Truly Saptarshi

Maybe this year Feluda has got a competitor in Don but the aura never seems to get dull. Such is the craze that even after reading the stories so many times you seem to get attracted like a iron towards a magnet. And 'Royal Bengal Rahashya' is a different type in itself because as such there in no villain but there is something which will keep you a the edge of your chair. And what more? - The spine chilling adventure has encounters with a tiger and snakes. And the locations are mind blowing. The scenes are awesome. Music is as usual, hauntingly good. Before watching this one, i thought that maybe Sabyasachi would look to old and odd as Feluda but i was amazed, he is indeed good. Bibhu Bhattachajee as Jatayu is entertaining as always and the fun elements give an extra mileage to this film. Those who love reading books will always get some flaws in the films made from those books but this one has been made with care not to spoil Satyajit Ray's story. Here as Feluda f

The story of a south Indian dancer and erotic actress. Its based on the life of the sizzler of the 80s and 90s, Silk Smitha and directed by Milan Luthria. It has been in news ever since it was decided that this film will be made. and trust me, its worth all the news. Vidya Balan takes the film to a different level. And Naseeruddin Shah is at his best as usual. Tusshar Kapoor and Emraan hashmi tried their best, but Naseer and Vidya were somewhere above competition. However Rajesh Sharma also carries out his small role with strength. The film is not a dirty mess or erotic. It has a wonderful storyline and deals with such a serious topic with ease and in such a way that it can easily appeal the mass. Its the story of how Vidya ran away from her house when she was asked to marry and then went on struggling to fulfill her dream of becoming a star, overcoming many hurdles. However, she lost her position slowly and at the end she dies a tragic death, suicide. She falls in love, she

Best Incident: Anti-corruption uproar led by Anna Hazare Worst Incident: The mishap at AMRI, Kolkata which took so many lives. Best Politicians: Mamata Banerjee, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Worst Politicians: Mayawati, A.Raja, Kapil Sibbal, Sarad Pawar Best Films: No One Killed Jessica, The Dirty Picture and Dhobi Ghat (Leaving aside the regional films) Most overrated films: Bodyguard, Ra.One, Ready Best on Television: Kaun Banega Crorepati, Parvarrish, Masterchef India 2, Loudless, India's Got Talent 3, Coke studio, C.I.D, Crime Patrol Worst on Television : Bigg Boss 5, Roadies 8, Chat House, Emotional Attyachar 3, all melo-dramas Best actors(female): Rani Mukerji, Vidya Balan, Mahie Gill Worst actors(female): Katrina Kaif, Kangna Ranaut Best actors(male): Farhan Akhtar, Naseeruddin Shah, Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan Worst actors(male): Salman Khan, Imran Khan Best cricketers: Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, V.V.S Laxman Worst cricketers: Yusuf Pathan, M.S Dho

We have almost reached the end of yet another wonderful year, 2011. I started blogging this very year and so i feel this year is special for me. I felt so good writing down all my thoughts here for public viewing. However this year also saw a revolution around the world. There was so much revolt and this year will always be in news for that. Firstly coming to Libya, it was the biggest horror event of the year.  The event was horrifying but it resulted in the fall of a dictator. The fall of Gaddafi will go down in history. Gaddafi died a brutal death, it was hugely cherished by the people of Libya. so, it was truly a revolution. India saw a turmoil when Anna Hazare, Kiran Bedi and Baba Ramdev stood against corruption. It saw large number of revolts around the country and even outside the country, among Indians. I do not know how much it helped the mass but one thing is for sure, it made the ministers and politicians aware that we Indians are not deaf and dumb and we very well k

The title is a dream line of every Indian, just hope some day maybe a century later it will become reality.Today is the third mourning year of the 26/11 which shook India by panic. So, we were really shaken? Did we really learn something? I don't know but one thing is for sure that we Indians are so big in number that we never unite on any one topic. Today, i cannot stop from making you all remember once again that the terrorist Kasab is still 'comfortably' staying in prison. Everyday the Government spends lakhs for the well being of a terrorist? And 'rumours' tell that lakhs of Indians cannot even afford a meal? Should this be the case? Some people have enough love and care for the Maoists with some odd reasons supporting the love. Should i even try to believe that Those people are not aware of all the murders and rapes the Maoists have done? Recently we witnessed the death of Maoist 'superman' Kishenji and with this there was huge happiness a

