The Kolkata Street Food Hunt I

Ramesh Pandit
Southern Avenue is my favourite street in the city. It is very, very green, the sidewalks are clean and wide and there is not much of a public transport causing sound and air polution. But its other attraction is its wide ranging food zone- awesome street food to restaurant fare, a characteristic yet unexplored by me. Not that I was unaware of the iconic doi phuchka at Vivekananda Park though.

So when I read in today's T2 (The Telegraph's tabloid supplement Mon-Sat) about this old and popular phuchkawala- Ramesh Pandit at Lake View Rd- Southern Avenue crossing, I decided to try his fare at once. I did so in the evening with doi phuchka and regular phuchka. I know that looks like quite a weird combo, but as it is I am essentially a savoury person and can't exactly take much of a sweet-savoury mix (That was doi phuchka), and hence I had to end it with tangy phuchkas. The doi phuchka (A plate of 6 pc comes at Rs 25) tasted really good, but it is not my thing. The phuchka, well, with due respect to his patrons, scored low with me. Reason is, the water didn't taste much sour. It needed more mashed tamarind. Apart from the staple doi phuchka, phuchka and churmur, his other offerings are alur dum, alu chaat and dahi vada. Will surely come back to him for alur dum and alu chaat.

A bit of trivia: He is in the business for 42 years. He uses home-boiled water so that it is safe for even children, and his phuchkas are homemade too, that ensures they stay crispy round the year.

Southern Avenue has phuchkawalas lined up at Vivekananda Park boundary wall, and all of them offer alur dum and doi phuchka, as I found out today. Unlike North, alur dum is quite popular in South Kolkata. And that brings me to the next location featured in this post.

Rajendra
One finds him at Dakshinapan entrance. A phuchkawala whose alur dum has a long list of loyal customers. It comes at Rs 5 per serving, containing 5 pc of notun alu (Small, round potatoes. A seasonal variety but available with phuchkawalas round the year.). The USP of this deliberately underdone preparation is the spicy gravy You have a choice of adding a sweet chutney to it. Rajendra claims even children can have this speciality.

Via Darjeeling: Mock poster

The makers of the under-production Hindi film from Kolkata Via Darjeeling (Read earlier post Bollywood Via Darjeeling) has been generous enough to share the first cut poster of the film. It has been created by Arindam Nandy, the director, for the Orkut community via darjeeling started by him. It offers a peek into the look of the characters.

First milestone

Today was the first milestone for this blog, for it witnessed its 1000th visit. Tracked since late October 2006 it is indeed an achievement given the time taken for it. Going by the present standard of Indian blogosphere, as revealed in Blogging India: A Windows Live Report published in ITNewsonline.com on 27.11.06, 50% of Indian blogs receive less than 10 visitors each week. That means approximately a little more than 40 visitors a month. Modestly speaking, Kolkata Curry's achieving four times that number gives it a somewhat distinctive position in Indian blogosphere.

On this occasion, I hereby duly acknowledge all my readers who have visited Kolkata Curry during this period, and before that. This achievement would not be possible without the enthusiastic response of the readers. It is indeed they who make it tick. I have always thought a topical blog (Unlike a personal blog that's like an online diary) is driven as much by the blogger as by its readers.

Kolkata Curry has had visitors from US (California, Colorado, New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois, Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Massachusetts, Rhode Island), Canada, UK (Lincolnshire, Birmingham, Bracknell Forest), Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, South Africa, Australia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, UAE and India (Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Surat and other places). Most of its foreign visitors come from US. In India it is most popular in its hometown- Kolkata, followed by three metros.

A milestone like this is also a recognition of readers' trust and loyalty. That Kolkata Curry is increasingly being visited through Google as a source of quality and authentic information related to Kolkata is an indication that it is being counted among netizens. All this also takes the expectation level up and its important to realise that and live up to that.

I am keenly looking forward to queries, requests for post(s) on some subject and quality feedback (Both cheers and brickbats) from you all, my invaluable readers. Drop a comment and/ or mail me (Link at sidebar). All regular readers who are Orkuttians may choose to join the Orkut community about this blog (Link at sidebar) and contribute views.

Happy reading!!

Telefilm festival

The annual telefilm festival by Tara TV kickstarted yesterday at Nandan II at 7.05 pm. It will be held over this weekend at Nandan II and entery is free. The inaugural telefilm was just-finished and yet-to-be-aired QSQT Police Er Duty (Still above) by Parambrata Chattopadhyay. It was screened to a full house.

The short opening address was delivered by Chhanda Guha, VP, Tara TV and the soul behind Tara TV's experimental genre of telefilms, and Sandip Ray, filmmaker (Also known as son of Satyajit Ray), who talked more about Parambrata as an actor than a telefilm maker. When it was Param's turn he said he didn't make the telefilm to make a statement. In fact films, as he thinks, are not made to make a statement. If a statement is apparent it must have been in the subconscious of the filmmaker at the time of making. QSQT Police Er Duty was made on quite a tight budget (Seemed the budget was tighter that Tara's regular productions) and through a lot of grind and toil.

Shot end to end in a hill station, QSQT Police Er Duty is a hilarious cop & crook chase caper with brilliant performances from two protagonists Rajatava Dutta (As Sunando, the cop, seen in the still) and Kanchan Mullick (As Lakai, the petty crook), two of the leading actors in Bengali television. Of late Rajatava has made it big in films, as the new baddie in mainstream. They were ably supported by Bidipta Chakraborty (A prostitute madly in love with Lakai) and Nitya Ganguly (As the writer unintentionally caught up in the chase). The tele has some downright funny moments ably helped by Aditi Majumdar's one liners. Watch it when it is aired.

