The wall of the Azad Hind Dhaba in Kolkata adorned with M.F. Husain’s Gaja Gamini. Photo: SUSHANTA PATRONOBISH
The now-famous painting, titled Gaja Gamini (one with a walk like an elephant), depicts a dancing woman, in a bright red background, while a white elephant looks on with its trunk held aloft
The memory of seeing M.F. Husain colouring one of his sketches back in 1999 is still fresh in the mind of Madan Sharma, one of the owners of Azad Hind Dhaba, a popular eatery in south Kolkata.
One fine afternoon years back, Mr. Husain walked into the dhaba, which he frequented during his visits here, and all of a sudden started adding colour to the black and white sketch on the wall that he had drawn three years before.
“The experience made me speechless,” Mr. Sharma said, on the eve of the 99th birth anniversary of the iconic painter.
The now-famous painting, titled Gaja Gamini (one with a walk like an elephant), depicts a dancing woman, in a bright red background, while a white elephant looks on with its trunk held aloft. Mr. Husain arranged a private show of his film Gaja Gamini at Azad Hind in 1999.
Sitting at the cash counter with the painting behind him, Mr. Sharma fondly recalled his memories of the famous artist. He remembers Mr. Husain as a “moody and humble person” who would come to the restaurant and sit quietly in one corner sipping his favourite “kadak chai [strong tea].”
“He did not talk much. But sometimes told me what kind of food he wants,” Mr. Sharma said. He was initially apprehensive of talking to an artist of Mr. Husain’s calibre, but eventually they became friends. “Mr. Husain could mingle with adults and children with equal ease. He was totally devoid of arrogance.” Whenever schoolchildren spotted him at the eatery, they flocked to him and asked for autographs. The world-famous painter complied with their demands with a smile and even drew them impromptu sketches.
When asked about the controversy that erupted in 2006 over Mr. Husain’s depiction of Hindu gods and goddesses, Mr. Sharma said the thought of removing the painting never entered his mind. “Nobody asked me to remove the painting even when the controversy erupted.”
Mr. Husain eventually had to leave the country under pressure from Hindu nationalist forces. He passed away in London in August 2011.
Meanwhile, the dancing woman with an elephant walk lives on happily on the central wall of Azad Hind Dhaba, in the company of numerous Hindu gods and goddesses.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Friday Review> Art / by Soumya Das / Kolkata – September 17th, 2014
The ‘toy train’ chugging up a serpentine track through the Darjeeling hills is almost an image out of a fairy tale. But for Adrian Shooter the first look at the scene triggered a life-long love story that made him buy an entire locomotive to run in his London garden.
The world’s oldest surviving Darjeeling-Himalayan Railway (DHR) locomotive is back on track, thanks to Shooter. Smitten by the magic of a ride on the DHR (now an Unesco world heritage property) a decade and a half ago, Shooter, who retired as chairman of Chiltern Railways, bought the DHR locomotive — model number 778 — built in 1889 by Sharp Stewart and Company, Manchester, to restore it to perfect
condition.
The Indian government had sold the locomotive to Hesston Steam Museum in 1960, not realizing what its worth would be 50 years later when it was declared a world heritage by Unesco.
Shooter has also bought an Ambassador that runs by the train when it chugs through his garden to give it a feel of being in Darjeeling. He shipped the locomotive in a container from US to the steam rail workshop in Tyseley, Birmingham, where he restored it. The tracks laid in his garden over 1.5km is in the form of a loop just like in Darjeeling.
He has also built a station that looks exactly like the original Sukna station, besides laying a pathway that crosses over the tracks, exactly the way it is in Darjeeling.
In an exclusive interview to TOI, Shooter said “I bought the locomotive from the museum in Indiana, US, in 2002. It had been bought by a private individual, Mr Donnelley in 1960. He died in 1975 and it passed on to the museum after that. He was the boss and major shareholder in R R Donnelley Co, which is a very large printer and publisher in Chicago.”