Yes, you heard it right. But please also note the 'may' in the title! The act of writing is good for the brains, or so new research appears to show. It seems like scribbling on paper on what we want to learn helps to retain information in the mind. Nowadays we increasingly type and click rather than writing by hand. Recent research results published in periodicals state that they have got clear evidence of the benefits of writing when it comes to memory.  In one experiment carried out by French neurophysiologist at the University of Marseille, France the results came out clear. The experiment was that 20 volunteers were given Indian alphabets to learn, half by writing and half by typing. They were given three weeks time. And then they were tested, it was seen that they could easily recognise the alphabets which they practiced by writing that the ones they practiced by typing.  Further more when some volunteers were placed in an fMRI scanner it was seen that when volu

The recent growth of pageviews has been so slow that i thought i would take a decade to cross 500 but atlast i crossed it, better late than never. I had changed the URL of my blog from roysaptarshi.blogspot.com to trulysaptarshi.blogspot.com and this could have been the reason for the bad response too, maybe many people lost track to my blog. I am sorry! Please do come back to my blog and have a look at the post i have written for you all. there is something for everyone! In recent times almost all posts were popular for very short spans of time. But among them, the ones which rocked were - 'Pujo maane' , 'Mamata knows the pulse of her people', 'Double standards of Indian cinema', 'Classroom' and 'Chetan Bhagat'. I am very disappointed with the bad response that i am getting from the audience in recent times. But, Thank You for all your support. Please keep reading!

A room for friendship, A room for love, A room for for hatred And also at times a room for studies! The benches and walls are the most tortured, They remain witnessed to everything- The phone number in the last bench, which is still waiting for a caller- The proposal which is still waiting for an approval! The young poet's two lines, Are still waiting for a line of apprecition... All th equotes of paints could never hide them, They seem to come alive from time to time  The low cellphone network often forms a barrier, fo rthe newly met lovebirds The endless gossip, topics just seem like dropping from nowhere But everyone has something to say, no one is ready to listen The boring classes never seem to end.. the creaking fan never seems to stop either! With all these in heart we love that classroom.

One of the most popular festivals of India, it is the festival of lights. It is the day to drive away the spirit of the dark, its a day to fight against the bad and the winner is the good. Maa Kali is worshipped on this day and she is the symbol of power. In many parts of India, Lakshmi Puja is carried out today, to make the Goddess of wealth happy and ask her for prosperity. The lights and fireworks make up the added attraction of this day. The world seems much more colourful and everything seems so wonderful. But, the sad thing is that many forget that this is a festival of lights, not of sound. However, i am happy that this year the policemen have taken extra care to stop the sound fireworks to some extend. With all these by the side, enjoy to the most and let others enjoy too, do not make your enjoyment the cause of sorrow for someone else. And try to light up the day with diya s and candles as much as you can and use less of electric light, its much more beautiful. I am tr

Regardless of the ambiguity that shrouded the eruption of the Libyan popular uprising, regardless of the various conspiracy theories that tried – and still are –to somehow find a hidden foreign agenda behind this armed revolution, regardless of the many apologists for the Gaddafi’s regime who elaborated on his good deeds and achievements for the Libyans during the last four decades … one simple and utterly painful truth remains, that Muammar Gaddafi held nothing for the Libyan people but sheer contempt. On his first speech that followed the start of the Libyan uprising last February and as he was threatening to turn Libya into a bloodbath Gaddafi defiantly disparaged the rebels as he shouted “who are you, anyway?” With the assistance of oil revenues, Libya’s small population has enjoyed one of the continent’s high rates of economic growth and social welfare and medical services but still the Libyans remained politically and educationally impoverished as the colonel alway

