• When Howrah bridge was built in the late 1930s, nearly 90 per cent of its steel was made in India.
• When Vidyasagar Setu was built in the 1980s, all the steel was imported.
• The 705m-long Howrah bridge was built in 41 months. The 823m-long Vidyasagar Setu took 14 years to be built.
Calcutta:
These and more such nuggets of information about the two bridges across the Hooghly were shared at the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday during a lecture on the completion of the Howrah bridge’s 75 years.
Amitabha Ghosal, an engineer who was part of the team that built Vidyasagar Setu, spoke about the history of the Howrah bridge and its engineering.
Ghosal began by saying why the Howrah bridge was built. Traffic to and from Howrah station had been slowly but gradually on the rise. A pontoon bridge that stood over the Hooghly and connected Calcutta and Howrah had to be lifted whenever a large ship came under it.
“River traffic was then more important than road traffic, which was however increasing. So a need was felt to build a bridge,” said Ghosal, who studied the design, construction and tendering of the Howrah bridge while working on Vidyasagar Setu.
There had been talk about building a bridge since 1900 but the actual planning didn’t begin till 1921. World War I was one of the reasons for the delay.
Amitabha Ghosal at the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry. (Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya)
The pontoon bridge was commissioned in 1874 for 25 years, but remained in use till 1943, when the Howrah bridge was commissioned. Construction began in November 1938 and carried on till March 1942.
Four companies from England, Scotland, Germany and India had placed bids in a global tender floated for the construction of the Howrah bridge. The German company was rejected because World War II was brewing.
Cleveland Bridge of England won the bid but British-owned Indian company opposed it. “It was a tiff between the British in India and the British in England. The British in India managed to convince the authorities that the entire work cannot be given to an England-based company,” said Ghosal.
A compromise was worked out. The Indian company – BBJ Construction Company Limited, a consortium of Braithwaite, Burn and Jessop – was asked to make the steel. Most of the steel – 23,500 tonnes out of 26,500 tonnes – was manufactured and supplied by Tata Iron and Steel Company (Tisco), now Tata Steel.
The foundation of the bridge was built by the Indian-owned Hindustan Construction Company, which is now building the Parama flyover in Calcutta.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph,Calcutta,India / Home> Calcutta / by Subhajoy Roy / May 03rd, 2018
Kolkata Gate, a steel-and-glass structure with giant arches at the Rabindra Tirtha crossing of New Town, is almost ready. The two steel arches that criss-cross each other 55m above the ground can be spotted from several kilometres away.
A circular viewing gallery made of steel and toughened glass has been set up at 25m above the ground level. The 10ft-wide and 60m-long gallery has been constructed by interlinking four prefabricated structures that resemble aerobridges. These structures in turn are welded and attached to the steel arches at designated points. The facade is made of toughened glass with laminated silicone sheets that can withstand gale-force winds, hailstorms and extreme heat.
A bird’s-eye view of New Town clicked from a landing a few feet below the viewing gallery of the Kolkata Gate. The view from the gallery will be unhindered as nothing taller than the gate will come up in the area, New Town being a planned city and with pre-determined floor levels for every plot.
Programmable LED lights and flashers have been placed along the length of the steel arches to give it a snazzy look at night. The viewing gallery will have a snacks counter during the day and a fine-dining restaurant after 7pm. At night, only diners will be allowed inside the gallery that will offer a panoramic view of the township. The walls of the gallery have been painted with murals with an entire wall dedicated to the schemes and achievements of the state government.
“The restaurant will offer a one-of-a-kind experience. It will be unlike any other in the city and will offer cuisines from across the world,” said Debashis Sen, the chairman of Hidco. It is likely to open doors in June, officials said.
Two lifts with a glass facade made of toughened glass similar to that used in the viewing gallery will take visitors up to the gallery. The lifts are equipped with telephones at every level so that the operators can get in touch with visitors in case of an emergency. Hidco is mulling a Rs 30 fee per person for a visit to the gallery. Diners at the restaurant won’t need to pay the fee.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph,Calcutta,India / Home> Calcutta / by Snehal Sengupta / Photos by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya / April 30th, 2018
Several aspirants from Kolkata cracked the civil services final exam, the results of which were declared on Friday. Among the successful candidates were Azar Zia, who ranked 97th, Shekhar Kumar Chaudhary, who bagged the 216th position and Purnava Ganguly 498th.
