Monthly Archives: November 2018

Lights, camera, action: Kolkata film fest a hit

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

Day 4 of the Kolkata International Film Festival 2018

Time for a groupfie at the Kolkata International Film Festival in Nandan.
Picture by Pradip Sanyal

The Nandan promenade was crowded as usual around 4pm on Wednesday on the 4th day of the Kolkata International Film Festival.

At any point, at least five smells hung in the air. Arcane hobby publications, little magazines, festival pamphlets, and food — all vied for the visitors’ attention.

In addition to a stall devoted to promoting Bengali cinema’s 100-year-long heritage, the festival’s background score whirled in the air like an anthem.

Cigarettes went around youngsters freely. A group of three men played the role of festival troubadours with characteristic Bengali elan. While one was tall, long-haired and seemed to be holding a journal in his hands, his short friend sported a long beard and a wooden flute. The third was a jokester, shoving the other two around with a cigarette in hand while they tried to work at their craft in front of Nandan I.

At the Nandan foyer, an Australian documentary film-maker was being interviewed by a news channel. “Spicy food? Yeah, I like it, but I’m not the biggest fan. I can handle it. But really, I’m just floored by the whole festive air here. It’s like a carnival, really great. Can’t wait to see more.”

Used paper plates were laid generously at the feet of a cluster of large garbage bins. This benefited the two or three mutts, who honed in on the area once the stash was substantial.

An eager quizmaster paused onstage at the makeshift but large Ektara Manch abutting Rabindra Sadan and said: “This next question is for biological males only, please.”

Unoffended, winter picknickers at the garden venue giggled, moving around the carpeted audience area for coffee and kobiraji.

The quizmaster’s mystery soundtrack —Sob Khelar Shera by Manna Dey — came and before he could ask a question, many women raised their hands in laughing abandon. “What was the final score in the match at the end of the film?” Some backed down, now laughing meekly.

A group of students seated on the grass were heard saying, “That’s not the message of the film…. I’ve watched it more than once…. You have to perceive it in the spirit of what Vivekananda once said. You will be nearer to Heaven through football than through the study of the Gita.”

An artist seated beside a tea vendor in Nandan I called out to the occasional passer-by, “I’m not begging, you know. If you’d give me five minutes, I could show you. I really have to make a living, too. But I won’t beg. So, don’t ignore me as if I’m a beggar, please.”

On 9th November, at the inaugural ceremony of the 24th edition of the festival, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had said: “The status of the festival was on a downslide before we came to power. We showed things could be done if you wanted to.”

At Nandan, the air of legacy was ripe in the air. In addition to the tall banners mounting the Nandan buildings, the rear promenade saw a cultural exhibition commemorating 100 years of Bengali cinema. A rotunda behind Sisir Mancha had a 10-panel retrospective curated by Prosenjit and Suvaprasanna.

The panels documented the dates, personalities and photographs of all those who have made Bengali cinema proud — Satyajit Ray, Manna Dey, Tapan Sinha and Mrinal Sen to name a few.

The quizmaster, flanked by two 30ft ektaras, ended by reminding the audience to enjoy this “Carnival of Cinema in the City of Joy”.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph Online Edition / Home> West Bengal / by Aditya Nag in Kolkata / November 16th, 2018

An unrecognised explorer

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It’s time we do justice to Radhanath Sikdar, the man who first measured Mount Everest

All of us are aware from the days of our childhood that the highest mountain peak in the world is Mount Everest and it was discovered by George Everest. It was only much later that one came to know that Sir George Everest was the Surveyor General of India and the peak was so named as he had discovered it to be the highest in the world. As the Surveyor General, he had his offices in Dehradun and used to stay in Mussoorie. He left India in 1843, almost 200 years ago, but his house in Mussoorie is still being preserved and is now a place of tourist interest.

The truth, however, is somewhat different. It is a fact that Sir George Everest was the Surveyor General of India from 1830 to 1843, but it is also a fact that during his tenure of office, Mount Everest, that we know of today, was only known as ‘Peak XV’. Everest had neither initiated the process of measuring the height of this peak, nor was he instrumental in its naming, which was done much later, long after he had proceeded to England to enjoy his retirement after 1843. Located on the border of Nepal and Tibet, this ‘Peak XV’ has been worshipped as a holy place by the Tibetans, who called it Chomolungma, the Mother Goddess of the World. In Nepal, this peak is known as Sagarmatha, meaning the peak of heavens. Even these days, this peak is addressed by its traditional names, both in Tibet and Nepal, while we have followed what was given to us by the British ie Mount Everest.

