Habitat for Humanity
With the sun disappearing stealthily on the horizon and shadows lengthening on the platform, Howrah-Puri Shatabdi screeched to a halt at Balasore. My host Dr Rabinarayan Dash spotted me among the crowd and rushed to greet me.
“Hey, you’re finally at Balasore,” said Dr Rabi, a renowned rheumatologist based in Lund, Sweden. I was supposed to visit his native village, Badasindhiya, 10km from downtown Balasore.
Destination: Kalitala High School, Hingalganj block, on the India-Bangladesh border, 120 km from Kolkata
Protagonist: A young teacher
This is the story of a teacher, of her intense passion for teaching, of her undying spirit and above all her daily struggle for survival. She’s been taking the long and arduous journey from Dum Dum to a remote hamlet called Kalitala in Hingalganj in north 24 Parganas on the India-Bangladesh border over the past five years.
In the book Kabir by Kshtimohon Sen, on the blurb (at the back), it is written: “In 1808, Prof Sen joined Bisva-Bharati ….” This is a gross factual mistake…
How is it possible? Rabindranath Tagore was born in 1861 and Prof Sen was born in 1880.
In the column Boikolom, the Ananda Publishers used to ridicule little magazines with religious regularity, and try tenaciously to find out little flaws as if they are the final word on Bengali language and literature. The Boikolom used to make snarky comments about these little magazines and many of these magazines folded up later.
My morning destination: Narendrapur RK Mission Residential College
I went to attend the morning prayer at Brahmananda Bhavan…
Reached the captivating college campus well before 6am
As I strolled down the dew-drenched lush grounds, twittering of birds greeted me. With morning mist enveloping the ashrama campus and crisp air embalmed with fabulous fragrance creating an ethereal spectacle, Nature’s awesome splendor overwhelmed me.
Singapore, as we see it today, is Lee Kuan Yew’s baby. Lee led Singapore from 1959 until 1990, an era in which it rose “from Third World to First,” as he titled his 2000 book on the former British colony’s modern history.
It was Lee’s dream that Singapore becomes a vibrant, thriving and corruption-free state. Lee made his dream come true through his vision, determination, insightful statesmanship and pragmatism.
Thimphu-based Sanjeev Mehta, professor of Economics at Royal Thimphu College, has been living in Bhutan for over two decades. He has developed the curriculum for BA (Hons) course in Economics and has been a member of the academic board. Prof Mehta has also worked as a UNDP International Consultant for developing the Industrial Policy of Bhutan. He has been a guest faculty at the College for Science and Technology, Kharbandi, and the Royal Institute of Management, Thimphu.
If you happen to stroll down the Southern Avenue and pass by the Lake in south Kolkata, you may hear sound of foot-tapping, cheerful cries, and the buzz and stirring murmur from a little distance…a group of budding actors learning techniques of acting under close observation of an octogenarian. His passion for dramatics and commitment is amazing. He’s been training students over the past four decades with utmost devotion and sincerity.
Meet Debesh Chakravarty.
Thanks for stopping by.
