There is an ancient adage that says, ‘One who sleeps under a quilt is comforted by love.’ So true indeed! With the onset of winter, we all scuttle for the comfort and warmth of quilts. Our love affair with the quilt is revived annually when
Narendranath Mitra’s classic short story, ‘Ras’ is a saga of love, betrayal and hope. It was made into a Hindi film, ‘Saudagar,’ in 1973, featuring Amitabh Bachchan. The story revolves around Motalef aka Moti, a shrewd skilled ‘Shiuli’ (date palm tree tapper). Date palm jaggery
Aparticular art of Bengal is decorating Ghots or round earthen pots offered during various religious ceremonies. At times the Ghot itself is worshipped as a deity symbolizing the idol of a particular goddess. One such deity is the Manasa Ghot. In Barishal, the erstwhile district of East Bengal
In 1984, New York Times had hit a headline about a Baul from Bengal. It carried an article describing famous Purna Das Baul as India’s Bob Dylan! By then Purna Das had successfully taken the rustic folk songs of Bengal to a global audience, performing
Radhatilak rice - an indigenous paddy variety of Bengal Bengal once was a hub of indigenous rice cultivation, and almost 500 different paddy varieties, including Jalkamini, Jamaishal, Kabirajshal, Jhingashal, Altapati, Rupshal, Sitashal, Dnarshal, Rabanshal, Bormasa, Roktoshali, Khejurchhori, Tin Sotin, and Fulmoti, illuminated its fields. Farmers used
The famous Sans Souci Theatre decided to enact one final play before it came to a crashing close. The production of Shakespeare’s Othello in 1848, at Sans Souci marked an important event in the history of Bengali plays. It was for the first time, that
Ma used to make Elo Jhelo every winter morning and we sat patiently to pack them along with the coconut laced Patishapta in our tiffin boxes before leaving for school. We had to show to our non-Bengali friends what were so special about Bengal’s pithe
They say ‘a picture tells a thousand words’. Since the pre-historic era, long before mankind found a way of expression through scripts, wall paintings were the only medium of expressing thoughts and ideas. In this context, the tribal wall art of the ‘Santhal’ community dwelling
In Charaka Samhita, the ancient Indian Sanskrit text on Ayurveda (traditional medicine), there is a phrase: Kansyam Buddhivardhakam, which means kansa, or bronze/bell metal, sharpens intellect. It pays tribute to Kansa's therapeutic powers. According to the Ayurveda, the nutritional value of food increases when it
Bengal is famous for its sweets. Be it Kolkata’s Rosogolla or Bardhaman’s Lyangcha, each region has a specialty of its own. The name of Rabdi (porridge) is pretty famous as well. Google shows that the best rabdi can be found in Mathura, later perfected in