In fact, the name Everest was given by Col Sir Andrew Waugh of Bengal Engineers, who succeeded Everest as the Surveyor General of India from 1844 to 1861. Circumstances under which ‘Peak XV’ was named as Mount Everest are rather peculiar and reveal a very biased handling of the matter so that the entire credit goes to the British officers of the East India Company. Going through the historical records of the Survey of India Volume IV: 1830 to 1843, pertaining to the tenure of Sir George Everest, one can observe at a glance that he had shown no interest in ‘Peak XV’ during this period. It was his successor, Andrew Waugh, who made the official announcement of ‘Peak XV’ being the highest known peak of the world in 1856, the measurements had, of course, been initiated much earlier and finalised by our own Radha Nath Sikdar in 1849.

Recognising the work of Sikdar, the Government of India had issued a postage stamp in his honour in 2004. But his work is of such a great importance that issuing a postage stamp and then forgetting about him does not do full justice to his unique and great contribution. It was Sir George Everest who had recruited Sikdar in the great trigonometrical survey and became extremely fond of him. Volume IV of the Historical records of Survey of India, pertaining to his tenure, have the following mention about Sikdar: “Radanauth is high in favour with everybody, and universally beloved in the GT Survey. You will not know him for the same person when you see him again, for he is no longer a puny stripling, but a hardy energetic young man, ready to undergo any fatigue, and acquire a practical knowledge of all parts of his profession. …There are few of my instruments which he cannot manage; and none of my computations of which he is not thoroughly master. …Eventually he will furnish a convincing proof that the aptitude of your countrymen for the practical, as well as the theoretical, parts of mathematics is in no wise inferior to that of Europeans.”

“Of the qualifications of the young man himself I cannot speak too highly. In his mathematical attainments there are few in India, whether European or Native, who can at all compete with him, and…even in Europe those attainments would rank very high.”

Later, on account of a special technique developed by Sikdar for accurate computation of heights and distances through Spherical Trigonometry, he virtually became indispensable to the organisation and rose to become the Chief Computer in the office of SGI. In that position, he moved from Dehradun to Kolkata in 1849. As to why Andrew Waugh gave the name Everest, even though he had left the scene long ago, is an interesting piece of history.

Had SG Burrard, a later Surveyor General of India, not acknowledged the good work of Radhanath Sikdar through a research paper published in 1904 in the scientific journal Nature, these facts would not have come to light. He published in detail various steps taken for the measurement of ‘Peak XV’. This in a way also exposed the machinations of Andrew Waugh who had tried his level best to take credit away from, to where it truly belonged, that is Radhanath Sikdar.

It is human nature that in case something important is achieved, one tries to take credit or gives credit to someone, but in this case, Waugh specifically mentioned that Sikdar had nothing to do with this work, indicating his bias. Later, he could be seen placating him by asking him that he should be happy that the peak had been named after his mentor. Andrew Waugh also gave the additional charge of the Indian Metrological Department to Sikdar, raising his salary to Rs 600 per month. This was unheard for an Indian in those days. Clearly, all these efforts were to keep him happy but away from the core of the survey work.

SG Burrard’s publication in the Nature specifically mentioned that the Chief Computer (who was Radhanath Sikdar) from Calcutta had informed Andrew Waugh in 1852 that the peak designated ‘XV’ had been found to be higher than any other highest measured peak in the world at that time. Raw data from theodolites, taken from seven observation stations at Jirol, Mirzapur, Janjpati, Ladiva, Haripur, Minai and Doom Dongi was collected at the trigonometrical survey at Calcutta. This was then processed by Radhanath Sikdar and conveyed to Andrew Waugh that ‘Peak XV’ had been measured at 29,002 feet, taking the mean value of all observations. Considering that the scientific instrumentation available at that time was only of a rudimentary nature, the level of accuracy reached was almost 100 per cent, and this figure has not undergone any change, despite the current state of technological progress.

Correspondence between Waugh and Sikdar reveals that Waugh did privately acknowledge the achievement of Sikdar but did not recognise his work on record and in public. In his letter dated August 25, 1856, Waugh wrote to Sikdar that he was glad to hear that naming the peak as Everest had given the latter a lot of satisfaction. Thus, it is clear that the name Everest was given to ensure that Sikdar, who could have been the rightful claimant for credit, did not object as he was extremely fond of Everest, who had recruited him in service. The situation would have remained obscure but for the research paper of SG Burrard in 1904. Later, Professor Meghnad Saha acknowledged this feat in 1938 by giving Sikdar full credit. Earlier, Kenneth Mason in 1928, recognised his work as also John Keay in his book, The Great Arc.

