SAGINA MAHATO NO MORE!

SAGINA MAHATO NO MORE!

Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 145
Palash Biswas

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Tapan Sinha selected for Dada Saheb Phalke Award, India News
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=xSV02pPmZ1s

Ogo nodi apon bege - Rabindrasangeet
From the film Haatebajare by Tapan Sinha. Sung ...
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=9JzpCedkcmk

DILIP KUMAR-SAIRA BANO.tumre sang turain bitaai
THE EVERGREEN COUPLE-dilip married saira amongs...
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=Fvv6J8WAfaM
KHUDITO PASHAAN
A SMALL CLIPPING FROM THE ONLY PRINT LEFT OF TH...
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=v_Fx9itwMgc

Tapan Sinha, the much awarded maker of critically acclaimed films like "Uphaar" and "Sagina Mahato", died here Thursday after a prolonged illness!Sinha, who won 19 National Awards in various categories and was conferred the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for lifetime achievement last year, passed away at the Calcutta Medical Research Institute (CMRI) in south Kolkata where he had been admitted Dec 6. The filmmaker was suffering from acute respiratory problem!His films include 'Ankush', 'Uphaar', 'Ek Doctor Ki Maut', 'Safed Haathi', 'Kabuliwala' and 'Sagina Mahato'!'Upahaar' (1955), 'Khudito Pashan' (1960), 'Nirjan Saikate' (1963), 'Hatey Bajarey' (1967), 'Sagina Mahato' (1970) and 'Wheel Chair' (1994).

No more sagina MAHATO! No more Kabuliwala! No more EK DOCTOR KI MAUT!
Because,Veteran filmmaker Tapan Sinha is dead!Sagina Mahato is a 1970 Bengali movie. Directed by Tapan Sinha. i was lucky to see the film in nainital while it was released in 1974. our committed friend circle was very critical about the film as they considered it Anti Naxal Film. In Nainital, I must admit that we shared the URBAN Psyche which used to be SPELLBOUND in contact with DILIP SAIRA Chemistry on screen but reacted vehemently on contradictions encountered! We had not the faintest idea of Indian tea gardens and their Humanscape!
SAGINA MAHAYTO,the film stars Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu. The movie was remade as a Hindi movie titled Sagina in 1974.This is story of a tea estate labour leader in the north eastern region of India during the British Raj. Sagina Mahato fights for the rights of the labourers and has the courage to face the tyrrany of the British bosses. He is helped by a young communist Amal who comes to the place to upraise the poor and downtrodden masses.
The Saga continues in different timeframe given as we witness the INFINITE DEATH Processions from every part of the country including North Bengal and Assam. Including the JUTE Scenerio it makes a complete DESTRUCTED Picture of Indigenous Production system, livelihood and industries. You may see it anywhere in the country. Specially in West Bengal, where thirty years of continuous Marxist rule has witnessed the LOCK OUT in more than 56 thousnad factries. Jute Mills have become an Infinite GRAVEYARD. The DEATH Processions in Darjiling and North bengal Tea gardens never end despite so active TRADE UNION activies.
Here you are! The Jute and TEA as well as Agriculture sector in West bengal exposes the ENVELOP of Marxist Maoist Brahaminical Hypocricy which had been dealt very nicely in Gaur Kishore Ghosh Novel trnslated in Cinema by no one else than a master like Tapan Sinha!
Our friends should have watched the KA ABBAS film Naxalite. All Prominent Bengali writers and filmmakers have been dealing with the subject since seventies!
Last night a young Journalist from a Prominent English daily, who is staunch supporter of George Bush and Buddhadev as well as Narendra Modi and Dr Manmohan Singh, asked me, `Tell me the name of the best Book on naxal movement!’
I was discussing on Japanese economy, natural resources, environment, Fuel and resource management, their language and culture in comparison of India! He inturrupted me and jumped straight in Naxal movement. I did knew that the spokeperson of World bank gang sters and FREEsenSEX so called RISILIENT Economy was subverting me.
I said, `I have not gone through as yet’!
Then I told my friend, ` In fact, the Ruling Brahmins in West bengal are very NOTORIOUS to Manipulate the History. they have already deleted Four Hundred years of Indigenous Aboriginal History branding the period since 7th to 11th century as DARK AGE. Neither the Partition nor the Naxal Insurrection has been treated as Objectively! I told him that all the Creative ICONS dealt naxal Movement as ROMANCE of the then Generation Next and deleted the aboriginal and indigenous part of it. Gautam Ghosh is the latest ICON who made film on THUNDERING SPRING. but he has treated the story as a LOCVE STORY. Well known for documentation in cinema, gautam da has based his work on a Bengali BEST SELLER TRILOGY written by SENSATIONAL writer SAMARESH MAJUMDAR who portaryed the Protagonist SPINELESS physically at the end of the Novel. The Trilogy is well known as KAALBELA.
Even a committed writer like Mahashweta devi treated the subject as ROMANCE in her HAZAR CGHURASEER MAA. She used the romantic language as well as the style. As if it was a ROMANTIC IDEOLOGICAL ADVENTURE as Godard put it in her epic film La Chinowas!
Latest Best Seller writer Tilottama Majumdar dealt with Naxal Movement in BASUDHARA and RAJPAT making an EXACT XXX Cocktail of SEX and Revolution! Sunil gangopadhaya did the same in his works including PURBA PASCHIM and justifying the Romance as well as ESCAPISM of the METRO BASED Youth. Samaresh majumdar did try to portray Maoism in his novel GARBHADHARINI and failed miserably as it turned out to be the Romance, Love and SEX of the leading lady Jayita.
In all those stories, PRINT or Celluloid, even the written History treated the Period excluding the Aboriginal and Indigenous People involved in the Movement! They explained at large the Failure, Contradictions, Strategies, differences, factionalism, suicidal Infighting and repression excluding the INSURRECTION itself.
For me, it was not at all IDEOLOGICAL failure! Otherwise naxal Movement would not SURVIVE and get ground in the Most Parts of the country. It was more or less the Startegical Failure which could not Match the Striking Power of the ARMED STATE POWER with a License to KILL! Moreover, it is alos a BETRAYAL of BRAHAMINICAL Leadership which continued from Telengana to Dhimri Block.
Only Agni Balaka, the novel by ABUL BASHAR of Murshidabad and the film based on it did try to deal with the DEMOGRAPHY involved! kavi, the Poet represents the METRO ADVENTURE who ultimately sought his ESCAPR in Suicide. But the son of a Peasnt teacher SADA Chowdhury, RAHUL, a MUSLIM Peasant actully used his GUN against the Class ENEMY!
Sagina Mahato is very very relevent as the BETRAYAL BRAHAMINICAL is EXPOSED more than well with the Cinematic karishjma created with the Chemistry of Dilip Kumar and Tapan Sinha!

This is the story about the revolt of the proletariat against the anarchial bourgeosie rulers. Sagina Mahato, a factory labourer is the leader of the revolution. The story begins with Sagina, an aggressive, honest and loveable caracter who was the first to fight against the tyranny of the British bosses in the Tea gardens of North-Eastern India. Sagina speaks for every one. He has the heart and the courage. Everyone loves him. Herein comes the young intellectual revolutionary communist, Amal and becomes a close friend of Sagina. The duo takes on a lot of ventures and upraise the poor and downtrodden mases. Then comes in Aniruddha and Anupam Dutta from Kolkata who were the mentors and leaders of Amal's party. Aniruddha turns out the facist back stabbist when he secretly sings a contract with the British factory boss and cunningly makes the golden hearted Sagina as the labour welfare officer . He knows that with the downfall of Sagina, he could encash upon his popularity. Amal, Anupam, Bisakha and other party pioneers all become vocal against his destructive and dictorship policies but Aniruddha thinks himdelf to be the absolutist in the village and in the organisation. He give Sagina a bunglow and also provides him resources as the perks of the welfare officer. Naturally after a few months later Sagina becomes isolated from the local masses and ultimately those who loved him start to hate him. Sagina understands Aniruddha's plan. He recieves the faith and love from Lalita a divorced villaga belle. When Aniruddha finds out that Sagina is rising once again he at once arrests him and puts him under his own trial and in his own court. He brings false allegations against Sagina's character one by one but Sagina proves all of them to be baseless and an act of vindiction. At the end both Bisakha and Amal revolt against Aniruddha's power loving tyrannical, monarchial policies. When Aniruddha finds out that his mission has failed and Amal has taken Sagina's side he shoots him. Amal the humanist revoutionary and true son of the motherland dies in Sagina's arms.The mass kills Aniruddha. Sagina and his troops take the oath on the body of Amal to carry on the revolution.

Sagina Mahato Casts
Dilip Kumar
Saira Banu
Anil Chatterjee
Romi Chowdhury
Swarup Dutta
Sumita Sanyal
Kalyan Chatterjee
[edit] Awards
BFJA Awards in 1971
Best Actor to Dilip Kumar
Best Actor in Supporting Role to Anil Chatterjee
Best art Direction to Suniti Mitra
Best Music to Tapan Sinha
Best Playback Singer (Male) to Anup Ghoshal


"Sinha died early Thursday at the hospital. He was suffering from acute bronco-pneumonia and was on life support system," a hospital spokesperson told reporters.
"His pulse rates were very low and he had stopped responding to medication since Wednesday night," the spokesperson added.
Apart from winning laurels at home, the veteran filmmaker also won several awards in international film festivals like those in Berlin, Venice, London, Moscow, San Francisco and Locarno.
His films include "Ankush", "Ek Doctor Ki Maut", "Safed Haathi" and "Kabuliwala".
Dadasaheb Phalke award winner and noted film-maker Tapan Sinha died at a hospital here today after prolonged illness.Eighty-four-year-old Sinha was suffering from pneumonia and septicaemia, hospital sources said. He is survived by a son. His actress-wife Arundhuti Devi died in 1990.The veteran film-maker had been in and out of hospital over the past few years. He was admitted to the hospital in December last year.
A contemporary of filmmaker Satyajit Ray, Sinha's body of work of over 50 films includes adaptations of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore's novels.Tapan Sinha is the quintessential Bengali filmmaker in spirit and world-view. In a long and prolific career spanning almost five decades, Sinha’s works have varied in quality and genres but like a true auteur his style and aesthetics have remained constant. A story-teller par excellence, his films are well-crafted in terms of structure and technique but seldom do they exhibit cinematic adventure and experimentation.
"He was an unassuming gentleman who had a strong ear for music and great command over adaptation of famous literary works," said critic Shoma A. Chatterji.
Sinha, who began his career as a sound engineer in 1946, made several films based on Tagore's stories, including the award-winning 1956 film "Kabuliwala", a poignant story of friendship between a girl and an Afghan dry fruit seller.
Some of Sinha's films were set in the backdrop of the Maoist movement in West Bengal in the early 1970s and were critical of the political system.
In "Adalat O Ekti Meye" (The Law and a Lady), the director dealt with the sensitive subject of a rape victim ostracised by society.
Sinha is survived by a son and daughter.
Born in 1924. Science graduate from University of Calcutta. Sinha began his film career as a sound engineer in Calcutta's New Theatre in 1946. Four years later, he received an invitation to the London film festival and the opportunity of working at Pinewood Studios. He was in UK for two years. On returning to India, he turned his attentions to film directing. Tapan Sinha was influenced by American and British film making. Tagore was a great source of inspiration to him. He made three films on Tagore's stories : Kabuliwala, Hungry Stones (Khudito Pashan) , Atithi.
Tapan Sinha's first film Ankush was based on Narayan Gangopadhyay's story 'sainik'. In 1957, his film 'Kabuliwala' was shown in Berlin Film festival. He has won National award many times. His films were shown in different film festivals all over the world. He was married to actress Arundhuti who passed away in 1990. Sinha lives in Calcutta .

I knew the term NAXALITE in my childhood when I was still reading in Primary school Haridaspur thanks to Dainik Basumati, edited by Vivekanand and published from Kolkata. We used to get the Newspaper by mail after my father Pulin Babu unsubscribed SWADHINATA after the DHIMRIBLOCK and TELENGANA Communist betrayals! We would get the paper even a WEEK late. Before we got our copy , entire READERSHIP would go through it as my village Basantipur happened to be three miles away from the branch Post Office situated in Dineshpur hat in District Nainital terai inhibited by resettled Bengali and Punjabi Partition victims as earlier as since 1950. The DEMOGRAPHY was Subultern but the Rulers had been big GUNS of Indian society there. Our colonies were surrounded by Farms of TOP GUYs. They had captured the land, livelihood, society, economy, politics, education, ecology, environment and culture, and the life! We were habitual to live in the limits of the Colonies, like GHETTOes created by the NAZIES! It was said that Nehru was experimenting COMMUNE in nainital terai as we hear nowadays so many spirited versions about the great Indian SEZ.
I had to read the edits of Hindi, Bengali or english newspapers for may father every evening even while I hardly identify the letters at all.
Just after 1967 General elections, ARAMBAG Congress leader Ajaoy Mukherjee, sidelined since BIDHAN CHANDRA Roy was planted as WEST BENGAL Chief Minister by lady Mountbatten, led the first Coalition government, we came to know about Charu Majumdar and the NAXALITE Movement. During late sixties my teacher PREM PRAKASH BUDHLAKOTI in Zila Parishad High School in Dinesh Pur taught me a few lessons about marxism and injected deep in my veins the best thing ever i felt, my CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS.
I led my school in a STRIKE to push the demand of teaching Bengali in bengali script while my father was the KEY Man of the school administration and I was reading in class eight only. My grandmother died in the same year. since then my way was different from my father who accepted this reluctantly. I was in contact with the Naxal leaders who got shelter in TERAI escaping repression in Bengal. I had read the RED BOOK and CHE DIARY while I was a junior student. Then my father transferred me to another Bengali refugee area called SHAKTI FARM, also a part of Nainital and situated in THARU TRIBAL Belt surrounded by jungle, 36 KM away from dineshpur. I passed my class NINE missing a session in turmoil.
I was a philosophical Marxists who had been attracted by Maoism due to two naxal groups active in uttarakhand in seventies, MS group in the terai and CHANDRAPULLA REDDY group in the Hills!
But I came to feel the movement only after I saw SAGINA Mahato. It happened with Kabuliwala also. i read it in my childhood but felt it only after seeing tapan sinha Film! I always rated Ritwik ghatak as the greatest Film director in India. I tried to see all New Waves films including those made by Shyam Benegal, Sathyu, Gobind Nilhani and Mrinal Sen! I was never influenced by Satyajit Roy, the bengali Elite ICON! but Tapan Sinha always appealed me and I was always able to communicate with the medium with FULL PASSION as far as Tapan sinha was concerned!
Noted film-maker Tapan Sinha was a master storyteller whose filmography presented an amazing variety of subjects promising different experiences for the audience each time.
Charles Dicken's 'A Tale of Two cities' and its film version promoted the Dada Saheb Phalke awardee to join films and he went on to become an uncompromising film-maker in a class of his own.
An avid follower of American directors like William Wyler and John Ford, he entered the film world as a technician. He completed his journey there with 41 films, 19 of which won National Awards and laurels from international film festivals of London, Venice, Moscow and Berlin.
His cinematic works were mostly down to earth depictions of the struggles of the common man.
His first film 'Ankush' was released in 1954, a year before Satyajit Ray's 'Pather Panchali,' and despite making classics like 'Kabuliwallah,' 'Ek Doctor Ki Mauth,' 'Nirjan Saikate,' 'Haate Bazare' and 'Admi aur Aurat,' Sinha is possibly a lesser discussed director compared to his peers.
After completing M.Sc in Physics from Calcutta University, Sinha joined the New Theatres Studio in 1946 as assistant sound recordist.
Two years later he shifted to the Calcutta Movietone Studio and in 1950 he got the opportunity to work in the Pinewood Studio in London.
There he got to watch the works of greats like Federico Fellini, Vittorio De Sica and work in director Harles Cryton's unit as sound engineer.
He used the trip to learn in totality the art of film-making. After returning, he made 'Ankush' (1954) with an elephant belonging to a 'zamindar' as the central character, a whole new idea at the time, but it bombed at the box office.
Sinha's next two films ‘Upahaar’ (1955) and ‘Tonsil’ (1956) were somewhat successful, but it was ‘Kabuliwallah’ (1957), his fourth film, that gave him solid footing and from there he did not have to look back.
‘Kabuliwallah’, based on a short story by Rabindranath Tagore, won the President's Gold Medal for the best film of the country.
The film, however, was not technically sound and Sinha was to later write that Satyajit Ray and Raj Kapoor had told him about its poor technical quality.
Like his favourite directors Wyler and Ford, Sinha had a large canvas and he never made two films on the same subject. ‘Lauha Kapat’ (Life in Jail, 1958), ‘Khudito Pasan’ (Haunted House, 1960), ‘Jhinder Bandi’ (Prisoner of Jhind, 1961) till his last film Daughters of the Century in 2002, the list is endless.
The strong point of Sinha's work was that he was a master storyteller. He never believed in presenting his ideas in a complicated way to his audience. His films were quintessentially focused on middle-class Bengali life.
The story ideas of most of his films had a solid literary base. They were taken from short stories and novels of Rabindranath Tagore, Tarashankar Bandhopadhyay, Saratchandra Chattopadhaya, Sharadindu Bandhopadhyay, Subodh Ghosh and Ramapada Chowdhury. Some, though, were written by himself.
To convey his message, Sinha sometimes used fantasy such as in ‘Galpo Holeyo Satyi’ (Fiction but fact, 1977), ‘Ek Je Chilo Desh’ (There was a country, 1977), ‘Bancharamer Bagan’ (Banchharam's garden, 1980) and ‘Ajab Ganyer Ajab Katha’ (Strange tale of a strange village, 1998).
Despite dealing with social problems in films like 'Adalat O Ekti Meye' and 'Antardhan', politics never came in the forefront in his films such as Apanjan (1968), ‘Sagina Mahato’ (1970 and Raja (1975), with the sole exception of ‘Atanka’ (Terror, 1986), since he believed that political issues were short-lived and so were the films based on them.
He had strong belief in the success of individual courage and for this he faced the wrath of Leftist critics.
For over half of his career, film societies in Kolkata viewed him with scepticism though during his later years a shift from their earlier stance was visible.
Sinha made a number of films for children ‘Safed Haati’ (The White Elephant, 1977), ‘Sabuj Dwiper Raja’ (The King of the Green Island, 1979), ‘Aj Ka Robinhood’ (‘The Robinhood of Today’, 1987) and ‘Anokha Moti’ (The Incredible Pearl, 1999).
He made Hindi films like ‘Zindagi Zindagi’ (1972), ‘Sagina’ (1974), ‘Ek Doctor Ki Maut’ (1990) and Daughters of the century (2002). His famous short film ‘Aadmi Aur Aurat’ (Man and Woman, 1984) was also made in Hindi for Doordarshan.
Sinha made some off beat films -- Nirjan Saikate (The lonely beach, 1963) -- the story of five widows, and the actresses who depicted them, all won national awards. 'Wheel Chair' (1994) was the story of the struggle of a physically challenged doctor and a woman who turned almost into a vegetable after a fall from the stairs.
Born to Tribidesh Chandra Sinha and Pramila Sundari on October 2, 1924, Sinha was perhaps the first director of Bengal to go beyond the confines of the studio floors and shoot on location.
On the advice of Ray, Sinha took up composing music for his films. He also wrote lyrics of songs for films like ‘Harmonium’, ‘Ek Je Chhilo Desh’ and ‘Andhar Periye’, among others.
26/11 attacks a test of India's patience: Army Chief
New Delhi The terror attacks on Mumbai was a test of India's patience and the army is ready to face any challenge posed by terrorism, Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor said on Thursday.
"The attack on Mumbai was a test of our patience...the only and biggest challenge before us is terrorism and we are ready to face this challenge," Kapoor said at the 61st Army Day parade in New Delhi.
Stating that all options to tackle the terror menace were open, he said India wanted to resolve its issues through peaceful means.
"However, to ensure the security of its people and territory, we can use all possible available options," Kapoor said.
He said the army was always ready and capable of carrying out whatever task it is assigned by the government.
Mentioning the global economic meltdown as the second biggest challenge faced by the world, he said the government didn't want the financial proposals of armed forces to be impacted by recession and asked his officers to ensure full value for money spent on the armed forces.
"We want our officers to ensure that the money in armed forces is wisely in view of the economic meltdown," Kapoor said.
He said all neighbours of India were facing challenges, which could pose threat to the security of the country. "We have to remain vigilant against these threats if we have to progress and prosper," the army chief said.
Mentioning the various internal security threats faced by the country, the army chief said, "There are various elements in the country which still want to disintegrate the nation and the biggest threat comes from the insurgencies in Jammu and Kashmir, Northeast and Naxalism."
He said all organisations of the government were working against these threats.
Talking about the achievements of the army in containing the insurgencies in the country, Kapoor said, "Elections in J&K could be held peacefully because of the security shield provided by the army and we have also eliminated the capabilities of militants to carry out sensational strikes in the state."
"In Assam, we have been able to establish peace and marginalised ULFA there. In Manipur, the Assam Rifles and Army have managed to bring down the violence levels and in Nagaland, we have cut down the violence between the two factions of the NSCN," he added.
On Naxalism, he said though the army was not directly involved in operations against the Naxals, it was helping other forces by providing them training and other logistic support.
He said during natural calamities such as the massive floods in Bihar, the army had played a big role in providing relief and succour to the affected people and saved many lives there.
Satyam employee commits suicide fearing job loss
Chennai Apparently fearing that he may lose his job, a 23-year-old employee of scam-ravaged Satyam Computers allegedly committed suicide in Chennai, police said.
Vishwa Venkatesan, hailing from Salem, on Thursday consumed poison. He was referred to the General Hospital where he died, they said.
Fear of losing his job drove him to take the extreme step, they said.
Venkatesan had earlier also made similar attempts after the scam broke out early this month but was saved due to the timely action, police added.
NIA team will be hand picked: Chidambaram
New Delhi The National Investigation Agency (NIA), set up in the wake of Mumbai terror attacks, will have members "hand picked" by its first chief R V Raju, who was appointed on Thursday.
"He (Raju) has been requested to join immediately and quickly begin the recruitments," Home Minister P Chidambaram, who recommended Raju's name for the post, told reporters in Delhi.
Chidambaram said Raju will hand pick his core group of investigation officers.
Asked how long it would take for the NIA to be functional, he said, "We will now recruit identified officers who have got a track record in doing very good work in investigation."
Chidambaram said Raju has been tasked with recruiting people and putting the infrastructure and logistics in place so that NIA can take up cases for investigation, should a situation arise.
He, however, said there was no case at present to be investigated by the NIA.
To a question, he said the Mumbai incident would not be probed by the NIA as investigation into it was already on.
"The Mumbai investigation is well on track. It has made considerable progress. There is no need for transferring it to NIA," he said.
Chidambaram said Raju had a vast experience in CBI.
A 1975-batch IPS officer, Raju will head the NIA till January 31, 2010, a Home Ministry order said. Raju is at present Special Director General of Police in Jammu and Kashmir.
Infosys top brass not to join Satyam board
New Delhi Even as the Government is scouting for new board members and a CEO for Satyam Computer, the country's second largest software exporter Infosys Technologies steered clear that its top brass will not join the crisis-ridden firm due to conflict of interest.
Asked if any senior manager will join the board of
Satyam, Infosys Co-Chairman Nandan Nilekani said: "... that will not work. There is a clear conflict of interest. We are responsible for Infosys, many of us are shareholders of Infosys."
It would not be fair on either of the companies, if anyone from joins the new Satyam team, he added.
However, he added that the new members on the Satyam board are very impressive.
The name of Narayan Murthy, chief mentor of Indian IT bellwether Infosys, was doing the rounds as a member on the new Satyam board.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs had constituted a new three-member Satyam Board, comprising HDFC Bank Chairman Deepak Parekh, former NASSCOM President Kiran Karnik, and former SEBI member C Achuthan, after the admission of financial fraud by Satyam's founder.
Part of Pakistan safe haven for Al Qaeda: Cheney
Washington The US Vice-President, Dick Cheney, has said that a part of Pakistan has become a safe haven for terrorists organisations like Al Qaeda and the Taliban and this would be one of the main challenges for the incoming Obama Administration.
Though Pakistan has cooperated with the US post-9/11, Cheney, in an interview to a television news channel on Wednesday, said, "They've got a portion of the country that isn't really controlled by the central government that's become a safe haven for the Taliban operating into Afghanistan, and for Al-Qaeda."
Cheney said, "Those (Iran and Pakistan) are going to be challenges that the new administration is going to have to deal with early on."
The Vice President said, "The situation in Iran is a regime that's a terror-sponsoring state, a prime mover and shaker where Hezbollah is concerned, but also actively and aggressively trying to develop nuclear weapons."
No threat of war with India: Pak PM
Islamabad Seeking to downplay the Indian army chief's remarks that all options were open for dealing with Pakistan, Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday said there was "tremendous" public pressure on Indian government after the Mumbai attacks and insisted that there was "no threat of war".
"Both countries are nuclear powers. I think there is no threat of war," Gilani told a brief news conference during a visit to the Information Ministry.
He was responding to a question about army chief General Deepak Kapoor's comments on Wednesday that all options were open before New Delhi, including the "fighting option" as last resort, for dealing with Pakistan.
Gilani indicated that the Indian government's stance is being influenced by public pressure. "There is tremendous pressure of the public on the government of India," he said.
Answering another question about Pakistan possibly abandoning the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project, Gilani said a special envoy of Iran who met him recently had given no indication that the venture will not be implemented.
On the investigation into the killing of Benazir Bhutto, Gilani said the UN probe into the former premier's assassination on December 27, 2007 is expected to start soon.
Replying to a question on scrapping of the 17th amendment of the Constitution that gives the President sweeping powers to dismiss the Premier and dissolve Parliament, Gilani said the ruling PPP is committed to repeal the provisions.
A two-thirds majority in both houses of Parliament is needed for scrapping the 17th amendment. The government is setting up a committee that will examine all suggestions in this regard and then forge consensus on the move, he added.
UP babus sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Mayawati
ALKA S PANDE
Posted: Jan 16, 2008 at 2151 hrs IST
Lucknow, January 15 Bureaucrats, police officers and politicians joyously sang “Happy Birthday” to Chief Minister Mayawati, and playfully vied with each other to be the first to offer a piece of cake to the birthday girl who turned 52 today.
After Mayawati cut the 52-kg cake at her official residence at 5 Kalidas Marg, BSP General Secretary S C Mishra offered her the first bite. Others who followed were party state president Swami Prasad Maurya, Cabinet minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui, Babu Singh Kushwaha and Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh. Then came the turn of the babus. Principal Secretary (Home) J N Chamber was the first, followed by Chief Secretary P K Mishra, Uttar Pradesh Police Chief Vikram Singh and all the CM’s men, including Navneet Sehgal and Shailesh Krishna.
Dressed in rust (not her usual festive pink) zari salwar suit and decked with a diamond necklace and danglers, Mayawati took the opportunity to flog the Opposition for tarnishing her party’s image by propagating that public funds were used for her birthday celebrations. Brandishing receipts, the chief minister said that the BSP had paid the Power Department and Public Works Department for using electricity and putting up the hoardings.
“Instead of highlighting the BSP’s good deeds, like extending financial aid to the oppressed and destitutes, they are alleging misuse of power,” she complained. She added, “Even the cake is not bought with government money, it was organised by Rajya Sabha member Satish Chandra Mishra.” This propoganda, she said, exhibited the Opposition’s anti-Dalit mentality.
Party sources said Mayawati herself supervised the birthday preparations and even made a visit to all strategic locations. Each hoarding was decorated in blue and pink — BSP’s party colour and Mayawati’s favourite festive colour respectively.
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/UP-babus-sing-Happy-Birthday-to-Mayawati/261741/
Troops seize last LTTE-held area, take full control of Jaffna
Colombo Dealing another body blow to the cornered Tamil rebels, Sri Lankan troops on Wednesday captured the last remaining LTTE-held area in Jaffna, establishing total government control over the strategic northern peninsula.
A senior LTTE Sea Tiger leader identified only as 'Thiru' was killed during the battle to takeover the Chundikulam area while troops also captured 100 boats, a number of vehicles, 400 anti-personnel mines and 40 anti-tank mines, military spokesman Uday Nanayakkara said.
"With this, the last land on Jaffna has been liberated from the LTTE," he said. The northern peninsula is strategically located and has long been a prize catch for both the warring sides in the island's decades-old ethnic strife.
"We believe the rebels have suffered heavy casualties but the bodies must have been removed by other LTTE cadres. The Army has suffered no casualty," Nanayakkara said.
The new success for the advancing Lankan troops came five days after they seized the strategic Elephant Pass, the gateway to the Jaffna peninsula. The rebels, who has already lost their de facto capital Kilinochchi, now only controls their coastal stronghold of Mullaittivu.
Sri Lankan troops advanced further into Mullaittivu, killing seven Tamil Tigers in ground clashes amidst a spate of air attacks by fighter jets in the region, the military said.
Sri Lankan fighter jets and MI-24 helicopters carried out 10 successive air raids targeting LTTE 'gathering places' and defence lines in Mullaittivu yesterday, Air Force spokesperson Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara said.
The LTTE defence lines in south of Mullaittivu was targeted in four occasions by the fighter jets to assist the ground troops advancing towards the last rebel bastion.
Jets also bombed LTTE vehicles carrying two heavy artillery guns near Kilinochchi on Tuesday, Nanayakkara said adding, the weapons were completely destroyed.
Troops had several confrontations with LTTE fighters in general area of Dharmapuram near Kilinochchi on Tuesday, the officials said. Later, the security forces found three bodies of LTTE fighters killed during the clashes in the area along with three T-56 riffles, the Defence Ministry said.
Security forces also found four bodies of LTTE cadres from Murasumudai near Kilinochchi on Tuesday.
Separately, Sri Lankan authorities said they have buried 41 unclaimed bodies of suspected Tamil Tigers killed by troops in the island's north, media reports said.
Three LTTE cadres manning defence line in Dharmapuram area have surrendered to the security forces, the Army said.
Meanwhile, Media Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardane on Tuesday said Kilinochchi will be developed at par with other districts after landmines from the area are removed.
Addressing the media, he said while registering military victories over LTTE, the government was at the same time committed to look after the needs of those who suffered due to the activities of the rebel outfit.
He said a special meeting chaired by Senior Presidential adviser Basil Rajapaksa at the President's Secretariat discussed development of the northern areas and the welfare measures to be taken for those to be resettled, the state-owned ‘Daily News’ reported.
Anita says she was taken to US, questioned there
Mumbai Anita Uddaiya, the woman who saw the six terrorists involved in the November 26 terror attacks arrive in the city, claims she was taken to the US and questioned by investigating agencies there.
"I was informed that the (US) officers who questioned me about the Mumbai attacks here earlier would take me to America. They came on Sunday morning and had taken me to America in a flight," Uddaiya said.
"I had lied to the police when I returned home stating that I went to Satara district as the officers told me not to disclose anything about my visit to America," Uddaiya said.
Uddaiya went missing on Sunday morning and returned to Mumbai yesterday at around 1.30 AM to her home.
She had seen the terrorists land in a rubber dinghy on the beach at the colony. But when she asked them where they had come from, she was told to mind her own business.
Giving details, she said on Saturday at around 10.00 PM, the investigating officers were supposed to come to her home.
"Since we were informed about Uddiaya's America visit, we sat with her throughout the night waiting for the American investigators. Nobody turned up till morning 5 AM. At that time, Uddaiya went to toilet from where she was whisked away by the investigators," said Madhusudhan Nair, president of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Nagar slum area where Uddaiya resides.
Uddaiya said four officers were inside the posh vehicle and one of them knew Hindi.
"First, I was taken to St George Hospital to see my husband Rajendra. I told him that I would return home in a couple of days," Uddaiya said.
Satyam needs Rs 150 cr, Govt says no bailout
New Delhi Satyam's senior management executive Ram Mynampati has informed the government that the troubled IT firm would need Rs 150 crore to meet insurance liabilities of its US employees.
"We have received a mail or two from Mynampati. They indicated that they would need something of the order of Rs 150 crore to take care of the health insurance liabilities of the employees in the US," Economic Affairs Secretary Ashok Chawla said in New Delhi.
Mynampati is in the US to talk to clients and reassure them of the company's ability to continue serving them, besides restoring confidence among employees in the aftermath of a Rs 7,800 crore financial fraud disclosed by founder Ramalinga Raju last week.
Chawla said there is no immediate plan for a government bailout for Satyam, although Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath had indicated that the government was willing to extend financial support to the company.
"Not at this stage," Chawla said when asked if the government would offer any bailout to the IT firm now.
Asked if the new board has already approached the government for Rs 150 crore assistance, he said: "Board members have got down to work... they will be getting in touch with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs."
The company's new board, comprising Deepak Parekh, Kiran Karnik and C Achuthan, had agreed on meeting financial needs as a top priority.
On whether the government would provide any indirect support to Satyam, Chawla said: "It depends on the board coming to kind of conclusion; what is their requirement and the actual accounts indicating what it is".
He said the real picture on the company's "receivables" has to the revealed.
No Govt bailout for Satyam Computer
The government on Thursday ruled out any bailout package for crisis-ridden Satyam Computer, but assured to do everything required to save jobs under the framework of its responsibilities.
"This is a decision that the new board of Satyam would take. This government is not going to directly or indirectly subsidise wrong doing and fraud in Satyam," Minister of State for Industry Ashwani Kumar told reporters on the sidelines of a Petrotech-2009 conference.
When asked, is government not in favour of bailout package for Satyam as such, Kumar said that the new Satyam board "... are the ones to decide. The government would try and support within the framework of its responsibilities and do whatever it can to preserve and save jobs and to protect the good name of India in corporate sector".
He said, "The government will try to ensure to the extent possible that the brand equity of the country and Stayam in terms of its intellectual capital is preserved and the jobs are secured to the extent possible".
The minister said, "I do believe that Satyam aberration should not in any way take away from the great success story of India in the IT sector."
Earlier speculation was rife that the government is considering a package of up to Rs 2,000 crore to bail out Satyam Computer. But shortly after the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's review meeting on Satyam on Tuesday, there was media speculation that government would be considering a financial assistance ranging between Rs 500 crore and Rs 2,000 crore but the PMO office declined to comment on it.
However, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, who attended PM's review meeting, had said that the government was open to consider a financial package for Satyam Computer.
The official sources had also indicated that the government appointed Satyam board had written a letter to the finance ministry raising concerns about the liquidity crunch in the troubled company.
Satyam has 53,000 employees and needs over Rs 500 crore a month to meet the staff cost. Satyam had plunged into a deep crisis following the founder-chairman B Ramalinga Raju's admission that he fudged the company accounts to the tune of Rs 7,800 crore.
Microsoft considering layoffs: Report
New York Software giant Microsoft is looking to trim its workforce across various divisions and could announce the plans next week, says a media report.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that Microsoft is seriously exploring significant work force reductions that could be announced as early as next week.
Quoting people familiar with its plans, the daily said, the company is "considering layoffs across its various divisions, a rare occurrence for the world's largest software company".
However, the report quoting one of these people added that the "plans for the cutbacks are still in flux and Microsoft could end up finding alternative methods of reining in costs."
The Wall Street Journal pointed out that the number of potential job reductions could not be learned.
But "they are likely to be far less than the 15,000 positions that have been rumored in recent weeks, a figure that would amount to more than 16 per cent of Microsoft's global work force," the report said attributing to people familiar with the matter.
Earlier this month, the UK-based The Times had reported that Microsoft is "preparing to announce the first wide scale layoffs in its 32-year history, with up to 15,000 jobs at risk, according to some predictions".
'Slumdog', Kate Winslet now top Bafta 2009 nominees
London Golden Globes’ top winners ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ and actress Kate Winslet have now also garnered Bafta 2009 nominations.
While Danny Boyle’s film walked away with four trophies at the Globes, including one for the best dramatic film, the Brit actress took home two gongs—Best Actress for ‘Revolutionary Road’ and Best Supporting Actress for ‘The Reader’.
And now, both the runaway favourites are set to repeat their success at this year’s Baftas ceremony at London's Royal Opera House on February 8, reports the 'Telegraph'.
The movie, which follows the story of the young boy from rags to riches, has won Bafta nominations for Best Film, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Music, Production Design, Sound and Outstanding British Film categories.
Competing against it for Best Film would be The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk and The Reader.
Fellow winner Kate was nominated twice in the leading actress category for her roles, one for The Reader and one for Revolutionary Road.
The ‘Titanic’ star will be going against Angelina Jolie for ‘Changeling’, Kristin Scott Thomas for ‘I've Loved You So Long’ and Meryl Streep for ‘Doubt’.

