Durga Puja 2009 - Mesmerizing Pandal hopping

I must say Durga Puja this year was really very special. My friend from Poland, Jola , came to

Kolkata to see the Puja.

We were suppose to leave for Ajanta Ellora on Sasthi i.e. 6th day on 24th September 2009. Today we went to Kumartuli to see the "Potter's Colony". Most of the galleries were empty since the idol has been shipped or in the process of shifting.

In some of the studios artists were giving final touches.

23/09/2009
On 23rd , on Panchami we met the guy with the longest moustache in Kolkata while moving around Kolkata!

On Panchami night ,we started our Pandal hopping by hiring an AC Mahindra and Mahindra SUV(@Rs 2000, which is quite low as per Puja standard. During puja it can go upto Rs 3000 - Rs 3200! We got the booking thanks to Upal's (works in M & M) client who is into car rental business (Khokan 9830 37 70 73 - from 9 p.m. to 6.30 a.m.) . We were supposed to leave at 9 p.m. , but ultimately we left at 10 p.m. thanks to great sense of timing by some of our group members! Our group consists of 9 people - Didi,Baba,Mohua,Babu (Mohua's borther) , Jola, Ms Chanda and her 2 sons. We had a great combination . Babu knowing all the lanes and by lanes and I am an expert on the artists of Kumartuli and the great Pujas! We saw creme de la creme of Kolkata Pujas.

I.We started with Keyatala Puja which is part of CESC Telegraph True spirit Puja. The theme was Kalighat Pat.

II Our next stop was 95 Pally , which is on the right side after getting down from Dhakuria bridge. They made an amazing fort based on Ajmer fort - Lakshmi Vilas Fort.

We skipped the Babu Bagan [BB] Puja to avoid standing in a queue.

III Then we went to Jodhpur Park Puja. (We covered it [BB] later and was simply mesmerizing) Normally you have to stand in a queue for 20- 40 minutes to see the puja. Since it was Panchami, it was a cake walk!

The theme was Zamindar House

Selim-pur

IV Then we went to see the puja of Selimpur Palli. It could not live upto the expectaction. The idol was quite interesting though - showing the evolution of Durga from Vishnu,shiva and Brahma

V Then we went to see the puja at Nashkar Para in Selimpur. Since the roads were blocked we had to take the Jadavpur PS flyover to reach the Puja Pandal.

The theme of the puja was bioscope - whith pictures of filmstars and Directos of yester years inside.

Vi, VII, VIII While coming back we saw the puja beside the cemetary. Then we took the left turn from Boudir Dokan near Sandip's house to go to Santoshpur Trikon Park and Santoshpur Lake pally. They are simply jaw dropping. We even met the artist Susanta Pal at Santoshpur Lake pally

Santoshpur Trikon Park

Santoshpur Lake pally.

Then we decided to go to Haridevpur to see the famous pujas there. It is truly unbelieveable to say the least. However, while going towards Haridebpur, we saw some beautiful pandals .

IX 41 Pally on Mahatma Gandhi Road

X Ajeya Sanhati

These two pujas are just out of the world....

XI , XII Then we went on to see Putiari Pally and Pallimanga Samity (both in Haridebpur), near a bylane of Ajeya Sanhati both of them are very near to Dipan house.

Pallimanga Samity

Putiari Pally

XII Then we started moving towards Behala by taking a left turn from the bridge and took Karunamoyee Ghat road - BL Saha Road- Santosh Roy Road to finally reach James Long Sarani. We went to See the Puja organized by Shristhi. It was really interesting. By that time it is 3 .30 p.m.

We had to drop our office colleague at their Behala residence. On the way we some other nice ones too. After dropping them at their residence we lost our way and wasted some time. Then we went to see Adarsha Pally on Biren Roy Road. We planned to go to Behala Nutan Dal's Puja and Suruchi Pally. Since Didi was getting late so we had to skip it for the time being. We dropped Didi at her Prince Anwarshaw Road residence and went to see the puja on Prince Anwarshaw Road - they made Jorbangla of Bishnupur. Then we took the flyover near Garihat Police station to reach By pass and went to see famous Kasba Bosepukur Talbagan and Kasba Sitala Tala. Both of which are great work of art. But the one at Bosepukur would have been even better if we went their in the evening or night (when we reached their it was early morning), since the effect of light was very important in that one, to appreciate. Then it was time to return home and we reached home at around 7 a.m.

