On 19 March Prime Minister Modi gave a call to all Indians to observe a people's curfew on 22 March 2020. He also asked us to acknowledge and appreciate the efforts of the doctors, nurses and others who were in the forefront of the fight against the Novel Corona Virus. This appreciation was to be... Continue Reading →

দিল্লি ফেরার কথা ছিল ২৬শে মার্চ। এর মধ্যে রাজ্যসরকার কলকাতা ও আরও কয়েক জায়গায় লকডাউন ঘোষণা করে দিল ২৭শে মার্চ পর্যন্ত, অথচ বলা হল এয়ারপোর্ট খোলা থাকবে।। সবরকম গণপরিবহন বন্ধ থাকবে, কিন্তু এয়ারপোর্ট, রেলষ্টেশন ইত্যাদি থেকে ট্যাক্সি পাওয়া যাবে। সে নয় যারা বাইরে থেকে এখানে আসবে তাদের আটকা পড়তে হবে না। কিন্তু আমরা বাড়ি থেকে... Continue Reading →

A friend pointed out sometime back that post retirement I was going on too many pilgrimages, and that's why I was aging fast. He was referring to  photos of some places in Uttarakhand, Karnataka and elsewhere that  I shared . All these were either sites known for scenic beauty or were immensely important from historical,... Continue Reading →

On the last leg of our tour of Karnataka we visited the temples at Halebid  (Halebeedu) and  Belur. My friend Ananthakrishna was emphatic that our tour of the world famous temples of Karnataka would be incomplete without a visit to the most ornate temple at Somanathapura near Mysuru.  We, therefore, included it in our programme.... Continue Reading →

Year before last we were in the Dwarka sub-city of Delhi during Deepawali. For several months before the festival there began a movement against fire crackers and "bombs" of different kinds which caused both atmospheric and noise pollution. The highest court of the land pronounced a judgement against this annual ritual of denying the citizens... Continue Reading →

If the epitaph "An Officer and a Gentleman" could be applied to some members of the Indian Foreign Service, the late Satyabrata Pal would no doubt be the foremost among them. With his passing on 24 September 2019, we have lost a rare human being. Endowed with all the attributes expected of  members of the... Continue Reading →

  The events surrounding the mysterious disappearance of Mr. Rajeev Kumar, the former Police Commissioner of Kolkata are no less dramatic than mystery of "The Purloined Letter", that famous creation by Edgar Allan Poe. Only, in this case it will be too much to think that someone would have "stolen" the man who, in fact,... Continue Reading →