Patachitra- A glimpse on an age old Folk Art.

Art refers to the creative expression of an artist which has attracted people in all ages and all times. Folk art is a branch of art,which has verbally transmitted and developed in folk-groups and in folk societies. In India, folk art generally formed by the illiterate or semi illiterate village people. It is true that they were very poor in economic condition and did not had any modern technological concept of art but the general concept existed in their blood. Particularly in case of Patachitra, we may observe that this type of folk art is ethnic in nature and it is very colorful, it also bears traditional and cultural element of country's rich heritage.

                   (A traditional Kalighat Patachitra)

Patachitra or Scroll Painting comes from the eastern part of India mainly from the states of West Bengal,Jharkhand and Orissa. The Bengali scroll tradition is an ancient one, featuring single image paintings or long vertical multi-paneled scrolls known as 'patas' (paintings) or'jorana patas' (scroll paintings). Painted jorano patas of rural Bengal are one of the few genuine narrative pictorial folk art which is linked with performance which has survived down to the present century.In Bengali, 'Pat' means 'picture' and 'Patua' or 'Chitrakar' means 'Painter'. The Patua is a kind of minstrel, religious preachers who employ these paintings as means to propagate their religion. It was also an important device through which both oral and written epics are narrated. He goes from village to village, carrying these scrolls from door to door, and  depending on people’s request, particular stories would be narrated for a small fee, either in cash or kind.

    (An Artisan with his scroll).          


According to shape and size there are two types of Patachitra were found. These are Squre Pata or Chouko Pata and Rolling Pata or Jarhano Pata. Squre Pata or Chouko Pata is a card shaped Pata, made on the basis of single impression, which has no rolling portion.This type of Pata have been making from post card size to various big sizes. Post card sized Patas are available at the cost of Rs.10. And other type of Chouko Patas price rate depended on the basis of size and quality. And the other type of Pata, named Jorhano Pata or rolling Pata has known in various name, such as Dighal Pata, 
Latai Pata etc. This type of Patachitra had made by the hard work and devotion of Patua. Generally one month to ten month has required for one Rolling Pata, which is depended on how the Pata is long. In length one rolling Pata may be formed within 10 feet to 40 feet. This type of Pata based on dramatic story, which had described by the Patua in his song and in the making of images Patuas used variety of colours.

 

According to subject matter there are many types of Patachitras were found, such as Chakshudan Pata, Jama Pata, Saheb Pata, Kalighata Pata, Gaji Pata, Satyapirer Pata, Pabuji Pata etc. And in general context of view Patachitra may be devided into six classes. Such as General, Political, Historical, 
Religious, social and environmental. Now here is some example, classification and description on various Pata, as follows— General Pata : All type of single image of man or woman or any kind of general art figure Social Pata : Palse Polio Avijan, eradiction of Malaria, Communal harmony, Terrible Sunami,explosion in Mumbai,Tree Plantation, AIDS Awareness, Awareness on Human Rights, persecution of woman, earthquake, protest to intoxication etc.

  ( Mythological Pata)                              

Mythological Pata: Raban Badha, Sita Haran, King Harishchandra, Krishnaleela, Durgaleela, Sabitree-Satyaban, Manasa Mangal, Chandee Mangal, Dharma Mangal,Annada Mangal etc.
Historical Pata : Second World War, Ajaad Hind Fouj and Netaji Subhas Basu , Atom bomb in Hirosima and Nagasaki, Destruction of Babri Masjid, Terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre(U.S.A.) ,Saheb Pata, Life of Vidyasagar, Life of Rabindranath Thakur, Life of Vivekananda etc.
Religious Pata: GajiPata, Satyapirer Pata, Jama Pata, Shakti Pata, Vaishnab Pata, Chaitanyaleela.

(Pata depicting Ramayana)

                      

In Patua societies we may find an advance sociological pattern and valuable cultural significance, which they maintained in their family structure from old age to modern age. They believe in peaceful living. They have no gender bias in their society. They also believed that they are son of the God Viswakarma. They followed some Hindu customs and also some Islam customs in their family tradition. But as artist they don’t believe in caste or race. 
They believe in human religion. They have no narrow attitude towards life and culture. They have been protecting world humanity by their artistic nature and creativity. So their Patachitra painting has a remarkable contribution to our civilization.

'Naya' is an important place of Folk-art Painting. It is a village of under Pingla Panchayet Samiti of the district of West Midnapore, West Bengal, India. 
It is known as ‘Pater Gram’. In every year there is an international festival, named ‘PATAMAYA’ arranged here by the help of European Union. 