In the given situation, changing the name of Mount Everest to Mount Sikdar Everest will perhaps do full justice to Radhanath Sikdar and give him worldwide recognition, which was legitimately his due, long time ago. We do not have to seek anybody’s approval for such a change as the rationale is all well-documented. Even if the world continues to call it Everest, in India, we could still call it Sikdar Everest.

On several earlier occasions, achievements of Indian scientists have not been recognised, as Sir JC Bose could have got the Nobel Prize for Physics or at least shared it with Marconi for his work on wireless and radio; SN Bose could have got the Nobel Prize way back in 1932 for his work with Einstein on Bose Einstein condensate but atleast he was recognised, though belatedly naming the God particle, Higgs-Boson after him. Naming Everest as Sikdar Everest would be a recoginition of a scientist whose work has stood the test of time. Besides it would also justifiably add to our national pride.

(The writer is a retired Delhi Police Commissioner and former Uttarakhand Governor)

source:http://www.thepioneer.com / The Pioneer / Home> Columnists> Opinion / by K K Paul / November 23rd, 2018

The Royal Bengal Lion-tamer

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World-renowned Suresh Biswas debuted to great acclaim in Argentina

An 1899 biography of Suresh Biswas was republished by Jadavpur University Press
Image: The Telegraph

In 1970, a comic strip was published in the annual issue of a Bengali children’s magazine called Manihar. The hero of the strip, Bangadesher Ranga, was a fearless Bengali animal trainer living in Brazil. And his name was Suresh Biswas.

“The story was imaginary but the character was based on Biswas,” says Swagata Dutta Burman, who edited a volume of the collected works of illustrator Mayukh Chowdhury, the creator of the comic strip. There is mention of Biswas in one of Satyajit Ray’s Feluda stories too. But who exactly was Colonel Suresh Biswas?

Recently, an 1899 biography of the man was republished by Jadavpur University Press. This book by H. Dutt — titled Lieut. Suresh Biswas: His life and Adventures — and another biography in Bengali by Upendrakrishna Bandyopadhyay published in 1905 were the primary sources of information about Biswas for the longest time.

We know from these that Biswas, born into a Vaishnava middle-class family in Nathpur, Nadia, was an independent spirit and a rebel even when he was a boy. At 14, after an altercation with his father, he left home and converted to Christianity. Soon after, he started looking for a livelihood. The job hunt first took him to Rangoon and then Madras, after which he boarded a ship that sailed for London.

Once in London, Biswas did all kinds of odd jobs to stay afloat — he was a newspaper boy, a pedlar, an acrobat in a circus. It was at a circus company in Kent, a county in South East England, that he learned to be a lion-tamer.

The first independent mention of Biswas’s presence in Europe can be found in the publicity material for the World’s Fair (1881-82). They show him at the cage door with the lions seated behind. He is dressed in boots, red trousers and sash, blue jacket and turban. He also sports a luxuriant moustache. “He was allowed to give an exhibition of his wonderful mastery over the most ferocious and intractable beasts in the World’s Fair held at the Royal Agricultural Hall in London,” writes his biographer Dutt.

When Maria Barrera-Agarwal, attorney, scholar, writer, translator and married to a Calcuttan, read about Ray’s Bengali lion-tamer in Brazil, she was curious. A native Spanish speaker born in Ecuador, she looked up the government archives in Brazil and unearthed a fascinating story.

Biswas had arrived in South America for the first time in 1885, along with a tiger and two lions he had trained while in the employ of famed menagerie owner, Karl Hagenbeck of Hamburg. He had been contracted by The Carlo Brothers’ Equestrian Company and Zoological Marvel to perform with the wild cats and an elephant named Bosco.

First record of his performance in Europe, at the 1881 World’s Fair (top right circle)
Image: The Telegraph File

A young Biswas debuted with his wild cats to great acclaim in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His success and top billing followed him to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, where the royal family visited the circus to see his performance.

From Brazil, he went back to Hamburg, only to return in 1886. Some documents Barrera-Agarwal dug up, reveal his age at the time to be 26. The occupation noted against his name in the ship’s papers read “kunstler”, which is German for performing artiste. However, in a letter to his uncle dated spring of 1887, he writes that he has been transferred to St. Cruz, a village near Rio de Janeiro, to look after the horses of his cavalry regiment — indicating that in less than a year’s time he had decided to switch careers. He joined the PMDF, a military corps set up to protect the government of Brazil and the capital city.