He added, “I have several volunteers who help me operate the loco and we give rides to invited guests. We usually have 100-150 and do this three or four times a year. The loco is fully functional and is in excellent condition. Last winter it had a 10-year overhaul when, by law, the boiler has to be taken off the chassis, carefully examined and repaired as necessary.”
“The loco still has the original 1889 boiler and is, by at least 50 years, the oldest loco boiler in use in the UK. There are a couple of older ones in India. The reason that it has lasted so long is that it is made of wrought iron, which is much more corrosion-resistant than steel. It was obviously very well looked after during its 70-year use in India,” Shooter said.
Shooter will be in Delhi in February at the invitation of Mark Tully to speak at the Indian Steam Conference. He said, “Darjeeling Railway is very special because it climbs so high (over 7000 feet) through fantastic countryside with wonderful people. Many Britons had ancestors who lived, worked or visited Darjeeling. I still regularly come across people who went to school in Kurseong or Darjeeling. The engines themselves are of a sound design that have shown themselves to be more than capable on very steep and curvaceous railway tracks.”
Shooter, however, said he has no plans to return the locomotive to India. Britons will get a chance to ride on the train as it makes a special appearance at the North Pennines on September 26-28.
South Tynedale Railway at Alston is hosting Shooter’s train — Locomotive No. 19 — for an Indian-themed weekend of food, music and films. People will be able to ride on the train, dress like a local from Darjeeling and enjoy eastern Himalayan cuisine.
Locomotive No. 19 was withdrawn from the Darjeeling-Himalayan railway service in 1960 and, privately purchased, made its way to Indiana. In 2003, it was taken across the Atlantic to be restored by Tyseley Locomotive Works, Birmingham, for Shooter. At the same time, two replicas of DHR carriages were constructed at the Boston Lodge Works of the Ffestiniog Railway. These and the locomotive run in Adrian Shooter’s private garden railway.
India at present has 14 original DHR locomotives in working condition and 10 others on display at museums. Shooter’s train is the oldest of all DHR trains. Currently, only five DHR locomotives are privately owned, four of which are in Assam. The 778 is the only model outside India.
Indian railway expert Rajesh Agrawal said, “In the 1960s, India was getting rid of a large number of locomotives as we had more than we required. One such model was the 778. Nobody knew then that the DHR would become such a prized object. People also thought the 778 was not in working condition as it was 71 years old. A locomotive generally retires after 45 years.”
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / by Kounteya Sinha, TNN / September 19th, 2014
After sifting through hundreds of photographs of lovable Indian “community dogs” – as well as their rescue stories — the judges finally selected Bhutu, whose guardian is Samarpita Sil a city resident, became the finalist in People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA’s) third annual Cutest Indian Dog Alive contest.
Samarpita rescued and adopted Bhutu when she saw him sleeping on the roadside. “One rainy day, I saw a little dog. He was very weak and ill. … I took him home and now he is like my kid”, says Samarpita.
“Bhutu is a lucky dog, and he has returned the favour of being rescued by bringing much love and joy into Samarpita’s life”, said PETA CEO Poorva Joshipura. “All rescued dogs are already winners because their lives were saved by people who love them for who they are.”
The lucky pup will receive a “100% Desi Dog” doggie T-shirt, and his guardian will receive a “My Dog Is a Rescue” T-shirt, as well as an autographed copy of PETA India founder Ingrid Newkirk’s book The second- and third-place winners will also receive prizes, and all three top placers will appear in an upcoming issue of Animal Times, PETA India’s magazine for members.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatmes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / TNN / September 16th, 2014
This new contribution to diaspora studies maps a woman’s tumultuous passage from India to West Indies
COOLIE WOMAN — The Odyssey of Indenture: Gaiutra Bahadur; Hachette Book Publishing India Pvt. Ltd., 4th & 5th Floors, Corporate Centre, Sector 44, Gurgaon-122003. Rs. 599.
