Asim Bando's KOLKATA BLOG

In the year 1881, on this day, Rabindranath's 'Balmiki Pratibha' staged for the first time at Jorasanko Thakurbari in the presence of the then intellectuals of Kolkata. Rabindranath himself played the lead role as Balmiki. Pratibha - daughter of the poet's elder brother Hemendranath played as Saraswati; Akshoy Chowdhury - the first robber and the other robbers of the play depicted by Abanindranath and Arunendranath. The poet's 'Jyoti Dada' helped in the production. -- A. B.

Solitary cuckoo seen at Shibpur Botanical Garden, near Kolkata yesterday - that means advent of spring in the city. -- A. B.

On this Day, in the year 1873, the first horse driven tram carriage service was started in Calcutta between Sealdah and Armenian Ghat Street via Boubazar Street, Dalhousie Square, Customs House and Strand Road. This service was wound up on 20 November due to lack of adequate patronisation. This life size model of horse driven tram can be seen at City Centre of Kolkata. -- A. B.

Enthusiastic cricket lover loved to cut hair to adorn his head with World Cup Cricket 2011 in Howrah near Kolkata. This picture was taken from a published photo on local newspaper. -- A. B.

The picture was taken at a village of Amta in Howrah district near Kolkata from a local newspaper. -- A. B.

In the year 1861, on this day, founder of Dakshineshwar Temple -Rani Rasmoni was died. She was born in a simple farmers' family in the district South 24-Parganas near Kolkata. She was very beautiful. At the young age, she went to a rich family of Kolkata as the bride of Babu Rajchandra - the famous businessman of Janbazar. She was very intelligent without any formal education. So, she was able to establish Dakshineshwar Temple despite the hindrances of the then Brahmins as she was not belonged to them. Rani given to the poor boys the right to catch fishes from river Ganges and spent huge amount of money to stop running steamer on the river. A busy road of Kolkata named after Rani Rasmoni.-- A. B.

In the year 1818, on this day, Kolkata Corporation started to wash the roads of Kolkata.-- A. B.

In the year 1836, February 18th, Paramahamsa was born at Kamarpukur in West Bengal. He was the priest at Dakshineshwar Temple, founded by Rani Rasmoni of Kolkata. His entire life was a true tale of co-ordination of all the religions on this earth. Read more about him at Wikipedia. -- A. B.

In the year 1486, February 18th Sri Chaitanya Deb - the founder of Gouriya Vaishnab Dharma was born at Nabadwip in West Bengal. He was famous with other names like Gouranga, Nimai, Mahaprabhu also. He spent his last days at Puri in Orissa and loved to worship Lord Jagannath. He was the worshipper of mankind irrespective of any cast or religion. You can read about his life more at Wikipedia.-- A. B.

Famous sarod player Radhika Mohan Moitra was born on 13 February in the year 1917. His first record was published in pre-independence period. Pandit Keramatulla Khan assisted him with tabla in the record. -- A. B.

In the year 1879, on this day, Indian Nightingle Sarojini Naidu was born in Hyderabad of India. She wrote a drama in English consisted two thousand lines and earned scholarship of 300 pounds from Nizam of Hyderabad and went to England. There she educated from Kings College and then from Garton College of Cambridge University. She used to write poems in English since childhood. Her famous poems 'Golden Threshold' 'Bird Of Time' 'The Songs Of India' etc. -- A. B.

In the year 1806, on this day, the British Government organised lottery to meet up the expenditure of building the Town Hall of Kolkata.-- A. B.