Monthly Archives: December 2016

Queen Victoria’s last letter to India unveiled at Victoria Memorial

The three-page hand written letter, dated December 14, 1900 with a Royal Seal and Windsor Castle being written next it

The letter, written nearly a month before the monarch’s death, was was gifted by Lord Curzon in 1904.

Queen Victoria’s last letter to India, written 116 years ago, is on display for the first time at the Victoria Memorial, one of the finest monuments built in her memory.

The three-page handwritten letter, dated December 14, 1900 and bearing the Royal Seal, was unveiled for the public on December 16 at the Prince Hall of the Victoria Memorial.

“This letter is an important piece of historical correspondence between British India and Britain. The letter was gifted by Lord Curzon in 1904,” Jayanta Sengupta, curator of the Victorial Memorial told The Hindu.

Mr. Sengupta, also a historian, pointed out that the letter by Queen Victoria was written nearly a month before her death. She passed away on January 22, 1901.

The letter is Queen Victoria’s reply to the then Viceroy, Lord Curzon, who in an earlier correspondence to the Queen had expressed his sympathies on the death of one of her “soldier grandsons” “The Queen Empress has to thank the Viceroy for the very kind letter of the 9th November, full of sincerest sympathy of her beloved soldier grandson…,” the letter begins.

The references in the letter are to the death of Prince Christian Victor, the eldest son of the third daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Prince Christian died on October 29, 1900 in Pretoria, South Africa during the Second Boer War.

“He was as good as he was brave,” Queen Victoria writes in the letter about her grandson. “All the Viceroy says of her own trials and anxieties the Queen feels very much, and she cannot deny that she feels a good deal shaken by them.”

Along with the handwritten letter, a typed copy of the text has been displayed alongside for the convenience of visitors.

Within few weeks of Queen Victoria’s death in January 1901, a meeting was convened at the Town Hall of Calcutta in February 1901, when a resolution was passed for constituting an all-India fund for building a memorial. King George V, then the Prince of Wales, laid the foundation stone of the Victoria Memorial on January 4, 1906 and it was formally opened to the public in 1921.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Other States / by Shiv Sahay Singh / December 21st, 2016

Now, Rs 5 wonder sachet to help you save teeth, bone

HIGHLIGHTS

. Scientists have developed an inexpensive kit to test the fluorosis level in the body

. The fluoride level detection kit that will soon be available in shampoo-like sachet
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Kolkata :

Scientists at a top-notch research institute in Durgapur have developed an easy-to-use, inexpensive kit to test the fluorosis level in the body so that one can take corrective measures before it causes teeth and bone deformity.

A team led by CSIR-CMERI scientist (surface engineering and tribology division) Dr Priyabrata Banerjee has developed the fluoride level detection kit that will soon be available in shampoo-like sachet. The sachets, to be priced around Rs 5 each, will contain two kits comprising two vials and a strip of colour-coded paper. While one vial will be empty, the other will contain a chemo-sensor liquid.

“All that a person has to do is spit into the empty vial, then pour the chemo sensor into it, close the vial and shake it vigorously. There will be an instant colour change, indicating the level of fluorosis in the body. If it is orange, it will indicate unsafe level of more than 1.5 ppm. Yellow indicates safe level of less than 1.5 ppm. The vial can be placed against the colour coded strip to match the colour and the fluorosis level it indicates,” Banerjee pointed out.

The Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI) is a leading mechanical engineering R&D institute under the aegis of Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) that has developed technologies to provide societal solutions.The folurosis level detection kit is one such that has already been provisionally patented and technology tranferred to small scale industry for commercial production. The institute showcased this and other technologies at the 31st Indian Engineering Congress organised by the Institute of Engineers (India) in Kolkata recently.

“We expect the kits to be available in health stores in rural Bengal, particularly villages in Purulia, Bankura and Birbhum where fluorosis is a problem,” said Banerjee, who is the key inventor. Fluorosis can be dental, skele tal or non-skeletal and cause motteled teeth or deformity of limbs.

Banerjee’s team has also developed a chemo sensor station costing around Rs 2,000 each that will be placed at the primary health centres in fluorosis-affected districts where people can get the samples electronically verified.

“The salivary fluoride level detection kit is the latest technology that our scientists have come up with. The patent for this product was filed on November18,” said CSIR-CMERI director Harish Hirani.

Another technology that the R&D institute demonstrated was a smart card operated and pluggable energy meter through which one can instantly measure the energy level of an electrical installation using a smart phone. “One only needs to have internet connectivity or bluetooth to link a smart energy meter with a smartphone,” said a scientist.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Kolkata News / by Suman Chakraborti / TNN / December 20th, 2016

10-day theatre festival kickstarts in Kolkata

National award winning actor Sohini Sengupta in a still from the play Alipha. (Nandikar)

Nandikar’s 33rd National Theatre Festival, which focuses on youth, is all set to make your theatre experience more special this winter. The 10-day festival, which begins today, will have 23 performances from states like Assam, Bihar, Delhi, Karnataka, Manipur, Odisha and West Bengal. The only international participant this year is from the United States of America. Veteran theatre personality Soumitra Chatterjee will be felicitated with Nandikar Samman.

An exhibition titled, Struggle In Theatre, is another interesting segment of the festival. It highlights the state of theatre all over the world. The exhibition, which is more like a collage of events, write-ups and pictures, has been single-handedly organised and researched by theatre artiste Rudrarup Mukhopadhyay.

Anirban Bhattacharya plays the pivotal character in Athhoi. The play is based on William Shakespeare’s Othello. (Natadha)

“I feel the current generation has a lot in them that we want to explore. There is so much to learn and share and we feel that they deserve a proper platform for the interaction to take place. Personally, the more I am counting years, the more I feel young from within. It’s like the Yule’s law, heat lost equals heat gained,” smiles Rudraprasad Sengupta, veteran actor, director and president of Nandikar, while taking about youth as their focus.

Sohini Sengupta’s Alipha and Poulami Chattopadhyay’s Phera will inaugurate the festival. Waman Kendre’s Phoolrani (National School of Drama Repertory Company, Delhi), based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, will premiere on December 19. Among others, one should not miss plays like Choumatha by Anirban Bhattacharyya (Hatibagan Sangharam), Outcaste by Randhir Kumar (Raaga, Bihar), Athhoi by Arna Mukhopadhyay (Natadha, Howrah) and Hungry Stone by Heisnam Tomba (Kalakshetra, Manipur).

There is an interesting bouquet of short plays for children too. There’s Batasbari by Anindita Chakraborty (Children’s Ensemble, Nandikar) and Ha-Ja-Ba-Ra-La by Anamitra Khan (Beadon Street Subham) on December 24. There are also three short productions by Children’s Ensemble, Nandikar, Lanka Dahan Pala by Debabrata Maity, Bobby by Samrat Basu and Joy Ke Chai by Debabrata Maity.

Two of Nandikar’s popular dramas will end the festival on December 25. Swatilekha Sengupta’s Madhabi and Sohini Sengupta’s Panchajanya will be staged back-to-back on the concluding day.

source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> Cities> Kolkata / by Shreya Mukherjee, Hindustan Ti es / December 16th, 2016