Celebrating the man who gave us Safed Hathi and Kabuliwala

To celebrate the 60th year of India's Independence, among other things, the Indian government will honour living movie legends -- like Tapan Sinha, Dilip Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar and Saroja Devi -- by conferring them with lifetime achievement awards.
Tathagata Bandyopadhyay raises a toast to Tapan Sinha, the Bengali director who gave us classics like Safed Haathi, Kabuliwala and Ek Doctor Ki Maut.
When I was about four or five, I was just beginning to discover that it was uncool for boys to weep. One day, my pet parakeet cut its claw on a sharp cage bar. I saw blood dripping from the injured limb, and found myself sniffling uncontrollably. I felt I had to hide from my mother the fact I was a cry baby. I told her I had a cold. I suspect she knew what the matter was (she must have -- children don't suddenly develop a cold that's better in an hour or so). But she said nothing.
That's always been the way with me. I'm not the soulful type but I can't stand the suffering of dumb, innocent animals. When someone throws a rock at a starving mongrel that is sitting in the gutters, I'm ready to commit violence. I also feel ready to weep, but manage to hold it back because guys aren't supposed to snivel in public. It may sound corny to some but I can't help it. I'm like that.
I first came to know this when my mother took me to watch Safed Haathi at a local cinema house. I find on an Internet database that this film was released in 1978, so this must have been about the same time as the parakeet incident, perhaps a little earlier.
I wasn't usually allowed to watch movies at that time (this was before we had television) because they were deemed a corrupting influence. Only two kinds of movies were allowed -- those made specifically for children, and those which my parents considered to be of an edifying nature or helpful for building character.
this last category, I watched various inferior religious-themed melodramas involving minor gods and goddesses which I highly enjoyed at the time, biopics of great men and women which I generally tried to avoid, and patriotic films, which were okay because they had a lot of gunfights.
Not too many films could be found in the first category, and its definition was confusing too. Mother once took me to watch Masoom, thinking it was for children. She was hugely scandalised that I was watching intimate scenes between Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah, while I was thoroughly bored and kept asking her when the real action would begin. But that's another story.
Tathagata Bandyopadhyay is the grandson of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, who authored the novel Pather Panchali, on which Satyajit Ray made his classic.
http://72.14.235.132/search?q=cache:Fuqo4Du2ZH8J:specials.rediff.com/movies/2008/jun/30sli1.htm+Tapan+Sinha&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=13&gl=in
A tribute to Tapan Sinha
Friday, February 22, 2008 04:29 [IST]
Dilip Kumar reminisces about the director as the information and broadcasting ministry chooses to honour them both with Lifetime Achievement Awards
The soft-spoken Bengali
“I have known Tapan Sinha since the ‘60s. We would discuss literature, politics, sports and cinema. A Bengali by heart, he was soft-spoken and dedicated. He hails from Bhagalpur in Bihar but never did he appear to be a Bengali of a different soil.”
Sagina Mahato
“In 1972 Tapan cast me and Saira Banu (wife ) in Sagina Mahato, my second Bengali film. It was based on a novel by Gour Kishore Ghosh. The protagonist Sagina inspired me. Sagina’s love for the proletariat, his honest emotions and his rebellious attitude fascinated me. The Bengali version of Sagina Mahato had a taut script by Tapan. The uncrowned king of Bengali cinema then was Uttam Kumar. Tapan had earlier worked with Uttam in Jatugriha and Jhinder Bandi. But he decided to cast me. According to him no other actor suited Sagina as I did. Even today I cannot explain what his X-ray vision saw in me.”
Tapan’s team
“We shot in Kolkata and then in the tea gardens of North Bengal. Along with us were actors Anil Chatterjee, Ajitesh Banerjee, Sumita Sanyal and Swarup Dutta. I noticed Tapan’s ability to handle actors from different schools. I was from the method school, Saira and Sumita were spontaneous, Anil Chatterjee partly method and partly instinctive, Ajitesh hailed from the drama background, while Swarup was just a film old. Tapan coaxed us to underplay. I used to recite poems from Tagore’s Geetanjali, which all used to hear ardently. We would also talk about literary giants Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.”
Tapan-the master
“Tapan was very careful during the dubbing. For one shot I was not at all satisfied with my dialogue delivery. I gave 21 trials. The dialogue was, ‘Babu ami ki khati korechi’. Tapan was never impatient. He gave me independence to improvise. But after the twenty first delivery he politely said, ‘Yusuf enough!’ He chose the eighteenth one! Here was a director who was never confused. In 1973, he also directed the Hindi Sagina with me, Saira and Aparna Sen. He majestically filmed Kishore Kumar’s Sala main to. The Hindi version did not do so well. Perhaps, it is not possible for the same director to produce the same masterpiece in two languages.”
Tapan today
“Now, he has retired due to ill health. In December 2005 when I went to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from BFJA in Kolkata he presented it to me along with Mrinal Sen. We renewed our conversations. The award to be given to him (also conferred on Lata Mangeshkar and South Indian actress B Saroja Devi) by the honorable president of India is a recognition of his immense contribution to cinema. Hearty congratulations, Tapan! I have tears of joy in my eyes.”
http://72.14.235.132/search?q=cache:NoBjGe9HsToJ:movies.indiainfo.com/2008/02/22/0802220435_tapan.html+Sagina+Mahato&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=50&gl=in

Life in The Land of Tea
On your left hand Peshak Tea Garden; On your right the Children of Tea Garden. Some enterprising English planter grew this garden on the slopes of lesser Himalaya, close to Tarai. They were die hard optimists, they braved the onslaught of Indian Monsoon, Malaria, Mosquito and melancholy; they brought (or bought ) workers from the western part of Bengal who were Santhal, Munda, Orao and Bihari ( Bhojepuri - You can find them even in Trinidad - where they were taken to work in Sugar Plantation), people of Nepali origin were always there. They toiled, they died, they produced world's finest tea; they built Gymkhana, Planters Club, World's highest railway station ( Ghoom), Toy Train.......... blue eyed babies were born to Indian mothers. In a place where life is hard and unpredictable, where nearly every section of the society has been grafted from some other distant place; there blood mixes faster.
After 1947 the scenario was changing, few planters sold the gardens to big auction houses like Duncan’s; those die hard entrepreneurs who got attached to their venture they were forced to sell or abandon their garden. Wages were fixed , working condition improved, workers welfare steps were taken. Pseudo intellectual Bengali communists got a great industry to hone their skills. Another master was born to suck the tea industry & the workers dry. In the name of " Ownership of the Proletariat" they closed down garden after garden, killed Geoffrey the up right owner of Rangmook & Ceader garden ...... eventually garden after garden were handed over to a class of headless profiteer Marwari whom I refuse to call businessmen. This bloody people have sucked the gardens dry ; Bengali communist politicians have acted as pimp in this act of destruction and loot. A tea garden owned by a renowned Marwari group pays Rs.49.72/- (well bellow One US Dollar ) per day as wages to the Kamins. Truth stays far away from Marwari business groups. They plundered the gardens by using chemical fertilizer and over exploitation. Old bushes were never replaced; owners keeping a “Whore – Client” relation with the gardens. Own – Exploit – Abandon.
Plantation workers got no other skill but to pluck leaves and produce Tea ...................

There are other example also - Makaibari – Gulma – Mahurgang … are few exceptional Bengali family-owned gardens who produce world’s best tea and the owners remain closely attached with the fate of the garden.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pineforest/506102164
Celeb's blog your thoughts!
16 Jan 2009, 0000 hrs IST, PRIYANKA DASGUPTA , TNN
Bollywood film producers are paying through their nose to take their movies to the international film festival market. Goutam Ghose (TOI photo)


Buddhadeb Dasgupta
I have hardly seen any Hindi films being screened in the mainstream section of either Toronto, Cannes, Berlin or Venice. Other than Ray, the other Indian directors whose films have been appreciated abroad are G Aravindan, Ritwik Ghatak, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Tapan Sinha and Guru Dutt. Money power can promote Indian films among the NRIs. But it’s not right to confuse Indians with comments suggesting that commercial Hindi cinema is big in the global market. One just needs to check out the actual figures on the Internet to arrive at the truth.

Goutam Ghose
Bollywood is a big industry. But we have to respect films in different languages. Most of the regional films have been celebrated internationally because of their aesthetics and credibility. Mumbai has made very interesting films in the 50s and 60s. I’ve been extremely fond of films like Awaara, Shree 420, Kaagaz Ke Phool or Pyaasa. Escapist cinema doesn’t necessarily mean that festivals will look down upon them. Fellini had made serious cinema which had elements of fantasy in them. If Bollywood can create an identity like Iranian and Korean cinema, surely it will also be respected. Ray had tried to create a bridge between the West and East. If Bollywood had reached that level with escapist cinema, it would definitely have been acknowledged at festivals. But there is hope and I believe that Bollywood can still make it.

Dibakar Banerjee
I partially agree with the post. There was definitely a negative bias towards Indian films in general since they have been ignored at festivals and the international market abroad. In terms of culture, the West, at one point, wasn’t interested in what contemporary India had to offer. Of course, the NRI audience has always liked it. Those like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Buddhadeb Dasgupta transcended this bias with their individual brilliance and their films got appreciation abroad. India is changing and so has Indian films. A new generation of directors, who have Indian subjects and a way of looking at them that attracts the international audience is helping to do away with the the bias.

Onir
Ray was not snatching anyone else’s glory. He earned his space. Anything good and original has found its space. There may be a fight for so called ‘non- mainstream cinema’ because the blockbusters make sure, that, with their muscle power, they push small non-mainstream movies out of theatres. Complaining about why blockbusters haven’t got recognition is like cribbing about why only Rahman has got this recognition and not other music directors. Besides, Mother India had got its recognition. So did Guru Dutt.

Anurag Kashyap
India is making a new kind of cinema in Hindi. But producers and distributors are not ready to release them abroad. They feel that Indian films releasing abroad need to cater to Indian diaspora. Films like Black Friday, Johnny Gaddar and Manorama Six Feet Under weren’t marketed abroad. The commercial Indian cinema is self-sufficient in India. If the distributors are not keen on marketing the new kind of Hindi films abroad, why should they criticise the lack of adulation there?
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India_Buzz/Celebs_blog_your_thoughts/articleshow/3984381.cms
No trace of priceless Satyajit Ray screenplays from early years
21 Dec 2008, 0114 hrs IST, Arnab Ganguly, TNN
Long before Tapan Sinha got Uttam Kumar and Soumitra Chattopadhyay together for Jhinder Bandi, Satyajit Ray was toying with the idea of making a
film on the Saradindu Bandyopadhyay novel (the Bengali version of The Prisoner of Zenda). But from his vast repertory of screenplays complete or otherwise Ray's version of the adventure tale has gone missing. There is no information on whether the script, believed to have been written sometimes in the late 40s, was a complete one or just the initial draft.
Ray enthusiast and author Ujjal Chakraborty recalls seeing Jhinder Bandi scribbled on a notebook belonging to Ray some three decades ago. "I was too young to make out what was written. This was probably written between 1947 and 1950, before Jean Renoir came to India. It was Renoir who told Ray that there should be no shadow of any foreign film," said Chakraborty. "Subodh Ghosh's Fossil, Saradindu's Jhinder Bandi, Manik Bandyopadhyay's Bilamson and, of course, Ghare Baire were some of the earliest scripts that he worked on," Chakraborty said.
Arup Kumar Dey, CEO of Ray Society, said he had heard about the script from Ray himself. "This was written much, much before he started making films. During this time, he was writing scripts one after the other. But those cannot be found now," he said.
The scripts of some other films that Ray had started working on some were completed have survived. Atithi (made by Tapan Sinha) is another such film which Ray had penned. "Even the logo of Atithi was designed. But the film never got made. Some are complete scripts while many are outlines and sketches to be developed later," Chakraborty said. Similarly, the Uttam Kumar-Supriya Chowdhury starrer Bilambito Lay (a Narendranath Mitra story) would have been part of the Ray oeuvre. Shibram Chakraborty's semi-autobiographical Bari Theke Paliye is also in this list. Ritwik Ghatak later made the film. Manik Bandyopadhyay's Padma Nadir Majhi and Kamal Kumar Mazumdar's Antarjali Yatra are part of the same list. Film-maker Goutam Ghose later made both the films.
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's Rajsingha, Mahasweta Devi's Bichhan, Prafulla Roy's Akasher Niche Manush, a bio-pic of Raja Ram Mohun Roy, Prem Chand's Sujan Bhagat, Shibram Chakraborty's Debatar Janma and among his own works a Feluda story (Royal Bengal Rahasya) and a sci-fi film Anukul have also been found among the notebooks that Ray has left behind.
Most of these works have been digitized for preservation. But many from his known works are missing.
"So many things are missing. The Pather Panchali script was given to a museum in France. When we asked them to send it back to us, the museum authorities claimed it had been stolen. The Charulata script was stolen and so were the three volumes of Teen Kanya. Some years ago, an offer came to buy Teen Kanya at Rs 5 lakh per volume. Even the original draft of My years with Apu, (Ray's memoirs) is missing," said Dey. The Society is looking for land for its proposed museum on Ray where the memorabilia will be preserved and stored.
Recently, the society received the entire collection of posters, booklets and lobby-cards from Parimal Ray's collection for preservation.
Sandip Ray said nothing can be done about the memorabilia that have gone abroad. "We are trying to trace other such materials. We are trying to find out what we can and keep them," he said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Kolkata_/No_trace_of_priceless_Satyajit_Ray_screenplays_from_early_years/articleshow/3868021.cms
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
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Express News Service
Posted: Dec 31, 2008 at 0248 hrs IST
Kolkata Take away the Singur debacle and it still has been an eventful year for Bengal — political tumult, terror links, assassination bids and a few silver linings as well. Nadim Siraj & Mouparna Bandopadhaya take a look at
Bengal a troublespot?
The year also saw Bengal being struck off the list of the country’s tranquil backwaters. The terms like assassination bids and IED blasts, which never existed in the dictionary of this part of the world, made their first appearance — as Ram Vilas Paswan and the chief minister himself found out the hard way. The political big guns had a narrow escape on their way back from Salboni as Maoists rebels set off IED blasts. The bombs went off minutes after Bhattacharjee’s car passed, damaging cars in Paswan’s convoy. Both survived, but the message was loud and clear — there’s no safety in Bengal anymore. Pointed to be noted — the Chief Minister and Co were on their way back from an inspection of the JSW steel plant that is coming up in Salboni.
Payback in Singur, Nandigram
As the state government burnt its fingers in Singur and Nandigram, many wondered if the misadventures would cost the CPM in the subsequent panchayat elections. The CM’s fears turned out to be well-founded, although he refused to admit that it was disconcerting. For the first time in decades, the party suffered crushing blows in panchayat elections. And it was a slap on the face, with the defeats coming in from Singur and Nandigram. The people’s message was crystal clear: upset our way of life by imposing new policies like industrialisation, and we won’t vote for you. For the first time, the CPM top brass was a concerned lot, genuinely worried about its dented voter-base in rural Bengal. And what made the defeat more galling was the fact that Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress had the last laugh — sweeping seats in areas that were traditional CPM bastions.
Double bonanza for Trinamool
A huge fillip to their bid to eat into CPM’s voterbank, Trinamool Congress got the support of political bigwigs Sudip Bandopadhyay and Somen Mitra. Four years after deserting the TMC, Sudip finally returned to the fold, dealing a blow to the state Congress. Earlier, long-time Congressman Somen Mitra broke off to form his own party and then aligned with TMC. Their joining hands with Mamata and the party’s growing influence on minority votebanks, have left Alimuddin Street a little uneasy ahead of next year’s general elections. As for Mamata, the new year only looks only too promising.
The faux pas: Pullout over N-deal
The CPM let out a deafening roar when the UPA government was adamant about going ahead with the Indo-US nuclear deal. The Left Front pulled the trigger first — bravely pulling out of the Union government over the nuclear deal — but the defiance went in vain. The Indo-US deal sailed through in the Lok Sabha following the all-important vote of strength and the CPM was left licking its wounds.
Metro in, but Buddha fails to cash on it
After the Tata pullout from Singur, it seemed Bengal would never get to see market modernisation. But Brand Buddha managed to script a rare success story, keeping protests at bay over the Metro Cash & Carry outlet. Compared to Nano, the project was not much to cheer about. But it was definitely a symbolic success. No wonder the state government nodded in approval when the Cash & Carry’s launch saw some popular figures at the gallery — including sporting icon Sourav Ganguly.
Tapasi case blows up in CPM face
Two years after Tapasi Malik’s charred body was discovered in a pit near the Nano factory site in Singur, her killers bit the dust. In a widely welcomed decision which was, however, an embarrassment for the ruling CPM — a Hoogly district court found Suhrid Dutta and Debu Malik guilty of the crime and sentenced them to life imprisonment. Dutta was the secretary of the CPM zonal committee in Singur at the time of the murder. Eighteen-year-old Tapasi was the daughter of a Singur farmer and the crime created an uproar across the state.
Phalke award for Tapan Sinha
It was long overdue, but director Tapan Sinha — the man behind iconic movies like Kabuliwala, Jhinder Bandi, Haatey Bajarey, Khudhito Pashan, Atithi, Louhakapat, Jhinder Bandi, Sagina Mahato, Apanjan and Hansuli Banker Upakatha — finally won the most prestigious film award in the country. Sinha’s films are poignant depictions of the trials and tribulations of middle-class existence and his reputation as an uncompromising filmmaker puts him in a class of his own. Along with contemporaries Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen, he belongs to the hallowed club of parallel filmmakers who created a new idiom for Indian cinema.
Sinha began his film career as a sound engineer in Kolkata’s New Theatre in 1946. In 1950, he got the opportunity to work at the Pinewood Studios of the UK, where he spent two years.
On returning to India, he turned his attention to film direction and made movies in Bengali, Hindi and Oriya.
Maoists rear their heads
The Maoist-led dissidence in Bengal’s western districts has been smouldering for the past few years. But it had never been a full-scale threat to the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government. But in the months following their resurgence in Jharkhand and Orissa and after successful opposition campaigns in rural Bengal to pro-industry government policies, the Maoist threat turned into a full-fledged crisis for the CPM. Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore turned battlefields overnight as vast stretches of affected areas slipped totally out of control. The Maoist rebels teamed up with tribals in these districts and debilitated life for weeks on end even as the chief minister’s inability to handle the Maoist crisis made headlines.
State in Islamic terror tapestry
People of Bengal were left shaking their heads in disbelief as investigations into the November 26 Mumbai attacks showed up a Kolkata connection — SIM cards used by the terrorists involved were purchased in Kolkata, faking documents belonging to dead men. It wove Bengal into the larger puzzle behind the tragedy, much to the state’s discomfort.
The episode also raised questions regarding the state’s own intelligence network, bringing back memories of the attack on the American Centre in Kolkata back in 2002, in which five policemen were gunned down.
Bhutiya refuses the torch
Little did anybody in the sports fraternity realise that Baichung Bhutia’s stern refusal to join the Olympic torch ceremony would sent shockwaves in the international political community. It was a stinging message to the whole world and left the ruling CPM — which has been a great supporter of the Sikkimese footballer — red faced. Bhutia was protesting against alleged atrocities carried out by China in Tibet. State sports minister Subhas Chakraborty went as far as as to call Bhutia’s protest “shocking”. “He is a footballer, not a politician. He should stay out of this Tibet business,” the maverick minister said.
IPL the new circus in town
It was time for the sports fans in Kolkata to step past Test cricket and one-day matches. Shah Rukh Khan came to town with his IPL Twenty20 circus and left everyone dazed. The spotlight moved away from Sourav Ganguly as Eden Gardens was transformed into a showbiz hotspot, with King Khan casting his spell over ecstatic spectators and cheerleaders keeping up a high-octane sideshow at the stands, turning the April heat further up. Not that the IPL tamasha went off without its share of off-the-field mishaps. With Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi at the stands, Eden’s floodlights went off. Then the electric wires of the stadium got stolen. And if that was not enough, the crisis of Prasun Mukherjee’s handling of IPL finances hit the headlines. But notwithstanding the hiccups, it was a showstealer and Kolkata loved it to the last ball.
Move over cricket
When need is highest, help is nighest. While it did not quite dry the tears of Sourav fans, two high-profile visit — of legendary German goalkeeper Oliver Kahn and the legendary Diego Maradona — still managed to lift the city’s spirits. Kahn came to town to play his farewell match for his club Bayern Munich and took on Mohun Bagan. World Cupper Karl Heinz Rummenigge, too, passed through. But the real craze was seen during the two-day visit of the Argentine superstar. And while the city was not exactly on its best behaviour — according to some reports, it even struck terror in Maradona’s heart — football fans had a whale of a time.
Maharaja steps down
Finally, after a year or two of nailbiting will-he won’t-he, Sourav Ganguly decided that he has had enough of international cricket.
Though fans kept their fingers crossed, hoping against hopes for an eternal innings, Sourav decided it was time to go. As expected there were more tears than cheers.
The superstar-starved Kolkata found the decision almost impossible to face.
Return of the King
For years, Bengal cricket has been synonymous with Jagmohan Dalmiya — till Prasun Mukherjee took over the reins a couple of years ago. But after spending months in the wilderness — being sidelined by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee — the veteran Dalmiya returned to power in the CAB after humiliating the former police commissioner in the annual elections at the Eden Gardens. A shrewd businessman with a sharp political sense, Dalmiya followed up the sensational return to power by patching up with bete noire Sourav Ganguly. The patch-up was a pleasant surprise for many in Maidan, who were worried if the ego tussle between the two would spill into another episode.
Bagan up, East Bengal down
They are arch-rivals and their matches have always been keen contests. But in an unprecedented turn of events, East Bengal failed to score a single win against Mohun Bagan throughout the year, despite locking horns in at least five matches. Not conceding a single defeat to East Bengal is certainly the biggest achievement for Mohun Bagan in years, perhaps decades.
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/404921/