He deserves the tag line that i have given to him. Although i am not a fan of Chetan Bhagat and do not like his style of writing but could not resist myself from finding out what makes him so popular among the Indian mass. And this IIT and IIM passout has become more of an youth icon than an author. He has earned himself the tag of 'The biggest selling English language novelist in India's history'. All the four novels he has written so far has created waves and has went on to become bestsellers. His just released, fifth novel 'Revolution 2020' is also no exception. So is his aura that Time magazine had named him as one of the hundred most influential people of the world. But, is his aura really something worth of so much appreciation? We have some of the finest Indian authors in Amitav Ghosh, Vikram Seth, Anita Desai, R.K. Narayan, Jhumpa Lahiri, Arundhati Roy to name a few and is he really worthy of more appreciation than these names that i just told? He is

I came across these two news articles, maybe many of you have heard about them but i came to know recently and they really disturbed my mind. One is a recent incident and the other is a incident which took place long back. Both show the torture that took place and is still taking place on women.  Coming to a recent incident in Iran which shows the unruliness of the Governing body of that nation. This incident is that of Marzieh Vafamehr.  The Iranian opposition website Kalaemeh.com says the Iranian court has sentenced actress Marzieh Vafamehr to 1 year imprisonment and 90 lashes for portraying social alienation, artistic repression and drug use in the country in an Australian-made film.  The 2009 film portrayed a Tehran actress who has been banned from theater by the authorities. The character was then forced to join Tehran’s cultural underground in order to express herself artistically, then started to craft a plan to leave Iran for exile abroad.  Vafamehr reportedly appeared with

Three women were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their nonviolent struggle for safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf from Liberia is a 72 year old and was Africa's first elected female head of state in January 2006. She has earned lots of applauds for her work of rebuilding Liberia and is still working very hard to convince people of the change. She would also contest the presidential polls of 2011. Leymah Gbowee is yet another lady from Liberia who won this honour. She mobilised and organised women across ethnic and religious divides to help bring an end to war in Liberia and to ensure women's participation in elections. Following the 2003 peace treaty, she was instrumental in the victory of Johnson-Sirleaf. She is a commisioner on Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation panel. Tawakul Karman from Yemen is a 32 year old journalist. Both before and during the Arab Spring, she has

Five days have passed since this iconic public figure, Steven Paul Jobs has passed away but the vacant place felt behind is being felt more and more with every passing day. Undoubtedly one of the finest entrepreneurs and a wonder inventor who changed the way world looked at computers. He could always take the risk to come up with something new and every other new thing he brought to the market became the talk of the town. His Apple has always shown a direction when it came to technology. He co-founded 'Apple' in the late 1970s along with Steve Wozniak and Steve Markkula and others. Apple went on to make Macintosh and it created a huge market. Jobs left Apple in 1985 to build his own company, Next, which was again later acquired by Apple and he went back to Apple as interim CEO from 1997. Jobs also spun up the Pixar Animation Studio in 1986 and was its 50.1% shareholder till in 2006 it was acquired by The walt Disney Company making him the largest individual sharehold

Firstly, i wish all my readers a very warm ' Subho Bijaya '. May the days ahead be even more prosperous and glorious! Its the time to have lots of sweets and mouth watering bengali edibles. Maa Durga has gone back to her house in heaven and now we are to go back to our regular routine too. After dashami the whole thing around seems so gloomy and its another 360 days wait for these 5 days. Among all these lights and sounds, somewhere we are lost and everything around seems to be so wonderful. Even the regular things look special. We go deeper and deeper into this magical days but then suddenly its over. And when this magic is over we are into an extended festive mood because we never want it to end. But, life is not all about festivals. It has more to it. The routined life is all the same and these 5 days seem like a blessing for everyone with end with the bisharjan.  The studies, the work are all too messy but they have to be done. So, with a heavy heart we are back to

