Column | Jagate Thiba Jetedina

Samaja Saptahika 2-8 Sept. 2017

Media Jobs

Web Content Writer

Vacancy for the post of Web Content Writer / Blogger fresher/experience with Esolz Technologies Pvt Ltd office located near New town, Rajarhat. We are looking for experienced Web Content writers to join our team for a long term commitment. Please only apply if you fit this description:
You must have perfect English language writing skills.
You must also have excellent internet research skills.
You must be a completely dedicated, reliable and trustworthy person
Office Address: ESolz Technologies Pvt LtdEcospace,BL – 4B. 9th FlorKolkata-700156
Company: ESolz Technologies Pvt Ltd
Industry: Information Technology and services
Experience: Fresher and Experienced
Job Function: Content Writing
Salary: Rs.7000 to 10000/pm
You can send your latest resume at : taniaghosh.content@gmail.com
Posted on 29.8.17

Hindi Essay competition

Media Jobs

Job Opportunity in NBT

मानव संसाधन विकास मंत्रालय के अधीन प्रकाशन समूह ‘नेशनल बुक ट्रस्ट’ (राष्ट्रीय पुस्तक न्यास) को हिंदी में एक सलाहकार की आवश्यकता है, जिसकी कार्यावधि एक साल होगी और जरूरत पड़ने पर इस अवधि को बढ़ाया भी जा सकता है।

प्रकाशन समूह चयनित सलाहकार को 30 हजार रुपए प्रतिमाह वेतन देगा।

अनिवार्य शर्तें-

मान्यताप्राप्त विश्वविद्यालय से एच्छिक विषय के साथ स्नातक हो, साथ ही हिंदी अनिवार्य हो।
हिंदी में संपादकीय स्तर का कार्यसाधक ज्ञान हो।
पेजमेकर और अन्य सॉफ्टवेयर पर ज्ञान हो।
प्रूफ रीडिंग, संपादन, अनुवाद, पुस्तक समीक्षा लिखने, पत्रिका का लेआउट डिजाइन करने आदि का ज्ञान हो।
नीचे दिए लिंक पर क्लिक कर अधिक जानकारी प्राप्त की जा सकती है व आवेदन पत्र डाउनलोड किया जा सकता है-

http://www.nbtindia.gov.in/…/thursday-august-17-20175-40-14…

आवेदन पत्र भेजने का पता-

Assistant Director (Estt), National Book Trust, India, Nehru Bhawan, 5, Institutional Area, Phase-II, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi - 110070

***

Job Opportunity in DD

दूरदर्शन में काम करने के इच्छुक एंकर्स के लिए एक अच्छी खबर है। दरअसल दूरदर्शन को ऐसे एंकर्स व प्रजेंटर्स की तलाश है, जिन्हें मीडिया, थिएटर, आर्ट, लिट्रेचर, म्यूजिक, स्पोर्ट्स, एग्रिकल्चर आदि विषयों का ज्ञान हो, साथ ही इन विषयो में रुचि भी हो।

इसके लिए वे लोग आवेदन कर सकते हैं, जो स्नातक हों और जिनकी आयु सीमा 21 से 35 वर्ष के बीच हो।

बता दें कि आवेदन करने की अंतिम तारीख 31 अगस्त है और आवेदन पत्र नीचे दिए पते या फिर ई-मेल आईडी anchors4doordarshan@gmail.com​ पर भेजना है।

पता- Doordarshan Kendra Delhi, Doordarshan Bhawan, Tower B, Mandi House, New Delhi-110001।

Posted on 21.8.17

Column | Point by Point

Sambad Kalika 20 August 2017

Column | Pathe Prantare

Samaya Taranga 20.8.17

Column | Window Seat

Erratic rain

This year rain has been very erratic in many parts of the country including Rajasthan, the state I visited recently and Odisha, where I live. Statistics will tell you that so far, both Rajasthan and Odisha have received slightly more rain than normal. But the rain pattern is not helping agriculture. There are bouts of heavy rain followed by prolonged spell of no-rain. The number of days that experiences rain has reduced considerably. This has impacted agriculture which requires a particular amount of rain at a particular time. Asada and Shraban– the two months of the rainy season are already over. In the Bhadra month, which marks the beginning of Sarat season the rainfall gradually comes down. In several districts of Odisha the farmers are worried lot as erratic rainfall has already impacted their produce. The same had happened in several districts of Rajasthan. This is happening more or less in every state of India. This warrants urgent attention of the policy makers and administration.

The Rajasthan government has embarked on a very big and ambitious water conservation project, about which I shall in details next week.