Usha V.T
Gaiutra Bahadur’s Coolie Woman is an attempt to recreate the journey of an indentured woman labourer — a woman from India —who travelled to the West Indies and eventually to the United States. Diaspora studies have often pointed out that a wide array of social and economic deprivations drove villagers from their homes to travel to faraway lands. And as this author reiterates, the practice of imperial capitalism destroyed traditional livelihoods, while at the same time colonialism created new routes for moving across the subcontinent, in several guises.
The author justifies the use of the term coolie , despite its derogatory connotations, at the very outset. In fact, she devotes a whole chapter to a discussion of the term and its use in the current context. “As it turns out, mystery darkened the lives of many women who left India as coolies. The hind of scandal was communal. Some historians have called indenture “ a new form of slavery,”
In many ways it was: once in the sugar colonies, coolies suffered under a repressive legal system that regularly convicted more than a fifth of them as criminals, subject to prison for mere labor violations, which were often the unjust allegations of exploitative overseers.”
What makes the work interesting is the autobiographical nature of the narrative. The protagonist is the author’s great grandmother Sujaria, whose life and adventures are the occasion to map the tumultuous journey of the woman from her home in India to the West Indies. With the help of historical records, legal documents and tales of indenture, Gaiutra Bahadur attempts to recreate her grandmother’s historic journey. She says: “What I found was a revelation. I once thought that my great grandmother must have been an exception .” And a little later we read: “In which category of recruit did my great grandmother fall? Who was she? Displaced peasant, run away wife, kidnap victim, Vaishnavite pilgrim or widow? Was she prostitute…”
The sexuality of the women and her exploitation in terms of her body both during the journey to the new land as well as in her survival in the land of her slavery through sexual negotiation takes prime place in some of the seminal chapters of the book. They were exploited physically and their reputations were then “dismembered”. This was done systematically both by the men who exploited them as well as by the men who had no sexual stake in the women. Though it was seen that gender imbalance caused sexual chaos in the colonies among the indentured labourers and their functionaries, the women were made to suffer not merely physical agony but mental torture through character assassination. Some of the comments and statements that Gaiutra cites are from public figures held usually in high regard: Even men without a sexual stake in the women cut them to pieces. The Reverend C.F Andrews, indenture’s greatest critic, rued the women he met in Fiji. “The Hindu woman in this country” he reported, “is like a rudderless vessel with its masts broken being whirled down the rapids of a great river without any controlling hand. She passes from one man to another and has lost even the sense of shame in doing so ”.
Of course none of the opinionated colonisers bother to talk to the women or ask for their version of the reality they face on an everyday basis for survival. Yet they make their judgements on the character of the women vocal and the woman as always is silenced and humbled for circumstances beyond her control.
In 1906, the author’s great grandmother and her new born arrived at Rose Hall Plantation, on Canje Creek. She did no field work there as the narrator informs us… “Dey send her, and she cyaan make it in the field, because her feet was soft …” Instead Sujaria was assigned to be a child minder. This was the job that Jamni, the woman at the edges of the Nonpareil uprising, either as kept woman or rape victim, reportedly had. And this was the job that my great grandmother was given. Perhaps this was because she had a baby to support alone and her caste background had made her useless in the fields. Or perhaps, she possessed a pretty woman’s advantage. (p 148)
Gaiutra explains how caste class and gender are factors that develop new meaning as the woman moves from her own land through along, perilous journey into a new world where her survival depends on her capacity to negotiate with the multiple forces that are decisive to her existence. Her sex, though her weakness, now becomes a major factor that she can utilise for negotiating her survival. In a way of life, that is exploitative, survival become the centre of the labourer’s existence and the author explains how it is achieved in individual cases.
The narrative is supported with documents such as legal references, captains’ or doctor’s logbooks from the ships, police records, administrative reports, photographs etc.
