Asim Bando's KOLKATA BLOG

East Bengal would look to close in on leaders Dempo when the city giants face a struggling Mumbai FC in their round 22 fixture of the I-League at the Yuba Bharati Krirangan on Friday. After their upset win over league champions Salgaocar in the last round, East Bengl are eight points behind Dempo. But Dempo being way ahead,There are five more rounds to go for the marathon league to conclude and Dempo have outings with both Mohun Bagan and East Bengal left. Mumbai FC may be struggling at the relegation zone with 17 points from 21 matches, but Morgan said they would be determined to earn full points. Referring to their 4-0 win over Tollygunge Agragami in a local league mach, he said: "It was not easy. We had to fight to win. Against Mumbai also it won't be easy. It will be a tough outing but the boys are looking forward to it." East Bengal's attack would be bolstered with the return of a fit-again Gurwinder Singh. The attack and the midfield wo...

Raj Chakraborty shoot 'Mann Bawre' song at Victoria Memorial, Maidan and Prinsep Ghat with Sayoni, Srabanti and Ankush for his new Bangla movie 'Kanamachi', playback singers Shreya Ghoshal and Mohit Chauhan. Kolkata always a favourite city of Raj. And it is very difficult to shoot in the crowd of the city. So, it was a challenge for him. And he shoot with excellence as his fame of a director is charismatic. The story of 'Kanamachi' on the backdrop of Kolkata handling the issue of taxi fares for NRI's.-- A. B.

Gajon of Bengal is a traditional dance with songs in praise of Lord Shiva, during Chaitra - last month of Bangla calendar. Although this profession is very rare to find at present, some rural folks still love to perform this ancient art publicly. Here in this picture, a similar group performing Gajon songs at a place near Kolkata.-- A. B.

These priceless oil paintings once enhanced the beauty of inner mahals of Bengal zamindars and baboos. Now, the touch of time made them pale yet worthy to praise. Skillful painters of early Bengal created these paintings in between the year 1857-64 approximately.-- A. B.

In I-league match Air India played better than Bagan today. Manandeep scored 2 goals for Air India. And Bagan also scored 2 goals. But major part of the match Air India players prevailed Mohun Bagan. And they showed attacking football with several scopes to goal. On the other hand, Bagan seemed not in a position to play according to their fame. They showed football with lack of pace and energy. When the result was 2-1 in favour of Air India, Bagan tried to grip the required pace and in spite of 'Man Marking' captain Odafa Okolie sparkled and scored the goal to equalise. But the full time result failed to bring win. Hence, Mohun Bagan had to satisfied with only one point. Thus, the point distance with Dempo remained long and the next matches of Bagan would be more tough to win I-league. -- A. B.

Indian Idol judges Anu Malik, Sunidhi Chauhan and Salim Merchant came here in the city yesterday to take the audition of this big popular reality show. Speaking about Kolkata, popular music composer Anu Malik said, "I grew up loving Bengal. I listened to a lot of Rabingrasangeet and Nazrulgeeti and also songs of Kishore Kumar, Hemanta Mukherjee, Salil Chowdhury when I was young. Being myself a melody composer, I connect Bengal with melody." Talking about the Kolkata auditions, he said, "This year we have raised the bar and we are searching that ´one´ voice and till now we have already got some amazing singers. "The girls are better this time and has a possibility to win. Moreover the good thing is that they have gone back to their roots and singing more classical and Lataji´s (Lata Mangeshkar) songs in the auditions." Music composer Salim Merchant praised Kolkata´s singing talents. -- A. B.

Dantan going to be included as the historical place in the tourist's map of Bengal 'cause the biggest Buddhist Monastic Complex (Boudh Vihar) have been found at Mogolmari of Dantan under Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal. The Archaeological Department of Calcutta University started the excavation work here from the year 2003 and the excavation of last phase i.e. sixth phase was started on 12 March and ended on 25 March. So far as 12 Buddha statues have been found under this project and names of 3 have been found: the statue in the pose of Saraswati with Veena in hands and tangled by snakes named 'Janguli'; the statue in a sitting position with a lotus in hand named 'Abalokiteswar' and the garlanded statue named 'Lokeswar'. Other 9 statues will be named soon. Height of each statue is 42 cms. Before it, two Buddhist Monastic complexes found at Jagjibanpur of Malda district and the other at Karnasubarna near Berhampore in Murshidabad. Thi...