Mamata Banerjee expresses gratitude to UNESCO for awarding Cultural Heritage tag to Kolkata’s Durga Puja

Kolkata witnessed an unusual rally. The people of the city usually have to endure rallies of political parties but this was an exception. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee headed it. The purpose was to express gratitude to UNESCO for including Kolkata’s Durga Puja on the intangible cultural heritage representative list. The chief minister had renowned cricketer Sourav Ganguly alongside her on the stage and they greeted the UNESCO representatives who were present on the occasion. The rally included not only Kolkata but also each district of West Bengal. Among the participants were women drummers of South 24 Parganas to religious and cultural groups (Bauls) of Birbhum. The rally originated from Jorasanko Thakur Bari (House of Rabindranath Tagore) in Kolkata and culminated at Red Road ‘Durga Puja is Celebrated by All’: Mamata Thanks UNESCO for Recognising Festival at Kolkata Rally. The chief minister thanked the UNESCO representatives who had come. She said, “….. About Rs 40 crore business takes place during the Durga Puja, and this support from UNESCO will give a big boost to us…..”

Sourav Ganguly also expressed happiness and said Durga Puja is “beyond imagination”. He admitted about traveling to different parts of the world and said he had never seen such festivity anywhere. He thanked UNESCO about giving the festival due recognition. The TMC government also felicitated Professor Tapati Guha Thakurtha for her efforts to put Bengal’s Durga Puja in the UNESCO list.

Durga Puja from outside India and within –

13 Best Durga Puja in London UK 2022

14 Best Durga Puja in New York USA 2022

2022 Durga Puja Calendar for Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Tourist hotels in Puri, Darjeeling and Digha –

GosaniYatra or The Durga Puja of Puri

Darjeeling hotels brim with tourists

How Can You Enjoy Durga Puja At Affordably Priced Hotel In Digha?

Some popular stories of this blogger –

Jilebi and Vada-pau make it to a list of 50 of the best street foods in Asia

Maddox Square puja returns in all its glory after two years due to Covid-19

The Midwest and the South of the U.S. faced severe storms, damaging winds, heavy rains and flash floods

Greenland is losing ice at a fast rate with global sea level rise

Meghan Markle says she and her husband were "happy" to leave the UK

NASA enters second phase of going to the Moon after 50 years

It is easy to mint millions in Bengal if one knows the ropes and has the right contacts

Warships of the U.S. enter the Taiwan Strait, adds to tension in the region

India and Pakistan meet in Dubai for Asia Cup 2022

Industries just do not gel with West Bengal

Bengalis love poetry and it is difficult to imagine one who loves his pen to take up cudgels of machines – the two just not gel and, as experience has shown, the results are not what one would have liked.
Bengal is basically an agriculture based area where paddy fields swaying in the breeze are what one wants to see.
Therefore, when one wants to change track, one has to go in for some sort of sacrifice. One cannot get something from nothing. Unfortunately, the leaders have forgotten that simple basic.

The conflict surrounding the industrialization on West Bengal hinges on availability of land – the state keeps on talking about a sort of land bank but the investors appear to be a confused lot just like the administrators. There are vague ideas about the land scattered in small pockets and that does not appeal to the investors.
Mamata did not want industries to come up on agricultural land. Her agitation, on behalf of a section of farmers, was a big gain for her and her Trinamool Congress TMC because it led to the fall of the Left Front government and she came to power. She promised to ensure return of land to the unwilling owners but, that was, practically, a pipe dream because Tata Motors had constructed their workshops and the land was unsuitable for agriculture.
Mamata Banerjee’s land policy is now her Achilles’ heel because, when industries are categorically advised to procure land on their own by interacting directly with the landowners, it opens up the doors of corruption. Her land policy has still not changed even after being four years in power and, the net result is disappointment on the industrial front in spite of putting up a brave front.
It has been reported that she has now roped in Sourav Ganguli, the cricketer, to promote industries in her state through a reality show. Reality shows of songs, dance and even laughter do have audiences but, how far it will help the state to improve its image and raise its head is a matter of debate. Yes, Sourav Ganguli does have an enormous fan following and it remains to be seen how far he can influence industrialists to invest in West Bengal. (to be continued …)

Some more interesting 'must reads'-

City of Jinan to eliminate all dogs even if they are registered pets and vaccinated

Two foreign tourists killed as Kalka-Shimla toy train derails

Molesters flee bleeding from the clutches of a karate girl in Barasat, West Bengal


Ringo Starr, Beatles drummer, bemoans the decline in the music industry

Lindsay Lohan fails to keep her date with Toronto Film Festival

Kangana Ranaut in Paris for ‘Queen’ hates actors endorsing fairness creams


This is the age of drone warfare - pick and eliminate the jihadists from miles away

RAF readies to strike ISIS in Syria to check flow of refugees into Europe

Russia’s game plan not clear – it sends Pantsir-S missile system to Syria


Bengalis are a politically conscious lot

Rasgulla, the juice-dripping sweet that Bengalis swear by

Bengalis are daydreamers tied to mothers’ apron strings

Bengalis and their ‘dada-giri’ lifestyle

Bengalis have always been very much ahead of other communities because, as the famous saying goes ‘what Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow’. These famous words were uttered by none other than Gopal Krishna Gokhale and, appears to be valid even today – may not be in the way Gokhale had envisaged but Bengal does take the lead in all fields that require less of brawn and more of brain.
Bengalis love to write poems and have invented a concept called ‘little magazine’ – some of these are ‘little’ in size as far as the number of pages go. When these little mags came on the scene in the 1960s, it was the age of letter press printing. And, sometimes a couple of individuals, caught by the writing bug, would pool their financial resources to get a little mag printed. The contents would be poems dedicated to the girl who remains in their imagination.
The little mag would be a method to get it out of the system and, the novelty would wear off once he young man got hold of a job.

Another proof of Bengalis are the innumerable tea stalls at every street corner – the owner opens the shutters at daybreak and shuts down at night. And, as long as he is awake, he is kept busy serving out tea to his clientele.
Usually, most of them are locals and known faces. They will drop in, snatch the day’s newspaper, glance through the headlines, select a topic and proceed to create a storm in the teacup.
The topics could be anything from Tasleema Nasreen to Narendra Modi, from football to tennis, from the rising prices of onions to the murder of a local ‘dada’. ‘Dada’ means ‘big brother’ and, Bengalis all over the country are known as ‘dada’. It is believed to be a respectable address unlike in some parts of the country where ‘dada’ means a rowdy character.
Of course, ‘dada-giri’ is a different kettle of fish altogether – especially, after the popularity it has gained as a gameshow on a TV channel, thanks to Bengal’s blue-eyed boy Saurav Ganguli. (to be continued …)
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

Some more interesting 'must reads'-

Qatar Airways changes its policy of sacking cabin crew for getting pregnant or getting married

Women’s hockey team into 2016 Rio Olympics after 36-years on Dhyan Chand’s birthday

Mumbai’s 9000-tonnes of daily plastic waste a major environment issue


Tila Tequila evicted from Celebrity Big Brother because of her praise of Hitler

‘Phantom’ – a Saif Ali Khan Katrina Kaif starrer with Mumbai 26/11 as backdrop

Cate Blanchett to be honored with BFI Fellowship at London Film Festival


Foolish robbers caught in London - they wore burqas but did not walk like women!!

Horror of free access to firearms – West Virginia 14-year-old takes 27 classmates hostage at gunpoint

Trained jihadists from Iraq and Syria returning to Europe to strike terror


A street food named jhal muri
A tribute to Kishore Kumar, the legend, on his 86th birthday

Indian kitchens must have ‘besan’