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...
They can make real fools of you! They smile knowingly at you, give powerful nods of understanding to you and even chuckle-grin-shrug at your occasional takes of humor. You get just no inkling of the immensity of their foolishness. If you happen to associate with them in work or business you are living dangerously. You will be taken out on a right-royal ride of hopelessness finally rendering you unable to differentiate day from night! It has been a matter of grave concern that the numbers of ‘intelligent’ fools are rising continuously in India in recent times creating a most dangerous species of human beings. They may attack you anytime anywhere and put you in jeopardy. They can be justifiably called ‘First Class Fools’. In an effort to properly define them I have been surfing the net and finally landed on a spiritual-philosophical site . I found there a very infesting tale which I thought of reproducing here. ‘Once Emperor Akbar asked Birbal to bring him four of the...