Son of a retired state civil servant, Tiljala resident Zia was confident of clearing the exam in his third attempt. “The first time I took the exam in 2015, I was unprepared, and during the next attempt in 2016, I was down with chikungunya. This time I prepared well,” said the St James’ School alumnus. Finishing plus-two in 2005, Zia scored over 90% in both ICSE and ISC. “I did my BTech in electronics and communication engineering from a private engineering college in Kolkata. Though I got placed, I didn’t take up a job immediately. I studied for CAT in 2009. I pursued MBA from FMS Delhi and in 2012, landed a job in a corporate biggie. But I quit in 2015 and from 2016, started preparing for UPSC,” he said.
What made him shift to civil service? “After three years in the corporate sector, I realized money was not my motivation. I wanted to contribute to society,” Zia said. He studied at a residential campus in Delhi for UPSC. “I was mostly dependent on online material.” The two main areas Zia wants to focus on are alleviation of poverty and uplift of kids through education.
Shekhar Kumar Chaudhary cracked UPSC even last year and is now undergoing IPS training at Hyderabad. He did his MTech from IIT-Delhi in communication engineering, before studying physics at Presidency College and BTech at Rajabazar Science College. “Earlier, I worked as a state civil service cadre in the commercial tax department.
After I cracked UPSC last year, I joined IPS. But since my rank is better now, I will probably move to a different service,” said the Teghoria resident. “I will work to help generate more employment.”
For Purnava Ganguly, success came at the fifth attempt. “I went to Patha Bhavan, after which I graduated in civil engineering from JU in 2010. I did my Masters in international business from Delhi School of Economics. I currently work at a central government undertaking at Jharsuguda, Odisha.” Ganguly expects to get through IRS or Indian Audit and Account service. “I am also interested in Indian Trade Service,” he said, adding his parents living in Garia were happy with his performance.
“My advise to youngsters is get into civil services. The more aspirants we have, the better for Bengal,” said Jyotirmoy Pal Chaudhuri, who runs a civil service coaching school here.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Kolkata News> Schools & Colleges / by Somdatta Basu / TNN / April 29th, 2018
Years before she was selected to train as the first woman firefighter at the Airports Authority of India (AAI), a chemistry teacher had given Tanya Sanyal the moniker birangana meaning ‘brave woman’. Tanya’s elder sister Tanima had always known her to be fearless.
“One evening at the chemistry class, the girls suddenly screamed and scrambled up on to the chairs. I realised it was a cockroach that had caused the panic. I caught it and threw it out of the window. The teacher was shocked and named me Birangana,” recounted the Dum Dum girl who suddenly finds herself in the limelight in an allmale profession.
Good at classical dance and painting, Tanya wasn’t aware of where she was headed till she bumped upon the AAI advertisement that changed the course of her life.
“I had a desire to do something different, but didn’t know what till this opportunity came by. The exam went off well. On Panchami, a letter arrived stating that I had qualified and had to report to Bhubaneswar for physical fitness and medical tests. Thrilled, I forgot about Durga Puja and began to train for the fitness exam,” she narrated.
She passed the test, that included a 100-metre sprint within 20 seconds, lifting 40kg and climbing up a rope.
Currently undergoing training in Delhi, Tanya is enjoying the course. “Since I am the first woman, everyone is very supportive and encouraging. I consider myself extremely lucky,” said Tanya.
She is aware of the challenges that the job entails. Tanya says the biggest thrill in the job is the lightning speed with which the team has to head into a crisis. “At an airport, there is the criticality of time. The Rosenberg tenders have to move out within 90 seconds. If a plane catches fire, it must be doused within 2 minutes and 18 seconds. For that is as much one can get before the fuel tank catches fire and explodes,” she explained excitedly.