These neglected narratives are footnotes to colonial history and women’s history in particular. It becomes her middle passage:
middle-passaged
passing
beneath the coloring of
desire
in the enemy’s eye
a scatter of worlds and bro
ken wishes
in shiva’s unending dance
(Arnold Itwaru, “We Have
Survived”)
With an astute eye for detail Gaiutra Bahadur, trained as a journalist, unearths sumptuous information buried in documents and records hitherto less-explored areas pertaining to women in indentured labour amounting to sexual slavery, and the odyssey of indenture is presented in a nonchalant manner. However having said that, the documentary nature of the work makes it a little tedious and uninteresting at times over several pages.
The author’s self-conscious struggle to motivate the reader to share individual experiences — albeit factual, in places slipping into a fictional style — is sometimes a bit laborious and too obvious. Gaiutra Bahadur’s Coolie Woman traces the story of how one woman’s experience represents an entire spectrum of woman’s experience: the book is a veritable source book for further research in diaspora studies.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Book Review / by Usha V.T / September 16th, 2014
The story of the Jews of Calcutta tends to always be a story about disappearance. There are only about two dozen Jews left in the city where once they were thousands and that makes it a poignant story of loss – of shuttered synagogues without services, a Jewish Girls School without a single Jewish girl, and buildings with names like Ezra Mansion but no Ezras in them. Nahoum’s Bakery and its plum cakes are about the only real memory most Calcuttans have of their city’s Jewish history. It makes for a melancholic nostalgic story both about the vanishing Jews of Calcutta and the city’s fading cosmopolitan charm.
But Jael Silliman says when she started archiving the city’s Jewish history she did not want it to be a lament about how few Jews were left in the city. She wanted to make a different point– “it is that the time we were here was full, was good and both we and the city benefited.”
JewishCalcutta.in is less a stuffy museum of that 230-year old history and more of a digital album that tells the story through snapshots and film clips and even recipes, through marriage contracts found in auction houses and wedding dresses stored away in attics in America. Silliman conceived of the idea, secured a Fulbright-Nehru fellowship and Jadavpur University’s School of Cultural Texts and Records came on board to help create the digital archive.
“My notion of the Jewish community was from my granny and my great-grandma and they were very conservative women, very inward-looking, not politically inclined. Fuddy-duddy kind of people,” she laughs. “I thought their worlds were very limited.”
But she found to her astonishment, her community was anything but limited. She encountered the first person in India to do magic on the radio. Silent movie stars. The first mother and daughter Miss India pair. The first woman to cut a record on disc in India.
Communists and Congressis. A woman asking to be a plaintiff in court long before even Britain had female lawyers. A woman lawyer fighting for the rights of Muslim women in purdah. The “Patton” of the Indian Army. And Jewish patrons of the Bengali Star Theatre in North Kolkata. “They loved what they called ‘gaana bajana’” chuckles Jael.
The Jews of Calcutta were mostly Arab Jews from Iraq, Syria and Yemen who came to India as traders. They prospered under the Raj in that grey area between “whites” and “blacks” and left behind grand edifices recalling that prosperity. But Jael says it’s worth remembering that because so many were new immigrants, over 40 percent of the community was poor and started at the bottom of the ladder.
In a way, she says the story of her community’s success is a story about India as well. “I think only a country like India would enable a community like this, which came for such a short time, to have the kind of impact they did,” she says. And her mother Flower Silliman says even though most of the Jews of Calcutta left in the decades after Independence — unsure of their position in the new country — there’s one thing worth remembering: “At least we didn’t vanish because of anti-Semitism. India can be proud and say that the Jews left because they wanted to leave and no one told them to go.”
The Jews of Calcutta are mostly gone but here are seven of the most intriguing stories they left behind, now saved on JewishCalcutta.in.
The Sefer Torah. Photo courtesy: www.sanjitchowdhury.com
The Sefer Torah is a handwritten copy of the holiest book of the Jews usually stored in the Holy Ark of a synagogue. “We used to have 80-100 sefer torahs in the synagogue. Now we only have two. At least we have two” says Jael Silliman.
