Tucked in the forested tribal terrain of Purulia is a 350-year-old Durga Puja where the Sonar Durga or the idol made of gold is kept in a bank vault and taken out with strict security only during the days of the puja. Imagine Ma Durga
When a street turns into a nostalgic journey for generations, a street that never sleeps, a street that harbours memories for centuries, then that street turns into the central theme of a book for sure. One such street that has intrinsically imbibed into the ethos
Arogya Niketan (1967) Cast: Bikash Roy, Subhendu Chatterjee, Ruma Guha Thakurta, Chhaya Devi, Sandhya Roy, Bankim Ghosh Director: Bijoy Bose Three days ago, on September 14, most of us quietly missed the 51st death anniversary of Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay, who passed away in Kolkata in 1971 at 73. During his
A beautiful woman lavishly dressed in an expensive Banarasi silk saree, decked with heavy gold and diamond jewellery stands alone, holding the window grills, staring vacantly at the outside world from an enormous room. She is an embodiment of melancholy and loneliness and her expressive
Nimantran (1971) Cast: Anup Kumar, Sandhya Roy, Sandhya Rani, Jahar Roy, Nandini Maliya, Kali Banerjee, Pahari Sanyal Director: Tarun Majumdar Nimantran won the award for Best Feature Film in Bengali at the 19th National Film Awards announced on February 5, 1972. It also fetched its music director and
In 2010, Debasish Biswas became the first Bengali civilian mountaineer to reach the top of Mt Everest. In 2011, against severe odds, he repeated the record by summiting Mt Kanchenjunga, the world’s third highest peak, and one of its most notoriously difficult ascents. As a young
Did you know India’s first post office was set up at Khejuri in East Midnapore? Yes, that very Khejuri that once turned into a bone of political contention. However, long back in 1850, the scene was different. India was under British rule and Khejuri under
A young writer on the verge of publishing his first novel went to Sunil Gangopadhyay (or Ganguly if you like) with the manuscript, in hopes of constructive feedback. Having leafed through the book, Gangopadhyay reportedly said, “Goodness, what a complicated plot. Why not stick to
It has been more than 50 years since the Dacca Mail aka Pakistan Mail stopped commuting between Sealdah and Goalanda Ghat, an important junction in former East Pakistan. Before Partition, Goalanda Ghat, located at the confluence of Padma and Jamuna (Brahmaputra) Rivers, was the only
Raj Kapoor and Uttam Kumar in a film directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Uttam Kumar, not Soumitra Chatterjee, in ‘Kinu Goalar Goli'. Rekha and Uttam Kumar paired in a Bengali film. Not figments of a passionate fan’s imagination, but three among a series of misses in