Reflections

Bir Chandra Manikya: Maharaja Of Tripura 1870-1896 It is not very well known that the early history of photography in India owes much to the rulers of the then kingdom of Tripura. Maharaja Bir Chandra Manikya, who incidentally was one of the first to acknowledge Rabindranath as a genius, was an accomplished photographer. He began to take daguerreotypes from the mid 1850s, but also moved with the times mastering the wet colloidion process and the platinum print as these techniques became available. He even started a Photographic Club in Agartala, his capital and held annual photography competitions in his palace. Bir Chandra was one of the greatest of the Manikya rulers of Tripura and was instrumental in the development of Agartala to a modern city and he also set up the Agartala Municipality. He used to occasionally send examples of his work to the then imperial capital, Calcutta and in 1991, the Journal of the Photographic Society of India reported that it was lucky for the winner...

One of India’s major sculptors, sadly largely forgotten today was Fanindranath Bose. Born on the first day of 1888, in Kolkata, Fanindranath had his intial training in the arts Calcutta before he moved to Britain to further his artistic aspirations. A short bio from internet sources to introduce this fascinating figure; “Fanindranath Bose’s name remains absent from the histories of the ‘New Sculpture’ Movement in Britain, yet his sculptures, training and connections suggest that he was a part of this late nineteenth/early twentieth century network of sculptors who were primarily concerned with reproducing the human body in bronze. Born in India, Bose was trained at the Jubilee Art Academy and the Calcutta School of Art before moving to Europe to pursue his ambition to become a sculptor. After failing to gain admittance to an Italian art academy or the Royal College of Art in London, Bose enrolled at the Board of Manufacturers School of Edinburgh. Scotland was to become Bose’s hom...

Sunil Ganguly died on Nabami during the just concluded Pujas. I will not go into the tasteless lack of gravity during his funeral, though I must admit that now I realize how sensible Saoli Mitra was to have organized the cremation of her father, Sambhu Mitra, before announcing his death to the world. This avoided the circuses that seem to accompany the death of cultural icons in Bengal. The fracas during Satyajit Ray’s funeral is still green in my memory. Be that as it may, I only want to record a discussion I had about his work with some friends and relatives during this time. It seems important to try to analyse why his novels were so popular and I will do it by trying to see what it was in his novel Purba Paschim that made it so significant. This novel, beloved of most if not all Bengalis records the life and times of a well off Hindu family based in eastern Bengal who have to move to Calcutta during Partition and their life and struggles. It encompasses a broad area, the prep...

It is always a wrench to leave Kolkata Airport to take the KL flight. However, often this departure has been preceded by rude taxi drivers, fatheaded security staff and expensive but lousy coffee in the airport lounge, so one can take it in one’s stride. However this time was different. For a change we spent a full week in Kolkata, that too during the Pujas. Kolkata is different during the Pujas. The traffic is smooth, the pedestrians are forced to keep to the pavements, the hawkers either go on leave or are removed from the pavements in many areas and of course the city is dressed up in the finery of the autumn festival. I have not been in Kolkata during the Pujas for something like a couple of decades. So, some of my memories had faded. However this time I was stuck anew with wonder at the creativity and hard work that goes into the organization of what must be one of the greatest shows on earth The pratimas were even better than my memories, the lighting and the pandals were min...