Of Kabuliwala and unconditional love
Dinesh Raheja
Kabuliwala, a cinematic adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore's famously poignant short story, brings a lump to your throat each time you watch it. It makes you wish that more filmmakers would emulate Sanjay Leela Bhansali (who has recently adapted Sarat Chandra's popular classic, Devdas) and tap into the rich treasure trove of literary works.

CREDITS
Producer Director Music Director Stars
Bimal Roy Hemen Gupta Salil Choudhury Balraj Sahni, Usha Kiron, Sajjan, Sonnu
The opening frames of Kabuliwala establish an idyllic middle class Bengali family of three, comprising a genial father (Sajjan), a contented hausfrau Rama (Usha Kiron), and their full-of-beans child, Mini, who has an imaginative mind and the curiosity of a puppy.
Like in Roy's Sujata, the Hemen Gupta-directed Kabuliwala too felicitously captures the ethos of a middle-class but educated and essentially progressive family.
When a Kabuliwala (Balraj Sahni) knocks at their door to sell his spices and dry fruits, Mini, dressed in a mini sari and blouse, hides below her father's writing desk -- her favourite hideaway.
When her indulgent father cajoles her to speak to the Kabuliwala, little Mini innocently asks, "Kabuliwala, mujhe jhole mein daalkar le gaya toh?" [What if Kabuliwala carries me off in his sack?]
It is a fear that has been encouraged by her mother (Usha Kiron), who does not want the gullible Mini to talk to strangers. But the Kabuliwala soon wins the child's confidence with his gift of the gab. He tells Mini that his sack contains an elephant and produces a fistful of dry fruits for her.
Mischievous Mini reminds the lonely-at-heart Kabuliwala of his own motherless daughter who he has left behind in his native Kabul. A close bond is established between Kabuliwala and Mini as he proves to be attentive listener and also a magnanimous admirer. When Mini warbles, he raves, "Tum toh bulbul se bhi jyaada achha gaata hai." [You sing better than a Nightingale.]
This portion of the film is touching in its portrayal of an innocent child's unabashed fascination for adults who treat them as individuals; and the need for affection that is common to all humanity.
Meanwhile, a disapproving Rama, in a bid to prevent Mini sneaking out to meet the Kabuliwala, makes her wear payals [anklets]. But the sparkly-eyed Mini outsmarts her and tiptoes to meet her Kabuliwala.
However, when the Kabuliwala brings red bangles for Mini on her birthday, he is not allowed to meet her. Next morning, she scours the city for the Kabuliwala, while her frantic father anxiously sets out in search of her. Kabuliwala chances upon Mini and kisses her small hands while she feeds him mithai [sweetmeats]. The search party arrives just then and the prejudiced adults, misread the Kabuliwala's intentions -- they think he is going to kidnap her. They pounce on him and pound him to pulp while Mini's cries rent the air.
A series of further crisis crisscross their lives, but their bond remains unbroken. The Kabuliwala, in a moment of rage, stabs a debtor. A weeping Mini wants to know why the handcuffed Kabuliwala is being led away. Harking back to an earlier conversation about Mini going to her sasural [inlaw's house] after marriage, the Kabuliwala gently replies, "Bachchi woh aaj hamare sasural ke ghar ko jaatee hai." [I am on my way to your inlaw's house]
When the Kabuliwala returns from his jail term, 10 long years have elapsed. The world has moved on, unrelentingly, but time seems to have frozen for the Kabuliwala. He buys red bangles that would fit a toddler and goes to meet Mini. But the realisation that Mini has grown into a girl about to be married, coupled with the fact that Mini now has no recollection of the Kabuliwala, shatters the old spiceseller. He is apprehensive if his daughter will remember him at all.
The high point of the climax is Mini's father gifting away the money set aside for Mini's wedding lights to the Kabuliwala to pay the Kabuliwala's fare to his wattan [homeland] and his eventual reunion with his daughter. As he reasons with his wife, "Ek majboor baap ko uski aankhon ka noor mil jaye, toh yehi sabse badi roshni hogi. [What can be better than seeing a hapless father re-unite with his daughter?]" Mini supports him and offers her gold bangle for Kabuliwala's daughter.
Please keep a kerchief around to muffle your sobs. As one father prepares to part with his daughter; another father prepares to meet his long-lost offspring.
The film's biggest strength is the evocative story and the heartfelt performances by Balraj Sahni as Kabuliwala and Sonnu as Mini. Sahni's interactions with Mini are suffused with tenderness, his laughter robust, his walk, regal. To give his character a more rounded feel, he is belligerent and boisterous with the adults -- including a tuneless singer, and has a philosophical side too as reflected in his response to 'Ganga aaye kahan se, Ganga jaaye kahan re'. Sonnu as Mini is uninhibited, the camera seems to be her best ally.
Homespun wisdom and everyday humour is abundant in S Khalil's dialogue. When Mini's father gently reprimands her for telling lies with, "Jo jhooth bolte hai unka chhera bigad jaata hai[Liars end up with a distorted face]" Mini spontaneously recalls her domestic Bhola and queries, "Bhole ka chehra aisa kyon hain? Woh bahut jhooth bolta hain?[How come Bhola does not look any different? He lies all the time.]"
Kabuliwala's philosophy, 'Pyar mohabbat mein ehsaan nahin hota, sirf pyar mohabbat hota hain' [One does not do favours in love, just gives unconditionally] is admittedly not the most eye-opening definition of love. Nevertheless, when woven into a story with as much affection as Kabuliwala mends Mini's cloth doll, it holds you enthralled
Sidelights:
* Before he joined films, Balraj Sahni had taught Hindi and English at Rabindranath Tagore's famed institution of learning, Shantiniketan. It's therefore fitting that Sahni be chosen to play the title role of this Tagore story.
* Though she plays a deglamorised role here, Usha Kiron had done films with Dev Anand (Patita) and Dilip Kumar (Musafir) in the 1950s and played the crucial role of Raj Kapoor's wife in Nazrana in the same year as Kabuliwala!
* Director Hemen Gupta had worked with Balraj Sahni earlier in the stark Taksaal [1956].
* Kabuliwala had been made five years earlier in Bengali by Tapan Sinha with the renowned Bengali actor Chabhi Biswas in Sahni's role.
The Music:
Famous songs from Kabuliwala:
Song Singers
Aye mere pyaare wattan
Manna Dey
Ganga aaye kahan se Hemant Kumar
Kabuliwala Hemant Kumar, Usha
O ya qurbaan Mohammed Rafi
*Kabuliwala was the tenth collaboration between Bimal Roy productions and Salil Choudhury in eight years. Salil had been introduced to Hindi films by Roy in Do Bigha Zameen; and the team had already produced some excellent scores in films like Naukri, Madhumati and Parakh.
*In Kabuliwala, Salil Choudhury's music is perfectly attuned to the theme. The well-known Ganga aaye kahan se number is a meditative reflection on life, while Ho saba kehna mere dildaar ko, dil tadapte hai tere deedar ko, wears the guise of a boisterous number but unveils the hidden longing of the nomadic pathans for their loved ones.
*The film's numero uno number is indubitably the pathos-laden Aye mere pyaare wattan, aye mere bichhde chaman. Kudos to Manna Dey for singing the song with a wealth of feeling.
http://www.rediff.com/entertai/2002/may/30dinesh.htm
Tapan Sinha - a master story teller
Thursday, January 15, 2009 17:58 [IST]

Kolkata: Noted film-maker Tapan Sinha was a master storyteller whose filmography presented an amazing variety of subjects promising different experiences for the audience each time.
Agencies Charles Dicken's A Tale of Two cities and its film version promoted the Dada Saheb Phalke awardee to join films and he went on to become an uncompromising film-maker in a class of his own.
An avid follower of American directors like William Wyler and John Ford, he entered the film world as a technician. He completed his journey there with 41 films, 19 of which won National Awards and laurels from international film festivals of London, Venice, Moscow and Berlin.His cinematic works were mostly down to earth depictions of the struggles of the common man.
His first film Ankush was released in 1954, a year before Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali, and despite making classics like Kabuliwallah, Ek Doctor Ki Mauth,' Nirjan Saikate, Haate Bazare and Admi aur Aurat, Sinha is possibly a lesser discussed director compared to his peers.
After completing M.Sc in Physics from Calcutta University, Sinha joined the New Theatres Studio in 1946 as assistant sound recordist.
Two years later he shifted to the Calcutta Movietone Studio and in 1950 he got the opportunity to work in the Pinewood Studio in London.
There he got to watch the works of greats like Federico Fellini, Vittorio De Sica and work in director Harles Cryton's unit as sound engineer.
He used the trip to learn in totality the art of film-making. After returning, he made Ankush (1954) with an elephant belonging to a zamindar as the central character, a whole new idea at the time, but it bombed at the box office. Sinha's next two films Upahaar (1955) and Tonsil (1956) were somewhat successful, but it was Kabuliwallah (1957), his fourth film, that gave him solid footing and from there he did not have to look back.
Kabuliwallah, based on a short story by Rabindranath Tagore, won the President's Gold Medal for the best film of the country.
The film, however, was not technically sound and Sinha was to later write that Satyajit Ray and Raj Kapoor had told him about its poor technical quality.
Like his favourite directors Wyler and Ford, Sinha had a large canvas and he never made two films on the same subject. Lauha Kapat (Life in Jail, 1958), Khudito Pasan (Haunted House, 1960), Jhinder Bandi (Prisoner of Jhind, 1961) till his last film Daughters of the Century in 2002, the list is endless.
The strong point of Sinha's work was that he was a master storyteller. He never believed in presenting his ideas in a complicated way to his audience. His films were quintessentially focused on middle-class Bengali life.
The story ideas of most of his films had a solid literary base. They were taken from short stories and novels of Rabindranath Tagore, Tarashankar Bandhopadhyay, Saratchandra Chattopadhaya, Sharadindu Bandhopadhyay, Subodh Ghosh and Ramapada Chowdhury. Some, though, were written by himself.
To convey his message, Sinha sometimes used fantasy such as in Galpo Holeyo Satyi (Fiction but fact, 1977), Ek Je Chilo Desh (There was a country, 1977), Bancharamer Bagan (Banchharam's garden, 1980) and Ajab Ganyer Ajab Katha (Strange tale of a strange village, 1998). Despite dealing with social problems in films like 'Adalat O Ekti Meye' and 'Antardhan', politics never came in the forefront in his films such as Apanjan (1968), Sagina Mahato (1970 and Raja (1975), with the sole exception of Atanka (Terror, 1986), since he believed that political issues were short-lived and so were the films based on them.
He had strong belief in the success of individual courage and for this he faced the wrath of Leftist critics. For over half of his career, film societies in Kolkata viewed him with scepticism though during his later years a shift from their earlier stance was visible.
Sinha made a number of films for children Safed Haati (The White Elephant, 1977), Sabuj Dwiper Raja (The King of the Green Island, 1979), Aj Ka Robinhood (The Robinhood of Today, 1987) and Anokha Moti (The Incredible Pearl, 1999).
He made Hindi films like Zindagi Zindagi (1972), Sagina (1974), Ek Doctor Ki Maut (1990) and Daughters of the century (2002). His famous short film Aadmi Aur Aurat (Man and Woman, 1984) was also made in Hindi for Doordarshan.
Sinha made some off beat films -- Nirjan Saikate (The Lonely beach, 1963) --the story of five widows, and the actresses who depicted them, all won national awards. 'Wheel Chair' (1994) was the story of the struggle of a physically challenged doctor and a woman who turned almost into a vegetable after a fall from the stairs.
Born to Tribidesh Chandra Sinha and Pramila Sundari on October 2, 1924, Sinha was perhaps the first director of Bengal to go beyond the confines of the studio floors and shoot on location.
On the advice of Ray, Sinha took up composing music for his films. He also wrote lyrics of songs for films like Harmonium, Ek Je Chhilo Desh and Andhar Periye, among others.
http://movies.indiainfo.com/2009/01/15/0901151803_tapan_sinha.html



Tapan Sinha
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Tapan Sinha

Born 2 October 1924(1924-10-02)
Kolkata, India
Died 15 January 2009 (06:15am IST)
Kolkata, India
Tapan Sinha (Bengali: ??? ???????), (2 October 1924 - 15 January 2009) was a well respected Bengali Indian film director. He was arguably the most uncompromising filmmaker outside the orbit of parallel cinema.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapan_Sinha
Tapan Sinha was born in Kolkata on 2nd October 1924; he was the fifth child of Tridibesh and Pramila Sinha. He did his schooling in the small towns of Bhagalpur and Bankura. Sinha remembers in his memoirs Mone Pore that in Bhagalpur he had seen A Tale of Two Cities – a Hollywood film starring Ronald Coleman – and the film perhaps was “sub-consciously responsible for him becoming a filmmaker”. (In 1961, Sinha was to pay homage to Ronald Coleman in Jhinder Bandi – a lavish historical melodrama about palace intrigue – which was based on one of Coleman’s major hits The Prisoner of Zenda. He also made a casting coup of sorts by bringing together Uttam Kumar and Soumitra Chatterjee for the first time and extracting a fine performance from Soumitra Chatterjee as the charismatic villain.) While doing his Masters in Physics at the Calcutta University during 1943-46, the movie-bug bit him and he regularly saw the works of John Ford, Carol Reed, Billy Wilder and Frank Capra. Completing his masters in 1946, Sinha joined the New Theatres Studios as a trainee assistant sound-engineer. A couple of years later, he joined Calcutta Movietone Studios where Mrinal Sen too worked in the sound department. In 1950, he got an opportunity to work at the Pinewood Studios, London and joined the unit of director Charles Creighton, who was shooting The Hunted at that time. After a two year stint in London working and watching films of Fellini, De Sica, Rossellini and others Sinha returned to Kolkata ready to make his own films.
Ankush (1954), Tapan Sinha’s debut film based on the novel Sainik by Narayan Ganguly with Anubha, Abhi Bhattacharya, Johor Roy and Manju De in the leading roles had an elephant named Nilbahadur as its central character. The film though a flop gave him the opportunity to make his next film Upahar (1955) – a big budget multi–starrer about a pathological miser with Uttam Kumar, Sabitri Chatterjee, Manju De, in the major roles. Tonsil (1956) – the debut of Madhabi Mukherjee (she used her real name Madhuri in this film) –a comedy film was another modest success. It was with his fourth film the all-time favourite Kabuliwala (1956), that Tapan Sinha’s credentials as a film-director was firmly established. This film, about a golden-hearted Afghan dry-fruits merchant and money lender who develops a tender friendship with a little Bengali girl Minnie, had Chhabi Biswas giving a stellar performance in the role of Rehmat Khan. The film which was screened at the Berlin Film Festival of 1957 received critical acclaim and also won an award for its music at the festival.
Kabuliwala is the first of Sinha’s three of films - Kshudista Pashan (1960) and Atithi (1965) being the other two – based on short stories of Rabindranath Tagore. Kshudita Pashan, the story of a decadent sultan as experienced by a traveller (played by Soumitra Chatterjee) who is trapped within the confines of the haunted palace on a rain-lashed night. Dilip Ray, the noted character actor, gave one of his best performances in this film while Sinha’s actor-director wife Arundhati Devi (1925-1990) was brilliant in the role of a totally dialogue-less major character. Operating within the parameters of the horror film genre Sinha brought out the subtle nuances inherent in the multi-layered Tagore tale. Atithi is the story of young boy Tarapada brought up in the plenitude and loving atmosphere of a zamindar’s family. Tarapada, a young man with bohemian tendencies sacrifices the life of luxury and goes away in search of artistic excellence leaving the zamindar’s family, especially his teenaged daughter heartbroken. Tapan Sinha’s films based on Tagore’s short stories are lessons in screen adaptation of difficult literary works. Like the majority of Tagore’s short stories all three are not plot driven and read like narrations told in the first person. In all the three films Sinha does a commendable job in creating situations and incidents and subplots and threading them together into a cohesive cinematic form. Kshudita Pashan and Atithi both won the National Awards as the Second Best Feature Film.
Adapting classics of Bengali literature has in fact been Tapan Sinha’s metier as a filmmaker. Besides Tagore, whom Sinha has admitted to be the 'greatest inspiration of his life', he has adapted works of established Bengali writers like Banaphool, Jarasandha, Tarashankar Bandopadhyaya and Kalkut (Samaresh Bose) into films that are true to the spirit of the originals yet overcoming the trap of being literal in style and form. As he himself said, “Literature is a character by itself…but cinema will portray the spirit of a literary work through its own unique qualities.”. Louhakapat (1957), based on a novel by Jarasandha, is a gritty exposition of the life in a prison taking a smpathetic view about the lives of hardened criminals. The film is notable for its unsentimental and realistic depiction of the daily grind behind the bars and the complex relationships that develop between the inmates. The character actor Kamal Mitra gave a great performance as a prisoner condemned to life imprisonment in this film while Nirmal Kumar and Anil Chatterjee too had significant roles. Kalomati (1957), an adaptation of a short story by Ramapada Choudhury captures the miserable lives of coal-miners and the struggles of a dedicated social-worker – Arundhati Devi in one of her finest performances – to establish a crèche in the colliery. Hansuli Banker Upakatha (1962), based on a novel by Tarashankar Bandopadhyaya is a neo-realistic depiction of the story of survival of a group of people living on the banks of a small river in the Birbhum district of West Bengal. The final sequence of the film where hundreds of villagers join together to rebuild their homes destroyed earlier by devastating floods displays Sinha’s immense cinematic mastery and control over the medium. Nirjan Saikate (1963), a film about five widows - played by Sharmila Tagore, Chhaya Devi, Ruma Guha Thakurtha, Bharati Devi and Renuka Roy - is based on a work by Kalkut. The film is fervent exposition of the concept of widow remarriage. Sinha is able to bring out the psychological barriers and social issues concerning the remarriage of a widow and is also excellent in exploiting the sea beach of Puri as the background to this intense human drama of taboo love, guilt and redemption.
Tapan Sinha’s next film Jotugriha (1964) marks a departure in his career. The focus here shifts from the social to the individual. The film explores the inner reasons for the break-up a marriage – the deep phobias and tensions that underlies the relationship between two good and sincere but egotistical individuals who love each other deeply but ultimately lead each other to despair and destruction. Jotugriha is one of Tapan Sinha’s most intimate and stylised films. This study of marital disharmony is wonderfully narrated through a series of well-structured flashbacks after the long separated couple – played by Uttam Kumar and Arundhati Devi – meet each other in a train compartment. Aarohi (1965), which was remade in Hindi as Arjun Pandit by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, continues Sinha’s explorations into the individual psyche through and celebrates the grit and determination of a person who overcomes tremendous social and personal handicaps to achieve his goal. Kali Bannerjee as the illiterate assistant to a successful doctor who becomes as wise and sagacious as the doctor himself gave one of his most memorable performance in this film. Galpo Holeo Satyi (1966) shows Sinha’s mastery over the comic fantasy - this film about a servant who joins a dysfunctional family and miraculously brings in joy and happiness was remade in Hindi again by Hrishikesh Mukherjee as Bawarchi (1972) with Rajesh Khanna in the lead role. In Tapan Sinha’s original the great comedian Robi Ghosh gave on of his most well-known performances. Sinha would further explore this genre but this time with strong political undertones in Ek Je Chilo Desh (1977), where a crazy scientist invents the truth-serum that sends shivers down the spines of the establishment. Aajab Gnayer Aajab Katha (1998) is another of Sinha’s comic fantasies – this time about an ideal self-sufficient village community.
Hatey Bazaare (1967), one of Sinha’s most accomplished works, deals with human goodness and the spirit of protest that leads to collective happiness. The film, based on a novel written by Banaphool in the form of a diary, once again shows his mastery over adapting difficult literary works into cohesive cinema. Ashok Kumar and Vyjayanthimala played the lead roles and the film won the National Award for the Best Feature Film.
The turbulent late sixties and the early seventies made a definite impression on Sinha’s works. After Haatey Bazaare, there is again a shift of focus to contemporary issues and social problems - the romanticism is now replaced by a more critical and analytical gaze. Apanjan (1968) deals with the frustrations of the unemployed within the backdrop of the emerging Naxalite movement that would shake the socio-political polity of Calcutta and West Bengal soon. Although Sagina Mahato (1970) – which is an adaptation of his late friend the journalist and writer Gourkishor Ghosh’s novel of the same name and is one of Tapan Sinha’s most popular films – with Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu in the lead roles – is an escape from contemporary world, the social concerns are very much present. Sagina – the simple tea-garden labourer who rises against the oppression and builds up a trade-union is a typical Sinha character – an individual who overcomes personal and external limitations to achieve success in his endeavours. After Sagina Mahato, Sinha made Ekhoni (1971), again about the contemporary youth and their predicament.
In the early seventies Sinha went to Mumbai for work. But the critical and box-office failure of Zindagi Zindagi (1972) starring Sunil Dutt and Waheeda Rehman prompted him to come back ot Kolkata where he made Aadhar Periye (1973) and Raja (1975) – both dealing with disaffected urban youth.
Safed Haathi (1977) marks Sinha’s debut in making films for children. He is perhaps the only major filmmaker in India who has consistently produced entertaining yet intelligent films for a young audience. Sabuj Dwiper Raja (1979) – an adventure film shot in the Andaman Islands ranks among the most popular Bengali films for children. Aaj Ka Robinhood (1987), which has been screened at several international film festivals and Anokha Moti (2000) also demonstrate Sinha’s mastery over the genre.
Tapan Sinha’s films in the 1980’s are concerned with the individual caught in the trap of a corrupt and inefficient system that encourages security in mediocrity. As he has remarked, "I have always believed in individual courage and effort. I think, collective system or life hardly allows an individual to discover the infinite strength within him.” Banchharamer Bagan (1980) is a hilarious social satire about a marginal farmer who outwits three generations of a landlord family and saves his small piece of farmland. With its underlying theme of land to the tiller and its portrayal of a farmer’s deep attachment to his land, the film is still relevant in contemporary India. Adalat O Ekti Meye (1982) starring Tanuja as a woman who seeks justice after being gang raped on a sea beach is a strong feminist statement against the humiliation and suffering of a victim of rape and also questions the integrity of the unsympathetic patriarchal judicial system that stigmatises the victim rather than punishing the criminals. Sinha’s films in the eighties, many of which are based on real-life incidents and characters, often depict the despair of an honest and talented individual who is oppressed by an unfair and inequitable society. Gone is the romantic hope of collective action delivering a utopian liberty and equality – optimism is now replaced now by a sense of bleak pessimism. Atanka (1986), developed from newspaper reports but with fictitious characters, is his most controversial film. The film captures the fear and hopelessness of a dedicated school-master – Soumitra Chatterjee in an excellent performance - who accidentally becomes a witness to political murder committed by his former pupil and whose quest for justice ends in his daughter disfigured by an acid bomb attack. Ek Doctor Ki Maut (1991), again based on real-life character, depicts the misery of a talented doctor who invents a vaccine against tuberculosis but is forced to commit suicide by an unsympathetic system that fails to recognise the importance of his invention. The film which had Pankaj Kapur and Shabana Azmi in the main cast won the National Award for the Second Best Feature Film and Tapan Sinha the award for the Best Director. Wheelchair (1994) continues on the same theme but this time with happier results for its main protagonists – a woman who is paralysed from waist-down and a crusading doctor who gives her hope and strength to live and fight for justice.
Tapan Sinha has been active in the new century also. In 2001, he completed an ambitious project Shatabdir Kanya (Daughters of This Century) – a six-part film based on stories by Tagore, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyaya, Gourkishor Ghosh, Prafulla Roy and Dibyendu Palit. The film is a strong statement depicting the neglect and abuse Indian women have face through out the 20th century.
Tapan Sinha has made two tele-films – Aadmi Aur Aurat (1984) and Didi (1990) - and three documentaries among which the ones he made on the scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose and on HIV-AIDS prevention stand out.
Tapan Sinha’s works have won 19 National Film Awards in various categories. His films have also won laurels in International Film Festivals of Berlin, Venice, London, Moscow, San Francisco, Locarno, Cork Festival in Ireland Kampuchea and Seoul. He has also served as a member of the jury in film festivals at Tashkent and San Francisco among others. In 1995, he published his memoirs Mone Pore – a slim volume recounting assorted anecdotes, personalities and incidents in his long and distinguished innings as a filmmaker.
Tapan Sinha can be best described as a socially committed entertainer. Eschewing experimentation he has striven to deliver films which have been commercially viable yet aesthetically pleasing, socially sensitive and thought provoking. In his own words his career as a filmmaker has been, “one long journey in search of art, truth and beauty ….”
http://72.14.235.132/search?q=cache:QXlhAJN-ORoJ:www.upperstall.com/people/tapan-sinha+Tapan+Sinha&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=10&gl=in

The President of India, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil, has condoled the passing away of the famous veteran Film Director and recipient of the Dada Saheb Phalke Award, Shri Tapan Sinha.

