At 65, Sheikh Nazim is one of Kolkata’s old ‘bhistiwalas’ (water carriers). Every day, he walks along the city’s lanes and bylanes, witness to the living history of its brick and mortar heritage. One of the last survivors of our rapidly changing times, he is
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me In the jingle jangle morning I'll come following you” These were the words Bob Dylan wrote in 1965, making his
Home in the World: A Memoir Amartya Sen Allen Lane, Rs 899 As a young Amartya Sen sets foot in Cambridge for the first time, he writes, his excitement of visiting a new place is combined with the grief of severing his umbilical cord from his motherland. The
Suman Sadhu shares his reaction after reading the book and talking with the author. On March 22, 2020, the first nationwide lockdown (Janata Curfew) was imposed to battle against the Covid-19 outbreak. Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Indian citizens to voluntarily stay indoors, implement ‘social distancing’
West Bengal and Kolkata have a long association with nature. Poet Nazrul Islam had once written, “Ami hobo shokalbelar pakhi/ Shobar agay kusum bagay/ Uthbo ami daki” (I shall be the morning bird who will fly to the flower garden at dawn and chirp before
The 27th edition of the Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) will kick off from January 7 with a virtual inauguration by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from Nabanna. The week-long festival will be on until January 14. The theme country for this year’s festival is Finland. The
If you take a walk around Hemanta Basu Sarani, you might come across an old gem of the city ---‘Narasinghachandra Dawn & Co, Gun and Rifle Makers. In 1835 Narasinghachandra Dawn, a resident of Kotulpur, a village of Bankura came to Kolkata and set up
There are many who know that Vivek Kumar, additional Chief Secretary to the Government of West Bengal, is a gifted singer. For those who don't, a new single released by the veteran IAS officer on the occasion of Diwali ought to fill the gap. The
On May 24, the world celebrated ‘Bidrohi Kobi’ (Rebel poet) Kazi Nazrul Islam’s 122nd birth anniversary. But what went unnoticed and unsung was the fact that his iconic poem ‘Bidrohi,’ that shot him to fame, is making its centenary this year. The poem is recognized
Following Mohun Bagan’s epic 1911 victory against the East Yorkshire Regiment, the poet Karuna Nidhan Bandyopadhyay had this to say in the Ashwin 1318 edition of ‘Manasi’ magazine: “The son of the nation has awoken, crowds on the street In the women’s quarters, Bengal’s beauties smile oh