I have visited this village and met with famous Patua Artist Gurupada Chitrakar, Who had been awarded by the ex-President of India (Dr. A.P.J.Abdul Kalam) as one of the best folk-artist of our country. 

I have known such important facts or things of Patachitra Painting from this very man.

  

  (Patua artist Shri Gurupada Chitrakar).

Old World Charm of the Chinese Whispers... A breakfast meal to remember!

It was around 6:00 A.M in the morning, A time of the day I am not familiar with. I stepped out of my apartment. It was clouded, it was grey.
Unshaven. Unbathed. Unfed. Red-eyed. I was nearly hoping for a text calling it all off.

But no, I could see my childhood friends 'Dadu' and 'Mal' as I call them waiting as eagerly. I have been an avid enthusiast about China, their Cuisine in particular since a long time now and i wanted to explore Kolkata's unique offerings.
A couple of nights back I had gone to eat at Tangra, a locality, often referred by locals as 'Chinatown'. And this time my long standing desire to checkout Tiretti Bazar, adjacent to the police headquarters "Lalbazar" and much heard oriental breakfast stalls.

Kolkata offers several interesting ways to start the day, but few as fascinating and delicious as breakfast at the Chinese market in the heart of the commercial district. For decades, this was where Kolkata’s large Chinese community lived and worked. Even though, from the 1960s, the old quarters were gradually razed to make way for office blocks and broader roads, for a few hours at dawn, the site reclaims its old identity as a traditional open-air market along the broad Sun Yat Sen Street.

                     

My first stop was a few plates of dumplings from this friendly man. I proceeded to order two plates of his dumplings, which in this part of the world are known as “momos.”  A dip in the hot sauce and I was pretty happy.
Even better than the steamed chicken dumplings were the deep fried pork dumplings! After a double round of dumplings, I proceeded on to order a bowl of soup filled with fish balls. Standing up, while resting my bowl of soup on a wobbly circular table, I thoroughly enjoyed my Chinese breakfast in the middle of always entertaining Kolkata.

   

Despite its unique ambience the only Chinese food market in India may soon sink into oblivion, along with the dwindling Chinese community in the city. Most senior hawkers are either dead or are too old and infirm to visit the market. And the young generation of 'Indian Chinese' is leaving India in hordes looking for greener pastures abroad.

The market was much more vibrant even a decade ago as witnessed by regulars. One could find areas like Bowbazar in central Kolkata and Tangra, in the city's eastern fringes, populated with the Chinese population. Tiretty bazaar, in fact, is the oldest Chinese hub, still called the Chinatown by many Kolkatans. The market can be considered a meeting place by the Chinese. "We gathere here not only to buy or sell, but also out of a fellow feeling for the community", a regular qoutes.

                                                                             
  Lids removed from towering, multi-tiered steamers release fragrant steam into the air and reveal neat dim sum made with pork, fish, and chicken, and large rounds of steamed bread stuffed with pork and chicken. We snack on the excellent dumplings and packed the saucer-sized soft bun for the street. A baksawallah or patty man, is selling his wares from the ancient tin trunk traditionally used to hawk around those flaky pastry envelopes stuffed with curried vegetables or chicken. Other Anglo-Indian treats beckon: a tray of crumb-fried egg chops and golden pantharas—deep-fried, meat-filled pancakes. 
Enterprising vendors are constantly tinkering with traditional products to adapt to changing tastes. On this visit, we discover chicken rolls/crepes stuffed with spring onion and chicken mince and rolled into long cigar shapes. Right next to the sealed packets of Chinese prawn wafers are freshly made “prawn wafers” and flat breads stuffed with shrimp. But not all the experiments are successful.






If you are a late riser then chances are that you may miss the delight as it starts at around 6am and by the time clock strikes 8 everything is finished.

Tiretta bazaar is in the Chhata Wallah Gully just beside Poddar court near Lal Bazaar police headquarters. This place is easily accessable from Howrah, Sealdah, esplanade Babughat bus stand etc.

The place is clean as compared to Tangra. The quality of food is also good. In China town there are some non-Chinese vendors also who sell these delicacies with equally good taste.


and yeah ... Do remember to take home some Prawn wafers/chips as a memorabilia.

Journey to the Ganga Sagar Mela!

This is not the story of Ganga Sagar Pilgrimage, it is about the place which lies in between . It is a Transit camp. Before starting for  Ganga Sagar, people stop over at this Transit camp situated near Outram Ghat in Kolkata . They come here every day, starting 4-5 days ahead of Makar Sankranti, where they stay for 1-2 days before heading towards Sagar Island.