By 10.15 am I am back to office.Today, Sasthi, being last day of office it is very important for me to go there. But even after 2.5 months our tickets (waiting list 29,30) were not confirmed.
I was dissapointed. Baba took Jola to Gopa mashi's house and show her the puja of Tridhara.
So I decided to see the Durga puja in best possible manner!

On Sasthi we made a walking tour to nearby places like Hindustahn Park, Samaj Sebi,Ballygunge cultural etc.

On Saptami we went to Sunil Nagar,Bondel Road, Mudiali,Shibmandir.

On Asthami we went to Guptipara to see the first community Durga Puja of West Bengal. It is written in a different section of this blog. http://sourabhdg.blogspot.com/2009/11/guptipara-hoogly-real-treasure.html

On Navami morning we(Jola,Didi and I) went to see Rajdanga Naba Udayan Club, which won Asian Paints award with Didi's car and once again saw Bosepukur's puja. Since Didi was getting late, we dropped her residence and we went to see Suruchi Sangha and Behala Nutan Dal. Near Behala Nutan Dal I saw my office colleague Chandranath.

On Dashami morning we went to Jagadishpur's puja near Gariahat (puja of Baba's maternal house in Jagadishpur of Bangladesh). We met Dalkaku - he shown us some of the pictures of their(Thakuma) house in Bangaldesh , where this puja originally started. The name of the school is still in the name of Thakuma's father. He was the first judge over there(?).Mohua did her customary sindur khela there.

Around 2.00 p.m. I left with Jola to see the amazing pandal of Babu Bagan. It was so good that Jola actually thought it is real. From there we went to Babu ghat to see immersion. Jola danced with one of the community puja members. It was real fun.

In the evening we saw bhasan/immersion near our house.

On Ekadashi we went to Sikim and Jola left for Sundarban.

To know more read the Sikkim tour!

Eight Clues to Happiness - KHUSHWANT SINGH

Having lived a reasonably contented life, I was musing over what a person should strive for to achieve happiness. I drew up a list of a few essentials which I put forward for the readers’ appraisal.

First and foremost is good health. If you do not enjoy good health you can never be happy. Any ailment, however trivial, will deduct from your happiness.

Second, a healthy bank balance. It need not run into crores but should be enough to provide for creature comforts and something to spare for recreation, like eating out, going to the pictures, travelling or going on holidays on the hills or by the sea. Shortage of money can be only demoralizing. Living on credit or borrowing is demeaning and lowers one in one’s own eyes.

Third, a home of your own. Rented premises can never give you the snug feeling of a nest which is yours for keeps that a home provides: if it has a garden space, all the better. Plant your own trees and flowers, see them grow and blossom, cultivate a sense of kinship with them.

Fourth, an understanding companion, be it your spouse or a friend. If there are too many misunderstandings, they will rob you of your peace of mind. It is better to be divorced than to bicker all the time.

Fifth, lack of envy towards those who have done better than you in life — risen higher, made more money, or earned more fame. Envy can be very corroding; avoid comparing yourself with others.

Sixth, do not allow other people to descend on you for gup-shup. By the time you get rid of them, you will feel exhausted and poisoned by their gossip-mongering.

Seventh, cultivate some hobbies which can bring you a sense of fulfilment, such as gardening, reading, writing, painting, playing or listening to music. Going to clubs or parties to get free drinks or to meet celebrities is criminal waste of time.

Eighth, every morning and evening, devote 15 minutes to introspection. In the morning, 10 minutes should be spent on stilling the mind and then five in listing things you have to do that day. In the evening, five minutes to still the mind again, and ten to go over what you had undertaken to do........

Book on Baba Allauddin Khan - legend

Ever lasting music

Allauddin Khan’s eldest great-granddaughter, granddaughter of Ali Akbar Khan and daughter of Late Dhyanesh Khan Sahana Gupta with Ustad Ashish Khan, son of Ali Akbar

Shiraz Ali Khan, great-grandson of Ustad Alauddin Khan playing sarod

The Oxford Bookstore was filled up with the strains of sarod, santoor, guitar and the tabla. An orchestra of young musicians led by Shiraz Ali Khan, great-grandson of Ustad Alauddin Khan, was paying his tribute to the legendary musician. I was lucky to be there , to see the four generations of the greatest musical family in the history of Indian classical music.

The occasion was the launch of Boro Baba … Ustad Alauddin Khan, a memoir of the legend written by Alladdin Khan’s eldest great-granddaughter Sahana Gupta (daughter of Late Dhyanesh Khan, son of Ali Akbar Khan and sister of Shiraz Ali Khan ) and published by Roli Books. Sahana herself is an IT professional working in Bangalore.

