Old Calcutta

Our Locality from our Balcony

This picture has been taken by me on September 2008 to give it an effect of the year 1908, when this area almost looked the same. Hardly anything has changed in these 10 decades.

A TRIBUTE TO SACHIN DEV BURMAN

1) Kumar Sachin Deb, as he was known in his younger days, came to Calcutta with the reputation of a budding folk singer. Incidentally, his roots are at Royal family of Tripura.

2) His guru Krishna Chandra Dey was , a blind singer, was also the uncle of Manna Dey.

3) Dada's first attempt in films was as an actor-singer for the film Yahudi Ki Ladki where he was replaced at the last moment by another stalwart of yesteryears Pahadi Sanyal.

4) Dada came to Bombay in 1941, not as a composer but in the capacity of a playback singer. The first solo he sang was for a film Taj Mahal. The composer was Madhavlal Master.

5) Disillusioned with Bollywood, Dada once left Bombay in 1951, only to return back after some time. Manna Dey completed the score of Mashaal, which Dada had left incomplete.

6) Dada had a unique way of judging the vocal condition of singers. Very early in the morning after his morning walk he used to call them from his 'Jet Bungalow', and Listen to the singers' voice over the phone.

7) One day when Dada was in the way of routine morning walk, he saw a person was saying that "He is the father of Rahul Dev Burman by pointing him. As Dada returned home he hugged Pancham. this was the moment in his life bigger than his all successful films.

8) During recordings Dada used to control all aspects of recording, ie. Orchestral Architecture and Oral Tuning of singers. Once it happened that an extra violinist was playing in the orchestra. Dada instantly sought to know through recordist's mike that why that unwanted violinist was there. "But dada, he has already come and and we have to pay him." reply came. "Then pay him and let him go! I want one, and only one violin in this song." Dada said.

9) Jaidev Verma, Dada's assistants was a sarod player cum guitarist who achieved a generous amount of success as the composer of films like Hum Dono, Prem Parvat and Kinare Kinare.

10) Though the last release was Tyaag, the last song dada had composed from his hospital bed was Badi sooni sooni hai for film Mili, after 2 days of this song recording dada went in comma, which led him to attained his heavenly bliss.

11) C. Ramachandra on request by the studio owner, partially arranged the music for "Shikari" Dada's first film as a composer in Bombay, With a condition that his name should not appear on the record.

12) He used to go to the The Bombay Powai Lake for fishing on holidays and often used to spend the entire day fishing, often without much success.

13) There'd be good-natured bantering between them. "Baba," Pancham would pout, "you don't give me enough pocket money." And Dada would laugh back, "Oi Pancham, when are you going to contribute to the kitchen expenses?"

14) Whenever the son would try to shuffle out quietly from the music room, Dada would say, "Jao jao, I know you want to smoke a cigarette."

15) When Pancham-da and Asha-ji planned to get married, they conveyed their concerns to Dada. Sitting next to Dada, Asha-ji waiting for his words, after a long silence he told that "Pancham is our only son, a divine gift God blessed us after a lot of prayers. Now he is in your hands with a hope that both you will devote to music and give new dimensions".

16) When Dada hummed the tune for "Yeh raat yeh chandi phir kahan" (Jaal), Sahir laughed. When Dada suggested that he would use Hemant Kumar's vocals for this number, Sahir was in raptures. Dada stuck on to his choice and the song was a very big hit.

16) In "Chhod do aanchal, zamana kya kahega". Asha Bhonsle responded with "Aah", Dada of course asked her to begin the song with that "Aah" to react in a manner as if somebody was pulling her saree.

17) Lata-ji did not sing for Dada for a stretch of five years. When she did come back, it was with a vengeance and her first number with Dada was a remarkable piece in musical artistry was "Jogi jab se tu aaya mere dwaare" (Bandini).

18) For Pancham-da's composition "Chunri sambhaal gori." Dada give the final touch by simply introducing an exclamation 'Aha' between the lines of the mukhda when sung in refrain.