Free Prasad

Prasad (read food) is distributed free, in several religious shrines often irrespective of faith or background. In Tirumala Balaji Temple besides the ladoo, delicious lunch is served free to all. I have taken that food. It is served in a clean and hygienic hall. The langar (common kitchen) in several Gurudwaras offer free food to all. The largest among them is located in The Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib, first constructed in 1604 and was later rebuilt in 1764), located in the city of Amritsar.  It typically feeds roughly 40,000 people a day for free. On religious holidays and weekends, the langar feed upwards of 100,000 people a day. This incredible feat is made possible through donations and volunteers.  About 90 per cent of the staff is made up of volunteers (known as sewadars) who can help out for as long as they like. The sewadars help in cooking, serving food and also cleaning the utensils. In Tirumals Balaji Temple also there is a tradition and institutional system of volunteering. In both the places the system runs mostly out of donation made by people.

I often wonder why such a system has not been adopted in Puri Shreemandira, at least during the month of Kartika? During the month of Kartika several hundreds of widows observe habisha. They take food (usually the anna prasad of the temple) once a day.  Many of the widows are poor. During Kartikathe rate of the anna prasad is hiked. Can’t the temple provide them prasad free for this month? I am sure many would like to donate for this, if pilferage-free delivery is assured.

Janmastami

Janmashtami, the birthday of Lord Krishna is celebrated with great devotion and enthusiasm by the Hindus. According to the Hindu calendar it is celebrated on the Ashtami of Krishna Paksh or the 8th day of the dark fortnight in the month of Bhadra.

Sri Krishna is considered as the one of the most powerful incarnations of Vishnu. Legend has it that he was born in a prison in Mathura, where Kansa, his uncle had kept his father Vasudev and mother Devaki. Immediately after he was born, Vasudev took him to Gokul and left him with Nanda and Yasoda. Krishna grew up in Gokul. .

Besides slaying Kansa and other demons, he played an important role in Mahabharata and propagated the theory of bhakti and good karma which are narrated in the Bhagwat Geeta.

The actual celebration of Janmashtami takes place during the midnight as Sri Krishna is believed to have been born on a dark, stormy and windy night to end the rule and violence of his uncle, Kansa. All over India this day is celebrated with devotional songs and dances, pujas, arti, blowing of the Conch and rocking the cradle of baby Sri Krishna.

Tailpiece: Freedom

Man: What is the fee for getting a divorce?

Lawyer: Rs 50,000/-

Man: You took onlyu Rs 500/- for the marriage registration!

Lawyer: Freedom is always expensive!!

***

Mrinal Chatterjee, a journalist turned media academician teaches at Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Dhenkanal. He also tends gardens and writes fiction.

mrinalchatterjee@ymail.com

Posted on 20.8.17

Column | Window Seat

Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee

Padma Awards

The Padma Awards are one of the highest civilian honours of India announced annually on the eve of Republic Day. The Awards are given in three categories: Padma Vibhushan (for exceptional and distinguished service), Padma Bhushan (distinguished service of higher order) and Padma Shri (distinguished service). The award seeks to recognize achievements in all fields of activities or disciplines where an element of public service is involved.

The Government of India instituted two civilian awards-Bharat Ratna and  Padma Vibhushan in 1954. The latter had three classes, which were subsequently renamed as Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri on January 8, 1955.

The Padma Awards are conferred on the recommendations made by the Padma Awards Committee, which is constituted by the Prime Minister every year. The nomination process is open to the public. Even self-nomination can be made.

As these awards are considered ‘prestigious’, the awardees are generally held in high esteem in public. However, of late there has been a growing tendency among some of the awardees to flaunt these awards. Some even use these titles as suffixes or prefixes.

My friend Saral Das, tells me that the Padma Awards are called 'the National Awards' and do not amount to 'Titles'. According to Article 18(1) of the Constitution, they should not be used as suffixes or prefixes. If this is done, the defaulter will lose the National Award conferred on him or her (Balaji Raghuram vs.Union of India). In spite of this a number of awardees are prefixing the awards to their names as 'titles', which is illegal. Even in both print and electronic media, while addressing them, the awards are being prefixed to their names, which is not correct. Media persons should not address a person as 'Padma Shree' or 'Padma Bhushan' or 'Bharat Ratna'. The correct address is 'Shri 'x', awarded Padma Shree by President of India and so on. In Odia media, we are frequently coming across the addresses like Padma Shree Dilip Tirkey, Padma Shree Haladhar Nag, Bharat Ratna Sachin Tendulkar etc. which is not only incorrect but also illegal. If the awardees use these as 'Titles' they run the risk of losing the National Award. Ignorance is no excuse. I am sure the same is happening in other language media as well. We must be careful about using these titles.

Confusions that people face in their twenties

As my son reaches his mid-twenties, I find him engaging with some confusion. So do, I am sure, most of the persons in this age group. Let me detail the confusions:

Confusion number one: Am I Young Or Am I Old? It’s during your twenties that kids start addressing you as Uncle/ Aunty and deep down, you have the urge to sock them in the face but you obviously can’t do that. You only keep questioning yourself whether you’re old or still young.

