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...
Article first published as The Hisar Connection--Team Anna Claims Victory! on Technorati. The suspense drama over the Hisar by-election has finally ended. Kuldeep Bishnoi of the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) supported by the country’s main opposition, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), won the three-cornered contest. Bishnoi won only by a narrow margin over the nearest rival Ajay Chautala of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD). The congress candidate came as the distant third—almost the same scenario of 2009 general elections. The irrepressible Team Anna member, Arvind Kejriwal, has already claimed victory and sent out a message to the ruling coalition led by Congress that ‘the result is a lesson to learn from’. But the winning candidate dismisses Team Anna’s campaign as ‘no impact’! The Congress too writes off any Anna effect as it never won the seat since 2004. Now, Bishnoi is the son of Bhajan Lal, a former Chief Minister of Haryana, who won this seat in 2009 and it became vacant on hi...