The life of a honey collector is not an easy one, particularly for those in the Sundarbans. The reason is easy enough to pinpoint – attacks by man-eating tigers. The Royal Bengal Tiger, pride and joy of the Sundarbans, is also the biggest threat to
The Sherpa community has long been the backbone of mountaineering in the Himalayas. This obvious statement bears repetition, because the Himalayas without Sherpas would be like the top of Mount Everest without snow. Tough, dedicated, gritty, unflinching, adventurous - the adjectives write themselves. And an
When we say ‘family’, what do we usually mean? In our times, the answer is likely to be a unit of four or five people, comprising a married, heterosexual couple and their biological children, with the couple’s parents or in-laws in some cases. That’s a
Taking account of the spiralling Covid-19 situation, and in response to calls for a stricter lockdown from several quarters, the West Bengal government has announced a tightening of the partial lockdown in the state, extending it until May 30. The announcement was made by state
Tucked away in one corner of Uttarpara stands Uttarpara Bengal Photo Studio, the brainchild of 41-year-old Arindam Saha Sardar. A self-taught archivist and restoration artist, Arindam makes biographical documentaries, curates exhibitions of rare artefacts, collects old still and movie cameras, Bengali magazines of yore, and
The great Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay once wrote that Bengalis as a race looked to their rulers for even the history of their own race, and were experts at forgetting their past achievements. Even if we were to set that aside, we can say with certainty
When any crisis strikes, what reigns supreme is how the community rises to the occasion, how humanity unfolds. A growing number of home chefs, cooks, helpful neighbours are coming together in West Bengal offering to feed COVID-19 patients and their caregivers in home isolation as
To put it blandly, food and Bengal, or food and the Bengali, have always shared a special relationship. The popular theory is that Bengali cuisine is the only traditionally developed ‘multi-course service’ in the Indian subcontinent, similar in structure to the modern ‘service à la
One movie of Ray among many other pathbreaking ones that brought two idols together was Nayak. 55 years ago in 1966, the story of a humble theatre actor turned matinee idol Arindam Mukherjee hit the screens, catapulting Uttam Kumar to a different genre of acting
For most of us, Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury is a name we think of only in connection to his famous son, or even more famous grandson. But is it enough to think of him simply as the father of Sukumar Ray and grandfather of Satyajit Ray?