To the people of Charida, a sleepy village of Bengal, masks mean ancient tribal Chhau masks, that are colourful and a work of art. It is believed Chhau dance originated in the soldiers’ barracks (chhauni) of the past when Rarh (part of Bengal, Bihar and
Trees are the oldest friends of humans; human civilization itself thrived upon the fruits, flowers, shade, and other offerings that trees provided. In recent times, as humans are deviating away from the greenery and getting involved in the machinery-dominated world, the cries of nature seem
Mountaineer Debasis Biswas Russian-Kazakhstani mountaineer Anatoli Boukreev had once said, “Mountains are not stadiums where I satisfy my ambition to achieve, they are the cathedrals where I practice my religion.” What compels mountaineers to risk everything and summit dangerous peaks like Mount Everest, they do not
Paritosh Biswas, announcer, Sealdah station There are many instances that remind us how fortunate and blessed we are with what we have. The little things that we often forget about are the ones that matter the most. Paritosh Biswas is a visually impaired individual who surpassed
Kolkata’s celebrated identifiers include, among other things, the legendary yellow taxis that have been a staple of our streets since they were introduced in 1958. The legacy of those tough yellow mean machines lives on, albeit fighting a losing battle, among the people who grew
Meet Sankha Kar, who was destined to venture into the world of art. But unlike his father, who used a paintbrush to create an image on the canvas, Sankha played around with the camera obscura and successfully created numerous gems that caught the eyes of
Chandrayaan-3 camera designer Anuj Nandi While the world and India celebrated yesterday's space miracle with Chandrayaan 3 successfully landing on the moon’s south pole, making India the first country in the world to land there, a family in West Bengal’s Islampur was ecstatic. Their son and
Sea Explorers Institute, Kolkata In 1521, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan tried to determine the depth of the Pacific Ocean. Far from shore, he dropped a cannon ball attached to a rope into the ocean. When, at 732 meters, it had still not hit bottom, Magellan declared
The Union government launched the MISHTI scheme to protect mangrove ecosystems. When Cyclone Yaas slammed into the coastal areas of West Bengal on May 26, 2021, it inundated several villages in the Sundarbans region. Jharkhali, a low-lying village in South 24 Parganas district, however, did not
The future, which cannot be seen, has been the subject of great interest for humans who, perhaps, have tried to ascertain it since the very beginning of human civilization. Their unending imaginations and insatiable queries gave birth to a particular game, which later became part