Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Amalkanti

হাওয়া বদল

নতুন একটা বাংলা পর্যটন পত্রিকা | "হাওয়া বদল"|
শুরু থেকেই জড়িয়ে থাকা| গাল ভরা নাম |মুখ্য় উপদেষ্টা |
খুব যে কিছু উপদেশ-টুপদেশ দিয়েছি একথা বললে অবশ্য় অনৃতভাষণ ই হবে |
পত্রিকার নাম, প্রচ্ছদের ছবি আর মণিপুর নিয়ে একটা লেখা | সূচনা সংখ্য়ায় আমার অবদান বলতে এইটুকুই|
সুস্থ এই প্রচেষ্টাটি সফল হোক | সদ্য়জাত পত্রিকাটির কপালে লাগুক চিরন্তনী জয়টীকা, এই কামনা |

ধ্রুবর কিছু কাঠ লাগবে |

ধ্রুবর কিছু কাঠ লাগবে |
ধ্রুব আমাদের কাঠের মিস্তিরি| ধ্রুব শর্ম্মা|. বয়স জানা হয়নি কখনো | পঞ্চাশের নিচেই হবে| খুব রোগা তবে পরিশ্রমী| আর বিশ্বাসী | কতবার ওর ভরসায় সারা বাড়ি ছেড়ে গিয়েছি | কখনো কোনো অনিষ্ট হয় নি|

ওর কিছু কাঠ লাগবে| আজ ই|
আমাদের বাড়ির প্রায় সব কাঠের কাজ ই ওর করা|
আমাদের আত্মীয় বন্ধু অনেকের বাড়িতেই ও কাজ করেছে|
গত সপ্তাহেই একটা লক লাগিয়ে গেল| আর একটা দরজার কাজ ধরেছিল |
শেষ হল না|

স্রেফ তিনদিনের জ্বর| ব্য়াস|
সিরাজের চোয়াল শক্ত| ওর চোখ ভিজে | সিরাজ ওর সহকর্মী | বন্ধু|
ওরা মন্দির-মসজিদ বুঝত না| শুধু কাজ বুঝত|

ওর কিছু কাঠ লাগবে আজ রাতেই|
এই শেষ |
দাহ করার কাঠ|
আর কখনো লাগবে না|
এর পর ধ্রুবর আর কিছু লাগবে না|
কাঠ ও না|

A forgotten actor: স্বর্ণযুগের অভিনেতা, বিস্মৄতির আড়ালে

In the fifties of last century Ardhendu Bhattacharya was a bright, young and extremely handsome front-desk personnel in the famous 'The Oberai Grand Hotel' of Calcutta.
He was spotted by a part time actor of Bengali films.
In the next few decades he has acted in at least 70-75 Bengali and a few Hindi movies with film icons like Chhobi Biswas, Uttam Kumar, Suchitra Sen, Supriya Devi, Sharmila Tagore,Bikash Roy, Saumitra Chattopadhyay,Dilip Roy, Ashoke Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan,Prem Chopra and many others.

Thought he could never become a hero or even a celebrity,but during his heyday he was very popular and a respected name in Tollywood(The Calcutta counterpart of Holly/Bollywood).
Still almost in every week his films are shown in one TV channel or the other as he has acted in almost all the major movies of that golden era.
Some of his films are
• Shudhu ekti bacchar(শুধু একটি বছর)
• Uttarayan (উত্তরায়ণ)
• Sesh anko(শেষ অঙ্ক)
• Surjoshikha(সূর্যশিখা)
• Kakhono megh(কখনো মেঘ)
• Prastor swakhkhor(প্রস্তর স্বাক্ষর)
• Nayikar bhumikay(নায়িকার ভূমিকায়)
• Kach kata hirey(কাচ কাটা হীরে)
• Antaraley(অন্তরালে)
• Agnishikha(অগ্নিশিখা)
Hindi films like:
• Do anjane
• Tin debiyan


A few years back he came to my clinic with some skin problems and that's how I came to know about him.

He is 88 now and fighting a losing battle with everything surrounding him.
His elder daughter was a political activist(and a councilor) who died a few years back. His younger daughter stays abroad.

He was supposed to go to an old home in Puri a few years back but unfortunately met with an accident just a couple of days before his scheduled day of departure.
Now he stays in a small room of a dilapidated house with the help of an aging and feeble maid servant.

He was scheduled to finally go to her daughter in Canada. But now he is reluctant and more importantly too weak to take a long haul flight.


Every time when I come out of his house through a narrow and ill-illuminated ally in the Cornfield Road of south Kolkata... he tries to focus his torch with his trembling and weak hand from behind ...and whispers...'take care'....

