On February 15, 2009, “Janmadin” Literary Magazine of Baharampur Murshidabad, presented Gautam Dutta (of New Jersey) with the prestigious Sudhindra Dutta award for his collection of poems “Grihojuddher Dalil”. He received this award along with Krishnadulal Chattopadhyay, the folk poet of Bankura West Bengal. I congratulate Gautam for this achievement.
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Piyalir Password is the first Bengali film shot entirely on locations in the US, particularly in Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC. The movie has been subtitled in English. For more information www.piyalirpassword.net
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/009200903230951.htm
The film will be screened at 2:00 PM on 11th April at the TV Asia Studios, 76 National Road, Edison, NJ 08817
The lead actor of the film Rituparna Sengupta will be present in the beginning of the show and talk about the film.
The film is being presented by Center for Social Change www.centerforsocialchange.org, an organization serving individuals with developmental disabilities for the past 15 years, worlwide.
Tickets are $10 dollars and available online at www.sulekha.com and www.centerforsocialchange.org. Additionally ticket reservations can be made with Sonali Ganguly (tel: 732 203 7310) and Devasish Ray (tel: 240 988 1112)
Raj Basu (703)507-6420 (cell) rajbasu@msn.com rkbasu@gmail.com
RAAGRANG is arranging a Lecture-Demonstration by a noted musician Shree Kedar Naphade on 29th March from 4 to 6 P.M. The event will start with a short vocal recital by young Ria Sabnis. Refreshments will be served after that. Please let us know how many of you will be attending. It is free for the members and $7.00 for the non-members. Hope you can make it.
Venue:
28 McBride Way
Bridgewater,
NJ 08807.
RSVP will be appreciated.
(732) 241-7063.
It is ironic to say the least that just when I was enthusiastically reporting the news of the development of an artificial heart by IIT Kharagpur, a young heart stopped beating in the campus. Rohit Kumar, a third year Electrical Engineering student (LLR Hall) died due to the apparent neglect by the in-campus “B.C.Roy Technology Hospital”. Details about this event can be found in the campus students newspaper “Scholars Avenue” and I will refrain from reporting them once again out here. However this incident resulted in a student uproar that was unprecedented in the history of IIT Kharagpur. The angry students demonstrated their frustration at the residence of the director of the Institute which resulted in the resignation of the director as well as some other administrative staff. Continue reading
My alma mater, IIT Kharagpur is once again in the news with a great device – an artifical heart. It’ll be to coronary care what Nano is to cars, say scientists at Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, who have devised an an artificial heart that could save lives for just Rs 1 lakh – reports the Times of India. The research team says trials of the prototype lab constructed heart have been successful on small animals and the gadget is being perfected on goats. The institute has applied for permission to conduct human trials. The Total Artificial Heart (TAH) — said to be the first such in the country — has been developed by a team of scientists at IIT-Kgp’s school of medical science and technology. Continue reading
President Obama on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno! Enjoy
Few months ago I wrote about the debut of a new Bengali webzine, Urhalpool.com. The magazine has now reached new heights with the introduction of the first hard copy version at the 2009 Kolkata Book Fair. On Saturday 7th February 2009, at 6PM, the UBI auditorium at the Kolkata Book Fair ground was completely packed with people standing all over. Sunil Gangopadhyay introduced Urhalpool with a short speech which was followed by editor Goutam Datta talking about the vision of the magazine. The Hon’ble consul general of Italy was present on the stage along with Urhalpool’s Italian writer Alessandra Corsini. Several other contributers to the magaine like Alolika Mukherjee, Subodh sarkar, Mallika Sengupta, Pinaki Thakur, Bithi Chattopadhyay and others were present at the event. Urhalpool’s Shakti Chattopadhyay Life Time achievement in Bengali literature award (Rs25,000) was presented to Nabaneeta Dev Sen and Nirmal Chandra Gangopadhyay Sahitya puroskar was awarded (Rs15,000) to Poet Srijato. Poet Shakti Chattopadhyay’s wife Minakhi-di handed over the Shakti Chattopadhyay award and Nupur Lahiri handed over Nirmal Chandra award. The entire program was conducted by Soumitra Mitra.
On Wednesday (18th March), fourteen authors across the world were been named as the contenders for the Man Booker International prize. The long list of writers includes the name of prolific veteran Bengali writer Mahasweta Devi. Sir V. S. Naipaul is also included in the list. In all 14 authors from 12 countries have been nominated for Booker Prize, which is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world. The prize given in two years carries prize money of 60,000 pounds and can be won by any author worldwide, provided their work is available in English.
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This is a reminder that we will resume our quasi-monthly Sahitya O Alochana meetings this Friday, March 20, at 8 PM at Ananda Mandir.
Dr. Nupur Lahiri, who recently translated Rabindranath’s “Rakto Karabi,” will lead a (much-anticipated!) discussion on Tagore in Translation. I for one am looking forward to it.
Hoping to see you all there,
Amitabha Bagchi
The famous Joynagar moa, a confectionery prepared from date palm jaggery (nalen gur) and puffed, rice could be given a geographical indication (GI) patent. If awarded, the patent would be the second for a produce of Bengal, after Darjeeling tea. Also in the pipeline for a GI patent are Bardhamaner Sithabhog, Shaktigarer lyangcha and Mursidabad silk. Continue reading