China town and Chinese breakfast in Kolkata

The Chinese has been around in Calcutta since 1783: mostly Cantonese and Hakka migrants. The first chinese At Kin Sun (?) came to India for Sugar Plantation. After him , Achipur near Maheshtala is named. There was a large Chinese Community of more than 500,000 until 1962, the Sino-India War which led to the imprisonment of many Indian born Chinese to Gulag camps in Rajasthan.

Not many Indians know about this tragic past and ill-treatment of the Indian born Chinese which the Indian government tries to suppress til present day.

I happened to see an interesting award documentary called "Fat Mama" , twice, at a film festival where they showed the life of these people and their suffering during 1962.

The Chinese left for other countries after, and what remains of the Chinese Community comes alive on Sunday at Old Calcutta where mostly the Chinese from the Guandong province resides.

The Chinese Breakfast or YumCha is quite unique to Calcutta, it has been around for more than 100 years. Back then was pretty popular with the British and the Chinese Community. This little street called Sun Yat Sen Road, next to Poddar Court, near Central Metro station/Lalbazar. It comes alive around 5.30-6 am when the little stalls start their business.

Only a few stalls are left, selling Pork, Chicken Buns and uniquely Bengali Chinese, huge chunks of Prawn paste and Fishpaste ‘Siew mai’ . Sunday is the most crowded and where most of the Chinese left in Calcutta comes to eat and mingle. Nowdays the stalls cater to mostly Bengali crowd and their taste buds. The dimsum here is a little rough and less refine than what I am use to, but it was tasty and fresh, typically bengali chinese.

How to get there : The place is close to Esplanade, Central Police Station(Lalbazar). The Chinese Breakfast aka YumCha is at Poddar court , along a small lane call Sun Yat Sen Street. The main road is Tiretta Bazaar.

Time : it starts early around 5.30am. I was there around 5.10am when they were just setting up the stalls. It comes alive around 6.30am where trinkle of the local chinese community comes to buy tofu, mocha (rice cake) and dimsum. Breakfast ends around 9am, although, it is best to come before 7 am when the stalls sells out.

for details see http://travel.ullyss.com/ .Everything, except the one in italics has been sourced from her blog.

I went their more than once and met Stella , owner of only Chinese grocery store . She still uses Abacus the for calculation!!

Chinese temple nearby on Chattawala Street.

Rupashi Bangla - Bishnupur

We (Pierre and me) left for Bishnupur on Monday (15/8/2009) early morning by Rupashi Bangla Train(fare Rs 65, from Howrah station- new - erail.in) at 6.05 pm and reached Bishnupur at 9.50 pm. Alternatively the buses are available from Esplanade (opposite 
Metro cinema) bus depot.



Bishnupur 150 km west of Kolkata (Calcutta), just beside Ramsagar, was the capital of the Mallabhumi dynasty. Bishnupur, formerly known as Malla Bhum, is famously known as the temple town of West Bengal for its architecturally exclusive temples.

They ruled over a small region from 697 AD until the 8th century. In the 16th century they expanded and became powerful during the reign of King Birhan Bir.His fort is almost gone, but he developed the city with many lakes(called Bandh in Bishnupur like Tal in Kumaon) and ponds in true Bengali style.

Simultaneously during the Hindu revival, Chaitanya preached his faith and many temples were built as a result. There are 30 temples (17th-18th century) in Bishnupur that are a treasure-trove of terracotta sculptures.

Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu and his love Radha, are detified in most of these temples. The Mallabhumi dynasty also had cordial relations with the Shaivites.

In the 17th century they fought the Marathas and in 1806, the East India Company took over, gave control to zamindars (local chieftains) and Bishnupur faded into oblivion.

STAY

We took a rickshaw (Rs 20) to reach our hotel Paryatan Abash (Bishnupur Tourist complex ; 03244 -252200) and rented a double bed room for Rs 130. It is 1.5 minutes walk from most famous WBTDC tourist lodge . One can also stay at Heritage Hotel (with AC): 03244-254 298 & 9434 160 193. 

There we met freelance TV journalist Sushanta Nandy (9233 211 572) , who normally works for 24 ghanta channel.He was of great help to us. He is a local guy. He insisted that we should stay back to see Jhapan festival.

TOUR

Then we took a city tour by hiring a cycle rickshaw (Rs 200 for 4 hours).The name of the rickshaw puller is Kalu Das (His brother's name is Bibek Das - mobile 9932 85 1256). He is quite nice. 

Kalu Das in front of our hotel.