  

Sadhus stay on one side of the camp and general people on the other. Can this place be treated as small Gangasagar Mela? Not really. But one can describe it as stage rehearsal before the final. A place where Sadhus and common people intermingle as one, enjoying the varied colours of life and host various events which make the Transit Camp an attractive proposition. The pictures here are trying to uphold the colours of ritual , pilgrimage and devotion while narrating an honest story of common people with their beliefs, conventions and varied shades of expression.

The whole place, overflowing with a deluge of Sadhus and smoke dust attracts common people from across the country who cook, feed, play, sip tea , pose for photographs, meet old dehati friends while portraying a sense of solidarity in diversity. As the day rumbles on, the place becomes immaterial while the journey gains importance with people trundling on amid a ravenous thirst for divinity.

   

(A sadhu, or Hindu holy man, smokes marijuana at a transit camp in Calcutta, India, Monday, Jan. 6, 2014. Pilgrims are arriving in the city before proceeding onward for an annual holy dip at Gangasagar, the confluence of Ganges River and Bay of Bengal, some 140 kilometer (87 miles) south of Calcutta, on the occasion of Makar Sankranti that falls on Jan. 14).

Reviving the Kolkata-Tram: A street car Rennaisance.

Kolkata and Melbourne have two rare surviving tramways system outside Europe. Both cities have a love for trams and kept trams running against the trend of the 1960s to abandon them.The Kolkata tram is a tram system in Kolkata, India, run by the Calcutta Tramways Company (CTC). It is currently the only operating tram network in India and the oldest operating electric tram in Asia, running since 1902. Around the world there has now been a tram renaissance to combat urban air pollution and traffic congestion. Cities in France, England, Canada, Brazil, Turkey, Tunisia, the United States and others have rebuilt, or are currently building tramways often called light rail. So Melbourne and Kolkata made the correct decision to retain trams many years ago.
On a cold January night at the Kalighat tram depot in south Kolkata, an elderly man in khaki, sitting in a stationary coach was reading a newspaper in the dim light of a 40-watt bulb. A few people asked him about the next tram to Tollygunge and left as soon as they were told the wait would be for 30 minutes.Ten years ago, the Kalighat depot used to be one of the busiest in Kolkata. Trams would ply on three routes covering about 16 km. Now a lone tramcar rattles along the 3 km track between Kalighat and Tollygunge. Years ago Kolkata trams—ran on lines embedded in large grass patches reserved for trams. These patches were ripped away in 2004 to make space for cars and buses. Trams now run in the middle of the road and passengers have to get past speeding traffic to catch a tram, risking their lives.
These tram cars fell into extreme neglect during the uninterrupted 34-year rule of a communist coalition in West Bengal, of which Kolkata is the capital. Today, the oldest tram car in the city is 75 years old. On my last stint with tram in 2007, I was told by local trammies that there was not much time left. I was glad this changed after local and international pressure and by the time I had returned to Calcutta in June, 2013 with a revived tram scenario there was more hope that trams would have a future in this congested and air polluted metropolis. So in October, when service resumed on Route 29 after eight years, many commuters found themselves overjoyed that they could once again travel from Kalighat, known for a famous temple to the Hindu goddess Kali, to downtown Esplanade, the city center, for a mere five rupees. The trams are known to be the most affordable mode of transport in Kolkata, less than the minimum bus fare by one rupee.

There has been some good work done and cause for optimism. The Nonapukur Tram Workshop has skilled engineers and tradesman and have built in the last few years more than 25 modern looking fibreglass trams with high capacity seating. Catching Calcutta trams in the 1990s and early 2000s was a bumpy affair with tram tracks having many broken rail joints. Crunch crunch was the often heard and felt sound as the metal wheel navigated an uneven and windy monsoon worn track.
 “We once thought of importing new trams but the idea was abandoned because we had no funds. Recently, though, the cars have got a transparent polycarbonate body,” says Swarup Kumar Pal, the company's Chief Operating Manager . But the new look—at a cost of Rs 14 lakh per tram—has not found much favour from commuters. Funding is drying up. The last capital infusion for the tramways came from the World Bank-sponsored Calcutta Urban Transport Project in 1982. With a Rs 108 crore assistance, 200 trams were purchased and 10 km of tracks added to the existing network. In other words, restoring routes is all well and good, but without the dedicated lanes they used to enjoy, the trams will have trouble competing with the city’s other modes of transportation.  The government’s true goal is to kill the tram system by rendering it ineffective. “If ridership comes down, it will be easy for the government to say that trams are not viable and hence should be abolished from the streets.” Kolkata builds costly highway flyovers and elevated metro railways, refurbished trams could solve the city’s transit woes more cheaply and with fewer displacements. The CTC already has the infrastructure in place to run the trams, and the Nonapukur workshop for trams in Kolkata is a unique factory in and of itself.“I think the tram survived in Kolkata despite the apathy of the government because there is a genuine demand among people for its presence”.

