Hang on a second my friends. Make no mistake, I was never a full time reporter myself. I did few stories on Durga Puja for The Statesman and The Asian Age, took interviews of two eminent personalities for Amrita Bazar Patrika and had send a few significant letters to editor. However, these articles and letters are my prized possesion and when I decided to launch my personal website, i decided to share them with the world. Almost all of them are wtitten during the 1990's , when I had just started testing my writing skills by sending my creations to the big name.

Please take your time and go through each of them. May be all the topics will not be of your interest, but I assure you that each of these writeup portrays the enthuism of a person who eventually had found out some time for his fancy from the daily struggle for existance.

Reports

 
 
 
 
 
Rise and Fall of IPTA
  
Tagore in Air
  
50 years of "Aandhi"
  
Devika Rani - An Iconoclast
             
 
 
 
 
 
A Glorious Saga
 
San Souci Theatre
  
Savarkar's Constitution
  
Women in Ritu's Films
             
 
 
 
 
 
Kishore sings for Uttam
  
Gopeswar Paul - Legendary sculptor
  
Satyajit's Sukumar Ray
  
Bose in Germany
             
 
 
 
 
 
Calcutta's Dhakeshwari
  
First IFF - 1952
 
HMV's first pujor gaan
  
Bhaskar Pandit's Durga puja
             
 
 
 
 
 
Hiralal Sen
  
Mahatma & a ravaged city
  
The sentinel of Bengali mind
  
Tribute to Tarun Majumdar
             
 
 
 
 
 
Phalke's Dream Factory
  
Ram Ki Shakti Puja
  
Harbinger of Greatness
  
Calcutt's Metro Cinema
             
 
 
 
 
 
The Charred Cross of Bangladesh
  
Fading Memories of Vibrancy
  
This Pathan fights for temples
  
Sense of Heritage
             
 
 
 
 
 
The Puja with a different rule
 
Myraid faces of the Goddess
  
Less Lights, More social work
  
 
 
 
 


Interviews

       
Chandi Mukherjee
  
Debasis Mukhopadhay
  
Firdausul Hasan
  
Kabir Suman
 
           
       
Anjan Datta
 
 
 
 
           


Letters to the Editor


Rohingya Refugee : A Big Threat


To
Editor
The Week
Kerala


Dear sir,

Your cover story " Inside The World's Largest Refugee Camp" ( issue dated 30th April 2023 ) makes distressful and perplexing reading.

Giving refuge to Rohingyas since 2017 is the biggest blunder of Hasina Government and very soon people of Bangladesh will pay a heavy price for this. Bangladesh is just sitting on a time bomb that will blast with riot, loot and many other law breaking conducts.

Giving shelter and repatriation of 12 lakhs of Rohingyas whose reproduction rate is now a big botheration to people of Bangladesh a country which is already over populated.

UNICEF statistics show that everyday 60 babies are born in this camps and Government itself is worried to find that 35000 babies are getting added every year.

Child marriage and early pregancy are wanton among them and most of the girl become mother by 17 years or even younger.

Your article contains picture of one Fatima Khatun of 21 years old with two kids and one is as I assume from the photo is of 3 years .There is slim chance that this young mother will adopt any sort of family planning as the survey result conducted by many organisations show there is huge reluctance of using any birth control measure in these camps.So there is a chance that a revisit by The Week photographer after 5 years will show Fatima with few more children around.

In 2017 nearly 6 lakhs Rohingya took refuge to Cox's bazar and by end of 2022 they are now numbered to 12 lakhs.

The lack of education, health and other basic amenities of these Rohibgyas will soon create a huge social issue in Bangladesh and that may even escalate to a civil war.

It is a matter of fear to Indians as well because many Rohingyas are given refuge here and in many states political parties for the sake of building a future vote bank are fanning the issue.

In Bengal CPIM leader Md Salim even went on saying that Government of India can not give up its respinsibility to Rohingyas - No doubt Mr Salim will soon gain many supporter who has vested interest in this as it happened in Bangladesh.

