Monthly Archives: July 2014

Film set in Kolkata brothel bags UK honour

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, World Opinion

Kolkata :

Set in Sonagachi, ‘Sold’ — that follows the tale of a child trafficked from Nepal to the city, is directed and produced by Oscar winners and features ‘X-Files’ star Gillian Anderson, David Arquette, Tillotama Shome and Parambrata Chatterjee among others, has won the audience award at a London film festival recently.

This is the first feature film of Jeffrey Dean Brown, whose first short with dialogue, adapted from the book ‘Molly’s Pilgrim’, won the Oscar in 1986. This film is adapted from a book by Patricia McCormick that has been translated into 32 languages. The executive producer of ‘Sold’, Emma Thompson, is a two-time Academy Award winner. Joint Overdose, the film firm headed by Kolkata filmmaker Qaushiq aka Q, was the line producer. “We had met and the producers were well-versed with our earlier works. Our job was to ensure everything went smoothly during the production and shoot. The film will definitely hit the screens in India by next year,” said Q.

In the film, lead character Lakshmi’s stepfather accepts an advance for her to work as a domestic servant in Kolkata, and she becomes obliged to work off the debt. Lakshmi goes willingly, believing she will work and earn enough money to buy her mother a tin roof. But when Lakshmi arrives in Kolkata, she is handed over to Mumtaz, a ‘madam’ who presides over a brothel called Happiness House. Brown pointed out that ‘Shawshank Redemption’ is structurally similar to ‘Sold’. “Mumtaz exploits her prisoners like the warden did in ‘Shawshank’. In both the films, you know the hero is planning an escape, but you’re not sure how and this keeps you watching,” he said.

Asked about if he had any reservations about the content and depiction of Kolkata’s dark underbelly, Q said: “It’s not a negative set-up at all. It’s time for us to face the facts. And we were anyway interested in the film for the social message and its outreach.” His colleague in Overdose, Tanaji Dasgupta, not only has a role in the film but is also credited as a line producer.

“I remember visiting Sonagachi for the first time, seeing hundreds of young girls and women selling themselves on the streets. It was overwhelming. When I saw a girl who had just been rescued from a brothel, I truly understood the suffering these kids go through. She couldn’t look anyone in the eye; she looked shell-shocked, like someone taken from a battlefield who had lost her entire family. Girls like her are put on suicide watch for three months after being rescued. They don’t trust anyone; they’re like frightened animals. They try to escape, they cut themselves and have been known to hang themselves if not watched. The other survivors gradually make them feel at home and teach them to trust again. It was seeing these things with our own eyes that motivated us to make the film even more, so we could show the world what is happening,” said Brown.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / TNN / by Shounak Ghosal / July 19th, 2014

Railway cardiac experts perform rare surgeries in Kolkata

Records, All, Science & Technology

Kolkata :

Doctors at the B R Singh Hospital in Kolkata have successfully replaced Mitral valves of two patients without stopping their hearts. Cardiologists at the hospital under Eastern Railway, have claimed that such surgeries have been performed in the eastern part of the country for the first time. According to them, keeping the heart beating during such a surgery reduces chances of post-operative complications.

“The first surgery was conducted a few days ago on a 51-year-old female patient suffering from severe Stenotic Rheumatic Mitral Heart Disease. After that a similar surgery was conducted on a 52-year-old male patient. Such surgeries are normally performed after the heart is stopped by using a special solution called Cardioplegia. After the surgery, the surgeon has to restart the heart and reintroduce blood into the heart muscles. This is known as Reperfusion and can cause impairment of heart function,” said cardiac specialist Alok Mazumdar who along with Himanshu K Dasmahapatra of the Advanced Cardiac Care Centre was part of the team that performed the surgery.

The Mitral valve is located in the left or more important half of the heart. This valve separates the upper and lower chambers on the left side and is very critical for proper functioning of the organ. “Reperfusion injury can cause complications such as irregular heart rhythms (Arrhythmias) and pump dysfunction. Reperfusion injury is especially a concern in high risk patients, such as elderly people who had previous heart operations and those with complex health problems. Reperfusion can be avoided if the heart is kept beating during surgery. Beating heart surgery leads to better preservation of heart function, better survival rate, especially in high risk patients. There is less chance for developing any heart rhythm, kidney or liver complications and most importantly, reduce the risk of neurological complications including stroke and memory problems. Hospital stay is also reduced due to quicker postoperative recovery,” Mazumdar added.

