Protima, to move out. In 1964, they had bought it from one Jaladhar Mitra, who, in turn, had bought it in 1936. Locals have turned the 17-cottah land in front of the house at 218 Panchanantala Road into a park and named after the litterateur. Mukherjee alleged, “The land was part of the same property, but the local club has encroached it.”
Howrah mayor Rathin Chakraborti said, “We have sanctioned Rs 5 crore for the restoration. Now we are waiting for the government to announce the heritage staus.”
Howrah Citizen’s Forum coordinator N Sarkar said, “During his first stint as an administrator in Howrah in 1881, Bankim Chandra would travel from Kolkata to his workplace. He later shifted to the rented house at 218 Panchanatala Road, and lived there during his second stint in Howrah in 1883. This tenure was his longest among the three.” For the third time, Bankim joined as first class deputy magistrate and deputy collector after being transferred from Bhadrak in Odisha on July 10, 1886. He travelled to Howrah every day but had not vacated the rented house at Panchanantala.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kolkata / by Ajanta Chakraborty & Rupak Banerjee, TNN / August 15th, 2015
Women commandoes of the BSF at the India-Bangladesh border in Nadia. Picture by Pranab Debnath
Gede (Nadia) :
For the first time, women commandos of the Border Security Force (BSF) have been patrolling the south Bengal frontier on the India-Bangladesh border in Nadia’s Krishnagar sector.
The deployment of the women personnel in night patrolling comes in the wake of security alerts claiming terror outfits can use young women in possible attacks around Independence Day.
Women BSF personnel have done “camp duty” at night in Punjab, which meant guarding the gates. There have not been reports, however, of women personnel being used in anti-sabotage or active patrolling in the night.
It is certainly the first time women are patrolling the border in Bengal.
The BSF began to think differently following the blasts in Burdwan’s Khagragarh on October 2, 2014, in which women played a key role. Razia Biwi, a homemaker, had allegedly played a key role in the Burdwan blast and in weaving a terror network.
In addition, there were reports that Bangladeshi terror outfits were recruiting young homemakers and training them.
“Intelligence inputs indicate that women with terror links may try to sneak in in the guise of cattle smugglers. Bangladeshi terror outfits such as the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) are quite active in the border areas. They have recruited young homemakers and given them terror training. It is not easy for a male BSF officer to get into a combat with or frisk them. So women personnel were pressed into action,” said a BSF officer in Gede.
The BSF deployed the women in key stretches of the 235km sector in North 24-Parganas and Nadia.
For the past three days, women constables of the BSF’s 113th battalion posted in the Gede area of Nadia are on their toes round the clock along the India-Bangladesh border.
Three young women are in their camouflage uniform. They hold the sophisticated Insas and Beretta guns in their hands and night-vision cameras to their eyes. They are guarding the international rail tracks connecting Gede with Darshana in Bangladesh. The Indo-Bangla train, Maitree Express, uses these tracks.
“This is a challenging job. I have been enjoying it,” said a woman constable who was recruited in 2012.
A woman constable and a male constable share the same duties, BSF authorities said.
BSF South Bengal Frontier inspector-general Sandeep Salunke said: “A woman constable is supposed to perform all the duties of their male counterparts. Women have been trained to undertake any type of operation. So it is quite natural that they be engaged in night patrolling too.”
BSF started recruiting women constables in 2009 for the Punjab and Bengal borders. At present, it has over 2,000 women personnel, who have been given commando training. The force recently recruited 27 officers in the rank of assistant commandos through the UPSC.
Senior BSF officers said that even though there was no strict rule against engaging women commandos in night patrol, the force had nevertheless avoided deploying them frequently.
“In Bengal, they are being deployed the first time in patrolling and area dominance during night,” a senior BSF officer said.
The presence of women constables has already made a difference, officials here said.
“Many local villagers are involved in smuggling. They often try to smuggle small fertiliser bags, drugs, gold biscuits, silver and cattle. We were earlier unable to frisk the women involved. Villagers often raise allegations of molestation against our male jawans. But things have changed once women constables have been deployed along the border,” said the officer.
“Direct noticeable involvement of women involved in suspected criminal activities in border areas has also come down largely as women BSF personnel undertake random combing of villages along the border,” the officer added.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta, India / Front Page> Bengal> Story / by Subhasish Chaudhri / Sunday – August 16th, 2015
(From left) Isha Kapoor, Aishwarya Jena, Pragya Jena and Ankita Dokania. Picture by Anindya Shankar Ray
Two nations. Seven-hundred-and-fifty volunteers. One lakh food packets for the hungry and homeless.