I think it is the best way to navigate the lanes and by lanes of Bishnupur. At one of the by lanes of Bishnupur we saw an interesting sculpture of Kali.We also a devotee of Kali.


I must say it is much much better than what I thought. The terracotta of Bishnupur is simply mind-blowing. It is difficult to understand why it is not a major tourist attraction.

We started from Rash Mancha, focal point of Bishnupur, very near(1 minute) to our hotel and 3 minutes walk from WBTDC Tourism lodge.

From there we went to Madan Mohan temple,which is at the Northern periphery pf Bishnupur.It is best to start from that temple. We then saw Jor Bangla, Shyam Rai Temple(probably the best) ,Pathar Darja,Lalji Temple, Chinnamasta temple(uninspiring). If you come out of Chinnamasta temple take right and after 60 metres take left(after you see a sign post of a Hotel).Then you see three more interesting temples. Go up to the Eco tourism park 80 metres from the hotel, have a tea in a tea stall (opposite park entrance) and come back. The journey of 40 minutes will be enchanting.It is worth going. See the pictures below:

On the southern outskirts are temples made of Laterite and not brick. Laterite, which is red clay, is also called red earth. Since it is a hard stone it can be used for construction. However, it is coarse in appearance and hence is usually finished with stucco. Since it is much cheaper than stones, it is used for foundations, platforms and even walls of buildings. The sculpting on stucco is generally of a very poor quality and it wears off after some time.

Unlike the temples and monuments , found elsewhere in India , built out of marble and stones brought from far-off places, the basic construction material for the Bishnupur temples was the local red soil. Out of the red clay, terracotta tiles were made.

On the tiles, scenes from the the immortal Hindu epics like the the Ramayana and the Mahabharata were artistically depicted.

The distinctive feature of the of the Bishnupur temples is that in their structural design, they resemble the local huts.

Then we met Sital Fouzdar (Mobile 9732 08 34 28) , 87th generation of Fouzdar family who makes playing cards (Ganjifa card) based on 10 avtars or incarnation of Vishnu (10 X 12=120). It is played with 120 cards. Thanks to Kalu Das, our rickshaw puller, we were able to visit that place near Sakhari Bazar. The cards are hand painted (made of vegetable colour) . Each cards costs Rs 50 . I bought one from him to honour his craftsmanship. He explained how he learnt the game from the descendants of Royal families (who were reluctant to teach him) with the help of a German lady(who stayed in Bishnupur for 3 months and paid Rs 1000 to the descendants of Royal family every day to learn the game !!). These type of cards are made only by five families in Mysore, Jaipur, Orissa (Raghurajpur) and Bishnupur.

Sital Fouzdar took almost an hour to explain all to us.

Madan Mohan Temple


Shyam Rai Temple, probably the best temple in Bishnupur

Rash Mancha

Bishnupur is also famous for exquisite Baluchari Saris , generallly priced above Rs 2000.

In the evening we purchased mementos/souveniers from a decrepit shop "Karu Kala" owned by an old man,Prafulla Pandit, 100 metres from Chinnamasta temple . He is selling at an unbelieveable price (you cannot get anything cheaper) and also very courteous and extrememly honest ( I mistakenly asked the price of an item " Is it Rs 5?". He said " it is Rs 3" !). Please do not go to his son's (Raja Pandit) shop , 90 metres before his shop. Phone no. of his son (Mobile 9474 04 83 03).Pierre became mad after seeing the price of items and was thinking of shipping a 50 Kg elelphnat (Rs 100/-) to France. I could restrain him only because of transportation cost which will be quite cheap, 20 times the price!!! . We purchased the horse and elephant , among others, which is the hallmark of Bishnupur craftmanship. 

Bisnupur school of music ( Bishnupur Gharana) is also world famous. Unfortunately we cannot go to the place where the musicians stay near Sakhari Bazar. The most famous musicians are Jadu Bhatta,Radhika Mohan Moitra (Sarod), Manilal Nag(sitar) and daughter of M Nag, Mita Nag. Interestingly we saw a live programme of Mita Nag at Calcutta school of music on 14 th August 2009 and even talked to her about next days trip to Bishnupur !

The only place in whole of India, where you will find terracotta artefacts like Bishnupur horse and world famous temples, famous Baluchari  & Swarnachari sarees, Conch shell carving, its own classical musical school or gharana, Dokra and Dashavatar cards - all in one place - believe it or not !

GARH PANCHAKOT

On 16/8/09 we went to Garh Panchakot (rather Panchet- nobody seems to know Garh Panchakot at Bishnupur). 