The surgeries at B R Singh Hospital were performed with the aid of Heart-Lung Machines. The hearts of the two patients were continuously perfused with Oxygenated blood and they remained in a state of slow and empty beating to allow the Mitral valves to be removed and replaced by metallic ones.

“No Cardioplegia was used and the risk of developing any major complications after valve surgery in this unique way is significantly lower than performing surgery in a stopped heart. There are no records of such a surgery being performed before this in the eastern part of the country. A handful of such surgeries may have been performed elsewhere in the country,” the doctor said.

According to noted heart surgeon Kunal Sarkar, this was a commendable effort. “Such surgeries are rare as a lot of precision and expertise is required. Doctors normally go in for such surgeries only if the patients suffer from certain complications. Normally, the heart is stopped during valve replacement as the risks involved during the surgery itself are less,” he said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / by Jayanta Gupta, TNN / July 21st, 2014

A cool musical ‘movement’ takes birth

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, World Opinion

Kolkata :

Who said classical music was boring? It could be cool, too. Say hello to supergroup ‘Classicool’, a conglomeration of second- or third-generation musical talents including sitarist Purbayan Chatterjee, drummer Gino Banks, son of Louiz Banks, tabla player Anubrata Chatterjee, son of Pt Anindo Chatterjee, flautist Rakesh Chaurasia, nephew of Hariprasad Chaurasia, and Amaan Ali Khan, son of Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, among others. Their mantra: Classical is cool.

It is to be noted that all of these collaborators have direct or indirect links with Kolkata. Louiz was ‘discovered’ by R D Burman during a concert at Park Street, Hariprasad Chaurasia speaks Bengali as fluently as anyone in the city. The supergroup, debuting in Mumbai on July 31, is aching to put up a show in Kolkata, the ‘Mecca of music’.

The musicians, though, loathe to call it a ‘band’ and prefer to call it a “movement”. The supergroup also has vocalist Suchismita Das, who has collaborated with A R Rahman, and city guitarist Sanjay Das. The idea to push classical music to GenY came to life with Purbayan tying up with music portal Qyuki.com, which is headed by A R Rahman, filmmaker Shekhar Kapoor and Samir Bangara, who is the co-founder and MD of the portal.

“The movement aims to make classical music more relevant to the youth. It’s only appropriate that so many musicians with a Bengal connect are on board. We are waiting eagerly to be able to stage a show in the city,” said Bangara.

“In an initiative like this, it’s only natural that everyone would have a Bengal connection. This project is distinctly Kolkata-driven, as you can’t avoid the city when it comes to classical music,” said Anubrata. “Classical music must be regenerated for the youth and they must be mobilized. Classicool retains original ragas and presents them in a modern soundscape using the bass and drums as accompaniment. In 3- to 5-minute capsules, we have presented original content in a new context. People, especially youngsters, have a lower attention span these days. Therefore, classical music needs to be fed in shorter doses of a few minutes in a song-like format. Also, these youngsters are used to a certain kind of bass-drum soundscape which they think is cool. They can also identify with certain visuals. Classicool presents classical music in a user-friendly format so that the sanctity of the raga is preserved without distancing or intimidating the listener,” said Purbayan.

With all the musicians established in their classical worlds and Gino being the only ‘non-classical’ player, does it make him feel the odd one out? “Not at all. Just because I play the drums doesn’t mean the character of the music has changed. The sound, a little. I have knowledge about classical music and that helps me, definitely,” said Gino.

“I’m very happy with the Classicool project. In my time, I was classic as well as cool,” Louiz laughed out loud. “But this movement is a welcome boost to the evolution of music. The purist may not agree. But I realized it 30 years ago when I ventured into classical and merged it with jazz,” said the veteran pianist.

“This is the best of both worlds. This is the future of music. And during my Kolkata days, I never found a more knowledgeable, appreciative audience. I’m very happy that Gino has teamed up with a bunch of extremely talented musicians with distinct Kolkata connections,” he added.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / TNN / July 22nd, 2014

Couple on clue chase track photo sites

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All, World Opinion

PhotosBengalKOLKATA21jul2014

The photographer and artist couple Alan Teller and Jerri Zbiral have unearthed a wealth of stories while chasing clues to identify the places in photographs of Bengal taken by an unknown American in 1945.