In her condolence message, the President has said, “An acclaimed film director, Shri Tapan Sinha shall always be remembered for his films such as ‘Kabuliwala’ and ‘Ek Doctor Ki Maut’, which touched on social issues of our times. In his passing away, the Nation has lost a creative personality and a legendary filmmaker.”

Congress Aims to Take Back Constitutional War Powers
http://www.truthout.org/011409J
Maya Schenwar, Truthout: "As America anticipates the official arrival
of the Obama presidency on January 20, the power grabs and ballooning
executive privileges of the Bush administration may seem far behind
us. However, staving off the normalization of those abuses has
remained at the forefront of several Congress members' legislative
agendas. Congress took little initiative to rein in Bush's excesses
throughout his administration, and now, some members worry that his
vast expansion of executive powers could set a dangerous precedent
for
generations to come. Unless Congress formally rejects Bush's generous
interpretation of the role of the president, they say, the system of
checks and balances could be permanently disrupted."
Fidel Castro health raises concerns - paper
09:57|15/ 01/ 2009
MEXICO, January 15 (RIA Novosti) - Fidel Castro's health may have seriously deteriorated in the last four weeks judging by the disappearance of his regular press articles and recent comments by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a Mexican paper said.
The 82-year-old former president has not published any articles since December 15 and his 16-word salutation to the Cuban people on the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution on January 1 did not resemble his writing style, El Universal reported.
Castro underwent intestinal surgery and ceded power to his younger brother Raul in July 2006 after ruling his country for 47 years. He has not appeared in public ever since.
His last photograph was published on November 18 last year after a meeting with Chinese leader Hu Jintao. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also met with Castro in November, but no photos of the meeting were released.
On January 11, Hugo Chavez said that it is unlikely Fidel Castro will be seen in public again and that his image in uniform "will remain in our memories."
Tapan Sinha
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Tapan Sinha

Born 2 October 1924(1924-10-02)
Kolkata, India
Died 15 January 2009 (06:15am IST)
Kolkata, India
Tapan Sinha (Bengali: ??? ???????), (2 October 1924 - 15 January 2009) was a well respected Bengali Indian film director. He was arguably the most uncompromising filmmaker outside the orbit of parallel cinema.
Contents [hide]
1 Personal life and education
2 Career
3 Awards
4 Death
5 Filmography
6 External links


[edit] Personal life and education
Sinha was born in Kolkata.
Sinha married famous Bengali Indian actress Arundhati Devi. Their son is notable Indian scientist Professor, Anindya Sinha.

[edit] Career
Sinha was one of the most respected film makers of India.
Although he was primarily based in the Bengali film industry, he also made films in different languages like Hindi and Oriya.
Sinha's films have also won laurels in International Film Festivals of Berlin, Venice, London, Moscow, San Francisco, Locarno, Cork Festival in Ireland Kampuchea and Seoul. He has also served as a member of the jury in film festivals at Tashkent and San Francisco among others.

[edit] Awards
His works have won 19 National Film Awards in various categories.
Kabuliwala (1956), based on a story by Rabindranath Tagore, won the Music Award at the Berlin Film Festival, demonstrating his sharp sensitivity.
Ek Doctor Ki Maut(Death of a Doctor)(1991), won National Award for Second Best Film, Best Director, 1991/ Special Jury Award for Best Actor, 1991/ BFJA Awards - Best Film, Best Director, 1991/ 37th Film Fare Award for Best Screenplay, 1991/ Red Cross Film Festival, Sofia (Bulgaria), 1991
He was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 2008 for his outstanding contribution to Indian cinema on 21 July 2008.
[edit] Death
On 15 January 2009, at about 0615 IST, Tapan Sinha passed away due to bronchopneumonia, which he had been suffering from for quite a while.

[edit] Filmography
A list of movies directed by Tapan Sinha are:
Ankush (1954)
Upahaar (1955)
Tonsil (1956)
Kabuliwala (1957)
Lauha Kapat (1958)
Kala Mati (1958)
Khaniker Atithi (1959)
Khudhito Pashan (1960)
Jhinder Bandi (1961)
Hansuli Banker Upakatha (1962)
Nirjan Saikate (1963)
Jatugriha (1964)
Arohi (1964)
Atithi (1965)
Galpo Holeo Satti (1966)
Hate Bazare (1967)
Aapan Jon (1968)
Sagina Mahato (1970)
Sasina (1970)
Ekhani (1971)
Zindagi Zindagi (1972)
Aandhar Periye (1973)
Raja (1975)
Harmonium (1976)
Ek Je Chhilo Desh (1977)
Safed Haathi (1978)
Sabuj Dwiper Raja (1979)
Banchharamer- Bagan (1980)
Adalat O Ekti Meye (1982)
Admi Aur Aurat (1982)
Manush (1983)
Didi (1984)
Baidurya Rahasya (1985)
Atanka (1986)
Aaj Ka Rabinhood (1987)
Ek Doctor Ki Maut (1991)
Antardhaan (1992)
Wheel Chair (1994)
Satabdir Kanya (1996)
Ajab Gnayer Ajab Katha (1999)
Anokhi Moti (2000)
[edit] External links
Tapan Sinha at the Internet Movie Database
Tapan Sinha: Saluting The Indomitable Human Spirit
The Films of Tapan Sinha
Tapan Sinha at calcuttaweb.com
Tapan Sinha passes away
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapan_Sinha
The Films of Tapan Sinha
He is arguably the most uncompromising filmmaker outside the orbit of parallel cinema. And his awe-inspiring body of work can possibly be matched by only a Mrinal Sen or a Satyajit Ray. He is the grand old man of cinema - Tapan Sinha.
Charles Dicken's novel A TALE OF TWO CITIES and the cinematic version of this novel featuring Ronald Colman inspired Tapan Sinha to join films. Sinha started as a Sound Recordist and gradually shifted to Direction.
Tapan Sinha went overseas, more precisely, to London in 1950s. The purpose of his visit was to learn filmmaking, and embark upon a career of making good films. On reaching London, he contacted Mr. CryHearsth, Manager of Pinewood Studios. Through his help, he managed to bag his first assignment. He got to work in Director Charles Cryton's unit as Sound Engineer. Charles Cryton, who had made some good British comedies viz Lavender Hill Mob and others was then working for a film called THE HUNTED.
In his youth, Tapan Sinha was greatly influenced by contemporary American and British Cinema. Among his favorites Directors was John Ford, Carol Reed, Billy Wilder and a host of others. They provided him the incentive to venture into filmmaking. He used to think that he had to make films on those lines. Rabindranath Tagore's work had been a great source of inspiration to him. He couldn't do away with Tagore. Each Tagore work had a special significance in various moments of his life. No individual has ever influenced him on a personal level. But his strong and profound belief in God has been a constant source of inspiration.
Tapan Sinha's first film ANKUSH was based on the Narayan Ganguly story SAINIK, which had an elephant in the central character.
His next UPHAAR featured Uttam Kumar, Manju Dey and others.
Tapan Sinha's AADHAR PERIYE featured Madhabi Mukherjee, Subhendu Chaterji, Sumitra Mukherjee, Anil Chaterji, Nirmal Kumar, Subrota Chaterji, Bikash Roy, Kalyan Chaterji, Chinmoy Roy and others. It was a middling work of Sinha, and was based on a story by Chittaranjan Maity.
Tapan Sinha's HATEY BAZARE was based on an autobiographical story by Banophool. Ashok Kumar and Vyjantimala Bali were the central performers.
Tapan Sinha's EK JE CHILO DESH was a fine fantasy film. EK JE CHILO DESH was based on a story by Sankar. It was about a mad scientist who discovered a drug that could reveal the past dishonest life of an individual. The evil traders, politicians whose life were endangered due to this conspired to kill the scientist. Needless to say, they don't succeed in their design. Dipankar De, Sumitra Mukherji, Kali Banerji, Anil Chaterji and others featured in the cast.
Tapan Sinha's LOUHO KOPAT was based on the story of the Bengali writer JORASANDHO (pen name of the author.) Jorasandho who used to write mostly about prison life i.e with life of peoples revolving around crimes i.e thieves and cops wrote one of his best novels in LOUHO KOPAT. Kamal Mitra, well known Bengali actor gave one of his best perfomances in LOUHO KOPAT. Nirmal Kumar as the jailor also performed admirably. Anil Chaterji did well in a character role.
Tapan Sinha's SABUJ DEEPER RAJA was shot in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and was a childrens' film. It was based on a story by Sunil Ganguly.
Tapan Sinha's HANSULI BANKER UPAKATHA was based on a story by Tara Shankar Banerji. Lily Chakravorty had a good role in this film.
Tapan Sinha's KABULIWALLAH was based on a story by Rabindranath Tagore. Chabi Biswas, Radhamohan Bhattacharji, Kali Banerji and Manju De were the performers. Tinku Thakur played the role of the small girl in the film. Jiban Bose had a good role too in the film as a Jailor, who has good faith in the Kabulliwallah. Rabindrasangeet KHORO BAYU BOY BEGE CHARI DIK CHAYE MEGHE was used in the film. The film portrayed Tapan Sinha's personality - a child at heart. The same trait is reflected in films like GALPO HOLLO SATTI, HARMONIUM and SAFED HATHI.
Tapan Sinha's KABULLIWALLAH was subsequently made in Hindi by Bimal Roy and directed by Heman Gupta, featuring Balraj Sahani. Oerdellin was cast as the child lead in KABULLIWALLAH. KABULLIWALLAH(1956) won the Music Award at the Berlin Film Festival, demonstrating his sharp sensitivity. KABULIWALLAH (Balraj Sahani) who is dreaded by children turns out to be a lover of children. KABULIWALLAH won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.
Tapan Sinha made a few documentaries, and one such was a biographical film on scientist Jagadish Bose.
Tapan Sinha has also made use of Rabindrasangeet in other films. The memorable Rabindrasangeet KENO CHOKER JOLE BIJEYE DILE NA, SUKHNO DULO JOTO was used in his film EKHONI. The film featured Swaroop Dutta, Aparna Sen, Moushumi Chaterji, Nirmal Kumar, Chinmoy Roy, Padda Devi, Subhendu Chaterji, N.Vishwanathan and others. The film was based on a novel by Ramapada Choudhury.

Tapan Sinha's KHONIKER ATITHE was a remarkable film. It featured Nirmal Kumar, Ruma Guha Thakurtha, Anil Chaterji, Tulsi Lahiri, Radhamohan Bhattacharjee and others. The film was based on a story of Tagore.
Tapan Sinha's AROHI had actors like Kali Banerji, Bikash Roy, Sipra and Bhanu Banerji. This was remade in Hindi by Hrishikesh Mukherji as ARJUN PANDIT. The film tells the story of an elderly person played by Kali Banerji, who had a tremendous zest for learning. Kali was working as a servant in Bikash Roy's house. Bikash Roy, a doctor by profession sents his son for medical education. Meanwhile, through his hard labor, Kali Banerji learns a lot of English and also acquires skill in the field of medicine by becoming a compounder. Soon after, Bikash Roy dies. Bikash Roy's son is still in the final year of his medical education in Calcutta. He wants to take his widowed mother to the city to stay with him. But Kali Banerji advises her not to commit this great mistake. This is the final year of the son in college, and if his mother also goes and
stays there his study will be hampered. How much of a sagacious advice can come from a man who was uneducated in his earlier life. AROHI was based on a story by Banophool.

Tapan Sinha's SAFED HATHI featured Shatrughan Sinha and Mala Jaggi. Eravat a white elephant finds an admirer in a young boy much to the chagrin of his uncle(Sadhu Meher)and aunt (Mala Jaggi). A poacher (Shatrughan Sinha) is also interested in the white elephant though his intentions are strictly business. Also starring Gayatri. The story was written by Tapan Sinha himself. Kalyan Chaterji essayed a cameo role as a postman. This children's film was made in Hindi.
Tapan Sinha's ZINDAGI ZINDAGI was a Hindi film with Sunil Dutt and Waheeda Rehman. It fared badly because Sinha was too subtle for Hindi audience in his narration. He is one director who rarely compromises. So, one is sure that the film went over the head of the mass audience.
Tapan Sinha's ATITHE is possibly based on the life of Rabindranath Tagore. The character of Gangapada in the film bears striking resemblance to Tagore's life. Tagore lived like a prince in JORASANKO. But his princely comforts couldn't give him satisfaction. His mind would always be flying out, swaying with the flowers and with the wild trees. He was always curious to know the unknown. Sinha's ATITHE featured Partha Mukherjee, Smita Sinha and Ajitesh Banerji.
Tapan Sinha's TONSIL was a fine comedy film. Madhabi Mukherjee made her debut in this film.
Tapan Sinha's JHINDER BANDI(a desi PRISONER OF ZENDA) was based on a story of Saradindu Banerji, the well-known crime writer from Bengali. Uttam Kumar, Sandhya Roy, Soumitro Chaterji, Radhamohan Bhattacharji, Tarun Kumar, Dilip Roy and Arundhuti Mukherji were the performers. The first film in which Uttam and Soumitra starred together was Tapan Sinha's JHINDER BANDI in which Soumitra was, for the first time, cast as the villain. He had worked in barely a handfull of films till then besides starting off as the struggling Apu buffeted by waves of tragedy. Tapan Sinha liked springing surprises and it could not have worked better. The film was a roaring success without giving Soumitra the permanent mark of a villain as it might have been apt to do with other actors.
Tapan Sinha's SAGINA MAHATO was a good effort. Sagina was a coolie who couldn't see the oppressed being done injustices, and later rises to be their leader. Some might categorize SAGINA MAHATO as a political film, although human drama and relationship lies at the heart of this magnum opus. Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu played the central characters. Anil Chaterji also acted in a supporting role. The Bengali version of this film starred Uttam Kumar.

Tapan Sinha's KALAMATI was the first film to deal with life in creches in coalmine areas. Made in 1957, it was a film made much ahead of its times. Anil Chaterji did a memorable role in the film.
Sinha's RAJA was also a watch able film. The film starred Debraj Ray, Samit Bhanja, Arati Bhattacharji, Mahua Roy Choudhury, Anil Chaterji, Santu Mukherji and others. The story of an unemployed youth (RAJA) who sees so much of evil, injustice and poverty around him, the youth RAJA befriends a mysterious lady (Arati Bhattacharji) who uses him for her own dirty business. She has a tragic past which made her choose this line, and she is now entrenched in a business which destroys innocent girls. Mahua Roy Choudhury, an innocent girl has fallen in to her (Arati Bhattacharji's) trap, but RAJA (Debraj Ray) is determined to save her from becoming spoilt. Anil Chaterji plays a foreign-born Indophile father who helps Debraj Ray get a job for Mahua Roy Choudhury. The film had a subject which was seen in several Indian films before, and the staid characterizations of Anil Chaterji and Arati Chaterji doesn't appear so fresh on viewing the film in the 90s. RAJA (Debraj Ray) had to die in the end, but only after saving Mahua Roy Choudhury from doom.
Tapan Sinha's APANJAN was a beautiful story of young unemployed youths which first saw Swaroop Dutta and Samit Bhanja giving memorable performances. It was an early film of Sinha, and here he has focused on a movement similar to Naxalism in later days. Sinha's APANJAN was remade in Hindi by Gulzar as MERE APNE. The film also featured Chaya Devi, Rabi Ghosh, Bhanu Banerji, Kalyan Chaterji, Partha Mukherjee, Nirmal Kumar and others.
Although Tapan Sinha has continued to turn out entertainment masterpieces since he made his debut as a film Director, archetypal Bengali Drama, mixed with literary flavor and human warmth, has been his métier. His films appear most alive when working their way into the mysteries of human life, be that of a young widow in the shadow of her past romance in "KSHANIKER ATITHE", or a prisoner in LOUHOKOPAT or a social dropout, a ruffian in APANJAN.
Tapan Sinha's AAJ KA ROBINHOOD, a children's film funded partly by the Govt. and a producer Mr Jalan, has been screened at the maximum number of International film festivals viz 12 International Festivals at Tashkent, Berlin, Sofia and others. The film has a running time of 80 minutes. Dubbed in English, it is entitled RETURN OF ROBIN HOOD. This is a 1987 film where Tapan Sinha has returned to his favorite world of children with this Hindi film. Ram Yadav Singh, a feudal landlord, lives off the interest he earns on the money he lends. Inspired by Jatin Babu's tale of Robinhood, young Tetra decides to steal documents from the rich and give them to the poor. Having done this, he faces the wrath of the feudal lord. Simplistic it may sound, but the concern over social evils is brought out in a vibrant way in Sinha's films.
Tapan Sinha's NIRJAN SAIKATE had performers like Anil Chaterji, Sharmila Tagore, Chaya Devi, Ruma Guha Thakurtha, Bharati, Renuka, Robi Ghosh, Pahari Sanyal, Nabadip Haldar and Jahar Ganguly. It was a remarkable film about 5 widows. The film was based on a story by KALKUT (pen-name of Samaresh Basu). In an interview, Tapan Sinha said "He believes that widows have a right to get married. Great social reformers like Vidyasagar and Vivekanda strived ceaselessly to bring about this practice."
Tapan Sinha's HARMONIUM featured Durgadas Banerji, Anil Chaterji, Satya Banerji, Arati Bhattacharji, Swaroop Dutta, Kali Banerji and Samit Bhanja, Chaya Devi and others.

Tapan Sinha's BANCHARAMER BAGAN saw one of the finest perfomances delivered by Manoj Mitra as an old gardener. Bancharam was the owner of a plot of land where he made his beautiful garden. The evil zamindar of the locality, an avaricious man (by his own son's admission in the film) sets his eyes on this garden and wants to usurp it. But adamant that Bancharam is, not to sell it, the landlord employs goondas to drive him out of the area. While fleeing for his life, Bancharam takes shelter in a forest. Luckily for him, the Magistrate (a foreigner), who was hunting, catches him and on hearing his plight takes pity on him. The magistrate warns the landlord that if ever he sets foot on Bancharam's garden, the landlord would have to pay dearly for this. The landlord felt very humiliated, because he received the warning because of a very small gardener. That night he starts behaving abnormally (whenever he is angry, it is his usual behavior) and kills himself. Twenty years later a new zamindar takes over an ailing Bancha's land and agrees to pay Rs 400 a month till his death. Bancha recovers but the zamindar wants him to die and serves an ultimatum. One day he comes ready to perform the funeral, but Bancha, blessed with a grandson, wants to live. Chaplinesque in its approach, the film depicts the tragedy of a small man in this big world.
In Tapan Sinha's KHUDITO PASAN, Dilip Roy gave one of the most powerful performance of his career as a moghul king. KHUDITA PASAN was based on a story by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. Soumitra Chaterji also gave a memorable performance in KHUDITO PASAN.
Tapan Sinha's JATUGRIHO (Uttam and Arundhuti Devi) was a fascinating film on an incident drawn from everyday life. What happens when two known individuals (Uttam & Arundhuti) meet, quite unexpectedly, after a long gap in a train. It was one of the finest film of Tapan Sinha. The subject of marital discord has rarely been dealt with more finesse in Indian films.
Tapan Sinha's GOLPO HOLO SATTI was a fine satirical film on how a heaven-sent servant (played by Robi Ghosh) brings order and peace in a quarreling disorganised family. Bhanu Banerji and some small-time actors with the exception of Bharati and Chaya Devi comprised the cast. This was remade in Hindi by Hrishikesh Mukherji as BAWARCHI, with Rajesh Khanna in the lead role.
Tapan Sinha's ATANKA was based on true facts. The director based his film on real-life facts which appeared on newspapers. Soumitro, Satabdi and Prasenjit were the central performers. A teacher was witness to a murder, and the subsequent torture and harassment on him by the group of hoodlums who committed the crime was the storyline of the film. The film had quite a few horrifying scenes. Especially the scene when the daughter of the teacher (Satabdi Roy) was thrown a bottle of acid on her face, turning her visage grisly. Nirmal Kumar & Manoj Mitra were the other performers. Nimu Bhowmick and Bhishnu Guha Thakurtha enacted the villians. Anil Chaterji had a memorable role as a well wisher of the teacher.
Tapan Sinha's AADMI AUR AURAT was based on a story by Prafulla Roy. Amol Palekar and Mahua Roy Choudhury acted impeccably.
Tapan Sinha's telefilm AADMI AUR AURAT was remade in Bengali as MANUSH (Samit Bhanja, Devika Mukherjee) by the Director himself.
Tapan Sinha made a telefilm DIDI with Deepti Naval essaying the central character.
Tapan Sinha's EK DOCTOR KI MAUT was based on a story "ABHIMANYU" by Ramapada Choudhury. EK DOCTOR KI MAUT had Shabana Azmi, Pankaj Kapoor, Irfan Khan and Anil Chaterji in the cast. In EK DOCTOR KI MAUT one sees an Ibsenian touch. Dipankar Roy invents a vaccine for leprosy, but paradoxically the entire community turns against him. Professional jealousy and abuse of power prevent him from pursuing his research and he is transferred to a remote village. But with an understanding wife (Shabana Azmi), he continues the research but fails to produce the paper on time. Meanwhile a foundation in the United States recognizes two Doctors from the University of Wisconsin for "deriving the vaccine against leprosy." That the foreigners took the lead from Dipankar is accepted but "as Dipankar was tentative in his approach and has not completed the research" the recognition goes elsewhere. In this sensitive work, Tapan Sinha reacts to the way society responds to talent.
EK DOCTOR KI MAUT won the Rajat Kamal for the second best feature film of the year, besides earning him the Best Directors Award. "Talent is subject to ridicule. The more you excel the more number of enemies you seem to have : Why this animosity towards Excellence?" That is the anguish Tapan Sinha projects in EK DOCTOR KI MAUT where a young doctor's scholastic pursuits and invention become the ridicule of others. "I based this story on the suicide of a young scientist in Delhi" says the Director. Vijeyandra Ghatge, Vasant Choudhury and Deepa Sahi had memorable cameos in the film.

