https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rdeYWWxLSY Amar bhai er rokte rangano ekushe February/ Ami ki bhulite pari’ (How can I forget the blood soaked 21st February/ soaked in the blood of my brother) These lines from a song have transcended the mere boundaries of the written word or the musical note. They
On a Saturday evening inside Gana Bhavan on Jatindra Mohan Avenue in central Kolkata, hundreds of children sit quietly, thoroughly immersed in a performance by ventriloquist Tanmoy Adhikary. Some of these children want to be ventriloquists themselves when they grow up, while some others want
August 11, 1908, is the day Khudiram Bose was hanged by the British-Indian administration. For the attempted assassination of senior British official Douglas Kingsford. The would-be assassin was just 18, one of India’s youngest armed revolutionaries to die at the hands of the British. The irony
Finally, some much deserved recognition. Perhaps, with the publication of the Padma Awards list yesterday, more people will now be aware of Padma Vibhushan Dr Dilip Mahalanobis, and his incredible story. Sadly, the doctor himself passed away in Kolkata on October 16 last year. So
The flag designed by Mahatma Gandhi in 1921 ‘Vexillology’ - try pronouncing that quickly. This tongue twister of a word has a fairly simple meaning, however, it means the scientific study of flags. And India’s 74th Republic Day provides the perfect opportunity to talk about India’s
In 2015, Norwegian filmmaker Erland Haugen was writing a screenplay featuring Prof Edward Farley Oaten. For assistance, he turned to local scholars and historians in the British city of Tunbridge Wells, Oaten’s hometown, wanting to know more about the man who has etched for himself
As we enter 2023, we begin a countdown to the death centenary of a young man whom history has mostly forgotten. His name – Gopimohan (Gopinath by some accounts) Saha, originally of Serampore. He inhabited Earth for a mere 19 years, and was hanged on
In our times of militant feminism, terms such as battle, war, and fight for equality have become just so much loose change. The world is perhaps no longer willing to remember a small Bengal woman with her quiet smile, whose pen shaped a deeply feminist
Image Source : Wikipedia As we prepare to enter 2023, we also need to prepare for an important centenary. For it was in 1923 that ‘Calcutta Aerodrome’ was conceived, with the first flights landing here the following year. Sadly, the more important centenary actually passed by fairly
Conceived by a Muslim. Carried out by Hindus. On church property. All the activity centring around a quintessentially Bengali art form. Confusing as it sounds, the explanation is simple. Veteran journalist, communications consultant and social activist Mudar Patherya has quietly begun yet another campaign to not