“Astonishing” was how the American couple described their weeklong sleuthing across Kharagpur, Salua and Pingla in West Midnapore, helped by two IIT Kharagpur students, Subhajyoti Ghosh and Siddharth Agarwal.

Metro had on February 26 reported on Alan and Jerri’s research — funded by Alan’s 2013 Fulbright-Nehru senior scholarship — into the background of a bunch of black-and-white photographs found in a box they had picked up for $20 at an estate sale in Chicago.

In the box were photographs of six temples, three of which the couple have located in Kharagpur — Balaji, Kali and Nandeswar. One they had traced three years ago. “The Nandeswar temple has a new portico which destroys the façade’s splendour,” said Jerri.

The couple have identified the man standing beside the Balaji temple in one of the photographs. “He was A. Narayan Swamy Naidu, the priest of the Balaji temple. He had founded the temple in 1935. We met his great-grandson Raju Naidu and daughter-in-law Padmavati, who is over 80 now. She became emotional when presented with a copy of our 1945 photograph,” said Jerri.

A movie theatre in one of the photographs has been identified as Bombay cinema in the railway town. Residents who were shown two photographs of markets suggested that one is the sprawling Golbazar in the heart of the town and other is located in Salboni, around 50km from Kharagpur.

Alan and Jerri have learned that the photographer was attached to a regiment of American soldiers stationed in Salua — around 5km from Kharagpur — which functioned as an airbase during World War II. Since 1949, Salua has been the headquarters of the Eastern Frontier Rifles (EFR). Gorkha personnel of the EFR helped the couple identify a laundry, a wall and a pond seen in some of the pictures.

“We have come to know that at the Salua base African-American soldiers were housed outside the main camp, segregated from the whites. That is not surprising as the US army wasn’t integrated till the 1950s. What is surprising was that the black soldiers were housed next to the munition storage areas. So if the Japanese bombed the area, wouldn’t they be the first to suffer a direct hit?” asked Alan.

“The whole issue of American presence in Kharagpur is shrouded in mystery,” he said. The couple have come across brief mention of their presence in documents at the Nehru Museum of Science and Technology, housed in a sprawling Raj-era building where the country’s oldest Indian Institute of Technology was inaugurated in 1951.

Under the British rule, the building had served as a jail for political prisoners — Hijli Detention Camp — and later as the command post of the American airbases in the region.

“We know that the Americans were doing reconnaissance work anticipating a Japanese land invasion but are uncertain about some details relevant to our search, such as why our photographer left his base and wandered around clicking all those photos of village life and temples and people with what was then a cumbersome camera. India’s role in World War II is still foggy and our search will perhaps clear up some areas. We’re seeking permission to gain access to the interior of the Salua base,” said Alan.

The couple will submit an application to the American authorities under the Freedom of Information Act for the release of documents related to the Hijli Detention Camp/Command Post and the Salua base, so they could draw a clearer picture of the photographer.

The couple’s last stop in their search was Naya village in Pingla (50km from Kharagpur), where they commissioned two jorano pats (narrative story scrolls unfurled to the accompaniment of songs) by patua Swarna Chitrakar, based on the 1945 pictures. “She has constructed a personal narrative based on a dozen or so photographs,”said Jerri.

The couple will deliver a lecture on the photographs and their search for the locations at the Victoria Memorial Hall at 5.30pm on Monday.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta / Front Page> Calcutta> Story / by Sebanti Sarkar / Monday – March 03rd, 2014

Rising tides pose a threat to sinking island in Sunderbans

About Kolkata / West Bengal, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature, Records, All
Mousuni, one of the 52 inhabited islands of the archipelago, and a vulnerable climate change hotspot, is sinking at a rapid pace. File photo. / The Hindu
Mousuni, one of the 52 inhabited islands of the archipelago, and a vulnerable climate change hotspot, is sinking at a rapid pace. File photo. / The Hindu

Over 2,000 families affected, acres of farm land submerged

Large parts of Mousuni, a sinking island in the Sunderbans archipelago, have been submerged with tides rising because of the spring equinox.