দিলীপ রায় চলে গেলেন

বড় অভিনেতা আর ভালো মানুষ দিলীপ রায় চলে গেলেন| আমাদের প্রতিবেশী ছিলেন| সংকোচ ভেঙে আলাপ করা হয়ে ওঠেনি আর| খেদ রয়ে গেল|
শেষ দেখা ’নবজাগরণ’এর অনুষ্ঠানে ঠিক এক মাস আগে|

বাংলায় ব্লগ

বাংলায় কি ব্লগ লেখা যায়?
চেষ্টা করে দেখা যাক.

My online photo exhibition in Dermanities

Just came to know that Dermanities(USA and Canada) has carried an online exhibition of my photos in their recent issue.

* For this issue Click on : www.dermanities.com
* The page link is: http://www.dermanities.com/detail.asp?article=299

These are old images...most of you have seen these already...

Still enjoy...as a new bottle of old wine :-)

The Photography of Dr. Koushik Lahiri

Koushik Lahiri
Dermanities July 15, 2010; 6(2)

The Photography of Dr. Koushik Lahiri

Dr. Koushik Lahiri is a consulting dermatologist from Kolkata (Calcutta), India. At present, he is the executive editor of the Indian Journal of Dermatology and in the recent past was the National General Secretary of one of the biggest dermatological societies in the world, the Indian Association of Dermatologists, Venereologists and Leprologists(IADVL). He is a fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology and one of the Advisors of the National Vitiligo Foundation, USA. He has contributed several chapters in a few books and more than seventy articles in various journals. He has edited one book in Dermatology and has penned three books on dermatology for the general public; he has also written many travelogues in various magazines in Bengali. He suffers from wanderlust and has traveled almost all the corners of the globe. He is a passionate photographer and his photos are included in Dermatlas, Google earth. His travel photos have won prizes and have also been selected to promote tourism by the department of tourism in his state. Other than clinical photographs, he loves to click nature and portrait photography.

About his photography: http://koushiklahiri.blogspot.com/search/label/My%20cameras

Baba, in remembrance

It was 5th August 2006.
I had to leave for Hyderababd to attend the central council meeting of IADVL which I was organizing as the National Secretary. Baba was in Santiniketan with Ma. He suffered from a massive but silent myocardial infarction the same day and left us at 3.20 pm on his way to Burdwan. Nothing could be done. Ma, my sister Mumu(Sudeshna) and brother in law(Debasish) were there with him. I was 1200 km away when it happened.
Came back late that night. Alone.
Looking at his face I realised that we do not control anything and nothing really is in our hands.I knew that everything is temporary. Even our existance.

I have never felt sad, impatient or disturbed after realising this.
Not for a single moment.

This was published in the journals as obituary. Dr. Arijit Coondoo wrote this piece.
Dr. Bhabesh Chandra Lahiri was born on 11.8.1932 at Natore (now in Bangladesh) in an affluent zamindar family. His father was a renowned physician. A brilliant student, he passed his Matriculation (School Leaving Examination) at the tender age of 14 years. Subsequently he passed the I.Sc examinations from Rajshahi College and B.Sc. from City College, Calcutta before obtaining his MBBS degree from NRS Medical College, Calcutta in 1957. He took his training at the School of Tropical Medicine in 1959 for a special fellowship in Leprosy. Subsequently, he passed the D. Dermat examination of the Calcutta University in 1967.

He joined the West Bengal Health Services in 1962 and after passing the D. Dermat examinations he was posted at Bankura Sammilani Medical College where he was instrumental in starting the Department of Dermatology in 1969. He was later transferred to Burdwan Medical College in 1973. Here again he was the first teacher in the Department of Dermatology of Burdwan Medical College and was intensely associated with all the academic and teaching activities in the department till he retired in 1990. His lucid teaching, polite behavior and inherent humbleness attracted many brilliant students to the subject of dermatology. His administrative acumen was also evident when as a senior member of the faculty he served as Deputy Superintendent and Acting Superintendent in the same hospital with effortless ease. His firmness and practical approach helped him tide over many a crisis during this period.

From 1973 onwards he developed a fabulous practice in Burdwan and soon his name became synonymous with dermatology not only in Burdwan but also in all the adjoining districts of South Bengal. A founder member of IADVL, his devotion to the Association was evident from the fact that he attended almost every national, state and zonal conferences of IADVL. Due to his introvert nature he was always averse to pushing himself into the limelight. However, he had a keen intellect and an intense interest in the affairs of IADVL and was always ready at hand to advise his son Koushik when the latter was elected as the Honorary General Secretary of IADVL. Unfortunately he could not see his son complete his term. He passed away on the afternoon of August 5, 2006 after suffering a silent myocardial infarction earlier in the day. Besides Koushik, he is survived by his wife Suchhanda, a renowned Rabindrasangeet singer and daughter Sudeshna, a doctor and hospital administrator. May his soul rest in peace.

E-reunion

This is cool!!!
Barely 10 days back on 21st July I started the e-reunion thread...with 10 batch-mates
On 23rd July Samarnath Sen announced our batch website www.bmc1984.webs.com
The yahoogroup was created by me on 29th July and now we have a Facebook group already!!!

