In an era when it seems stand-alone city shops are coming as a better option to consumers than store chains and shopping malls, one wonders which was the first Departmental Store of Kolkata? Well, the first departmental store in the city was started by two
Well, contrary to the usual Awadhi and Hyderabadi biriyani, Kolkata Biriyani has its very own recipe and style of cooking. Nawab Wajid Ali Shah included the potato or aloo in it which was an exotic vegetable in those days. The potato cooked with the biriyani
This year, March 13 marked the 25th year of the death of Emilie Schenkel, the Austrian wife of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and mother to their only child, Dr Anita Bose Pfaff. Dr Bose-Pfaff’s reminiscences about her late father, who died when she was about
In a tropical country like ours, summer really isn’t the season for travel, or so says conventional wisdom. However, the advantage of living in a state like West Bengal is that you really need not travel very far away from home to find a destination
It was in the year 1967. The Farmer Revolution of Naxalbari had created waves by then, leading to a rift among various communist parties of India. Politicians who supported the villagers and farmers of Naxalbari, gradually distanced themselves from others. A similar picture was seen
My Bishnupur trail did not just end with the famous terracotta temples or Rash Mancha. It was also about the Baluchari Sarees, that unfortunately never got the status like Benarasi, but have enough potential to even excel a Dhakai muslin! Bishnupur was a prominent seat
When filmmaker Srijit Mukherjee was scheduled to release his film Gumnami (2019), based on a popular theory that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose actually survived the plane crash that supposedly killed him, many of Netaji’s descendants were voluble in their protest. In particular, his grand-nephew and
At an altitude of 3,636 m (roughly 11,000 ft) above sea level, Sandakphu is the highest peak in West Bengal, located in Darjeeling’s Singalila Ridge, on the West Bengal-Nepal border. Sandakphu is on the edge of the Singalila National Park and has a small village
The Spring has arrived on time this year, and so has the cuckoo songs, with twitters of birds as they try to build their new nests. The flame of Palash and Shimul still reign the landscapes of Bengal, yet something is amiss this Basanta Utsav.
The winds of change, well changing sides actually, have been blowing strongly through West Bengal ever since the Vidhan Sabha polls were announced. As the deadline for filing nominations loomed, we did see a slight lull in the storm. So far, the winds seem to