Calcutta Nights (Raater Kolkata) is the real-life story of the enigmatic `Meghnad Gupta’—the pseudonym assumed by Bengali fiction writer Hemendra Kumar Roy.
For representative purposes
Calcutta Nights (Raater Kolkata) is the real-life story of the enigmatic `Meghnad Gupta’—the pseudonym assumed by Bengali fiction writer Hemendra Kumar Roy. A 100 years later, his Bengali book shows today’s readers the dark secrets of another age, another time courtesy an excellent translation by Rajat Chaudhari.For those coming in late, it’s worthwhile remembering that the 1920s were turbulent times in the City of Joy—still the capital of British India. You would have found the place bursting at the seams, as it were, with people from all over the globe drawn to that great metropolis like moths to a flame.
In flocked hustlers, healers and wheeler-dealers and often staid businessmen too. All of them were bonded together with one common desire: the pursuit of sin and pleasure. Indians from the remote corners of the country arrived in droves. Some mingled with locals, settled down, picking up manners and carefree lifestyles of the Bengali.
Many struggled to keep their regional identities even as Calcutta ended being a kaleidoscope with its rainbow canvas splashed with more shades than one could bother to count. Remember that Calcutta Nights was written in times very different from ours. To the reader of today, some of the stances could be rather out of sync or jarring unless you see them as the potholes of history.
Suspend your disbelief. Leave it a while to rest, come meet Matal Hari, the legendary lady of Calcutta who we are told is ‘not at all good to look at, but she makes pots of money from singing and squanders it all away.’ She has a strange whimsicalness. As soon as she receives a payment, she shuts down her business for a few days and goes around town in a merry-making spree with a group of women known to her.
The merry-making continues as long as the money lasts; she doesn’t usually invite male friends in this merriment. The Ferris Wheel spins night and day. She drinks, and smokes weed and opium to settle down with her companions almost ostentatiously in a big room, as the hotel resounds to the racket of feminine voices.
The hotel owner is as pleased as punch with the arrival of a high-spending and low-maintenance customer like Matal Hari. He has no doubt that all the food would be consumed that day, as he quickly goes upstairs and smiling widely says, ‘What would you like to have dear Hari, order it!’This crisp read reveals the darkest secrets—warts and all—of the city of palaces as it was a 100 years ago.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Magazine / by Ganesh Saili / April 04th, 2020
Some of Baidyanath Basak’s notable Bengali films include Manjari Opera, Kokhono Megh, Sabar Uparey, Trijama , Pathey Holo Deri, Nayika Sangbad, Ekti Raat, Putrabadhu, Deya Neya and Kakababu Here Gelen.
Baidyanath Basak passed away on Thursday. (Photo: Doordarshan/Screengrab)
Cinematographer Baidyanath Basak passed away on Thursday in Kolkata.
His son Sanjay Basak confirmed the news to indianexpress.com . He said, “My father was living with me in Kolkata. He was not keeping well for the last few months. A couple of days back his health deteriorated and we tried taking him to a hospital. But because of coronavirus crisis, no hospital was admitting my father. He finally passed away yesterday between 3 and 3:30 pm.”
Baidyanath Basak made his Bollywood debut as an assistant cameraman with Raj Kapoor directorial Boot Polish (1954). After not being able to find enough work in Mumbai, he shifted back to Kolkata.
Once back in Kolkata, Uttam Kumar played a very important role in his career. Basak shot the maximum number of films with Uttam. He also worked with actors like Suchitra Sen, Moon Moon Sen, Ashok Kumar, Tunuja, Tapas Paul and Soumitra Chatterjee.
Some of his notable Bengali films include Manjari Opera (1964), Kokhono Megh (1968), Sabar Uparey (1955), Trijama (1956), Pathey Holo Deri (1957), Nayika Sangbad (1967), Ekti Raat (1956), Putrabadhu (1998), Deya Neya (1963) and Kakababu Here Gelen? (1995).
source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Entertainment> Regional / by Komal RJ Panchal and Sana Farzeen / Mumbai – June 05th, 2020
Books at the University of Calcutta library are not accessible at the moment.
