Column | Window Seat

Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee

Heritage Walk

Recently I met Dr. Reena Bhaduri, granddaughter of Sir Asutosh Mukhopadhaya in Kolkata. We met at the residence of Sir Asutosh in Bhawanipur, a historical place, which now houses a museum on Sir Asutosh and also a college run by Bharatiya Vidya Bhaban. 
Nearby there are some places of historic importance- residences of persons who changed the face of Bengal in particular and India in general by bringing in renaissance in Bengal  in 19th century.
Dr. Bhaduri was suggesting a heritage walk through these places, organised either by State Tourism Dept. or organisations like EZCC. I told her something like this is being done in Old Bhubaneswar to familiarise people with the ancient temples. It is being regularly done in Belfast, Ireland taking people through the conflict zones and showing them the graffiti. 

My friend Nita Das tells me that such heritage walk is conducted in Ahmedabad, Gujarat by the tourism dept with Guides.

After I posted our conversation on a social media platform Kaveri Kumar, News Editor at PTI Kolkata wrote that “a walk like this already exists in Kolkata for over 20 years. It is conducted on Sunday mornings in the heritage part of the city - Dalhousie square and north Kolkata, which is the heart of Babu Kolkata. It a must do for many foreigners.”

 I did not know this. Many including Dr. Reena Bhaduri also did not know about this walk.

Lesson learnt: Walks like these must be well publicised. And more such walk areas be identified and created. Efforts must be made to make this walk a pleasurable one. The areas must be cleaned up and made more accessible.

As the template for such walk already exists, all that the tourism department just needs to do is to follow the best practice.

Website on ‘Karmaveer’ Gourishankar Roy

Gourishankar Roy (13 July 1838- 7 July 1917) published the first Odia newspaper Utkal Deepika in 1866. He has had a great contribution in the cultural awakening of Odisha in the mid-19^th century. He instituted several socio-cultural organisations, which played an important role in the social and political history of Odisha. He is considered to be one of the makers of modern Odisha.

Unfortunately hardly any information about him was there in the cyber space.

Pradeep Kumar Panda, an Engineer by profession has singlehandedly created a website on him. It has a downloadable book on Gourishankar, an anthology of essays and articles edited by Dr. Sricharan Mohanty, a link to a documentary film on Gourishankar produced by Films Division besides other information.

Despite failing eyesight Mr. Panda has documented information on Gourishankar on cyber space, a job the State should have done.
This website shows what a single individual can do, if he is driven by passion and commitment. See the website here: http://karmaveergourishankar.info
And here is the link to the documentary: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxT_n3WSWFw

On a different note, Utkal Deepika, was re-launched on 13 July 2016 from Bhubaneswar  on Gourishankar’s 179^th birthday after 80 years. The Newly Launched paper has exactly the same mast head like that of the Old Utkal Deepika. It is also a weekly like Utkal Deepika used to be. 
Utkal Deepika, the first Odia Newspaper started its publication on August 4, 1866 and continued up to 1936. Jayashish Roy, who happens to have close family link with Gourishankar Roy is the editor of the re-launched paper.

Rain

Tip, tip. Tup, tup. Tipir,tupur.

It is raining in different rhythm throughout the day for the last three days, turning everything around into different shades of green including the big bare brown rocks, which is covered my moist dark green moss. 
Seeds sprout. Leaves grow. Creepers appear- almost overnight. The forest seems to come closer every passing day. 
There is a riot of life growing around me at the valley of the Paniohala Hills, where I live. And I am loving it.

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)

***

16 July 2016

Mrinal Chatterjee, a journalist turned media academician lives on the valley of Paniohala Hills at Dhenkanal, Odisha. He also writes fiction. His latest book ‘Point by Point’, a collection of his columns published in Odia daily Khabar and Sambad Kalika is being released on August 2016.

He can be contacted at mrinalchatterjee@ymail.com