Monthly Archives: April 2016

Oldest NGO finds a new home after a century

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

Kolkata:

After 100 years, the Bengal Home Industries Association has finally moved into its own home.

Founded in 1916 by a group of intellectuals to give a boost to the swadeshi movement, the association had to run around from one rented place to another all these years. Touted as the country’s first NGO to promote Bengal’s handloom and handicraft, the association has bought its own outlet and reinvented itself to be in tune with the changing times.

The swanky outlet off Rashbehari Avenue is now ready to compete with other pan-India brands that promote handloom and handicraft. The focus has changed too: items for sale have been designed as lifestyle products to attract the urban cli entele. There is no shift from the basic theme of promoting village products, only that they are more stylish now.

In 1914, Rabindranath Tagore’s nephew, a prominent master of the Bengal school himself, Gaganendranath Tagore and his brother, Aba nindranath Tagore, along with some friends like Burdwan Maharaja Bijoy Chandra Mahtab and the royal family of Coochbehar, formed the association as a symbol of swadeshi. The idea behind forming the Bengal Home Industries Association was that it was not enough to just reject foreign goods but to also encourage our own weavers and craftsmen to make indigenous products. The association’s job was two-pronged: to network among village craftsmen and collect and sell their products.

The artist duo of Gaganendranath Tagore and Abanindranath Tagore added value and novelty to the products, making them a hit even with the elite clientele.

One such patron was Carmichael Duck. The story goes that Lady Carmichael -wife of the then Bengal Governor -who was close to members of the association, asked Gaganendranath to create some interesting designs that could be used on blocks. “Gagan Tagore created a motif of a duck created out of a simple geometric pattern.The design became popular overnight and was used widely for block printing on scarves, stoles and sarees,” said Nandini Mahtab, the “queen” of the Burdwan royal family and a member of the association.

OldestNGOkolkata13apr2016

The Bengal Home Industries Association has tied up with Banglanatak.com, a revivalist organization that is working on indigenous tangible and intangible art forms in Bengal. It is helping the association to use art forms, such as `patachitra’, on textiles to make lifestyle products like cushion covers, throws, runners and even tshirts and trousers.

The association was famous for items like its Portuguese cutwork and shadow work and a unique weave called Roshanara, which is created by mixing rayon and cotton yarn. “We have once again trained our artisans in these arts. While the Portuguese cutwork in home linen is available in our new store, Roshanara will make its entry any day now,” Mahtab added.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kolkata / by Jhimli Mukherjee / April 11th, 2016

US scholar on tea trail to dig up treasure trove

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Education, NRI's / PIO's, World Opinion

RomitaKOLKATA13apr2016

Kolkata:

A research on the treasure trove of tea in India has earned an associate professor of art history at Syracuse University, with roots in Kolkata, the prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship 2016.

Romita Ray is not oblivious to the crisis ailing the tea industry, but she is working to strike a balance between the desolation associated with the sector and the shining aspect of the golden brew. “These (starvation deaths at tea estates) are a reality of the industry, but one needs to balance the bleakness with identifying tea as a botanic exotic. After all, it’s a living history that continues to connect Kolkata and Britain even after so many years,” said the Loreto House alumna who migrated to the US many years ago.

Her unique research is set to culminate in a book, tentatively titled ‘From Two Leaves and a Bud: The Visual Cultures of Tea Consumption in Colonial and Modern India’.

This will be the second literary attempt by the Yale University scholar, who specializes in art and architecture of the British empire in India, her earlier work being ‘Under the Banyan Tree: Relocating the picturesque in British India’.

Her passion for the evergreen shrub seems to run in the family, her great grandfather, Tarini Prosad, being the founder chairman of the Indian Tea Planters’ Association in Jalpaiguri.

Her current project, funded by the exalting and year-long National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship (NEH) 2016, will be her second literary attempt. NEH is one of the largest funders of humanities programs in the United States, and highly competetive.

WhatsBrewingKOLKATA12apr2016

Ray now is set to deliver her first “tea talk” in Kolkata on Monday at Victoria Memorial Hall, when she is going to deliver a lecture on ‘Botanical treasure, ornamental wonder: Aestheticizing tea in Britain and Colonial Calcutta’.

She will focus on how Chinese tea, once a botanical novelty in the 18th-century Britain, crystalized into a paradigm of the “tea time”, a fashionable culinary ritual in the 21st century Britain.