She can’t wait till June 9 when she gradutes and is given the first posting at an airport.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Kolkata News> Civic Issues / by Subhro Niyogi / TNN / April 26th, 2018
(From left) Thyelnai Dawn Khaling, Jamuna Tuddu, Subhas Datta, Simon Oraon, Major General A.K. Sanyal, GOC, Bengal Sub Area, Vijay Srinivas of National Insurance, D.D. Purkayastha, MD and CEO, ABP Group, Eva Katherina Kleekamm, Moirangthem Muktamani Devi, Surya Prakash Rai, Sankar Halder, Vikash Das, Sharda Radhakrishnan and Rosalin Patasani Mishra at the National Insurance presents True Legends Awards 2018 in association with The Telegraph, at Taj Bengal on Monday. Maj. Gen. Sanyal, Purkayastha and Srinivas were among those who gave away the awards. Pictures by Pradip Sanyal and Bishwarup Dutta
Alipore: Eleven heroes. Eleven battles. One award.
National Insurance presents True Legends Awards 2018, in association with The Telegraph, honoured men and women for changing lives in their own unique ways at the Crystal Hall of Taj Bengal on Monday.
The award recognised their outstanding perseverance, contribution and dedication to go beyond their calling, overcome obstacles to make this world a better place for many.
From health care to animal welfare and education to environment, this year’s legends contributed in varied ways in Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha and the North-east.
An audience comprising diplomats, doctors, educationists and more listened with rapt attention and broke into applause every time a story unfolded.
K.B. Vijay Srinivas, general manager, National Insurance Company, saluted the legends. “In our society there are people who do big things, who do great things, they are marked, they are revered, they are talked about. Yet, society carries on through the works of innumerable men and women who take small steps to answer unfulfilled needs. These are people who care, who have a passion for taking it upon themselves to do something meaningful.”
Metro salutes the True Legends
Bengal
SUBHAS DATTA, 70
A chartered accountant by training, a crusader by choice. Subhas Datta fought for issues that most people didn’t recognise as significant.
Datta proved in Calcutta High Court, citing the state pollution control board’s data, that the fair Calcutta so loved could actually kill its people. The air pollution level in the Maidan area took a leap during the Book Fair. “A Telegraph journalist helped me find the pollution control board report,” he says. The court ordered the Book Fair to be shifted away from the Maidan. Even the then chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s complaints didn’t make Datta relent.
He is also the man behind the phasing out of two-stroke autorickshaws from the city roads, to be replaced by four-stroke ones with better emission standards.
Datta is now fighting the state government for a switch to CNG vehicles.
Spotlight speak: I consider myself to be the scavenger of this city. I was once featured in a book with a broom in my hands. It is really nice that the Unputdownable is recognising the down-to-earth activist.
SANKAR HALDER, 43
The IT professional founded a non-profit organisation in 2003 to “repay” his neighbour who had sponsored his education. Fifteen years later. NGO MUKTI is synonymous with a better life in the Sunderbans.
In 2017-18, the NGO arranged sponsorship for 129 students from poor families, including 28 who are studying to be doctors and 33 who have enrolled for engineering.
MUKTI has also built more than 20,000 toilets in villages, set up a book bank and created women’s self-help groups. One of its newer projects focuses on educating farmers to switch to organic agriculture and marketing their produce.
Spotlight speak: It is not an individual’s recognition. This is a recognition of the people I want to help and the people who help me do this.
EVA KATHERINA KLEEKAMM, 47
The former banker from Munich is godmother to about 25 children in the city. She admitted them to school and pays for their education from her own savings and with some help from friends in Germany.
It all started in 2004, when a seven-year-old girl’s face peeped out from behind her mother and said she wanted to go to school. The little girl is now a student at a hotel management institute in the city.
Eva has settled down in the city and goes to Germany only on vacation. Even when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016, she decided to stay back in Calcutta to be with “her children”.
Spotlight speak: When I first heard (about the award) I was speechless because I thought very important people get such awards. I do not give too much importance to myself. But this award will be a big support for my children and when I show it to my friends in Germany they will be proud too.
SHARDA RADHAKRISHNAN, 59
A hospital for animals in Sonarpur that is home to 500 dogs, seven horses, several cows and even injured kites has been this animal lover’s life and passion for the past 10 years.
The dogs at Chhaya include strays injured in accidents as well as pets of various breeds – Rottweiler, German shepherd, Great Dane, bull mastiff, spitz, golden retriever and Labrador – abandoned because of old age or sickness.