“More than 2,000 families have been affected and hundreds of acres of agricultural land and several fisheries have been destroyed by the high tides,” Sheikh Ilias, panchayat pradhan of Mousuni told The Hindu on Tuesday.

Ilias said that he himself was standing in knee-deep water. Mousuni, one of the 52 inhabited islands of the archipelago, and a vulnerable climate change hotspot, is sinking at a rapid pace.

The island with a population of over 20,000 lies in the estuarine system and is open to the sea, said Tuhin Ghosh of the School of Oceanographic Studies, Jadavpur University. “As the sea level continues to rise, flooding will become a regular phenomenon,” Dr Ghosh said.

The 24-sq km island is the second most vulnerable island of the Sunderbans, next to Ghoramara island, whose population is about 5,000.

The panchayat pradhan claimed that damage to the island and the impact on the people is far more than it was during super cyclone Aila, which hit the Sunderbans in May 2009. “The embankments here have not been repaired since they were breached by Aila. About nine km of embankments has to repaired to prevent seawater flooding. The western part of the island is vulnerable to tides and regular flooding occurs, but this time the situation is grave,” said Ilias. He said the State government had provided foodgrains, but supply is not proportionate to the number of people affected. A UNDP report published in 2010 said that 15 per cent of the delta will be submerged by 2020.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kolkata / by Shiv Sahay Singh / Kolkata – July 16th, 2014

Vibrant Rock offers a rare peek into stone sculptures in Bengal

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All

The first-ever catalogue of stone sculptures collected from different parts of West Bengal, Bihar, and parts of Bangladesh belonging to Brahmanical, Buddhist, and Jain pantheon has been published by Directorate of Archaeology and Museum, Department of Information and Cultural Affairs, Government of West Bengal.

VibrantRockBENGAL20jul2014

Archaeologists say the first-ever catalogue of historical stone sculptures in the region titled Vibrant Rock contains a comprehensive details of 444 stone sculptures housed in the State Archaeological Museum at Behala in the southern parts of the city, dated between the sixth and 19th century AD.

Most of the stone sculptures belong to Pala-Sena period. However, the unique piece highlighted in this catalogue is a sculpture dating to the 19th century: the specimen is a stone plaque depicting in six different panels the story of birth of Lord Krishna. In each of the panels, there are depictions of the parturition rooms (labour room) in the palaces of Kansa and Nanda. The plaque is accompanied with an inscription in Sanskrit.

Another talked about is the image of Surya, discovered from Mahisantosh in Naogaon district of Bangladesh. The exquisitely sculpted piece of the ninth century is from the time of Pala King Mahendrapala.

“Through Vibrant Rock we have tried to introduce a major collection of sculptures of the region in form of a catalogue. The book offers not only iconography and stylistic affiliation of the sculptures but also an array of information about find spots, modes of acquisition, rock type, and inscriptional detail,” Guatam Sengupta, former director general of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and author of the book, said.

The book also deals with a wide range of rocks used in making these historical sculptures such as coarse-grained granite gneiss, ultramafic rock, ballast, chlorite schist, mica, and sandstone.

Sharmila Saha, the co-author of the book, said that an analysis of the sculptures provided in the book will prove useful to identify the influence of regional schools of aesthetics on the broad South Asian Art.

“Not only academicians like archaeologists and historians but laymen interested in ancient Indian heritage are laying their hands on the books,” Rajat Sanyal, an archaeologist of University of Calcutta, said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kolkata / by Shiv Sahay Singh / Kolkata – July 20th, 2014

Jadavpur University ties up with Intach over Writers’ restoration

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Historical Links / Pre-Independence

Kolkata :

Jadavpur University has approached the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage for expert guidance in the mammoth restoration project that it has undertaken over Writers’ Buildings – the 236 year old seat of the state secretariat. At the moment JU architects are conducting a detailed survey on the condition of the building, preparing a layout of how the restoration process would progress and interiors would be re-organized once the work is over.

Objections were reportedly raised by the West Bengal Heritage Commission over the state PWD department’s decision to hand over the responsibility of restoration to JU and IIEST (formerly Besu) jointly. The Commission felt that a building of the rare stature of Writers’ Buildings should be handled by an agency whose expertise lies in restoring heritage institutions. The Commission felt that the architecture departments of neither JU nor IIEST had the required experience. However, belying such doubts the state PWD has gone ahead with its decision and has not interrupted the ongoing survey work that is being conducted by JU at the premises.

