Calcutta 1955. I had passed my inter-science examination with first class. Getting a first class then, was rare, an achievement. For our traditional traders’ family, science biology was an unusual subject. My brothers after graduation in commerce had all started to work. As if to assert my individual identity I decided to opt for medicine …
Continue reading "Innocent conflict"
April 29, 2018The East India Company spent Rs 16 lakh over the construction of the Lohe-ka-Pul, built shortly after the old Jamuna Bridge in Agra
April 12, 2018The large Victorian edifice of my mother’s grandfather was a two-storied building of brick and mortar built in the late 19th century. It had thick walls and wide pillars holding aloft peripheral arches and the central dome. On the outside ancient gargoyles looked out from below the parapet. Large evergreens surrounded the building and had …
Continue reading "The wooden horse"
April 1, 2018Now that the advocates of the High Court at Calcutta have unanimously decided to continue their cease-work for another two weeks ~ and this is the third and fourth successive week ~ it has become absolutely obligatory for them to justify their decision before the people at large and more particularly to the hapless litigants …
Continue reading "Away from Court~I"
March 11, 2018The clock must tick as an index to the “advancement of learning” ~ the motto of the University of Calcutta. Yet the campus authorities have turned the clock back to devise a quick-fix solution to a problem almost unprecedented ~ the flunking of no fewer than 43,000 students across colleges in the general steam of …
Continue reading "Gallery of the flunked"
February 12, 2018The 49 edition of the Statesman Vintage Car Rally took place on Sunday involving 203 cars and two wheelers. The 49th edition of the rally that was organised on Sunday saw vehicles participating which once were a prominent sight on the roads of the then Calcutta. The vintage models, including four and two wheelers gathered …
Continue reading "Statesman Vintage & Classic Car Rally: Some things only get better with age"
January 29, 2018Dadasahab Palkhe has been hailed as the father of the Indian cinema. He was the one to make India’s first silent feature film, Raja Harishchand in 1913. But little is known that there was another filmmaker during that era who was creating films side by side but was unable to showcase his work due to …
Continue reading "Director Arun Roy to make a film on Hiralal"
January 11, 2018The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday put on hold the Centre’s decision to withdraw around 1,000 paramilitary personnel deployed in Darjeeling and Kalimpong to maintain law and order during the agitation for a separate Gorkhaland State. The court has put a stay on the Union government’s order till October 27. As per the government’s order, …
Continue reading "Calcutta High Court stays removal of central forces from Darjeeling"
October 17, 2017President Pranab Mukherjee recalled his old links with The Statesman newspaper as he good-humouredly said he and the paper had often agreed to disagree with each other. “As a Bengali and as a Calcuttan I grew up with The Statesman like many of my contemporaries,” President Mukherjee said in his address after receiving a photo-essay …
Continue reading "President Pranab Mukherjee reminisces about The Statesman links"
July 2, 2017The birthday of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, on 12 May 1820 is celebrated as the International Nurses’ Day. Another prominent figure who followed her path was the Scots-Irish Margaret Elizabeth Noble or Sister Nivedita, who catered to the sick in India, driven only by her moral instincts and courage, without any governmental …
Continue reading "Solace for the suffering"
May 10, 2017They say beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder but when you visit West Bengal, beauty is everywhere. From Tagore’s writings to Netaji’s courage and determination, Bengal is an epitome of glorious history and rich culture. The capital of the state got renamed to Kolkata from Calcutta but what remained the same is the …
Continue reading "Around the City of Joy"
February 22, 2017They say beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder but when you visit West Bengal, beauty is everywhere. From Tagore’s writings to Netaji’s courage and determination, Bengal is an epitome of glorious history and rich culture. The capital of the state got renamed to Kolkata from Calcutta but what remained the same is the …
Continue reading "Around the City of Joy"
February 22, 2017They say beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder but when you visit West Bengal, beauty is everywhere. From Tagore’s writings to Netaji’s courage and determination, Bengal is an epitome of glorious history and rich culture. The capital of the state got renamed to Kolkata from Calcutta but what remained the same is the …
Continue reading "Around the City of Joy"
February 22, 2017For me there are two Kolkatas. The Kolkata I lived in thirty years ago and the Kolkata I now visit. In fact, the Kolkata I grew up in had a different name, Calcutta. Thirty years I walked its winding streets, drank its sweet milky tea and breathed its acetic air, happily and with gusto. I …
Continue reading "Tale of my two cities"
February 5, 2017I got to know the author when I was doing a post-graduate course in political science in Calcutta University. He was also studying with me but I could see his heart was not in it. Apparently, he had been keen to go to Oxford to do a tripos in modern history and to try to become …
Continue reading "The rarefied world of Calcutta’s sahib logs"
January 22, 2017This Christmas, I found myself reminiscing about past years when I celebrated this special day in Calcutta with gusto and gaiety like most Bengalis. I realised once again that most of the elders in my family with whom I celebrated Christmas are no more. Now all I have are fond memories of those precious moments, …
Continue reading "The magical charm of a wonderful city"
January 7, 2017The ushering in of the new millennium marked the end of an era of iconic screen legends who drew audiences to the cinema halls of Calcutta as it then was. In those days under the British, the best of Hollywood films came to the city and set the silver screen on fire. In 1939, Metro …
Continue reading "Recalling an era of screen"
December 31, 2016