Kolkata has a lot to look forward to. From a majestically renovated hotel in the heart of BBD Bag whose history goes back to the 19th century to the reinvention of the joy of tram rides, this is a city that will hopefully survive the excesses of the monsoon and produce some brilliant attractions for the pujas and the winter.
The tourism department has been stirred out of its slumber with a reminder that Kolkata is the only city in India to have trams. Others have opted for speed emerging from rapidly constructed flyovers. The City of Joy still proposes to discover the thrill of the track-bound vehicles clanging their way through congested traffic. A bright spark in the tourism department has realised there are possibilities of augmenting the transport company cash-strapped coffers by organising sight-seeing trips in air-conditioned trams made enjoyable with FM radio broadcasts and generous supplies of tea, biscuits and snacks.
Two hours will be a long enough break reasonably priced at Rs 260 which is about the same that revellers would pay for a show of Yeh Jawani Hai Diwani or The Man of Steel at Inox or Fame.  What better or more economical way could there be for visitors passing through to feel the pulse of the metropolis? The morning trip will take tourists down heritage spots like the house at Wellington Square associated with the legendary medical skills of the state’s most famous chief minister, Dr BC Roy, century-old establishments at Bowbazar, the bright red exterior of the Calcutta Medical College and the hallowed precincts of Presidency College, now a university in search of greater excellence, all the way down to the Star Theatre and the Shyambazar five-point crossing. In the evening, the trip would savour of the freshness of the greenery on the Maidan as the trams trundle their way to the Kidderpore docks.
It sounds exciting enough except that experiments with refurbished tramcars had been done before – without much success. Can a trip down Kolkata’s past be confined to tram routes excluding the Victoria Memorial, Jorasanko and Gariahat?  Will the flow of tourists be enough to sustain the project round the year? Or will Calcutta Tramways have to fall back on conducted tours with local groups to justify the renovation done at a cost of Rs 16 lakhs. The company has been grappling with financial problems to the extent of delaying salaries.
The staff will be delighted if the joy rides serve to fatten their pay packets. Every now and then there are fears of the trams (already removed from certain routes) being scrapped altogether.
 But then come sentimental noises about a city that should take as much pride in this slow-moving, space-consuming mode of transport that causes a mess every time it runs into a procession as is the hand-pulled rickshaw that rescues women and children stranded in waterlogged streets.
How long the renovated trams will serve as a tourist device is anyone’s guess. But the new look given to what is often considered an outdated object with the combined resources of the transport and tourism departments may yet suggest that Kolkata’s claims to greatness is moving one step closer to that of London. Despite the doubting Thomases, it is a city on the move.

The pioneer
What can be said of a man who was one of the first graduates of Calcutta University, was made a deputy magistrate and yet wrote a song which was on the lips of the freedom fighters when they mounted the scaffold ? Bankim Chandra Chattopadhaya was a pioneer in the world of Bengali letters. Making his presence felt when he authored Durgeshnandini,  by penning Kapalkundala he made it clear that his maiden success was no fluke. But it was the appearance of Anandamath  containing the song Vandemataram which sowed the seeds of the thought of freeing the nation from the foreign yoke making him the first among equals. On his passing away The Statesman wrote "Although in his official capacity his marked ability won the respect and confidences of his superiors, it was not to official work that he devoted the great powers of his mind. His natural bent was towards literature. Rightly appreciating that a taste for reading would be best developed among the native classes by attractive works of a light character,  he applied the energies of a fertile mind to the production  in the first place of those novels which has made his name a household word among the Bengali community. His Bengali style is described by competent judges as one marked by inimitable grace and style, combined with vigour of expression." Come Thursday, his birth anniversary  would be observed all over the state.  
 