Arati Devi. Photo courtesy: Edmund Jonah
Arati Devi, a star of the silent film era was actually born Rachael Sofaer. She made three films including Punarianma: A Life Divine and A Man Condemned. She died in childbirth at the age of 35. Her cousin Abraham became a Hollywood actor alongside stars like Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner and Elizabeth Taylor.
Pramila. Photo courtesy: JewishCalcutta.in
Esther Victoria Abraham was voted as Miss India in 1947. But she became more famous as Pramila, the westernized vamp with Anglicized Hindi in films like Bhikaran, Ulti Ganga and Bijli. She married the film star Syed Hassan Ali Zaidi, a Shia Muslim and converted to Islam, yet remained Jewish to the end and her children observed Passover. Their daughter Naqui became Miss India in 1967, the first mother-and-daughter pair to do so. Naqui became Hindu. One son became Wahabi. Another son Haider remained Muslim but married a Tamilian Brahmin and wrote the screenplay for Jodhaa Akbar. When Esther died at 90, her sons, Jewish and Muslim, carried her to the Jewish cemetery while prayers from both scriptures were recited.
Aloo makallah has no ingredients except potatos and oil and salt but it’s a taste of Jewish Calcutta oldtimers remember nostalgically. Flower Silliman says the keepers of the kosher rules in Jewish kitchens were often Muslim cooks. “My cook would tell me its shabbat today. You have not made such and such dish. I was not at all religious but he was,” says Flower Silliman.
The Jonah family turns sahib. Photo Courtesy: Edmund Jonah
Mr Jonah and his sons show how the Baghdadi Jews quickly picked up British customs as they did business in India. “But he still sits like a Middle Easterner with his legs apart. So I think the transition for some of them was not so smooth,” says Jael Silliman.
Magen David Synagogue. Photo Courtesy: Ashok Sinha
There were three synagogues in Calcutta within walking distance of each other. “We used to roam from one synagogue to another. You told your father I am going to this synagogue this time. Not because you wanted to. But your girlfriend was there. Or you wanted to check out the new girl in town,” says Flower Silliman.
Ketuba or Marriage Contract. Photo Courtesy: JewishCalcutta.in
The elaborate Ketubas are now collector’s items. Jael Silliman was puzzled to be shown a ketuba from Faizabad which was not known to have Jews. But the project put her in touch with the family who owned that ketuba. Their forefather had gone to Faizabad to recruit railway workers for East Africa for the British in 1914. “It was like pieces of a puzzle which came together very neatly,” says Jael Silliman.
source: http://www.firstpost.com / FirstPost.com / Home> F.India> Latest News> India News / by Sandip Roy / September 13th, 2014
You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave. For author KunalBasu, Kolkata is twilight zone. A city of Bengalis, you say? Less than 50% if you look at the population, points out the Oxford academician. Basu, whose short story collection ‘The Japanese Wife’ was adapted for the screen by Aparna Sen, is in town, taking a break three weeks after finishing his latest novel. He has turned down six invitations to attend literary festivals across the world, so guarded he is about his newborn. But TOI on Friday caught up with him at his 29th floor apartment and got a birds-eye view of the story.
“This will ruffle feathers,” the author warns. “But if it doesn’t, I’ll consider the novel to be a failure,” he concedes. Basu’s latest is a no-nonsense account of Kolkata seen through the eyes of a migrant gigolo. The plot touches upon the 2011 Bengal election, intellectuals switching sides at the drop of a hat, Kolkata as a terror transit point, rigging and more – but don’t expect the good old Park Street days with a sepia tint, or nostalgia about Tagore, Ray and Ravi Shankar. Instead, be prepared for a stinging study on the “highly educated Bengali intellectual class”.
