Asim Bando's KOLKATA BLOG

HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN... After a long interval of 34 years, Mohun Bagan - Kolkata's leading football club, makes history by defeating its ever-opponent club East Bengal by 5-3 in I-League Football Tournament. Here are the pics after the victory of my favourite football club - Mohun Bagan.

A rare-species owl found in the suburb recently. It was reared by a housewife as a pet. But handed over to the State Forest Dept. at last yesterday.

Margaret Elizabeth Noble was born on 28 October, 1867 in Ireland. She net Swami Vivekananda in 1895 for the first time and in response to his call, came to Kolkata in 1898. Margaret Noble was initiated into the monastic order in the same year and given the name, Nivedita, the Dedicated or the Offered one. Swami Vivekananda was in the process of evolving a new monastic order which was to combine renunciation with service. She threw herself totally behind the Swamis efforts in bringing about an Indian Renaissance. In India, she was probably known as Nivedita of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda. She joined plague relief works of the Ramakrishna Mission in March 1898 and formed The Ramakrishna Guild of Help in America. There broke out am overwhelming plague at Kolkata in March 1899 and she devoted herself to serve the diseased. She died in 1911. Throughout her life, she kept assisting the poor and the distressed. Thus, she became a deathlss symbol of relinquisiment and service.

Jagadhatri Puja is now celebrating in the city along with Chandanagar and other parts of Bengal.

In the evening, Agni Puja is performed at home in an area cordoned off by four sugarcane sticks, kheer, sweets and fruits are offered to deities and then the entire family shares it. Chhath also connects to the folk and rural roots of worshippers. The folk songs sung on the eve of Chhath are mainly in Maithili, Magadhi and Bhojpuri dialects that mirror the culture and and social mores of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and the terai regions. According to Hindu mythology, Draupadi, wife of the Pandavas has a great power to cure any type of disease, including leprosy. She used to worship the Sun with utmost devotion. As a commemoration of Draupadi, it is performed in the form of Chhath Puja.

Chhath Puja, the biggest festival of the poorvanchali is being celebrated on Saturday with traditional enthusiasm and fervour as the devotees go to a nearby river or pond to offer prayers to the setting sun in the evening. The festival will culminate at Sunday dawn, after devotees offer Arghya to the rising Sun on the banks of rivers. Chhath denotes the number six and thus the 4-day event begins on the sixth day of Kartik (October-November). A festival of truth, non-violence, forgiveness and compassion, it is dedicated to Lord Surya (the Sun God), Agni (the Fire God) and Kartikeya. Chhath is the only time when the setting sun as opposed to its rising is celebrated for its glory as the cycle of birth starts with death. People fast for the whole day and in the evening they offer Chhath Sandhya Arghya to the setting sun by standing in knee-deep water. A million-lit lamps with thousands hands offering Arghya makes it a delightful sight.

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Today we perform a traditional social custom called : Bhai Fonta or Bhratridwitia. On this day, sisters of family pray to the god of death long life for their brothers depicting brother's forehead with liquid sandal taking with finger tip. Then, ate brother's sweets. Brother's also gives gifts to their sisters. It is a very sweet and age-old domestic festival observing just after Diwali.

6th October, 2009 - Howrah Bridge, Kolkata. Famous film director Aparna Sen shoot her new Bengali film with heroin Kankana, her daughter and hero Saheb, son of ex-football player - Subrata Ganguly.

Construction of the existing Howrah Bridge was started on 1937. The Cantilever Era was prevailing at that time, and engineers felts that cantilever bridges were more rigid than suspension bridges. This bridge is one of the finest cantilever bridges in the world - left to India by the British engineers. The bridge is 705 meters long and 97 feet (30m) wide. More than 26,500 MT of high-tensile steel went into the unique bridge supported by two piers, each nearly 90 meters above the road. An engineering marvel, it expands as much as a meter during a summer day. Technical Specifications : Builders- Rendel Palmer & Tritton, Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Co. Ltd. Material- Steel. Tower height- 82m. Number of Spans- 3. Length of spans- 99.125m, 457.50m, 99.125m. Length of drop-in span 172.08m. Official website of the Howrah Bridge http://www.howrahbridgekolkata.nic.in

The famous Floating Pontoon Bridge (the old Howrah Bridge) was built in 1874 by Sir Bradford Leslie. It was built using timber on pontoon. The bridge was opened to let river traffic through. The bridge had hinged shore spans since Hooghly River is subjected to tides. During high tides there became very steep and bullock carts were not able to negotiate their way, which resulted in traffic jams. It was also feared that the floating bridge could affect river currents and cause silting problems. With time the bridge became too inadequate for the ever increasing traffic. Due to all these reasons Government of Bengal in 1933 decided to replace the Floating Pontoon Bridge. The Floating Pontoon Bridge which was originally commissioned to service for 25 years, was decommissioned on February 1943, after its long service of 69 years.

The Howrah Bridge spans the Hooghly River, linking Howrah to Kolkata, India. It was originally named the new Howrah Bridge because it links the city of Howrah to its twin city Kolkata (Calcutta). On 14 June, 1965 it was renamed Rabindra Setu, after Rabindranath Tagore a great poet and the first Indian Nobel laureate. However, it is still popularly known as the Howrah Bridge. The bridge is one of the four on the Hooghly River and is a famous symbol of Kolkata and West Bengal. The other bridges are the Vidyasagar Setu (popularly known as Second Hooghly Bridge), the Vivekananda Setu and the newly built engineering marvel Nivedita Setu. Apart from bearing the stormy weather of the Bay of Bengal region, the eight-lane bridge successfully bears the weight of a daily traffic of approximately 80,000 vehicles and possibly, more than 1,000,000 pedestrians. It is the sixth longest bridge of its type in the world.