“Calcutta’s (‘Kolkata’ doesn’t roll off Ray’s tongue so easily) connection with tea goes back to the 18th century when East India Company started the Canton tea trade,” said Ray, explaining why she had to be in Kolkata, away from her classes in the US, for her research.

“My book is about the visual cultures and landscapes… it is about consumption of tea in colonial and post-colonial India. It looks at the tea plant as an ornamental curiosity, the tea planter (British and Indian) as a pioneer figure whose portraits are rarely discussed, and the tea plantation as a multi-layered landscape of cultivation and leisure.”

The book will not be launched soon. “Academic books take a long time to research and write,” Ray said. The task involved extensive research at museums, archives, private collections, tea estates and libraries in the UK, India and Sri Lanka.

Being the epicentre of the Indian tea industry, Kolkata houses the Tea Research Association, Indian Tea Association and the Tea Board, along with auction house J Thomas, and even tea companies McLeod Russell and Goodricke are headquartered here.

This is where she will find the East India Company records.

“The Shibpur botanic garden is a mine of information,” said Ray, who has visited Assam, Darjeeling and the Dooars and intends to travel to south India as well as Sri Lanka.

She also intends to dig out family records with the help of multi-generations of tea families.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kolkata / April 10th, 2016

Forward Bloc veteran Asok Ghosh dies at 93 in Kolkata

Leaders

Ghosh was admitted to a private hospital off EM Bypass here on February 2 with lower respiratory tract infection.

Forward Block leader Ashok Ghosh -express file photo by partha paul
Forward Block leader Ashok Ghosh -express file photo by partha paul

Veteran Forward Bloc leader Asok Ghosh, who played a vital role in the formation of the first Left Front government in West Bengal, died here on Thursday. He was 93.

Ghosh was admitted to a private hospital off EM Bypass here on February 2 with lower respiratory tract infection. Later his condition deteriorated and he was put on ventilator, according to his party.

Known for his spartan lifestyle, Ghosh used to live in a small room in the party office. He was widely respected across the party lines.

A bachelor, Ghosh was born on July 2, 1923 at Chinsurah in Hooghly district and was the third of six siblings. He had two brothers and three sisters. His first political association came at the age of seven when he first participated in a march organised by the Congress at Chinsurah.

On March 19, 1940, Ghosh attended a meeting convened by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at Ramgarh in Bihar (now Jharkhand).

Influenced by Netaji’s leadership and ideals, Ghosh joined Forward Bloc formally in 1941. During the freedom struggle, he was arrested and jailed on several occasions by the British government.

On June 22, 1951, Ghosh was elected as the state secretary of the Forward Bloc, a post he held for over a record six decades.

Along with veterans such as Jyoti Basu, Ghosh had played a vital role in the formation of the first Left Front government in 1977, which was in power till 2011.

Although Ghosh was a strong advocate of strengthening the Left Front, he never hesitated in criticising the polices of the Left government that he felt were wrong, such as the Singur land acquisition policy for the Tata Motors project. He even tried to clear the political logjam in the state by convening an all-party meeting that was attended by the then leader of Opposition Mamata Banerjee.

Political leaders across the board expressed their grief on the passing away of the veteran leader.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee visited Peace Haven where his body has been kept. “Saddened on the passing away of veteran politician Asok Ghosh. Condolences to his family and friends,” she tweeted.

State education minister Partha Chatterjee said, “He was like our guardian. A void has been created after his departure.”

CPM state secretary Surya Kanta Mishra said the Left movement’s guardian had departed. Left Front chairman Biman Bose said, “He was Bengal’s oldest politician. He has witnessed several ups and downs of the Left.”

Condoling Ghosh’s demise, state Congress president Adhir Chowdhury said, “My heartfelt condolences on the demise of the veteran leader.”

State BJP president Dilip Ghosh said, “It is a stupendous loss for Forward Bloc leadership. I offer my condolences to his family members and near and dear ones,” he said.

source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Cities> Kolkata / by Express News Service, Kolkata / March 04th, 2016

IIT-Kgp bags top award for patents

Education, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Records, All

Kolkata:

The IIT-Kharagpur has won an award from the Indian government for being the top academic institute for patents in 2016.

IIT-Kharagpur director Partha Pratim Chakraborty said they have received a letter from the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, which said that the institute has been awarded the prize for ‘Top Academic Institute for Patents 2016’. PTI

The award will be given on April 26 in Delhi by Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman at a function jointly organised for the celebration of World IP Day by the Indian Intellectual Property office.

