City neighbourhoods come alive with KIFF
Kolkatans have a reason to cheer! The Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF), for the first time, has arrived in the city’s neighbourhoods. The international films would be screened at the local theatres. The move has enthused movie buffs of the city, many of whom find little time to watch the movies which were earlier screened at state government’s Nandan multiplex.
Fight mosquito menace, Kolkata style
With the state government trying to wash off its hands by blaming wanderlust-bitten Bengalis of bringing dengue virus from other states, many of the city residents have taken the war against dengue in their own hands in the wake of rising deaths due to the deadly mosquito-borne virus. Apart from sleeping under the protection of mosquito nets, Kolkata paras (neighbourhoods) have come together to clean stagnant water sources in their areas. They are also spreading awareness about the ways the virus may spread and how it could be prevented.
New train rises hopes to see lost home in Bangladesh
The recommencement of train services from Kolkata to Khulna in Bangladesh after a gap of 52 years has brought a big smile on the faces of numbers of residents in south Kolkata and suburbs who are descendants of refugees who hailed from formerly Hindu-majority Khulna district and its neighbouring Barisal district of erstwhile East Pakistan. The train service has risen hopes of youngsters who have grown up listening to stories about their lost homeland and have longed to return at least once and see their ancestral land in present-day Bangladesh. The train service was stopped after the 1965 India-Pakistan War and recently recommenced in the refurbished ‘Bandhan Express’.
What fresh veggies do we have in winter?
Come winter and Kolkata will witness a wave of fresh vegetables flooding the city markets from rural Bengal. So, with winter knocking at the doors, city residents hope to taste fresher and greener vegetables many of which available only during the chill. So, apart from the daily dose of fishes, many Kolkatans are looking up to cabbages, cauliflower, carrots, turnips, radishes and winter squash to satiate their taste buds. Also, dip in temperatures mean that consumption of mutton and beef rises and nothing better than the dash of veggies along with the red meat.
Aishik Chanda
The author is the correspondent of the New Indian Express in West Bengal.
Email: chanda.aishik@gmail.com