Monthly Archives: June 2018

India’s 1st woman Land Rover coach keeps family legacy alive

Records, All, Sports
Samantha on her Land Rover

Darjeeling :

For India’s first woman Land Rover trainer Samantha Dong (28), it’s all about keeping the family legacy alive. Samantha had assured her grandfather Lakpa Tshering Dong that she would one day drive his lightweight Land Rover on the treacherous Sandakphu route. She has done that umpteen times since 2008.

She will head to Noida next month for the challenging Land Rover Experience Above and Beyond Tour. “The LRE tour event is held every month in different states. In Chandigarh, I instructed 10-12 Land rover enthusiasts. It is a nice feeling to share my experience with others,” she said.

Lakpa Tshering had purchased the lightweight series II-A war model Land Rover in the 1970s from Nepal. He used to ferry passengers and rations from Ghoom to Sandakphu to make a living.

But it was her father Kiran who trained her to drive the vehicle. Of the nine siblings, Samantha is the only one who drives the Land Rover, a passion that she now has developed into a career. “I was around 11-12 years when I first held the wheel of a car. It was our family’s Maruti Omni. I used to sit on my father’s lap who taught me to operate it,” she said.

Samantha has a master’s degree in public administration in 2016.

Life changed for Samantha when she participated in the Teesta Rangeet Tourism Festival in Darjeeling in December, 2017. She was the only female participant. Samantha was spotted by Asish Gupta, director of Cougar Motor Sport, during the event. Impressed by her capabilities, he had her inducted as a Land Rover instructor.

Samantha was, again, the only female driver in the seventieth anniversary celebration organized by Land Rover from Maneybhajyang to Sandakphu on April 30. She has been featured in leading auto magazines such as Top Gear, Overdrive and Autocar. As instructor Samantha is required to provide information about and knowledge about how the land rover runs and its features as she sits next to the learners.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Kolkata News / by Deep Gazmer / TNN / June 11th, 2018

Kolkata’s first Durga Puja-themed restaurant encapsulates city’s most celebrated event

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Travel

Dashabhuja, the new restaurant, connects Bengal’s most delightful celebration with its inhabitants’ most delightful indulgence—Durga Puja and the festive Bengali cuisine.

With food stalls lining the streets, devotees queuing up outside eateries and plates full of food passed among families and friends, the whole of Kolkata turns into a giant food court during Durga Puja.

While the five-day festivities get over in the wink of an eye, the city now has its maiden Durga Puja-themed restaurant ready to serve gastronomes round the year.

Dashabhuja, near the city police headquarters at Lalbazar, connects Bengal’s most delightful celebration with its inhabitants’ most delightful indulgence—Durga Puja and the festive Bengali cuisine.

The elegantly-lit eatery, decorated with colourful overhead canopies and various forms of the goddess Durga, simulates the feeling of sitting in a marquee while pampering the taste buds. The sound track of rhythmic dhak beats, an inseparable part of the Puja rituals, and several Puja-themed hangings and artefacts add to the festive ambience.

The menu, comprising authentic Bengali platters, gives prominence to Puja dishes starting from bhog (community feast of food items offered to the Goddess first) of khichdi, bhuni khichdi and labda (mixed vegetables) to the lavish spread of mutton curry, luchis (a type of puri), chanar paturi, rice, and payesh or the Bengali version of kheer.Along with the Puja-specific main course, the mouth watering variety of “Pujor Misti” or the sweets offered to the goddess Durga, such as chandrapuli, narkel naru, balushai, etc., are also served in the eatery round the year.

According to the restaurant owner, an artist associated with designing prominent community puja pandals or marquees for the last three years, the eatery is a perfect amalgamation of his dream and the family business.

“My dream is to design the themes for Durga Pujas while we have been running restaurants as part of our family business.

So in my new project, I thought of connecting the two. This is the first of its kind project that would let you soak in the carnival spirit of the puja in Bengal—throughout the year,” said Sayak Raj, the owner, who also designed three prominent community pujas last year.

Raj also revealed he was in conversation with a number of city artisans and sculptors, who would be making the Durga idols for some of the most popular pujas this year, and plans to install artefacts designed by them in his eatery.

