In Sundarbans, Several human communities have been sharing space with wild animals for centuries. It is an example of wonderful coexistence that has primarily been possible due to certain age-old religious beliefs, myths, and legends that have been passed down generations and form an integral
Around two and a half centuries ago, one of the most picturesque streets of ‘Calcutta’ ran from the north-east corner of B. B. D. Bag to Bowbazar. Termed by the British as the ‘Best Street in Kolkata,’ it was styled like the streets of London.
He was the ‘Mama’ of the Golden era of Bengali Cinema. For he acted in the role of several maternal uncles, some good, some cunning and some evil. Haridhan Mukherjee was a multi-talented gem of Tollywood. Satyajit Ray had a keen eye for details and
The familiar sharp whistle of the pressure cooker emanating from the kitchen sounds so comforting at times. The trusted pressure cooker is a permanent fixture in Indian kitchens for decades. But when and how did this humble device cross the sanctum sanctorum of Indian kitchens?
“My problem isn’t that I have a sweet tooth. It’s that I have several of them.” And as everyone knows, that’s the problem with a majority of Bengalis. Bengalis absolutely love sweets, so much so that sweetmeats like ‘sandesh’, ‘mishti doi’ etc remain an integral
It was the First Book of Reading for Native Children published in 1850. Even Rabindranath Tagore was initiated to the English language through this book in his childhood. Pyari Charan Sircar (1823–1875), was an educationist and textbook writer in 19th-century Bengal. His series of Reading
Mental health seems to be the buzzword today with negative thoughts and feelings surrounding all and depression skyrocketing. Psychoanalysis and understanding human nature with its deep apprehensions has turned most important. In the early 20th-century a Bengali physician had become the first South Asian psychoanalyst,
The sudden growling of a hand truck in the distance when no one is about, the diesel engines of a crane starting up on their own in an apparently deserted cabin, the crane moving from side to side as though operated by an invisible hand,
There was something about Dolly Roy, the first woman tea taster of India, as well as about her quaint shop Dolly’s – The Tea Shop in a corner of South Kolkata’s Dakshinapan Shopping Centre. She was a trendsetter in her own rights, way back in
Orphans who survived the Bengal famine of 1943 If you run a Google search for Sasank Sekhar De, chances are you won’t come up with too many relevant results. That is, if you are among the handful who still know his name. Because not even his