When a horse named Moti was found lying on the Maidan last month, Chhaya took it in and nursed it back to health.
Radhakrishnan has trained youths of the neighbourhood around Chhaya as para vets, who manage the hospital and take the ambulance to north and south Calcutta on alternate days to pick up stray dogs that need treatment. When Radhakrishnan started the hospital, she would ferry ailing and injured dogs in her own car.
Spotlight speak: I never thought the kind of work I do is worthy of such recognition and I thank The Telegraph for it. But, on second thoughts, this award is important for people to realise there are animals who need to be cared for and that it is our responsibility to help them.
BIHAR
SURYA PRAKASH RAI, 36
A community library in a small village in Bihar’s Gopalganj district, some 200km from Patna, has changed the way 400-odd students and their parents think about education.
Rai wants to help eliminate the caste system and encourage students of different backgrounds to come together in the same room to read, study, and interact with each other.
Spotlight speak: This is a huge recognition. Our efforts are bearing fruit and this will give us a lot of impetus going forward.
Jharkhand
SIMON ORAON, 84
Born into a family of farmers who relied heavily on rainwater for agriculture, this Class I dropout went on to build five irrigation reservoirs.
He is the man behind mass tree plantation, digging of wells and ponds in the Bero block near Ranchi that covers 51 villages.
Back in 1961, Oraon tried building a reservoir at the foot of a hill. He succeeded after two failed attempts. The waterman, as he is popularly known, received the Padma Shri in 2016.
Spotlight speak: I am happy to receive the award but I would be happier if the farmers back home got enough water to farm and drink. Only when that happens would I be truly happy.
JAMUNA TUDDU, 38
The resident of Muturkham village in Chakulia, Jharkhand, has been protecting forests in the area since she was 18.
She began her crusade against the timber mafia with just five women by her side. Together, they would visit the forests thrice a day and fight those who tried to cut trees. Tuddu’s arms include bows and arrows.
Twenty years on, Tuddu has 200 Van Suraksha Samitis in East Singhbhum district to patrol and protect the forests. Each committee has 15 women and 10 men.
“I have been pelted with stones, my home has been robbed but I have not given up,” said Tuddu.
Spotlight speak: It makes me proud that The Telegraph is acknowledging the efforts of women working in remote villages and honouring them in the city. We never thought when we started that so many people outside our district would know about us.
Odisha
VIKASH DAS, 29
A social enterprise set up in 2014 has built a network of nearly 2,300 women across four states and changed their lives.
The organisation has developed a sustainable business model to ensure financial independence for women in Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Bengal.
Das’s life changed when he saw a tribal woman being dragged out of a festival for being a “lowborn”. He left his cushy IT job and set up Vat Vrikshya.
Spotlight speak: We don’t work for awards. But this incredible recognition puts a lot of responsibility on my shoulders. I hope I can live up to that.
ROSALIN PATASANI MISHRA, 36
The founder of Parichay Foundation, that works for empowerment of women, education for underprivileged children and promotion of Odiya art and culture, has taken up a new project in Salia Sahi Slum, the largest slum in Bhubaneswar.
Spotlight speak: We go through a lot of stress and pain. It is good to get such recognition at times. This will motivate me to keep going.
Manipur
THYELNAI DAWN KHALING, 42
A doctor and an Indian Air Force wing commander, he set up a classroom in his house for children whose parents could not afford to send them to school,
Khaling, who hails from a village in Khangshim, Manipur, stressed the need for education. The school he started was an attempt to educate the children of a domestic help working at his home.
“People should not miss out on education because they can’t afford it. Education empowers children to face the challenges of the future with dignity,” Khaling said.
His father was the first person from the Uipo Naga community to pass the matric examination.
Khaling’s classroom has grown over the years and today it has more than 30 children. He takes classes after his shift ends at 5pm.
Khaling’s Ascension Educational Trust (AET) also provides free coaching for MBBS entrance test besides CPR and first-aid training.
His colleagues from the air force also contribute to the project as volunteers whenever possible.
Spotlight speak: It is a recognition of what we have been doing though we never sought any recognition. So it came as a surprise.
