Prof. Aloke Kumar - Blogs

Abhishek

Dearest Rahul

You can read a hundred books on wisdom and post a hundred notes on your knowledge, but unless you put your foot forward what you learned then its only words. Life is not lived with intentions, but action. I am happy you are putting your learning to action. The present development of your Web Site is a proof of this.

Poetry in ARCHITECTURE: Balkrishna Doshi

Somewhere in the 90’s, the first phase of Harsh Neotia’s Udayan –the condoville got completed. The Architect Balkrishna Doshi came to Calcutta for the opening and expressed his desire to exhibit his work. Harsh decided to sponsor it and thus set the ball rolling.

ALAPAN BANDYOPADHYAY

1980. I had just joined the Anandabazar Group and one fine afternoon as I walked the proverbial corridors from South to North, South being the Management and North,the Editorial; I saw a man walking to my direction. He asked me the direction of the Accounts Office and we got acquainted. He introduced himself as Alapan Bandyopadhyay, a Reporter with Anandabazar Patrika. Thus began our lifelong friendship.

Poet Godess ANDAL

In the Hindu Pantheon of Gods, there is a Goddess who is a Poet. Kothai known as Goddess Andal is credited with the great Tamil Poetic works, Thiruppavai and Nachiar Tirumozhi.

Journal of the Plague Year

Nothing much has changed in this 350 years , from Plague to Pandemic. Nothing much has changed from 1665. People not wearing masks. Gathering in market place. Huge amount of policing required. If we are to go by the accounts of Daniel Defoe in his book A Journal of the Plague Year, published in 1722 the situation is exactly the same.

INSPIRATION for His Masters Voice

Most of us are aware of the Logo of, His Master's Voice, one of the best-known commercial logos in the world. The logo is of the Gramophone Company, which has been used as a trademark by the corporations RCA Victor, EMI and JVC. His Master's Voice (HMV) was the unofficial name of a major British record label created in 1901 by The Gramophone Co. Ltd.

BLINDNESS : Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee

With the Covid Pandemic raging and the situation all around particularly our government turning a blind eye to the thousands of death, I am reminded of a book by José Saramago titled: Ensaio sobre a Cegueira in Portuguese translated as Blindness. Blindness is the story of an unexplained mass epidemic of blindness afflicting nearly everyone in an unnamed city, and the social breakdown that swiftly follows.

SATYAJIT RAY - 100

Satyajit Ray was a friend of my father, Nirmal Chandra Kumar. My father touched his Centenary in 2017. He was introduced to him by R P Gupta, his close friend from their D J Keymer days. My father was an antiquarian and Ray visited him often for his many requirements.

Santi Prasad Choudhury : a pioneer of Documentary Films

Only the other day, Siladitya Sinha Roy came to my residence and we were discussing the many fascinating personae that were part of the Calcutta milieu that gave it the distinctive character. I mentioned Santi Prasad Choudhury, a documentary film maker and a close friend of my father. He said that he has never heard of him. I showed him a photograph from my family album and he just looked at the image.

The Story of Lala : Sergio Scapagnini & Goutam Ghosh

1982, Monsoon. I was working for the Ananda Bazar Patrika Group. I had a meeting next day in Bombay (now Mumbai) and was scheduled to catch a late evening flight. I returned home to collect my bag and start off for the airport. The streets were completely waterlogged. As I reached Ballygunj Phari I found in the dim light a man standing on the footpath and much like in foreign countries making signs to stop the car to take a lift.

K A M I

In 1984, I visited Japan on a study tour from Anandabazar Patrika Group and was an intern for a short while with The Asahi Shimbun, the second largest circulated newspaper in Japan.

Anandabazar Patrika completes 100 years

Anandabazar Patrika, was conceived as a publication to raise voice against the British and was first published as an evening daily on March 1922 on the auspicious day of Dol Purnima. It was initially printed in red ink and consisted of four pages. Priced at two paise and had a first-day circulation of a thousand copies.

Anatomy of a BOOK

Most of us are aware of a book Gray's Anatomy. It is a book on the Anatomy of the Human Body. A textbook written by Henry Gray and illustrated by Henry Vandyke Carter, published in 1858. A Bible for all to be doctors. But whoever has heard of the anatomy of a book. A book like a human has an anatomy. I have heard my father; Nirmal Chandra Kumar, the antiquarian talking to Radha Prasad Gupta, the famous bibliophile and describing the anatomy of books.

Guru Nanak. Guru Purab. Guru Purnima.

Guru Nanak Gurpurab, also known as Guru Nanak's Prakash Utsav and Guru Nanak Jayanti, celebrates the birth of the first Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak.

Nanak was born on 15 April 1469 at Rāi Bhoi Kī Talvaṇḍī, present day Nankana Sahib, Punjab, Pakistan, near Lahore.

kali-krishna mata. Hand tinted lithograph. 1880.

Today is Rash Purnima.There is mention of Rash Yatra of Sri Sri Krishna in the Bhagavat Purana and in the Vishnu Purana. At Nabadwip, the Shaktas who are devotees of Shakti worship and the Saivas who are devotees of Siva become united with the Vaishnavas, the devotees of Vishnu.

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