Now anybody, anywhere in the world, can access countless articles, journals and dissertations
In what can be seen as a sign of the times to come, when social distancing may just become the new normal, the University of Calcutta has placed the entire digital collection of its library online so that physical visits are no longer necessitated and the world at large benefits from it.
The decision of the University, set up in 1857, has placed in public domain countless articles, journals and dissertations, including issues of The Calcutta Review dating back to 1844 and Tagore Law Lectures dating back to 1870. Now anybody, anywhere in the world, can access them any time.
“We are living through a time of great uncertainty, owing to the global coronavirus pandemic. To cope with regulations of social distancing and lockdown, our teachers have initiated online teaching. They have also been regularly uploading study materials on the university website. In this spirit of online education, the university has also decided to open up free access to its digital collections. These would be accessible through the university website, www.culibrary.ac.in,” Vice-Chancellor Sonali Chakravarti Banerjee said in a circular.
Two major reasons
“There are two major reasons underlying our decision. The first is our responsibility to our students and our faculty, whose education and research have been obstructed by the prohibition on physical access to the library collections.
“The second is our responsibility, as a public institution, to the citizenry as well as the world at large,” Ms. Chakravarti Banerjee said.
“Education is a public good; and the necessity and value of academic research increases, more than ever, if our society is to recover from the crisis.
“As a public university, we feel that it is our responsibility to make our digital collections part of a global academic commons, to facilitate the pursuit of knowledge beyond borders,” she said.
Till now, the library facilities and resources, including digital collections, were primarily accessible to users within the university campus.
Now, the digitised collection of full-text materials has been made accessible for free reading — from any part of the world.
“The University of Calcutta feels honoured to contribute to the communing of cultural-educational resources; and thus to strengthen the global networks of cooperation and solidarity through which alone we shall be able to recover as a planetary community,” the Vice-Chancellor said.
According to a senior university official, this decision to make the library’s digital content public, even though prompted by the pandemic and subsequent lockdown, would, in all probability, continue to hold good even after the lockdown is lifted.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Life & Style / by Bishwanath Ghosh / Kolkata – May 06th, 2020
Anecdotes and songs punctuating a virtual tribute to commemorate the music legend’s 115th birth anniversary
Pankaj Mullick / Parimal Goswami
In 1922, a 17-year-old set to tune Rabindranath Tagore’s poem Shesh Kheya. He sang it at college functions and other cultural events. When word reached Jorasanko, the Tagore family abode in north Calcutta, the composer was summoned by the poet himself. That day the youth had started to sing and soon enough Tagore slipped into a trance. It was his habit whenever he was writing or composing or when in deep thought. But the young man had no way of knowing any of this. Confused and somewhat awkward at this effect his composition had, he quietly slipped out of the room mid-song.
The young man’s name was Pankaj Kumar Mullick. And these anecdotes and songs punctuated the virtual tribute organised by Intach’s Calcutta chapter and the Pankaj Mullick Music and Art Foundation on May 10 to commemorate the music legend’s 115th birth anniversary.
Mullick’s grandson, Rajib Gupta, did the talking; his wife, Jhinuk, sang a selection of Mullick’s compositions.
Gupta continued, “Dadu met Tagore again 15 years later. By this time he was a music director. He had already worked in films such as Chandidas (1932) and Kapal Kundala (1933) and he needed Gurudev’s permission to use Shesh Kheya in Pramathesh Barua’s film Mukti (1937).” When they met, Tagore inquired softly, “Why did you run away the last time we met?”