First we went to Bankura by bus (Rs 20) at around 7.30 am (in fact the bus to Gangajalghati left an half hour ago) and from Bankura another bus to Saltora (Rs 20/-). From Saltora we took a trekker (WE SAT ON THE TOP OF THE TREKKER !!) for Rs 9/- to reach Madhukunda.

From Madhukunda, which is basically a railway station, we hitch hiked a motorbike to reach Sarbari More. At Sarbari More , we had our lunch at around 2.15 p.m. and again hitch hiked a SUV (Tata Sumo) to go near Garh Panchakot WB Forest department tourist lodge (Puapur) (minimum room rent is Rs 800/-). From Puapur we again hitch hiked a bike to reach the lodge. One can meet Lalan (Mobile 9933 66 27 78) to arrange a booking in the hotels (other than WBFD tourist lodge) .He is however not a tourist guide. He helped us a lot. The address of WB Forest Development Corporation Limited, 6 Raja Subodh Mullick Square, 7 Th - Floor, Kolkata - 700013,opposite Hind cinema,beside Wellington.

There we met a group of travel enthusiast and went for the tour (hitch hiked) around the Panchet hills. The views are stunning to stay the least. After the tour they dropped us at Sarbari More.Without them we would have been in real soup!! I am really thankful to them (They have an interesting travel blog http://amitdg.blogspot.com/).

Breathtaking view.............

From there we went to Madhukunda to catch a train at 5.30 pm to Bishnupur via Adra (Purulia).SNAKE FESTIVAL: Jhapan

Next day (19/8/09) there was famous snake festival at Bishnupur called Jhapan festival(Worshiping Ma Manasha). It is amazing. It is held every year on the last day of Shraban.

On Monday the famous Jogesh Chandra Pura Kriti Bhavan Museum (or simply "Museum" for locals) is closed . So we could not visit that museum. It is 2.5 minutes walking distance from WBTDC tourist lodge You can see snake charmers showing tricks.

One of the tricks being mind blowing, snakes biting their tongue!!!!!


Picture of Sukumar Bauri, eating snakes - he is from Bankura. He said within few years time , there won't be any snakes, because there is no toad in the field because of insecticides.

Interesting Ma Manasha(Hindu god) song by snake charmers. The person on the left hand side is a Muslim, Sheikh Kalua(if I recollect the name correctly)

The festival ended at 7.30 p.m. Then we left by a rickshaw at around 10 p.m. (please leave by 9.45 pm , otherwise the rickshaws will be few and far between) and reached at Pokabandh (lake) bus stand. From there you can get bus to Kolkata from 10.30 p.m. till 12 pm ( I have been told). It reaches Kolkata within 4 hours . Because of immersion of Ma Manasa the bus was late and came after 11 pm. We reached Kolkata at 3.30 a.m. We took this route because Rupasi Bangla train leaves at 5.30 p.m. In that case we would have missed Jhapan. Then there is Chakradharpur express train at 10.30 p.m. , but you won't get to seat, we were told, since it is very crowded. The early morning Rupashi Bangla train at 5.55 am is not very convenient , since I would have been late in the office next day.

Gayatri Devi and Khushwant Singh - ENCOUNTER

Khushwant Singh

Royal standards In my long life, I have had the good fortune of meeting many beautiful women, ranging from film stars such as Ingrid Bergman to a few Bollywood celebrities, including Nargis, Parveen Babi and a host of others whose names now escape me. However, if asked whom I thought to be the most beautiful of the lot, without hesitation I would reply Gayatri Devi of Cooch Behar, Rajmata of Jaipur. ............... Besides having been a stunner in her younger days, I found her most unassuming, totally free of arrogance and unusual in her behaviour. ...... Following prolonged illness, she died at the age of 90. She was listed among the world’s ten most beautiful women. I first set my eyes on her at a lunch party in my father’s home, given in honour of her husband. She was then newly married. I kept gaping at her from a distance and wondering what made her agree to become the third wife of a man with a family of his own. I never understood the code of immorality of our princely order. She killed her quota of tigers, played Polo, married an already-married man, who was also a Polo player. Next, I ran into her in the home of Minoo Masani, the leader of the Swatantra Party. Jayaprakash Narayan was the chief guest. Gayatri Devi had recently been elected a Swatantra Party member of the Lok Sabha. She came in late and promptly sat down on the carpet beside Jayaprakash Narayan’s feet. He remarked in Hindi, “Dekho zamana kaisey badal gaya hai — see how times have changed — a maharani sits at the feet of a commoner.” She invited me to Jaipur to address the students of the Maharani Gayatri Devi High School on Parents’ Day. I went. I told the students, “Don’t let your fathers choose your professions, choose what you like the best; don’t let your mothers choose your wives or husbands, choose your own. If it does not work out, get a divorce and try again. Learn to make your own mistakes. Don’t waste your time on prayer; it’s a lot of mumbo-jumbo. Instead, read, work, have a good time.” And so on. Needless to say, it went down very well with the boys and girls. Parents were appalled and protested to Gayatri Devi. She was amused. Later that evening, she had hosted a dinner party for me in the hotel she owned. She was a little late. I asked her why. She replied with a smile, “I was doing my mumbo jumbo.”