Tapan Sinha's WHEEL CHAIR had a strong cast of Soumitro Chaterji, Laboni Sarkar and Arjun Chakravorty. Laboni Sarkar gave a sterling performance as a handicapped confined to a wheelchair. The film was based on a story by the Director himself, though it was inspired by the life of a crusading doctor. WHEELCHAIR is about a young woman who is molested late one evening in office. While fighting off the three men, she sustains injuries and is bed-ridden for a while. But in this film, she is fortunate enough to receive proper medical care and also emotional sustenance, and in the end, she can look forward to a better life.
Tapan Sinha's ADALAT O EKTI MEY (Bengali/1981) featured Tanuja, Biplab Chaterji, Manoj Mitra and others. Here is a different Tapan Sinha. Urmila (Tanuja), a young teacher on a holiday, is raped by a gang of wealthy young men. The culprits are arrested. But Urmila is shunned by her friends, fiancé and even parents. She is an outcast like Dr Roy in EK DOCTOR KI MAUT. The difference is that while Urmila is ostracized for no fault of hers, Dipankar Roy (Pankaj Kapoor) faces social wrath because of his talent.
Tapan Sinha's ANTARDHAAN had a strong cast of Soumitro Chaterji, Madhabi, Manoj Mitra, Sabyasachi Chakravorty, Satabdi Roy, Riku Dutta, Bhisma Guha Thakurtha, Ramen Roy Choudhury, Nirmal Chakravorty and Arjun Chakravorty. It dealt with the subject of disappearance of a girl with her lover. It was based on a story by Dibyendu Palit. Tapan feels a sort of fictionalization of a real-life incident or even a newspaper report, from which the source of the original story is supposed to be derived, becomes necessary for cinematic dramatization. Riku Dutta, a newcomer to films, who is regularly seen in TV Serials, is rather thrilled to act in this film of Tapan Sinha who, she says, is the mentor of many new artistes. Tracking down of the romantic duo involves some interesting but believable characters, of whom there is an honest police officer, played by Nirmal Chakravorty.
In the very recent series of films that Tapan has made in the last eight years, a trusting and idealistic man, assailed by unfortunate circumstances or hostile and scheming persons, stands out as an example of indomitable individualism. "I have always believed in individual courage and effort. I think, collective system or life hardly allows an individual to discover the infinite strength within him. I like the individual who has the courage to face any untoward situation, which is why I have shown an individual as a relentless fighter against all hazards in AADMI AUR AURAT, ATANKA and EK DOCTOR KI MAUT. My protagonists in these films have practically done miracles by their own strength and self-confidence. In ANTARDHAAN also, the Professor takes up the job of finding out his missing daughter. He depends only on himself and on none else, says the Director. With these dogged individuals Sinha has succeeded in imprinting a newer kind of creativity on celluloid.
Tapan Sinha's BOYDURJER RAHASYA was a detective film. Manoj Mitra, Bhishnu Guha Thakurtha, Tapas Pal, Alpana Goswami, Moonmon Sen and Premansu Bose with Basant Choudhury formed the cast. It was a clanger.
Tapan Sinha's filmography presents an amazing variety of subjects. Even when the Director has profusely entertained the audience, he has done it every time with a new yarn promising new experiences for the filmgoers. And these have not been ordinary crowd-pleasers nor have they seemed mired in familiar formulas. A veritable commander of the box-office, Tapan Sinha has offered five super hit films in a succession - namely KSHUDITA PASAN, KABULIWALLAH, HATEY BAZARE, APANJAN and EKHANI - creating a record that is unsurpassed even today. Yet in each of these films, adapted faithfully from widely read literary works and neatly told, a serious observer may discover the creative burst that raises a popular work to an artistic level. This nonchalant mastery of spinning pleasurable surprises right on the screen has been discernible in all his films, even including his work containing raw realities of life like APANJAN, RAJA or ATANKA.
Tapan Sinha has shifted his attention to the small screen for the first time in 1996. He made a film called DAUGHTER OF THE CENTURY with Shabana Azmi, Jaya Bhaduri, Deepa Sahi, Sulabha Deshpande in the central character, based on a Tagore story. Stories of other notable Bengali writers like Sarat Chandra Chaterji, Tarashankar Banerji, Gour Kishore Ghosh, Dibyendu Palit, has also been featured in the film. The film has six actress, each playing a central role in the stories of the six renowned writers. The Director wants to convey the message that in spite of tremendous scientific advancements, the attitude towards women hasn't change much. One of the episode that Sinha has shot for DAUGHTERS OF THE CENTURY is called CHARU, based on the short story EI DAHO by Gour Kishore Ghosh.
Raja Sen has made a documentary on Tapan Sinha entitled FILMMAKER FOR FREEDOM highlighting his genius.
Tapan Sinha made a TV Serial (detective genre) HUTUMER NAKSA casting Soumitra Chaterji, Manoj Mitra, Dhiman Chakravorty, Robi Ghosh and others.
Tapan Sinha's wife, filmmaker Arundhuti Devi, recently passed away in 1990.
AAJAB GAYER AAJAB KATHA was based on a novelette by eminent Bengali writer Shirsendu Mukhopadhay. This film, in Sinha's own words "is a semi-fantasy designed for all, including children." AAJAB GAYER AAJAB KATHA "is a strange story of a strange village." The message is, it is necessary to have a community drive to get anything done in today's society. "We must not look at the Government for everything," says the Director. "In the west and also in the far east, there is a system of community initiatives. I believe, we should have this same kind of approach too." He adds, "According to this story, a person has to prepare himself to confront any adversary."
The cast of AAJAB GAYER .......... includes Debasree Roy in the lead. She plays a light-hearted "village girl." Debasree has not done such a role before and I found her absolutely suitable for it," says the Director. It is the only female character in the film which also has a new face on the big screen, Debesh Roy Choudhury. His role in the film requires him to do a lot of "physical labor, including sprinting." The rest of the cast has Soumitra Chaterji, Manoj Mitra, Nirmal Kumar and Bibhas Chakravorty. A 10 day shooting has been done at Falta, on the banks of the Ganga, starting on Dec 7, 1997. Next in January, some shots were taken in a village house.
Tapan Sinha's latest venture, ANOKHA MOTI, is being made by the Director in the new millennium. The film features Arjun Chakravorty, and is being made in Hindi. It is a film made for children.
– Subhajit Ghosh
December 1999
http://72.14.235.132/search?q=cache:AD39E6N0JPUJ:www.boloji.com/cinema/tapansinha.htm+Tapan+Sinha&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6&gl=in
The Film sagina mahato was based on the NOVEL written with the same title by GAUR Kishore ghose. Understanding the film is impossible without knowing Ghosh!
The 1981 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts

BIOGRAPHY of Gour Kishore Ghosh

During his youth, GOUR KISHORE GHOSH remembers, "we were almost like a family of nomads." The eldest and only son of six children of Girija Bhusan Ghosh and Sadhana Mazumder, GHOSH was born on June 20, 1923 in Hat Gopalpur, the home village of his mother in Jhenida subdivision in the Jessore district of what was then East Bengal, India, and is now Bangladesh. His father, who came from a neighboring village, had taken medical training in Calcutta and was practicing as a doctor in the area. The wandering began when GHOSH was five and his father suddenly accepted a job in Sylhet as the doctor on a tea plantation.
"At that time for a Hindu family to go to an unknown place was almost like a sin," GHOSH explains, and "Sylhet then was very remote. You had to travel by bullock cart, then rail carriage, then steamboat. After that nobody knew; it was beyond comprehension. And in the rail carriage you would not know who would travel with you—maybe some Muslims, maybe some Christians. So the attitude was, don't go. Your village was the world."
GHOSH began his education in Sylhet in a one-man school and credits his strict schoolmaster, Nabin Pal, with teaching him to write Bengali properly. Although his father became manager of the tea garden within three years, he abruptly left his secure job to undertake a private development project. He had observed that people were poor on the marshy side of Sylhet where a grass grew from which fine mats could be made, and he decided to introduce them to mat-making.
Living in the single room his father rented in the village on the marsh land, GHOSH, his mother and sister frequently fell ill with malaria. Unmindful of the family's health or comfort, the father persisted for one year in trying to teach the village folk to weave mats and market them. When all the money he had saved during his four years on the tea estate had been spent, he took the family back to Jhenida where he resumed medical practice.
For the next two and a half years GHOSH recalls living in several places and changing schools four or five times. In 1933 a dispute over their small ancestral properties arose between his father and his father's younger brother who was living with them. Impatient with the quarrel, his father gave his share to his brother and abruptly moved his family (to which two more daughters had been born) to Nabadwip, about 40 miles north of Calcutta, where he started medical practice anew. From then until GHOSH’s graduation from high school there was no further change of residence. But the family was now faced with a different hardship.
Nabadwip is hallowed as the birthplace of Shri Chaitanya, considered, GHOSH explains, to be a reincarnation of Lord Krishna, who taught a simple form of Hinduism based on love. Since to die here assured the believer eternal blessings, many old people were brought to this place by their relatives and abandoned. The GHOSH family had not been long in Nabadwip before the father brought one of these deserted old women—with body sores and swollen feet—to their home. He ordered his children to treat her like their grandmother, to clean her and care for her, and forbade any argument from his wife. In their two-room house with a verandah the family shared their beds with a succession of five such "grandmothers and grandfathers." GHOSH bears the scars of infections he contracted from them. His father also ordered him to help carry the dead, not only from their house, but from the streets, to the funeral pyres.
His father earned enough to pay tuition for GHOSH to attend Nabadwip Bakultala High English School where he began to study English. There one of the turning points in his life occurred. While in Class 7 he won first prize "for writing an essay, or for my recitation or elocution"—and was given an English book which he could not understand. As he was walking home a young gentleman noticed his tearstained face and called to him, "Here boy, why are you crying?" Between sobs GHOSH told him that he had gotten a "bogus" book as a prize. "But this is Treasure Island," the stranger exclaimed, "you have been presented with a very good book!" The young man, Gouri Prasad Basu, who had just graduated from the David Hare Teachers' Training College, translated the foreword to GHOSH, read aloud the first two pages and told him to come and tell him the story when he had finished reading it. As Basu promised, Treasure Island opened up new vistas to the village-bred youth, GHOSH remembers him fondly as one of his mentors and when he received news of his Ramon Magsaysay Award he wrote Basu.
GHOSH also remembers gratefully the public library in Nabadwip where, after his experience with Basu, he spent his spare time reading. "I had no special choice or favorite," he remarks, "because Basu taught me that if you try you can understand anything you want to."
Sudden changes of residence, sharp fluctuations in their economic situation and his father's concern for the destitute sharpened GHOSH’s social awareness at an early age. He was thus alert to the sociopolitical discussions among his classmates and teachers, who were influenced by anti-British activists who had studied Marxism in jail after their Chittagong Armory Raid in 1931 and the Marxist-oriented students returning from English universities. In 1938, at the age of 15, he joined the student wing of the Communist Party ot India (CPI) which was then banned by the British Government of India. He organized one strike, his first taste of defying authority.
GHOSH remembers that party members were torn by a conflict between the Moscow-dictated line the CPI was following during 19391941 (that World War II was an imperialist war and Britain should not be helped) and the deviationist position of Manabendra Nath Roy (that it was an anti-fascist war and India must join with Britain). For taking this stand M. N. Roy was vilified and branded a British agent by the CPI. GHOSH’s own rejection of "hollow-thinking communists" occurred after Hitler's forces invaded Poland in August 1939. Shortly thereafter the student group to which he belonged left the CPI and joined Roy's "more rational" League of Radical Congressmen which in 1940 became the Radical Democratic Party. When the Germans invaded Russia in 1941 the CPI reversed itself and called for all-out aid for the Allies, including Britain.
By 1941 the number of destitutes in the small family home in Nabadwip had become unmanageable and GHOSH’s father rented another house for them. From this grew his idea of greater service to the community by establishing a permanent home for deserted people. GHOSH was 18 and had just completed high school when his father went his separate way, leaving GHOSH to care for his mother and four younger sisters; his eldest sister had married at 16 and lived elsewhere. GHOSH’s father now runs an orphanage and maintains occasional contact with the family with the detachment of a stranger.
Among the boys taking their matriculation examination in 1941, GHOSH was one of the very few to qualify for Division I and he was offered tuition scholarships by two Calcutta colleges. He went to Calcutta intending to study and work part-time, but when neither college could guarantee him a place in their hostels, he had to forego both offers.
With only a high school education, no special skill and his mother and sisters in Nabadwip to support, GHOSH took the first job he could find in Calcutta—as an electrician's mate. The work was not steady and paid only four annas (16 annas in one rupee) a day. After four months he found regular work as an apprentice viseman fitter with a small company which paid ten annas a day. From this wage he sent six annas to his mother and lived on the remaining four. He saved by eating at a Muslim restaurant for the poor where he was allowed to sleep in a corner, for which favor he helped with odd work. When asked why as a Hindu he did not choose a co-religionist's establishment he replied, "because Hindus would ask why I was there, what my caste was and so on, but the Muslims never asked anything; they were more human."
He left after nine months as a viseman fitter and took several odd jobs before finding one paying the generous salary of Rs.35 a month as a mate in the rescue service of an Air Raid Precaution unit which had been organized after Japanese planes twice raided Calcutta in late 1941 and early 1942. He had not been on this job long before he was injured while his team was using a pulley to rescue a heavy man from a three story building. "There was some slip," GHOSH remembers, "so I took the rope around my chest, lay down and held the rope as tightly as I could." He checked the man's fall, but the strong jerk on the rope caused such pressure on his chest that he fainted. He developed pleurisy and was hospitalized for one month. Although his hospital expenses were paid by the government, he lost his job because he could no longer do strenuous work.
Returning to Nabadwip to live with his family during his convalescence, the young man did private tutoring and worked as a petty contractor for a timber merchant. "That was a very bad time," GHOSH recalls, "the war was on and clothing, foodstuffs, everything, was in short supply. But we managed some way or another on my irregular income."
As soon as he was well enough GHOSH went to his ancestral district of Jessore to seek work and was hired as a road sirkar (foreman) for a construction firm building a large airdrome. He lost that good job after three months when the police discovered he was a member of the Radical Democratic Party, held him in custody for 15 days, and expelled him from the restricted military area. He returned to Nabadwip. Ironically, GHOSH says, at the same time party members were being arrested on the order of British Intelligence, they were being branded by Indian nationalists and the communists as British stooges.
With the help of his maternal uncle GHOSH was admitted to the Intermediate Science Class of the wartime Nabadwip branch of Vidyasagar College of Calcutta. He disliked the class atmosphere and soon stopped attending courses, but remained active in student politics and helped form the Radical Students League. Between the years 1943 and 1945 he worked at any job he could get, no matter how temporary, because he had to support his mother and sisters. Again he tutored and cut lumber in Nabadwip. In Calcutta he worked briefly as a dishwasher in a restaurant and later as an agent selling pharmaceuticals, buckets, cardboard and insurance on a commission. He next managed a touring troupe of Kathak dancers, interpreting the Kathak dances of north India to Bengali audiences, arranging travel and housing for the troupe and selling tickets for the performances. His first poem was published in 1943 in Purbasha (The East Horizon), a Calcutta periodical, and in 1944 and 1945 he contributed occasional personal articles to his party organ, Janata (The Masses).
Early in 1945, at the main campus of Vidyasagar College in Calcutta, he "bullied the teacher," as he puts it, into allowing him to sit for the Intermediate Examination in Science and scored the minimum percentage for an undergraduate pass. GHOSH readily volunteers that his academic performance "was not good enough," but says, with a droll sidelong glance, "that was the arrangement because my teacher thought it would be rather troublesome to keep me in the class."
GHOSH was returning to Calcutta from Nabadwip in 1945 when his train stopped 15 miles outside the city and everyone in his compartment began leaving. On hearing that there were vacancies in an aircraft factory and that jobs were plentiful, he too left the train and joined the long queue of job seekers. He obtained work as a vise fitter in the wing shop and within six months his salary rose from Rs.1/7as. a day to Rs.3/l0as. "That was a lot of money in those days," GHOSH says, "but again my dossier caught up with me and the Indian police took me away because they thought I was there to engage in subversive activity."
He returned to Calcutta, joined the Indian Federation of Labor and was drafted by the Radical Democratic Party to go with a cadre to organize jute workers in the industrial area of Barrackpore. During his five months there he was severely beaten by communist workers for speaking out against their platform and their candidate.
With the end of the war in August 1945 trade union activity increased and GHOSH was assigned in early 1946 to organize the Lalmanir Hat branch of the Bengal and Assam Railwaymen's Association. When the police evicted him from Lalmanir Hat, which was under British rule, he crossed the nearby border into Cooch Behar, then one of the princely states ruled by a maharaja. While the Lalmanir Hat police were going through the procedures required to request the maharaja's police to evict him, "I was just going back and forth across the border and doing my job," GHOSH relates. "For five months I played this game."
He was next sent to Darjeeling to bring into the party fold the organizer of the workers on the Darjeeling-Himalayan Railway. He later reamed that the union wanted to factionalize the workers and was working with the company to oust the organizer. The union accomplished this by giving him a pompous title in the overall organization, whereby he lost control of his home group. The organizer whom GHOSH was ostensibly sent to help proved to be "a very good, tough man and a born organizer," and became his friend. "The net result of this experience," GHOSH relates, "is a story, named for the organizer Sagina Mahato, which tells how a Marxist organization destroys a natural labor organizer. No personalities can be tolerated. Never! Instead I had to set up a faceless organization. I wrote seriously about this tragedy of his. Before that I was writing shallow things and nobody was really paying attention. "
Meanwhile M. N. Roy had been reexamining the theoretical aspects of political practice and evolved the philosophy of "New Humanism," to which GHOSH subscribed. The Radical Democratic Party was not formally disbanded until 1948 but members like GHOSH gave up party politics as much as two years earlier.
GHOSH’s introduction to journalism came in early 1947 in Calcutta when he became a proofreader on a new weekly literary magazine Nababani (New Message), which survived for only one year. Thereafter he found work as a petty clerk in the land customs clearing office which had been created to handle traffic across the new border between West Bengal, India, and East Bengal, Pakistan. From his salary of Rs.30 per month he sent Rs.20 to his mother and on the remainder "could not rent even a bed in Calcutta." Rescue came from a fellow "radical humanist," Samaren Roy, who let him sleep in the room where Roy was printing his weekly political magazine Arani (name of the wood used to spark a fire by rubbing two sticks together). GHOSH met Roy once a week on Saturday when the magazine was published and Roy prepared for the next issue. On one such Saturday Roy was short of articles and offered GHOSH "a double omelet and two slices of toast" if he would write a little satire for the magazine. GHOSH told Roy to order the meal and started writing. From that time on, although he was still working at customs, he was regularly writing short satires for the magazine, sometimes doing a little proofreading to help out, and working on his own first book. Arani, however, never broke even and closed in mid 1948.
Samaren Roy's young friend P. K. Roy had observed GHOSH’s work and liked it well enough to offer him the job of proofreader with the daily paper he was about to publish. Named Satyayug for the earliest and most righteous of the four ages of the Hindu world cycle, it was owned by the country's largest newspaper chain, the Times of India group. After a short time as proofreader GHOSH was given charge of the children's and cinema pages. He published a few of his own short stories for children, and in 1949 his first book, Ei Kolkatai (In this Calcutta), was serialized in the Sunday edition. This autobiographical satire "gave me some prominence as a writer," GHOSH reports. It was published in book forte in 1950, followed by his second book, Meghnamati (the name of a legendary girl), a collection of fairy tales, in 1951.
After the owners closed Satyayug in 1951 GHOSH was unemployed for about a year, during which time he concentrated on his writing for which he had one steady outlet. In 1950, at the initiative of Sagammoy Ghosh, the editor of Calcutta's most popular literary weekly Desh (Country), GHOSH had begun contributing to Desh a regular column entitled "Rupadarshir Naksha" (Sketches by Rupadarshi, his pen name); it ran until 1953. Rupa has two meanings—beauty and image—end darshi means he who sees, hence rupadarshi is one who sees beauty or any image. GHOSH’s Rupadarshi wrote "about common folks seen every day but not noticed." His intent was to make people aware that there is beauty in everyone if only they adopt a more humanist viewpoint. A second series of sketches of ordinary people was compiled as his third book, Circus (the English word has been incorporated into Bengali with the same meaning), and published in 1952.
GHOSH believes Calcutta's largest Bengali-language daily, Ananda Bazar Patrika, hired him as a junior reporter in 1952 because his friend Amitabha Chowdhury had declined their offer. Chowdhury was a respected reporter on Jugantar, the second largest Bengali newspaper (and in 1961 the Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Joumalism and Literature "for scrupulous and probing investigative reporting in protection of individual rights and community interests"). GHOSH’s Ei Kolkatai had attracted the attention of the paper's publisher which made him the second choice although he had had little experience as a reporter. While working for the newspaper GHOSH continued contributing to Desh.
Publication in the latter of six stories he wrote between 1952 and 1954 about Sagina Mahato and five other political personalities he had met added another dimension to his reputation as a penetrating social critic. The series was published in book form in 1956 under the title of the lead story, Sagina Mahato.
In 1958 GHOSH and Chowdhury decided to start, on the side, an independent news weekly wherein they could express their opinions without the inhibitions imposed by their respective commercial newspapers. "How did we do it?" GHOSH asks rhetorically. "That is a wonderment! I don't know how Amit [Chowdhury] persuaded prominent journalists from almost all the papers to join us and put in share money to start Darpan [The Mirror]." Chowdhury also urged GHOSH to write a satirical column for Darpan which he entitled "Hing Ting Chhat" (freely translated as "fee, fie, foh, fum"). For this column GHOSH took the pen name Goudananda Kavi (Poet Laureate of Bengal; Gouda is the ancient name of Bengal), as a parody of the Bengali self-image of being first and best in everything. GHOSH stayed with Darpan for 18 months and Chowdhury a year or so longer. "It is still being published but long ago this paper branded Amit and me as CIA agents," GHOSH reports with a sardonic smile at the use of the "patently false and shopworn label."
After he withdrew from Darpan GHOSH published his popular column under the title "Goudananda Kavi Bhane" (Thus Spake the Poet Laureate of Bengal) as an occasional feature in Ananda Bazar Patrika. In the early 1970s it became a regular weekly column and in 1974 a collection of these columns was published in book form.
From 1953 through mid-1975 GHOSH chronicled the deterioration of law and order in India, and "the growing lack of simple brotherhood," in his Goudananda column, in feature articles, short stories and in books. His second column for Desh, "Rupadarshir Sangbad Bhashya" (News Commentary by Rupadarshi)—a revival of his earlier Rupadarshi column—ran from 1968 to 1971. Desh never hesitated to print GHOSH's biting political commentaries although his paper, Ananda Bazar Patrika, at times refused to do so. GHOSH himself was not daunted by the risk of calling powerful and dangerous elements to account, even though in 1953 he had been assaulted by the police for his criticism of their methods of suppressing political movements.
GHOSH dismisses all but a few of the books he wrote between 1954 and 1964—more than 20 novels, collections of satires and short stories, and children's books—with his remark that "many have long been out of print and even I have forgotten the titles." He, however, remembers with delight Brajadar Gulpa Samagra (Absurd Stories of Brajada), which is a collection of satires on the inflated ego of the Bengalis. Not wanting to use the adjective "absurd" in the title he distorted galpa, meaning story, to gulpa, to imply absurdity. Brajada is a pompous, typical Bengali gentleman who "excels" in everything, believing
that "Bengalis are the best dressers in the world and Bengalis can do anything; I punctured him in an hilarious way," GHOSH recounts with an impish gleam. The Brajada tales have sold well and one has been made into a popular film.
In 1965 he wrote Lokta (That Nonperson), a novelette which, in the words of a colleague, "portrayed in graphic detail the social tension which had begun to reduce individuals to nonpersons." A condensed version in English was published in the Australian periodical Quadrant the same year. Sequels written between 1967 and 1969 were Bagh Bandi (Game of Checkers) and Taliye Jabar Aage (Just Before We Go Down) and "depicted the seeds of internal decay, the inevitable growth of violent minority movements and urban guerrilla action and the resulting counterforce of cruel government suppression." The same colleague ranks Bagh Bandi as "a modern classic for its human insight into a group of young urban terrorists of whose policies GHOSH strongly disapproved but for whose misdirections he suffered immense grief." The two stories, he continues, "comprise a treatise on contemporary history in extraordinarily sympathetic terms." GHOSH emphasizes that these stories were written before the Naxalite (terrorist) outbreak but adds, "if you read them you will understand why a boy became a Naxalite." Because of their relevance they were republished in a book entitled Amra Jekhane (Where We Are) in 1970 when the Naxalites were at the height of their power. While recognizing the phenomenon as an excess of Bengali emotionalism with historic precedents GHOSH deeply regrets that educated young people should see no other way to express protest.
GHOSH believes that there has always been a greater appeal in Bengal for terroristic activities than elsewhere in India. He points out that in West Bengal the Communist Party of India (CPI) resorted to violence from the very beginning. When the CPI split, the new Communist Party of India (Marxist) became the more extreme organization, and when it later divided the followers of "the more terroristic Maoist oriented offshoot, the CPI (Marxist-Leninist)" became known as the Naxalites, because they began their activities in the northern Bengali town of Naxal Bari.
On two occasions Marxist leaders took strong exception to GHOSH's writing. In 1967 his Gariahat Bridger upar Theke Dujane (Those Two on Top of Gariahat Bridge), a satirical novelette on Marx and Mao Tsetung, brought an attack on the Ananda Bazar Patrika editorial offices by CPI (M) supporters. While they broke windowpanes and threatened to "smash the black hands of G. K. GHOSH," GHOSH, who had come in behind them, quietly listened to the loud accusations and then stepped aside, unrecognized in his simple dress, as they filed out. In 1969, after his mercilessly satirical, carefully documented exposure of the land accumulated by CPI (M-L) Chairman Charu Mazumdar, who had touted himself as the protector of India's landless peasant, he was surrounded and threatened by Marxist activists in a Calcutta alley.
GHOSH’s literary battle with this latest breed of thugs came to a head on July 4, 1970 when he received a letter signed by the CPI (M-L) District Committee sentencing him to death within one month. He was accused of writing sarcastic and derogatory pieces about Marxism-Leninism and about the thoughts of Mao Tse-tung, using his pen name Rupadarshi; of writing sexy novels under his own name; of trying to misguide the younger generation of Bengal by preaching Gandhism, "which is but another name for fascism, a philosophy of the Indian reactionaries"; and in his personal life being "a vile, lecherous individual." A postscript added that his case "may be considered" if he apologized.
The accusations, which were a familiar ploy of the leftists to embarrass their critics, were dismissible. But the failure of his threateners to distinguish between sarcasm and satire prompted GHOSH to publish both the letter and his reply in which he resorted to sarcasm "for the first and only time" in his life. "To my incognito executioner," he wrote, " . . . . Death is one's natural end . . . . To be tormented by self-reproach for having done something against one's conscience is the only thing that I deem as punishment or penalty." His closing riposte was the quotation of a noble dialogue from the Indian classic, the Mahabharata: "Who is man? The sound of virtuous deeds touches the heaven and the earth. As long as that sound vibrates, he (the doer of virtuous deeds) is recognized as a man."
GHOSH continued to expose the excesses and fallacies of the Naxalites and the death-threat deadline passed without incident. Later he lashed out at the police for torturing the young terrorists and defended their right to due process of law.
GHOSH was being consistent with his principles. "I am anti-communist and I am anti-fascist," he declared, "because in both political systems the fundamental rights of man are trampled underfoot . . . . I consider it the moral duty of every democrat to protest strongly if in the democratic system, too, the policeman or anyone else dares to trample upon the fundamental rights of man."
After the Naxalites had been quelled in 1971 there was a comparative lull. A collection of GHOSH’s columns published under the title he had used for his Darpan column, Hing, Ting, Chhat, was published in 1973. In that same year a new element in Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's Congress party emerged—Congress I (Indira) Youth—who were "as dangerous and violent as the Naxalites," GHOSH reports; "both of them were extremists, barbarians."
In 1974 GHOSH introduced in Desh a new column, "Rupadarshir Socchaar Chintaa" (Thinking Aloud by Rupadarshi) which until mid-1975 was one of his chief forums for comment on political happenings. The same year Jayaprakash Narayan (1965 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Public Service for "constructive articulation of a public conscience") became concerned about developments and emerged from his self-imposed political exile. After visiting Calcutta and other localities to assess opinions, he called for a united opposition to the repressive actions of the ruling party. GHOSH supported Narayan's cause but opposed enlisting the help of Marxists. He and others tried to persuade Narayan not to resort to political agitation until a groundwork had been laid. "We felt," GHOSH explains, "that unless real democrats were rallied, the movement would fail."
After three talks with Narayan GHOSH expressed his objections in two articles in Desh. His argument was that "at any cost we have to maintain law and order" and he appealed to the opposition leaders "not to set foot in the trap the government was laying."
Narayan's call to oppose the government produced satyagrahas, non-violent demonstrations in the Gandhian tradition, by a mixed group of protesters. The demonstrations were put down by the police with tactics as harsh as those they had used against the Naxalites. And GHOSH’s warning that "Mrs. Gandhi . . . was preparing to jump, on the plea that order was being disturbed," proved to be prophetic.
GHOSH now found himself in direct conflict with a new adversary—the central government—when on June 25, 1975 Prime Minister Gandhi declared a State of Emergency "due to internal threats to security." He responded eloquently to this suspension of civil liberties, with both straightforward criticism and pointed satire. On June 30 his columns in Desh and Ananda Bazar Patrika were cancelled. He thereupon sent in another article which was disallowed by the principal officer of the Board of Censors himself, leaving no doubt that his voice had been stopped.
GHOSH reacted sharply. Marking the "death of his freedom to speak out" with a traditional Hindu act of bereavement, he shaved off his curly black hair, but "to achieve maximum propaganda effect" he kept his full mustache, and walked through the streets drawing passersby into his loss. Within seven days "they put a tail on me," GHOSH says.
Meanwhile Jyotirmoy Datta, the young poet-editor of the Bengali literary monthly Kolkata (Calcutta) came to see him about publishing a protest. When GHOSH was convinced that Datta had seriously faced the probable consequences, he helped him plan and produce a special political edition of his magazine which was not submitted to the censors. For this edition GHOSH contributed his two censored articles, wrote one more and, most importantly, addressed a symbolic letter to his 13 year old son. In this letter GHOSH stated his dilemma: "If I recognize as the supreme end of my life the task of providing you all with a secure shelter . . . the question of my taking the risk of registering my protest does not arise .... But then I have to ... make a compromise with untruth .... to sell my honor as a writer .... I have to stifle in me the urge for asserting myself as a man." A printer willing to print uncensored copy was finally found and in August 900 copies of the special edition of Kolkata were on the newsstands.
GHOSH remained under surveillance but moved freely until the early hours of October 6 when his home was raided, a copy of the offending issue of the magazine was found and he was arrested without charge on the orders of the Chief Minister of West Bengal, who had been a personal friend. On the evening of that day the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) was inveighed to place him in solitary confinement in Presidency Jail, Cell No. 10. Kolkata was proscribed and Datta went underground, publishing an abbreviated English version of the proscribed material before he too was arrested eight months later.
Translations of GHOSH’s "Letter from a Father" were published in Marathi in Sadhana, and in Gujarati in Bhumiputra. These issues were also confiscated and Bhumiputra had to pay a fine of Rs.25,000, but the two magazines fought and won their cases for free speech in the Bombay and Gujarat high courts respectively. The "Letter" was a symbol of resistance to denial of freedom. GHOSH, however, is quick to emphasize that he was not alone: "The same thing was being done by other people all over India during the period of the emergency."
In his 8x8 foot solitary prison cell—a space he "paced many times a day"—GHOSH was allowed to have his books, paper and pencil, but he had to show the guards everything he wrote. In the mornings between seven and eight the prisoners were taken around the yard for half an hour of exercise, allowed to use the toilet facilities and bathe.
The rest of the time they were behind bars. GHOSH’s cell, adjacent to a concrete water tank, was dank and in December very cold.
GHOSH knew that under MISA he could not challenge the validity of his detention, but he could challenge his registration as a second class prisoner, i.e. convict or political prisoner. This he did through his wife Shila (whom he had married in 1956) and won reclassification as a civil prisoner, which meant that the costs of his imprisonment were borne by the government and he did not have to wear prison uniform. The cell and the food remained the same.
At first he was allowed a visit, once a week for half an hour, by his wife and one of their three children. He instructed his wife to insist that she and the children be searched and a record made of everything found on their persons. Thus he was assured that no member of his family could be accused of smuggling out the writing he was scheming to do.
His allies were people in the jail who became his friends. One in particular, GHOSH says, "was not only a sweet man but also clever and intelligent. He supplied me with all the materials I needed and put my writings in the hands of the proper person. I don't know how he did it."
GHOSH successfully smuggled out his "Open Letter to the Prime Minister" which was circulated in Calcutta on December 1, and a second letter addressed to his countrymen, "Not Slavery, Not Servitude but Freedom," distributed on Republic Day January 26, 1976, at the large gathering on the parade ground in Calcutta where Prime Minister Gandhi was speaking. These two letters also were translated into most regional Indian languages and widely read.
After his December letter from prison reached the public "there was a terrific row," GHOSH remembers. The harassed warden, unable to identify GHOSH’s prison confederate, punished him by suspending his wife's visits. He was able to write only the one more letter in January before he became so ill from the dampness and chill in his cell that he could not move his fingers.
GHOSH had suffered a heart attack in 1971 - "it was light and I ignored all of the advice the doctors gave," he says—and a second "pretty bad" one in 1972 stemming from a myocardial infarction. In February in his cell he was struck by a third and more serious attack, this time angina. Taken that night to Seth Suklal Karnani Memorial Hospital, he was kept there for treatment and convalescence for four and a half months. After two weeks his wife was allowed to visit him, and as his health improved his puckish nature reasserted itself. "I got good doctoring and I calculated the cost," he said; "for my treatment, my food and my medical benefits, my government spent a little over Rs.7,000. For my guards it spent Rs.80,000—eight guards in 24 hours in three shifts! This is the way you 'economize' in an authoritarian regime." From his sickbed he smuggled out a satirical poem, "Epitaph for a Certain Giraffe," likening himself in his hospital confinement to a giraffe, fed tenderly while penned in a zoo.
In July GHOSH was returned to an 8x8 foot solitary cell, located this time on the upper floor of a two-story jail within Presidency Jail and with its own locked enclosure. The cell doors were opened each morning for one hour and the nine inmates in the inner jail could gather in the small yard. GHOSH, however, did not enjoy this privilege because the others were "boring CPI-M people." Except for the bad cell conditions he preferred his earlier location where he associated with "Naxalite boys" who admitted to him that their death threat had been written only to frighten and embarrass him.
After four months in the second cell GHOSH was released (September 26, 1976) on grounds of ill health. He began the next day to write editorials for Ananda Bazar Patrika and in early 1977 was made an associate editor. Although the emergency ended in March 1977, GHOSH feared the renewed freedom was superficial. He had hoped that in the 19 months of authoritarian rule, educated Indians would have learned to strengthen and protect the democracy they had lost, and that the uneducated would have come to appreciate what democracy had offered. "But this did not happen . . . . the basic attitude of educated and uneducated alike was apathy to any form of government," he ruefully observed. Yet his own deep faith in man, he says, has been and remains his inspiration.
GHOSH is a confirmed humanist. "I have tried to reach all three Hindu gods—Vishnu the administrator, Brahma the creator and Siva the destroyer and renewer—and even the Muslim and Christian god," he says, "but I have found, in my experience, that all of them failed to deliver justice to mankind. We have seen riots and killing in the name of all these religions. So I have come to the conclusion that men must build their history by themselves. My religion is man."
In reaching this faith in humanity his first guide was Gouri Prasad Basu, the young teacher who opened the outside world to him through books when he was a boy. M. N. Roy was his political pilot from communism to New Humanism. Rabindranath Tagore, the great Bengali poet-philosopher, and Mahatma Gandhi, who fought for freedom and whose faith in the common man was all embracing, have been his intellectual mentors.
GHOSH's humanism pervades all of his writings. In the preface to his book Amake Bolte Dao (Let Me Have My Say), published in 1977, he writes that his title is the perennial cry of the human soul: "Language is at once the creator and carrier of knowledge. It is man's only aid in his eternal quest for truth. It is for this reason that the freedom of speech and expression is as important for man as his right to live as a human being. That at least is my view." The book, which opens with the satirical poem written from his hospital bed and closes with his three famous letters, includes a selection of articles published in Desh and the quarterly literary journal Samatata (the ancient name for lower Bengal) between 1970 and 1975. An English translation of 17 of the 44 articles contained in Amake Bolte Dao was published in 1978. A collection of GHOSH’s columns from Desh was also published in book form in 1978 under the title Rupadarshir Sangbad Bhashya (News Commentary by Rupadarshi).
Aside from the politically inspired extremism which has wracked West Bengal, an underlying and unresolved cause of anguish to GHOSH and to the state has been the continuing communal strife. "In the partition that accompanied Indian independence," GHOSH points out, "Punjab and Bengal were the only two states divided. The transferrral of non-Muslims to the eastern Punjab (India) and of Muslims to the west (Pakistan) was virtually complete; the communal problem in the Punjab ended in 1947. But in Bengal many people on both sides just refused to leave their homes, thereby causing new kinds of trouble . . . . Pakistan was created absolutely for the Muslims, but even now, long after partition, of the population of some 54 million in West Bengal, India, at least 10 million are Muslims; of the population of about 90 million in East Bengal—Pakistan, now Bangladesh—I think more than 12 million are Hindus."
The theme of GHOSH’s only serious novels, a trilogy, is the circumstances that led to this "tragedy of partition." Jal Pade, Pata Nade (Rain Drops, Leaves Quiver), published in 1958, was written against the background of Hindu-Muslim relations in Bengal from 1922 to 1925. It sets the stage and introduces the protagonists. The second, Prem Nei (There Is No Love), serialized in Desh and published in 1981, takes place between 1935 and 1937 when the British Government of India extended the voting franchise. All of the major characters are Muslims "because the Muslims constituted a majority of the population of Bengal and for the first time they got a taste of power by virtue of their larger vote . . . . The currents and crosscurrents of Muslim politics is my subject," he explains. The third novel, which he is now completing, Pratibeshi (The Neighbors), takes place during the 10 days of August 1946 that culminated in "the Great Calcutta Killing" which made inevitable the partition of India and division of Bengal. GOSH believes that:
"If there is a sinner for partition of the country, Mohammed Ali Jinnah is not the only one. Not Mountbatten [Lord Louis, the last British Viceroy]; the psychology behind his work was just to finish the job so that he could go home to his next assignment. Not Mahatma Gandhi, who quit the talks in protest. But there is no doubt that, except for Gandhi, the Congress leaders—Jawaharlal Nehru and the others—were as eager as Jinnah to have independence by partition. If one only focuses upon that three months of negotiations resulting in partition it appears that Jinnah's insistence upon a separate Muslim state was overriding. But if you study history with a dispassionate mind you must ask yourself, 'What else could people like Jinnah do?' It was we Hindus who alienated him. He was not the same Jinnah in 1934-35. Because of the Hindus Jinnah from 1935 turned steadily toward the partition solution. I am trying with much difficulty to compress and illuminate this complicated history in three novels."
Today, however, novels have been set aside as GHOSH concentrates on a consuming new interest. In 1979 he discussed starting a new kind of newspaper with Chowdbury, whom he hoped would come back from Hong Kong where he was heading Asian Finance Publications, to edit it; they shared a dissatisfaction with "frivolous, sectarian, provincial and unnecessarily sensational Bengali journalism." The project began to materialize in 1980 when they were offered financing by Abhik Ghosh, a successful manufacturer and international businessman, who had decided that his next venture would be in the media field. "He is an idealist," GHOSH says, "but a businessman and businessmen have an ideology of their own—good business." Abhik Ghosh has said that his goal is to create a network of successful papers.
When Chowdhury decided he could not leave Hong Kong GHOSH accepted the position of editor, with a clear understanding in writing from his backer that he would have absolute editorial freedom. He warned the financier that the paper would be non-conformist. "I told him that he had only two alternatives," GHOSH explains, " 'Either play third fiddle to the other two big newspapers and go the usual way, or come my way and produce a different paper. You have no third alternative. The only chance of survival is to make a new kind of newspaper, a paper with character.' Being a shrewd businessman he saw some future in it, I think, and he agreed."
In India a publications expert may be the publisher of a paper without owning a financial interest. Hence for a publisher who would be a "good manager" GHOSH recommended P. K. Roy who in 1948 had given him the job on Satyayug. Roy resigned as publisher of the English-language Amrita Bazar Patrika (with which he retains a consultant relationship) and joined the new venture.
Ghosh the financier, Roy the publisher and GHOSH the editor, threshed out and agreed upon a modus operandi. The paper, to be called Aajkaal (This Time), would have both a daily and a Sunday edition. Rather than the usual ratio of 35 percent news to 65 percent advertising, they agreed on a ratio of 40 percent advertising to 60 percent news and features. "We calculated that a newspaper can make a profit by keeping this proportion," GHOSH reports. They also agreed that there would be no political or other bias and the paper would not be beholden to the interests of the financier or of advertisers. GHOSH sees the job of the newspaper as twofold: "one is to bring the current world nearer to its readers and the second is to make readers understand the meaning of the news by providing analysis and background. These are the two things that we have set out to do—nothing new."
The first issue of Aajkoal appeared on March 25, 1981 with nearly 80,000 copies; for the Sunday edition two days later 100,000 copies were printed. Circulation settled down to 55,000 per day the following week and has gradually increased to 70,000 daily and 120,000 on Sundays. At the present circulation there is still a considerable gap between cost and revenue, but GHOSH estimates the paper will be self-supporting within 18 months of startup. His intention is not to compete with the daily circulation of the two major papers (400,000 and 300,000 respectively) but to restrict Aajkaal to a daily maximum of 150,000 so that circulation will not be increased at the cost of quality; he hopes to achieve this by the end of 1982. The daily edition has 8 pages and the Sunday edition 12.
Instead of bringing in "choice people from the old type newspapers with fixed thinking," GHOSH decided to mold professional newcomers. He chose a "fresh group of boys and girls with ideas," and trained them for five weeks with the help of two veterans; he himself talked to them on the subject of ideals. The editorial staff is 40 and the entire staff, including janitors, does not exceed 100—a fact that has astonished other Indian publishers.
GHOSH’s approach to news-features is also unusual. Determining to break into new fields he sent an appeal to several important papers outside Bengal suggesting an exchange of stories. The first to respond was the Indian Express in Delhi, whose material Aajkaal is now translating into Bengali. The second largest newspaper in India, Malayala Manorama (in Malayalam) in Kerala, has also joined the exchange. "Instead of being rivals," GHOSH says with delight, "they are cooperators and we can get what is happening in those places from their own mouths." He fervently hopes this idea will grow.
Aajkaal is also carrying stories from district newspapers in West Bengal. The district papers in turn may print any article published in Aajkaal with only a "by courtesy of" acknowledgement. This exchange has generated a keen enthusiasm among frustrated small town editors who are cheered to see their stories in a Calcutta daily. GHOSH plans a seminar with these editors to discuss the exchange and ways to improve their reporting. "I am trying to break new ground so that I can get firsthand all-India news and news from the smallest towns in West Bengal, and at the same time distribute Calcutta news," GHOSH states. "Integration," he adds, "is one of our major headaches in India and Aajkaal is trying to generate the feeling with others that we belong to the same country." Even the government is taking notice, he finds.
GHOSH is gratified that student readership of Aajkaal is growing. His aim is to open windows in young minds. "What pains me most," he says, "is that the people of India, in general, accept things as they are. They say of a new idea, 'It cannot be done.' " Reaching out to his old following, "Goudananda Kavi" appeared in Aajkaal after a long absence from the newsstands; a recent introduction has been the investigative story done by a team instead of an individual.
Some of GHOSH’s close professional friends believe that his circulation goal is unrealistic and that Aajkaal must sell 250,000 copies daily if it is to succeed. Circulation, however, will be limited, they say, as long as the content is like a feature magazine and readers must buy a second paper to get the news. Others observe that GHOSH’s newcomers have not yet become fully professional. A comment GHOSH expected is that some letters and features go too far against age-old tabus. At the same time Aakaal's clean, neat appearance and sharp photo reproductions are prompting other Calcutta newspapers to consider shifting to offset presses, and the exchanges with large non-Bengali and provincial West Bengali newspapers
are winning kudos.
The fire in GHOSH is banked but still glowing. Of medium height and slight build, he walks with a relaxed rolling gait. He wears the usual Bengali garb—open sandals, a white dhoti pulled between his legs and tied up under a kurta (long-sleeved, high-collared long jacket) or shortsleeved panjabi (polo shirt), a worn woven shoulder bag, and on rainy days carries a large, black umbrella hooked over his arm. He again has a crown of curly black hair and retains his mustache. Behind his spectacles his eyes are arresting, expressing his moods—mischievous, penetrating or sorrowful, and listeners quickly perceive beneath his sly wit an earnest, humane man.
GHOSH’s staunch helpmeet has been his wife, Shila Ghosh (from a family with the same surname). She runs an adult education school and did so throughout his difficult years. Their eldest daughter Sahana, age 23, has taken her graduation examination at Calcutta University; Sohini, age 21, is reading in a constituent college of the same university; and their son Bhaskar, age 19, attends the university preparatory school. GHOSH's mother, now 76, lives with them in their three-bedroom government housing apartment.
In 1978 GHOSH received the first Koh Jai Wook Memorial Award, established in honor of a former editor and publisher of Dong A Ilbo in Seoul, Korea, who was a founding trustee of the Press Foundation of Asia (PFA). Awardees are chosen by the PFA and GHOSH’s citation read: "as a crusader for freedom of expression of the individual and the journalist." In 1979 he received the Fuel Instrument Engineering Foundation Award established by Pundit Rao Kulkarni "for his defense of human rights."
"When I write," GHOSH says of himself, "I always think of the ordinary people. A writer must always seek for the truth if he is to be honest to himself and to mankind. Truth was and still is my weapon."
October 1981
Manila
REFERENCES:
Ayyub, Gauri " 'The Naked King' and Gour," The Radical Humanist. Delhi, India. June 1977.
"A Champion of the People and the Press," Hong Kong Standard. July 14, 1978.
A Freedom Fighter (anonymous). Torture of Political Prisoners in India. New Delhi: Printox. N.d.
Ghosh, Gour Kishore. Editorials in Ananda Bazar Patrika. Calcutta. Summaries in English:
"Alas Marx! Alas Lenin!" May 18, 1978.
"Constructive Revolution." December 6, 1976.
"Democracy is Another Word for Liberty." August 15, 1979.
"Dictators Always Enter Through These Holes!" July 16, 1979.
"King Dasharatha and Mao Tse-tung." December 13, 1976.
"Let the Iron Gate Open." February 7, 1977.
"Let Power Descend to the Roots." February 11, 1978.
"Look Before You Leap." December 10, 1978.
"Man is the Measure." October 12, 1977.
"Pro-Chinese Marxists, India and Democracy."
August 15, 1978. "Southeast Asia in the Eyes of a Recent Visitor from India." August 30, 1978.
"Which Road is to be Adopted by the Marxist Government of West Bengal?" June 23, 1977.
"Who is an Enemy in a Democracy?" October 28, 1978.
______. Hing Ting Chhat. A collection of columns from Ananda Bazar Patrika under the pen name Goudananda Kavi. Translations of excerpts. Calcutta 1973.
______. "The Journalist's Obligation to Himself and Society." Presentation made to Group Discussion, Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, Manila. September 3, 1981. (Typewritten transcript.)
______. Let Me Have My Say. (Translation by Sushil Bhadra and Sitangshu Deb Chatterjee of a satirical poem, the preface and 17 excerpts from Amake Bolte Dao.) Calcutta: Ananda Publishers. 1977.
______. Rupadarshir Sangbad Bhashya. Collection of columns from Desh. Calcutta. 1978. Translations:
"Our Father's Sons." May 16, 1970.
''Festival for the Progressive." October 9, 1971.
"From Uncle Russiski with Love." October 23, 1971.
"Indira Auto-Voter." March 25, 1972.
"An Exclusive Interview." August 28, 1971.
"A Rare 'Bengal Tiger,' " Asiaweek. October 16, 1981, p. 55-56.
Interview with Gour Kishore Ghosh and letters from and interviews with persons acquainted with him, his life and his work.
(The Foundation is indebted to Barun Roy for the translations and summaries of editorials and columns cited above.)
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Tapan Sinha
Overview
Date of Birth:2 October 1924, Calcutta, West Bengal, British India. [now India] more
Mini Biography:Born in 1924. Science graduate from University of Calcutta. Sinha began... more
Awards:3 wins & 3 nominations more
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Filmography
Jump to filmography as: Director, Writer, Composer, Producer
Director:
2000s
1990s
1980s
1970s
1960s
1950s
Daughters of This Century (2001)
Anokha Moti (2000)