“I wish this restaurant to be an archive of the Durga Puja celebrations in Bengal so that visitors from other states and countries can get a glimpse of our heritage and culture surrounding this festival. We are planning to decorate the interior with the miniatures of Durga idols to be installed in some of the prominent pujas in the city this year,” he said.

The restaurant, inaugurated by veteran Bengali actor Barun Chanda and legendary Indian classical dancer Uday Shankar’s daughter and actress Mamata Shankar barely a month ago, has created a buzz among food enthusiasts in the city and received significant celebrity presence.

“We have also requested some popular committees to provide us with their Puja theme songs so that we can play them in our restaurant all year long — along with our signature theme music,” the owner added.

source:http://www.nationalheraldindia.com / National Herald / Home> Food / IANS / June 12th, 2018

1st-time tribal students at Jhargram school pass HS with flying colours

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Records, All
The students and teachers at Ekalavya Model Residential School

Jhargram:

All 22 first-generation students at Ramakrishna Mission Vidya Mandir (Ekalavya Model Residential School) in Jhargram have come passed the Higher Secondary examinations with flying colours.

The students, 13 boys and nine girls, belong to tribal families and none of their parents has ever studied till the highersecondary level.

Barring one, who wrote his exam from hospital and secured second division marks, the rest got first division, with eight of them securing star marks. School topper Budhor Mahali scored 84.2%. Three students got letter marks in English, nine in Santhali, two each in philosophy and political science and one in science.

Commending all students and teachers for the results, school secretary Swami Shuvokarananda Maharaj said, “Two years ago, Ramakrishna Mission was given responsibility to run the school. We have 374 students, all of whom are tribals. We have 48 teachers here. Parents of none of the 22 Higher Secondary examinees this year have studied till the plus-II level. The results show how children from the tribal community are making a headway in studies.”

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Kolkata News> Schools & Colleges / by Sujay Khanra / TNN / June 10th, 2018

IIT robot goes the distance

Education, Records, All, Science & Technology
Robot-driven vehicle, Eklavya

Kharagpur:

A robot-driven vehicle called Eklavya won IIT Kharagpur the runner-up position in the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, recently.

The robots were ranked according to the distance they covered in the designated arena while keeping to the lanes given by GPS coordinates, all the while avoiding obstacles on the way.

Eklavya, designed by the Kharagpur institute’s autonomous ground vehicle (AGV) team, covered 260 feet, said an official of the institute.

The AGV team is a multidisciplinary research group.

The team that won (left to right) Rahul Krantikiran, Indu Kan Deo, Sanskar Agarwal, Poojan Shah and Harsh Maheshwari

“For prototype purposes, we work on Eklavya which is a three-wheeled, front-driven and front-steered electric vehicle fitted with cluster wheels,” an official of the institute said.

Work for building the robot started in December last year under the supervision of Debasish Chakravarty, a professor of mining engineering at IIT Kharagpur.

“Students were required to work on image perception, simultaneous localisation and mapping, path planning algorithm, mechanical design and electronic design to come up with the robot-driven vehicle,” Chakravarty said.

Rahul Krantikiran, one of the five members of the participating team, said they were asked to cover a distance of 600 feet.

“We covered a distance of 260 feet. Though the time was not specified, I think we took around 2.5 minutes to 3.2 minutes to cover the distance. The only team that could outperform us was the team from CART (Center for Applied Research and Technology), Inc. from Bluefield State College, US,” said the student of computer science and engineering.

The team is exploring whether Eklavya can be fitted to an existing fuel-run vehicle.

“It requires advanced research. If it can be fitted to fuel-driven car, it will gain popularity,” Chakravarty said.

Seven teams from India, including ones from IIT Kanpur and IIT Madras, took part in the competition held from June 1 to 4.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph,Calcutta,India / Home> Calcutta / by Subhankar Chowdhury / June 09th, 2018

Sunity flaunts 4 toppers

Education, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All
Sanjibani Debnath with headmistress Manideepa Nandi Biswas at Sunity Academy on Wednesday. Picture by Main Uddin Chisti

Cooch Behar:

Had Maharani Sunity Devi lived now, she would have been happy.

Four girls of Sunity Academy, set up by her husband and Cooch Behar king Nripendra Narayan in 1881, have made it to the state-wide list of top 10 Madhyamik examinees this year.

