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 Debauch Ministers in Dirty Business! on Technorati. The ten day session of the Karnataka Assembly was going on debating heatedly on an intriguing local issue. And television cameras covering the session found something unspeakably dirty going on in the same floor. Karnataka is a southern state of India and the lone domain of the main national opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in entire south India. Recently the then Chief Minister of the state, BS Yeddyurappa , was charged and convicted with a land scam, arrested and put in jail. After much brainstorming the BJP decided to dislodge him, but the next government could be installed only with the tacit support of the tainted ex-chief minister himself who ruled from his jail. The BJP never wanted to lose the only southern state it ruled and the tight number game compelled the party to fall in line with Yeddyurappa. Two ministers of that government were found to be glued to a porn clip in the cell phone of t...