The post-show interaction had women gushing and Param almost blushing. The event had an unmistakable homely feel. Rajatava, Kanchan and Nitya Ganguly were present and appeared in front of the audience post-show, alongwith Arin Paul (Chief assistant director) and Aditi Majumdar. Param interacted with audience in and out of the auditorium with his usual humble self. This is his sixth telefilm and looks like he has got a command on the craft. I liked his last tele Nemesis too. Wish him all the best in his pursuit of being a filmmaker.

Also personal thanks to Arin, the chief assistant director of the tele who invited me for the show and also fielded technical queries from his friends (Me included). It was his birthday and instead of being gifted by us, he gifted us this nice telefilm.

A rivetting film

Kolkata Curry received its first press invite on April 16. It was to be part of a small, select audience for a special screening of The Pursuit of Happyness starring Will Smith, releasing this Friday. The screening took place at Gorky Sadan.

This is the first film which has Will's son Jaden Smith in the cast. The real-life father-son play the same on reel too. The film is terrific. A touchy, human tale riding on Will's able shoulders. Will Smith is beyond words in this film. It is based the novel on the true story of Chris Gardner (Played by Will Smith), the American stock-broker who faced intense struggle of livelihood with his little son before he made it big. Set in 1981 San Francisco, it is full with old-world charm, minus any special effects. The film has the ability to to teach values of life. Hollywood doesn't make such movies too often these days. It has received a 5-star rating in New York Times. A complete review is coming shortly on my film blog Show Business.

Watch it just for Will Smith, if not anything else. Will Smith visited Bollywood a couple of months ago and prospects of his sharing screen space with our stars in Hindi films came out on media. I don't know if our egoistic stars realise the kind of talent he is. To me Will Smith is among gods of screen post The Pursuit of Happyness.

Harsh reality

A friend a reader of this blog has requested a post on football, which is a passion for him (And Kolkata's too). Incidentally I was also thinking on writing on the same for the first time in connection with the recent happening as detailed below. This is not a happy post though and I never intended to start off on football with an issue like this.

Fifa president Joseph Sepp Blatter and Asian Football Confederation President Mohamed Bin Hammam (Photo above from their Colombo visit. Source: FIFA website) are on a visit to India. On their first stop in Kolkata they went to the three top football clubs- Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Mohammedan Sporting- all located on Kolkata Maidan, the largest green stretch of the city. The also watched the big match between Mohun Bagan and East Bengal on Sunday at Salt Lake Stadium.

As it is expected in such a tour, it is filled with feel-good moments, making dreams of taking Indian football to the next generation and an intention to create a roadmap for the same. But in a stark contrast to that Hammam and Blatter did not mince words and pointed to us the pathetic condition of the sports infrastructure here in Kolkata. To the embarassment of the national and state level and club officials Hammam said given the current infrastructure Indian football will take another hundred years for India to play the World Cup. He was not far from truth. Just to think of Salt Lake Stadium, our prized asset and Asia's largest stadium with a capacity of 1 lakh spectators, it has never been overhauled since it was built more than two decades ago. I remember due to this a few years back the ground became unplayable after just a few showers. Blatter said in his next stop in Delhi that Mohun Bagan Club, to him, looked exactly from the same time it was founded, that is in the 19th century, so pathetic is its condition with a dingy players' room, an old-fashioned gym and an unkempt canteen with broken seats.

Officials, just out of the rude shock, wasted no time in starting the blame game, something they play way better than our footballers play the sport. According to club officials little can be done as Maidan is an Army property. Well, what prevented them so far to try to fend for themselves in the long history of their clubs? Couldn't they look for other places to build their own stadiums, however low-profile they might be? Anjan Mitra, Mohun Bagan secretary said their members would sue the club if subscription rates were hiked. This sounds like a lame excuse. In a state whose citizens created a record in donating blood to raise funds for a power project in Bakreshwar, where the big achievers among the sons of the soul are passionate about football, would raising funds for a halfway-decent stadium be as difficult as it can get? Yes, the state govt. can't shirk responsibilities, what with the same sports minister around for 25 years.

I am sure not much will change with this visit, but we will remember this tight slap. We will possibly take note of the fact that football cannot move ahead only with passion, it needs sincerity of all stakeholders and organisation skills of the highly placed individuals.

BBD

BBD- an acronym well-known to every Bengali worth his/ her salt. That's Benoy-Badal-Dinesh, the freedom fighter trio, by whose names BBD Bag, Kolkata's famous heritage landmark is named. Right? Yes and no.

BBD is the new Hindi film directed by Anjan Dutt and produced by Moxie Entertainments. It has a passing mention in my post Bollywood Via Darjeeling which talks about Moxie's other current venture Via Darjeeling. The film is currently being shot in Kolkata entirely on location with an ensemble cast- from the veteran Naseeruddin Shah to rookie Shauvik.

BBD is also about three individuals- Binoy- a young model-actor from Mumbai, Badal- a hard-boiled honest Kolkata cop & Dennis- an ex-rock musician junkie who migrated to the US - who are thrown together due to the most unusual circumstances. It goes on to tell how these young men meet & how their lives get inextricably bound together. Sounds similar to Yuva? Well, the similarity ends just there. This is a complex political thriller which is Anjan's most ambitious venture to date. The film is being completely shot in Kolkata in over 30 locations in three months starting from March 2007. No sets will be constructed for this ensemble film of more than 200 actors. The camera will follow the characters extensively through the city, its streets, buildings and nightlife. Kolkata in all its grandeur, is essentially a character of the film rather than just the backdrop. The climax of the film takes place in BBD Bag, which is historically significant to the film.

