Kumartuli or Kumortuli is located in the northern part of the city of Kolkata . The locality is a traditional habitat of the potters for nearly three hundred years. The potters or the artisans or the artists settled here during the restructuring of the Kolkata colonial region by the British East India Company . Earning a livelihood by making earthen pots and utensils first they gradually shifted to the making of the idols of Gods and Goddesses for various festivals round the year. With increasing demand and quality of their creations over time the artisans became famous and Kumartuli came to be known as the hub of idol makers supplying thousands of idols, particularly of Goddess Durga , to whole of the state of West Bengal and to NRIs of around 90 countries across the globe. At least three months before Durga Puja , the biggest festival of West Bengal and one of the biggest across Eastern India, more than five hundred workshops come alive with hyper activity day and night. Fir...
The Mangalore runway, called as table top one, was always fraught with danger. But nowhere nobody was concerned about that. One hundred fifty eight people had to die horribly to draw attention to this fact. On 22nd May at 6.30 am the Dubai-Mangalore Air India Express Flight overshot the runway by 2000 feet and crashed into the gorges that surround the airstrip. Now only we know about. So many people including experts and air crew talked about the dangers of this table top runway. 'If offered no margin for error, the slightest mistake by pilots and hundreds of lives were always in danger.' Why no precautions were taken earlier to prevent this? Why do we wake up only after a tragedy of immense proportions happens? And after knowing it what is going to be done? Flights are still landing at and taking off from Mangalore airstrip. Do we need some more disasters? And, within three days of the accident, the Air India staff has gone on strike demanding more pay. SHAME!