MOIRANGTHEM MUKTAMANI DEVI, 59
In 1989, Muktamani Devi couldn’t afford a pair of shoes for her daughter. She knitted a pair on the sole of a torn shoe with woollen threads for her second daughter. At school, her daughter was scared when her teacher approached her during assembly. The girl knew the shoe she was wearing didn’t conform to the school uniform. But the teacher smiled and asked, “Who made these?”. The teacher wanted the same shoes for his daughter.
This was how Muktamani Devi’s journey in shoe-making began. Today, she exports shoes to Australia, the UK, France, Mexico and some African countries. She set up Mukta Shoes Industry in 1990-91.
Over the years she has helped train many unemployed women in Manipur so that they could earn a living making shoes.
Spotlight speak: I would dedicate this award to women back home who have been working relentlessly along with me. In the beginning, I only knew how to make ends meet in my family but today I am proud to bring in so many women like me to follow their dreams. My story of adversity gave birth to Mukta Shoes Industry.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph,Calcutta,India / Home> Calcutta / The Telegraph Bureau / April 24th, 2018
1990: Starts his Davis Cup career at the age of 16, with Zeeshan Ali his first doubles partner.
1991: Wins junior titles at the US Open and Wimbledon to become Junior World number 1.
1995: Ranked No. 130, manages to beat World No.7 Goran Ivanisevic in a five-setter on grass in the Davis Cup.
1996: At the Atlanta Olympics, beats Fernando Meligeni to win India’s first individual bronze in 44 years.
1998: Bags the Newport ATP title and beats Pete Sampras at New Haven.
1999: Along with Mahesh Bhupathi reaches the finals of all four Grand Slams, winning Wimbledon and French Open. Reaches the No.1 ranking in doubles.
2000: Given the honour of carrying the Indian flag at the Sydney Olympics.
2003: Wins the mixed doubles events at the Australian Open and Wimbledon partnering the legendary Martina Navratilova.
2006: Leads the Indian tennis contingent at the Doha Asian Games. Bags two golds with Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza.
2013: Clinches the US Open doubles title with Radek Stepanek to become the oldest male Grand Slam winner at 40. Bestowed the country’s third-highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan.
2016: Secures his 42nd Davis Cup doubles win (partner Rohan Bopanna) with a victory over South Korea. Ties with Italian Nicola Pietrangeli for the all-time record.
2018: Claims a record-breaking 43rd Davis Cup doubles win in the Asia Oceania Group I tie against China. Paes also has the most number of wins (doubles and singles combined) among active players at 91.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sport> Tennis / April 08th, 2018
Santal people performing a traditional dance. | Photo Credit: PTI
While Bengal has more than two million Santali speakers, the number is dwindling
The onset of spring has dressed Jhargram, the district on the western corner of West Bengal, in the flaming colours of the palash flower. The flowers of the mahua tree are also scattered everywhere; women are collecting them in buckets to brew wine as the sun dips into the horizon. The radio is on to keep them company, tuned in to Radio Milan, 90.4 FM where RJ Shikha Mandi is hosting a programme called ‘Johar Jhargram’ (Greetings, Jhargram), which focuses on Santali language and culture.
A man, speaking in Bengali, calls in with a request for a Santali song. The RJ urges him to speak in Santali since, it turns out, the caller is Santali. The man says he understands Santali but can’t speak it properly. Mandi’s enthusiastic voice asserts that it’s better to speak broken Santali than not to speak it at all. It’s their mother tongue after all.
Santals are the largest tribal community in Bengal, which has more than two million Santali speakers. The language was included as an official language in the eighth schedule of the Constitution in 2003, but only a few schools in Bengal use it as the medium of instruction.
Best interests
The Bengali-speaking population of Jhargram also tends to look down upon the language and the community. “We speak Santali among ourselves. The Bengalis here don’t know our language, and it’s in our interest to learn to speak Bengali — most businesses here are owned by Bengalis,” says Shibu Soren of Kalaboni village near Jhargram town, taking a sip of mahua wine.
Given such realities, it is not surprising that the number of Santali speakers is dwindling. Outside Bengal, Santali is spoken in Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, and some parts of Tripura.