The cast includes Naseeruddin Shah, Jimmy Sheirgill (Benoy), Kay Kay Menon (Badal), Sandhya Mridul, Rituparna Sengupta, Sonali Kulkarni, Shauvik (Dennis) and a host of familiar faces from Kolkata- Tota Roy Chowdhury, Rimjhim Mitra, Biswajit Chakraborty, Suman Mukherjee, Arindam Sil (Also the executive producer). City model Pooja Gupta makes an appearance as a bar singer. The music by young composer Neel Dutt, the son of Anjan Dutt, has songs being sung by Usha Uthup, Shan, Kunal Ganjawalla and Sunidhi Chauhan.

For more action on BBD watch this space.

Here's treating you with some exclusive stills shared by the makers.

A foodie update

I wrote about my coming across one of Bengali's favourite homemade foods- Khichudi being served roadside at Camac Street (Which can easily be called a food street, besides office street or retail street, thanks to the shopping mall) in the post Khichuri on the street.

Khichuri is of two kinds- the one made at home and the other at temples or Puja pandals as bhog (Prasad), hence known as bhoger khichuri or khichuri bhog in Bengali. Though made on a large scale the latter surprisingly acquires a divine taste, distinctively better than the former. Bhoger khichuri has a legendary following among Bengalis.

A colleague sampled it today on Camac Street. He was floored by the taste. They serve it with papad and alu bhaja or alur dum. According to him it is the class of 'Bhoger khichuri'.

Can't wait to check it out.

A foodie's delight

Back to my favourite topic again. Food that is, me being a self-confessed foodie. Anup Kedia, a fellow foodie has posted a series of listings of Bengali and Kolkatan food on Orkut. Among them here's my chosen one which handpicks the best of the city's favourites from small but immensely popular and legendary eateries.

1. Kabiraji Cutlet from Regent (S N Banerjee Road).
2. Moghlai Parota from Anadi Cabin (S N Banerjee Road).
3. Kosha Mangsho from Golbari (Shyambazar).
4. Phulkopir Singara from Mrityunjoy (Lansdowne Rd).
5. Double Egg Chicken Roll from Kusum at Park Steet(Campari at Gariahat & Nizam at Esplanade are close contenders). Alas, Nizam is currently cloesd due to labour problem.
6. Chicken Rezala from Shabbir (Off C R Avenue at Chandni Chowk).
7. Steak at Oly pub (with beer!!).
8. Ujjala's Chanachur ( No comparison anywhere).
9. Telebhaja from Putiram (College Street). The only mistake. The shop is named Kalika and located near Putiram on Surya Sen Street.
10. Daab Chigri from Kewpies (Elgin Lane).
11. Chicken Cutlet from Baked & Fried/ Mukherjee Sweets (Ballygunge Place).
12. Bijoli Grill's Fish Roll.
13. Mochar Chop, Dhoka from Apanjan (Sadananda Road).
14. Boudir Lebu Cha (Deshapriya Park).
15. Kochuri & Tarkari from Tasty Corner (Mandeville Gardens).
16. Phuchka/ Churmur/ Doi Phuchka from Bilas or Boudi (Southern Avenue).
17. Chicken Cutlet near Samur (Bhowanipur).
18. Mishti Doi & Rosogolla from Mithai (Beckbagan).
19. Sandesh (all types, especially Naram pak & Ice cream sandesh) from Balaram (Bhowanipur).
20. Pantua from Banchharam.
21. Indrani from Ganguram.
22. Rabri from Chittaranjan.
23. Darbesh from Sen Mahasay.
24. Amritti from Bhim Nag/ Ganguram (Maniktala). Jalebis are no match.

The list looks like painstakingly compiled over a long time. Kudos to the compiler. Absolutely mouthwatering for every foodie Kolkatan.

Bangla Telefilm Club

Kolkata is home to a large no. of film clubs. They've so far been exposing the members to the best of world cinema and have their own film journals and publications. The big ones organise their own film festivals (Cine Central's film festival is well known). They are dedicated to develop a taste for good cinema in Kolkatans for decades.

The educated urban Bengali's losing interest in Bengali mainstream cinema and gradually turning back to it is not new. And some years back they found a much better substitute in Bengali telefilms, pioneered and popularised by ETV Bangla in its Sunday 9.30 pm slot. Fellow channels followed suit. Among them Tara Muzik set its own quality standard in making low-budget but high-quality telefilms. Telefilms are not much shorter than Bengali feature films if songs are set apart. They exposed the Bengali cinema lover to fresh storylines, experimental treatment and new talents in acting and direction. Bengali televiewers felt blessed. Telefilms soon became so popular that Tara TV started organising its telefilm festival which got a thumbs up from audience. Telefilms are now available in VCDs/DVDs and discerning viewers in India and abroad actively look for them.

Lets look at the take of some industry insiders for a complete and well-rounded view on the subject (Courtesy: Bangla Telefilms community on Orkut)

“People were not getting anything from Bengali feature films when telefilm offered them meaningful cinema.” - Director Kaushik Ganguly.

"We believe telefilms are definitely viable revenue models".- Kaushik Duttasharma, Associate Chief Producer, ETV Network.

