Ten dead as torrential rain paralyses Kolkata; Puja holidays advanced

At least 10 people were killed, nine of them due to electrocution, as torrential overnight rain -- among the heaviest in four decades -- left Kolkata and adjoining districts paralysed on Tuesday,......

The Story Behind India's National Anthem

Nehru had requested Tagore to compose a national anthem.But the poet died soon after and with that died the idea of a new song from Tagore that could be India's national anthem.It is remarkable......

Bagha Jatin: Forgotten Hero Of The Fight For Freedom

Jyotindranath Mukherjee, popularly known as Bagha Jatin, attained martyrdom while fighting the British in Balasore district on September 9, 1915.It is unfortunate that the supreme sacrifice made by......

The Master Of The Slide Guitar

One of Debashish Bhattacharya's most remarkable contributions is that he has taken the scope and foundation of the slide guitar, improvised it again and again, thereby designing and creating four......

How industrial waste is polluting Sundarbans' ecosystem

Industries located along the Gangetic delta in Haldia, Kolkata and its outskirts are polluting the fragile ecosystem of Sundarbans, home to 40 lakh (4 million)  people and the Royal Bengal......

Whose Rasgulla is it anyway?

Both West Bengal and Odisha are slugging it out for getting the GI tag for the delicious sweet Odisha government on Friday claimed to have found a new evidence about the origin of 'Rasgulla' in......

W Bengal gets requests for 21 IT SEZs

The West Bengal government on Thursday said it has received applications for 21 special economic zones in the IT sector, of which six were in the final stage of approval. The six, which were in......

Forget 'Bhai Bhai,' focus on business!

Few turned up to listen to former National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra speak at a seminar organised by the Observer Research Foundation on India-China relations at Calcutta University's Alipore......

Pather Panchali@70: Beautiful, Broken People

Seventy years after Pather Panchali released on August 26, 1955, we finally get it.Shuttling between the village of Boral and a studio in Calcutta, caught between worrying about the next purse of......

'I Adopted A Cat To Understand Motherhood'

'I am not a mother and never had an abortion either, so I had to understand motherhood and child loss from anecdotal experiences of others.' IMAGE: Mia Maelzer in Stolen. Mia Maelzer plays Jhumpa,......

The Magical World Of Muzaffar Ali

'I somehow felt that Muzaffar Ali was in Aligarh to feel the pulse of the Muslim youth, especially in the darker and harsher times that India is passing through,' notes Mohammad Sajjad. IMAGE:......

Guns And Gulaabs Review

Rajkummar Rao and Adarsh Gourav get into the nutty mode easily and carry off the dark comedy without overacting, while Dulquer Salmaan looks bored, observes Deepa Gahlot. The cars are Ambassadors......

Remembering Dilip Doshi, A Spinner Par Excellence

Dilip Doshi's bowling was not a poetry in motion like the great Bishan Singh Bedi, neither was it dart like accuracy that was Padmakar Shivalkar's forte. He was somewhere in between the two.......

Sports medicine to become university course

The hitherto neglected field of sports medicine is finally getting recognition in the Indian education establishment.The Calcutta University in Kolkata will soon offer the country's first......

Chuni Goswami: Indian football's first poster boy

If PK Banerjee was for the masses, then Goswami belonged to the classes IMAGE: With his good looks and charm, Chuni Goswami was a crowd-puller. Photograph: AIFF Media Chuni Goswami was......

'I was in the best team that never played for India'

Michael Dalvi, who played first class cricket for Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Bengal, once hit a century against a fiery Malcolm Marshall and the West Indies.At 77, he has a razor sharp memory, a ready......