Dutt sheds some light on the mystery of the great switch. It seems during a show in Rio, he caught the attention of a doctor’s daughter, Maria Augusta Fernandez. And it was she who gently suggested that she would like to see him in a soldier’s uniform. (In 1951, a member of the Indian consulate in Brazil sought the help of a local newspaper to trace Biswas’s family. He met with his wife, Maria Augusta, who spoke of her late husband very fondly.)

Corporal Biswas eventually rose through the ranks. It seems he showed such exceptional courage at the battle of Nitheroy, an 1893 naval uprising, that thereafter he was made first lieutenant.

Though in Indian lore Biswas is often referred to as colonel, Barrera-Agarwal points out that he never became one. When Biswas died in 1905 at the age of 47, he was captain.

Biswas continued to write letters to his uncle Kailash Chander all his life. In one of them he writes, “I will soon go away from here and invent something that will enable me to travel, because, by travelling only I am happy, for, this gives the idea and nourishes it, of reaching home some day…”

But home he never managed to return to. Perhaps he didn’t try hard enough, though it was on his mind all through as we gather from his letters. His iteration about how he, a vagabond, had done well, his pointed queries about his father who had disinherited him when he was barely out of his teens, and his wish to see his mother again.

In the Introduction to the 2018 republished version of Dutt’s biography of Biswas, Barrera-Agarwal writes: “The need of a hero is indispensable in human society.”

In the last available letter to his uncle, Biswas writes, “I have had several letters addressed to me by many young men of Calcutta, asking me if there is no means of coming here in Brazil. I shall answer them separately.”

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Online Edition / Home> Culture / by Paromita Sen / November 18th, 2018

Kolkata International Film Festival screens rare Indian language films

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Films like “Kittath Preeti” (in Koda), “Boldu” (Tulu), “Navleri” (Lambani), “Death Certificate” (Kurmi) and “Nabon” (Khasi) are being screened under this section at the festival.

KIFF is showcasing a bouquet of rare Indian Language films (Photo courtesy : KIFF Official website)

Kolkata :

Giving light to the diversity of India, Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) is showcasing a bouquet of rare Indian Language films including Nagasmese, Lambani, Jasari, Kurbi languages for the first time.

“I got many film entries from these languages. Maybe the quality of the films are not that good like that of a ‘Pather Panchali’ or ‘Sholay’ but they are good in their own way,” curator of ‘Unheard India’ Shantanu Ganguly, told the media here.

“Moreover, people need to know about these languages,” he added.

He mentioned that people came to know about the Jasari language cinema only after “Sinjar” directed by Sandeep Pampally won the Best Feature Film in Jasari award at the National Film Awards in April.

“‘Sinjar’ is also India’s first island film as it was entirely shot in Lakshwadeep. Jasari is the colloquial language spoken there,” Ganguly said.

The film stands against terrorism and speaks about two women held as captives by the Islamic State terror group, their ordeal and how they survive a communal situation in capital Kavaratti.

It stars Malayalam actors Srinda Arhaan, Mythili, Musthafa and Sethulaksmi.

“Nana A Tale Of Us” directed by Tiakumzuk Aier is a film in Nagamese language spoken by a section of people in Nagaland.

“There are filmmakers making Nagamese films since the 1990s but it doesn’t make a cut to the film festivals. There are documentary filmmakers but for fiction — there are few,” Aier told IANS.

He said that the Church is supporting ‘clean election campaign’ in his state and they have produced the film as it is based on the specific issue. It talks about the moral sense and how societal evils have affected their lives.

Naganatha N. Joshi, the producer of the film “Saakibaayi” in Banjaara language (also known as Lambani) spoken in Karnataka, had to mortgage his house to make the film. His wife Premalatha N. Joshi is the director.

“We didn’t have any artist, we taught commoners and made them act. My film is based on the life of a woman of Banjaara community,” Naganatha said.

Films like “Kittath Preeti” (in Koda), “Boldu” (Tulu), “Navleri” (Lambani), “Death Certificate” (Kurmi) and “Nabon” (Khasi) are being screened under this section at the festival.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Nation / by IANS / November 15th, 2018

Kolkata pays its tributes

Records, All, World Opinion

What struck British Deputy High Commissioner Bruce Bucknell on his visit to the Bhawanipore War Cemetery in Kolkata on Sunday was the age of the fallen soldiers of the First and Second World Wars.