 Confusion number two: Career Choices. There are way too many options and that’s the whole problem. You might not know what you want and at times, you might but what you want isn’t the same as what your parents want and you don’t want to upset them with your choice. Urrrgh! It’s complicated.

Confusion number three:  Love. Heart breaks. More Love. Falling in love and heartbreaks are a common thing is the twenties.Either you have fallen in love or you are suffering from a major heartbreak.

Confusion number four: Marriage. Marriage is another ball game altogether! People around you are talking about you getting married and you’re just wondering what’s wrong with them. The moment you hit your twenties, people start questioning you about marriage and you really have no answers to their questions.

Confusion number four:  Money. Seeing people around you work and earn and you still having to depend on your folks can be quite frustrating. You may also be earning but not enough, you just want more. Oh! You might also be earning a lot and you might not know what to do with all the money. Irrespective of whichever situation you’re in, you’re confused.

Confusion number five: Where is my life taking me? You have no idea as to where life’s taking you. You try hard to figure out but you only end up confusing yourself further.

Tirupati Diary 1

I went to Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh on invitation of Padmavati Women’s University as a member of the Board of Studies of Journalism and Mass Communication (JMC) and MBA in Media Management. It is one of the few universities in the country to offer this course.

Established in 1983 in Tirupati, it is the first women's University of undivided Andhra Pradesh, catering mostly to the rural areas. Spread over a hundred acres, it has a very we'll maintained and green campus. The University did well and continued to grow in stature. However, I am told that the division of Andhra Pradesh had impacted the quality of student intake of this university, as many students of the newly formed Telengana were taking admission in universities of their state for different reasons including financial.

Tirupathi Diary 2

As I was taken on a tour to rural Royalseema, I came across the carcass of a river. The serpentine sand dunes and ditches of water at places were there, which once used to be a river. Living river. And Swarnamukhi or Suvarnamukhi was its name. It used to flow from Tamil Nadu, through Royalseema area of Andhra Pradesh into Bay of Bengal. There were many temples and maths on its bank. One such temple is Parasurameswar Temple at Gudimallam, about 20 kms from Tirupati. It is an ancient temple of 2^nd or 1^st Century BC and has one of the earliest found Shiva Linga. This temple is presently maintained by Archaeology Department.

Tailpiece

The title of Akshay Kumar’s new movie is Toilet: Ek Prem Katha.

How would you ask your friends out for the movie: Chalo, Toilet challenge

And FB status updates?

At Toilet with GF and four other friends.

And comments after seeing would be like:

Kya zabardast Toilet tha re…uthne ka mann hi nahi kar raha tha… And jo sound effects the….dolby digital sound…

***

A journalist turned media academician Mrinal Chatterjee lives in Dhenkanal, a Central Odisha hilly town. He also writes fiction. mrinalchatterjee@ymail.com

Science Film Festival

3rd India International Science Festival (IISF) 2017

3rd India International Science Festival (IISF) 2017, Chennai has been announced by the Ministry of Science & Technology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India, NIOT, Chennai and Vijnan Bharati.
The series of IISF is an integral part of India’s long term vision in developing and widening the spectrum of scientific temper in India and abroad. The prime objective of the festival is to instill scientific temper among the masses and showcasing India’s contribution in the field of science & technology over the years. Moreover it also aims to provide a platform to young students, scientists and technocrats from across India. The science festival also intends to make the innovation beneficial for the people and develop technology that is affordable to the masses.

Previously the science festival was organized 2015 at India Institute of Technology, New Delhi and in 2016 at CSIR – National Physical laboratory, New Delhi which was a grand success. Continuing the same succession, the 3rd edition of IISF will be held from 13th to 16th October 2017 at Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Focal theme of IISF 2017 is Science for New India.

As a part of this event Indian International Science Film Festival is being organized from 14th to 16th October 2017 at Anna University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.

The film festival is open for professional and student film makers.

Please submit your film before 10th September 2017.

For details of India International Science Film Festival please visit the website or following link:

Website to Register for film festival: http://www. scienceindiafest.org/

Web-link for info on film festival: http://www. scienceindiafest.org/film-doc. html

For any other information, please call to Ms Chavi at 0120-2404430, 35 (Extn: 219).

New Book

Cover of the humor- satire short story anthology compiled by Laxmikanta Tripathy and yours truly,
 published by the state Sahitya Academy on August 2017

Column | Window Seat

Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee

Odia Journalism Day

August 4 is celebrated as Odia Journalism Day as the first Odia newspaper  weekly Utkal Deepika was published on this day on 1866. Gourishankar Ray was the editor-publisher.