Wheel Chair (1994)
Ek Doctor Ki Maut (1991)

Aaj Ka Robin Hood (1987)
... aka Return of Robin Hood (India: English title: dubbed version)
Aadmi Aur Aurat (1984) (TV)
... aka Man and Woman
Abhimanyu (1983)
Adalat O Ekti Meye (1982)
... aka The Law and a Lady (International: English title: informal literal title)
Bancharamer Bagan (1980)
... aka The Garden of Bancharam (India: English title)

Sabuj Dwiper Raja (1979)
Safed Haathi (1977)
Sagina (1974)
Zindagi Zindagi (1972)
Sagina Mahato (1970)

Apanjan (1968)
Hatey Bazarey (1967)
Galpa Holeo Satyi (1966)
Arohi (1965)
... aka Aarohi (India: Hindi title: alternative transliteration)
... aka The Ascent (International: English title: informal title)
Atithi (1965)
... aka The Runaway
Jotugriha (1964)
Nirjan Saikate (1963)
Hansuli Banker Upakatha (1962)
... aka Folk Tales of the River Bend (International: English title)
Jhinder Bandi (1961)
Kshudista Pashan (1960)
... aka Hungry Stones

Kabuliwala (1956)
Upahar (1955)
Writer:
1990s
1980s
1970s
1960s
1950s
Ek Doctor Ki Maut (1991) (screenplay)

Aaj Ka Robin Hood (1987) (writer)
... aka Return of Robin Hood (India: English title: dubbed version)
Aadmi Aur Aurat (1984) (TV) (writer)
... aka Man and Woman

Bawarchi (1972) (story)

Apanjan (1968) (writer)
Hatey Bazarey (1967) (script)
Galpa Holeo Satyi (1966) (story)
Atithi (1965) (writer)
... aka The Runaway

Kabuliwala (1956) (writer)
Upahar (1955) (screenplay)
Composer:
1980s
1960s
Aaj Ka Robin Hood (1987)
... aka Return of Robin Hood (India: English title: dubbed version)

Hatey Bazarey (1967)
Atithi (1965)
... aka The Runaway
Producer:
Anokha Moti (2000) (producer)
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Phalke award for Tapan Sinha





— Photo: PTI

Director Tapan Sinha. A file photo.
New Delhi: Veteran Bengali film director Tapan Sinha was on Monday selected for the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke award for the year 2006.
Mr. Sinha, 84, who has won 19 national film awards in various categories apart from winning laurels in various international film festivals, will be given the Swarna Kamal, a cash prize of Rs.10 lakh and a shawl by President Pratibha Patil at a function, the date of which is yet to be announced.
Mr. Sinha, who started his career as a sound engineer in Kolkata’s New Theatre in 1946, has directed well-known films such as ‘Kabuliwala,’ ‘Khudito Pashaan,’ ‘Atithi,’ ‘Upahar,’ ‘Haatey Bazarey,’ ‘Sagina Mahato,’ ‘Hansuli Baker Upakatha,’ ‘Adalat O Ekti Meye,’ ‘Ek Doctor Ki Maut,’ ‘Bancharamer Bagan’ and ‘Shatabdir Kanya,’ among others.
The film-maker got the opportunity to work in Pinewood Studio in the U.K. in 1950.
On his return to India, he shifted his focus to film-making and went on to make films in Bengali, Hindi and Oriya.
Mr. Sinha’s cinematic works are mostly down-to-earth depictions of the struggles of the common man.
His reputation as an uncompromising film-maker puts him in a class of his own.
The government recently conferred on him the “One Time Award for Lifetime Achievement” while commemorating the 60th anniversary of India’s Independence.
The committee that recommended the Lifetime Achievement award for Mr. Sinha consisted of Shyam Benegal, Gautam Ghosh, Sharmila Tagore and renowned flute player Hari Prasad Chaurasia, among others.
In Kolkata, Mr. Sinha said he was overwhelmed at being honoured with the award.
His sister-in-law said the film-maker, who was recuperating from a heart ailment, received the news from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry. She said that though Mr. Sinha was unable to move and too weak to speak, he was overwhelmed and expressed his “gratitude” to the government for bestowing the greatest award of the Indian cinema on him.
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TRIPARTITE AGREEMENT BETWEEN INDIA, BANGLADESH AND PAKISTAN FOR NORMALISATION OF RELATIONS IN THE SUB-CONTINENT, 1974
1. On July 2, 1972, the President of Pakistan and the Prime Minister of India signed an historic agreement at Simla under which they resolved that the two countries put to an end the conflict and confrontation that has hitherto marred their relations and work for the promotion of a friendly and harmonious relationship and the establishment of a durable peace in the sub-continent. The Agreement also provided for the settlement of "their difference by peaceful means by bilateral negotiations or by any other peaceful means mutually agreed upon.
2. Bangladesh welcomed the Simla Agreement. The Prime Minister of Bangladesh strongly supported its objective of reconciliation, good neighborliness' and establishment of durable peace in the sub-continent.
3. The humanitarian problem arising in the wake of the tragic events of 1971 constituted a major obstacle in the way of reconciliation and normalization among the countries of the sub-continent. In the absence of reconciliation, it was not possible to have tripartite talks to settle the humanitarian problems, as Bangladesh could not participate in such meeting on the basis of sovereign equality.
4. On April 17, 1973, India and Bangladesh took a major step forward to break the deadlock on the humanitarian issues by setting aside the political problems of recognition. In a Declaration issued on the date they said that they "are resolved to continue their efforts to reduce tension, promote friendly and harmonious relationship in the sub-continent and work together towards the establishment of a durable peace ". Inspired by the vision and "in the larger interest of reconciliation, peace and stability in the sub-continent" they jointly proposed that the problem of the detained and stranded persons should be resolved on humanitarian considerations through simultaneous repatriation of all such persons except those Pakistani prisoners of war who might be required by the Government of Bangladesh for trial on certain charges.
5. Following the Declaration there were a series of talks between India and Bangladesh and India and Pakistan. These talks resulted in an agreement at Delhi on August 28, 1973 between India and Pakistan with the concurrence of Bangladesh, which provided for a solution of the outstanding humanitarian problems.
6. In pursuance of the Agreement, the process of three-way repatriation commenced on September 19, 1973. So far nearly 300,000 persons have been repatriated which has generated an atmosphere of reconciliation and paved the way for normalization of relations in the sub-continent.
7. In February 1974, recognition took place thus facilitating the participation of Bangladesh in the tripartite meeting envisaged in the Delhi Agreement, on the basis of sovereign equality. Accordingly His Excellency Dr.Kamal Hossain, Foreign Minster of the Government of Bangladesh, His Excellency Sardar Swaran Singh, Minister of External Affairs, Government of India and His Excellency Mr.Aziz Ahmed, the Minister of State for Defense and Foreign Affairs of the Government of Pakistan met in New Delhi from April 5 to April 9, 1974 and discussed the various issues mentioned in the Delhi Agreement in particular the question of the 195 prisoners of war and the completion of the three-way process of repatriation involving Bangalees in Pakistan, Pakistanis in Bangladesh and Pakistani prisoners of war in India.
8. The Ministries reviewed the progress of the three-way repatriation under the Delhi Agreement of August 28, 1973. They were gratified that such a large number of persons detained or stranded in the three countries had since reached their destinations.
9. The Ministers also considered steps that needed to be taken in order expeditiously to bring the process of the three-way repatriation to a satisfactory conclusion.
10. The Indian side stated that the remaining Pakistani prisoners of war and civilians internees in India to be repatriated under the Delhi Agreement, numbering approximately 6,500, would be repatriated at the usual pace of rain on alternate days and the likely short-fall [text illegible] ..to April 10, 1974 on account of Kumb Mela, would be made up by running additional trains after April 19. It was thus hoped that the repatriation of prisoners of war would be completed by the end of April 1974.
11. The Pakistani side stated that the repatriation of Bangladesh nationals from Pakistan was approaching completion. The remaining Bangladesh nationals in Pakistan would also repatriated without let or hindrance.
12. In respect of non-Bangalees in Bangladesh, the Pakistan side stated that the Government of Pakistan had already issued clearances for movement to Pakistan in favor of those non-Bangalees who were either domiciled in former West Pakistan, were employees of the Central Government and their families or were members of the divided families, irrespective of their original domicile. The issuance of the clearance to 25,000 persons who constitute hardship cases was also in progress. The Pakistan side reiterated that all those who fall under the first three categorize would be received by Pakistan without any limits to numbers. In respect of persons whose applications had been rejected, the Government of Pakistan would upon request, provide reasons why any particular case was rejected. Any aggrieved applicant could, at any time, seek a review of his application provided he was able to supply new facts or further information to the Government of Pakistan in support of his contention that he qualified in one or other of the three categories. The claims of such persons would not be time-barred. In the event of the decision of the review of a case being adverse, the Government of Pakistan and Bangladesh might seek to resolve it by mutual consultation.
13. The question of 195 Pakistani prisoners of war was discussed by the three Ministers, in the context of the earnest desire of the Governments for reconciliation, peace and friendship in the sub-continent. The Foreign Minister of Bangladesh stated that the excesses and manifold crimes committed by these prisoners of war constituted according to the relevant provisions of the U.N General Assembly Resolutions and International Law, war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, and that there was universal consensus that persons charged with such crimes as the 195 Pakistani prisoners of war should be held to account and subjected to the dues process of Law. The Minister of State for Defense and Foreign Affairs of the Government of Pakistan said that his Government condemned and deeply regretted any crimes that may have been committed.
14. In this connection the three Ministers noted that the matter should be viewed in the context of the determination of the three countries to continue resolutely to work for reconciliation. The Minister further noted that following recognition, the Prime Minister of Pakistan declared that he would visit Bangladesh in response to the invitation of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and appeal to the people of Bangladesh, to forgive and forget the mistakes of the past. Similarly, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh had declared with regard to the atrocities and destruction committed in Bangladesh in 1971 that he wanted the people to forget the past and to make a fresh start,
stating that the people of Bangladesh knew how to forgive.
15. In the light of the foregoing and, in particular, having regard to the appeal of the Prime Minister of Pakistan to the people of Bangladesh to forgive and forget the mistakes of the past, the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh stated that the Government of Bangladesh has decided not to proceed with the trials as an act of clemency. It was agreed that the 195 prisoners of war may be repatriated to Pakistan along with the other prisoners of war now in process of repatriation under the Delhi Agreement.
16. The Minister expressed their convictions that the above agreements provide a firm basis for the resolution of the humanitarian problems arising out of the conflict of 1971. They reaffirmed the vital stake of seven hundred million people of the three countries have in peace and progress and reiterated the resolve of their Governments to work for the promotion of normalization of relations and the establishment of durable peace in the sub-continent.
Signed in New Delhi on April 9, 1974 in three original, each of which is equally authentic.
Sd/-
Dr.Kamal Hossain, Foreign Minster of the Government of Bangladesh,
Sd/-
Sardar Swaran Singh, Minister of External Affairs, Government of India
Sd/-
Mr.Aziz Ahmed, the Minister of State for Defense and Foreign Affairs of the Government of Pakistan
Miliband regrets 'war on terror'

Mr Miliband seeks international co-operation to combat terrorism
The idea of a "war on terror" is a "mistake", putting too much emphasis on military force, Foreign Secretary David Miliband has said.

