The Kenderdine Lane Shiva temple. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya;

Had not its sebayets and the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) joined hands to save it, the tiny but exquisite pancharatna Shiva temple in Kenderdine Lane would have been overshadowed by a huge apartment block, however out of place that may have been behind Jogajog Bhavan on Chittaranjan Avenue. A block of flats has come up next to the temple, but it has left enough space between the two for the heritage temple to breathe freely. As a matter of fact, for the first time after several decades, the wall that was concealed by the old building next to it stands exposed today.

Now that the temple is safe, the CMC has taken the initiative to light it up. Not just this place of worship, all the other temples in that neighbourhood as well. One cannot say the lighting is subtle, but at least now one can see it after dark even in its dark corner. The Kapalitolla Kali temple and the Firingee Kali temple too have been lit. If only the lights had shimmered instead of dazzling.

Cinema next door

A Pakistani film-maker, speaking at a recent seminar in the city, lamented that there was an appalling lack of film studies in her country. Speaking at the seminar ‘New Asian Cinema: Trans-Asian Frames’ organised by the film studies department of Jadavpur University, Maheen Zia, the film-maker who also teaches at the University of Karachi, said: “Mushtaq Gazdar’s History of Pakistani Cinema 1947-1997 was the last book on cinema from Pakistan. There are no film schools there either.”

The seminar had scholars from Pakistan, Korea, Singapore and Bangladesh and Osian’s, Mumbai, and CIEFL, Hyderabad. Many of them agreed that piracy has a major role to play in the dissemination of cinema, referring to places well-known for their stockpiles of Asian cinema, like Pradeep’s shop in Bangalore, Palika Bazar in New Delhi and malls in Dhanmundi in Dhaka. These places function like addas from where cinema spreads. “Without piracy, many European and Hollywood films wouldn’t see the light of day here. The cinephile community has developed around the culture of watching pirated DVDs that is legally inaccessible because of the expenses involved,” said Moinak Biswas of Jadavpur University. The role of the pirate as archivist cannot be ignored.

Ravi Shankar and Anoushka: daughter dearest

Daughter hero

And now it’s Daughter’s Day today, Archies, the gift shop, proudly announces.

After self-confessedly “institutionalising many western concepts like Valentines’ Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and many others”, Archies has declared September 23 as Daughter’s Day, “to highlight the cause of the girl child — a cause intrinsic to our country”. Anil Moolchandani of Archies is circulating an interview of himself on the occasion, in which he says he chose this day because Unicef and CRY celebrate September 24 as the day of the girl child and he wanted to do the same on a Sunday. It starts with the question: “We’ve never heard of Daughter’s Day before. What’s it all about?” The slogan for the day is: “My daughter, my hero.”

At this rate we will soon run out of calendar days and relations, and perhaps end up with Second Cousin Day and Mamaji Day and Meshomoshai Day. But if parents are listening, daughters may hope to get yet another occasion for a present.

(Contributed by Soumitra Das, Romila Saha and Poulomi Banerjee)