Utkal Deepika was born at a time when Odisha was beleaguered with many problems. A devastating famine (Na-anka Durbhikha) was underway, which wiped out one third of the population Odisha. Odia language was under attack. Odia literature needed a strong fillip. The society weighed down by superstitions and badly needed reform. A nationalist movement was slowing taking shape. It was in this critical juncture that Utkal Deepika took birth and it played a very significant role in sociopolitical life of Odisha. It brought the plight of common people to the notice of the concerned authority. It constantly highlighted the impact of the famine and suggested measures that should and could be taken.  It strived for the development of Odia language and literature and protection of Odia interests. It fought for the amalgamation of outlying Odia-speaking areas, which remained scattered under different provincial administrations by launching a vigorous campaign. It tried to engage with people’s issues. It encouraged people to write letters to the paper regarding their problems. Utkal Deepika continued publication till 1936.

Utkal Deepika carried all the traits of a good ‘modern’ newspaper considering its editorial content and its management. With the publication of Utkal Deepika, the journey of journalism began in Odisha.

Tirupati Diary 1

Recently I had been to Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, which is a city with many holy places and temples, the presiding deity being Lord Venkateswara, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. His abode is located on top of Tirumala Hills. It  comprises seven peaks, representing the seven heads of Adisesha. The temple lies on the seventh peak -Venkatadri, hence the temple is also referred to as "Temple of Seven Hills".

Tens of thousands of pilgrims visit the temple every day. On certain days the number swells to lakhs. It is one of the richest and well managed temple complexes of the country. The Tirupati Tirumala Devastanam (TTD) manages the temple affairs and the temple complex. TTD also looks after several civic amenities and charitable activities and institutions. Surf this site to know more about the Deity, the city and about the activities of TTD: http://www.tirumala.org/.  

Tirupati Diary 2

After a darshan of Lord Venkateswara I went for a darshan of his wife Goddess Padmavati. Padmavati Temple is located about 25 kms away from Balaji Temple. I wondered why? I am told there's a story and it goes like this: after marriage Balaji and Padmavati we're going to Tirumala. On the way Balaji asked Padmavati, have you brought Curry patta (leaves)? It used to be a tradition that brides used to take Curry leaves to their husband's place. Padmavati said, no. And she went in search of Curry leaves and did not get any in nearby places. She wondered in search of Curry leaves and Balaji went to Tirumala. And Padmavati stopped downhills. There was a curse that Curry leaves in Tirupati would not have the usual smell and taste.
I am amazed at the stories we have, related to the Gods and Goddesses across the country.

Tipupati Diary 3

Thanks to the Civic authorities and especially to TTD, the Tirupati city is clean and thanks to the many wall paintings depicting various puranic scenes the city looks very colourful. But heat is a problem here. People of Tirupati tell me that there are just two seasons here: hot and very hot. “We hardly get any sustained rain. And winter just disappears as soon as you feel its feeble footsteps”. 
However, Tirupati looks very green for a city which is severely water stressed. The TTD has undertaken massive plantation drive and it is the result. Hope it cools down the city to some extent.

Rayalseema area of Andhra Pradesh, in which Tirupati comes, has always been water stressed. But of late the stress is growing into a crisis. A recent study finds that process of desertification has already started in this area. Cultivable land is gradually turning into arid desert. Urgent steps for water conservation must be undertaken in a large scale.

Needed Rogi-Kalyan Trains

Looking at the number of patients from Kolkata, Bhubaneswar​, Guwahati, Raipur and other East Indian states to South Indian cities like Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore for treatment, the railways should either introduce special trains for them or attach special coaches in regular trains.

These trains (or coaches) should be designed and fitted with gadgets for easy movement, like ramps so that wheel chair bound patients can enter and alight easily. Toilets should be larger. Pantry should cater to the dietary needs of the patients.

As I mooted this idea, my friend Radha Raman Mohanty who happens to be a member of an Advisory committee of the railways promises to take it up in the appropriate forum at appropriate level.

Tailpiece: Topic

Two frogs chatting

Frog 1: tur

Frog 2: tur, tur

Frog 1: Tur, tur

Frog 2: Tur, tur, tur

Frog 1: Kur, kur, kur

Frog 2: Abe sale, topic change mat kar.

(Courtesy: Social Media forward)

***

The author a journalist-turned media academician also writes fiction. mrinalchatterjee@ymail.com

Media Jobs

DNA requires a Bilingual desk journalist 

DNA requires a Bilingual desk journalist who can work as part of TV-Print integration team. Good news sense and a flair for writing. Position based in Delhi.
Contact: sudha.mann@dnaindia.net
Posted on 6.8.17

Column | Jagate Thiba Jetedina

Samaja Saptahika 5-11 August 2017

Short Film Making Competition

Dance and Theatre Festival