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| The Monte Carlo street circuit, one of the most popular F1 stops (Reuters) |
Burning rubber in Rajarhat at 185 kph this Sunday. Revving it up further on Red Road next year with Supermodels as pit girls, choppers hovering overhead and maybe, even F1 icons-turned-racing mascots like Damon Hill, Alan Prost and Gerherd Berger adding fizz to the adrenaline only speed can precipitate.
Motor sport in Calcutta has come a long way from the days of Kinny Lal who drove for the Rothmans squad back in the Sixties. For that matter, even from the late Eighties, when nearly 70,000 fetched up in Barrackpore to watch less than a dozen drivers indulge their passion and wheels in hobby racing promoted by the Kumars.
After a 15-year hiatus, competitive racing is back in a city, which has stayed on the outside looking in, remaining involved with the sport either as opinion makers or as fraternity. And the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI), along with JK Tyre, which drives the national circuit, is banking on Calcutta’s perennial love affair with the sport to quickly click the country’s first-ever street race into gear.
“We couldn’t have hoped for a better venue for the 7th JK Tyre National Racing Championship. There’s a definite chord out here that connects fervently to racing, and we just have to strike it right. If so many people could turn up for hobby racing then, there’s no reason why they won’t come for championship racing now,” feels FMSCI president Vicky Chandhok. Having been among the drivers in Barrackpore the last time cars raced in these parts back in 1988, he should know.
Circuit sponsors JK Tyre too sees a fast pick-up in Calcutta and feels the Sunday exposure (with deferred telecast on Ten Sports) at Rajarhat could be the perfect starting blocks to attract enthusiasts. “Monte Carlo and Macau, two of the world's most popular stops on Formula One and Three circuits, are both street courses, which provide much more exposure to the cities resulting in huge commercial spin-offs, compared to far-flung race arenas,” observes Sanjay Sharma, head — motor sport, J.K. Industries Ltd.
Sharma, who recognised and nurtured the talent of Narain Karthikeyan — the fastest Indian in the world — and has instituted a long-term support programme for gifted drivers, feels the company’s focus on making the sport accessible, economical and career-oriented is sure to impact the youth of Calcutta. “It’s a pity that a city with so much passion for the sport, hasn’t produced champion drivers on the race track. With championship racing now coming to the city in the wake of go-karting, all that should change very soon,” he adds.
The organisers, “extremely happy” with the cooperation of the state government and Hidco, are prepared to walk that extra mile next year once the first edition of the “niche property” is laid out in a foolproof manner. “This time, the overriding concern had to be safety and comfort to the police. In 2005, we would like to have a night race on Red Road, and fly in internationally famous Supermodels to double as pit girls like they do in F1,” Sharma says.
Efforts are also on to rope in some top Formula One names who have got off the podium now to canvass for motor sports on virgin tracks. “The aim is to involve the masses, get more youngsters into it by creating points of interest for all to connect,” explains Chandhok, whose son Karun is the youngest-ever Formula Asia champion.
“I am very happy to note that the national racing championships are happening in New Town, Rajarhat. The programme has full support of my department,” said sports minister Subhas Chakraborty.
— Subhro Saha
It’s a story that revolves around the strongest Indian brand in the global marketplace. In The IITians, engineer-turned-journalist Sandipan Deb tells the story of a remarkable Indian institution — Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) — and how its alumni are reshaping the world.
From profiling some of the alumni, but not the richest and the famous of the lot, to talking about the institute’s history and discussing IIT’s contribution in nation building to identifying the challenges facing them in the future — Deb’s book tries to explain what makes IITians such outstanding achievers.
To make the reading more interesting, the story is punctuated with his own experiences. “I brought in my life and my memories at various stages in the book,” said Deb, an IIT Kharagpur alumnus, during a recent visit to Calcutta.
While the discussion at a city hotel started on IITs, it slowly drifted towards Deb’s other alma-mater, Indian Institute of Management. Commenting on the ministry of human resource development’s fee-slash directive, he said: “It’s sad that the interference from government in the running of these premier institutes has gone up in recent times.”
Deb, however, stressed that the number of seats — at both IITs and IIMs — must be increased from the present level as the country needed more managers and engineers.
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| A Distant Shore by Caryl Phillips was declared the winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize 2004 (Eurasia region) for best book, announced at a ceremony at Bengal Club on Friday. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon was named best first book. Author Amit Chaudhuri (centre), judges Maya Jaggi and Fakrul Alam (left) and advisers to the awarding body Boyd Tonkin (right) and Malashri Lal (second from left) spoke on the “relevance and responsibilities” of contemporary Commonwealth literature. Picture by Pabitra Das |
Get set for a double bill that promises two hours of rib-tickling fun. The Importance of Being Stoppard, presented by The Red Curtain, brings to the Calcutta stage Tom Stoppard’s Travesties preceded by Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, to help the audience understand Stoppard’s humour, as is a multimedia presentation.
The Red Curtain’s usual ensemble crew includes both students at old theatre hands. The show — directed by Ashoke Vishwanathan and Katy Lai Roy — will feature Zarin Chaudhuri as Lady Bracknell and Vishwanathan as Stoppard’s Tristan Tzara and Wilde’s Jack Worthing. The young section of the cast includes Dhruv Mookerji as James Joyce and Merriman and Nandini Deb as Gwendolen Carr and Gwendolen Fairfax. All the action will be at GD Birla Sabhagar, March 12 and 13.
If words can paint and pictures can speak, a little magazine released recently is proof of a perfect melding of the visual and the verbal art.
The magazine, entitled Yapanchitra, is a compilation of 20 poems chosen from Bengal’s rich repertoire with representations from every age since Rabindranath Tagore — Sudhindranath Dutta, Bishnu Dey, Buddhadeb Basu, Jibanananda Das and Sankho Ghosh, through Sunil Gangopadhyay and Dibyendu Palit to Shibashish Mukhopadhyay and Chiranjib Basu of our times, to name a few. All the poems are scribbled in the poets’ own hand. If the selection is sensitive, what enrich the reading experience are the accompanying illustrations by prominent artistes.
“Many of us want to know what our favourite poets’ handwritings look like. The thought was the seed of the compilation. Initially we had planned to request artistes of our day to produce sketches inspired by the chosen poems. But Probal (poet Probal Basu, one of the names featured in the magazine) suggested that we pick existing illustrations instead,” says Barnali Ray, editor of Yapanchitra.
The decision proved a winner. All the illustrations featured in the collection are unpublished, including one by Tagore. Explains artist Hiran Mitra, responsible for the beautifully designed book: “The illustrations are from personal collections. The Tagore work, for instance, is from a diary belonging to the late Amiya Bhaumik, a student of Nandalal Basu. While the illustration is dated 1938, the accompanying poem, on Kadambini Debi, his sister-in-law, was composed during the Bard’s stay in Mangpu in 1940. We do not know if the lady in the picture is Kadambini Debi, but it is a happy coincidence.” Such coincidences have also worked for the other poems, with equally “happy” effect.