Theatre talk
Addas continue to help its participants recharge themselves and evolve new ideas about the various aspects of life. And can any meaningful adda leave out Tagore when his words and deeds are part of our being ? Little wonder, Tagore was the topic of an adda session jointly organised by Theatrix and Society for Education through Performing Art. And the participants spoke length on the use of various sorts of Tagore songs in theatre. To cap it all came up the anecdotes of Sisir Bhaduri , Bidhayak Bhattacharya, the stage of yesteryears together with those tales behind the arc lights of the tumultuous nabanatya days. In the fitness of things, Rabindra Charcha Bhavan was the venue of this wonderful discussion.
 
Sir Asutosh 150
A man in a million, Ashutosh Mookerjee had more than made his mark at the Calcutta High Court when he became the  vice-chancellor of Calcutta University.  He had a vision of the kind of education he wanted young people to have, and he had the acumen and courage to extract it from the colonial rulers. He set up several new graduation courses. The diverse range of subjects offered by Calcutta University is largely a result of his labour. Scholars from all over India, irrespective of race, caste, and gender, came to study and teach there. He even persuaded European scholars to teach at his university. He was one of the first persons to recognize the worth of Srinivasa Ramanujan and inducted S. Radhakrishnan, then an unknown teacher into Calcutta University.   Lord Curzon’s education mission in 1902 identified the universities, and Calcutta University especially, as centres of sedition where young people formed networks of resistance to shake off colonial domination. The cause of this was thought to be the unwise granting of autonomy to these universities in the nineteenth century. Thus in the period 1905 to 1935 the colonial administration tried to reinstate government control of education. In 1923, when Lord Lytton tried to impose conditions on his reappointment as Vice-Chancellor, Mookerji indignantly refused the post. For his intransigence and academic integrity he was known as the Tiger of Bengal. Come Saturday, Asutosh College together with Jogmaya Devi College, Shyamaprasad College will bring out a probhatpheri from Asutosh Memorial Hall at 7.30 a.m marking the beginning of the yearlong celebration of the 150th birth anniversary of  Sir Asutosh Mookerjee. Apart from the academics heading the different colleges, former Chief Justice of Calcutta and Bombay High Court and Sir Asutosh’s grandson, Chittatosh Mookerjee  will participate in the programme.
 
Interpreting Tagore
Ideologues of different hues have been speaking off and on besides penning tomes to substantiate their respective claims that Tagore was wedded to their way of thought. The practice had begun in the lifetime of the greatest genius this nation have produced so far. If Tagore sometimes chose to issue gentle rejoinders through his writings in which he equally highlighted the good and evil of each political philosophy, the flag bearers of these causes had bided their time. After all, Tagore continued to posses a mind of his own till he breathed his last. And yet whenever an ideology earned praise from him, Tagore began to be counted as a fellow traveller. His journey to Russia and subsequently authoring Letter from Russia (Russiar Chithi) is a case in point. And many of the proponents of a tyranny which seeks to be passed off as egalitarianism purposely overlook Tagore’s criticism of a system which puts matter over the mind. The home grown variety of this type have banished Sahaj Path and Kishaloy from the school curriculum when they came to the helm of this state three decades ago. Their plea was that these books failed to point out the differences between the haves and have-nots. Opportunists that they are, this tribe had no qualms to quote Tagore when they downgraded English in the school curriculum and stunted the intellectual of several generations. Authored by Arup Majumdar, the  recently published "Marxist Buddhijibider Rabindracharcha O Bibidha Prabandha" exposes the double standards of these who sought to be the  arbiters of fate of their fellow human beings by subverting not only the way Tagore looked at the world around him but also thinkers whose name the men whose words never matched their deeds swore by. Attention was drawn to the fact that Tagore’s high hopes about the new system of society in Russia had come crashing down in the evening of his life funds elaboration in  the  book which was released at Kolkata Press Club
 recently.  
   
