People of West Bengal would not forget this Friday in a hurry.
In an informal conversation with rediff.com's Indrani Roy Mitra, Salim speaks about Trinamool Congress' much-hyped poriborton, what made Left fare badly at the last Lok Sabha and municipal elections among many other issues.
A brief overview of North Bengal districts' constituencies
The Congress initially was aspiring for a contest in 90 seats in West Bengal. However, it seems the party decided to settle for a compromise to keep the alliance alive.
The Unique Identification Number, renamed as 'Aadhaar', would be issued soon to Indian residents, Nandan Nilekani, chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) said on Wednesday.
'Operation Green Hunt has been a total failure. What have the joint forces achieved? Nothing!' says former Union revenue secretary and Trinamool adviser Debabrata Bandyopadhyay.
Dilip hails from Sunderbans. When Aila struck the area in the summer of 2009, he and his family lost everything and turned paupers overnight.
Gopal has loads of responsibilities on his young shoulders.
Deepika studied till Class V at the village school itself.
Subhankar loves to study and English and Mathematics are his favourite subjects. Yet, their plight does not allow him to go to even a corporation school.
Akash Das aka Chhotu is only 13. Yet he has a huge responsibility on his green shoulders -- that of earning bread for his family.
He is amazingly responsible for his age. At 10, Rahul Mir not only goes to school but also earns and contributes to his family.
For, he has to work for 8 to 10 hours a day to earn his livelihood as a motorbike mechanic at a garage in Kolkata.
Sombhu Das, 11, dreams a modest dream -- that of owning a grocery shop some day. Which is why he is honing his skill as an errands' boy at a grocer's in south Kolkata.
As a child, on her way back home from school near Diamond Harbour in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas, Minu would would often imagine herself sailing across unknown seas with an imaginary friend -- London, Paris and America -- being her places of interest. However, her dreams got shattered early in life.
As a teenager, Subrata Das dreams a dream of being rich some day. But at the moment, his dream seems rather distant and unattainable.
When kids of his age watch Pogo channels or spend hours playing video games, Shankar Mondal aka Bachha toils hard at a garments' shop to earn so that two of his younger brothers can study.
India, the world's second-fastest growing major economy, has millions of Rupas strewn across the streets. We come across some of them only once in a while.
Like any 13-year-old, Subroto Mondol aka Pocha loves to fly kites and is an avid fan of Hindi film songs. But he does not get much time to indulge in his favourite pastimes. As he has to spend 10-12 hours at a roadside tea stall near Garia in south Kolkata, catering to hundreds of customers every day.
Unless the Naxals put a stop to violence, Operation Green Hunt will continue, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram told mediapersons at Kolkata's Writers' Building on Tuesday.
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