"Since so many films are being made and appreciated in the video format the world over,we should wake up to the possibilities. On my recent visit to the US,I realised that television has created a tremendous interest among the people there.It's so nice to see Bengali NRIs recognise television actors so well. By talking to them,I realised that they are interested in good quality films but not the average Tollywood fare," - Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Actor/Director.

And now Arin Paul, a friend who lives, breathes and sleeps cinema, and an assistant director in telefilms by profession has conceived a Bangla Telefilm Club. He has floated the idea on Orkut. Here's what Arin promises:

We'll be organising 2 shows every month (2nd Sundays) where in we will be showing Bangla Telefilms from May onwards. I do not promise but I shall try to bring the director and a few artists of the concerned telefilm.

For joining this community, you have to be a member of Bangla Telefilms community (In Orkut).

Also required is to register your mobile numbers at 98360-66315.

So if you are hooked to telefilms and have your own list of favourite productions, actors and directors, you know what to do now.

Kolkata Curry wishes Arin all the best and a grand success of Bangla Telefilm Club.

Orkut Kolkata Meet IV

Kolkata Orkuttians, of lately formed Orkut Kolkata Club founded by Arin, met again at Arjun's terrace near Deshapriya Park on Good Friday (April 6). It was a bad Friday for me as I had to work and give it a miss. The meet attracted a much better turnout that the last one at Rabindra Sadan (Read earlier post Orkut Kolkata Meet III) and ended up quite entertaining- with members reciting poems, singing. Tanmoy surprised all by bringing a Orkut Kolkata Meet IV cake to celebrate the occasion.

To share what happened in it I am putting below the account of it brilliantly written by Tanmoy on the Orkut forum Orkut Kolkata Club. I deliberately avoided to translate it from Bengali as not everything reads as good when translated. Here it is:

Jara Chhade Esechhilo :Arin , Tonmoy , Arjun , Amrita[Amy] , Amar , Shantanu , Aniruddha , Shreyashi[Shreya] , Kaustav , Shaoni , Anna , Sanglaap , Bikram , Sougata[Bappa] , Soumya , Anindya , Joydeep

Atithi Shilpi :Sumanta

Seto Elo Na , Elo Na , Keno Elo Na.....:Tathagata , Indrasish , Tania , Amrapali , Shreyas , Anirban , Sudip , Parthasarathy

Kahinibinnyas :Arin r kottagiri r KBCgiri.Tonmoy r bhnat boka.Amy r hasi.Amar r tax-i jibon.bishaltanu Shantanu-r abhinoybasona.ekla Aniruddha.domka haoyar moto poti-onto-pran Shreya.kichhukhan Kaustav.seminar ferot seminar-i Shaoni,gaoni?chaaraana sized anna,karnis-e bose pa dolano maana.sanglaaphin Sanglaap/chupchaap Sanglap.betalhin botolmoy Bikram.elokeshi Bappa.Soumya , The 91.sadanandya Anindya.joyful Joydeep.

Sumanta.su-mon to,tai bhalo mone bhalo kotha bollo.goutam buddha r thekeo bhalo , mukkhyo mantri buddho r cheyeo bhalo - ud-buddho korlo.amra buddhi pelam.bhaggyis besi dur theke daye ni.tahole dur-buddhi petam...

jara elo na , tara ki pelo na - Ma Taara ii janen.....

oh hyaan....amra to jaani,tara ki ki pelona.
1. chicken pakora 2 piece per pet[per head count kori ni kintu,kar ghare kota matha , k jane.... ]
2. Moner Jinis Monginis theke moner moto cake , tate knacha haat e lekha - ORKUT IV
3. instalment e loadshedding r majhe , alo-andharite adda.
4. Atithi Shilpi r bidaylogne monginis cake r alokito mukhkhani chirokaler moto bondi-camera te.

5. abar hobe go dekha , e dekhai sesh dekha noy to....

Great going OKC, keep it up!!

Eso Kichhu Kori: Time to pitch in

Eso Kichhu Kori, the NGO mentioned in my post Eso Kichhu Kori, with a dream to cohesively support underprivileged students to continue studies, gets on with job. Currently they need a) Sincere volunteers and most importantly, b) funds. They've apparently got the first in a bunch of enthusiastic youngsters. Funds is what they badly need. Garnering funds is critical now as results of Madhyamik Examination are waited and just after it a no. of students might need the support of the organisation.

Interested donors can send cheques to the following address:

ESO KICHU KORI
C/O Tilak Gupta
B-4/1, Bramhapur
Northern Park
PS- Regent Park
Kolkata 700 070

Cheques are payable to: ESO KICHU KORI.

But kindly send a mail with copies to the following email IDs before sending any contribution so that they get informed beforehand-
esokichhukori@gmail.com, datta.madhumita@gmail.com, ghosh.abira@gmail.com.

Willing people residing abroad may kindly contact their Chief Co-ordinator Dr. Rituparna Sen in the following address-

Dr Rituparna Sen
Assistant Professor
Department of Statistics
University of California at Davis
CA 95616
Ph (530) 752-7623
Email: jhumpasen@yahoo.com

Wish Eso Kichhu Kori is showered with enough funds that lets them start on immediately to fulfil their dream.

Retail fever arrives

The city saw two retail addresses throwing themselves open in the span of the last fortnight of this month. Haldiram Food City opposite CC & FC and Orchid Point between Kankurgachhi and Phoolbagan. The first raised the retail quotient of the heart of South Kolkata and the latter put North Kolkata on contemporary retail map.