It’s in this milieu that the twenty-four-year old Mandi of Radio Milan has been trying to make Santali fashionable. From the Santali community herself, Mandi has lived most of her life in Kolkata, but returned to Jhargram after completing her studies to become an RJ. In the few months of its existence, the programme she hosts, ‘Johar Jhargram’, has become hugely popular, crossing the boundaries of Jhargram to reach Kolkata, which may be only five hours away but far removed culturally and linguistically. People also tune in to ‘Johar Jhargram’ from different parts of India, Canada and the U.K. on a mobile app.
Mandi says it’s her bitterness at being seen as ‘inferior’ by her Bengali classmates in her Kolkata school that inspired her to take up the cause of Santali.
“I was often dismissed as a tribal, and for slipping into Santali in school. I made it a rule to never speak Santali outside the four walls of home.”
Shikha Mandi | Photo Credit: Ashok Nath Dey
Mandi was born in Belpahari, 40 km from Jhargram, and sent to Kolkata for schooling when she was four. In Jhargram, regular classes would have been impossible. Part of the Red Corridor, the area has seen a lot of Maoist violence in the last two decades.
Mandi’s two-hour radio pragramme, which airs between 4:00 and 6:00 pm from Monday to Saturday, takes up different issues relevant to the community — from education and child labour to traditional harvest festivals.
Songs are played in between; listeners call in and participate, sometimes in Bengali, but Mandi responds in Santali. Mandi’s accent is itself imbued with traces of Bengali, but she has been reading and writing Santali and talking to native speakers to improve her skills. “But in truth,” she says, “no one now knows the language as well as our grandparents do.”
Most parents, in fact, discourage their children from speaking Santali because only Bengali and English can fetch them jobs.
Quiet optimism
Arun Kumar Ghosh teaches at Burdwan University. He has been working on Santali language for three decades now. “It is one of the world’s oldest languages,” he says, “and, interestingly, it still preserves linguistic features that are as old as 150 years.” There is a growing interest in the world outside the Santali community to study the language and absorb the culture, but the community is hesitant to let this happen. “The low literacy within the community is a major cause behind this unwillingness,” says Ghosh.
But the younger generation is slowly beginning to embrace the mother tongue. Usha Soren from Kalaboni tells me while cleaning her courtyard that she sends her son to a Santali language teacher twice a week so that he learns to write in the Ol Chiki script.
Young people like Mandi want to learn about their history and culture in Santali rather than in Bengali. They want to learn to be a Santal in Santali language. Ghosh is optimistic that programmes like ‘Johar Jhargram’, which bring entertainment and information in Santali, can go a long way towards mainstreaming the language.
A journalist based in Uttarakhand, the writer explores the lives of those who walk mountains.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Inside India> Society / by Arpita Chakrabarty / April 07th, 2018
Writer, editor and Jadavpur University alumna Mimi Mondal has been nominated for the 2018 Hugo Awards for co-editing her first science fiction book — the anthology ‘Luminescent Threads’. The 30-year-old, who hails from Kolkata,is the first from the city to be nominated for the top honour in science fiction. Previous Hugo nominees include names like Arthur C Clarke, Isaac Asimov and Neil Gaiman. Her fellow nominee in the Best Related Works category is the late Ursula K Le Guin.
“I am not an outlier genius. I am completely homegrown and following the path of my elders. Growing up in Kolkata, I read very little purely generic science fiction. And honestly, I taught myself English from a dictionary so I didn’t see people like myself in the worlds written by white, male writers. What I did grow up reading, and this is where we Bengalis have an advantage, was a lot of Dakshinaranjan Mitra Majumdar, Satyajit Ray, Premendra Mitra, Rabindranath Tagore, Narayan Gangopadhyay, Lila Majumdar and Sunil Gangopadhyay… I read them all,” says Mondal, who lives in New York now.
The writer in her emerged in her teens when Mondal studied at Nava Nalanda and then at Calcutta International School. Mondal’s inner editor is unforgiving of her earliest poetry, which she says was ‘of a somewhat middling quality’. “Then I discovered Marquez and Rushdie and Kolkata writer Samit Basu. These completely blew open my mind,” she said.