Deshbandhu
Chitta Ranjan Das had the makings of a statesman. A great jurist and dynamic leader, he often saw further than he seemed to. He wanted "Swaraj for the masses, not for the classes". To him, "Swaraj is government by the people and for the people". An advocate of communal harmony and Hindu-Muslim unity, Das effected, in 1923, the Bengal Pact between the Hindus and Muslims of Bengal, though opposed by a section of the Congress. A champion of national education and the vernacular medium, he felt that the masses should be properly educated to participate in the nationalist movement. He deprecated the prevalent western system of education that would only promote "a kind of soulless culture". On his passing away The Statesman described him as the "tribune of Bengal", though not an ardent supporter of his policies and programmes, nevertheless it wrote " He had a remarkable influence upon all those with whom he came in contact, whether friend or foe. Hero worship has never gone further in Bengal then homage paid to Deshbandhu- the name explains the homage." His death anniversary was observed recently.
 
Seasonal slips
A correspondent writes : Earlier this year,  when every sign and possibility of a "Summer of Discontent" were unleashed, a  well-known restaurant on what is still popularly and may be preferably, called Park Street (not withstanding it once being christened as Asiatic Society Road and later as Mother Teresa Sarani) put up on its doorstep an invitation to have a taste of its delectable dishes and items of duck in "this winter". The initial reaction of surprise when I viewed it for the first time on one evening gradually mellowed to a humorous one, while recalling now; for, even after a day or two of the sultriest weather encountered thus far in 2013, the "invitation" remained attractively positioned on the porch of this dining place which still enjoys the patronage of gourmets and gourmands, as it did in yesteryears, and quite rightly so. Perhaps, owing to its cosy, air-conditioned environs, ‘winter’ continues within, irrespective of the heat outside. And, on second thoughts, may be the ‘ducklectable’-delicacies being served help to cool the temper of many who might have entered the interiors of this renowned eatery, blowing hot and fuming for reasons aplenty.
 
No faith cure
Homoeopathic treatment is yet to get its due recognition in India. Many still scoff at it as faith cure. But shaking off these slights, many physicians are carrying on treatment and research of this line of medication. It is no leisurely walk, but many homoeopaths  are soldiering on. The city boasts of many eminent homeopaths. And the queue of patients in their chamber would be a matter of barely concealed envy to many medical practitioners with fancy overseas degrees. Come 30 June, the 10th seminar of the World Federation of Homeopathy is scheduled to be held at Pragyan Pyramid Healing  Centre at Rani Shankai Lane in south Kolkata. It would be inaugurated by vice-chancellor, Vidyasagar University, Ranjan Chakraborty. All the best. 
 
Fresh stuff ?
A correspondent writes : Local sweetmeat shops, colloquially termed "mishtir dokan" and solemnly labelled as "mishtanna bhandar"  hang a coloured, mostly purple, and sometimes brown, cloth banner at the entrance with the words  "Phulkopir (cauliflower) singara" and " Karaisuntir (green pea) Kachuri" written upon it in yellow and green. The "singara" varies from the ‘samosa’ in taste and size – better on the first and smaller on the second. The banner is usually put up in and around the festive season, when autumn, as was felt in those days, had set in and there is nip in the morning air. In quite a few shops  these banners  are not  rolled up well after Saraswati Puja, though it ought to be hung eight or nine months thereafter.. The wind and the rain turn the  the ‘colour purple’ dusted down to brown and the brown darkens  to yellow while green gets discoloured. It indicate that time has come when the owner has to order for a fresh banner. I found at a shop near my home a few days ago a discoloured banner was aflutter announcing even after the spring is  over and the cauliflowers had either withered or have become tasteless and the green pea had to be explored in the that "phulkopir singara" and "karaishutir kachuri" are available. Frozen pea being s ‘non grata’ in the world of home recipes an elderly neighbour enquired, rather questioned, on its continuance, he was reportedly provided with a couple of smart response. The first one: the shop still had a handsome stock of , cauliflowers and green pea; some in the store along with the potato and some in the huge fridge, alongside curd (the ‘mishti ‘doi’ and ‘tok doi’) and cottage cheese. The other: the banner will be protecting those who have to bear the rays of the sun in the forthcoming summer; it will be perched on two bamboo poles on both sides of the entrance and will be like a ‘samiyanaa’!  True to the second reply,  the banner continues to be hung until the monsoon has set in.  
 
