Admission in IIMC

Column | Window Seat

Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee | 21.4.19

Journalism at its Best

As we remember the tragedy of Jalianwala Bagh massacre on its 100 year, we must also remember Benjamin Guy Horniman (1873 – 1948), Editor of Daily Chronicle and Goverdhan Das, the reporter who broke the story despite stringent censorship.

Goverdhan Das, was tried and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment at the hands of the British authorities for “the offence of communicating to The Bombay Chronicle details of happenings in the Punjab under the Martial Law days.
Horniman published the story which created a furore. He followed it up even when he was deported in bad health. But he had more in mind. Smuggling photographs of the massacre and its aftermath, he broke a series of stories in several British newspapers including The Daily Herald, exposing the cruelties of the British administration in India. He also raised questions on the British government’s acceptance of  Colonel Dyer’s justifications for the massacre.

In 1920 Horniman published a book Amritsar and Our Duty of India, in which he spoke out against Colonel Dyer. He also wrote about how the British administration tried to supress the public agitation followed by the massacre by imposing martial law for six weeks in the region. There were more firings and killings and for several weeks there were public floggings by the British officials and sepoys.

 When the Hunter committee absolved Colonel Dyer of his crime, an outraged Horniman wrote, “After the revelations of the Hunter Committee, Great Britain cannot, if she is to maintain her honour before the world, remain quiescent… she will have to see whether the intention to terrorise the people of the Punjab was deliberate and prearranged.”

“If the general character of our officials, civil and military, who are entrusted with dangerous powers in such countries as India, were such that outbreaks of terrorism of the kind we have seen in the Punjab are liable to occur at any time, we should be compelled to frankly abandon our claim to be a justice and humanity loving people. However ugly the facts, we must face them.”

During his tenure as editor, Horniman also served as Vice President of Home Rule League under Anie Besant. He also called for a satyagraha campaign against the draconian Rowlatt Act.

Living in exile from India for nearly 14 years, Horniman returned to start Bombay Sentinel, which he would edit for 12 years. He also founded India’s first tabloid publication Blitz with Russi Karanjia and Dinkar Nadkarni.

Horniman breathed his last in 1948.

His memoirs, unfinished at the time of his death, were entitled Fifty Years of Journalism.

Bhubaneswar

13 April was the birth day of the modern Bhubaneswar city. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation stone of the city on this day in 1948. German town- planning engineer Otto Kolenigs Berger had prepared the master plan of the city.
The city, however, has a history of over 3,000 years starting with the Mahamegha-bahana Chedi dynasty (around the 2nd century BCE) which had its capital at Sisupalgarh, on the outskirts of the present city.
Bhubaneswar, derived its name from Tribhubaneswar, which literally means the Lord (Iswar) of the three worlds (Tribhuban), which refers to Shiva.
The capital of Odisha (Orissa then) was shifted to Bhubaneswar in 1948 from Cuttack.
Although Bhubaneswar became the capital, the city did not grow fast till late eighties. But in the last two decades it has been growing at a breakneck speed.
I have studied and worked in Bhubaneswar. I have seen it as a small town with lots of greenery and a cool strong breeze in the evening. It is changing.
I somehow do not like Big Cities. Big Cities intimidate me. They seem to make me invisible.
I have planned to settle down in Bhubaneswar. I have bought a house at the outskirts the city, where I plan to shift in about 6 years.
Hope Bhubaneswar retains some of its rustic charm and does not grow too big and too intimidating.

News consumption in digital media platforms

Dr. Santosh Biswal teaches mass communication in Symbiosis University, Pune. He is conducting a research on the future of news consumption in digital media platforms. And what would be the business model? Can news sites survive? Can they earn some profit? Can content be monetised?

Here is my humble take:

In India, where half of the population is below 25, and smart phone use is on the upsurge, the future of news consumption lies in digital media platforms. It has four distinct advantages. First: speed: news can reach people almost in real time. Second: spread: News can be disseminated at global scale. Geographical distance will cease to be a problem for dissemination of news. Third: News will be platform and form-agonistic. It could be disseminated simultaneously in text, graphics, audio and video. Fourth: cost advantage: the carriage and distribution cost will be much less than other media.

Business in digital media platforms is growing- at a very fast rate. It will further speed up as more people take to these platforms. However, it will not edge out old media like newspaper, radio, etc. Media houses will synergize different media platforms.

Tailpiece: Vote Joke 1

Can somebody send me Hema Malini’s phone number please, I have to harvest my crop of wheet.

Tailpiece Vote Joke 2

From the day our leaders have started fooling us, the charm of April fool’s day is gone.

***

The author, a journalist turned media academician lives in Central Odisha town of Dhenkanal. An anthology of his weekly column Window Seat, published in 2018 has been published as a book. Write to him to get a free e-copy.

mrinalchatterjee@ymail.com

This column is being published every Sunday in Gangtok based English dailoy Sikkim Express and www.orissadiary.com

Summer Camp at Dhenkanal Science Centre

Dhenkanal Science Centre is conducting Summer Science Camp in our Centre for which registration has been started . Eligibility for participating in the programme is Class VIII and IX.. Students will be provided with necessary raw materials and will be guided accordingly to make take away Science Kits. Science Kits will be based on high school curriculum.. 
For more information Please visit :
http://dhenkanalsciencecentre.org/summer-science-camp-2019/?fbclid=IwAR12kcLIar6_v_18wUTGAevXLFOw6a8ApesE8p6KLOnyTB-5F9AWq219LjU

13.4.19

Odia Translation of Safdar Hasmi's plays

 12 April is National Street Theatre Day. This is the birth day of Safdar Hashmi, a well known Theatre activist who was killed during performance of his play Hallabol. 
I have translated and published two street plays of Safdar Hashmi including Hallabol into Odia. 