The Indian Intellectual property office confers national intellectual property awards on outstanding innovators, organisations and companies in the fields of patents, designs, trademarks, and geographical indications on the occasion of World IP Day every year.

The National IP Award carries an amount of Rs 1,00,000, a citation and a memento.

To simplify the process of patent filing by students as well as professors who have done some substantial research within the institute, the IIT has been running an IP Portal.

Prof Goutam Saha of the institute said patents help them in getting consultancy work and other projects / PTI

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kolkata / TNN / April 10th, 2016

Rare oil art by Tagore, other masters restored

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

Kolkata:

Seventy-two rare oil paintings by Rabindranath Tagore and other masters of the Bengal School that were lying in the strongroom of Rabindra Bharati University have been restored. The university authorities are also planning a public display of these paintings.

Most of these paintings by Tagore, his relatives, students and other legendary painters of the Santiniketan Kala Bhavan were in possession of the Jorasanko Thakurbari and were handed over to RBU when the house was converted into a state university in 1956. Some of these belonged to the Tagore family at Pathuriaghata.

After the Rabindra Bharati Museum was set up on the Jorasanko campus of RBU, several paintings by Tagore and his nephews, Abanindranath and Gaganendranath, and other family members were put up for display. But most of these were pencil sketches, water colour, crayons and pastels.

The Tagores were not known to have a great penchant for oil paintings, except when they were painting portraits or self portraits, feel scholars.

This makes ‘The Three Witches’ particularly so important. This is one of those rarest Tagore oil paintings, which has always generated a lot of interest among the scholars. However, it was never made available for public viewing. This, scholars say, is the most valuable painting in the collection, not only because it is a Tagore original but also because it was influenced by Shakespeare’s Macbeth. It is a dark painting showing three hooded women stirring the potion inside the cauldron. The three women are seen in moonlight and the suggestion of magic comes from a spark near the cauldron, deftly created by the light and shade used by the artist.

A portrait of Tagore by his grandnephew Subhogendranath Tagore was also restored. It’s a mammoth oil on canvas, that has been done by putting together geometric shapes. You have to move away from the painting to understand the pattern. “Today you have the concept of pixels in your camera. This painting, made more than 100 years ago, gives a perfect idea of pixel,” explained Indrani Ghosh, curator of the museum.

There are also some rare oil paintings by JP Ganguly, who also belonged to the Tagore family (he was Tagore’s elder brother’s daughter’s son) and Ramendranath Chakraborty, one of the most accomplished students of Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan.

It took two years for painting conservationists at the National Research Laboratory for Conservation of Cultural Properties (Lucknow) under the ministry of Culture to complete the job.

There were layers of dust all over the paintings, which were also torn in many places; in some the canvases had come out of the frames.

RBU is planning to hold a public viewing of all the 72 paintings at the ICCR.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kolkata / by Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey, TNN / April 08th, 2016

Belle Vue to set up 2 new hospitals and nursing college

Business & Economy, Education, Science & Technology

Kolkata :

With an investment of Rs 500 crore, the super-speciality Belle Vue Clinic is building another 400-bedded hospital, an eye hospital and a nursing college in Rajarhat.

“We have got two plots of two acres each in Rajarhat area where we will be expanding. Funds to the tune of Rs 500 crore have already been allocated for the new facilities,” hospital CEO P Tondon told reporters here today.

He said the 400-bedded super speciality hospital will have different departments but it will specialise in trauma care.

“Trauma care is a very difficult subject and everybody doesn’t want to venture into it,” he said adding that the construction work will begin from January next year.

The new hospital as well as the eye hospital will be ready by 2020, the official said.

On another two acre plot they will set up a nursing school, accredited by the Nursing Council of India, where 400 students will be trained in nursing skills.

“There is a lot of shortage for nurses. We are also seeking permission from the state government to allow us train male nurses as well. Lot of patients want male nurses and so there is a big shortage in the market,” Tondon said.

The nursing school will offer courses in General Nursing & Midwifery (GNM) and a BSc in nursing. Both courses are of three year duration.

Belle Vue has now got recognition from the National Accreditation Board of Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH).

Their existing setup in south Kolkata has 287 beds at present which will be expanded to 357 in a year’s time.

“We are always short of beds. Lot of patients under the West Bengal health scheme also come to us and so we are adding two new floors in the building to have 70 extra beds,” the hospital head said. NIK NN

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kolkata / PTI / April 08th, 2016

Ramanna dead

Sports

N. Ramanna, a former Karnataka and Bengal footballer, passed away in Kolkata on Tuesday.

He was 77 and came from a family of footballers: one brother, N. Papanna was an India international while another, N. Rajanna, also played for Karnataka.

