December 23, 1912. The day India’s capital was to officially shift from Calcutta to Delhi. Lord Charles Hardinge, the British Viceroy, sat atop a splendidly decorated elephant as he prepared to make a grand entry into the new capital. Out of nowhere, a huge explosion
Was Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah really an arrogant, cruel, spoiled brat who was indulged to excess by his doting grandfather Nawab Alivardi Khan? Was Mir Jafar really a barefaced traitor who offered the immensely rich province of Bengal to the British on a platter? Was Robert Clive
To begin with, he was not called Upendrakishore. Named Kamada Ranjan Ray at birth, he was the youngest of three sons born to Joytara and Kalinath, and later adopted by his father’s childless cousin, Harikishore Ray. Formally declared as Harikishore’s son in 1868, the five-year-old,
When she settled in the USA for good in 1999, dance was not uppermost on Kolkata girl Raili Roy’s mind. The Presidency College (now University) alumnus, now a scholar in Gender Studies and Comparative Women’s History, is also a trained Bharatanatyam dancer, but she could
“A man who drank like a fish, smiled like an angel, fought his enemies like a demon and loved his comrades like a primitive God.” This is a quote from an entry on Sagina Mahato in the British Library’s Endangered Archives Blog. It is not clear
Limelight Building The Kolkata Police Heritage Organisation. Sounds unfamiliar? Not likely to be for too much longer, if former Kolkata Police Commissioner Soumen Mitra has anything to do with it. Formed with the objective of preserving the heritage buildings of Kolkata Police, of which there are
Representative image Why is West Bengal celebrating Poila Baisakh a day later than Pohela Boishakh in Bangladesh? Why does year zero in Bangabda, the Bengali era, begin in 593 AD after Poila Baisakh and 594 AD before? What, if anything, did Mughal emperor Akbar have to
Birla Industrial and Technological Museum Driving past Kolkata’s Birla Industrial and Technological Museum (BITM) on what is Gurusaday Road today, not many would probably wonder about its origins, but for those who do, the name of architect Nundlal Guin ought to be important. This is because
Ganadevata (1978) Cast: Soumitra Chatterjee, Ajitesh Bannerjee, Sandhya Roy, Madhabi Mukherjee, Samit Bhanja, Rabi Ghosh, Sumitra Mukherjee, Anup Kumar Director: Tarun Majumdar Two days from now, veteran actor and sometime MP Sandhya Roy turns 81. A three-time recipient of the Bengal Film Journalists’ Association Award, she made her
Subhas Chandra Bose and Emilie Schenkl in Karlsbad in 1935 For almost a year after his disappearance and alleged death on August 18, 1945, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s family, not to mention the world at large, had no idea that he had left behind a wife