Intach has not only been formally invited by JU, talks have also happened between the national level heritage conservation agency and the PWD authorities over ways in which Intach would bring in its expertise in overseeing the project right from the drawing and testing stage now and also later during the execution. Most departments of the state government shifted out of Writers’ Buildings last October with the state secretariat shifted to Nabanna, so that the heritage building at Dalhousie can be restored. However, execution is yet to happen and the delay has raised several eyebrows.

“We must remember that Writer’s is no ordinary building and execution of the plan cannot happen immediately. We are conducting a series of tests on the structural status of the different portions of the building and the strength of its foundation. Once execution starts cracks should not develop in the portions that are relatively weak. Again, the building as we see it today, was not built all together; portions were added with time. Naturally the health of the building will also be somewhat heterogeneous,” said Madhumita Roy, head of JU’s architecture department, who is leading the project. She feels that the project report on how execution should be ready for submission to the state government by November. Once the state government approves it, execution should start immediately.

Confirming that she has tagged Intach in the project, Roy said, “I have closely followed the work that Intach has done in restoring institutional heritage e.g. Gwalior Monument, Princep Ghat, St John’s Church and Lalgola correctional home. I think it will be able to guide us well both on the methodology and progress.”

Intach state convenor, GM Kapur said that the main problem with Writers’ restoration is lack of original drawings which could guide the restoration team. “I am sure that the original drawings would exist in what was then known as the India Office library, a part of the British Library. We will write to them to see if they exist and then organize for copies so that they can be consulted.”

PWD officials said that JU experts are conducting the survey and the condition of the building. “Suggestions are invited from any consultancy or architectural firms as to how the restoration work could take place. All the suggestions will be discussed with the heritage commission following which work order of the actual work will be issued,” said a PWD official. Earlier, the demolition work of the extended portions was supposed top start off from this month.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / by Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey, TNN / July 10th, 2014

Bengal to house hub for start-ups

Business & Economy, Science & Technology

StarupsKOLKATA19jul2014

Calcutta :

The Bengal government will allot 10,000 square feet of built-up space in Salt Lake’s Sector V to Nasscom for setting up its first incubation centre in the eastern region.

The announcement was made by state information technology minister Amit Mitra at the eastern edition of the Nasscom Product Conclave here today.

The prospective hub, which will be aimed at mentoring start-up companies and fuelling entrepreneurship for product development, is expected to take shape within 3-6 months. It will require a strong infrastructure back-up and is likely to draw venture capital funds, seed funds and top names of the industry as mentors into the state.

The development comes at a time Bengal is battling the scathing aftermath of Infosys’s decision to put their maiden campus project on hold here. Incidentally, software behemoth Microsoft India is in the final stages of setting up a research and innovation centre in Sector V to impart its expertise in IT skill training.

Nasscom already has such as facility in Karnataka, which is supported by the state government. It houses around 15 start-up companies. The proposed facility in Calcutta will have the requisite plug-and-play facilities. A board comprising Nasscom members and government representatives will initiate a selection process based on merit.

“As we move towards an era where the dividing line between products and services gets blurred, this is a particularly important area. This is a very different ecosystem from the traditional industry and need a different kind of support. At the heart lies the entrepreneur who is young, capable and talented but do not necessarily have deep pockets or experience of what is required to run a business,” Nasscom president R. Chandrashekhar said.

The turnover of the Indian IT industry is slated to grow to $300 billion by 2020 from about $118 billion now. Of this, as much as $100 billion is likely to come from the product start-up ecosystem. At present, the product sector is estimated at $2.2 billion.

“We are looking at entrepreneurial development. We accept the offer. We will give 10,000 square feet ready to start with. We are also building 13 IT parks. We would like to request Nasscom to help us bring IT companies into these IT parks. We want you to promote it for us,” Mitra said at the conclave.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta / Home> Front Page> Business> Story / by Staff Reporter / Calcutta, Saturday – July 19th, 2014

Case Diaries – The mysterious case of the three iron chests

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All
SUDHITI NASKAR / AGENCY GENESIS
SUDHITI NASKAR / AGENCY GENESIS

In 2007, three iron chests were dug up from 178 Rashbehari Avenue in Kolkata. They were kept at the Gariahat police station while their ownership was disputed.

