Dr. Anjan K Das

What A Horrible City (and I am not talking about Calcutta)

1 comment

Calcutta is known worldwide as a terrible place. The infrastructure is crumbling, there are no proper roads, and the transport system is in a mess and so on. And how has this impression been carried all over the country and the world? Mainly by the efforts of the Calcutta newspapers, media and the self disparaging [...]

Thumbnail image for Tagore was the Greatest Literary Figure of All Time

Tagore was the Greatest Literary Figure of All Time

3 comments

We Bengalis are sometimes accused of being inordinately proud of our cultural accomplishments and in particular, of raising Rabindranath Tagore to the level of an unchallengeable icon. I was fortunately in Calcutta and Siliguri during the run up to the 150th birth anniversary of the Poet and managed to catch many [...]

Anatomy Teachers in Calcutta of the Seventies

7 comments

The teaching of anatomy was taken very seriously in our student days. The first two years were devoted to its study, a daily lecture being supplemented by a three hour dissection stint during the afternoons and many classes on osteology, viscera and surface marking. Many of us used to enjoy the grind; the knowledge of [...]

Thumbnail image for Manmohan Singh and the Congress Party

Manmohan Singh and the Congress Party

0 comments

Sometimes a good politician does not realise that he is getting past his sell by date. I strongly suspect that this is what is happening to Dr Manmohan Singh. There is no doubt that he is deserving of our respect and gratitude for his work during the nineties and also during his first term as Prime Minister where he cooled down passions generated by the arrogance of the BJP following the success of [...]

Of Freedom for Women

1 comment

Yesterday I got into an argument with one of the Indian residents of the condominium where I live. This young man, while discussing living conditions in Malaysia nd how it compares with life back home began to bemoan the lack of independence for Malaysian women, particularly of the Muslim faith. As proof of this he cited the widespread use of the tudong, the head scarf, which is widely, though not compulsorily used in Malaysia among Muslim women.

Thumbnail image for Goopy And Bagha Are Gone

Goopy And Bagha Are Gone

1 comment

One part of our childhood to which he had clung so tenaciously finally came to an end when the surviving member of the Goopy Bagha duo, Tapan Chatterji passed away yesterday. He was a professional actor and had acted in many movies, but to our generation he was Goopy Gyne, the failed vocalist who with the help of a boon from the King of the Ghosts, became singer par excellence.

Thumbnail image for The Pujas are coming!

The Pujas are coming!

0 comments

A deep sense of longing in anticipation of the Durga Pujas, less than a month from now.

Thumbnail image for The Jews of Calcutta

The Jews of Calcutta

3 comments

Tracking the history of the Jewish population in Kolkata. Following independence, the Jews gradually started flocking out of the city bringing down the population to its present figure of less than 10.

A Trip To Dhaka

0 comments

I was in Dhaka last week. It was a business trip, but it was an occasion to renew some friendships and to also renew acquaintance with the second great city of Bengal, now unfortunately in two parts, thanks to our own stupidity. The Partition of Bengal was a traversty of history, but the conditions were [...]

The Uttar Banga Anath Ashram (North Bengal Orphanage)

10 comments

Uma Mallick looks like a normal Bengali Housewife. She wears a standard cotton sari, vermillion on her forehead and travels clinging to her husband’s motorcycle as he whizzes past in Siliguri’s notorious lanes. However she is anything but that. Uma is the founder and the livewire of the Uttar Banga Anath Ashram (North Bengal Orphanage). [...]

← Previous Entries