Celebrated moments - Durga Puja 2016

To me and many other people from the state of West Bengal, Durga Puja is a celebration of life. An awaited time of the year when all plunge into delectable indulgence of celebrating the sweet togetherness of our society. Its a festival of charm, its a festival of élan...its a festival that celebrates the art and culture of the state and of the country as a whole. Kolkata especially is transformed into a showroom of vivid art, wherein the darkest niche of the city is enlightened with luminescence of the festival. It is a something to behold. Palatial marquees or Pandals, replicating somewhere the city palace of Udaipur, somewhere Taj Mahal of Agra or in some other location reliving the beauty of rural Bengal, its incredible and unbelievable.

But for the last four years, Durga Puja to us has been synonymous to Spandan. Spandan is a socio-cultural organisation of Mumbai that brings together likemindedness of the people who believe that life has a purpose, and so does festivals. Besides numerous activities that the organisation does for the society, every year it celebrates Durga Puja. But the festivities unfold with a purpose, we call it "Theme Puja", wherein we try to emulate some social cause through the marquee and the interpretation of the Goddess. This year we celebrated the "revered presence of our elders with us", and named the festival as "Janak-Janani Utsab". A subtle step towards the laminar acceptance of the yesteryears into the modernised realm of today. The idol had traversed miles to grace the grounds of Mumbai straight from the city of joy Kolkata. Made by celebrated artists of the city, our IDOL was a remarkable rationale explaining the beauty of the old, yesteryear traditions, that are never old enough. The impetus of which, resonated our theme, of the wondrous collaboration of generations. 

These five days of Durga Puja breathes enough oxygen to survive an entire year of breathlessness. From the seraphic rituals that pulls you to a mist of devotion, to the echoing of the thunderous DHAK, from the aroma of DHUNO and the magic of DHUNUCHI NAACH to the illustriously dressed and effortless naive BONG dames, from the exhausting labour and never-ending enthusiasm of the organising committee to the long queue of thousands awaiting to taste the tongue-alluring BHOG every afternoon, from the enchantment of Nakash Aziz, Tirtha, Shayok to our very own talent hub, "POWAI SHARODOSTAV 2016" by SPANDAN FOUNDATION was a bumper hit and being a part of it was an honour.

Every year I adorn the ethnic during these days, cotton sarees, chunky jewellery and that round bindi empowers the woman, the narrator and the art lover in me. I also participated in a play, a comic relief called "CROSS CONNECTION", and as always enjoyed my niche of spotlight. 

The late night ADDA, pandal hopping, loads of calorie intake and an absolute chaotic life, afterall imperfections makes life perfect, and thats why this festival  is so dear to me. Looking forward to 2017, lets see what the coming year unfolds.....

Aritra Chakrabarty Sengupta

PINK- A MOVIE REVIEW

Hello Friends!! I am back to my very own space after a long long time. Durga Puja celebrations had pulled me into an intoxicating twirl of emotions. However now I am back, back to telling the tales of my choice. By the way...How was your Dusshera/ Durga Puja? I hope you have had an overwhelming celebration time. Wish you permanent festivities inside your heart. Now this blogpost is a long pending one, my review of the movie "PINK", cannot wait more to pour my heart.

I wanted to watch PINK from the day I had seen the trailer. Besides the evident reasons, like Amitabh Bachchan and Shoojit Sircar, the trailer was intriguing and thought provoking, I knew I had to watch this one. And as expected, I cherished my decision to the core.

PINK holds on to you from the very first scene, when the girls are seen rushing back to their apartment in a cab, on the silent night streets of the capital. Their smudged kohl and lip colour and the scared expressions, conveys loud and clear that something is so wrong. But the real essence of the movie gradually unfolds and ensures that the purpose of it is a bit more than just discussing an assault incident. PINK is a tight slap to the male chauvinist and gender biased societal structure of our nation, wherein "Equality..Equality" is just a cool thing to utter. The real bias exists in the very core of this bourgeois social structure. 

Minal, Falak and Andrea are tenants in a posh area of South Delhi. They are spirited, modern and independent girls, leading life their own way. Things are gay, until that outrageous night, when the girls push back the unwanted sexual advances by guys they were not completely unacquainted. In the fight to restrict, Minal badly injures Rajveer, who happened to be from an influential political family. The real tale of mental harassment begins after the incident. I don't want to get to the details of the storyline, as I am sure most have already watched. What I want to convey is the targeted message to the society.

Amitabh Bachchan as the bipolar lawyer Deepak Sehgal is more than convincing. He is witty yet naive, he is deadly yet silent. This master of emotions renders another masterpiece. Taapsee, Kirti and Andrea are extraordinarily natural, to an extent that you tend to forget its a movie. I loved Kirti Kulhari as Falak Ali the most. Shoojit Sircar who has produced the movie, is known for creating excellence, the director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury has done a marvellous job but I thought the movie could be better edited. It wasn't as lucid as PIKU .