Melody maker: Pankaj Mullick; with Jawaharlal Nehru in 1955 at a seminar / Courtesy, Rajib Gupta
This time, Tagore heard the entire song and was overwhelmed. He granted Mullick permission to use the song. Should you run a YouTube search, the scene will surface on your screen. The silver waters, empty, but for a single vessel. The horizon, obviously flushed even in a black-and-white print, with the coconut palm leaning against it. And the sun dipping low into the river. The song is picturised on Mullick — it was his debut as an actor — but it is his voice more than his screen presence that can hold audiences across generations captive. The lines go — Diner sheshe ghumer deshe ghomta pora oi chaya/Bhulalo re bhulalo mor pran/O parete sonar kule andharmule kon maya/Geye gelo kaj bhangano gaan… At day-end in the land of slumber, a veiled shadow/Casts on me a spell sublime/On the other side, by the golden shore, lives what credo?/It pierces all worldly chores with a melody divine.
Insistent though neither plaintive nor resigned, Mullick’s music and rendition add another dimension to Tagore’s words.
Mukti is a tumultuous relationship saga. In the end, the man dies and the estranged wife survives. When Mullick narrated the script to Tagore, the elder apparently remarked, “It seems the protagonist of your story is in search of mukti… freedom.”
When Barua learnt about this exchange, he promptly christened his production Mukti.
Pankaj Mullick in the 1937 film, Mukti, with Pramathesh Barua / Courtesy, Rajib Gupta
Rajib does not tell a linear tale. He does not need to. His memory drive is teeming with gems and he can pick and choose, polish and cast aside as he pleases. The cast from his anecdotes is delightfully star-studded.
He talks about the camaraderie between Mullick and singer-actor-superstar K.L. Saigal.
Saigal acted in a couple of Bengali films produced by New Theatres. In one such, he was required to sing a Rabindrasangeet — Tomar binay gaan chhilo. But there was a slight problem — Saigal didn’t speak any Bengali. Those days not only was it uncommon to have a “non-Bengali” sing Rabindrasangeet, culture vigilantes too were not entirely encouraging. The way out was to have Saigal copy Mullick “pronunciation by pronunciation, timbre by timbre”. Rajib’s narration trails off and Jhinuk strategically breaks into song.
Next comes the tale of Mullick wanting to have the Calcutta Philharmonic Orchestra play to his rendition of yet another Rabindrasangeet, Pranchay chokkhu na chay, and the keepers of tradition refusing to have any of it. By this time Tagore had passed away. Finally, Mullick did a Hindi translation and thus was born the popular Pran chahe nayan na chahe. Jhinuk breaks into song again.
Sepia-tinted times are not free of complexities. Mullick joined New Theatres around the same time as the famed composer, Raichand Boral, in 1931. The two worked as joint music directors for six years. Despite the collaboration, as Rajib points out, a lot of their films did not have Mullick’s name in the final list of credits. It seems Mullick, who was at that time the breadwinner of a joint family of 60, did not wish to jeopardise his position by picking a quarrel with the studio bosses. But the old wound obviously was never quite forgotten. It merely turned into one of those legacy aches that will roll from generation to generation.
After Mukti, Mullick was set free from a spell of ignominy. He learnt Rabindrasangeet, sang them on the Broadcasting Company Ltd, the colonial predecessor of the All India Radio (AIR), and was the first to use them in films. “Dadu had the songs translated into several Indian languages including Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil and Telugu,” says Rajib, whose narration picks up pace and one can almost sense the busy hum from Mullick’s heyday.
The rundown in no particular order. Helming the popular radio programme, Sangeet ShikkharAshar, for 47 years. Being honorary advisor to the folk entertainment section of the government of West Bengal, appointed by chief minister Bidhan Chandra Ray himself. Travelling across India with a variety of productions showcasing Bengal’s folk heritage. Composing Mahishasuramardini.
Member of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation’s mayor-in-council, Debashish Kumar, joins the virtual adda and elaborates on Mahishasuramardini — the programme aired by the Broadcasting Company Ltd at the crack of dawn on Mahalaya.
Mahisasuramardini had more than one creator. There was playwright Bani Kumar, who had scripted it all; Birendra Krishna Bhadra, who did the Chandipath, or invocation of the goddess, and was also the compere; and Pankaj Mullick, who set it all to tune.