A visit to Haldiram Food City on March 27, the opening day, was a pleasant experience. The five-storeyed, 80000 sq. ft. property can be called a mini food mall. The ground floor houses a Haldiram's store with extensive mithai and namkeen counters and sit-in facility, the first floor is a vegetarian food court serving North Indian, South Indian, Bengali, Chinese and continental cuisine, the second floor is a supermarket- Haldiram's first foray into daily needs retailing- and the third and fourth floors are banquets.

The sprawling, well-stocked supermarket, with promise to serve the freshest of fruits and vegetables among other things, is also the best in the area in terms of location and convenience. Among the other two present in the area, the Food bazaar atop Pantaloons Gariahat is not very inviting thanks to a small elevator and a steep staircase. And the C3 at Gariahat Mall can't boast of as good a location as Haldiram's. The roadside glass wall provides a complete view of the world outside. The fare in the food court is reasonably priced (A plate of plain dhokla costs Rs 10) and it serves combo meals across cuisines. The ground floor store and the food court combined is the expansion of the hugely successful Chowringhee branch model (Located at Exide junction). There are escalators to move between floors at ease.

While the property was under development at such a prime (May I say coveted) place, replacing an old building, it generated enough curiosity. The selection of location, hence, is bang on. Also the area merits a food court (The only other is at the top floor of Gariahat Mall, which is not as prized a location as this is). The property mix is very good and it looks set to attract healthy footfall.

Nobody can miss the giant Pantaloons store at Kankurgachhi. It looks so unusually huge, one feels like a dwarf standing in front of the fascade. As earlier mentioned in the blog, this is the largest Pantaloons store In India- all of 80000 sq. ft. The top floor, whose next attraction is a food court, hosts Food Bazaar and Depot- the book and music retail format of Future Group which owns Pantaloons. The store also houses Future Group's new electronic products retail format e-zone, which is, simply called, a heavenly experience. It has an experience zone, where you can sit relaxed and experience the products placed on the opposite wall, and a separate room for home theatre experience. This is Kolkata's first store of the group where Food Bazaar is part of the store from day one (Each of the other two Pantaloons stores added Food Bazaar atop later on). Just for record, this Food Bazaar is much bigger and spacious that its Gariahat counterpart. Also in true modern mall style, escalators replace stairs.

Kankurgachhi is the contemporary face of North Kolkata. It has a sizeable population of high-income people. Hence the location merits a store of this stature.

Watch this space for update on further inroads of retail fever which is set to rock the city in this year.

The overpowering Black Wednesday

What kept me from writing on this blog for long was the happening in Nandigram on 14 March, Wednesday that rocked Bengal and Bengalis all over the world and fellow Indians too. I could not justify any other topic for a new blog post and was struggling to find expression for the same.

It’s already a well-known fact thanks to wide coverage in local and national media. Thousands of policemen moved into Nandigram, which was isolated from the rest of Bengal by choice thereby protesting against the possibility of land acquisition by state government for industry. After early rounds of tear gas and rubber bullets they opened fire on the thousands-strong agitating armed mob. The casualties were horrible- a large no. of people died and got injured. The official figure, as expected was low- 14 people died. Unofficial figures say it was hundreds of both.

Media was prevented on the highway to Nandigram by cadres of ruling party, so that the ‘operation’ remains under wraps. The only channel that sneaked in was Kolkata TV, the Bengali news channel. Hence live footage could be seen only on this channel. As a result the channel was strangely stopped from being beamed in pockets of the state (Read local ruling party units ensuring cable operators do the needful).

What many media sources- print and electronic- have implied and confirmed that with police were CPI(M) cadres cleverly in disguise of policemen and they opened fire, beat up villagers brutally (Including children) and raped hapless women. Some bullets recovered from injured persons are not police bullets. Many people are still missing, including some who were seen injured while the firing was on. There have been reports of dead bodies thrown away at Haldi river.

This is the first of its kind in the left rule in Bengal. Not that there haven’t been instances of mass political and police killings and other excesses before (The Keshpur saga is still fresh on our minds), but everything pales before Nandigram. The only parallel I can draw is China’s Tienanmen Square in 1989. And it paints a radically different image of the chief minister (Who happens to be the home minister too, thereby directly responsible for this police operation). The CM I, and many like me, knew could not approve of such an operation. It is understood why such an operation was planned- Nandigram was a red bastion, i.e. six of the ten gram panchayats in Nandigram I (The area proposed for acquisition) belongs to CPI(M) and one to CPI. And in the wake of the ‘Save land from acquisition’ movement organised by Jamait Ulema-e-Hind and political parties especially Trinamool Congress, many left members and supporters were driven out of Nandigram. Those in control of the villages in Nandigram dug up roads and the ferry ghat was made dysfunctional, thereby isolating the area from civil administration. and police. While the lives of the left became miserable, the local CPI(M) units put pressure on their city headquarters to make way for their return to home. Meanwhile a no. of all-party meets were convened in Nandigram but they failed to reach consensus of all groups involved.

But it was indeed a high-risk task to force the desired situation with the help of police. While administrative interventions (All-party meets) failed, the government had to be more strategic and patient in using both political and administrative steps to bring back normalcy gradually. A large no. of people who died and were injured were children and women, as they were strategically put on forefront to dissuade police from firing. What, in such a scenario, prompted police to open fire, whatever have been the provocation (Stones and crude bombs were reportedly thrown to the police), is still being investigated. The initial CBI probe (Ordered by Calcutta High Court following a suo moto case immediately after the incident) has not found any evidence that substantiates it.

