The word ‘terracotta’ means baked earth. Simply put, it is what you get when clay is hard-baked, producing a strong, durable construction material that is also naturally resistant to mould and bacteria. And terracotta architecture is something you see in abundance in West Bengal, particularly
If you have been lately missing the innocuous, small, unassuming, crispy hollow ball of fried dough, filled with a spicy stuffing made out of a potato-chickpea mash dunked in really tangy spicy jal jeera water, liberally infused with mint leaves with a dash of meetha
He lives in the shallow lakes of faraway North America but has landed up in a Bengal village almost 13,000 km away. No one knows how he arrived – at least he did not travel by air, but yes, he flew across the clouds and
A poor Brahmin driven out of his own home by a ghost who impersonates him. Four friends who learn the art of transforming bones into living, breathing beings. A clever barber who ‘bags' a ghost and makes it do his bidding. All this and much
Magnificent, strongly built pairs of cattle, yoked to ploughs, muscles rippling as they thunder and snort through the mud and slush of paddy fields, surrounded by a cheering, festive crowd. This is an average description of 'Moichhara', a time-honoured fertility ritual of rural Bengal, which
It might have been 27 years since the versatile actor, director, writer and playwright, Utpal Dutt passed away -- yet in addition to the scores of film buffs that rediscover him, legions of new admirers join the ever-growing list of the thespian’s fans. Pioneer of
They have proved that even in times of an infectious pandemic, they haven’t given up the humanity, kindness and sense of service. Priyanka Mitra and Priyam Dutta have been rescuing abandoned and sick people from the roads when rest of the neighbourhood are shunning them
There are plenty of wonderful things to say about Delo (or Deolo), but the one that any traveller is likely to experience, almost immediately upon arrival, is Delo’s amazing ability to freshen you up. Don’t take our word for it, make the trip and feel
There’s a saying that good deeds should be done with an intention, not for attention because a good deed dies when it is spoken about. And Arup Mukherjee believes this adage and follows it religiously. A constable in Kolkata Police’s South Traffic Guard, Arup Mukherjee
Samudranil Gupta is a research scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. The loneliness of the viewer – a condition that the coronavirus pandemic and its consequent isolation has made only too familiar to us. In the words of renowned Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke, “We have