Writing in the Guardian, Mr Miliband said the idea had unified disparate "terrorist groups" against the West.

He said the right response to the threat was to champion law and human rights - not subordinate it.

Mr Miliband is due to repeat the views in a speech later in Mumbai, India, the scene of attacks by gunmen last year.
Mr Miliband's warning comes five days before the end of US President George Bush's administration, which has led the so-called "war on terror".
The foreign secretary wrote that since 9/11 the phrase "war on terror" had "defined the terrain" when it came to tackling terrorism and that although it had merit, "ultimately, the notion is misleading and mistaken".

The phrase was first used by President Bush in an address to a joint session of Congress on 20 September 2001, in the aftermath of the attacks on New York and Washington.

Mr Miliband wrote that the phrase was all-encompassing and "gave the impression of a unified, transnational enemy, embodied in the figure of Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda" when the situation was far more complex.
Calling for groups to be treated as separate entities with differing motivations, he wrote that it was not a "simple binary struggle between moderates and extremists, or good and evil" and treating them as such was a mistake.
Terrorism is a deadly tactic, not an institution or an ideology
David Miliband
Foreign Secretary

Declining use of 'war on terror'

"Historians will judge whether [the notion] has done more harm than good", he said.
The phrase, informally dropped from use by the UK government several years ago, "implied a belief that the correct response to the terrorist threat was primarily a military one - to track down and kill a hardcore of extremists", he wrote.

But the stance he now promoted was international "co-operation".
Highlighting US President-elect Barack Obama's commitment to close the Guantanamo Bay detention centre, Mr Miliband said it was time to ensure human rights and civil liberties were upheld.

He suggested that the different organisations took advantage of the belief that they had one common enemy and a key way to tackle them was to stop this.

"Terrorism is a deadly tactic, not an institution or an ideology."
He is due to repeat his words in a speech later at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, in Mumbai, India, the scene of attacks by gunmen last November.
He is in the country in an attempt to mediate tensions between India and Pakistan over the attacks which killed 179 people.

He urged Pakistan's government to take "urgent and effective action to break up terror networks on its soil" and called for a resolution over the disputed region of Kashmir.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7829946.stm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/15/david-miliband-war-terror
__._,_.___
Hamas raids aid trucks, sells supplies
By YAAKOV KATZ AND JPOST.COM STAFF
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Hamas on Monday raided some 100 aid trucks that Israel had allowed into Gaza, stole their contents and sold them to the highest bidders.

Palestinians crowd to receive food aid at a United Nations food distribution center in Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, Saturday.
Photo: AP
Slideshow: Gaza op, Day 17
The IDF said that since terminal activity is coordinated with UNRWA and the Red Cross, Israel could do nothing to prevent such raids, Israel Radio reported.
Between 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., the army had ceased all military activity in Gaza and once again established a "humanitarian corridor" to help facilitate the transfer of the supplies.
The Kerem Shalom and Karni crossings had been opened to allow in the aid trucks.
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Security officials at Kerem Shalom thwarted an attempt to smuggle electrical goods, disguised as humanitarian supplies, into Gaza. The electrical goods included computers, infra-red cameras, ovens, microwaves and other electronic equipment.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak has forbidden the entry of electronics to Gaza since the goods do not fall under the category of humanitarian aid. Some electronic equipment has been let in as per an official Palestinian request, such as equipment used to repair the damaged electrical grid in Gaza.

Meanwhile, Israel is considering establishing a field hospital in the Gaza Strip to treat Palestinian civilians wounded in fighting between the IDF and Hamas.
The plan would be to establish the field hospital outside the Gaza Strip, but the IDF is also considering the possibility of erecting the hospital inside the Palestinian territory so it will be more accessible to the Palestinian population. It would be run by the IDF Medical Corps.
Also Monday, in an effort to promote Israeli humanitarian efforts in the Gaza Strip, the Defense Ministry launched a new Web site that provides a live video feed of the Kerem Shalom cargo crossing, through which international organizations have been transferring basic foods and medical supplies to Gaza.
The footage can be viewed at: http://www.mod.gov.il/pages/general/Maavar-Kerem-Shalom.asp. Since the beginning of Operation Cast Lead, the IDF has facilitated the transfer of close to 900 trucks into the Gaza Strip with over 20,000 tons of basic foods and medical supplies.
According to an army estimate on Monday, slightly over 900 Palestinians have been killed since Operation Cast Lead began in December 2008. Based on intelligence and information obtained by the Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration, the IDF has determined that at least 400 of those killed are known Hamas operatives. The IDF further believes that among the remaining 500, a significant number are also Hamas operatives.

Double Standard Watch: Israel is well within its rights

Posted by Alan Dershowitz


What if Israel defended its citizens the way the British, the French, the Americans and the Russians did? When German rockets hit British cities during the World War II, Prime Minister Winston Churchill retaliated by bombing German cities, killing thousands of German civilians, and promised to continue until Germany's unconditional surrender. The United States did the same following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The French did much worse in Algeria and the Russians showed no concern for civilian life in Chechnya or Georgia.
The IDF, on the other hand, has gone to extraordinary lengths to minimize civilian casualties, despite the reality that Hamas deliberately fires its rockets from densely populated civilian areas and hides its rocket launchers in schools, hospitals and mosques.
Every Hamas rocket attack against Israeli civilians - and there have been more than 6,500 of them since Israel ended its occupation of Gaza - is an armed attack against Israel under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which authorizes member nations to respond militarily to armed attacks against it.
Under international law, Israel is entitled to do whatever it takes militarily to stop Hamas rockets from targeting its civilians. Every Hamas rocket has the potential to kill dozens of Israeli civilians. Recently one hit a school just hours after the principal dismissed the students, fearing such an attack. If the rocket had hit and killed hundreds of schoolchildren, would those who protest Israeli actions acknowledge that Israel would then have the right to respond? No country needs allow terrorists to play Russian roulette with the lives of its children.
In fact, under international law, Israel has the right to declare all-out war against the Hamas-controlled government of Gaza. In an all-out war, there would be no obligation to provide humanitarian assistance, electricity or any other services to an enemy who had started the war by an armed attack.
No one condemned Great Britain and the United States for the collateral damage it caused while trying to defeat those who attacked it during the second world war. Moreover, Germany did not deny the right of Great Britain or the United States to exist. The Hamas Charter not only denies Israel's right to exist, it calls for the complete destruction of the Jewish state. Surely Israel has as much right to defend its citizens as did the United States and Great Britain.
Why then is Israel singled out for such ferocious criticism?
Indeed, the only reason Israel has not won overwhelming military victories in Lebanon in 2006 and in Gaza now, is that Israel has decided to engage in only limited and proportional military actions designed simply to stop the rocket attacks. Yet it is being condemned both for not winning a decisive victory and for killing too many civilians.
Hamas has learned how to manipulate the media's coverage of Israeli military actions. They deliberately fire their rockets from behind civilian shields in order to provoke Israel to respond and kill civilians. They are then ready to bring out the cameras to record and transmit every civilian death around the world.
Well, not quite every civilian death. The day before Israel launched its air attack against Hamas, Hamas fired a rocket in the general direction of Sderot. The rocket fell short of its mark and landed in Gaza - killing two young Palestinian girls. Hamas, which imposes total censorship in Gaza, refused to allow cameras to record or transmit pictures of these dead Palestinian girls, because they were killed not by Israeli rockets, but rather by Palestinian rockets.
The Hamas tactic is encouraged by selective condemnation of Israel. Such condemnation creates a win-win situation for Hamas terrorism. Every time they kill an Israeli civilian, they win; every time Israel kills a Palestinian civilian, Hamas also wins.
The only way to defeat this cynical tactic is for the international community to place the blame squarely on Hamas for engaging in the double war crime of targeting Israeli civilians and using Palestinian civilians as human shields.
Urgent: Tell Big Media to STOP GAZA Blackout and Biased coverage
Since the beginning of Israel's assault on Gaza American media outlets have only reported a one-sided Israeli narrative depicting Israel as the victim exercising self-defense against Palestinian terrorists . National TV News stations have refused to show viewers the carnage, destruction and humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The media's unethical biased actions have provided public relations cover for Israel's massacres in Gaza, giving Israel more time to kill, injure and destroy Gaza's civilian infrastructure.
The media has also ignored to relay the news of alleged Israeli war crimes against civilians, a claim made by several international agencies including the Red Cross, Amnesty International and the United Nations.
TAKE ACTION NOW: TELL THE AMERICAN MEDIA TO STOP THE BIAS COVERAGE AND MEDIA BLACK OUT ON GAZA
1. Watch Video, Sign Letter Below, Get All Friends to Watch and Sign
Using the below form send your letter to the presidents and editors of American National Media outlet. To MAKE A DIFFERENCE, they must hear from thousands of concerned individuals. Only then will they choose to change course.
MAKE IT VIRAL, after signing the below letter, USE THE NEXT PAGE TO INVITE YOUR ENTIRE ADDRESS BOOK

http://action.gazajustice.org/t/4410/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=905&t=
We will not be silent on Gaza.
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
By the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN)
We write with grief and rage as we watch the horrifying Israeli air and ground attacks on Gaza. As Jews committed to ending Zionism, the founding ideology of Israel, and all forms of colonialism, we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, who continue to struggle in the face of these attacks, much as they have against more than 60 years of ethnic cleansing and racism. As Joseph Massad recently wrote, Gaza is in uprising against genocide, and is receiving today the same indifference from the capitals of the West that the rebels in the Warsaw Ghetto received in 1943.
We stand with the hundreds of thousands who have taken the streets in solidarity with Gaza's resistance. We stand with all those who struggle against racism, dispossession and genocide.
We stand with the majority. We will not be silent on Gaza.
We reject Israel's pretense to act in response to rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas. Israel broke the ceasefire on November 4, 2008, while world attention was focused on U.S. elections.
What the Israeli government calls "security" is fundamentally opposed to the real safety of all people living in the region. Residents of Sderot and other towns bordering Gaza have begged the government of Israel to maintain the cease-fire and accused it of "wasting that period of calm, instead of using it to advance understanding and begin negotiations." With United States, European Union, and Egyptian collusion, Israel imposed a siege and blockade for over two years, intentionally preventing its economic recovery, degrading its civilian infrastructure, attempting to dismantle self-governance, and preventing travel and obstructing humanitarian aid. That siege, which was and continues to be a gross violation of human rights and a crime against humanity, led directly to the present escalation. As of today, Israeli forces have killed over 700 people and injured thousands. Israel has bombed mosques, universities, police headquarters, roads, office buildings, and residential neighborhoods, and schools, causing indescribable and horrible destruction. This isn't defense. This isn't a war between two sides. This is terrorism. This is genocide.
We stand with the majority. We will not be silent on Gaza.
As Jews, we have an additional responsibility to speak and to act against these despicable acts, because we are heirs to the victims of a genocide, because Israel is claiming to "defend" us through the ethnic cleansing of Palestine with the ultimate goal of erasing the Palestinian people, and also because of the role played by the Jewish organizations in the United States and the West in justifying, perpetrating, and escalating Israeli state terrorism against Palestinians.
We recall that the violence in Gaza today is the inevitable outcome—the latest link in a chain of terror—that results from an ideology based on the dispossession of the indigenous people of Palestine in favor of European Jews. Just as the ideology of White racism was the backbone of Apartheid in South Africa, so the ideology of Zionism explains the history of violence in Palestine, the ethnic cleansing of 1948, the occupation of the West bank and Gaza in 1967, and the many massacres that Israel perpetrated periodically since 1948 to the present one in Gaza. The maintenance of the Israeli state as a state founded on and perpetuating Jewish privilege requires the denial and attempted annihilation of the Palestinian people.
We recall that unless this ideology is delegitimized and defeated, the violence in the Middle East will continue to escalate until either Palestinian or Jewish existence in the area ends, and possibly both. Racism and colonial domination will never be the basis for peace.
We stand with the majority. We will not be silent on Gaza.
We insist on an immediate end to Israel's assault, a complete withdrawal of all Israeli forces, a complete and unconditional end to the siege, and the restoration and extension of the ceasefire. We insist on the establishment of a special international tribunal for investigating the crimes of the Israeli leadership of this siege.
We affirm the urgent need for Jewish resistance to Zionism and stand committed to the extrication of Jewish history, politics, community, and culture from the grip of Zionism.
We situate our work in a long legacy of Jewish people throughout history who have stood in solidarity with others in common struggles against all forms of racism, empire building, and repression. As a growing sector of the Palestine solidarity movement, we call upon all Jews of conscience to take a strong stand against the current escalation of violence, as well as the murderous ground upon which Zionist ideology and the Israeli state has been constructed. We call on Jews to put an end to complicity, to break the silence, and to confront the fallacy of a Zionist consensus. We call on anti-Zionist Jews around the world to organize in escalation against the massacres on Gaza, and to continue to support Palestinian resistance through campaigns of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions, and through actions that target their own governments' financial and political support for Israel.
We stand with the majority. We will not be silent on Gaza.
The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) is a growing international network of Jews whose Jewish identities are not based on Zionism but on a plurality of histories and experiences. We share a commitment to participation in the legacy of struggles against colonization and imperialism. As such, we struggle against Zionism and its manifestation in the State of Israel's historic and ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people and the confiscation of their land.
ATS Chief Hemant Karkare Threatened/Murdered by RSS/BJP stooges in Mumbai during attacks?; Hemant Karkare killed, had exposed RSS Mossad terrorists: Signs of Attempted Neocon/Zioncon Coup in Delhi?

Mumbai 7/11 attacks of 2006 vs. 2008
In the run-up to the 2006 7/11 attacks, there were several reasons why Israel would not have been pleased with India.
On July 1, 2006, it was reported that the Indian Defense Minister had decided to delay a visit to Israel, which was planned for July 7. The purpose of the visit concerned arms deals, with India poised to purchase advanced equipment from Israel.
On July 2, 2006, United Press International reported that India had not only denied a request by the Israeli embassy to import 20 handguns, but also asked the Israelis to send 48 Glock pistols back to Tel Aviv.
On July 8, it was reported that India had voted on a resolution against Israel on the conflict in Palestine.
On July 11, the Indian press stated that 25 foreign nationals including Israelis and Russians had been blacklisted by the Goa police for drug trafficking.
The bombs were reported as a "rare mixture of RDX, ammonium nitrate, and fuel oil", and were set off by timers.
Back in 2005/6, Mossad false-flag attacks involving bombs controlled by timers or mobiles - generally blamed on "suicide bombers" - were occurring every few months.
See what an Indian columnist has to say about Mossad involvement in Mumbai:

As for Mumbai [train] blasts, the jury is still out. If the culprits are Lashkar from Kashmir, they openly claim they want freedom from India for Jammu and Kashmir. Though India, with myself as Indian hold that they are criminals. However, there is a strong belief in circle here that the local politicians have teamed up with Mossad, to target Indian Muslims. Mossad is reported to have been given a contract to arrange security for a religion Dargah/temple of Sai Baba. This is a very grave charge and neither local nor central government has publicly repudiated the claim put out by some newspaper. The motivation for such organized bomb blasts is to mobilize voter opinion against Muslims and ruling Congress and in favor of Hindutva groupies, which is now joined by a pseudo-secularist National Congress Party of Sharad Pawar, who are in a debilitating tug of war with their coalition partner, Sonia's Congress.
read rest of article

Evidence Mumbai Attackers were Anglo-American Mossad Operatives
Mumbai Fair Skinned Intel Operatives
STARRY NEWS OPINION: AS USUAL IT'S MURDER BY WESTERN/ZION INTELLIGENCE COVERED by some local misguided radical types WHOM WESTERN INTELLIGENCE KNEW WERE GOING TO ATTACK. These devils murder the most in cold blood, and then Zion Media cry "ALQAEDA" or "MUSLIMS!" They are creating World War 3 after all, and everybody in the World is supposed to "hate Muslims!" So that's why these things happen like this

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars
November 27, 2008

As a BBC report notes, at least some of the Mumbai attackers were not Indian and certainly not Muslim.
Pappu Mishra, a cafe proprietor at the gothic Victorian Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, described "two sprightly young men dressed in black" with AK47s who were "foreign looking, fair skinned."
Gaffar Abdul Amir, an Iraqi tourist from Baghdad, saw at least two men who started the firing outside the Leopold Cafe. "They did not look Indian, they looked foreign. One of them, I thought, had blonde hair. The other had a punkish hairstyle. They were neatly dressed," Amir told the BBC.
Other "men walked into the cafe, drank beer, settled their bills and walked out. Then they fished out guns from their bags and began firing." Muslims do not drink alcohol, that is unless they are Muslims like Marwan Al-Shehhi and Mohamed Atta, who reportedly not only liked to drink but enjoyed lap dances by topless dancers as well before they supposedly hijacked planes and flew them into buildings.
Even though these firsthand accounts indicate the attackers were white, drank alcohol and displayed the steely and professional reserve of trained military men, the emerging story carried by the corporate media blames the attacks on al-Qaeda and specifically Lashkar-e-Taiba, one Arab and the other Asian. "A terrorist group with training camps in Pakistan and strong ties with al-Qaeda as well as a history of mounting attacks in India yesterday became the chief suspect behind the atrocities," reports the Times Online, pointing to Lashkar-e-Taiba.
As the Times Online admits, Lashkar-e-Taiba is a creation of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI. It "receives considerable financial, material and other forms of assistance from the Pakistan government, routed primarily through the ISI. The ISI is the main source of LeT's funding. Saudi Arabia also provides funds," explains the South Asia Terrorism Portal. Lashkar-e-Taiba "also played a part in the ISI organized 'Bosnian campaign against the Serbs,' which was directed above the ISI by the CIA and British intelligence."
According to Andrew G. Marshall, the ISI "has long been referred to as Pakistan's 'secret government' or 'shadow state.' It's long-standing ties and reliance upon American and British intelligence have not let up, therefore actions taken by the ISI should be viewed in the context of being a Central Asian outpost of Anglo-American covert intelligence operations."
The presence of "foreign looking, fair skinned" commandos who calmly gunned down dozens of people after drinking a few beers indicates that the Mumbai attacks were likely the work of the Anglo-American covert intelligence operatives, not indigenous Indian Muslims or for that matter Arab al-Qaeda terrorists. The attacks prepare the ground for the break-up of Pakistan and the furtherance of destabilizing terrorism in the Middle East and Asia. The Mumbai attacks had little to do with India or the relationship between Muslim Pakistanis and Hindu Indians.
"Pakistan's position as a strategic focal point cannot be underestimated. It borders India, Afghanistan, China and Iran," concludes Marshall. "Destabilizing and ultimately breaking Pakistan up into several countries or regions will naturally spread chaos and destabilization into neighboring countries. This is also true of Iraq on the other side of Iran, as the Anglo-American have undertaken, primarily through Iraq, a strategy of balkanizing the entire Middle East in a new imperial project." (See Marshall's Divide and Conquer: The Anglo-American Imperial Project.)
It is no mistake, as well, that Barack Obama has called for action against Pakistan. "If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will," Obama said last August.
Regardless of who occupies the White House, the global elite are determined to continue their agenda of violence and murder in order to realize order through chaos. Obama and the Democrats will spend the next four years blaming George W. Bush for what the neocons have done while making sure the same destructive policies remain in effect. It is a shell game. George Bush and Barack Obama control nothing, they are little more than front men for the New World Order.

Mossad behind the mass terror attack in Mumbai, India?
When I first read the news of the coordinated attacks on specific places firing automatic rifles and lobbing grenades in the city of Mumbai on the west coast of India that occured Wednesday night, I deduce it is Mossad in the planning and execution of the attack -- by themselves or the deployment of Manchurian candidates -- to provoke international outrage towards the designated enemy. Over 80 persons died and more than 250 wounded.
Turns out this might be the case. Mossad allegedly had a hand in Mumbai train attacks two years prior.
In BBC online article, it reported "A witness told local television that the gunmen were looking for people with British or US passport."
Here's the bizarre article ("CIA, MOSSAD HAND BEHIND SANGH PARIVAR'S EXTREMISTS") recently posted as translated from Urdu.
Why Mossad chose to attack Mumbai is not a mystery. It is a financial capital of the entire country, similar to Wall Street of New York City in the U.S. But for what motives? We can only speculate.
A reminder, Crime of Zion exposed Mossad's role in attack on U.S. Embassy in Yemen.
(2:26)

Posted in
· false flag
· India
· mossad
· murder
· terrorism
Submitted by Nepos Libertas on Thu, 2008-11-27 03:19.
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Thank you, let's see if we can solve this "mystery"
Once again we can NOT trust Jewish media (BBC, Fox, CNN, etc) to tell us the truth.

This is very suspicious. There appears to be a "breakup" between Israel/UK/USA and India --- as india has moved closer to Iran (for energy, security, and genuine friendship!).

Please post what you know and let's try our best to solve this case --- be it a FALSE FLAG?!!!!!

The Great Revealer | Thu, 2008-11-27 03:52
Mumbai 7/11 attacks of 2006 vs. 2008
In the run-up to the 2006 7/11 attacks, there were several reasons why Israel would not have been pleased with India.
On July 1, 2006, it was reported that the Indian Defense Minister had decided to delay a visit to Israel, which was planned for July 7. The purpose of the visit concerned arms deals, with India poised to purchase advanced equipment from Israel.
On July 2, 2006, United Press International reported that India had not only denied a request by the Israeli embassy to import 20 handguns, but also asked the Israelis to send 48 Glock pistols back to Tel Aviv.
On July 8, it was reported that India had voted on a resolution against Israel on the conflict in Palestine.
On July 11, the Indian press stated that 25 foreign nationals including Israelis and Russians had been blacklisted by the Goa police for drug trafficking.
The bombs were reported as a "rare mixture of RDX, ammonium nitrate, and fuel oil", and were set off by timers.
I created a page here:
http://www.takeourworldback.com/short/mumbai.htm
...but didn't cache the news pages and they were mostly soon gone.
Back in 2005/6, Mossad false-flag attacks involving bombs controlled by timers or mobiles - generally blamed on "suicide bombers" - were occurring every few months.
July 7, 2005 ("7/7")
October 1, 2005
November 9, 2005 ("11/9" or "9/11")
If this latest attack involving gunmen is another false-flag, it would represent quite a change in modus operandi from the 2005/6 bombings.
Poseidon | Thu, 2008-11-27 05:52
The Mossad in India
So the Mossad has a presence in Mumbai via the security job it was given by the Sai Baba Mandir trust in the wake of the Mumbai train bombings, as reported in the article Nepos linked to above, but also through Israel's consulate in Mumbai.
See what an Indian columnist has to say about Mossad involvement in Mumbai:
As for Mumbai [train] blasts, the jury is still out. If the culprits are Lashkar from Kashmir, they openly claim they want freedom from India for Jammu and Kashmir. Though India, with myself as Indian hold that they are criminals.
However, there is a strong belief in circle here that the local politicians have teamed up with Mossad, to target Indian Muslims. Mossad is reported to have been given a contract to arrange security for a religion Dargah/temple of Sai Baba. This is a very grave charge and neither local nor central government has publicly repudiated the claim put out by some newspaper. The motivation for such organized bomb blasts is to mobilize voter opinion against Muslims and ruling Congress and in favor of Hindutva groupies, which is now joined by a pseudo-secularist National Congress Party of Sharad Pawar, who are in a debilitating tug of war with their coalition partner, Sonia's Congress.
This is also interesting:
Mumbai-based Intellectuals: Al Qaeda is Front Group for CIA, Mossad - India Daily
The Mumbai based group alleged that Al-Qaeda is a front organization of CIA and MOSSAD. "There is enough evidence that the Al-Qaeda is a front organization of the CIA and MOSSAD. The Bush junta has used the bogey of terror and of Al Qaeda to justify his unending and ever expanding Global War on Terror, which is only a means of capturing the resources of the world and of establishing the sole hegemony of Israel in West Asia," said the group of activists and intellectuals. The group is holding a press conference in Mumbai on Wednesday to "expose the links between Al-Qaeda and the CIA-MOSSAD".
"Every terror attack is meant to push and drag the Indian masses further into the waiting arms of Uncle Sam and the Israeli Goliath. Every terror attack spreads further hatred for Muslims and Islam and weakens the Indian Muslim community," he said.
Another tidbit about the Mossad presence in India:
While discussing bomb blasts at different places in Maharashtra, Muslim leaders, writers and political analysts have repeatedly pointed fingers to Bajrang Dal and other Hindutva extremists who are working under the guidance of Israeli secret agency Mossad, now operating in Maharashtra. They also write that Maharashtra police and A.T.S. is trying to shield Hindutva extremists.
Senior Muslim leader and Member of Parliament Ilyas Azmi, in an UNI news item published in the Sahara of September 14, alleged that everyone including Maharashtra police knows for certain that all the incidents that happened in Nanded, Mumbai, Malegaon and Nasik are being perpetrated under the guidance of Mossad. But, out of enmity with Islam, those who have seated Mossad in Mumbai and Worli will not crackdown on Mossad until and unless the country falls prey to slavery once again, he said.
In April this year two persons were killed when they were busy making bombs in the house of a Bajrang Dal office bearer. In the light of police investigations (now shelved) the people belonging to the same group were found in the bomb attack on a mosque in Parbhani in 2003 and blasts in Purna and Jalna in August 2004. Experts opine that the influence of Massad [sic] has been gaining roots in India now, he wrote.
In another edit-page article entitled After Nanded, Jalna, Parbhani and Mumbai, It is Now Malegaon: Who are the terrorists? in the Sahara (September 14) Farman Chaudhary opines that if ground realities are taken into consideration without any bias and prejudice then it is easily understandable that these blasts were perpetrated by only those who want to harm Muslims and can go to any extent to seek their goal.
In the house of Bajrang Dal activist in Nanded where a bomb went off on April 6 this year the police had seized the names, addresses, maps indicating location of those mosques, as well as Muslim clothing and fake beards. But under the mounting pressure of terrorist organisations like R.S.S. and Bajrang Dal the police did not pay attention to it.
Source
In January of 2000, 11 suspected terrorists with Israeli passports were detained by Indian intelligence just before boarding a plane to Dhaka, which they allegedly planned to hijack. The Indian authorities eventually released them under Israeli pressure and they flew home to Tel Aviv. This was reported in an article by a leading Indian magazine called The Week, reproduced at WRH.
Indian intelligence (RAW) and the Mossad have a close working relationship. See RAW and Mossad: The Secret Link.
Crimes of Zion | Thu, 2008-11-27 07:32
RAW and Mossad collaboration
Interesting article on the Mossad/RAW connection:
Mossad and RAW Team Up, Target Pakistan
Janes information group, the world's foremost source on intelligence information, reported in July 2001 that "The Indian spy agency RAW and the Israeli spy agency Mossad have created four new agencies to infiltrate Pakistan to target important religious and military personalities, journalists, judges, lawyers and bureaucrats. In addition, bombs would be exploded in trains, railway stations, bridges, bus stations, cinemas, hotels and mosques of rival Islamic sects to incite sectarianism."
Ben Gurion on Pakistan, published in the Jewish Chronicle, 1967:
"The world Zionist movement should not be neglectful of the dangers of Pakistan to it. And Pakistan now should be its first target, for this ideological State is a threat to our existence. And Pakistan, the whole of it, hates the Jews and loves the Arabs.