Great! This is just fantastic.It was wonderful to get back more than two dozens of classmates after 25 years!!! We joined our Medical college in 1984. There was no Internet, mobile, Facebook then... now we are living in future!Life is impossible without the web.
This is just another example how 'net' can help us in searching lost friends...

More drops

A photoblog on the monsoon

The photo of Chilapata forest

A few weeks back I received a mail from an agency on behalf of the West Bengal Toursim Department.

They wanted to purchase one of my photos of Chilapata forest in the dooars that was clicked from a moving vehicle when we visited the pristine forest earlier this year.I was informed that they spotted that photo from my online Flickr photo-stream.
I was pleasantly surprised and obviously happy.

I never knew anybody either in that agency or the tourism department.
I agreed to the offer and transferred the image after making the necessary editing (with the help of my photographer friend Apratim)

I visited the Travel and Tourism Expo(TTE2010) at the Netaji Indoor stadium on Saturday the 17th July 2010.

The theme at the WB Tourism's Beautiful Bengal Pavilion this year was Dooars.
Initially I could not recognize my photo at all!!!

It was a huge 12'X15' blow up on flex and was placed just on the back of the stage infront of which the folk artists were performing.
It was a mixed feeling.For a moment I was extremely happy to see a photo clicked by me displayed so prominently in front of the whole world.The next moment I felt sad that the photo is not mine anymore. That afternoon, that whispering moment became blurred in my mind and seemed lost with thousands of people around and with the addition of some characters in my photo.
I clicked a few photos of that photo with my mobile camera and quietly came out.

Later I realised that this can happen in any creation, any art form. After writing a story, after painting a portrait,after performing on stage or even singing a song the product of creation becomes a property of the reader, viewer, spectator or listener. From that very moment the writer, painter, actor or singer ceases to remain the owner or it. This is natural. There is no sorrow or melancholy attached to it. The situation is often equated when the daughter gets married and leaves the parental house forever.That moment is equally an eternal moment of joy and sadness. That exactly happened here.I am happy and sad at the same time.

I am happy that my humble photography got some recognition, sad because it is not my child anymore.

Magical dooars

Dooars was just magical.
Spending a few days with family on the backdrop of the unbelievable and almost suffocating beauty of dooars helped a lot to unwind.

Staying at the Hallong Forest lodge was a dream come true. We stayed on the top floor.

Took the elephant ride both the days. Nearby south Khairbari was nothing special.
But Mendabari certainly was. Visits to the Chilapata forest, Nalraja's Garh, the pristine forest of the famous Buxa were unforgettable

It will be difficult for us to forget the night we spend at Mendabari forest lodge.
All we wanted was a few ice cubes and it was a prehistoric hailstorm!!!

I started clicking at a fairly early age. It was 1972, Puri and I was not even six that time. Probably it was an Agfa Isoly II. But that was not our camera.



I could purchase my first camera in 1978. It was a click IV. Probably the price was Rs 140/- that time. My uncle purchased it from Bombay. I used to save Rs.1.5/- daily from the rickshaw fare given my my mother. In a note book, the accounts were recorded against date. I could pile up a huge sum of Rs.125/- and the rest was a gift from my father.

Yashica electro 35 was the next that we had. My Aunty-Uncle brought it from England in 1979.

The first SLR that entered our house was Minolta 7000. That was incidentally the first autofocus SLR in the world. With a decent 28-70 lense it was dream machine for me.

The pictures were excuisite and crisp.

In late 1992 I purchased my first Nikon. It was FM 10.

 In 1996 I took the next step with a Nikon F65.

With an 18-24mm wide angle, 70-200mm tele and a basic 35-70mm lens this was a complete set for me.


 

In 2004, I graduated to digital photography with Nikon Coolpix 8700. It was a 8MP, superzoom bridge with 35-280 mm lens. The picture quality was astonishing and in some cases outstanding.

In 2007 I purchased my first Canon S5 iS. This is again a 8 MP bridge camera with 35-432 mm. It was not a great camera, though I could take some nice photos with this at Rajasthan.




 

Nikon D60 was my next camera which I purchased in Aug 2008. This entry level D-SLR could never really satisfy me. Except for a few nice shots at Prague, I was not too happy.

 

Canon SX10iS was a small giant which I have used for a few months in 2009 abd early 2010. Again a bridge with 10 MP and a 28-560 mm lens.

It was fun but again had some limitations with which I became aware and sensitized during the wildlife photo safari and Bandipur.







 

Within 4 weeks of coming back  in February 2010 I moved to my next D-SLR and again a Nikon. This time it is D90 with a 18-105 mm lens.

After a long 3 years I purchased my first Canon D-SLR 7D. Initially with a 18-200 mm lens and then replaced the lense with one 18-135 mm and another 70-300 mm lenses.