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A newly installed lion at the Khelat Ghosh house in Pathuriaghata.
Picture by Pradip Sanyal |
The state government seems to have at last woken up to the fact that it is not enough to protect a handful of houses with a distinctive architectural style or with historical associations but entire neighbourhoods, which have a character of their own, need protection. So apparently a law will be drafted soon to this effect. But who looks after the buildings already on the heritage list, hopelessly inadequate though it was, since the Left Front regime? In certain cases, their owners are their worst enemies. They have every intention to beautify their buildings, and while repairing and whitewashing them, add monstrosities to them that stick out like sore thumbs.
Take the example of the Khelat Ghosh house in Pathuriaghata which is grand with its nine double height columns supporting a wide cornice. Add another ornament and it would look grotesque. And this is exactly what the current owner of this building has done. He has added a couple of lions, which resemble overfed rats with a mane, at its gateway and on the roof of a small structure adjacent to it.
Far from looking more stately, the building looks cheap now. It has lost its class. Now is not the heritage committee of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation supposed to keep an eye on such buildings to stop such desecration? But the watchdog body is sleeping as usual while these heritage house owners do as they wish. Will the new laws be able to put an end to this kind of neglect? These buildings should not suffer for the government's acts of omission.
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Sohini Sengupta at the panel discussion. (Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya) |
Rights talk
Artistes, advocates and judges came together to express concern about the increase in crimes against women and the mindset behind it at a panel discussion held at the Indian Law Institute recently. The discussion was organised by the Calcutta City Courts Bar Association and The Presidency Small Causes Courts Bar Association.
The panellists included former high court judge Bhagbati Prasad Banerjee, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, actress and teacher Sohini Sengupta and film-makers Satarupa Sanyal, Nandita Roy and Shiboprosad Mukhopadhyay. Advocate and legal aid activist Gitanath Ganguly was the moderator of the discussion.
“It is difficult to explain to children about rights and equality when they have little time for anything outside their syllabus,” said Sengupta. Satarupa spoke about how a girl is taught from childhood to endure everything and is made to believe that a person who suffers goes a long way. “Sita, Draupadi have all faced atrocities. We need to make children understand that a girl and a boy are just physiologically different but have equal rights,” said Sanyal. She also expressed disappointment with the usual delay in justice.
Justice Bagchi wanted society to be more alive and aware. “Why are women harassed even today,” he asked, expressing concern at the lopsided male-female ratio in the country.
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Anupam Dasgupta
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Doc honoured
Doctor Anupam Dasgupta was conferred the lifetime achievement award by the Neurological Society of India recently. Dasgupta is one of the few to have his name engraved on the Wall of Honour at the Royal Society building in the UK.
“His contribution to society is significant. For the last 20 years, Dasgupta has also been funding scholarships to meritorious students in 10 schools in North 24-Parganas and one in Bangladesh,” said mayoral council member Debasish Kumar at a recent felicitation of the doctor.
(Contributed by Soumitra Das, Shweta Keshri and Jayanta Basu ) |