Rajib does not forget to mention how one year it was ditched for a programme by Mullick’s protégé Hemanta Mukhopadhyay. He says with restrained pride, “But there was a public uproar and the broadcasters were forced to air the original thereafter, year upon year, beginning with that very year on the day of Mahasashthi.”
Rajib’s narration changes tack when he talks about his grandfather’s work in films. The 1930s spool rolls. Heady years. After a character role in Mukti, the lead role in Aandhi (1940). Thereafter, Doctor the same year. Rajib keeps it real, quotes Tapan Sinha who is believed to have said, “Pankaj Mullick was a decent actor.”
The actual glory, the out-of-the-ordinary stories, have to do with Mullick’s career as composer. How O.P. Nayyar said to Ameen Sayani that as a six-year-old he was inspired by New Theatre’s Pankaj Mullick to take up singing. How Mullick introduced playback singing in Indian films. How he introduced Western musical elements in popular Indian music — fundamentals of harmonisation, interlude music, counter melody. He discovered the horse-beat rhythm, the train rhythm. “You know A.R. Rahman’s Chhaiyaan chhaiyaan? That train rhythm Dadu was the first to use in Doctor.”
And the legacy chugs along…
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, online edition / Home> Culture / by Anasuya Basu / May 24th, 2020
It began with author Prochy N. Mehta”s grandchildren being barred from Kolkata”s sole fire temple and culminated in a meticulously researched book on the role of prominent Parsis and the community at large in various aspects of the city”s growth in diverse areas over the years.
“My grandchildren were going to the only fire temple in Kolkata (the Late D.B. Mehta”s Zoroastrian Anjuman Atash Adaran) with us. In 2015, the newly appointed Head Priest phoned and requested us not to bring my daughter Sanaya”s children to the fire temple. On asking why, I was told that the (temple”s) Trust Deed is sacrosanct,” Mehta, author of “Pioneering Parsis Of Calcutta” (Niyogi Books), told IANS in an email interview.
“This started my search into the past. The Trust Deed is dated 1915, but no one today has any recall of us Parsis of that time, of the community in Calcutta, and what they fought for and believed in,” Mehta, one of just 420 Parsis in Kolkata, said. The community has seen zero growth in the last three years as there have been no births.
“Sanaya is married to a non-Parsi. Her children were visiting the fire temple till 2015 We have an Originating Summons in the Calcutta High Court asking for interpretation of the Trust Deed. That is why I studied the Trust Deed and unearthed information. We can now interpret the Deed with this new information. The fire temple trustees are not opposed to it.
“Every family in Calcutta has children who have intermarried. In the last three years, all marriages are intermarriage. They do not want to take a decision in case people point fingers at them saying it”s being done as they are in a similar situation. If the court rules that would decide the issue (but the case is still pending),” Mehta explained.
Mehta elaborates on the issue in the Preface.
“I had no illusions. What I was taking on is what every religion faces at some state: the fear of change. Any change from the norm upsets someone of the other. Sometimes, change comes about because there are enough people to force the change through. Sometimes, the silent majority want the change but do not have the time, means or patience to make it come about. I felt I had all three. More importantly, I wouldn”t allow my daughter”s children to be treated any differently than the children of my son,” Mehta writes.
This initial curiosity turned into a voyage of discovery, which changed her perception of her community and awoke in her an intense pride in the Parsi stalwarts of yesteryear. Mehta”s meticulous research reaped rich dividends as she slowly dusted off the cobwebs of history that revealed the pioneering Parsis” arduous journey to Kolkata, their forward thinking, their broad-minded approach, their willingness to give and to improve the lives of all around them.
These extraordinary Parsi men and women played a prominent role in society by taking upon themselves the responsibility of helping one and all, regardless of class, caste, creed, or colour. Their ability in business and faith in the future was matchless. These early Parsis were not afraid of taking on the establishment and fought publicly to resolve disputes where the orthodox members were unwilling to give the reformists their way.