On a sultry Monday afternoon in mid June this year, a group of about three hundred people—journalists, photographers and locals—crowded around the police station in Gariahat, in south Kolkata.

When Umesh, the istriwala, who presses police uniforms in his small shanty adjacent to the thana, stepped out to get a better look at the scene, he saw that the top of the thana’s high boundary wall had been fitted with bamboo poles, between which was strung a cloth screen. He told me that a few intrepid journalists and locals had climbed up on nearby trees to see what was going on inside, while others peeked through a side gate.

The focus of everyone’s interest was three iron chests that were inside the compound. The chests had been unearthed a few years earlier from a plot on Rashbehari Avenue that was being excavated for construction. Since then, speculation had grown about their contents, whetted, perhaps, by recent treasure hunts—both successful, such as at the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Kerala in 2011, and comically unsuccessful, such as at Unnao, Uttar Pradesh, last year, launched on the promise of a godman’s dream. True, the Rashbehari chests were old and rusty, but who could say what they might contain? Murmurs of gold and hidden treasure filled the air, drawing more people to the scene. Officers from the Archeological Survey of India and Geological Survey of India supervised the opening of the chests, along with about fifty policemen.

The scene had been equally chaotic on 24 June 2007, the day the three chests were found. Constable Sudip Nayek recounted to me that he had been on patrol that morning, when he came upon construction workers unearthing a chest from plot 178 on Rashbehari Avenue. Nayek promptly informed his superiors at the station, and the police came out to the site. As a crowd gathered, police cordoned off the area. Over the course of the day, two more chests—each chest weighed around 100 kilograms—were dug up and lifted out with a crane.

The Indian Treasure Trove Act, 1878 defines treasure as “anything of any value hidden in the soil, or in anything affixed thereto,” and directs any such treasure worth more than Rs 10 to be handed over to the government. Thus, the chests became government property. Nevertheless, there were claimants to the chests, though their contents were unknown. Mahamaya Pal, a homemaker in her sixties, had recently sold the Rashbehari plot to a Kolkata-based shoe company called Sreeleathers, which had been excavating it. Both Sreeleathers and Mahamaya Pal staked their claim on the chests and were soon embroiled in a legal battle at the Alipore Civil Court.

After a long but inconclusive case that lasted for seven years, in December 2013, the court ordered that the chests be cut open. There was speculation that there would be riches hidden within them, and even archaeologists were hopeful. “I am excited,” said Ashok Patel, superintending archaeologist, ASI, to the Indian Express. “The chests may have anything. I am sending some experts there.”

I met Mahamaya Pal at the Kalighat temple—a place she called her “own”—on a rain-soaked afternoon in late June. The chests had been opened earlier that month, but Pal still spoke of feeling a spiritual connection to them.

Mahamaya Pal, the former owner of 178 Rashbehari Avenue, who sold the plot to Sreeleathers, the company that discovered the chests. / Sudhiti Naskar / Agency Genesis
Mahamaya Pal, the former owner of 178 Rashbehari Avenue, who sold the plot to Sreeleathers, the company that discovered the chests. / Sudhiti Naskar / Agency Genesis

“Nothing but the truth can be spoken in the temple,” she insisted. Her eyes glazed over as she described how, as a child, she had been told stories about Kali and other Hindu deities by her grandmother. Now she believed that the chests had been kept for her by the dark goddess herself. She said that after they were discovered, she had started getting “messages” from “another world” telling her that the treasure belonged to her. “This is all secret knowledge,” she whispered, her face twitching. “This is a mystery of the secret chests that belong to Ma Kali.” Her faith in this belief had been fanned by the astrologers and tantriks she has been frequenting for a few years. She told me that she had spent over one lakh rupees on the ownership case with Sreeleathers, a sixteenth of the sum she got from selling her plot.

Pal’s long wait had come to an end on 16 June, about seven years since the chests were found. That morning, she said a prayer at home, applied a tilak of sandalwood paste on her forehead for luck and went to the police station with her family and lawyer. She waited expectantly, watching the shower of sparks fly from the cutters as the fire brigade personnel laboured at the chests.

