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...
It always hurts to part ways or say goodbye to someone or something dear and near. Let it be coming away from home; be it getting a farewell from a workplace; be it going far off from the family or be it saying goodbye to a city where you have spent the prime of your career. This is universal human behavior and you are bound to accumulate a heavy feeling in the centre of your heart when you part ways with your nearest and dearest ones in familiar-for-years surroundings or neighborhood or the village or the town or the city. I have known Mumbai for more than twenty five years. I came to this wonderful city as an eager young man wanting to experience and inculcate everything the city stands for or is known to stand for and wanting to try out new and newer things in life and in work. When I was transferred from a quiet workplace in the North Eastern city of Guwahati to the far off Western coast of India, to the city of Mumbai I thanked my stars or rather the Government of India for the r...