Many of you may be familiar with the Bengali term ‘mutsuddi’, or know someone whose last name is Mutsuddi. The word comes from the Persian ‘mutasaddi’, meaning scribe or secretary, and was used to describe the local commercial agents of the British East India Company
The Howrah Bridge moves like a gigantic scorpion, And Harrison Road follows it and proceeds along Rabindranath Tagore had penned this limerick when the twin cities of Calcutta and Howrah were connected by a pontoon or floating bridge, a precursor of the present Howrah Bridge, now
These days ayurveda is going global, but this ancient medicine form that flourished in Bengal was once suppressed by the European world, particularly the British. In order to propagate and popularise Western Medicine, in the year 1835, Thomas Babington Macauley, President of the General Committee
Kolkata is renowned for its close affinity with food. There are endless number of eating joints spread across the city to usher in and satiate the hunger pangs of people from all socio-economic background. There is the typical roadside ‘dhabas’, pice hotels serving Bengali meals,
New Market-1905 In the first part of this article, which you can read here, we started out with old Calcutta neighbourhoods bearing the suffixes ‘tala’, ‘tola’ and ‘para’, as an indication of the predominant professional communities inhabiting the city, as well its geography, in the 17th
Balmy winter mornings in Kolkata are not just about the smog enveloping the city’s lungs around Maidan, but also about exciting walking tours, considering the mild cool winters that set in around Kolkata. And then the fiery Christmas laced with the nostalgia of a British
…Kato biplobi bondhur rokte ranga/ Bondi shalar oi shekol bhanga/ Tara ki phiribe aaj su-probhate/ Jato torun arun gyachhe ostacholay/ Muktiro mondiro sopano tolay/ Kato pran holo bolidan/ Lekha ache ashrujoley… (The shackles in the prison cells are stained and broken with the blood of
Did you ever have Sali Marghi -- tender chicken wrapped in fiery masala and topped off with shredded fried potato? Sali Marghi is an age-old recipe that has been a traditional one in Parsi households. Or, perhaps, Patra Ni Machcchi? Does this sound familiar? The
April 13, 1919 was a watershed moment in the nation’s history when the tyranny of the British imperialists was exposed. British troops butchered at least 379 unarmed demonstrators meeting at the Jallianwala Bagh. Described as “the darkest stain on British rule in India” and as
This dates back to the time when the missionaries were active in Bengal in the education sector and was also spreading Christianity. Babus of Kolkata held several meetings to find a suitable solution under the leadership of Radhakanta Deb, the head of the Kayastha community