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...
Once upon a time somewhere in India there lived an young man who dropped out of school due to family poverty and later was appointed as a caretaker of a house under construction in the suburbs of a big town by the benevolent owner. The young man built a small thatched hut in the campus and started living there doing odd jobs apart from taking care. Soon he mixed well with the neighboring households and began to take errands from them too. Thus he somewhat earned the name of a Good Samaritan. However, things were not that met the eye. That winter was unusually dry with the rains refusing to pour even in little drops. The greenery in the neighborhood vanished and the cows owned by a few families had a hard time finding green pastures to graze. The heads of the households therefore had to take the decision of untethering their cattle so that the animals could graze freely in nearby paddy fields feeding mainly on the dry and cut straws. Things started happening fast. Almost every day some...