God save Bangladesh from Rohingyas.

regds

Somen Sengupta
Calcutta - 700162
West Bengal

( Published in The Week - 14th May 2023 )

Do not want Koh-I-Noor back :

The cover story of your issue dated 26th June 2022 makes bad reading of a dead subject.
Getting back the Koh-I- Noor an over hyped gem stone is a romantic narrative created by people for whom historical heritage does not make much sense.
The so called diamond which changed hands many a time never enjoyed a paramount importance when it was under Mughal till 1739.
It's origin is mingled with half myth and half fact.Even a historian like William Dalrymple mentioned this in his book.
It caused several gory episodes to change hands and finally Lord Dalhousie took it from Duleep Singh in most uncivilised way.
However one should not forget that the diamond was taken by Duleep's father Ranjit Singh through coercion and overpowering from a king who was given shelter under him.
We are forgetting that if India really have a claim on this diamond with a logic of it's country of origin then there will be many claims from many countries for many artifacts now under display in many Indian museums.

How do we feel if Afganisthan demands all Gandhar artifacts to be returned or Pakistan demands all Indus archaeological artifacts to ship back ? Will we accept if Nepal demands " Charyapada " the first written text of Bengali language ?
Even if Britain decides to return it then which country can claim it legitimately ?
Is it Iran where it was taken by Nadir Shah or Afganisthan where it was before Ranjit Singh got it or Pakistan where the city of Lahore the capital of Ranjit Singh is situated ?
If it is given back to India then which Indian city will claim it ?
Is it Hydrabad where it was first found or Delhi where Mughal royal seat was based or Puri where it was to be given to Lord Jagannatha temple as per last wish of Ranjit Singh or Bombay the last Indian city from which it was shipped to London or Calcutta the city where East India Company's head office was based to rule a large part of India ?

Considering the above messy situation it is better to give up such an over hyped gem stone which hardly represents India's cultural heritage.
Instead India must reclaim the grand metal sratue of Sultanganj Budha now being displayed at a London museum.This marvellous piece of art along with Amaravati marble wall India must demand as a token of gratutude.

A piece of Buddhist heritage means much more to Indians than a piece of diamond owned by Mughals.

( Published in The Week - 10th July 2022 )

Gen-Next thrives on ignorance :

Sir – this is with the reference with the report “ Sourav, Dravid can not be role models : Rajnath ( 18th March ).The BJP president is reported to have remarked that these two cricketers hardly worthy of emulation by the younger generation.Mr Singh has made a bold statement & I entirely agree with him.The group is shockingly weak in general knowledge & largely ignorant about the history of our freedom struggle.Nine years ago an English language daily conducted a survey among young people in Delhi,Mumbai,Kolkata,Chennai & Bangalore. It revealed that majority of the student do not know the significance of 26th January.Some of them are under the impression that Muslim League is a football club ! And that partition was a brain child of General Dyre of Jaliwanalabagh.Not many of them are aware of the fact that Bengal was also partitioned along with Punjab in 1947.The four freedom fighter they have head of are Jawaharlal Neheru,Gandhi, Netaji & Bhagat Singh.Most of them have not heard of Jinha, still less of Allan Octavian Hume.No wonder they are under the impression that the Indian National Congress was founded by Gandhi.The survey also revealed that the student spend their pocket money not on books but on cloths, eating out,electronics goods & mobile phones.

The BJP president has rightly pointed out that a film star or a cricketer is no more than an entertainer.

( Published in The Statesman – 28th March 2006 )

The New Fare :

Thank you for the wonderful new Miscellany.The rot in our school system was thoroughly exposed in the story ( The cover feature ‘ End of Innocence “ , June 14 ) which identified the major ills.Scools now have become the status symbol for parents.

We all know that education is a big business but still choose to steer clear of tacking the problems.It is ironic that educational qualification has become the only criterion for social acceptability.Thank you for opening our eyes to this shameful situation.

( Published in The Statesman – 12th July 1992 )

Behind the death :

I was profoundly moved to read the story on Swapan Chakravarty’s life ( Behind the event “ Briefly noted “ July 19).Most of us were well aware of the manner in which Chakravary died, but the story unearthed the details of the man as a human being which never made news.The picture of Chakravarty with his family indicated the happy married life that he used to lead.

The last paragraph captured the tragedy best by saying that the police constable who killed Chakravarty did not know his plan to make his son an engineer.

Thanks a lot for the story.

( Published in The Statesman – 2nd August 1992 )

Swim Back :

Your piece on Arati Saha ( Tribute – “ Against the Tide “ November 1 ) made for delightful reading.The story of her palmy days as the queen of Indian aquatics, when she became the first Asian women to swim across the English channel was told arrestingly. Little did we know of the hurdles she encountered to put her country & her sex on the top of the world.Her success story should be a model for Indian sports persons of today & tomorrow.

( Published in The Statesman – 13th December 1992 )