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...
Recently Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan and his second wife had a baby through a surrogate mother. This is indeed a medically certified way to get a baby. But doubts and questions remain. Today a few more points emerge. An opposition member of the Maharashtra Assebmly today at the Nagpur winter session presented an unofficial Bill demanding laws and regulations to control this delicate social issue. He informed the lower house that this Bill is first of its kind in the entire country. He had a few very thought provoking points: *The nature of this practice makes it open only for women of the poorer sections, so exploitation is very much possible. *Some websites advertise it as a viable career option which makes the exploitation angle more apparent. *A lucrative buiness is evolving fast with no rulebook and Mumbai the headquarters. Foreign nationals also are coming for this and if they are looted nobody knows or cannot do anything about it. *Some doctors in Mumbai are maintaining fleets...