Like a pucca Kolkatan, Basu loves the city as much as he despises it. “Some authors write books on Kolkata with detachment. I have held nothing back. When people think of Kolkata, they think of a city of Bengalis. But the city has less than 50% Bengali population. While writing, we screen out the majority, in that case. Of that Bengali population, we only consider the ‘intellectuals’. That is a niche. My story is how a Bihari Muslim struggles to survive here and how the two worlds collide,” he narrates.
But how does the 2011 assembly polls and rigging feature in the plot? “That election ushered in the much-touted ‘poriborton’. This transformation deeply affects all citizens, as no Kolkatan can live oblivious to the political environment. It so happens that on the day of the poll verdict, May 13, a cataclysmic event changes the protagonist’s life,” the author says.
He hasn’t demonized anyone in the novel, he clarifies. “Many writers make Indians look like fools. I have the good, bad and ugly in the story but I haven’t denied them their humanity. Most Western writers portray Indian cities based on stereotypes. I’m an insider, a thoroughbred Kolkatan. My grandfather Bhupendra Nath Bose has an avenue named after him. He was the first president of Mohun Bagan club and a vice-chancellor of Calcutta University,” says Basu, who taught at Jadavpur University and IIM-Calcutta.
But why a gigolo as the protagonist, one would ask. “I never dreamed that I’d write about male sex workers. Gigolos look at Kolkata through a different lens. Even those born and brought up in the city go to places unknown to masses. They meet people and see sides and shades of the city not seen by us. The protagonist is a Bihari Muslim, whose family migrated from Bangladesh. The plot follows how he negotiates the currents of contemporary complexities,” he explains. And why not. In Suketu Mehta’s ‘Maximum City’, bar dancers play a pivotal role, while it’s the same with transgenders, or ‘hijras’, in William Dalrymple’s ‘City of Djinns’.
The book will hit the stands later next year, published by Pan Macmillan in India. But many readers would be angry, he predicts. “Like Syed Muztaba Ali and Nirad C Chaudhuri’s works, there are several observations about this breed called ‘highly educated intellectual Bengali’. For example, a Bengali friend advices the protagonist that to be a ‘Kalkattan’, one must presume to know everything and accept gossip as the truth without verification,” he says, tongue firmly in cheek.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / by Shounak Ghosal, TNN / September 14th, 2014
Nazrulgeeti exponent Firoza Begum, who was to be honoured with ‘Banga Bibhushan’ by the state government later this month, passed away in Dhaka on Tuesday evening. The 84-year-old was suffering from heart and kidney disease.
“She breathed her last around 8.15pm,” Bangladeshi media reports said. She had been undergoing treatment at the ICU of a private hospital. She was fitted with a pacemaker on Monday.
Mamata Banerjee grieved on social media as the news reached her on Tuesday night. “I am very sad to learn that the legendary Firoza Begum has just breathed her last. Her passing away will certainly create a huge void in the world of music and culture,” she posted.
The CM said her government had planned to confer the state’s highest civilian honour on her. “We had decided to honour her with ‘Banga Bibhusan’. She had also agreed to come to Kolkata to receive the award. But, now it’s all over,” she mourned.
Mamata recounted her last interaction with the legend by saying: “Hardly 10 days ago, we talked to each other. To me, her passing away is indeed a great personal loss. She used to treat me as a member of her family. On the last occasion of our meeting, she told me: ‘Ar ki dekha hobe? (Will we meet again?)’ Today, these words keep ringing in my ears,” the chief minister said.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / TNN / September 10th, 2014
A digital museum on the Jews of Calcutta is ready to go online on Monday after two years in the making.
“The archive documents the Jewish community’s contributions to Calcutta and celebrates the city where they thrived. It has taken me more than two years to curate this archive. I’m still fine-tuning it before the launch at Victoria Memorial on September 1 and have got wonderful feedback from community members across the world,” said Jael Silliman, a former women’s studies teacher at the University of Iowa and one of the members of the dwindling community in the city.
The website is a storehouse of information about Jews in Calcutta.