Mustaq Ali Khan
One of the best known sitar players of  Senia  gharama. Ustad Mutaq Ali Khan first made his mark at Allahabad and then joined the court of  the then princely state of Jaunpur for sometime. He started out on his own and consolidated his fame when in 1929 he joined Akash Vani. He had his initial training in sitar from his illustrious father ustad Ashiq Ali Khan from the age of six. He had a very wide repertoire of professional activities interview, lectures, demonstrations, seminars, performances, examination evaluations of various organisations and institutions. He organised conferences where old masters and new artists were introduced to the cognoscenti and the novice. Among the well known names, Pandit Ravi Shankar was first presented by him to the public in Calcutta. Ustad had his undisputed popularity and demand during the early thirties to late forties
Awarded many prizes which were an adornment on him, he passed away in 1989. But the skills of the sitar maestro  did not cease to exist as it had been passed on to his disciples. It lives through their performance. It is through their efforts that the Ustad Mustaq Ali Khan Centre of Culture has come up. His 102nd birth anniversary was observed at Birla Sabhagar last week.

Piscine priority
A correspondent writes : For quite sometime past, there has been a gradual change in the attire of tea-stall vendors, vegetable-sellers and their likes in Gariahat market. The vest and bermuda clad rickshaw-pullers have started to replace the porters, better known as moote, to carry the monthly quantum of goods from the groceries to different customers.
A few of the fish-sellers have also started to venture out from their stalls or respective places in the market to the different lanes and by-lanes in the vicinity. This has somewhat eased the labour of those who may prefer to skip the  daily visit to the market for fresh stock of fish.  Clad in fatua -lungi or in shirt-pyjama, giving two or three large call, trumpeting the variety of fishes in their tin-container atop their heads, they settle down at a convenient spot. After the price is agreed upon, they  weigh and sell, sometime cutting  the fishes with  a care which is reminiscent to some treasure being depleted.  For quite sometime, I was missing their cries.  I wondered perhaps the soaring rates have persuaded the idlers to go to the fish market instead of purchasing from the door-step making their  visits infrequent.
But the other day, as I took a different route, I found a young man, may be in his thirties, wearing a white tee-shirt and a pair of faded blue jeans, face neatly shaven and sporting a Bollywood hairdo, perched on a stool by the side of a tea-stall, arguing over parshe-tangra-pabda-bhetki with some customers.
 As I walked a half-circle, I saw a coloured plastic container, like the ones found with milk vendors, placed just below him in which the fishes were arranged separately and while the seller was on a cell-phone, asking one of his customers to text him the type and quantity of fishes required. A few hours later, while walking near Mandeville Gardens, I chanced upon another similarly attired fish seller. The typical fish-container balanced on his head, he wearing  a red full-sleeve shirt with the sleeves rolled-up and pair of dark jeans. He had his earphones  plugged on,  listening to his favourite numbers.
  
Understanding cinema
Ever since film studies became a subject in universities, more and more people have become interested in understanding the nitty-gritty of the medium. Scholars have dedicated their wisdom to taking the medium to discerning audiences. The effort acquires greater strength when film-makers themselves contribute to the academic spirit.  This was what a small but committed audience discovered when it listened to director Goutam Ghose speaking on ”Memories in time” under the auspices of the Cine Academy and the Forum of Film Studies and Allied Arts at Nandan last week. That the concept of time is essential in cinema was discussed with historical references that were lapped by the audience.  A film like Satyajit Ray’s Kanchenjungha can make the film’s time-frame coincide with the real time of two hours. On the other hand, it is possible for a ten-minute documentary to cover a time-frame of a thousand years. The jugglery with time has brought wonderful experiments that the director discussed in great depth.
The magic of time has opened the window to artistic and social possibilities so extensively that the cinema has seen an explosion of individual styles. Ghose referred to the unique methods that the Russian director, Tarkovsky, had used to place his films in the world of time which he later defined in his book, Sculpting in Time.
 He went on to discuss the exciting cinematic worlds of Bergman, Kurosawa and a host of other masters that drew an enthusiastic volley of questions from the audience at the end of the third Kalyan Maitra Memorial Lecture.  The organisers have made this an annual event as part of its programme to promote an understanding of the art of cinema. The response confirmed that it was on the right track.
 
