Students of the secondary section of Patha Bhavan stage Chitrangada, a dance drama during their annual function at Rabindra Sadan

Kids who found it hard to attend cricket practice because of school timings can now breathe easy. Three former India players — Gopal Bose, Devang Gandhi and Utpal Chatterjee — have got together to form the Ultra Plus Steel Balak Sangha School of Cricket (picture by Anindya Shankar Ray), where youngsters will be able to hone their skills under the floodlights.

Six hundred and fifty lux of light from five towers illuminates the four practice pitches. “There is a generator in place and we have plans to install a couple more light towers,” said Gandhi. Fifty children have enrolled with the camp already. Practice starts on September 1.

“School timings are such that kids are neither able to practise in the morning, nor in the evenings as the light fades by the time they come home and freshen up. But practice at this camp would not depend on natural light. So, children will have sufficient time at the nets,' explained Bose.

Cricket coaching at Balak Sangha, a first in south Calcutta, was started way back in 1981 by Bose, who was still playing club cricket at the time, and Snigdhangshu Sekhar Mitra (Tuntuda). The camp became defunct in the mid 1990s when Bose and Mitra quit the camp together.

But in the glorious 1980s, players like Devang Gandhi, Subrata Guha, Shyam Sundar Mitra and Saradindu Mukherjee regularly practised at the Northern Park ground where Balak Sangha stands.

“Duleep Trophy teams have practised here. Arun Lal made his comeback from this ground and Raja Venkat, Snehashis Ganguly and Sourav Ganguly have played on this turf on numerous occasions,” informed Gandhi.

He also mentioned that it was a tough task readying the grounds for cricket practice as it was in pathetic shape in the absence of organised sporting activity. “There was a garbage dump in one corner of the field. The quick clean up and beautification was possible only because of the efforts of CMC that owns the property, the minister of urban development and municipal affairs, Ashok Bhattacharya, and Bengal Peerless,” said Gandhi.

Bose said there would be practice at Balak Sangha on Saturday and Sunday mornings with the red ball and in evenings on weekdays with the white ball. With Twenty20 and other forms of night cricket in vogue, and school timings slated to remain unaltered, evening practice could well be the trend in the days to come.

Rith Basu

 

World of animation

As the clutch of showreels rolled on the giant screen, the students in the semi-lit hall remained transfixed to their seats. What was on view was a heady mix of cheeky and serious communication created by their counterparts at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (BIAD), under the University of Central England.

Professor Aftab Gharda (picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya), the deputy head of BIAD’s department of visual communication, was chairing the interactive session at Ready To Go Animate (RTGA) in Park Circus.

Gharda had come to acquaint students of RTGA with the curriculum at BIAD. The Birmingham institute has entered into a tie-up with the animation education provider. It will enable students who have completed the six-month course at RTGA to enrol directly into second year for the three-year course in the UK institute.

Students like Saheli Saha, Amritendu Sarkar and Debraj Biswas were eager to find out what it had to offer, especially in the uncharted territory of gaming. “That is where much of the future of animation lies,” they agreed.

“In India, the work in the animation industry has until now been of finishing someone else’s work. Our aim is to do original work of our own,” pointed out dean of RTGA, Chris Rayment. “This is why our curriculum focuses on ideas and problem-solving, not on technique which is easier to pick up.”

“India is not as big a market for animation as US or China, neither is it insular like Hong Kong, Malaysia or China that look inward at the domestic market. India looks to the global market for work,” pointed out Gharda. Other than gaming, developing content for mobile phones, pilot films and TV productions are also areas which yield work, Gharda told the students, who are on the threshold of ending their six-month course.

Sudeshna Banerjee

 

Recruitment drive

Young people in the city will be hiring other young people to give them an opportunity to realise their potential.

AIESEC is an international platform for young people that enables organisations to source high-potential graduates and university students.

The recruitment drive for the Indian chapter of AIESEC spans 14 cities including Calcutta, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Chandigarh, Bangalore.

“Over a month we will cover top colleges in and around these cities. Selected students will get opportunities to work abroad, participate in conferences and work on entrepreneurship, technology, education, HIV/AIDS, child rights and corporate social responsibility,” said Tasneem Sayeed, manager outgoing sector, AIESEC.