To get a copy contact sephalicommunication@yahoo.in

Seminar on the occasion of 100 years of Jalianwala Bagh Massacre at IIMC, Dhenkanal

Thinking of organising a Seminar on the occasion of 100 years of Jalianwala Bagh Massacre at IIMC, Dhenkanal, Odisha  and publish a monograph (which may be published as a book later).
Tentatively I have thought the title of the Seminar: Situating Fact in Times of Turmoil. 
Thinking of organising the seminar in mid Sept. 2019. The monograph will be released on that occasion.
The idea is to look at Jalianwala Massacre in particular and any such incident in general through the prism of facticity. 
Essays and Articles in English/Hindi/Odia in about 3 to 4,000 words are welcome. Monograph will be tri-lingual. Book in English. Articles and essays in other languages will be translated in English and included in the book.
 May send your contribution to  mrinalchatterjeeiimc@gmail.com

column | Jagate Thiba Jetedina

Samaja Saptahika 13-19 April 2019

Column | Window Seat

Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee | 14.4.19

Happy New Year

India is one of the few countries of the world where people celebrate their own new year's day as per their suitability. Some believe Chaitra Sukla Pratipada (this year it was on 6 April) as the day when Bramha created the universe. They celebrate this day as the Hindu New Year. But many believe the day of Vaishakh Krishna Pratipada as beginning of a new year. Many Hindus celebrate the day following Dola Purnima, as new year's day. In Odisha Bishuba Sankranti is considered as the beginning of a new year. In Bengal it is the first day of Baisakh, which is considered to be the New Year’s Day. In parts of Gujarat, Bestu Varas is celebrated around October/November time as new year

Come what it may, New Year is celebrated with gay abandon in all parts of the vast country. It is celebrated as Vaisakhi or Baisakhi in north and central India, Rongali Bihu in Assam, Tamil Putthandu in Tamil Nadu, Vishu in Kerala, Bishuva Sankranti in Odisha and Poila Boishakhin Bengal. Ugadi is the New Year's Day for the Hindus of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana. Gudi Padwa is celebrated in Maharashtra, Goa and Konkan belt as new year.Cheiraoba in Manipur, Navreh in Kashmir and Cheti Chand is celebrated by Sindhi Hindus as new year.

So whatever may be the day, celebrate. Happy New Year.

100 years of Jallianwala Bagh

On 13 April 1919, Baisakhi day,  50 heavily armed soldiers of British Army under the order of General Dyer fired into the gathering of over 15000 unarmed men, women and children who had gathered in a walled ground called Jallianwala Bagh. As per official record 379 persons were killed and over 1200 were injured.

It created a huge furor across the country. Protests erupted, though the British government clamped heavy censorship on media and tried their best to give a different spin to the barbaric act, with the Anglo-Indian Press taking the lead. However, truth came to light. It shook the country and the collective conscience of all right thinking persons of the world.

Many historians opine that Britain lost its empire on that fateful day. The physical decimation of the empire took four more decades.

Haiku on Dhenkanal

National Award Winning Photographer Himanshu Vyas, who is based in Jaipur, Rajasthan also writes poetry, some of which have been published in International literary magazines. Here are some of his ‘haiku’ poems he has written on Dhenkanal after his visit to the Eastern India Campus of Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) located at Dhenkanal, where I happen to be the Regional Director and Professor. He visited our campus with another national award winning photo-journalist Tabeenah Anjum Qureshi to conduct a Photography Workshop in last October.

For those uninitiated, "haiku" is a traditional form of Japanese poetry. Haiku poems consist of 3 lines. The first and last lines of a Haiku have 5 syllables and the middle line has 7 syllables. The lines rarely rhyme. 

The trick to enjoy haiku is to frame mental picture of the words and reconstruct the scene and internalize the bhava. Here it goes:
1
breakfast table
caretaker keeps on serving
“ isn’t dhenkanal...good! ”

2
photography class
‘line’ taught by
row of palms

3.
like maa
in white saree with green border
panionhala mist

4.
monsoon spiders
twisting poses of newborn
photographer

5.
photo walk
even little dhenkenal
won’t end

6.
memories stringed
by spots where kadamb
chose to fall

7.
“ where’s dhenkenal ? ”
asking low clouds
at dhenkenal

8.
saptsajya trek
only when winds hush
trickle murmurs

9. 
fireflies
blinking windows of
mahanadi hostel
References:
1.Betel : A traditional and popular chewing leaf.

2. Wheel: Alludes to Upanishadic philosophy of cyclic nature of existence.

3. Panionhala: The hills behind IIMC, meaning‘hanging waters.’

4. Dhenkenal : A hilly district in central Odisha.

5. Kadamb: A tree with scented flowers; favourite of Lord Krishna.

6. Saptsajya : A village with seven dense hills near Dhenkenal.

7. Mahandi : A major river in Odisha and also name of a hostel at IIMC.

Tailpiece 1: Advice

For all females,

Please be advised that, there will be no maids for households, if RaGa pays 6k per month to them...

Be careful while voting.

For males,

If no maids, then you have to work at home as well... 

Think wisely before voting

Tailpiece 2: More Advice

Vote peacefully. Don’t fight among yourselves over your leaders. Look at the photograph. At the end, Thakur, Gabbar, Jay and Viru are friends.

(Courtesy: Social Media)

***

The author, a journalist turned media academician lives in Central Odisha town of Dhenkanal. An anthology of his weekly column Window Seat, published in 2018 has been published as a book. Write to him to get a free e-copy.

mrinalchatterjee@ymail.com