The community has dwindled from 6,000-plus members in its heyday to barely 20 people — mostly elderly — at present.
There hasn’t been a Jewish girl in the Jewish Girls School for about 40 years.
The Telegraph had reported last September how the community needed to include Israeli ambassador to India, Alon Ushpiz, who was visiting the city along with five other Jews, to achieve the “minyan” or quorum of 10 men needed for a formal service to celebrate Simhat Torah at Magen David Synagogue in Calcutta. It could not be held for 25 years because the community was not able to line up 10 men needed for the service.
Jews in India have branched into three main streams after the first batch arrived from West Asia in the late 18th century: the Bene-Israel (meaning Children of Israel), the Cochin Jews who prospered along the Malabar coast and Baghdadi Jews, who settled mostly in Calcutta and Mumbai.
Calcutta’s Jewish community members at the Viceroy’s Cup racing derby in 1937A guide to the races
The archive’s film section includes an audio-visual documentary of Jewish elders Cyril Cohen and Aaron Harazi, who passed away recently, speaking at length about their schooldays and work in Calcutta. The section offers a virtual tour of the Magen David on Canning Street and Beth El on Pollock Street — two synagogues no longer in use.
In a clip from the racecourse, Elijah Twena, an avid racer, gives an insight into the favourite pastime of Calcutta Jews.
A geniza at the Narkeldanga cemetery
Another section talks about Jewish cemeteries in Calcutta, especially the ones at Narkeldanga.
Legend has it that the first Jewish burial ground — at 45, Narkeldanga Main Road — was “born” when Shalome Cohen, the first settler, decided to buy a plot of land for a cemetery and went about asking his friends and business associates for a suitable place. A Bengali business associate took him to a paddy field on the outskirts of Calcutta and asked if that would do.
Graves of Jewish people at 45, Narkeldanga Main Road
Shalome was delighted and told him to quote a price. The gentleman declined and offered to give the plot for free. But Shalome insisted that he must pay because the site would be used for religious purposes. The gentleman reluctantly agreed to accept “whatever Shalome wishes to give”. The settler pulled a gold ring out of a finger, gave it to the landowner and sealed the transaction.
It is assumed that Moses de Pas, an emissary from Safad, now in Israel, was the first Jew to be buried in Calcutta cemetery for the community in 1812. His grave is no longer traceable. The cemetery has a geniza too for storing worn-out Hebrew-language religious books and papers. A small private cemetery was opened in the 1870s, and closed after 20 years or so, half a mile from the main cemetery.
Other sections include maps of Jewish Calcutta, a film gallery, community portraits, music of the community recorded from Rivers of Babylon, war years and military service and their impact on the community.
The museum project is led by Jael Silliman, a former women’s studies teacher at the University of Iowa, and assisted by Amlan Dasgupta, professor at Jadavpur University. “Some of the speakers at the launch will be Amlan Dasgupta, Adam Grotsky of USIEF and Jo Cohen, who will talk about the life Jews made for themselves in the city,” said Silliman, an author of two books, The Man with Many Hats (2013) and Jewish Portraits, Indian Frames: Women’s Narratives from a Diaspora of Hope (2001).
“We’re happy to be associated with the project. It has been quite a journey and a very fruitful one. Our students have worked untiringly for the project. We’re also considering housing the material at the School of Cultural Texts and Records, Jadavpur University,” said Dasgupta.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta / Front Page> Calcutta> Story / by Showli Chakraborty / Monday – September 01sr, 2014
Another feather will shortly be added to the city’s heritage hospitality industry as Astor Hotel opens its doors for guests.
Housed in a building that was a British barracks about a century ago, the hotel has retained the rooms of mismatching size and shape, and ironed out the colonial wrinkles with the precision of 21st Century.
“In its 120-odd years of existence, the interiors of the building never complemented its grand facade. Be it the electrical or plumbing system, it was a completely unplanned structure. A thumb-rule in construction is that a poorly-maintained building must be brought down and built over every 70-80 years,” said the hotel’s proprietor Vikram Puri.
