Asim Bando's KOLKATA BLOG

Wishing you all near & dear friends of India and abroad - a very auspicious Bengali New Year 1428.                     "SHUBHO NOBOBORSHO"

This year, the first Durga idol of Kumartuli is ready to set sail. The idol is 9 feet tall and 18 feet in width. The weight of the idol is about 350 kg. The background of the idol is black and decoration is in silver. Yellow colour is there in the foreground. The idol will be shipped in a few days and it will take 45 days to reach to Sydney of />        The artisan of this idol at Kumartuli said that last year they hardly despatched only eight idols due to prevailed pandemic situation. Otherwise, about 30-35 idols they use to despatch every year as order of foreign countries. This year they're hopeful to get more orders of Durga idol from UK, USA, Germany and />       As usual, the present idol is too made of fibre-glass. They sanitized the idol and the courier will fumigate it before shipping. They use to despatch idols in cargo planes, but, this idol is too heavy to despatch in planes. So, it is being shipped.

Poet Shakti Chattopadhyay was died on this day, in the year 1995 in Kolkata at the age of 61. He was one of the powerful and popular poet of Bengal, contemporary of Sunil Gangopadhyay.            Shakti Chattopadhyay was a bohemian poet. He loved to travel hills, forests and villages of Bengal with friends, and sometimes, alone.            He was born on 25 November, 1933 at Jaynagar of South 24-Parganas.              He was very strong in Bengali language. His poems are literally gems of Bengali literature. The admirer of Bengali poems can never forget his immortal poems - "Abani, Bari Achcho?" (অবনী বাড়ি আছো) and "Jete Pari, Kintu Keno Jabo" (যেতে পারি, কিন্তু কেন যাবো)             In my college life, in late 70s, I had a scope to listen his poems by the poet himself, when he physically attended a literary function at Sisir Mancha, Kolkata. It wa...

R D Burman was born in Kolkata on 27 June, 1939. His full name is Rahul Dev Burman. He was the only son of great music composer and singer Sachin Dev Burman. R D Burman was known by his nick name Pancham. He was a ;      Since 1960 to 1990 he had composed so many super hit songs for Hindi film industry in Mumbai. He also sang and composed many Bengali songs both for Bengali films and basic records. Asha Bhosle will be remembered ever by the Bangla song lovers for her basic Bengali songs composed by her husband Pancham ;      Pancham da used to love music and songs since childhood. His parents encouraged him to learn various instruments and love songs. "Hai Apna Dil To Awara" - in this song by Hemant Kumar, R D B played the unforgettable mouth organ in so young ;       In his film career of about thirty years, Pancham da composed songs for 331 films. The Bollywood films will ever remember the outstanding contribution of Panch...

On this day, in the year 1836, Calcutta National Library was founded, but it was then Calcutta Public Library. On 30th January, 1903 it was named Calcutta Imperial Library and in independent India, it became National Library on 1 February, 1953.        The Imperial Library was formed in 1891 by combining several secretariat libraries especially of the then Home Department. In the year 1910, Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee was appointed as president of the Imperial Library Council and he donated his personal collection of 80,000 books to the library by arranging a separate section.       After independence, the government of India announced it as the National Library of India in the year 1953.       At present, there are 86,000 maps and 3,200 manuscripts in the library. Moreover, all the magazines and periodicals published in India in about 15 languages are regularly kept in this library.

Alka Yagnik was born in Kolkata, on this day, in the year 1966 in a Gujrati family. Her mother wanted to teach Alka singing. So, she started singing bhajans in Akashvani Kolkata at the age of six. At the age of 15 she sang that famous song "mere angne mein" in the film "Laawaris". But, Alka got big break in 1988 in the film "Tezaab" and the song was on the lips of Madhuri Dixit - "Ek Do Tin" which became an evergreen song.          In her career, Alka rendered innumerable songs in films and the duet songs with Kumar Sanu became most popular indeed. She also sang many songs with Udit Narayan and Sonu Nigam.           She has sung 2486 hindi songs in 1114 films. She won many awards in her life for her songs. She admitted that her mother, Laxmikant Pyarelal and Kalyanji Anandji were her Gurus. Her inspiration is Lata Mangeshkar.

Shashi Kapoor was born on this day, in the year 1938, in Kolkata. He was the son of Raj Kapoor and made his career in Bollywood films. He had his first adult role in Yash Chopra's film Dharmputra (1961). After that, till mid eighties he played in 116 Hindi films, amongst them 61 as solo lead role, 55 in multi-starrer films, 21 as supporting actor and 7 films with special appearance. He was a very popular actor in 60s, 70s and till mid-eighties. His favourite actress was Nanda, with whom he acted in 8 films in 60s. Nanda also admitted him as her favourite actor. They played in the films 'Need Hamari Khwab Tumhare', 'Raja Saab', 'Jab Jab Phool Khile', 'Mohabbat Isko Kahete Hain', 'Rootha Na Karo' and a few more. Shashi Kapoor also played opposite several heroines like Babita, Asha Parekh, Mumtaz, Hema Malini, Zeenat Aman, Shabana Azmi, Raakhi, Sharmila Tagore, Mousumi Chatterjee, Neetu Singh, Parveen Babi. Sharmilee, Pyar Ka Mausam,...