Part 2: Jugalkishore, the dashing feudal lord of Bengal who did not look like a Bengali Jugalkishore, the young, dashing feudal lord of Mymensingha was growing up into a fine young man under his uncle Krishnakishore’s tutelage and supervision. He was a remarkably intelligent boy who
East India House in London in 1800 Slavery. An ugly word to describe an ugly, despicable practise. Owing to what history has documented, most of us probably tend to equate the term ‘slave’ with the image of Africans working on huge American cotton plantations, and the
He is an electrical engineer, but he runs a decades-old paan shop in Kolkata, that is an icon by itself. But why did someone give up a career in Engineering and take up the reins of a paan shop? Well, Shyamal Dutta, the electrical engineer,
Seventy-five years ago on October 10, 1946, it was the day of Kojagari Lakshmi Puja, when Bengali Hindus of Bangladesh were offering prayers to the goddess of prosperity. It was a full moon night and devotees were busy making last-minute preparations for the puja when
If Khela Hobe raised a storm in the poll circuit of Bengal, Kolkata Police and Trisys Foundation’s recently launched Cholo Kheli has broken all barriers to address the childhood needs of street children, something that is grossly neglected. This unique initiative has been launched to
We are in the midst of a cultural crisis. Soumitra Chattopadhyay, the lifeblood of our cultural milieu, left us after a relentless battle for survival. The steps of our cultural edifice are etched with gold, thanks to his cultural richness. Poetry, plays, essays, directing plays, acting
In this 3-part series, GB brings a fascinating tale of Rabindranath Tagore’s ancestors, the Pirali Brahmins and how they descended from a converted Muslim of Jessore We all know that Rabindranath Tagore and his family were ‘Pirali’ Brahmins. The term ‘Pirali’ historically carried a stigmatized and
Part 1: Siraj falls in love with Heera, the sister of Mohanlal, his general and a son is born BLocated on the west bank of the Bhagirathi River, about a mile upstream from Murshidabad, the former capital of undivided Bengal, lies Khushbagh (literally the ‘Garden of
St Thomas’ Church, Middleton Row We ended last week at New Market, and if you have had your fill of shopping, we can now walk on through a most interesting part of the city. As Calcutta grew and evolved, this was part of the area which
Legendary singer Arati Mukherjee hails from the golden era of Bengali music, a genre that will always remain ensconced in the heart of Bengali audience. The popularity of a vast treasure-trove of evergreen numbers sung by legends like Hemanta Mukhopadhyay, Sandhya Mukhopadhyay, Manna De, Shyamal