“I try to trace the history of the Parsis, as there is no recorded history of the Parsis in India, except for a poem the Kissa-e-Sanjan written in 1599 by a priest, Boman Kekobad,” Mehta told IANS.
“An interesting fact is that we had forgotten our religion till Changa Asha (the leader of the Parsis in Navsri) found a group of Parsis in about 1490 living amongst the Hindus as a tribe following Hindu customs and way of life. Till today, the World Zoroastrian Organisation is finding such co-religionists living in poverty in the villages of Gujarat and seeks to rehabilitate them.,” Mehta elaborated.
To turn to the pioneers, the book says Rustumji Banaji may have been the most prominent man in Bengal in the 1800s; owner of Kidderpore and Salkia docks, master ship builder, pioneer in banking, insurance, social service, social reform, and shipping. But alas, forgotten today.
Many of the pioneer Parsis of Bombay had their early roots in Kolkata: Sir Jamshedji Jeejeebhoy; Nusserwanji Cowasji Petit; Dinshaw Petit; Framji Banaji (brother of Rustumji Banaji); the Wadia family of shipbuilders; Meherwanji Mehta, father of Phirozshaw Mehta; Khurshedji Cama; Dadabhoy Navroji; Jamshedji Madan (father of Indian cinema); and Dorab Mehta (Meherwanji”s brother), who had done extensive charitable work for the city of Navsari.
Then there were the nationally famous Parsis who belonged to Calcutta, but were forgotten by us. D.N. Wadia, the world famous geologist; Erach Bhiwandiwala, the artist; A.C. Ardeshir and his famous horse, Ethics; and Dr Irach Taraporewala, who translated the Gathas and wrote the Divine Songs of Zarathusthra.
And then there was the Tata family connected through marriage with the (DB) Mehta family. Jamshedji and Dhunjibhoy Mehta met at Dadabhai Navroji”s home in England, where they purchased machinery for their cotton mills, Empress Mills, Nagpur, and Empress of India Mills at Srirampur. Dhunjibhoy”s grandson, Phiroze Sethna, and Jamshedji”s son, Ratan, married the daughters of Ardesher Sett, Navaz, and Banoo. This must have sealed the bond of friendship among the families, the book says.
(Vishnu Makhijani can be reached at vishnu.makhijani@ians.in)
–IANS
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source: http://www.outlookindia.com / Outlook / Home> The News Scroll / by IANS / May13th, 2020
‘This year we want to motivate our members to find that spark, and nurture and strengthen it so that we can light up the world’
Sunira Chamaria, executive director, DRIL, is taking over as the new chairperson of the Calcutta chapter of FICCI FLO / Sourced by the Telegraph
As the new FICCI FLO chairperson, what is your theme this year?
I have actively been with FLO for many years now and have served in the committee for more than five years. Our theme for this year is ‘Nurture your spark and light up the world’. I believe our unique spark glows within us. This year we want to motivate our members to find that spark, and nurture and strengthen it so that we can light up the world — all of this through a journey of learning and discovering.
What are some of your plans for this year?
The novel coronavirus continues to force people to stay indoors in an unprecedented manner and the subsequent disruption of lives across the world. However, this allows us an opportunity to go inwards and discover our roots. As a tree’s true strength is in the strength of its roots and the deeper the roots, the higher it can reach — with this aim we are planning various talks, focussing on our arts, history, heritage and culture with eminent personalities who are experts in their fields. A series of webinars called ‘Respond, Recover Revive’ has been specially curated to understand the impact of Covid-19 on various sectors such as cinema, fashion, aviation, finance and many others. Various industry stalwarts have been enlisted to make us understand their perspectives on the roadmap ahead. I would like to introduce ‘Fit@Flo’ and ‘love yourself’ series to discover wellness as a lifestyle as it has never been such a need of the hour like now. Also imperative during these times are community building and fellowship. As we are already fortunate enough to have a community such as ours, we will delve deep and forge a sense of togetherness and fortitude. This can be enhanced by shared experiences like cooking together, gaming together and indulging in art experiences with experts from the respective fields.