“In most of the war cemeteries I have visited across the world there is one thing common, the age of soldiers…,” Mr. Bucknell said, speaking about the horrors of war on the 100th anniversary of the First World War. The age inscribed on most of the 938 graves clearly points out that most of those died were young men in their twenties and thirties.

Of the 938 graves, 617 graves are of the soldiers who laid their lives in the Second World War and about 95 graves are of those who fell in the Great War between 1914-1919.

The graves of the soldiers were moved from Fort William, where they were initially buried, several decades ago, said Rakhee Mukherjee, the manager of Bhawanipore War Cemetery.

In every few weeks there are visitors looking for the graves of their grandfathers or great-grandfathers, Ms. Mukherjee said, pointing to two elderly women, Patricia Campbell and Ann Stringer. Both daughters of Caption G.A. Campbell of the Gurkha Rifles, who died on 5th May 1945 during the Second World war, were visiting the grave of their grand father for the first time.

“We are so happy that we are here on Armistice Day,” Ms Campbell said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kolkata / by Shiv Sahay Singh / Kolkata – November 11th, 2018

The war that epitomised the callousness of imperialism

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Bengal was not a theatre of war in the 1940s, yet it lost seven times more lives than Britain

A boy, his father, and a cow rummage for scraps on a street during the Bengal famine of 1943 /
Wikimedia Commons

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Bengal famine of 1943, a heart-rending episode in which three million persons died, and which epitomised the callousness of imperialism. The scale of devastation can be understood if we remember that in the United Kingdom, taking civilian and military casualties together, the total loss of life during the entire Second World War was just 0.45 million and in the United States of America 0.42 million. In Germany itself, the loss has been estimated as anywhere between 6.6 and 8.8 million and in the former Soviet Union, which suffered the most, at around 24 million. To say that the populations of these countries were smaller than India’s is beside the point; their comparison should be with the population of Bengal. In 1941, the population of undivided Bengal was only slightly higher, 60 million, compared to 47 million in UK; yet its loss of life was seven times that of the UK in spite of its not being a theatre of war.

The news of the famine was sought to be downplayed at the time, which is hardly surprising since the famine was a direct result of the escalation of British war expenditure on the eastern front. A war demands substantial resources; and the resources for Britain’s war against Japan were largely extracted out of the people of Bengal. Even so, such a massive loss of life could have been avoided if the manner of financing war expenditure had been different, but the same callousness which squeezed the innocent masses of a non-belligerent country for sustaining the war effort of the colonial power also prevented this squeeze from being exercised in a more humane manner than through the deaths of three million people.

If resources are to be raised from the people (let us overlook the absurdity of resources being raised from the colonised people of Bengal for the British war effort), then the obvious way of doing so is through taxation. But while taxation releases goods from those paying taxes, the goods so released may not match the goods required by the military. Moreover, the goods released by taxation may even fall absolutely short of the goods demanded by the expenditure of tax revenue, if tax payments come out of savings (that is,taxation releases no goods at all).

There would still arise therefore, even in the presence of a balanced budget (where a larger tax revenue finances a larger war expenditure), excess demand for certain commodities, and if these commodities happen to be essential goods like foodgrains, then acute food scarcity can arise in spite of the war expenditure being financed by an equivalent amount of taxation. Hence, it is imperative that the government, even while raising taxes to finance war expenditure, must simultaneously institute a regime of rationing of essential goods.

This is what Britain did at home during the war. It raised higher taxes and introduced a regime of universal statutory rationing of essential goods because of which the poor in Britain were reportedly better fed during the war than earlier. But in colonial India this did not happen; rationing, when it was introduced, was confined to urban Bengal, leaving rural areas to the mercy of the market, and resources were raised not through taxation but an altogether different method (Utsa Patnaik, Economic and Political Weekly, October 20).

The British government deposited IOUs drawn in favour of the Reserve Bank of India in London, and against these the RBI printed currency which was spent by Britain within India for its war effort. Since no goods could be imported against these IOUs, this basically meant creating additional demand for the existing amount of goods here, with the newly-printed money that was used for war expenditure. In addition, since British India also joined the war (without any sanction from the Indian people), its government also had to undertake war expenditure and this too was financed by a fiscal deficit, essentially by printing money; this further added to excess demand.