20) Danny Danzogppa made a moderate debut as a playback singer in the duet 'Mera naam aao, mere paas aao' with Asha for the film "Yeh Gulistan Hamara", his part of the song was featured on Johnny Walker.

21) "Kaahe ko roye, Chahe jo hoye" sung by Dada (Hindi) was retained in both the Hindi and the Bangla (dubbed) version of the film "Aradhana".

22) During the one-year coma preceding his death Dada rarely reacted to any external stimuli, When Panchamda gave him the news that East Bengal had drubbed Mohan Bagan 5-0 in the IFA Shield Final. He did smile, faintly, once.

23) For his compositions he used to take inspiration from real life events and feelings. he used to roam aound on the roads. It's very rare that sat down with a harmonium to compose music. like for "Jaayen to jaayen kahan" he might have got lost, for "Ye raat ye chaandani phir kahaan" might be composed at looking through a window on a moonlit night, Looking far away at nothing in particular, as if looking for some lost treasure, he gave us the gems, "Tum na jaane kis jahan mein kho gaye".

23) He was a great innovator when it came to experimenting with instruments in a composition and well known for his last minute improvisations.

24) The trend in the industry where they believed in the principle of one playback singer for one hero in one film, for them, it was Mukesh for Raj Kapoor, Kishor Kumar for Rajesh Khanna, Mohd.Rafi for the irrepressible Shammi Kapoor and Dilip Kumar. Dada was differ from them. Repeatedly, he used more than one voice for the same artiste in the same film. Dada chose the playback singer depending on Mood and the situation where his song would be used in the film and not by which voice matched the actor's voice most. Thus, Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi and Mukesh sung for Amitabh in Abhiman and no one in the audience could noticed the switch while watching the movie. Similarly Rafi, Kishore and Manna Dey offered their voices for Dev Anand in Manzil. On Raj Kapoor in the film Pyaar Dada first experiment with the voice of Kishore Kumar. In the meanwhile, he was experimenting with the voice of Mukesh on Dev Anand and Dilip Kumar. In "Sagina" Kishor Kumar's voice used for Dilip Kumar. Surprisingly he has used Manna Dey on Kishore Kumar in "Naughty Boy".

Source: - http://www.sdburman.com/trivia.html

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Why was Sourav out of the team?

Sourav Ganguly, our very own DADA of Indian Cricket Team, was out of the Indian Team for quite some time. But he made a Grand comeback to the team and on the last test against Pakistan at Bangalore he was the only player to score 239 and 91 in two consecutive innings. He also completed a Maiden Test Century at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. Thus he quenched the Man of the Series Award, in the Tri-Test-Series (Man of the Match and four wickets) against Pakistan. He also crossed the 1000 run mark for the Year 2007. The next Test at MCG, is going to be the 100th Test of his career. Is this isn’t a grand comeback then what is it?

The topic of this post “Why Sourav was out of the team?” is more of a light topic without any intention to hurt the sentiments of any player and their fans.

Sourav made Dravid the wicket keeper, when Sourav was the southpaw and Dravid had to do the daunting task behind the wickets without loss of concentration even for a single moment, during the game. So Dravid made a vow to the Wicket God that “Mujhe Captain bana dijiye, isko (pointing at Sourav) to main sabse pehle team se bahar karunga kyuki mujhe har waqt ball ko dekhna padhta hain, jab meri teammates ball kam, gallery pe baithe hue ladkiyon ko zaada dekhta hain”.

The Wicket God, pleased with Dravid (who by then forgot that there was an entity called girls in this universe) listened to his prayers. Thus Sourav was made to perform miserably during the game, by magical powers of Wicket God and soon he was out of the team by two angels of Wicket God in the form of Kiran More and Greg Chappell. Thus Dravid let out a sigh of relief but that too was short lived when Sourav made a Grand comeback to the Team, by his 3Ds Theory. (discipline, dedication and determination) This shows that even today there is no shortcut to success and no alternative of hard work, which always pays.

All the BEST to our DADA for his future ventures, be it inside or outside the hundred yards. We, your FANS are always with you.

