Asim Bando's KOLKATA BLOG

Today is the Janmashtami - the birthday of Lord Krishna, being celebrated in Kolkata with usual fun, frolic, respect and love. In the first picture depicted the memorable events of baby Krishna and the second picture depicted the love of mother Yashoda and the witnesses are cow and peacock. -- A. B.

Rabindra Tirtho inaugurated yesterday by the chief minister at New Town, where within five acres of land, an open theater, two auditoriums, a museum, research complex, housing facilities for research workers are accommodated. A beautiful pool with the statue of the poet are also there. And it would be an international tourist attraction in near future like Shantiniketan. -- A. B.

-- A. B.

-- A. B.

The Howrah Bridge is a cantilever bridge that spans the Hooghly River in West Bengal, India. Commissioned in 1943, the bridge 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 the great Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore who was the first Indian and Asian Nobel laureate. However, it is still popularly known as the Howrah Bridge.- A. B.

In the year 1941 on this day, at 12:10 pm, the great poet Rabindranath Tagore was died in the house of Jorasanko in Kolkata where he was born. In these pictures the poet leaving his beloved Bolpur-Shantiniketan forever to come in Kolkata on mid June, 1941 for better treatment of his illness. But his health deteriorated and he died on 7 August at the age of 80. The whole Kolkata was with him on that day like this.

Durga Puja 76 days to go. So the clay artists already prepared the structure of hay and kept them under the shelter of plastic sheets to save from rain.

'Dheki'or 'Dhenki' of rural Bengal household is a kind of husking pedal operated in manner of seesaw machine. It was used largely upto the time when the rice mills set up in rural areas. I have seen it in my childhood operating in almost every household. Even, when I spent my under 10 days in maternal uncle's house, the sound of 'paar' of this Dheki used to hear all the time. It was operating just in my neighbor's house. Dheki was not only a device to grind rice or other crops, but it was like a useful member of family. The females of the family used to share their sorrows and joy with others working on it. It was also the inspiration of folk songs and proverbs. The song writers found it as sex symbols - the whole episode of conjugal life. However, since the inception of modern mills, the traditional heritage of this rural activities became part of past.

Currency Building : Old Courthouse St, Calcutta. Built in the Italianate style with Venetian windows and ornate cast iron gates, porte-cochere and railings, this beautiful but derelict lady was originally the Agra Bank and then the Office of Issue and Exchange of Government Paper Currency. It later housed the Reserve Bank of India until 1937. Slated for demolition (and even already partly destroyed), it has been saved from destruction and is now the subject of a long and very slow road to recovery under the care of the Archaelogical Survey of India.See in the first picture old view of Currency Building and the photo was taken in the year 1878. And the picture below was taken yesterday, in which it is seen that renovation work of front portion has been completed. Now the work on the side of Mango Lane are in progress.

The tigress infiltrated last Wednesday from forests of Sundarban to the Kumirmari island. The forest department detained her by sleeping bullets and checked her health conditions and found nothing objectionable. The tigress is now fit to back in jungle, so they left her in the jungle of Chamta 6 of Sundarban.

The tourism department has taken steps to initiate touch screen diary for the tourists so that they can locate easily the famous Durga pujas of Kolkata. Package tour for Durga Puja of Kolkata and suburbs would also be conducted.

Rakhi Festival is of love care and share. And cartoon rakhi is trending this year in Kolkata. Mickey Mouse, Doraemon, Chota Bhim, Bal Ganesh, Bal Krishna etc are the images depicted on the rakhi. Kids and childrens are very happy to get the rakhis from their sisters. Elders are also joyous to get the rakhis with cartoon characters. The sellers are also happy to find ample source of income. But, the costs are slight high as those are being sold @ of Rs10-20