An army of students and young professionals from across India, including 50 from Calcutta, will distribute food in slums of India and Pakistan on August 14-15 in a unique Independence Day initiative aimed at spreading a message of peace and friendship.
The city chapter of the Robin Hood Army, as they call themselves, is led by Ankita Dokania, a fashion designer, and Chitvan Jaipuria, a wedding and event planner. Also part of the group is Green Oscar winner Ashwika Kapur. “I have been part of the army since its inception. I always do my bit to spread the word when I am not in the jungles,” she said.
It all began in August 2014 with Neel Ghose, a city boy who works with Zomato in Delhi, teaming up with colleague Anand Sinha to form the Robin Hood Army in Delhi. “We procured excess food from restaurants to distribute among the poor. It’s been fulfilling,” said Neel over the phone from Delhi.
The army now operates in 12 cities, including Calcutta, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. The city chapter was born in October 2014 with five of Neel’s friends. Today, there are 50 members and several more volunteers.
In February this year, Neel got in touch with a Pakistani friend who helped form the Lahore and Karachi chapters of the army. Thus was born the idea of commemorating Independence Day. The Calcutta army plans to distribute over 4,000 food packets among slum dwellers in the Kidderpore, Gariahat, Southern Avenue, Park Circus and other areas.
Isha Kapoor, a third-year student of JD Birla College, joined the movement three months ago. “For I-Day I have mobilised my friends to distribute food in their neighbourhoods,” she said. Aishwarya Jena, a third-year student of microbiology at St. Xavier’s College, has been marshalling forces, too.
Pragya Jena, an entrepreneur, remembers a boy who refused to take a packet of khichdi because he wanted another one for his dog. “Such life’s lessons are precious,” she said.
The movement has garnered corporate support. “We hope to involve more people. But for now we want to make people smile on both sides of the border,” Ankita said.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta,India / Front Page> Calcutta> Story / by Chandreyee Ghose / Friday – August 14th, 2015
Midnight on July 31 had ushered in a new freedom in Cooch Behar’s 51 Bangladeshi enclaves. It took the wail of a newborn 12 days later to underline what it actually meant. Named Azad, he is the first baby born in free territory -with his parents’ real names, and calling what was no-man’s land his home.
When TOI had met the pregnant 18-year-old Jharna Biwi a fortnight ago, the Bangladeshi enclave of Poator Kuthi in Cooch Behar was excited because this baby would be special. At 6.30am on Wednesday , Azad was born at Bamonhat primary health centre. Never has the birth of a newborn -to a teenage mother -been the cause of such joy in any enclave.
Gone are the days when even quacks, what to speak of doctors, would refuse to deliver babies of enclave residents.Would-be-mothers would suffer the ignominy of lying about their husbands’ name.Azad’s elder brother, born four years ago, was named Saheed (martyr). Grandfather Mujibur Ali is ecstatic but cannot forget the shame and agony of half a century .”When Saheed was born in 2011, we had to send Jharna to her maternal home in Dinhata’s Picnicdhora, evading BSF patrols. We had to lie about her husband’s name and give a fake Indian address just to get her into hospital. Not any more,” Ali said. “Azad signals the new dawn,” he said, before hurrying off to offer sweets to visitors flocking to his home.
When Jharna felt pre-mature labour pains in the predawn hours, her brother-inlaw Meharul and mother-inlaw Jamina Biwi took her in a van rickshaw to the primary health care centre, half-anhour away . This in itself would be a huge task a fortnight ago. Being Bangladeshis, they couldn’t step out of their villages for fear of being hounded by BSF or police.And getting admission in a state-run health facility was out of the question.
As Poator Kuthi savoured the sweets of Azad’s birth, 70year-old Mansoor Ali recalled how Asima Biwi was denied treatment in 2010.
“Nearly 3,500 enclave residents braved a nine-hour stand-off with police and BSF to get her treated at Dinhata sub-divisional hospital. The administration relented only when they realized the protest could snowball into a huge agitation. Her baby was born that day and we named him Jehad (struggle),” said Mansoor, president of Poator Kuthi enclave exchange committee. Mansoor said, “Jehad’s birth may have brought our plight before the people but it didn’t change our way of life. Expectant mothers had to fudge their husbands’ name (give an Indian’s name) and address to get admitted to hospitals. Nothing can be a bigger insult to a married woman than to lie about the father of her child.” He added, “But this morning, I held Jharna’s hand and told her to go with her head held high and tell them that she belongs to Poator Kuthi, India, and her husband’s name is Jamidul Ali. She did.”
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> India / by Kamalendu Bhadra, TNN / August 13th, 2015