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Separated at Birth - Episode 00003

Akshay Kumar and Tom Cruise resemble each other very much. See it through your own eyes.

Tom Cruise

Akshay Kumar

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Separated at Birth - Episode 00002

See now which of the two people appears to be separated at birth: -

The little boy called Darsheel Safary of Taare Zameen Par (latest film produced and directed by Aamir Khan) fame and the latest deceased newsmaker of the newspapers of Kolkata and at large India resemble each other a lot. If you dont believe, then compare the pictures below: -

Darssheel Safary ( Ishaan Awasthi) with Aamir Khan

Rizwanur Rahman

Disclaimer: - This post is not to hurt anyones feelings.

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My fav pics of Om Shanti Om

Visitors till now:-

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Separated at Birth - Episode 00001

It seems Vivek Oberoi (promising bollywood Hero) and Johnny Depp (Captain Jack Sparrow of The Pirates of the Carribean fame) were separated at birth. They look like identical twins.

Vivek Oberoi

Johnny Depp

Disclaimer: - This post is not to hurt anyones feelings.

Bloodshed At Nandigram

It is a matter of shame, the way 50 people had been brutally murdered by the police firing at Nandigram. No one, not even the police has the right to take anyones life. These people were innocent people who were fighting for their lands. It is their legal right to fight for their lands which is being confiscated by the Government.

Think it in this way. Say you are living in your home since your birth and your father is living there since his birth and about 100 years ago your grandfather had bought the land. So you have mentally attached to your home and your land as your grandfather, your father had spent their whole life in building the house and developing the field so that you can live there in peace with your family.

But one day what do you see? You see that the Governement is going to shatter your grandfather's and your father's dreams and confiscate your land to make it a Chemical Hub and that too by firing the women and children protestors. Its a matter of shame in a democracy. No one would like to part away from their ancestral property, not even the people who run the Government.

If the government has to creat Special Economic Zones (SEZs) they should go for barren lands and areas where there are least productivity. Killing innocent people just for the sake of industrialization is not the right way of doing it. (It might be the LEFT way). No, this is not done.

PRESENT in the PAST

About 100 years ago, Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore in his poems and novels had written incidents that are occuring around us today. Believe it or not, it is a true fact.

You must have read RAJARSHI by Rabindranath Tagore in the Bengali syllabus of ISC Exams. If not, then you must have read the poem BISHARJAN by Rabindranath Tagore. If you still havent, let me summarise the whole story to you.

The whole story goes on like this: -

Gobindamanikya a great king of a small kingdom in the state of Tripura was a great human being. He was loved and respected by all in his kingdom. He had a head priest cum minister in his court called Raghupati. He used to provide all wise decisions to the king. There was a mandir in his kingdom called Tripureshwari Mandir. Raghupati was the head priest in this mandir. People in the kindom, being very religious minded, respected and feared Raghupati more than they did to Gobindamanikya.

One night Gobindamanikya had a dream that sacrifice of animals in the mandir needs to be stopped as Goddess Kali was tired of the blood stains that flowed through the stairs of the mandir. He ordered this to the people in his kingdom.

But Raghupati being the head priest of the mandir did not like the decision and he maliciously turned the people of the kingdom against Gobindamanikya (by emotionally blackmailing them in the name of religion). He even wanted Gobindamanikya to step down from the throne and wanted the step brother of the king, who was called Nakshatrarai to be the next king. So he played politics against the king in his own kingdom and made Nakshatrarai violent against Gobindamanikya. Gobindamanikya loved his step brother,Nakshartarai more than himself and seeing Nakshartarai so much eager to sit in the throne, offered him the throne and prepared to go to exile.

Thus Raghupati was successsful in dethroning Gobindamanikya and in his place made Nakshartarai the king, who obeyed Raghupati in every action he did as a king. Thus Raghupati was the invisible king who again started the custom of animal sacrifice in the kingdom.

There was more to this story about how Gobindamanikya got back his throne by the help of another priest of his kingdom called Billonthakur. But I will not go to that area and would like to show my readers that in todays world there are some cruel Raghupatis who to fulfil their own desires and needs and hunger for power dethrones the Gobindamanikyas of today.

