The year was 1919. A 34-year-old Superintending Archaeologist of the Archaeological Survey of India’s Western Circle was visiting the Sindh region (of what was to become Pakistan) in search of the ruins of Greek pillars. As he began work on unearthing a Buddhist vihara on
Remember those Russian books and children’s magazines that came once upon a time via mail and how most children would wait to read the next part of the story on Misha? Well, children of present Kolkata will not know of them, for these were books
Amarendra Roy Chowdhury. Name ring a bell? What about Badal Roy? Still no? Well, the New York Times calls him “an Indian tabla player whose drumming propelled East-West fusions for some of the most prominent musicians in and out of jazz”, and he died of
In the brouhaha about the multiple recipients from Bengal who have declined their Padma awards this year – former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, legendary vocalist Sandhya Mukhopadhyay, and tabla maestro Pandit Anindo Chatterjee – the ones who have accepted the honour have largely escaped the
Joydeep Karmakar is an Arjuna Awardee, winning more than 100 medals at the National Championships and numerous international medals. He has participated in the Commonwealth Championship, Australian Open Championship, represented India in 28 World Cups, 2 Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, 3 World Championships, and is
Netaji was very keen that the members of different religious communities should learn more about the religious faiths and practices of other communities; and on ceremonial occasions take part in the celebrations. In the 1940s, Subhas Chandra Bose gave up his earlier inhibitions about meat and
The film industry in Bengal is flooded with young filmmakers with stardust in their eyes, desperate to cut their teeth in film-making with a striking debut. Arun Roy recreates history by fictionalizing it through the language of cinema, but does a brilliant job of it,
First day of the Constituent Assembly. In the first row (from left), Dr B.R. Ambedkar, B.G. Kher, Vallabhai Patel and K.M. Munshi Mono Mohan Das, Arun Chandra Guha, Lakshmi Kanta Maitra, Mihir Lal Chattopadhyay, Satish Chandra Samanta, Suresh Chandra Majumdar, Upendranath Barman, Prabhudayal Himatsingka, Basanta Kumar
Fourteen heads of state and government and five Nobel laureates. That’s the record so far. We are, of course, talking about the venerable University of Calcutta, which completed its 165th year yesterday. True to its turbulent history, the birthday was marked by demonstrations by a
When I first read a major excerpt from Meghnadbadh Kabya as part of my board examination syllabus, I felt like re-reading again. Not because Michael Madhusudan Dutta had used international poetic tools in an age when Bengali poetry could least imagine such treatment, but because