Alauddin Khan’s grandson Aashish Khan, son of Ali Akbar Khan released the book, which tells the story of a man who sought oneness with God through his music.

Sahana sifts through Baba’s handwritten manuscript, photographs and letters to construct his life through the time when he survived on alms to learn music, to his becoming the master. In between her reading music was played by his brother.

Allauddin Khan (also known as Baba Allauddin Khan) (1862 – 1972), was a Bengali sarod player and multi-instrumentalist (tabla,violin,sitar, Sarod etc.) , composer and one of the most renowned music teachers and probably the greatest icon of the 20th Century in Indian classical music ^.

In 1935, he toured Europe, along with Uday Shankar's ballet troupe, and later also worked at his insititute, 'Uday Shankar India Culture Centre' at Almora for a while.

During his lifetime, he composed several ragas and laid the foundation of a modern Maihar gharana.

He was the father of sarod maestro Ali Akbar Khan and Annapurna Devi and guru to Ravi Shankar (interestingly Baba never played sitar publicly), Nikhil Banerjee, Vasant Rai, Pannalal Ghosh,Bahadur Khan.

He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour in 1971, and prior to that in 1954, the Sangeet Natak Akademi awarded him with its highest honour, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship for lifetime contribution to Indian music.

Early life and background

Allauddin Khan was born in Shibpur village in Brahmanbaria (now in Bangladesh). Allauddin's elder brother, Fakir Aftabuddin, first taught him some music in the home.

At the age of ten, Allauddin ran away from home to join a jatra band, a traditional Bengali form of theater. This experience exposed him to the rich folk tradition of Bengal. After some time, he went to Kolkata, and was accepted as a student by singer Gopal Krishna Bhattacharya, alias Nulo Gopal. According to Sahana all his money was stolen when he woke up in the morning just beside one of the ghats of Ganges(rather Hoogly river) in Kolkata. Allauddin committed to a 12-year practice program; However, Nulo Gopal died of plague after the seventh year. Khan then became a disciple of Amritalal Dutt, a close relative of Swami Vivekananda and music director at Kolkata's Star Theatre, with the goal of becoming an instrumentalist.

At this time, he also took lessons in European classical violin from Lobo, a bandmaster from Goa.

Sarod career

He got interested in sarod after a concert at Jagat Kishore Acharya's, zamindar of Muktagachha, where he listened to Ahmed Ali Khan, a student of Asghar Ali Khan (Amjad Ali Khan's grand-uncle). Alauddin became his student, and studied the sarod under him for five years.

His next step was to go to Rampur for lessons from Wazir Khan Beenkar, court musician of the Nawab there, and one of the last direct descendants of the legendary Tansen. Through him, Alauddin was given access to the Senia gharana (Tansen school of music), arguably north India's most coveted body of musical knowledge.

He later became the court musician of Brijnath Singh Maharaja of Maihar Estate in Central Province. At Maihar he was given an accommodation and a monthly salary by Brijnath Singh Maharaja of Maihar.

Allauddin was a very religious man, and though Muslim by name, was strongly devoted to the goddess Saraswati, in the form of Sarada Devi, to whom there stands an old and famous temple atop a hill in Maihar. This is why Allauddin, despite more lucrative offers from other courts, never left Maihar, refusing to move away even for hospital treatment – he would rather die near Sarada Devi than live someplace else.

Jogesh Dutta - Marcel Marceau of India 2009

Today is a watershed day in the history of Indian Mime. People had to stand on the aisles. I was late due to my pre occupation in my office , when I went there it was too late. After 53 years and countless laughs, the Charlie Chaplin of Kolkata performed his last show today before the audience at Rabindra Sadan. Silently, as always.The show is over.

After his final show on Friday, Jogesh reappeared on stage, dressed in white shirt and trousers, and laid his wig and costume on the floor. Fittingly, the ‘poet of silence’ didn’t utter a word. But to those who clamoured for the show to go on, he assured that he would continue to teach mime. And thus, mime will live on.

He signed autograph on the leaflet for me.



Still I met him in the green room. Pierre took the picture.



He cried on the stage.

However Pierre was able to see the show.