The government has not owned up responsibility for the whole incident and it has tried to present the incident as unavoidable. CPI(M) too hasn’t owned up the ruthless atrocities. There hasn’t been any known efforts of organising additional medical care for the injured admitted in the hospitals or declaring any compensation for the affected families. All this paints the picture of a ruling party possessing a terrible arrogance that grows out of a record thirty years in power. Such scaring arrogance is the sign of a typical communist government, like the Chinese government who ruthlessly killed students at Tienanmen Square. What the operation also suggests is that the CM can’t handle mounting pressure from his own party and take decisions that requires a matured political and administrative brain. Subsequent reports after 14 March have also shown glaring loopholes in his information network that should make him uncomfortable. He seemed to have no inkling of how heated the situation in Nadigram was.

All this has resulted in the intelligentsia of Kolkata distancing iself from the government it supported heartily. Prominent leftist theatre personalities have mass-resigned from the state drama academy and writers have mass-refused state literary awards. Celebrities, lawyers and journalists have held rallies in protest. They have voiced their frustrations and vented anger on television channels and newspapers. The general public showed their protest in a spontaneous support of the strike on March 17 called by all opposition parties.

I was numb for some time and living with restlessness for two days. What happened in a state ruled by a chief minister like Buddhadeb Bhattacharya was not in my wildest nightmares. All that I would like to say is that Nandigram left a scar that will take ages to heal, and it will change the course of land acquisition in Bengal and in India forever. It has already started in the state government’s notice that no land will be acquired in Nandigram and central govt.’s amending the land acquisition policy. It remains to be seen how many miles the CM has to tread before he restores his erstwhile legendary positive image that is badly messed up.

The changing retailscape

Kolkata retailscape is set to be hot in 2007. Big players in organised retail are being joined by small, new and local players in debuting in the city. A large no. of retail stores in the formats of neighbourhood departmental store, supermarket and hypermarket will open soon.

In December I wrote about Subhiksha's cluster plan of opening 90 stores in the city by April 2007 (Re: Organised retail scene will be hot ...). But now it seems they've postponed their plans to a later period this year. At this juncture the first star entry is going to be by Spencer's- India's first retail chain that originated in Chennai in 1863. After winning over South with Foodworld (Which has been rechristened Spencer's) and establishing itself in West, Kolkata becomes an important destination in the nationwide rollout of Spencer's, currently owned by city-based RPG group. It operates in four formats- Express (Which is your friendly neighbourhood department store, of 1200-1500 sq ft), Daily (3000-5000 sq ft), Super (Supermarket) and Hyper (Hypermarket). In March three Daily stores are opening in Bangur venue, Beliaghata and Tollygunge. Another fourteen will follow in six months in different formats. As per plan there will be three hypermarkets- in South City Mall, Mani Square (On EM Bypass) and Rashbehari Avenue. The South City Mall hypermarket is slated to be the largest Spencer's outlet in the country.

The near future will see Spencer's expanding into 35-40 Express and 25-plus Daily stores in Kolkata alone, to compliment a hub of five hypermarkets. Spencer's has promised a never-before international standard shopping experience in their hypermarkets with an amazing range of merchandise with emphasis on food products.

The other players in the fray are Khadim's Khazana, Haldiram's (Erstwhile Haldiram Bhujiawala), Emami, El Dorado and Vishal Mega Mart. Khadim's, a Kolkata-based shoe and leather products co., tasted success in their first hypermarket in Kanchrapara, a suburb and is now set to replicate it in the city. Emami, the city-based personal products and healthcare group, is already present in retail through their Starmark bookstore chain. Vishal Mega Mart, after success in other parts of India, is coming to the city which gave birth to Vishal group's first retail foray- Vishal Garments. The massive promise of the retail industry seems to be too hot to resist even by smaller business groups.

All this will redefine shopping in Kolkata which is familiar with Big Bazaar/ Food Bazaar and local players like C3, Wot Not (From Rupa group which owns the Rupa hosiery brand)) and Arambagh's (The downmarket neighbourhood department store chain from Arambagh Hatcheries who own the hugely popular Arambagh's Chicken brand) as far as organised retail is concerned. By the year end there will possibly be at least one retail store in most parts of Kolkata. In the present rush what is specially noticeable is the pace with which Spencer's will roll out, as Kolkata till now has witnessed six Big Bazaar/ Food Bazaar stores in almost as many no. of years (Arambagh's is a much longer chain but only Big Bazaar matches up to Spencer's). For information on more actions on retail in Kolkata, watch this space.

Related reading

The Telegraph story on Spencer's debut

Orkut Kolkata Meet III

The members of the community on Orkut of the same name as the heading met last Saturday at Rabindra Sadan. The headcount was poor, and poorer than the last meet, but many more would be there if work didn't come in between.

There was an eclectic mix of participants- an RJ (Shreetoma from Radio Mirchi, popularly known as Shree), an NGO guy (Dipanjan, known as Dip), three assistant directors in television (Soumya, Arin Paul and Bappa), a contractor (Anindya), an entertainment journalist (Shaoni), college students and a marketing guy (That's me) apart from the joint convener Tanmoy from Radio Mirchi. Among us was this fat and happy couple Dip and Shreyosi aka Shreya who kept us in good humour with, among other things, laughing at themselves. This quality is getting increasingly hard to find these days.

