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...
Fifty one farmers including old women had been staying immersed in neck deep water for the last fifteen days. Crabs and fishes were biting them and the limbs of many of them, particularly the old ladies, were deteriorating fast. They could not call it a day because they wanted their demands met first. The farmers had been protesting against what they considered wrong moves by the government. They say it is Jal Satyagraha (Water Movement for truth)-their final struggle even if it means death. Even the media did not pay them attention for ten days, busy as usual covering the insane politicking going on all around. The state government finally thought of examining their demands and meeting them only on the 13 th day. A group of observers from the Central Government is likely to visit the agitating farmers today. The agitating farmers were from the Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh, a central state of India. They cultivated in the low-lying areas surrounding the Omkareshwar dam over th...