Anecdotal evidence suggests trams have been sacrificed to buses and private cars, a deep well of affection for the old technology still exists. The Bollywood film industry, based in Mumbai, frequently comes to Kolkata to shoot in the trams. And many like us, who sent out the silent prayer for the trams, pine for the day when they’ll be returned to full service.

 (Revival and maintenance of old trams at CTC Workshop, Nonapukur).

I believe Kolkata needs a tram museum so visitors are given the opportunity to see the history of Calcutta’s trams. An audit is urgently required so the CTC can preserve the last of the British wooden bodied trams and beautifully built Hati Gari trams. Rabindranath Tagore’s tribute tram, Gitanjali was a Hati Gari tram number 498 built in the early 1940s at Nonapukur. I am confident that tram enthusiasts would come to Kolkata to see a display of CTC trams in one of the world’s great cities. Kalighat Tram Depot would make a great Tram Museum located near Kalighat Metro stop and Kali Temple.

 (A Heritage Tram Named 'Banalata' used for promotional purposes).

(A modern day Fibre glass tram under last minute inspection at CTC Workshop, Nonapukur).

The Road named M.G.Road!

When you return home after a Bangalore visit, the question you’re most likely to be asked is “Did you visit MG Road?” This rich and active area comprising MG Road, the intersecting Brigade road and nearby Church Street has been the pulse of the Bangalore metropolis.

Named after Mahatma Gandhi, M. G. Road is also one of the busiest roads in the city and is lined on one side with retail stores, food outlets and restaurants. It starts at the end of Cubbon Park at Anil Kumble circle, named after the state and the country’s best cricket bowler. At the other end of MG Road is Trinity Circle, flanked by high end hotels like the Taj and the Oberoi. Between these two ends are office buildings, shops, eateries and movie theatres.

MG Road has something for everyone. From coffee houses like the India Coffee House where you get good ‘Madras coffee’ to upscale restaurants like 13th floor, it offers many different kinds of cuisine. The ice cream parlors’ have some very tasty exotic options. For the book lovers, Higginbotham’s and Gangarams are the veteran bookstores of Bangalore city.

If you want to give your wallet or purse some exercise, take a saunter into nearby Brigade Road. Brigade Road is easily the busiest shopping area in Bangalore. It has several local and international brands and many eateries. Just off Brigade road is Church Street. Church street is quieter than MG and Brigade Roads and boasts of several restaurants and fast foods. Don’t miss the delicious Rossogollas at K.C. Das at the corner of Church Street.

                                                                         

                                                                          

                                                                           

Ink Fades on a Profession: As India Modernizes, Digital age Spells Doom for India’s street typists.

Call it ‘mechanical’ dispensation of justice if you may, but the humble ‘typewriter’, a device of the last century perceived to have gone extinct in recent times is vital to the functioning of litany of the city’s courts. In fact, the clang of the typewriter is a vital cog to the proper functioning of the court, serving most of their needs.

From Notaries to stenographers to typists, this device is what keeps the courts running, serving their immediate and long term needs. Want to get an affidavit typed or a statement composed in a jiffy? A large number of typists would do it, in devices that are almost more than 80 years old, giving a touch of antiquity to your work.

The typewriter may have waged a losing war for significance in sectors across against Charles Babbage’s little invention, the computer, but people are inclined towards the latter as is preferred for reasons more than once. Gautam Dey, a senior typist at Metropolitan Magistrate Court, Kolkata has put in almost 29 years of service, puts things in perspective: “A majority of people who come to us are those with documents in illegible handwriting that are to be presented in courts. We analyse them and compose them in a manner that is acceptable in the court, which those with computers refuse to do.”

Gautam Da, who has been a typist since 1984, says he refused to learn computer data text processing: “I’ve felt that they were loading too much into my head; nothing gives me happiness than getting a feel of the keys of the typewriter,” he sums up his sentiments.

Technological advancement however has been slow and perceptible. Despite all this, one reason seems to be spurring the tribe of 20 odd typists in the Metropolitan court vicinity. “We have a loyal section of customers, mostly senior advocates and officials who prefer their documents only typewritten, we feel obliged to serve their needs.”