When expenditure is so financed, the goods for it are released as follows. Such excess demand generates inflation, because of which profits increase everywhere. While the working people with fixed money incomes lose, the profit-earners (including traders) everywhere gain correspondingly. But since the latter save more out of their incomes than the former, a good part of the gains they make is saved by them, so that the goods corresponding to such savings now become available to cover the government’s military needs. Hence, while the war expenditure is nominally financed by printed money, the real goods made available for it are obtained through generating such savings.

The inflation so generated is called a “profit inflation” and the additional savings generated through such inflation, which the government uses for its military requirements, are called “forced savings”. Britain’s, and British India’s, war expenditure on the eastern front was financed by a profit inflation generating such forced savings.

Such financing has three peculiar properties which make it utterly repugnant. First, the people who make the real sacrifice of consumption, because they cannot afford to buy goods at the higher prices caused by inflation, are the working people, while the persons who get the credit for such savings (those whose income and wealth increase) are the profit-earners, which is invidious. Second, if the profit-earners save, say, only half their income while habitually consuming the other half, then, for obtaining 100 units of goods for military purposes, the consumption of the working people has to be squeezed by 200, so that as the income of the profit-earners increases by 200 they can hand over 100 for military purposes while consuming an additional 100 themselves. And if they hoard a further 100, the squeeze on working people has to be 300. The squeeze is thus several times the military requirements. Third, the squeeze is imposed precisely upon fixed money income earners, who are the poorest segments of the population.

Financing war expenditure in this way imposed a heavy burden, especially on the poor people of rural Bengal who were net food purchasers (since much of the war expenditure was incurred there). The forced reduction in consumption they had to undergo entailed a drastic reduction in their foodgrain intake, and hence the famine. The poorest among them, with relatively inflexible money incomes and no cash reserves to fall back upon for maintaining real consumption in the face of higher prices, were the most severely affected (Amartya Sen, Poverty and Famines).

Ironically, the IOUs deposited in London (the so-called ‘sterling balances’) which were the counterpart of the forced savings imposed upon the hapless famine-stricken people of rural Bengal lost much of their value after the war. A strong official lobby wanted a complete repudiation of that external debt of Britain, arguing that India too had benefited from the British pursuit of the war on the eastern front. But while that opinion mercifully did not prevail, the post-war inflation, boosted by the Korean War boom, reduced the real value of sterling balances, as did the devaluation of the British pound-sterling in 1949 (which reduced their worth vis-à-vis the dollar and commodities with dollar-denominated prices). The death of three million people did not even yield much for posterity.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Online Edition / Home> Opinion / by Prabhat Patnaik / November 14th, 2018

KMC gives away Kolkata Shree awards

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The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) on Monday announced the name of the Puja committees that have secured the winning position in the Kolkata Shree 2018 that is given out every year to best Pujas by the civic body.

Mayor Sovan Chatterjee on Monday announced the name of Puja committees that have won the Kolkata Shree award 2018. Around 100 Puja committees participated in the competition. The competition was judged by several eminent personalities who have shortlisted the winning Pujas.

A total of 10 categories had been reserved for shortlisting winners which are ‘Serar Sera’, ‘Sera Pujo’, ‘Sera Pratima’, ‘Sera Sailpik Utkorsho’, ‘Sera Bishoy’, ‘Sera Aloksajja’, ‘Sera Paribesh’, ‘Sera Parichana Pujo’, ‘Sera Sambhabana’ and ‘Mayor’s Choice’.

The following Pujas have won in the category of ‘Serar Sera’: Chetla Agrani, 95 Palli, Suruchi Sangha and Tridhara Akalbodhan. In the ‘Sera Pujo’ category the winners are: Naktala Udayan Sangha , Rajdanga Nabauday Sangha, Hindustan Club and Abasar Sarbojanin.

For ‘Sera Pratima’ category: Baghbazar Sarbojanin, Tala Pratay, Kashi Bose Lane and Behala Natun Dal.

The awards for ‘Sera Salpik Utkorsho’ category have been secured by: Shib Mandir Sarbojanin, Selimpur Pally Sarbajanin, 66 Pally and Bosepukur Sitala Mandir; ‘Sera Bishoy’ category: Bhawanipur Sadhin Sangha, 75 Pally Sarbojanin, Bosepukur Talbagan and Samaj Sebi Sangha; ‘Sera Aloksajja’ category: Ekdalia Evergreen, Badamtala Ashar Sangha, Dakshin Kalikata Sarbojanin and Kalighat Milan Samity. A total of 45 Puja committees have won in the category of ‘Mayor’s Choice’.

source: http://www.thestatesman.com / The Statesman / Home> Cities / by Statesman News Service, Kolkata / October 16th, 2018