We knew each other and decided to form a small, low-profile film club. It will be just a television set, a DVD player, DVDs from members' personal collection and libraries and a place where we can sit, watch and analyse the movie. There are many who are passionate about films and a film club would be the ideal platform to express ourselves. Those wanting to be part of the club are going to join at Tanmoy's place next month for the inaugural show.

The meet was indeed a good place for me to make new friends and meet my Orkut friends (Who I scrap regularly) for the first time physically.

The FM for nostalgic Kolkatans

Post the T2 teaser campaign (Discussed in my earlier post T2: the new hip 'n' happening companion), another teaser (Mostly on outdoors) caught the attention of every Bengali music buff in the city. It mocked a forthcoming reunion of the famous characters- Nikhilesh, Moidul, Rama Roy, Sujata of Manna Dey's timeless gem Coffee House-er sei addata aaj aar nei. My gut feel told me this was going to be the keenly awaited FM channel from the ABP stable. The creative looked very much 'ABP'.

And it proved to be true when ABP launched Friends 91.9 FM on Wednesday, February 28. When the undisputed media leader of the city ABP joins the FM bandwagon, the expectations are going to be high and very different from the current leading FM stations. The radio station will be expected to deliver classy content by trained and skilled RJs (A la the news anchor team of Star Ananda, ABP's Bengali news channel- a joint venture with Star). The content will be supposed to have a good dose of Bengali golden oldies as well as popular songs from contemporary Bengali music. In short, a topline FM which Bengalis can call their own. Aamar FM promised to be something in this line, but it apparently failed to reach a respectable level of popularity that puts it at par with hot favourites Radio Mirchi and Red FM.

Friends FM's USP is touted as: It will tickle the musical bent of the nostalgic Bengali by playing the Bengali hits from the 60's and 70's besides the Hindi hits from the same era and its star anchors- the whose who of contemporary Bengali music scene- Nachiketa, Lopamudra, Anjan Dutt and Rupam (Of the leading Bangla band Fossils). While Nachiketa will be anchoring a programme of ghazals, Saumitra Chattopadhyay will join them with one on poems. The proposition stands in stark contrast of Radio Mirchi, Red FM and Big FM, the current biggies, endlessly churning out cosmopolitan content. Their RJs speak a strange mix of Bengali, Hindi and English, desperately trying to sound 'cosmo'. The radio stations collectively fail to touch the heart of the Bengali Kolkatans now in their 30s and above who miss their kind of Bengali music on private FM.

Early report from a friend- a knowledgeable music buff- tells Friends FM's Bengali music content is worth listening to.

This morning I suddenly heard a gem of a modern song on radio by Kabir Suman (Then known as Suman Chattopadhyay) from early nineties. It was Amader Jonyo, from Suman's very first album of modern songs, that shook our generation with its refreshing lyrics and music brought to life by the gifted voice of Suman, called Sumaner Gaan. The song was being aired by, no prizes for guessing, Friends FM. Unlike other FM stations they aired the entire song, typical of the old days of radio. It made my morning.

Given the marketing clout of the formidable ABP, it is sure going to give a run for money to the competition.

Beginning of change

North Kolkata is the poor cousin of its South or Central counterparts while it comes to modern lifestyle. It still doesn't have a shopping mall, a multiplex, a new age restaurant/ bar. It got its first food court (A downmarket one though) incl. its first coffee shop a few weeks back at Star Theatre. It has so far been sporting its traditional, conservative image though wings of change have touched (If not swept) its new generations on a mental context for sure. Affordability cannot be an issue as North Kolkata has pockets of affluent North Indian population (Eg. Burra Bazar, Girish Park, CR Avenue, Kankurgachhi)

But I spotted an early sign of a beginning of change as Vibes slimming and beauty centre opened its new branch right at Girish Park this month. Not that North didn't have something of its kind before. In fact the VLCC branch at Phoolbagan is old. Vibes too has a centre there. But Phoolbagan is a little more evolved that the rest as it is near Kankurgachhi which is the younger and the most modern part of North with a sizeable North Indian community. The Vibes centre actually recognizes the potential of North that has remained largely untapped so far. The chic, colourful interiors make a contemporary and inviting ambience. I foresee this centre receiving a warm response and write the script of a beginning of change that will sweep parts of North in a few years. The retail chains that are betting big on the city surely recognizes this fact and must have placed North prominently in their expansion/ rollout roadmap. Besides the Vibes centre, the other things that will take this journey forward is the under-construction shopping mall near Kakurgachhi (Opp. VIP Market), which will house India's largest Pantaloons store, and the Spencer's Daily outlet coming up at Beleghata (Near Alochhaya movie theatre) in March.

Bollywood Via Darjeeling

Once upon a time this side of India was the Hindi film capital of the nation. Bimal Roy has made many a memorable film out of Tollygunge, Kolkata. Luminaries in filmmaking and music (Like KL Saigal) were based here and did legendary work. Those were the days.

It is of common knowledge the kind of creative bankruptcy today's Tollygunge is suffering. Rituparno Ghosh's films certainly do not represent today's Tollygunge fare. Yet a dash of the old days has suddenly become visible. Moxie Entertainments- the new Kolkata-based production house- is making not one but two Hindi films out of Kolkata. The first, Via Darjeeling, an 'unconventional suspense drama', being directed by one of the finest creative minds of Bengal- Arindam Nandy (Creative Head of Response, a boutique ad agency) is under production and the second, called BBD, being directed by actor-director-singer Anjan Dutt will go on floors in March.

