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Tragedy, Marxism, and the Cinematic Praxis of Ritwik Ghatak | Sowmen Mitter

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The Uncompromising Visionary: Tragedy, Marxism, and the Cinematic Praxis of Ritwik Ghatak Ritwik Ghatak stands as one of the most towering, fiercely original, and uncompromising figures in Indian cinema. Alongside Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen, he forms the holy trinity of the Bengali cinematic new wave. Yet, where Ray sought humanist elegance and Sen engaged in contemporary sociopolitical critique, Ghatak raged against the dying of the light. His films were not merely aesthetic objects to be admired; they were visceral battlegrounds, epic Greek tragedies transposed onto the trauma of the Partition of Bengal, and profound Marxist analyses of human displacement. Driven by a tragic personal obsession with his lost homeland and armed with an unyielding Marxist praxis, Ghatak carved out a cinematic language that was entirely his own—operatic, folkloric, Brechtian, and eternally revolutionary. The Trauma of Partition and the Tragic Obsession To understand Ritwik Ghatak is to understand Eas...
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The Conscience of Economics: Prof. Amartya Sen and the Pursuit of Human Freedom | Sowmen Mitter

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🟥 Economic science has long been dominated by formal market mechanisms, efficiency quotients, and abstract financial models. Yet, throughout his distinguished career, Professor Amartya Sen restored a vital human dimension to the discipline. Born in Santiniketan, Bengal, and nurtured in Visva-Bharati—the revolutionary school founded by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore—Sen inherited an intellectual worldview that married rigorous reasoning with deep universal humanism. When he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1998 "for his contributions to welfare economics," the award served not only as recognition of his technical brilliance but also as a celebration of an economist who gave a voice to the voiceless. Throughout his life, Sen’s intellectual endeavors have been guided by a deep empathy for the impoverished, an unrelenting defense of pluralism against sectarian fundamentalism, and an unshakeable commitment to social action, vividly embodied in how ...
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Dust, Dignity and a Doctor's Promise: The Story of Dr. Jack Preger | Sowmen Mitter

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🟥 In the quiet hours before dawn, when the historic city of Kolkata—once known as Calcutta—stirs to life, its streets carry memories etched into pavement and brick. Among these, few legacies shine as brightly or endure as profoundly as that of Dr. Jack Preger. Widely remembered as the pioneer of modern street medicine, Dr. Preger surrendered the comforts of his homeland to spend nearly four decades in the heart of Bengal, tending to those whom the world had all but forgotten. He was not merely a physician to the impoverished; he was a steadfast guardian of human dignity. An Unconventional Journey 🟥 Dr. Jack Preger’s path to the footpaths of Kolkata was anything but ordinary. Born in Manchester, England, in 1930, he initially pursued a life rooted in academics and agriculture, graduating in economics from Oxford and working as a farmer in Wales. Yet, a profound sense of purpose redirected his life. At the age of 35, answering an inner conviction to serve humanity, he enrolled at the R...
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Aishe Ghosh: The Evolution of a Left Student Leader | Sowmen Mitter

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🟥 Aishe Ghosh has established herself as one of the most recognizable faces of contemporary youth activism in India. Emerging from the ranks of student politics to become a prominent Left voice, her journey reflects a broader narrative of student resistance, ideological steadfastness, and youth mobilization. 🟥 Early Life and Roots in Activism: Born on October 22, 1995, in the industrial city of Durgapur in West Bengal, Aishe Ghosh was exposed early on to working-class politics and union culture. Her father’s alignment with Left politics and the prevalent culture of trade unionism in Durgapur provided the initial backdrop for her political consciousness. After completing her schooling, Ghosh moved to Delhi to pursue her undergraduate degree in Political Science at Daulat Ram College, Delhi University. It was during her time at Delhi University that she witnessed the necessity of active student unionization. She later joined Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) for her master's degree...
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Feroze Gandhi: Legacy, Controversies, and Independent Politics | Sowmen Mitter

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🟥  Feroze Gandhi was born Feroze Jehangir Ghandy on September 12, 1912, at Tehmulji Hospital in Bombay (now Mumbai). He belonged to a Gujarati Parsi family. His father, Jehangir Faredoon Ghandy, was a marine engineer, and his mother was Rattimai. Following his father’s death, Feroze moved to Allahabad to live with his maternal aunt, Dr. Cooverbai Commissariat. Contrary to persistent rumors, he was not born a Muslim, nor was his father named "Feroze Khan." He was born into Zoroastrianism, the faith of the Parsi community. The political controversy surrounding his religion is a product of modern misinformation, largely circulated by right-wing political factions aimed at delegitimizing the political lineage of the Nehru-Gandhi family. Feroze changed the spelling of his surname from "Ghandy" to "Gandhi" during his early political awakening, driven by his deep admiration for Mahatma Gandhi and his active participation in the freedom movement during th...
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Looking back .... | Sowmen Mitter

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This frame goes back a few years, to that rather unusual phase of the Corona pandemic when, as perceived by many of us, the immediate threat no longer seemed quite as menacing as it had been during its earlier, more frightening days. Life was gradually limping back to something resembling normalcy. People were beginning to venture out with greater confidence, educational activities were slowly gathering momentum, and the government, too, seemed to have become somewhat more lenient in enforcing restrictions. Of course, the virus hadn't quite disappeared, and caution was still the order of the day, but the atmosphere was certainly less apprehensive than before. Looking at this photograph now, I am reminded of those days, the students, the books, the lessons and the rather peculiar circumstances under which we were trying to keep the wheels of education moving. But there is one thing I simply cannot figure out. Why on earth was I looking so terribly serious, almost as though I had jus...
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Jogen Chowdhury: The Unbroken Line of a Great Artist | Sowmen Mitter

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🟥  The death of Jogen Chowdhury on 25 October 2026, at the age of 87, marks the passing of one of the most distinctive and influential artists of modern India. For more than six decades, he developed a visual language that was unmistakably his own: a language of sinuous lines, distorted bodies, intricate cross-hatching, expressive faces and figures that seemed to carry within themselves the anxieties, contradictions and quiet tragedies of human existence. Yet to describe Chowdhury merely as a celebrated painter would be to underestimate the breadth of his achievement. He was an artist who transformed the ordinary human body into an extraordinary instrument of social observation; a Bengali cultural figure whose personal memories were inseparable from the historical experiences of Partition and displacement; a teacher who helped shape subsequent generations of artists; an institution-builder who believed in preserving and nurturing artistic traditions; and a public intellectual who,...
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