Two Salt Lake and New Town-based achievers, who trace their roots to Chittagong, were felicitated by the Salt Lake wing of Chattogram Parishad recently. 

Dibyendu Barua, chess grandmaster and a resident of FD Block, was felicitated along with Surajit Deb Das, an intellectually challenged resident of New Town’s Millennium Tower who won a bronze medal at the 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Los Angeles. 

The chief guest at the event was painter Isha Mohammed. “I am surprised to see such a strong Chittagong connection here. Chittagong is a place that produced many freedom-fighters and intellectuals,” he said. 

Deb Das is mute so he simply accepted his award with a shy smile but Barua connected with the audience. “I have won many accolades throughout my career but today’s one is from representatives of my homeland. My father would have been the happiest today,” said Barua, adding that his father had passed away a while back. He also informed the audience that he was born in Chittagong but that his family moved to Calcutta when he was a baby. 

“I visited Chittagong a few years ago and found it beautiful. The Bengalis there are more Bengali than us in the sense that all their signboards and official documents are in Bengali,” said Barua. 

He requested parents in the audience to engage their children in outdoor team sports to learn about leadership and teamwork as also in indoor games such as chess.  “It increases their patience, intuition, logic and will help improve their decision-making ability. It also keeps conditions like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease at bay among the elderly. My father who passed away at 86 played chess till the end.” 

The stage also saw music and dance by members and their friends, such as Madhurima Gupta and Debosmita Sinha. Debabrata Dasgupta of Sarat Abasan was prepared to sing in Chatgaiya — the language of Chattogram — but had to give it a pass due to lack of time. “I have translated several Rabindrasangeets to Chatgaiya too. I’ll sing them next time,” he promised. 

“This is our 26th year and we have around 500 members,” said secretary Gopal Das. “We conduct health camps, picnics etc with a view to preserve our culture.”

OLD AGE HOME

Elderly residents of Bairag old age home in IB Block put up a cultural programme to welcome an addition to their family. A new branch of their home opened at HB 177. Named Pushparghya, the facility has eight rooms and is now taking in boarders.  

The home is run by Saptadweepa, an NGO that has been running the Bairag old age home in IB 9 since 1993. Pushparghya was inaugurated by SDO Pawan Kadyan and the venue then shifted to Bairag, where residents performed cultural programmes. 

A mother-daughter duet of Chokher aloy dekhechhilam was presented by Purnima Bhattacharyya and Chaitali Mukhopadhyay. Bhattacharyya lives in Bairag but her daughter said she dropped by every time there was a programme. “Whenever there is an event here I’m invited to perform with my mother,” she smiled. 

Bimal Dasgupta forgot the names of the songs he was to sing! “I can’t even recall the names of my songs so please forgive me if I mix up the lyrics,” said the 90-year-old before starting. Ila Mukherjee recited a self-composed poem titled Banaprastha and Gopa Chowdhury sang a few numbers. “I never practised for today's event but then I have been singing for more than 50 years. All that experience must have paid off,” she smiled. 

“There was always a waiting list of 10 to 15 people at IB Block so we felt it was high time we opened another home,” said Kuntala Patnaik, president of Saptadweepa. The rooms in HB Block will be air-conditioned, unlike in IB Block. “The attached bathrooms will have geysers too,” said Patnaik. “Most senior citizens come to us after losing a spouse so our rooms are single rooms. If we get couples we shall offer them two rooms. They may use one as a bed room and another as a living room.”

The rent for a room is Rs 20,000 a month (inclusive of electricity, food etc). At the time of entering one would have to pay Rs 1 lakh as donation, a refundable six month security deposit and a refundable Rs 50,000 for emergency medical costs.

While the management has been receiving inquiries from hopefuls, they are reluctant to take in people above the age of 80. “We are only taking 80-plus boarders if they are able to walk in themselves. We have 26 boarders in IB Block out of which several have now crossed 80. It is a huge responsibility to take in more, especially if they are bed-ridden,” says Patnaik, adding that preference would be given to senior citizens whose children live out of town. 
Saptadweepa had acquired the two-cottah land to build Pushparghya six years ago but work started in 2013. The two-storeyed building was built on a budget of Rs 40 lakh. 

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YOGA MEET

DL Block Residents’ Association held an interactive session with a yoga expert to commemorate the completion of seven years of yoga classes at its community hall. 

Rao Birendra Singh Rawat, an expert in yoga, ayurveda, homoeopathy and accupressure, spoke to the audience about the importance of yoga. “Yoga is necessary in today’s world to face up to problems like pollution that are prevalent in today's age. Yoga acts like a helmet providing protection from them,” he said.

The gathering chanted Om, the gayatri mantra, and resident Meera Dey demonstrated the bhastrika and kapalbhati pranayams while Rawat explained their importance. 

“I had been suffering from high blood pressure and diabetes for 35 years but through pranayam and yoga, they are both under control,” said Dhirendra Nath Sen, seated in the audience.

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FLOWER SHOW

The annual flower show of Bidhannagar Horticultural Society will be held at AMP Vaisaakkhi mall this weekend. The show will be inaugurated at 4pm on Saturday and will be open till 8pm. On Sunday, the show will be open from 8am to 8pm. Entry is free. Those interested to exhibit their flowers, foliage, cacti etc may call 9433729064 for details. 

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