"This lover of the Arabs is more dangerous to us than the Arabs themselves. For that matter, it is most essential for the world Zionism that it should now take immediate steps against Pakistan.

"Whereas the inhabitants of the Indian peninsula are Hindus whose hearts have been full of hatred towards Muslims, therefore, India is the most important base for us to work therefrom against Pakistan.

"It is essential that we exploit this base and strike and crush Pakistanis, enemies of Jews and Zionism, by all disguised and secret plans."
Israel's super-advanced TECSAR spy satellite was launched into space from the Sriharikota Launching Range in India ealier this year to help Israel spy on Iran.
The decision to launch the missile from India was reached three years ago during a visit there by then-Defense Ministry director-general Amos Yaron. It is part of growing Indian-Israeli cooperation, which is scheduled to eventually lead to the launching of two more satellites.
Crimes of Zion | Thu, 2008-11-27 14:51
What a preposterous 'quote'
Statement issued by David Ben Gurion, the first Israeli Prime Minister, as printed in the Jewish Chronicle, 9 August 1967:
"The world Zionist movement should not be neglectful of the dangers of Pakistan to it. And Pakistan now should be its first target, for this ideological State is a threat to our existence. And Pakistan, the whole of it, hates the Jews and loves the Arabs. This lover of the Arabs is more dangerous to us than the Arabs themselves. For that matter, it is most essential for the world Zionism that it should now take immediate steps against Pakistan. Whereas the inhabitants of the Indian peninsula are Hindus whose hearts have been full of hatred towards Muslims, therefore, India is the most important base for us to work therefrom against Pakistan. It is essential that we exploit this base and strike and crush Pakistanis, enemies of Jews and Zionism, by all disguised and secret plans."
RowanBerkeley | Thu, 2008-11-27 15:26
'Disguised and secret plans'
And that's how they've been playing it ever since the Jewish terrorists of the Irgun and Stern Gang began their campaign which led to the theft of the Holy Land and the creation of the Apartheid State: By Way Of Deception, Thou Shalt Do War, or 'be-tachb?l?t ta`aseh lekh? milch?m?h'.
Crimes of Zion | Thu, 2008-11-27 16:40
because it's true, he wouldn't say it
This isn't a Victorian melodrama, where the villain turns round to the audience every now and then and delivers a little monologue about his evil plans, without the other actors being able to hear him.
RowanBerkeley | Thu, 2008-11-27 17:06
because it's true, he would say it
that's how bold, full of themselves, how egomaniacally confident they are of their installed deceptions, current and future.
1967 was a cake walk for them. The USS Liberty went unnoticed by too many Americans, thanks to hosebags in the government. That's just one scenario.
no, this is not some victiorian melodrama with bad guy asides to the audience. That audience was in "israel" not America. Americans never saw that paper, ben gurion's words.

Rhiannon | Thu, 2008-11-27 18:38
Rhiannon, the Jewish Chronicle is English
It is a weekly english-language periodical, of a respectable or 'mainstream' nature, published in London.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Chronicle

RowanBerkeley | Thu, 2008-11-27 19:07
You'll know by the composition of the body count
If there were a large number of wealthy jews killed, (since it was ritzy hotels in India's financial center), you'll know it was a genuine terror event. otherwise, if only token jews get killed and if the jewish hostages, a venerable old Lubavitch rabbi and his wife, get released, you'll know it's a false flag.
Jews get warned off from false flag attacks, like 911.
Claymoremind | Thu, 2008-11-27 20:53
Don't know why you find it so hard to believe, Rowan
It is a weekly english-language periodical, of a respectable or 'mainstream' nature, published in London.
Yeah, a Jewish publication with a Jewish readership.
Look at some of these quotes and tell me again that Ben Gurion's words seem too 'preposterous' to be genuine.
More from Ben Gurion:
" ... we should prepare to go over to the offensive with the aim of smashing Lebanon, Trans-jordan and Syria... The weak point in the Arab coalition is Lebanon [for] the Moslem regime is artificial and easy to undermine. A Christian state should be established... When we smash the [Arab] Legions strength and bomb Amman, we will eliminate Transjordan, too, and then Syria will fall. If Egypt still dares to fight on, we shall bomb Port Said, Alexandria, and Cairo." " David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff. From Ben-Gurion, A Biography, by Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978.
Incidentally, speaking of quotes, I came across a particularly nasty one today in an article at Counterpunch, uttered recently by a member of the Israeli Knesset. These Zionists are totally open about their genocidal tendencies and homocidal fantasies.
Crimes of Zion | Fri, 2008-11-28 17:12
AGAIN AND AGAIN.....
Why does the Internet Service Provider (ISP) "Bluehost" seem to take WUFYS off-air so frequently (and at the worst possible timing) when other websites are unaffected (especially Zionist owned -- CNN, BBC, Fox)?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Great Revealer | Fri, 2008-11-28 21:28
As I've said in another comment... 'no coincidence'
Why does the Internet Service Provider (ISP) "Bluehost" seem to take WUFYS off-air so frequently (and at the worst possible timing) when other websites are unaffected (especially Zionist owned -- CNN, BBC, Fox)?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For a start, CNN, BBC and Fox spend hundreds of thousands on their sites, if not millions. WUFYS, in contrast, runs on inexpensive shared hosting.
If an article of WUFYS proves too popular, then the site becomes bogged down, starts placing too much demand on the database server we are sharing with 500+ other sites. Bluehost then suspends the site because it is 'eating too much of the pie', hence the 'worst possible timing'. No conspiracy, just simple economics, unfortunately.
I've taken some steps to reduce the load anonymous users will place on the site, but beyond that, there isn't much more I can do.
Sullivan | Sat, 2008-11-29 06:15
You know Rowan, seriously...
I was expecting that from you.
I did not bother to find out what people in what country read that article. Because it doesn't matter.
1967 is no different from today.
There have been all kinds of CNN [as well as other news channels, and publications] sloppy reporting, canned reporting, obvious BIASED reporting, REHASHED robotic reporting, omissions, hiding what is really going on, all kinds of syndicated bullying and bashing of Muslims [non-Arabs] and Arabs, and it seems to me all Aussies, Brits and Americans are comfortable with it. And why not?
But how would the Americans, Brits and Aussies react if ben gurion's attack was against Christianity, nations with the vast majority of Christians?
It's fun and easy to be bold and blunt, to show your true colors, when your target is EASY. And you don't care so long as you and your fellow countrymen are not in the crosshairs.
Rhiannon | Sat, 2008-11-29 02:04
Rowboat plays innocent
RowBoat, why do you pooh-pooh Ben Gurion's commentary with the "Victorian meldorama" line?
You've been at this for some time; you're not some newbie whose first reaction is the understandable, dismissive "that can't be true" number.
The historical record is full of open statements of evil intent by these bastards from infiltration Christian society, financial rape, controlling the government/media etc, pulling building 7, to crushing the Palestinians like "grasshoppers" to quickly name a couple.
Like my bitch with Posiedon, the stark incongruity between this turd-like statement and your "serious" posts casts the smell of shit over yer oeuvre.
If I were the suspicious type, I'd say you had Rivero syndrome: non-stop work on the relatively minor recent crimes; full-stop silence and/or ridicule of the historical roots of our problem. But, I ain't superstitious.
PS - a subscription to the Jewish Chronicle Weekly is $177 for the year with downloads beginning at 5 pounds a pop. As much as I'd like to read the original, I won't.
http://archive.thejc.com
Fester | Sat, 2008-11-29 04:00
Plz explain.....
Hi
Interesting discussion going on there. But I'm puzzled, with the fact that Jewish Rabbi and his wife were found dead in the attack. They were running a Chabad House , and it was in the same Nariman House that was attacked. Why would one attack one's own associates and kill them?
Please enlighten me on the same. Was there any problem between MOSSAD and Rabbi Gavriel_Holtzberg?
I don't know much about all this really. Plz explain this to me.
justcuriousfellow | Sun, 2008-11-30 11:23
lubavitch sanayin get terminated
leave no witnesses.this op was big, to get india to attack pakistan and inspire the maoist-rockefeller-mossad insurgency. why leave witnesses?
see
https://secure.gn.apc.org/members/www.bilderberg.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=98&sid=a3cf8d1b488238fd37e8c8d9adc5b4f7
and
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-US:&rlz=1I7GWYE&q=lubavitch%2Bnwo&btnG=Search
and
maoists+rockefeller+mossad

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-US:&rlz=1I7GWYE&q=maoists%2Brockefeller%2Bmossad&btnG=Search

and

http://www.atlargely.com/2008/11/mumbai-and-indias-homegrown-insurgency.html

mparent7777 | Sun, 2008-11-30 11:52
mumbai big picture(Obama hires aide who wants to invade Israel)
a sketch of a sketch on this issue follows,
related
Obama rehires advisor who wants to invade Israel
a guy emailed me his article today to which i responded,
good piece, [edit]. the terrorists as individuals were only in
part motivated by poverty. they are being manipulated. they
are primarily indian and hindu(plus maoists from other
nations), but more importantly maoist. all maoist
insurgencies have been financed by rockefeller/rothschild
since way back with the technical assistance of
mossad/israel'etc and now US mil intel/ private mercenary
companies.china is a backroom supporter/weapons and intel
supplier coordinated by rockefeller pal maurice strong whose
pal paul desmerais, frequent canadian PM maker,sits on the
boards of 6+ rothschild banks. china has purchased large
chunks of rothschild banks in the last year alone. old money
rockefeller is cordinating with obama's handler
brezinski. together they will force india to step up the
attack on pakistan. brezbama's handlers want imposed
peace on israel/palestine and securing of israeli nukes as
part of the package. old money doesn't want the
increasingly
political and religious rightward moving, increasingly
extremist idf to control nukes any longer. old money wants
iran brought into the "family" of nations and a
caspian pipeline through iran plus pulling it out of
russia's orbit. brez has always had a hate on for
russia. (have you seen the wearechange crowd dogging him on
9/11? videos on youtube. hilarious seeing brez put on the
spot among his sycophants. watch for india/pakistan to lob a
nuke or too. joe blow usa will basically be distracted from
these shenanigans by US currency
devaluation/depression,false flag attack.the perfect
economic storm has yet to hit, even as more more of the US
economy is nationalised and corporatism sets in further.
watch for major shnanigans to start on or very near to
presidential inauguration day, a day and ceremony right out
of the masonic bible.and of course the major players are
unseen and mostly unknown and/or ignored. that's another
story i intend to cover for
folks. trying to get a web radio dealy up by end december.
my techie jammed so i'm stuck having to follow written
radio manuals which are basically geek/greek to me. print is
way too slow to respond to what's coming and soon.

best

marc

crimes and corruptions of the nwo
mparent7777 | Sun, 2008-11-30 20:09
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ATS Chief Hemant Karkare Threatened/Murdered by RSS/BJP stooges in Mumbai during attacks?; Hemant Karkare killed, had exposed RSS Mossad terrorists: Signs of Attempted Neocon/Zioncon Coup in Delhi?

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/ats-chief-hemant-karkare-dies-a-heros-death/391325/

Print Close Window
Karkare’s response to a death threat: A 'smiley'
Y P Rajesh Posted online: Nov 27, 2008 at 1637 hrs
Mumbai : The last days of Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare were probably some of the busiest in his 26-year career in the Indian Police Service (IPS), and apparently tormented as well. The ATS believed it had cracked the September 29 Malegaon bomb blast case, and about a month ago arrested Hindu extremists in a breakthrough that shocked the nation and added a new twist to the entire discourse on terror and religion.
But as the probe unravelled the alleged plot and the role of some Hindu leaders, the case got caught in the politics of terror and the ATS was at the centre of charges that it was being used as a tool to target the Sangh Parivar amid allegations of illegal detention and torture by some of the 11 arrested for the blast.
The BJP, RSS and VHP leaders, among others from the Hindu nationalist brigade, accused the ATS of being on a witch-hunt, with some even demanding that ATS officers be subjected to a narco-analysis to establish their motives.
No less a leader than the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate, L K Advani, had demanded a change in the ATS team and a judicial inquiry into the torture allegations made by Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, a key suspect in the Malegaon case.
The Shiv Sena too had come out in support of the suspects and on Wednesday had threatened in its mouthpiece Saamna that it would publish the names of some ATS officers and shame them as it said they had tortured the Malegaon suspects.
That Karkare was affected by this was apparent when we met at his office on Tuesday to get an update on the probe, less than 36 hours before he was killed. The Indian Express has decided to break the confidence of what was an off-the-record conversation in an attempt to highlight the anguish of the investigators over the currents in which the Malegaon probe was getting caught as well as the larger debate over the politics of terror.
"I don't know why this case has become so political," was one of Karkare's first comments. "The pressure is tremendous and I am wondering how to extricate it from all the politics."
Was the pressure telling on the investigation, what with someone who could be the next prime minister of the country questioning the credibility of the ATS?
"Of course," was the answer. "We are being very very careful. In fact, when we want to question a suspect and if he or she has any Hindutvawadi connections, we make sure once, twice, thrice, that we have enough reason and evidence to even question. Normally it is not like that. We are able to freely question anyone we suspect."
"In fact, immediately after the blast I had visited Malegaon along with the Deputy Chief Minister and other officials and witnessed the anger of the locals who shouted some slogans," Karkare said. "After that I told my men that we have to pursue this case very objectively and not start with assumptions that people of this community or that community could be responsible."
Originally from Madhya Pradesh, Karkare studied mechanical engineering in Nagpur and worked at the National Productivity Council and Hindustan Lever before making it to the IPS in 1982. Known to be an upright officer who served in the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) as well as the Indian mission in Vienna, Austria, as a counselor, Karkare did not hide his love for Mumbai or his discomfort with the predominantly political-bureaucratic culture of Delhi where he was posted.
During a stint in the Chandrapur forests near Nagpur in 1991 to fight Naxalites, he took an interest in driftwood, discovered artistic shapes in them and converted them into wooden sculptures, making about 150 of them over a two-year period. Talking to the media about sensitive cases such as Malegaon could prove to be a double-edged sword, he had said as we parted, adding that he would like us to meet informally once a month so that he could learn the ways of the media.
His last visuals as seen on TV showed him working with his men near the VT station, the target of one of the attacks, although it is perplexing at this point in time why such a senior officer ended up getting exposed to a brazen terrorist attack. Initially, he was shown wearing a shoddy helmet normally seen used by constables during riots. A little later, a policeman lowers a flimsy bulletproof vest over his shoulders, one that was obviously of little protection when those fatal shots were fired at him.
The previous evening, hours after our meeting, TV channels had ‘breaking news’ that he had received a fresh death threat from some unidentified caller, apparently in connection with the Malegaon probe. An Indian Express reporter SMSed him asking him if this was true or if he had anything to say. His reply: just a smiley.
Plea se keep checking http://www.whatreallyhappened.com for insightful updates.

Just like 9/11 where John O'Neil who had exposed CIA as the funders of Al-CIADA mercenaries and the workers at the Pentagon who were auditing the $2.3 Trillion that had gone missing under Rabbi Dov Zakheim, the good Mumbai Security Chief Hemant Karkare was killed during the attacks. He had exposed senior Indian Military officers who belonged to the RSS and had staged the Delhi and other bombings and then blamed them on muslims.


From: Date: Sun, 30 Nov 2008 04:15:03 +0000

The Answer to what has just happened in India is Blatantly Obvious.

First: Who Benefits from this Terrorist Attack in the Financial Heart of India ???

India Does NOT Benefit from this Terrorist Attack !

Pakistan Does NOT Benefit from this Terrorist Attack !

However, The Big Word Controlling NWO Banks Do Benefit
From:
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2007 12:18 PM
Subject: [bangla-vision] PM: Plan for Lebanon war made months in advance

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/834572.html
Last update - 09:27 08/03/2007

PM: Plan for Lebanon war made months in advance
By Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondent

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Winograd Commission that his decision to respond to the abduction of soldiers with a broad military operation was made as early as March 2006, four months before last summer's Lebanon war broke out.
The commission, which is investigating the second Lebanon war, is expected to issue its interim report this month. It has sent testimony to attorneys representing individuals who could be harmed by its conclusions.
Olmert testified before the Winograd Commission on February 1, and its questions focused on three basic issues: the circumstances surrounding Amir Peretz's appointment as defense minister; how and why the decision was made to go to war on July 12, several hours after reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were abducted by Hezbollah guerrillas on the northern border; and why Olmert decided to carry out a large-scale ground operation in Lebanon, 48 hours before the cease-fire, in which 33 soldiers were killed.

In his testimony, Olmert claimed he had held more meetings on the situation in Lebanon than any of his recent predecessors. The first meeting was held on January 8, 2006, four days after Olmert was called to take the place of Ariel Sharon, who had fallen into a coma.
Further meetings were held in March, April, May and July, after Corporal Gilad Shalit was abducted to the Gaza Strip.
The day before he appeared before the commission, Major General Gadi Shamni, Olmert's military secretary, presented its members with the schedule of the meetings on Lebanon.
The scenario presented in the various assessments reflected prior incidents: the abduction of soldiers from Israeli territory accompanied by heavy cross-border shelling. Then-chief of staff Dan Halutz said such an incident would have far-reaching consequences for Israel's deterrent capability. Halutz said Israel could not show restraint in the face of a kidnapping in the north, and it had to respond. Olmert testified that he accepted this stance.
In a meeting in March, Olmert asked the army commanders whether operational plans existed for such a possibility, and they said yes. He asked to see the plans, and they asked why. He responded that he did not want to make a snap decision in the case of an abduction, and preferred to decide at that moment. Presented with the options, he selected a moderate plan that included air attacks accompanied by a limited ground operation. At the time, Shaul Mofaz was defense minister.
The Winograd Commission asked Olmert what he thought his predecessor would have done. Olmert said that following Hezbollah's failed November 2005 attempt to abduct Israel Defense Forces troops in the border village of Ghajar, Sharon ordered the army to prepare a "list of targets" for a military response in Lebanon. The list included an air attack on the long-range Fajr and Zilzal rockets, which were destroyed in an air raid the first night of the war. Sharon said at the time that the status quo, of ongoing Hezbollah raids, could not continue. Olmert told the commission that he behaved as Sharon would have.
Olmert stated that he had decided in earlier meetings that Israel's goal in an operation would be the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1559, which calls for the deployment of the Lebanese army along the Israeli border and the disarmament of Hezbollah.
In May 2006, Olmert was informed by then-National Security Council head Giora Eiland and former prime minister Ehud Barak that the Lebanese government would agree to implement Resolution 1559 in return for an Israeli withdrawal from Shaba Farms. Olmert thought that it was best to implement the decision through diplomacy, and raised the issue with U.S. President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac.
During deliberations last June, following Shalit's abduction, Olmert told the committee he was certain there would be a similar attempt to kidnap soldiers on the Lebanese border. He ordered the IDF to prevent this.
Regarding the decision to broaden the ground operation toward the end of the war, Olmert said he had wanted to influence UN Security Council deliberations so that the draft resolution 1701, calling for a cease-fire, would be amended in Israel's favor.
Olmert said that the morning he made the move, he had received a draft reflecting the French-Lebanese stance, which did not suit Israel. The expanded operation was aimed at pressuring the Security Council members, he said.
Commission member Ruth Gavison interrupted Olmert at that point, saying that while she had no doubt that the final operation was very successful, she wanted to know why it had not been carried out earlier.
Olmert said that had earlier Israeli ground offensives been successful, Israel would not have been in such a situation at the end of the war.
Based on Gavison's statement, Olmert concluded his testimony feeling he had convinced the commission that he made the correct decision in calling for the final ground operation.
He told his aides that he emerged from the deposition exhausted but felt the committee had accepted his view.
The Winograd Commission also asked Olmert whether appointing Peretz as defense minister was the right thing to do. He responded that the defense portfolio had been given to Labor under coalition talks, and the party chose its ministers.
Olmert's chief of staff, Yoram Turbowicz, gave the Winograd Commission the diplomatic exchanges that occurred during the war.
He said that as early as the first day of the war, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke with Olmert and asked that Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora not be undermined. Israel understood this to mean that Lebanese infrastructure should not be destroyed, even though the IDF had originally planned otherwise.
Dov Weissglas, adviser to prime minister Ariel Sharon, explained Sharon's containment policy along the border with Lebanon, which was intended to prevent a two-front confrontation with the Palestinians and Hezbollah.
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From: redress-owner@lists.riseup.net [mailto:redress-owner@lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of redress@redress.cc
Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2008 12:06 PM
To: redress@lists.riseup.net
Subject: [Alert] US definition of terrorist fits Israel perfectly

New on REDRESS INFORMATION & ANALYSIS website:

ARTICLE - Can there be any doubt who the real terrorists are? US definition
fits perfectly."

To view the video, please visit the link.

LOCATION (URL) -
http://www.redress.cc/palestine/slittlewood20081228

SYNOPSIS - Stuart Littlewood calls on Western leaders to pull the plug on
Israel until it conforms to international law and the will of the United
Nations, pulls back behind the 1967 border and strictly observes the principles
of universal human rights. Otherwise, they “risk a mighty moral backlash from
ordinary people, who are beginning to learn the awful truth”

FOR THE FULL STORY, GO TO:
http://www.redress.cc/palestine/slittlewood20081228

US definition fits perfectly
By Stuart Littlewood
28 December 2008
Stuart Littlewood calls on Western leaders to pull the plug on Israel until it conforms to international law and the will of the United Nations, pulls back behind the 1967 border and strictly observes the principles of universal human rights. Otherwise, they “risk a mighty moral backlash from ordinary people, who are beginning to learn the awful truth”.
The patience of all decent men must surely be exhausted.
Today’s [27 December] slaughter of innocents in Gaza, with at least 230 reported killed in raids on “Hamas terror operatives” (as the Israeli military put it), amounted to “a mass execution”, said Hamas.
Can there now be any doubt who the real terrorists are?
The killing spree couldn’t have happened without the tacit approval of America, Britain and the European Union. The political pea-brains that direct the pro-Israel Western alliance were partying, gorging themselves on Christmas fare or binge-shopping while this massacre of hungry women and children and their despairing menfolk in Gaza was being planned and executed.
According to the US's own definition of terrorism Israel is squarely in the frame. Under Section 3 of Executive Order 13224 "Blocking Property and prohibiting Transactions with Persons who commit, threaten to commit, or support Terrorism", the term “terrorism” means an activity that:
(i) involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life, property, or infrastructure; and
(ii) appears to be intended
to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, kidnapping, or hostage-taking.
The order and its definition of terrorism, signed 23 September 2001 by George W. Bush, is used to outlaw and crush any organization, individual or country the US doesn’t like. The Israeli regime’s "amoral thugs", as a British MP branded them, have plainly been terrorizing the Palestinians for the last 60 years.
Israel's massacre of Gazans no doubt took place with the tacit approval of America, Britain and the European Union
The long drawn-out siege and blockade of Gaza, and the numerous military assaults on its people and their legitimate government, are only the latest crimes in a catalogue of torment and terror. They are clearly attempts to "intimidate and coerce", while the mass destruction of Gaza's infrastructure, the withholding of humanitarian aid, the assassinations, the abductions, the bulldozing of Palestinian homes, and the many violent and dangerous acts, including indiscriminate bombing and shelling (and the use of cluster bombs in Lebanon), ensure Israel’s ugly head is a perfect fit for America’s terrorist hat.
How does the world feel about Obama pledging to “forge an unshakeable bond” with the "miracle" of terrorist Israel?
How do we feel about the EU rewarding Israel for its terrorist acts with enhanced benefits under the EU-Israel Association Agreement?
How do we Britons feel about our Intelligence and Security Committee being chaired by a Friend of Terrorist Israel and 5 out of its 9 members also being the Zionist regime’s devoted Friends? How do we feel about our Foreign Affairs Committee being chaired by a Friend of Terrorist Israel – and our Defence Committee too?
Britain’s prime minister, Gordon Brown, and his predecessor, now peace envoy Tony Blair, both self-confessed Zionists, have given their undying support to a terrorist state and steered Britain’s foreign policy on a course that has earned the opprobrium of civilized people.
The best Brown could do today was urge “restraint”. He called on Gazan “militants” to “cease all rocket attacks on Israel immediately”, but didn’t urge his bosom pals to end the siege and their illegal occupation which, as every sane person knows, are the cause of the strife. Our Foreign Office went so far as to say they were “deeply concerned” then spouted the mantra: “The only way to achieve a lasting peace is through peaceful means”.
The only peaceful means of achieving a lasting peace is for Western leaders to pull the plug on Israel until the regime conforms to international law and the will of the United Nations (without whose misguided generosity there would never have been a state of Israel), pulls back behind the 1967 border and strictly observes the principles of universal human rights.
If they don’t shoulder their responsibility, they risk a mighty moral backlash from ordinary people, who are beginning to learn the awful truth.

Stuart Littlewood is author of the book Radio Free Palestine, which tells the plight of the Palestinians under occupation. For further information please visit www.radiofreepalestine.co.uk.
--

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