Space woman
Born on  March day in 1937  in Yaroslavl, Russia she started her career as a seamstress. Valentina Tereshkova was born in the Yaroslavl Region of Russia on March 6, 1937. Her interest and expertise in  parachute jumping at an early age parachute jumping that led to her selection as a cosmonaut. Tereshkova was a textile-factory assembly worker and an amateur parachutist when she was to recruited into the cosmonaut program. Of the four women selected to be trained for a special woman-in-space program, only Valentina Tereshkova completed a space mission.  Tereshkova was launched aboard Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963 and became the first woman to fly in space. During the 70.8 hour flight, Vostok 6 made 48 orbits of earth. Upon completion of her mission, Tereshkova was honoured with the title Hero of the Soviet Union. She never flew again, but she become a spokesperson for the Soviet Union. While fulfilling this role, she received the United Nations Gold Medal of Peace. 
Tereshkova married astronaut Andrian Nikolayev. Their first child, a daughter named Elena, was a subject of medical interest because she was the first child born to parents who had both been exposed to space. An exhbition on the first woman in space is being held at Birla Industrial and Technological Museum (BITM). Consul-General of the Russian Federation in the city,  Irina Bashkirova  inaugurated the exhibition while Vice-Consul and director, Russian Centre for Science and Culture in the city Alexander Mazirka was the guest of honour. Jointly organised by Russian Centre of Science and Culture in Kolkata and BITM, the exhibition will continue till 28 June. Drop in between 10.00 a.m  and 5.30 p.m  
 
What’s the ailment?
A few colleagues were chatting when one of them mentioned about having a tablet. A person passing their way overheard them and catching the last bit of the conversation said, "Who is not well? Does someone have fever?" quite concerned. The group burst into laughter and retorted they were discussing gadgets and this was about the latest electronic gizmo – tablet!

Remembering R.D.
Come Thursday, some of R.D.Burman’s ageless creations will be celebrated on his 74 th birthday on 27 June ’13, at G.D.Birla Sabhaghar,6 PM onwards, by Melody Chime- The R.D.Burman Club.  It is Amit Kumar, the versatile singer would pay an homage to his musical idol along with a host of original musicians from Pancham’s musical team featuring Kishore Sodha (Trumpet),Bhanu Gupta (Harmonica), Blasco Monsoret (Trombone), Nitin Shankar (Percussions), Suresh Yadav (Saxophone & English Flute), Rocket Mondal & his troupe.  On the other hand, Shailaja will join Amit Kumar on a few of the duet numbers.   Amit Kumar was the second lead male playback singer from Pancham da’s team, who got his first big ticket with Bade Achche Lagte Hai  (Balika Badhu) followed by his Filmfare best male singer trophy winning gem Yaad Aa Rahi Hai (Love Story). And the rest is history! The duo worked together on more than 170 songs. Pancham and Amit worked together.   The show will feature some of unreleased gems composed by the genius which were originally recorded by Amit Kumar during the golden age of Hindi film music.  So, make it sure that you won’t miss the unusual musical journey on the maestro’s birthday !
 
Tailpiece
If the throng of ‘diet cola,’ ‘diet bhujiya’ and ‘diet sandesh’ is considered an abomination in the land of the connoisseur Bengalis, here’s an addition to that list. Salivating at the sight of  chicken, mutton and egg rolls, gourmets and gourmands would undoubtedly be incited to mutiny against this culinary abomination as soon as  they come to know of the introduction of the conspicuous  ‘ diet rolls’!