What are some of your objectives this year?
I would want to promote women entrepreneurship and a series of workshops are being planned to work on specific skills like ideation, operationalisation, marketing, finance and executive development. Apart from the promotion of fitness and wellness through the Fit@Flo and ‘love yourself’ series, I would also like to provide detailed understanding of current affairs among women through a series of webinars. Providing in-depth knowledge of Indian arts, heritage and culture and the creation of skilling opportunities for women of various strata and sectors of society are also on my list of objectives.
Tell us a little about yourself…
I completed my schooling in Delhi and have studied business at the undergraduate level, followed by an advanced course in systems analysis and design from NIIT. I have had varied industry experience, reflecting a number of fields that I am passionate about. My career began at Rajasthan Petro Synthetics, a pioneer in polypropylene yarn, where I spearheaded the digitalisation of the organisation as well as the planning and implementation of market strategy. Thereafter, I have founded a start-up in fashion, followed by one in the area of specialty foods. Presently, I am working with DRIL, the largest ropeway company in India, as an executive director. I am a mother of two lovely children and have a special interest in art and travel. An equitable society with equal opportunities is a dream I work towards.
What are some of the challenges that you’re anticipating this year?
We had planned a lot of events and workshops with the aim of empowerment of women. However, we have now restructured our planning and we are having most of our events in the form of webinars. This pandemic has forced us to think outside the box. We are connecting with our members in new ways to continue in our quest to create meaningful experiences. This also offers an opportunity to access eminent speakers across the globe who might not have been otherwise available to come to the city.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, online edition / Home> People / by Annanya Sarkar / May 20th, 2020
Lives of Others: Story of an activist from a storm-ravaged place
Debashis Chaudhury / Sourced by the correspondent
As a young boy growing up in his uncle’s house in Behrampore in Murshidabad district in the sixties and seventies, Debashis Chaudhury could not help getting caught in a cross-current of ideas. His uncle Soumendra Kumar Gupta, known for his radical views, taught political science at Behrampore Krishnanath College. Naxalbari, which was not far away, had just happened. All around Chaudhury were scholars, writers and activists, dreaming of a new world. Chaudhury would never engage directly with a political movement, but he was baptised by fire.
Today, at 62, he still tries to give shape to those ideas, far from Behrampore and his childhood, in Diamond Harbour. After earning his masters degree in botany from Ballygunge science college, Chaudhury landed up at Diamond Harbour as a teacher of biology and life science at Sarisha High School. Diamond Harbour in South 24-Parganas, once an important harbour town for the Potuguese and the British, now serves as a gateway to the Sunderbans and is a local tourist destination. Here, the Rupnarayan joins the Hooghly to be met by Haldi further down and the three join to run into the sea in the Sunderbans further south.
“I came here and stayed on,” says Chaudhury, a modest man with a smiling face. The town became his mission. He is a Diamond Harbour activist. Just before the lockdown, he was working hard to build a campaign against the CAA and NRC.
Chaudhury points at the river. Cyclone Amphan has breached the embankment on the Hooghly at Matsabandar near Diamond Harbour for about 200 metres. Last year, the main tourist attraction of the town, the promenade on the riverfront that is also part of the main road, had been threatened with collapse by a state government project to build a hanging bridge there.
The project was shelved after protests from Janakalyan Samiti, Diamond Harbour, a civic, social and human rights group that was formed by Chaudhury and others in 2002, which were reported by The Telegraph. Previously Chaudhury was a member and secretary of APDR, a Calcutta-based civil and human rights group.
“But hardly any repair has been done. A disaster may still be waiting,” says Chaudhury about the battered stretch. “Though what the eye can see is very little.”
Diamond Harbour town lies ravaged with its houses roofless and without walls. In the villages the destruction is unbelievable. And Covid is raging. “For so long governments in Bengal had been told to decentralise power more effectively. A strong local government would have helped in people’s participation in health infrastructure. Who even knows about the Gram Samsad now?” asks Chaudhury.