A few among the Indian woman to be awarded a CIE (Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire) by the British, Sunity was the daughter of Brahma Samaj reformist Keshab Chandra Sen.

“Her initiatives to impart education to girls and women are well known in Cooch Behar. Not only that Sunity Academy was set up in her name (it was initially Suniti College), but she was also instrumental in setting up the Maharani Girls’ High School in Delhi. During her days as the queen of Cooch Behar, she had helped girls ensure that they get education. She would have been definitely happy to see girls of her school performing so well,” said Shaukat Ali, a senior academician based in Cooch Behar.

In the Madhyamik this year, Sanjibani Debnath of the school has topped in the state with 689, followed by Mayurakhi Sarkar (687, third in the state), Ankita Das (685, fifth in the state) and Aitihya Saha (681, ninth in the state).

“It is great day for us. Back in 2013, a student from our school had topped in the state in Madhyamik. In our school, there is a close relation among teachers and students. Though many take private tuitions but all the students are always dependant on the school to improve their performances,” said Manideepa Nandi Biswas, the proud headmistress.

Pankaj Kumar Debnath, the father of Sanjibani and a college principal, has appreciated the school.

“My daughter has been studying here since Class III and I have always found that each teacher is caring and giving individual attention to students. They keep on encouraging students and do not relent unless a student understands a subject,” said Debnath.

Along with the performance of the girls of Sunity Academy, Cooch Behar residents have another reason to cheer. In the Madhyamik this year, the district has come up with nine students in total – the highest in any district of Bengal – who have secured positions in the top 10 slot.

They are Sumit Bagchi of Dinhata High School (684, sixth in state), Mahasweta Home Roy of Manindra Nath High School (683, seventh), Debosmith Roy of Rambhola High School (682, eighth), Suman Saha (680, tenth) and Baidurjya Biswas (680, tenth), both of Mathabhanga High School.

“All these students have made our district proud. We will felicitate them for their success,” said NB development minister Rabindranath Ghosh, who also hails from Cooch Behar.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph,Calcutta,India / Home> West Bengal / by Main Uddin Chisti / June 07th, 2018

Indian rallyists win European Rally Championship, ERC 3 category

Records, All, Sports, World Opinion
Proud moment: Indian rallyist team comprising Ashwin Naik from Mangaluru and Amitrrajit Ghosh from Kolkata won the European Rally Championship, ERC 3 category, at Athens, organised by the Federation of Internationale de lautomobile; (right) the team during the race.

This is the first time the duo has won the coveted championship

The Indian rallyist team, comprising Amitrrajit Ghosh of Kolkata and Ashwin Naik from Mangaluru, on Sunday won the European Rally Championship, ERC 3 category, at Athens in Greece organised by the Federation of Internationale de l’automobile (FIA).

A release here said it was the first time that the Indian rally duo has won the coveted European Rally Championship. The debutantes Ghosh-Naik drove a Ford Fiesta R2.

The event for the Indian duo was sponsored by Ramakrishna Race Performance Management of Kolkata and Pana, a Mangaluru-based Educational conglomerate.

Quoting Mr. Ghosh and Mr. Naik, the release said it was the first time that any Indian team has made it to the top slot. The European rallyists and the FIA were awed by the victory. The international rally scenario for Indian drivers would not be the same any more as Amit-Ashwin duo have just raised the benchmark, the release said.

Congratulating the duo, Chairman of Pana educational group Prasad Hegde said the Amit-Ashwin team have brought laurels to the country and Pana group is extremely happy with the results.

This was also the first international event that any Mangaluru-based organisation has sponsored.

The Indian duo, who scripted début victory, were leading in their class right from the day one of the three-day rally that passed through some torturous terrain.

Mr. Ghosh, an ace driver was ably co-driven by Mr. Naik and his immense experience left no ambiguity about this victory when they started for the last leg on Sunday.

The release quoted them as saying, “We both drove with safety on top of our mind which gave us confidence right from the word go. We just had to bring the car to the ramp in one piece which we did with great aplomb.”

It quoted Mr. Ghosh as saying, “I and Ashwin knew that we were racing with an older generation of Ford Fiesta R2. Our goal was always to finish the rally with honourable points but we did it by winning the ERC 3 on the top slot which is so fulfilling.”

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Mangaluru / by Special Correspondent / Mangaluru – June 07th, 2018