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Monthly Archives: May 2017

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Changing face of Bengal-Part II

As I was riding pillion, Anup kept telling me how mobile phones, especially smartphones, have changed the lives of rural folks. “TVs and cell phones have brought about a bewildering array of changes in values and aspirations of the villagers,” he said.
I was reminded of Tagore’s speech titled Robbery of the soil, which he had delivered at Calcutta University in 1922. “Villages are nearer to nature than towns and therefore in closer touch with the fountain of life. They have the atmosphere which possesses a natural power of healing. It is the function of the village to provide people with their elemental needs, with food and joy, with the simple poetry of life and with those ceremonies of beauty which the village spontaneously produces and in which she finds delight.”

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Changing face of rural Bengal

As the Aranyak Express screeched to a halt at Garhbeta station around 11 in the morning, I was amazed by the quiet and serene surrounding of the station. Unlike any suburban station that we are familiar with, there was no crowd’s jostling on the platform and no scramble for seats as those waiting got into the train without any fuss. The May sun was unusually expansive and the heat and humidity wasn’t intolerable. What struck me particularly was the absence of din and bustle at the station. And I was lapping up every moment.
My destination: Prof H.S. Paul Memorial School about five km from the station.

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Feluda@50: exhibition on Ray’s creation wows visitors

Feluda Exhibition (April 30 to May 4) at the Bengal Art Gallery, ICCR, Kolkata to mark 50 years of Feluda, is a must-see exhibition not only for Ray aficionados but also for every individual who isn’t aware of myriad-minded Satyajit Ray.
Organised by the Society for the Preservation of Satyajit Ray Archives, the exhibition brings to the fore the man who’s the only director in the world who apart from film-making is an incredible writer and an outstanding illustrator. He was a bestselling writer of novels and short stories, and possibly the only Indian filmmaker who wrote prolifically on cinema.

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