Asim Bando's KOLKATA BLOG

In the year 1877, on this day, poet Toru Dutt was died. Toru Dutt was an Indian poet who wrote in English and French, and made a mark in literature in spite of her premature death.  She remained in Calcutta till November 1869, after which, at the age of 13, she and her sister Aru traveled to France, Italy and then England by their father. She went to a school in France for the first time of her life and knew French very well during that period. After publication of several translations and literary discussions, she published "A Sheaf Gleaned In French Fields", a volume of French poems she had translated into English, with Saptahik Sambad Press of Bhowanipore, Calcutta in 1876. Though she loved English and French and had embraced Christianity with other members of her family, she felt drawn towards her country and it's rich heritage. She was in a hurry to put in as much work as possible to project ans interpret India's past and glorious tradition to the English-speakin...

In the year 1910, on this day, Mother Teresa was born. Mother Teresa and Kolkata or Calcutta are two names, but synonym owing to the service Mother rendered till death. To acknowledge this, a film festival on the work and life of Mother Teresa is being held at Nandan from 26th August'16 to 29th August'16. "The Fifth Word" - the first ever made animated biography film on Mother will be shown here. Apart from India - USA, England, Japan, Canada, France and Spain will share films in this festival. World premier of three new films on Mother Teresa, i.e., "Mother Teresa and Me", "Love Till It Hurts MT", and "Unexpected Encounter" will be shown on the first day. "Something Beautiful For God" (the first film made by BBC on Mother), "Mother Teresa", "Madre Teresa", "Nirmal Hridoy - Home Of The Pure Heart", "In The Name Of God's", "Poor" (Jeraldine Chaplin acted in this film, directed...

In the year 1690, on this day, Job Charnok was landed in Kolkata through waterways for the first time. At that time, the place of his landing was known as Sutanuti (North Kolkata). To mark his first steps at erstwhile Sutanuti, every year Sutanuti Utsav is being organised by Sutanuti Parishad on 24th August at Nat Mandir of Sovabazar Rajbari. This year, the 25th or silver jubilee year of this festival. So, 25th Sutanuti Utsav is being inaugurated today in the city. Sri Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri will deliver speech on Mahabharat today. After that, Srikumar Mukhopadhyay will sing Puratani. On 25th, CEO of Prasar Bharati will deliver speech on heritage of Sutanuti. 'Tarja' (the musical battle of two poets) will be performed by Dulali Chitrakar and Tapan Roy will sing Bhatiyali. On 26th, inter-school competition named 'Utkarsa' (the excellence) and publication of a compilation on Kanan Debi will be held there. Function of songs would be there on 27th afternoon. On that...

The Street Barber  The Street Barber in the city of Kolkata. It is a very common scene at some areas of central and north Kolkata.

'Azaad 70 Saal: Yaad Karo Qurbani' - a short film produced by Films Division Of India was exhibited on 13th August'16 at Nadan-3 from 2pm to 8pm. 13 documentaries on freedom of India were shown there. An exhibition of paintings and sculptures named 'Freedom 2016' by 40 contemporary painters and sculptors was inaugurated on 15th August'16 at Arabinda Institute of Culture of Rani kuthi at 6pm. It will run upto 26th August'16 from 4pm to 8pm. Sculptor Shekhar Das recently made a full statue of Sister Nivedita by 'pora mati'. Yesterday, on 15th August, the inauguration of that statue was held at Dungannon of North Ireland where Sister Nivedita was born. And the cuisine here too... In Mani Square Mall of Manik tala, 'Chapter-2' was organised food items comprised of prawn-chicken-crab only for just Rs. 800/-. Whereas 'Aodh 1590' of Salt Lake and Desh priyo Park organised Freedom Special Kebab-Kalia-Biriyani festival yesterda...

Today is the 75th death anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore. 'Jeebansmriti Archive' of Bhadrakali, Hooghly is working hard to collect, compile and save important documents related to culture of Bengal. In this connection, they recently organised an exhibition of rare photographs of the last journey of Rabindranath. From 31 July to 3 August, they exhibited those items for all. Tagore met Sri Ma for several occasions. Sri Ma sketched a few portraits of Rabindranath. She made a sketch of Tagore delivering speeches in Japan on 11 June, 1916. Later, she edited this sketch in two different forms. It is the centenary year of the said sketch. So many programmes are being organised by HIDCO during this month of August at Rabindra Tirtha of Kolkata. From 6/8/16 to 25/8/16 cultural programmes are being organised there. Dwijen Mukhopadhyay, Indira, Dancers' Guild, Manoj Murali Nayyar, Madhu bani Chattopadhyay and many more will participate on that occasion. It is the 8...