Not that there is no precedence to this. Rituparno filmed his first Hindi project Raincoat entirely in Kolkata with topline stars Ajay Devgun and Aishwarya Rai.

As head of Moxie Joy Ganguly (Who happens to be the son of corporate honcho Satyabrata Ganguly, the CEO of Exide) puts it " Moxie is committed to producing films crafted by a new generation of directors, writers and technicians working in India & produce nationally appealing cinema from Bengal."

Quite an ambition as it may sound but is in fact a practicable proposition. Why not Hindi cinema from Bengal? We have talented technicians, decent studios albeit in a small no., charming outdoor locations in Kolkata (Remember Yuva?) and Bengal, top class post-production set-up, even quality processing facility (Adlabs has just set foot in the city with its post-production set-up and processing lab). Well, budgets may be a fraction of Bollywood biggies, but a big budget is not an essential ingredient of a good and classy film. Rituparno is known to work on modest budgets. Yes, the local productions may not afford big Bollywood stars, but again films don't need big stars to strike a chord with audience. Also, who can say? Whoever thought Aishwarya Rai would come down to Kolkata to shoot a Bengali film without charging her regular fees?

Via Darjeeling has an eclectic cast comprising Kay Kay Menon, Sonali Kulkarni, Parveen Dabas, Simone Singh, Rajat Kapoor, Sandhya Mridul, Vinay Pathak and Prroshant Narayanan (Pic: Sonali Kulkarni, Parveen Dabas and Kay Kay Menon at the shoot at Oxford Bookstore, Darjeeling). As evident, there are no so-called stars among them but most are known for their good work in character roles in Hindi cinema. After a shoot in almost freezing Kalimpong (A small hill station between Siliguri and Gangtok) and Darjeeling, with KK Menon, Sonali and Parveen, the unit came back to Kolkata and was joined by Sandhya, Rajat, Vinay, Simone and Prroshant. Rajat is playing an intellectual Bengali scribe, Ronodip. It is possibly his second Bengali character after the one he played in the yet-to-release Bengali film Anuranan (Starring Rahul Bose, Rituparna Sengupta and Raima Sen). The actors apparently had a ball in the city. As T2 (The Telegraph) reported, Sandhya (Looking hotter than ever as her character in dark dresses) was relishing her gastronomic journey with Bengali delicacies alu posto and shorshe diye machher jhol (Fish curry with mustard sauce) and was keen to check out jhal muri and phuchka (Local hot favourites in snacks).

Coming to the content, the film is based on an age-old Bengali tradition of 'adda', where friends get together in the rains and exchange stories and gossip, over drinks and dinner. Kolkata and Darjeeling, as locations, are intrinsic to this film. The film will showcase the haunting beauty of Darjeeling, a hill station of West Bengal, situated 2134 meters above sea level and one of India's most famous hill resorts. The mystique of the hills, mist and heritage architecture will evoke an eeriness that a city in the plains can never achieve. Darjeeling is also surrounded by other very picturesque locations like Ghoom, Kurseong and Oolong apart from Kalimpong and offers ample scope to shoot in and around these live locations that will add to the ambience of the film. To lend a realistic touch to the feel of the film the background score incorporates the ambient sounds of a North East Indian hill station like tolling bells, Buddhist chants etc.

The Mumbai actors let their hair down in the big blast hosted by the producer at Roxy at The Park on the night of Sunday, 11 February. It also saw the announcement of BBD which has Naseeruddin Shah, KK Menon, Jimmy Sheirgill, Jackie Shroff, Sandhya Mridul and Kolkata's very own Rituparna Sengupta in the cast.

Here's wishing Moxie all the best in its journey.

Eso Kichhu Kori

Last year's medical topper of the state was the son of a cha-wala (Tea stall owner). There have been numerous examples of such bright students from poor families.Once in a while news of meritorious students finding it hard to keep going in higher academic pursuits due to pressing poverty comes out in papers. And sometimes follow-up news would report how some angel of a person called up the newspaper office to take up the cost of the student's further studies.

It's not a difficult guess that such students known to us are just the tip of the iceberg. The rest goes unnoticed and drop out from studies down the way.

What would happen if some sensitive people got together and raise funds to ensure such poor but meritorious students don't find lack of money to come between them and higher studies? With such an idea a forum was floated on Orkut by Madhumita Dutta, a leading Kolkata-based journalist. The overwhelming response lead to forming Eso Kichhu Kori (Means 'Lets do something')- a social organisation to champion the above cause. Among those who came were Dr. Asim Gupta, retired Chief Engineer, Abira Ghosh,social worker, Tilak Gupta, Tirthankar Ghosh (Software professionals), Sreya Sen, lecturer, Biplab Sarkar, journalist, Subhrangshu Chakraborty, Chartered Accountant, Rituparna Sen, management executive, apart from Madhumita. They form the current governing body of Eso Kichhu Kori (Lets call it EKK as it is popularly known). The USP of EKK is it aims total sponsorship of the students identified for support on a merit-cum-need basis, unlike a one-time institutional support of a few thousands.

After a few meetings it was finally registered as a body on 15th February 2007. Meanwhile the community of the same name, which had set the ball rolling in Orkut, has flourished and like-minded people from various parts of world has assured to chip in with regular donations. EKK will shortly get into action to the next steps i.e. raising funds and identifying students.

Watch this space for more actions in EKK. Meanwhile anybody interested to get in touch with them can send a mail to esokichhukori@gmail.com.