Chima Ephraim Okorie. Dipendu Biswas. Once glittering stars of Kolkata’s football pantheon, now opponents in the IFA Shield, UK. You read that right, and we’re talking about an FA (Football Association) accredited community league, played in a FIFA accredited stadium, with World Cup standard balls
On April 14, 1944, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army (INA) hoisted the Indian tricolour on Indian soil for the second time. The venue was Moirang, a small town in Manipur, approximately 45 km from the state capital Imphal, and doing the honours was
• You are an electrical engineer, but you run a paan shop that is a name by itself, a shop as old and prestigious as Kolkata’s history. Why did you choose to make paans instead of taking up engineering? There are too many engineers these days,
Of all the residents of Dhaka, 99 percent are from various corners, districts, villages, and towns of Bangladesh. On the first meeting, the commonest question is, ‘So where do you come from originally?’ I’ve heard elderly people in Kolkata say the same thing about the
আমার জন্য একটুখানি কবর খোঁড়ো সর্বসহা লজ্জা লুকোই কাঁচা মাটির তলে- গোপন রক্ত যা-কিছুটুক আছে আমার শরীরে, তার সবটুকুতে শস্য যেন ফলে। O earth, dig a small grave for me Let me hide my shame under the raw soil– Whatever secret blood is in my body, Let every ounce ripen the grains. Our
Imagine elephants walking down Chowringhee! Street scenes of erstwhile Calcutta, under the British Raj, captured in water-colour canvases of William Daniell, the English landscape and marine painter, are still something to linger over. One of them shows elephants moving with leisurely grace, followed by many
Farha Khatun was only 10 when she first heard of ‘triple talaq’ (the Islamic practise of instant divorce by the husband saying ‘talaq’ thrice). It was a summer morning, and one of her aunts had come visiting their home in Medinipur. “She was very disturbed
Sibtainbad Imambara. Not a very familiar name even in its native Kolkata, leave alone the rest of India, which is unusual for one of the few surviving remnants of an unforgettable chapter in the city’s history. An edifice which was created in the likeness of Lucknow’s
On May 10, 1902, The Gramophone and Typewriter Limited, Germany, established their office at 8/02 Dalhousie Square, Calcutta. Their recording engineer, William Fredrick Gaisberg sailed for India and arrived in October, 1902 with the newly found technology of sound recording and reproduction. Little did he
This is a story that goes back more than 20 years. With no satisfactory ending in sight as of now. And World Heritage Day (International Day For Monuments and Sites, to give it its proper name), celebrated every year on April 18, is a perfect