PINK openly addresses the conjectures and judgemental attitude of the people when it comes to working women. If they come late and are too successful, they must be sleeping with their bosses. If they are too unsuccessful, then women can't compete men after all. If they are beautiful, vibrant and smiling, then they must be either escorts or easy preys to the hungry wolves. In a country where even today a woman is judged by the length of her skirt, by the amount of make up she puts on....PINK is an important movie.

It clearly says that when a woman says NO it means NO, it does not matter if she is a wife, girlfriend, unknown or even a sex-worker. NO cannot mean anything else.

With that I conclude, applauding aloud the ensemble cast, technicians and makers of PINK, thanks for giving the society a dose of reality check.

Aritra Chakrabarty Sengupta

Check my website: http://www.talestotell.co.in

BAN on PAKISTANI Artists

Terror attacks are not new to India or the world at large. We humans have learnt to live with this constant trepidation, day in day out. But that does not mean we have immuned ourselves from the pain these attacks bring to our existence. It doesn't mean that as our soldiers battle for us on the bloodstained grounds of the border, and we are untouched and hypocritical to behave as if everything is normal. Nationalist emotions are bound to arise in the hearts of every Indian.  

Recently I was watching a debate conducted by "Arnab Goswami" on "Ban on Pak Artists in India". True, this man is dominating, biased and even overpowering. As a debate mediator he is not suppose to take sides. However, this nature of his can be irritating and invoking anger but cannot be heart-breaking. Mita Vashisht an eminent actor, known for character acting had walked out of the debate and this drew a lot of spat on the host. While I too believe that Arnab is absolutely incorrect in his insulting and biased approach, yet I think Mita was equally disrespectful. The way she casually mentioned the martyrs and the tone in which she addressed Colonel V.N. Thapar, father of late Captain Vijayant Thapar, who had given his life for us, was unacceptable at-least to me. So Arnab well done on this account but be a judicious and unbiased mediator, afterall that is what a mediator is meant to be. ( Read this : Captain Vijayant Thapar)

The way she casually mentioned the martyrs and the tone in which she addressed Colonel V.N. Thapar, father of late Captain Vijayant Thapar, who had gave his life for us, was unacceptable at-least to me.

Then coming to the debate, I definitely think that Pakistan Artists should be banned from working in India. Not because I hate them, not because they are terrorists but just because I don't want them to take our money to their nation. A nation that is germinating terrorism. It is not that we don't empathize with fellow Pakistani citizens, we know they are also sufferers. 

But enough is enough. India is an extremely liberal country. We have loved their art and given their artists respect, fame and humongous money, while celebrated actor Anupam Kher was denied of Pakistani Visa. We have protested and voiced our desperation on Peshawar Attacks, while Fawad Khan, Mahira Khan and other artists from Pakistan were dumb after the Uri attacks. We didnot expect them to voice against their Nation, we wanted them to commune with the pain, the Nation that has given them so much recognition was going through. We have not banned their movies in India, while they have. 

Its high time people, solidarity is expected from every citizen including Bollywood. Shed aside hypocrisy, business and understand the need of the hour. Art was, is and will be borderless, Ghulam Ali sang gazals will continue to enrich our souls, but today its not the time for that thoughts to be cuddled, it is time to stand up as an united Nation and salute the soldiers who are fighting for all of us, indifferent towards our view on Pakistani artists. Salute to their valour!!

Aritra Chakrabarty Sengupta

Jai Hind
My new website: http://www.talestotell.co.in

Pedro's On the Benaulim Beach

Goa symbolises the sea, the sandy beaches, the colourfully clad firang and desi people and most importantly the elaborate and palatable Goan cuisine. Few weeks back we were in Goa and for the 4^th time. As expected we have had our share of site-seeing in our former trips, so this one we wanted to convert to a foodie delight. We started off with “Pedro’s” on the scenic Benaulim Beach of South Goa.

It was a beautiful moonlit night and the sand was shining ceremoniously in its imaginative luminance. When we drove down to the place from Varca, it was around 8:30 pm. But as September is off season for Goa as a travel destination, it was relatively sparsely populated.The staff was extremely cordial and sweet and since there were not too many to be attended, we were quite pampered. 

We started off with "Masala Crab" and when the red hot crab cuisine came, we were left gasping for breathe. It was tasty, tangy and most importantly "HAWT". So to neutralize the tantalizing effect of the crab we ordered some less spicy "Masala Prawns". Both the dishes were undoubtedly delicacies and we enjoyed every bit of the red eyes and flowing nose. We had also ordered a cocktail "Jamaican delight", which was a yummy citrus indulgence with vodka. And then to top it all, we experienced flavoured hookah, me for the first time.

Life is a journey and sometimes when I look back, I appreciate the importance of uniqueness. Pedro's is undoubtedly not the best restaurant in South Goa, but its location by the sea on the serene Benaulim Beach, its friendly and chilled out atmosphere and the magic of time has made the experience unique to me. Do visit the place next time when you are in Goa.

we at Pedro's

A distant view

Colorblast :-)

Jamaican delight

Crabs before

Crab After ;-)

Hookah time...

Aritra Chakrabarty Sengupta

Visit my website : http://www.talestotell.co.in/