The same thing has occured to Indian Cricket Scenario.

Sourav Ganguly (like Gobindamanikya) was the Captain of the Indian Cricket Team and was leading the team to many victories, but soon the team coach was changed from John Wright to Greg Chappell. Greg Chappell (like Raghupati) is a cruel man and had some clashes with Ganguly and soon by misusing his power dethroned Ganguly from the throne of Captain of the Indian Cricket Team and even put him outside the team. Chappell (again like Raghupati) played such dirty politics against Ganguly that its almost two years and Ganguly who had more than 10,000 runs in first class cricket and more than 4000 runs in Test Cricket, and he also being an all rounder, was never allowed to play a single match for India after Chappell came to power, even though he was in great form.

Chappell even made Dravid (like Nakshatrarai) the captain whodid and even does everything that Chappell commands him. Initially Ganguly and Dravid had great frienship but it was broken by Chappell and his policies. Now Chappell shares a great rapport with Dravid and Dravid as he tasted power is prepared to act against Ganguly and do anything that Chappell commands him.

Im sure this situation will soon disappear and soon there will be a Billonthakur who would come to the rescue of our modern day Gobindamanikya. Thus Sourav Ganguly will again rule and I can see that the day is not so far.

What do you say? Long live Sourav. Long live Kabiguru.

Light Rail Transit (LRT) System

Do you know what a Light Rail Transit is? A Light Rail Transit is an overhead Tram Car. We know that OUR Kolkata is very famous for the tram car. But trams are generally very heavy and consumes a lot of space on the road. They are even very slow. A LRT is a light weight tram car, that moves quite faster and consumes no space on the road, they being overhead. They move on special elevated tracks placed on a flyover like structure from the source to the destination.

Kolkata is planning a Light Rail Transit System from Salt Lake (Karunamoyee) to Howrah Maidan. The idea is really good and praiseworthy. No doubt about it. Initially the Project was planned from Rajarhat (New Town) to Ramrajatala on the west of Kolkata that is Howrah. Later the Project had been shelved due to lack of funds. (I am not going to the political aspect of it). Even, the Project was thought to be an underground one like the Metro Railway that Kolkata has from Dum Dum to Tollygunge. But somehow it did not happen.
Now I would like to point out the route LRT would take to go from Salt Lake (Karunamoyee) to Howrah Maidan. Starting from Karunamoyee, it would take the road that starts from Karunamoyee to Netaji Park just adjacent to the FE block. Next it would take the road adjacent to HB and GD block that leads to the SaltLake Stadium beside Hyatt Regency Hotel. Next it would cross the Eastern Metropolitan Byepass and move towards Kadapara through the road near Swabhumi and 89 Cinemas. It would extend to Phoolbagan and then Rajabazar and take left towards Moulali though Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road. It would take B.B. Ganguly Street and straight go to Lalbazar and through the BBD Bagh, take Strand Road, and over the River Hugli(a tributary of the Great GANGA or THE GANGES), it would straight land up in Howrah Maidan near Howrah Station.Thus it would go parallel to Howrah Bridge(another pride of OUR Kolkata). That is it.

I am really excited about the project. If this Project is complete, millions of people would avail it, to go to their office and come back home everyday. Though, some buses, taxis and other public transports will suffer, still such a Project needs to be there in a Central Business District like proper Kolkata where millions of people come and go everyday. Even these people will be able to travel in comfort of Air Conditioner.

By looking at this grand project I would like our Respected State West Bengal Government to think of a such a LRT Project from Barasaat (in the northern fringes of the city) to either Sonarpur (on the south-eastern part of the city along the Eastern Metropolitan Byepass ) or till Joka (in the south-western part of the city through Byepass, Prince Anwar Shah Road, Alipore, Taratolla, till the road that leads to Joka through Behala. If posssible, we should go for both the Projects. It would definitely be a GRAND PROJECT but it would earn Revenue for the Governemnt in Billions of Rupees. I hope my CRY for a grand project for the future of OUR CITY KOLKATA would be HEARD.