Originally from Mysore, Ramanna represented Karnataka in the 1962 Santhosh Trophy.

He moved to Kolkata soon after, where he played for East Bengal and Mohammedan Sporting. He also represented Bengal in the Santhosh Trophy. Ramanna settled down in Kolkata after retirement.

His death was condoled by the KSFA and the BDFA.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sport / Bengaluru – April 06th, 2016

Indo-Danish collaboration revives St Olav’s from ruins

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

Serampore:

The bells will again chime, the ancient clock tick and hymns resonate through the air as the 210-year-old St Olav’s Church is Serampore rises like a phoenix from the ruins.

St Olav’s Church of Fredricksnagore, as the Danes called Serampore, is being restored back to its former glory, with the first service being slated for April 16.

After decades, people will pray inside the 210-year-old church that has risen like phyoenix, not from ashes, but from ruins. St Olav’s of Fredricksnagore (as the Danes called Serampore) has been restored back to its former glory.

If the former Danish colony, which administered Serampore from 1755 to 1845, boasted of a landmark, it was St Olav’s, which was built from 1800 and opened to the public in 1806. Now, it is an example of one of the most successful conservation projects in the country.

A part of the “Serampore Initiative”-launched by the National Museum of Denmark (NMD) in 2008 with the revival plans for the former Danish colony monuments-the restoration of the church began in January 2015.

The Danes started building the church in 1800 and finally opened it in 1806., as a relic of the time when the Danish ruled Serampore.

From a distance, the church’s magnificence is not quite visible. But as one walks into the narrow alley, the majestic steeple of St Olav’s church which would be the identity of the Danish settlement on the banks of the Hooghly centuries ago-towers over. The clock in the tower is getting the finishing touches, symbolic of the eras gone by, and the ones to come.

But the grandeur of the project-now touted as a major collaboration India-Denmark collaboration-can be truly perceived only after entering the compound.

Bente Wolff, curator of NMD, to attend the historic moment of reviving the church, sounded excited: “The church looks new, not in the flashy sense, but in its authenticity. Very high standards of international restoration protocol are maintained. We are proud of the fruits of our hard labour.”

She recalled how Danish historian Simon Rasting and architect Flemming Aalund had meticulously conducted the pre-project social survey, hunting through archives in India and Denmark for original designs and photographs as part of the scientific analysis.

“Doing this in our own country would have been easier, but we loved the challenge and how all the stakeholders, especially the locals, helped us achieve this,” said Rastin, adding the project would not have been possible without the craftsmanship of Aalund and conservation architect Manish Chakraborti, chief conservation architect for the project and director of historic buildings conservation firm Continuity.

“St Olav’s can serve as a model for conservation projects,” said Chakraborti. “The restoration was carried out after thorough research.” for adopting an appropriate strategy executed with utmost care.”

Ashis Mukherjee, proprietor of Mascon, who is executing the project, said, “The greatness of the project lay in the filigree work, strictly carried out with lime and mortar.” Everything, from piecing together the almost-shattered marble tablet of J S Hohlenberg to recreating the timber of the roof-it collapsed in 2003 -that has been replaced with steel beams, polishing the church bells with ‘Frederiksvaerk 1802’ inscribed on them to restoring the original Burma teak furniture, is noteworthy.

History of St.Olav’s Church

‘Governor’ Ole Bie – born in Norway, buried in Serampore , Between 1755 and 1845 Serampore was administered by Denmark under the name Frederiksnagore. Until 1814 Denmark and Norway formed one kingdom

The longest sitting head of Serampore’s Danish government was the Norwegian Ole (Olav) Bie. During his service from 1776 to 1805 Serampore grew nto a prosperous town. In 1800 Ole Bie began the construction of a Lutheran church for Serampore’s Protestant citizens.

Originally planned as a simple three-aisle building with a flat roof, the church was later enlarged with an open portico in front, and a vestry and a spiral staircase behind the altar.

The church was completed in 1806, but Bie died in 1805 and never saw the final result.

An epitaph honouring his achievements can be seen in the Church together with five other commemorative tablets. Olav was a Norwegian saint, but it is not known when the name St. Olav’s Church came into use.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kolkata / by Ajanta Chakraborty / TNN / April 07th, 2016

Scientists develop green technology for water purification

Science & Technology

Kolkata (IANS):

Indian scientists have developed an eco-friendly nanotechnology for water-softening applications that could be used in civic water treatment plants for generating potable water, said the official of a technical institute.