“But with the help of the members of the heritage commission and a team from Delhi that specializes in restoring old havelis of Rajasthan, we managed to preserve the heritage elements of the building.”
Puri said the building used to be a British boarding house where soldiers would come riding on their horses and walk up the stairs to take rest in their rooms.
“What used to be the stable is now a lounge bar called Plush. We restored the same teak staircase the armymen walked up, instead of turning it into an elevator shaft. We retained the rooms with their mismatched dimensions, which gave us perfect material for a boutique hotel. A modern hotel resembles a block diagram, but here every room has a different character,” Puri said.
The guests here will use the same rooms that were once occupied by the army personnel of the imperialists, but the rooms have been fitted with modern facilities such as a big-screen television and air-conditioning.
“The main corridor of the hotel has a distinct Victorian look. But, we will adorn the walls with paintings and photographs of a century-old Kolkata,” Puri added.
To bring down carbon footprint, the hotel has done away with split air-conditioners and geysers and installed central systems. The corridor is not chilled but cool.
“This is not air-conditioned but filled with treated fresh air,” said a member of the hotel’s staff.
High ceiling, a four-poster bed and sepia-tainted lights give the suites the ambience of an era gone by. But water sprinklers, smoke detectors and Wi-Fi devices are a constant reminder of 2014.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / by Shounak Ghosal / September 12th, 2014
What if you had to read a Kakababu or Feluda story and get marks for reviewing it as part of a test in school?
Reading habit in Bengali is on a sharp decline for several years now and cinema has become the driving force behind book sales, especially when it comes to children. To stem this dip, Birla High School has come up with an innovative strategy — students can opt for a Bengali literature club as part of the curriculum. The last period is dedicated to a session of script-writing, reading, voice modulation, recitation and reviewing of stories, all in Bengali. And yes, they get marks for it too.
“If we didn’t have this strategy, we would lose the handful students who still have reading habits in Bengali. But students today don’t have the energy or time to explore the world of Bengali literature. So we made it part of the curriculum. Students can opt to join a club — Bengali, photography or something else — and they have responded positively to the book club. Even students, whose mother tongue isn’t Bengali, are opting for Bengali as the second language and joining the club. We have a junior section and the senior one is from Classes VI-X,” said Mandira Banerjee, a Bengali teacher.
Earlier, the clamour for special Puja editions of magazines used to start over a month ahead of the festival. But those days are long gone. College Street booksellers say whereas earlier individuals bought multiple copies to send to relatives and friends based out of the state, now the demand is at an all-time low. “But to ensure that students don’t miss out on the fun and flavour of Pujabarshiki issues, we give out copies and evaluate students based on their reviews,” added Joyita Basu of the Bengali department.
Saswat Banerjee, a Class IX student, said: “I’ve been a member of the club since Class VI. Here we are trained in drama, extempore, enunciation and summarizing stories in Bengali. We are also encouraged to write stories in Bengali.” However, the teenager admitted that since the last few years, the culture of exchanging Bengali books with classmates has gone down sharply.
The cast and director of ‘Gogoler Kirti’, a film based on the Samaresh Basu-created child sleuth, were present at a discussion at the school on Monday. Singer Paroma Banerji, who anchored the show, said: “The habit of reading Bengali books is dying. As parents, it is our duty to ensure our children don’t miss out on the books we grew up reading. We have now veered towards audio-visual over text. But cinema is a totally different medium. It can’t reproduce the exact story and a lot of improvisations are added to the script. Similarly, just because you know the story doesn’t mean you should avoid reading the original story.”
Actress Shakuntala Barua rued that the days when children would badger grandmothers for stories were gone. “For children, cinema is the easier option. But I’ve ensured my grandson develops a love for Bengali books by reading out to him and making him part of the storytelling sessions.”
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / TNN / September 09th, 2014