Both Pal and Sub-inspector Bireswar Roy, the officer in charge of the case, gave me a recap of the events of that morning. It took two hours for the first chest to be cut open. A diamond cutter was used instead of a gas cutter to protect the “precious” content from damage. But the eager crowd were in for a sore disappointment. Roy told me that the chests only contained a few handfuls of latch needles (used in knitting machines) in polythene bags; a letterhead, dated 1975, of a local business, the Sri Ramkrishna Hosiery Factory; a desktop calendar; four Rs 5 notes with Hindi writing on them; and a lone one paisa coin dated to 1953. One chest was completely empty. “What a waste of time!” a photographer said as he walked away from the scene.

Some bravely maintained that the exercise hadn’t been a waste of time—The Hindu quoted an unnamed ASI official saying, “These needles were made in the 1970s. From them we will come to know how the textile industry functioned during that time. They may have some historic value.”

Roy believes that the location of the chests justified the excitement surrounding them. The plot was close to a Kali temple said to have belonged to “Roghu Dakat”—a famous dacoit—and around which there were rumours of human sacrifice and buried treasure. “There was a possibility that these chests contained jewellery or gold hoarded by the dacoit,” said Roy.

Though the contents of the chest were of little value, Roy still believes something about the situation doesn’t add up. After the outer iron casing of the chests was cut open, he said, the firemen found a layer of fire resistant clay. Within this was another iron casing that had to be cut through before the contents could be reached. “Why would someone put nothing of value inside those chests but take such great care to seal them impeccably?” Roy said.

Pal is equally mystified. “We never had any connection with a clothes business,” she said. “And none of my family members ever dealt with Ramakrishna Hosiery.” She was born in that same house on 178 Rashbehari Avenue to a family of traders and grocers, she said, and has been living there all her life. “The house is eighty years old,” she said. “It was built in 1935. How is a bill from 1975 buried in a chest underneath it without any of us knowing about it?”

source: http://www.caravanmagazine.com / The Caravan Magazine / Vantage> Web exclusives for the Caravan / Home> Case Diaries / by Sudhiti Naskar / July 17th, 2014
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Sudhiti Naskar is a freelance journalist based in Kolkata. She likes to document people’s lives in moments of flux. She is regularly published in international magazines. She is currently represented by Agency Genesis.

University of Calcutta to confer a posthumous doctorate on Lithuanian traveller anthropologist Antanas Poska

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

Vilnius (Lithuania):

In a rare honour, the University of Calcutta has decided to confer a posthumous doctorate on one of the world’s greatest explorers – Lithuanian traveller anthropologist AntanasPoska.

In an exclusive interview to TOI, Lithuanian foreign minister Linas Linkevicius said that Poska – the man who undertook an incredible journey to India on a motor bike all the way from Vilnius in 1929 will be conferred the doctorate during the University’s next convocation ceremony around September.

Confirming this to TOI from Kolkata, the University vice chancellor Suranjan Das said Poska “symbolised an eastern European’s inquisitiveness about India” and was being conferred the doctorate “for his contribution in making India known to the outside world through his extensive writings”.

Das told TOI “Poska’s feat is unparalleled when it comes to popularising India in Europe. Poska also studied in the University of Calcutta. Developing a close relationship with Lithuania is a priority for the new Indian government and conferring the doctorate will help seal the friendship”.

Das said “We have formally confirmed the University’s plans to confer the doctorate on Poska. However, it has to be given by the governor of West Bengal who presides over our convocation. Since the earlier governor resigned recently and we are waiting for the chair to be filled, the date of the convocation is yet to be finalised. It could take place around September-October”.

Lithuania’s ambassador to India Laimonas Talat Kelpsa has plans to bring Poska’s daughter Laimute Kiseliene to Kolkata to receive the doctorate.

It was TOI who had unveiled the extraordinary tale of Poska and a never before known facet of his work – the first ever translations of Rabindranath Tagore’s works into the Lithuanian language.

TOI had dug out Laimute who is now professor of choreography and dance methodology at Lithuanian University of Education. She for the first time ever unveiled to TOI a set of three binded books with “Tagore” written on them and a small palm sized journal made from birch tree barks.

She had received it from a frail old woman who had showed up at her door one day with these manuscripts.