The team from Institute of Advance Study in Science & Technology (IASST) in Assam’s Guwahati, crafted a biopolymer using a naturally occurring substance, called chitosan (obtained from the hard outer skeleton of shellfish, including crab, lobster, and shrimp) as a backbone for the carbon nanoparticles to sit on.

“In the biopolymer, nanoparticles are the functional parts of the technology. They remove calcium and magnesium components of water through ion exchange, the same process that is used by common water purifiers,” Devasish Chowdhury, associate professor, physical sciences division, IASST, told IANS.

“This material, we report, is the first of its kind with potential to act as a biodegradable and green material for water-softening applications,” he said.

Published online on March 30 in the joural Nanoscale, the work involved IASST’s Upama Baruah and Achyut Konwar.

While convention water-softening techniques use synthetic resins, Chowdhury said that the novel technology is biodegradable as well.

“We have applied it to pond water sample successfully. This could be used in civic water treatment plants since they do not have very effective water-softening methods and the resulting treated water is very crude,” he added.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kolkata / IANS / April 03rd, 2016

Six Bengali shorts make it to Cannes Short Film Corner

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, World Opinion

Kolkata:

As many as six Bengali films have been shortlisted for the Cannes short film corner that will be held between May 11 and 22. They are among the 40 films from India to have been selected for the same section.

The selected short films are Anirban Guha’s ‘Elixir’, Abhiroop Basu’s ‘Afternoon With Julia’ (‘Cum Iulia Meridiem’), Aniket Chattopadhyay’s ‘Saubala’, Lubdhak Chatterjee’s ‘In A Free State’, Charles Kinnane’s ‘Generation Hope’ and Moumita Mondal’s ‘Adieu’.

Guha’s 35-minute film is about a journey that begins in a cafe. Basu’s film, starring Neha Panda and Samadrashi Dutta, is about a casual conversation between a young couple, while ‘Saubala’ is a fantasy drama that comes with the tagline – Rebirth of Shakuni. Mondal’s 12-minute ‘Adieu’ looks at a hospital ward through the eyes of a young boy admitted there. ‘In a Free State’ deals with the story of an aspiring filmmaker and an artist who paints amputated figures. They embark on a journey to explore the true essence of freedom when their choices are antagonistic to popular social norms.

While all these films are in Bengali, Kinnane’s 34-minute ‘Generation Hope’ has been made in Bengali, Creole and English. It was filmed at Mary’s Meals projects in Malawi, Haiti and India and shows what difference receiving a daily meal in school can make to children growing up in some of the world’s poorest communities.

An Economics masters from Kolkata’s Indian Statistical Institute, Guha works in a multinational bank. “I used to do theatre in school and college. Post that, I also did stage productions in Bangalore and Delhi. Eventually, I wanted to tell my story to more people and wanted to experiment further. That pulled me into filmmaking,” he said. His film stars Daminee Basu, Arindom Ghosh, Mahul Brahma and Dr Koushik Dutta.

Guha will be off to Cannes for the screening. Accompanying him will be wife Sinjini Sengupta, who wrote the story on which ‘Elixir’ is based. “When my husband decided to make a short film based on my story, the first question was finance. Some fixed deposits were dissolved. Good friends had volunteered to do their bit, too. Cast, crew, searches and many calls later, we found ourselves in Kolkata. Mine is basically a story of magic realism and a journey of the soul,” said Sinjini.

Basu claims he made ‘Afternoon With Julia’ keeping Cannes short film corner in mind. Samadarshi, who has already started receiving congratulatory messages, said, “Abhiroop is a young director, but I can say he is someone to watch out for. This film was part of his student project. I have watched some of his earlier works and they have a lot of promise.””After completing my schooling from South Point, I had studied commerce at St Xavier’s College. But I always wanted to make movies. My earlier films had gone to some festivals and won accolades there too. But none of that was in the league of Cannes,” Abhiroop said.

However, he won’t be making it to the French Festival. “For a middle class family, it isn’t easy to go to Cannes without any financial assistance. I am happy that my film is going. May be, some years later, I too will be able to make it to Cannes too,” he said.

But before that happens, Abhiroop will be off to Prague in September to study cinema at the Prague Film School.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kolkata / Priyanka DasGupta / March 31st, 2016