The Great Escape in pictures:
On the Occasion of Netaji’s Birth anniversary presenting an illustrative series on Netaji’s Great Escape from Calcutta to Berlin originally done for @satyanewshi's thread as an humble tribute to one of the tallest leader of our freedom struggle
1. Subhas Bose dressed up as as Md. Zia Uddin on 16Jan 1941 to fool the British sleuths as he plotted his escape .
2. On the night of 16 Jan 1941 Quietly his nephew Sisir Bose drove him to Gomoh station .
3. From there Bose took a Kalka Mail during night.
4. Subhas Bose then landed Peshawar .
5. From Peshawar Bose crossed over to afghanistan with his guide Bhagar Ram Talwar.
6. Bose with his guide trekked through the difficult terrain of khyber pass to reach Kabul.
7. As Bose escape became known to British govt 10 days later i.e on 26 Jan ,1941.British Viceroy Linlithgow was enraged with Governor Herbert.
To know in detail the fascinating history of Great escape from Calcutta to Kabul
Read this Thread -
Not a close friendship, neither a duel. But a complex connection, taking twists through cheering for mutuals to clashes, & differences, a respectful extraordinary tie as we look into the bond of Indian cinema icons, Satyajit Ray & Ritwik Ghatak.🧵
Face of Indian cinema globally and filmmaker’s filmmaker, pillar of parallel cinema. While Ray has spoken about storytelling, human emotions, diverse narration, Ghatak has made statements on subaltern society, offbeat norms, introduced new technicalities & evocative commentary.
Different languages of cinema, but the duo had a very interesting set of equations in reality. Ray recalls meeting Ghatak first time initially during early film society meets. Ghatak heard Ray had been making a film for years, gathering little funding with multiple halts
Kachagolla Kotha 🧵😋
Subtle, simple & elegant this close dry sibling of Roshogolla has been celebrated across ages, with a dedicated royal following from Rani Bhabani to Queen Victoria, hailed among the best of Bengal's sweet platter, from Rabindranath to Sanjeev Kapoor !
carrying even a partition shift in its journey too. The thrilling trace of Kachagolla has its own legacy!
Historically, finest Kachagolla is said to have originated & popularised from Natore, as legend say, later spread to Bongaon as its hub in Bengal with a partition connect.
The origin story of Natore’s Kachagolla too isn’t very different from Jobhora or Roshogolla, much coincidental wonder to say. The origin story is tied to a century-old sweet shop run by Madhusudhan Pal in Natore, when one day his workers were absent.
Long before Khudiram, Kolkata saw its first extreme penalty in a controversial conspiracy trial under colonial rule in 1700s against a Bengali king, over a pearl necklace, so much so that Bengalis took a dip in Ganga in his remembrance!
Maharaja Nandakumar Roy, the philanthropic noble native Bengali king, was made the purposeful victim of a judicial conspiracy by the colonial administration to take down his rising influence, the first of its kind in Bengal, yet he did not give up, showing incredible valour.
It was mainly the tussle between Hastings and Nandakumar, and the equation of power, which marked Kolkata’s first ill-famed judicial assassination. Nandakumar originally hailed from Birbhum’s Bhadrapur. His father served as Amin to Murshid Quli Khan.
What connects 18 time Grand Slam champion, 7 time Olympian, tennis icon of India, Leander Paes, directly to the 19th century maverick Bengali playwright Michael Madhusudan Dutta, and to Jessore & Madras? Sounds impossible, let’s connect the dots
Michael Madhusudan Dutta’s ancestry hails from Jessore, Bangladesh, from village of Sagardahi. His father was a wealthy aristocrat, a well known advocate in Dewani Court, proficient in Persian, which earned him both possessions and popularity.
Influenced by colonial lifestyle & culture, Madhusudan embraced Christianity after coming to Kolkata, joining Hindu College, for which he was eventually debarred from his ancestry. In 1848, finding limited opportunities, Dutta moved to Madras for a living.
Not only the meat-loving monk, Swami Vivekananda’s foodie voyage goes far beyond. From running food clubs to experimenting with recipes and hyping Indian cuisine abroad, this is a take on the culinary enigma of Swamiji.
On Vivekananda’s death, a popular daily wrote, The meat-loving monk passes away! A close associate of his jokingly remarked that he had preached Vedanta & biryani equally abroad. Swami Vivekananda considered physical activity & proper diet as two core principles of survival,
hence, he never imposed any dietary restrictions, rather endorsed variety & food freedom himself was an explorer of cuisines. It's said after giving diksha to followers, Swamiji first remarked, “From today you are free to eat all the 36 types of rice dishes with meat and fish!”
When Bengal's iconic Kirtan caught Jesus's message 🧵🎄
If you visit Nadia on a winter morning, then you would probably come across a band of singers singing kirtan across the roads, but not of Lord Krishna or Chaitanya Dev, rather addressed to Jesus Christ !
Indeed, there exists a separate musical segment in Bengal of verse kirtan dedicated to Christ in Bengali, known as Khrishto Kirtan or Jisshu Pala Kirtan.During winter, these singers, with their harmonium, kartal, flute, sing these kirtans in morning processions across roads.
From a distance, tunes may sound similar to prevalent popular Vaishnav kirtan, but on closer listening, it's seen the lyrics are dedicated to Jesus, tales from his life. Lyrics like “Ishonandan Jishu Bhobe holen abotaar.” But how indigenous Vaishnav kirtan get its Jesus version?