Category Archives: Photographs

Sarwate and Banerjee – hardly your typical tail enders!

Posted on May 13, 2017 by rumachak

249 runs scored by a couple of Indian tail end batsmen against a team abroad – something unusual even by today’s standards. And yet two Indian batsmen did just that on this day way back in 1946. Wisden said about … Continue reading →

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Explanare, if you please; ‘Splanade, if you must!

Posted on October 17, 2016 by rumachak

One of the earliest memories I have of Calcutta is of my aunt coming back from her classes at Scottish Church College. It must have been from her that I first heard the word Esplanade. For a nine year old, … Continue reading →

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Tyger Tyger, burning bright; but for how long?

Posted on August 3, 2016 by rumachak

The destruction of the tiger and its habitat is possibly another of those things we picked up from the British. I mean one would have to first have a pile of dead tigers to then find out that they were … Continue reading →

Posted in British Raj, Freedom struggle, History, Our history, Photographs | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Romanovs

Posted on July 17, 2016 by rumachak

In the bleak morning hours of today back in 1918, Tsar Nicholas II, the last of the Romanovs who had ruled Russia for three centuries, was executed along with his wife, Alexandra and their five children by Bolsheviks in Ekaterinburg. … Continue reading →

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Rajkahini, Abanindranath Tagore’s tales of the Rajputs

Posted on June 30, 2016 by rumachak

‘When Maldev brought Hambeer to the court where his father and his father’s father had ruled their kingdom from, one cannot begin to describe what was going through Hambeer’s mind. He felt as though all the brave men of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Bengal, Books, Folk tales, History, Mythology, Our history, Photographs, Tagore, Translated Fiction | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Tagore the zamindar

Posted on May 10, 2016 by rumachak

In 1906, he sent his 18-year old son Rathindranath Tagore (Rathi, as the poet used to call him affectionately) along with another young man named Santosh Majumder to study agriculture and animal husbandry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. … Continue reading →

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Calcutta and its changing face

Posted on September 23, 2015 by rumachak

Calcutta’s street and suburb names still hold traces of its past when people practicing a specific trade stayed with others doing the same. Thus you would go to Kumortuli for the kumor or potters, Colootolla for the coloo or oil … Continue reading →

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Mr Bell preferred “Ahoy” if you must know.

Posted on March 10, 2015 by rumachak

Alexander Graham Bell made the first phone call to Watson on this day in 1876. “Mr. Watson come here I want you.” The funny thing is that while Edison failed to be the first with the phone, he did manage … Continue reading →

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From the past, three photographs with love: Guest author Basanti Chakravorty Das

Posted on December 11, 2014 by rumachak

Last week, the whole family happily kept my son company as he watched “Gandhi” for a college project. The movie was even more engrossing after a hiatus of several years. I began thinking about my grandparents who lived through those … Continue reading →

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Who is the bearded man?

Posted on July 15, 2014 by rumachak

The photograph of Colonel Olcott Nothing comes from nothing! One of my dearest friends on Facebook recently introduced me to a friend of hers living in America assuring me that we would have our love for Tagore in common. We … Continue reading →

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