“I come from a background which made every success in life feel like a little ‘whoop’ to me because nobody in my family had done anything like that. I felt like that when I got into the English department of Jadavpur University in 2007. I don’t think I have stopped,” she says.
Mondal was the Octavia Butler Memorial Scholar at science fiction writing workshop Clarion West in 2015. In strange poetic justice, it is Octavia Butler to whom Mondal’s co-edited anthology pays tribute. “Butler was a number of firsts — the first major African American, queer, woman author of the genre. ‘Luminescent Threads’ is a book about celebrating the triumph of diversity,” Mondal says.
Diversity and inclusion of diverse people remain the writer’s chief concern. Mondal finds herself asserting her Dalit identity to a Western readership “which does not even know what Dalit means”. “I didn’t write from a Dalit sensibility until a few months ago. I am still teaching myself the process. I represent my community by declaring I am Dalit in my author bios and everywhere else.”
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Kolkata News / TNN / April 06th, 2018
His directorial debut ‘Sahaj Paather Gappo’ has given Manas Mukul Pal the much-needed boost to start his career. His first film became a box office hit last year receiving rave reviews from both the audience and critics.
Now the talented filmmaker is all set for his next venture which is reportedly a biopic on freedom fighter Dinesh Gupta. The film will begin right from his college days and follow his indomitable works and actions as Bengal’s one of the bravest freedom fighters.
Not just Dinesh, the story of Binay and Badal will find their place in the upcoming biopic. The famous Writers Building attack by Binay-Badal-Dinesh will also be covered. It’s certainly great news for Bengali cine lovers. After a long time, we will see a historical biopic. Interestingly, earlier this year rumours suggested Dev will also make a film on Binay-Badal-Dinesh.
Dinesh Gupta was born on December 6, 1911 in Josholong of Munshiganj District, now in Bangladesh. While studying in Dhaka College, he joined Bengal Volunteers, a group founded by Subhas Chandra Bose in 1928. Soon the Bengal Volunteers turned out to be a more active revolutionary association and started liquidating infamous British police officers. Dinesh was only 19 when he was hanged for anti-government activities and murder on 7 July 1931 at Alipore Jail.
As per industry sources, the camera will roll on for this biopic from October. The film will be shot in Kolkata, Midnapore, and Bangladesh.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> Entertainment> Bengali> Movies / News / TNN / April 03rd, 2018
Makaibari tea packets kept in a room at the garden
Makaibari (Kurseong):
The “Rajah” of Makaibari tea has decided to “gift” his crown to workers.
Swaraj Kumar Banerjee, more famous as Rajah Banerjee, said on Thursday he would “gift” his 12 per cent shares in the marquee estate to the workers.
Barely a fortnight ago on March 16, Rajah had declared that he would exit Makaibari by selling his 12 per cent share to the management of the garden led by the Calcutta-based Luxmi Group.
That announcement had come exactly a year after Rajah’s bungalow at Makaibari was gutted in a fire, hastening the 70-year-old’s plans to hang up his planter’s boots.
If the decision is approved under corporate laws, this will possibly be the first time in the history of Darjeeling tea that the owner of a garden will give up his shares for the workers.
“I will gift my 12 per cent share to the workers,” Rajah told a meeting in the garden on Thursday, stressing his aim was to empower the 600-odd workers.
Sources in the Luxmi Group in Calcutta welcomed the move “as long as it is permissible under the Companies Act”. “We have no problem if he wants to give away his shares. It is a welcome gesture. We have to see if this is permissible under the Companies Act,” a source said.
Industry observers said, however, that the share transfer could turn risky, especially in years of poor earnings. “If the garden does not make enough profits and distributes dividends, workers may feel let down and this could be a tricky situation,” one observer said.
Rajah had forged a “strategic tie-up” with the Luxmi Group in 2013 and retained the 12 per cent stake in the estate that his family had been running since taking it over in 1859.
Members of the Makaibari Joint Committee, which represents the workers, on Thursday expressed “gratitude” for the “gift”. Rajah made it clear, though, that “the management representative on the panel will not be entitled to the shares”.
Additional reporting by Sambit Saha in Calcutta
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph,Calcutta,India / Home> West Bengal / by Vivek Chhetri / March 30th, 2018