But Diamond Harbour was never really pretty. “I came here in 1981. The town was always in a state of collapse, irrespective of who was in power,” says Chaudhury, who retired from his job in 2018.
One of the first things that he saw was the large spurt of ‘video-halls’ in the early 80s showing blue films. “There were about 20/22 such halls in the town itself and schoolboys were making a beeline for these.” These were closed down, as were some hotels that were being used for prostitution, after intervention from Chaudhury and other activists.
“I was never directly engaged with a political group,” Chaudhury stresses. “But Naxalbari had opened a door. And at that point the science movement was working in a parallel way.” Movements come together. Science, also, is a great agent of change.
In those days Chaudhury would distribute a science journal called Utsa Manush in Diamond Harbour homes.
Wherever he looked, problems had piled up. “Water in Diamond Harbour is undrinkable. It has always been so. Not many here drink the water supplied by municipality,” said Chaudhury. “Just the other day, my wife pointed out snails in the water. So everyone buys 20-litre jars of bottled water, the quality of which can also be questioned in many cases,” said Chaudhury. His wife is a schoolteacher and the couple have two sons.
Chaudhury filed a petition against authorities on the issue of unsafe and unclean drinking water at the high court in 2017, but the case has only had one hearing so far.
For Janakalyan Samitiand Chaudhury, the local bridges are another important issue.
Diamond Harbour is a town of bridges. These, joining parts of town and often entire areas over water bodies that abound in this part of Bengal, are vital to life here. Some go back to the British era. Many of them have collapsed, or are about to.
“Natunpole is the bridge that connects Diamond Harbour with Kakdwip in the Sunderbans. It has been in very bad shape for long, but recently it was ‘repaired’ with only a coat of plaster,” said Chaudhury. Same for Lalpole, a British-era bridge, a little distance from Natunpole. “It has collapsed. But still people are using it, clearing a space on the side. That is another disaster waiting to happen.”
The Mograhat Canal, over which Natunpole was built and which acts as an irrigation canal for a large area around Diamond Harbour, has not been cleaned since 1967, said Chaudhury. He has filed more than a hundred RTIs so far, individually and on behalf of organisations, but has got only about seven or eight satisfactory replies.
Not that he has been rewarded grandly for his efforts in fact the opposite has happened at times. Once he had begun to give extra lessons to students at the higher secondary level. The idea was also to hit at the root of the private tuition racket that flourished there. He was harassed and beleaguered for his effort.
“We have our limitations,” said Chaudhury. “Not all of us can give up our jobs. But one of the things I always remember is if you don’t try to change society around you, society will change you.”
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, online edition / Home> Calcutta / by Chamdrima S Bhattacharya / Calcutta – June 01st, 2020
At a time when coverage of local sports in Kolkata was on the wane, Samir Goswami was one of the few journalists who would devotedly cover first division cricket, hockey league as well as of lower-division football
Samir Goswami Composite: Facebook (Saba Nayakan)
Veteran journalist Samir Goswami, a much-liked figure in Kolkata sports journalism fraternity, breathed his last on Saturday after suffering from cardiac arrest.
He was 65 and is survived by his wife. Loved for his amiable nature, Goswami worked for more than two decades in popular Bengali newspaper ‘Bartaman’.
At a time when coverage of local sports in Kolkata was on the wane, Goswami was one of the few journalists, who would devotedly cover first division cricket league games and unfailingly updated the scores of hockey league matches as well results of lower-division (second to fifth division) football leagues.
He also diligently covered senior and junior level swimming competitions as well as table tennis events. After retirement, he used to freelance in different media including AIR Kolkata.
He represented Calcutta Sports Journalists’ Club (CSJC) in J K Bose Trophy on many occasions apart from going as the manager. The CSJC and Kolkata Press Club deeply mourned the sudden demise of Goswami.
source: http://www.outlookindia.com / Outlook / Home> Website> Sports / by PTI / April 19th, 2020