Bureaucrats in India

Let professionals run Air IndiaM K Venu Tuesday July 28, 2009 ,Economic Times

The bureaucrat, especially of the IAS variety, is indeed a strange creature. By and large, the IAS instinct is to keep getting promotions, as far as possible, by not doing anything proactively. There is a sound logic to this evolved art of not doing anything . For, if you become too proactive the chances of making mistakes become high. For instance, E Sreedharan is a highly regarded doer, and he has made some mistakes while trying to implement the Delhi MRTS project within deadline. This is the moment a typical babu waits for.

Governance comes to a standstill when everyone waits for the others to make a mistake . A time comes when there are no mistakes , and no action! Prime Minister Manmohan Singh needs to seriously do something about this aspect of governance.

Sreedharan has amply demonstrated his implementation skills and is hugely popular among the people. The IAS lobby, which was perhaps waiting for Sreedharan to make a mistake, must now realise that the times have changed. People would prefer guys who make mistakes and yet do something substantive on the ground.

A current example of a good project given a bad name by safe-playing bureaucrats is the merger of Air-India with Indian Airlines . Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel has taken a lot of flak for floundering on the merger project. The truth is the idea of a merger between A-I and Indian Airlines is very sound but the babus, who zealously protected their turfs, did not want to implement it sincerely.

Some of the bureaucrats involved in the project have since got good promotions and hold positions in the rank of secretary to government . ..................

Coming back to Air-India and Indian Airlines, Praful Patel has yet another chance to put through the merger project and make the new entity accountable with a professional management running it. The merged entity, National Aviation Company of India Ltd (NACIL) has accumulated losses of over Rs 7,000 crore till March. ............ The Rs 3,000 crore annual deficit is the crux of the problem. The situation worsened last year as global aviation industry was hit by a severe recession. .......... In desperation, Jet and Kingfisher had even announced a strategic alliance last year to cut costs.

Therefore, it makes eminent sense for A-I and Indian Airlines to cut costs by optimising resource usage. ........... The employee to aircraft ratio is currently at over 220, which is much higher than the norm of 110 to 130 persons per aircraft.
Shockingly, in the year of the worst aviation recession, Air India gave its employees productivity-linked bonuses. This was about 10% of the total costs. . ...........................................................

Perhaps NACIL can phase out its full aircraft acquisition programme until its cash flows improve. ............. The focus of the new management must be on cost cutting and returning to positive cash flows. There is no rocket science in this. .............

Above all, Praful Patel must induct a professional board of directors and a committed CEO to run NACIL. We certainly don’t need another bureaucrat who just believes in marking time before moving onto the next promotion!

For full article see http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/WisdombyHindsight/entry/let-professionals-run-air-india

I cannot more than agree with Mr Venu !! It is something seen to be believed!!

Mythili Bhusnurmath Monday June 08, 2009

India's suffocating bureaucracy ranked the least-efficient

India's suffocating bureaucracy was ranked the least-efficient by the survey, on 12 economies released last week by the Hong Kong-based Political & Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC). Indian bureaucrats trailed those from Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, China, Philippines and Indonesia in that order.‘Working with the country's civil servants was a slow and painful process,’ said the PERC. ‘They are a power centre in their own right at both the national and state levels, and are extremely resistant to reform that affects them or the way they go about their duties.’

So what’s new, the average citizen, long at the receiving end of bureaucratic idiosyncrasies might be tempted to respond. Bureaucrats, however, protest they are more sinned against than sinning and claim their hands are often tied by their political masters. Possibly!

At the same time since the success or otherwise of government programmes will be used as a yardstick in evaluating the performance of bureaucrats in charge of these programmes, bureaucrats too will have to look sharp and perform..........old definition of civil servants – they are neither civil nor do they serve. But who knows, if our bureaucrats move up even a couple of notches in PERC’s league tables, we’ll have much to be thankful for!

For full article see http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/myth-n-reality/entry/get-ready-for-the-new