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 -
The Emergency Episode of Mahalaya, 🧵When even Mahanayak's charisma fell flat!
During the 1975–77 Emergency rule, the Govt. attempted to revamp a long-standing Bengali tradition. The repercussions were severe. A detailed discourse on controversial Mahalaya broadcast of 1976!
1976, Kolkata amidst huge turmoil of the emergency declaration, state of affairs stood hugely restricted, Kishore Kumar stood banned from radio after a debate with govt. At such state, the PMO office, Delhi took a tough call to revamp the long-standing annual Mahalaya
radio broadcast of Mahisashurmardini by Birendrakrishna Bhadra, Pankaj Mullick, Bani Kumar with a fresh slate. Allegedly it was primarily Sanjay Gandhi's idea to relaunch it with the motive of projecting a stronger Durga imagery paralleling it with the regime.
With the advancement of time, skills, & technology, each new day a work which used to be a profession once is getting gradually debarred. Many such lost professions and associated rituals were rooted in rural Bengal
which have disappeared, some losing relevancy with age. To start with, Borati, a lost profession, rooted in the time when most girls were married off at the tender age of ten. In their in-laws’ houses, they often went without having almost any sense of the new life.
Borati’s task was to assist such newly married child brides in their in-law houses until they became grown enough , used to it taking care of them, looking after their needs, even up to the delivery of their child sometimes.
If you have been brought up in Bengali household, then you would have definitely played a lot of Ikir Mikir Cham Chikir spreading your fingers in your childhood days while narrating the rhyme. At a glance, Ikir Mikir might appear as child's rhyme of play
but actually the poem has got a much more intense and wrenching backstory that highlights many other sides of society. In the game, primarily two have to sit spreading their fingers, and one has to count fingers reciting the rhyme, where rhyme ends the finger needs to be folded.
Likewise, the one who completes folding all can hit the other one in the hand whose fingers are pending.
The rhyme opens with the line Ikir Mikir Cham Chikir, which means earning wages after working hard and farming (ikir).
When Lord Krishna himself charged the defense to protect Bengal from Bargis! 🧵💥🤺
Back to 1740s, prior to Plassey, Bengal was already struggling with multiple issues including the Zamindari rules, advent of colonial businessmen, epidemics, droughts, but fiercest of them all
was the continuous & heinous attack of Bargi soldiers, their relentless looting of households so much so that even 300 years later, lullabies still mention them. Alivardi was reigning over Bengal when, in seeking revenge, the Orissa Nazim called upon Bargi troops
from Maharashtra under leadership of Bhaskar Pandit to unleash treacherous attacks on Bengal. Bhaskar represented the Bhonsles of Nagpur at the time. Bargi attacks continued for as long as 7 years, and more than 4 lakh Bengalis faced death due to their raids.
It's known that Rabindranath Tagore had been quite a foodie. But it's less talked about poet's keen interest in inventing new dishes, conducting fusion food experiments, which often worked well. Delving into Bard's culinary curiosity 🥄
Regarding weird food inventions most of them came from desserts & mishtis, as Rabindranath often didn’t like repeating the same desserts. As recalled by his son, his instruction led to invention of a totally new variant of Gawja, it came out well. Tagore even named it Paribandha.
The recipe was such a hit that it was soon made in other households of Jorashanko too. Another of Tagore’s brainchildren was Mankochur Jilipi. Yes, sounds strange but based on Tagore's recipe and wife Mrinalini Devi’s skill
🌼 To the Origin of an Idiom, Rathyatra, & More 🛕🌼🧵
Since it's Rathyatra today, let’s talk about a very popular Bengali saying: "রথ দেখা কলা বেচা' (Rath Dekha Kola Becha), which literally translates to seeing the Rath and selling the bananas. Talking about the origin.
It means gaining double benefits from a single opportunity. Now, delving deeper into this phrase, it actually has a connection to an important ritual associated with Rathyatra celebrations.
For instance, in the Rathyatra of Mahesh and Guptipara in Bengal celebrated for over 600 and 400 years respectively and second only to Puri there is a unique tradition where ripe bananas are thrown towards the Rath by housewives and locals as it passes through the streets.