Nikhilesh, Moidul, D’souza, Rama Ray, Amal, Sujata. For close to four decades, these names have been an integral part of the cultural life of Bengal. These are the names from the ‘Coffee House’ of our dreams, the friends who formed the backbone of the song
Tn a 2018 paper by Richard Thompson in the journal Clinical Medicine, published by Britain’s Royal College of Physicians, the abstract stated, “There is increasing evidence that exposure to plants and green space, and particularly to gardening, is beneficial to mental and physical health, and
Parts I & II of this saga were all about the rise of the White criminal or ‘saheb chor’ in 18th and 19th-century Calcutta, and the escapades of Warner and Healey, a duo who met for the first time in Presidency Jail, struck up a
WPart I of this narrative, which you can read here, described the rise of the White criminal or ‘saheb chor’ in 18th and 19th-century Calcutta, and the heavy involvement of European adventurers in the Chaitan Sil robbery case. One of those adventurers turned approver in the
On January 29, 1795, a “gang of white dacoits led by a Bengali guide” invaded the home of wealthy Bengali shop owner Chaitan Sil in Calcutta. Sil was also later known as the father of ‘Mutty Lall Seal’ (Motilal Sil), the famed philanthropist who went
A marathon to promote and protect some of Bengal’s most beautiful heritage structures? With less than a month to go for International Day for Monuments and Sites (or World Heritage Day), celebrated on April 18 by the UN every year, here’s some news from Malda
Poetry can be both a repository and a vehicle. It can soothe and agitate in equal measure. It can both heal and wound, extinguish and inspire. Such lofty thoughts have come to us because today is World Poetry Day, and love them or hate them,
The surroundings are decidedly unpretentious. A few chairs, a table, a few cabinets. Difficult to believe that this small room of a modest flat on Jatin Das Road is at the heart of a movement to rejuvenate Bengali theatre. That grand mission statement is not as
Most of those familiar with the Persian phrase ‘tamam shud’ (it is over/ finished) associate it with one of the most famous cold cases in history – that of the still officially unidentified Somerton Man, whose body was found in Adelaide, Australia in 1948. In
Slow-moving, financially unviable, waste of space. In a nutshell, that is how most modern Kolkatans have been conditioned to view trams. Why ‘conditioned’? Well the popular perception of trams in Kolkata has been shaped by the policies of successive governments, but primarily those of the