Video footage inside the greenroom

When India awoke to a ‘new dawn’ on 15 August 1947, a five-year-old boy, his siblings and parents found themselves on a platform at Calcutta’s Sealdah railway station. Penniless refugees from East Pakistan, the family, like lakhs of others, faced a dark future. Sixty-two years and one week later, the ‘boy’, now 77, stood under the arclights, hands on his chest, tearful and facing a packed house at Kolkata’s Rabindra Sadan, while the national anthem played on.

Friday, 21 August, was Jogesh ‘wordless wonder’ Dutta’s last act on stage, bringing to an end a glorious, 53-year career that won him accolades and awards from across the globe. A pioneer in mime, he washed dishes at a tea stall, was a grocer’s assistant and worked at construction sites before finding his true calling. His parents died when he was very young. He grew up in his uncle’s house and ran away since he was tortured there.

“I was always a keen observer of people and their acts. As a teenager, I used to imitate people, and as word spread, I was invited to perform at colleges, office functions and private soirees. Meanwhile, I also did some acting on stage with a theatre group,” Dutta says.

“I didn’t know what mime was about then,” he says.

While his inspiration was Charlie Chaplin, Jogesh keenly observed young couples snatching a few private moments on the banks of a lake in the city and started imitating them, much to the delight of his friends and associates.

In 1956, he created his first real mime act—a lady dressing up in front of a mirror. The same year, he regaled spectators with this, in what was also his first stage mime performance, at Bally near Kolkata. “I started getting noticed and invites for shows from then on. The National Youth Festival in 1960 at Calcutta was the turning point,” he recalls.

“Invitations from all across the country, and then the world poured in since then,” says Dutta, relaxing in his well-appointed apartment at Ballygunge Circular Road in the city. Previously he used to stay near our house , opposite Dakate (Dacoit’s) Kalibari. I was lucky to see his show at Jogesh Mime Academy at Kalighat.

Dutta’s repertoire includes well over a hundred acts, most of them short and hilarious recreations of scenes from everyday life with a strong undercurrent of sympathy for the poor and underprivileged, with whom he still closely identifies.

“I can never forget my early childhood and the difficulties we faced. We were very poor,” he says. Some of his most famous acts in the comic category are Haircutting Salon, Walking, Bus Passenger, A Naughty Boy and A Society Lady, while his sympathy for the underdog comes through in Unemployed Youth, The Old Servant and The Exploited Labour.

Jogesh founded his own troupe, Podaboli, in 1971 and started, with the help of the Bengal government, the Jogesh Mime Academy in 1975 to research, revive, train and propagate the 3,000-year-old art of Indian pantomime. The Films Division made a documentary on him in 14 Indian languages in 1983, followed by similar documentaries made by Germany, Britain and France. He received the Shiromani Purashkar in 1985 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi award in 1993.

Dutta’s final act was his hugely popular The Thief. “I’m old and can’t take the rigours of staging an act anymore. Mime shows require agility and swift physical movement and that’s becoming difficult for me,” he says.

credits: http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/arts/the-life-and-mime-of-jogesh-dutta

Poetry

Normally I am not known for my passion for poetry. But we went to see the launch of a book, "Amra Anek Kichu Bhool Jani" by Souvik Bandyopadhay. He is currently the deputy director with the Indian Chamber of Commerce.

The poetries were read by Joy Goswami, BarunChanda. I really liked the poetries and the way it was read by Barun Chanda.

Everyone specially enjoyed the title poem that went Amra anek kich bhool jani ar shegulo je bhool sheta amra jani na…

Seeing the huge crowd of enthusiastic readers and poetry lovers, somebody from the panel very correctly said, “Every Bengali is hit by two ailments once in their life - one is malaria and the other poetry, may no one be infected by the former but let the latter flourish.”

In between the recital Pradip Chatterjee,who is a founder member of the Bengali band Moheener Ghoraguli, sang a beautiful song. He is the younger brother of Gautam Chatterjee.

The type of music that Moheener Ghoraguli pioneered, had the seeds of now very popular Jibonmukhi gaan or 'Songs of ordinary life'. Two decades after Moheen, singers like Kabir Suman, Nochiketa and Anjan Dutta took Jibonmukhi gaan to a new level of popularity, but the origins of the genre can be found in the songs of Moheener Ghoraguli.After the programme we talked to him.

Also known as Bula, Pradip is a flutist and vocalist. An engineering graduate from the prestigious Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur, he joined the Calcuttan engineering firm M.N. Dastur, after the break-up of Moheener Ghoraguli. During the course of his service with the company he travelled over many places from Orissa to Libya, but his quest for world-music was never deterred, but enriched by this varied experiences.