The handwriting on them was familiar – it was that of her father who had written them during his exile.

Post 1929, when Poska returned to Lithuania from an eight year long journey across the world, the Soviet government packed him off on an 18-year-long exile to Siberia “without any formal reason”.

The frail lady then told Laimute that her father had returned from India as one of the biggest admirers of Rabindranath Tagore.

He then translated some of the poet’s works into Lithuanian – the first ever for any Indian literature to be done in that country.

Lack of paper during the exile forced him to use birch tree barks to write on. He also wrote poetry during his exiled years, copying Tagore’s style.

He had then given the documents to the lady in confidence who then worked in a Soviet controlled publishing house.

He wanted them published but the government destroyed most of his works.

Poska also gave her a note that read “These translations are a small bit of light for all those in despair”.

The lady instantly realised that they were “great cultural heritage” and hence hid them from the Soviets.

After knowing Poska is now survived by a daughter, the old lady had landed up at Laimute’s door many years later to hand over the manuscripts.

In an exclusive interview to TOI, Laimute had said “I was amazed when I received these manuscripts. He was a great fan of India and I grew up listening to stories of Tagore and Gandhi. My father never told anyone about these translations. Tagore’s works made a great impact on my father and hence took great pains to translate them thinking it would help those under Soviet oppression to see hope. These are real treasures of cultural heritage”.

“I would gladly give them to any publisher who would publish the translations now. There is nobody in Lithuania to validate the translation,” Laimute who has never shown these manuscripts to anyone before, said.

She added “The dream of his life was to translate the Vedas to Lithuanian”.

One of the translated works “dated 1932 at Shantiniketan” that TOI saw read in the introduction “While being a guest of a great Indian poet. With his personal help, I have prepared a small present for Lithuanians. This is a pearl of Tagore’s work called Fruit Gathering”.

Laimute revealed that Poska and Tagore met twice during his stay in Kolkata.

Laimute said “While in Shantiniketan, he waited for three days to meet Tagore. My father later revealed that the first meeting between him and Tagore wasn’t warm. Only when Tagore learnt of his interest in India, his travels, he became interested in Poska. Poska had expressed interest to Tagore of translating his works – an offer Tagore didn’t like. Tagore supposedly told him he looked down upon foreign translators who he felt ‘made it a business to make money from his works'”.

Poska in his journals also had nice things to say about the people of Bengal.

“During his next visit to Bengal. Poska found the people to be as warm, kind and creative as Tagore’s stories,” Laimute said.

Poska met Laimute’s mother Maria while on exile.

Laimute was born in Petro Pavlovsk in Kazakystan in 1950. She was nine years old when the family finally returned to Lithuania from their exile.

“Poska was never told why he was being exiled by the Soviets. So when he was ever asked the question, he would jokingly say it is because he stole Stalin’s pipe. One of Poska’s close friends and linguists from Bengal professor Suniti Kumar Chatterji gifted him a photo of Tagore which he always carried with him,” Laimute who took to being a professor of dance after hearing her father’s stories on Indian dances, said.

Poska and his co-traveller Matas Šalcius set out for an incredible journey to India on a motorbike in 1929. Their ways parted in Iran and each of them reached India separately in

1930. While Šalcius traversed India and continued his journey east up to the Philippines, Poska stayed on in India for five years, studying at Bombay University, later at Calcutta University and working at the Anthropology Laboratory of the Indian Museum in Kolkata.

He devoted these years to the study of commonalities between Lithuanian language and Sanskrit, Indian Vedas and Lithuanian folklore, making friends among Indian intelligentsia and expressing his passionate support for Indian independence.

He was a passionate advocate of the Esperanto language – international language of peace that was created by Ludwik Zamenhoff of Lithuanian Jewish origin in the end of the 19th Colonial India.

During the Soviet occupation, Poska was arrested for being well travelled and knowledgeable about the world beyond the Iron Wall.

He was first sentenced to hard labour in Siberian gulags, later transferred to Central Asia.

In Osh (Kyrgyzstan), he discovered and described an unknown Palaeolithic settlement and rare fossils.

Laimute finally revealed “Matas Salcius didn’t know how to ride a book. So it was father who drove all the way through so many years of travel”.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / by Kounteya Sinha, TNN / July 18th, 2014