If it is fish, that too in Bengal, I can’t help turning fishy. It’s one thing to love fish, quite another to know how to cook them. In my experience, people in the entire Indian coastal-belt and northeast love their fish and have it almost everyday. But their cooking is awful except in Bengal. Perhaps […]
Can Kolkata regain glory?
On occasions such as illumination of Howrah bridge do we recall Kolkata’s glorious past. Ministers and important people who grace such events usually read from written speeches prepared by their subordinates. They take the opportunity to announce plans, which then make screaming headlines in newspapers. It’s like throwing a small stone in an otherwise calm […]
Opinion and hope
Here is a collection of an opinion and a hope. First, the opinion. This is from silicon.com’s Andy McCue, who has this to say about HSBC’s plan to set up a second center in the city. Kolkata is trying to shake off the image of poverty associated with the city with a modern infrastructure, and […]
Using Sun after darkness
Shantipada Gan Chowdhury is an untiring person. He heads the West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency (WBREDA), established in Kolkata in 1993 with the objective to explore promoting alternate renewable energy resources, such as solar, small hydropower, biomass, wind, etc. Ever since it came into being, WBREDA has pioneered harvesting and usage of renewable energy, […]
High fashion calling
After a year’s absence, Stylefile Winter Show is back in original format, which means it’ll not only be seminars and exhibitions, there’ll be the high-profile fashion show as well. Stylefile Winter Show is billed as the city’s most-awaited annual fashion extravaganza. [Stylefile, Nov 22, 2003 picture courtesy] Here are the planned highlights of the show: […]
Garment hub in Kolkata
Once upon a time, Bengalis used to dress gorgeously. There is often a say among today’s fashion designers that Indian males do not know how to wear clothes out of the box. This, in my opinion, is not true for Bengali males, though admittedly the current trend doesn’t encourage believing otherwise. In times long gone, […]
Is drinking an avoidable evil?
If I hadn’t come across tulleeho.com’s website, courtesy ET’s yesterday’s Brand Equity, I wouldn’t have believed that one, such as theirs exists. It may perhaps reflect my ignorance, though I’m an avid web watcher, but more than that it represents my typical Indian psyche as to whether talking about liquor isn’t after all a social […]
Howrah Bridge illuminated
Do we know that the Rabindra Setu (earlier Howrah Bridge), commissioned on 1943’s Feb 10, world’s 3rd largest cantilever bridge, arguably its busiest ferrying nearly 57,000 vehicles and 2 million commuters each day, was made with as much as 26,500 tons of steel of which over 85% was supplied by none other than India’s pride […]
Casino Royale
Seen the latest Bond film last night at Fame, Hiland Park. To me, in terms of action, this is the best Bond film I’ve seen. Daniel Craig’s physique is put to good use, and he plays his muscle-man role with great élan. The chase on feet shown in the beginning in a construction site, culminating […]
China’s Kolkata consulate
When China cites tourism as one of the main reasons why it wants to open its second consulate (Mumbai has one) in Kolkata (see this story), my point is proved. Last July, when the border link between the 2 countries at Nathu La opened, hopes ran high that it would boost bi-lateral trade since much […]