'the prince amongst painters... the painter amongst princes...' These two lines from the biographical film 'Rang Rasiya', based on his life seem to be very appropriate for this painter. He was born in a aristocratic family of Travancore on Aril 29, 1848. Ravi Varma was a child prodigy and got recognised for his inherent talent at a young age in China and recieved the patronage of king Ayilyam Thirunal of Travancore. He came across many Indian and European painters and learned to use water colour and oil paints. In 1873 he got the Governor's gold medal at Vienna Art Exhibition and was awarded the title of 'Raja' by king Ayilyam Thirunal.  He soon became famous for his portrayal of Indian and British royals. He had an unique style of painting, making an amalgamation of classic Indian style with European realism. he left for Bombay after the death of Ayilyam Thirunal. He expanded his horizon as he became more and more popular. He was the fir

Mahalaya is the traditional six day countdown for Mahasaptami . So nothing else other than pujo is coming to my mind, here is another post on our biggest festival - Durga Pujo. Mahalaya brings with it the frangrance of Pujo and from today there is no stopping, its the very first day of our festival. It marks the agomoni of Durga from her in-laws' house. The Philips radio which lies in a corner the whole year, no one even bothers to look at it becomes the biggest possesion the night before the Mahalaya , after all whats Mahalaya without the 4 A.M. Mahishashurmardini aired by Aakashbaani Kolkata, the enchanting voice of  Birendra Krishna Bhadra is the attraction of this day! The whole pujo is incomplete without ' Bajlo tomar aalor benu... '. I do not think every Bengali has the habit of waking up at 4'o clock in the morning but this day is out of the whole year's routine, we have to wake up and we do wake up without much hesitation and switch on the radio.

Yesterday was a gloomy day for the Bengali film industry, Bibhu Bhattacharya passed away. He may not be a superstar but undoubtedly one of the most loved actors of this film industry. I had not met him in personal but whenever he made some appearances, his simplicity and sweetness always showed very prominently. It made him a genuine human being. I am a huge fan of Feluda and have seen all the films of this franchise,  i can surely say that when it comes to Jatayu, Bibhu is the best. Jatayu is a much loved character and its sense of humour adds colour to Feluda and Bibhu's humour is incomparable, so he is a star by his means. He had started his career as Master Bibhu and had featured in many films as a child artist. he even did television work and also enacted Jatayu in the Feluda television series - 'Feluda 30'. Ever since Sandip Ray selected him as Jatayu, he has given a new life to the character and leaving aside his other works, he will always be remembered as ev

Recently we are seeing a lot of fuss regarding the nude scene of Paoli Dam in ' Chatrak'. But is all this fuss really needed? There can be many justifications - for and against but all these debates are meaningless. And the reason is that every artist has his/her discretion to do what heart wants. No one makes a fuss when Salman or Dev does some weird act then why debate on some normal bed scene? The rumour has it that Indian audience has grown, and so what the hell has changed? Some people who are against are telling that this is against the 'Indian culture'. Indians are the one who spoke about sex in a large scale and that too in a book, in Kamasutra long long back. So is nudity really against the culture? If i at all take that it is against the Indian culture then is item numbers and mini skirt clad actresses not against the culture too. If at all films like 'Bodyguard' , 'Mere Brother ki Dulhann', 'Ready', 'Ajab Prem Ki Gazab Kahaani'

We wanted rain and nature gave us. But gave us so much that now we are in a state of exhaustion. Recently the monsoon what we saw or rather we are still seeing is something we have never seen in the last decade. We tamper with nature so much and why should nature not do the same with us? We deserve the punishment. maybe this post would look very boring because much is said about caring nature everyday without much result. So, its a small piece from my part if at all i can spread any awareness. The earthquake that we witnessed the day before yesterday was a trailer of the destruction that is yet to come. Maybe we at Durgapur felt it to be very mild but towards north, more than 100 has died and thousands are stranded without a minimum shelter, food or medical treatment. Nature is warning us, not to take panga  with it but it seems like we are as deaf as ever. we can never stand before the might of nature and we have got to see that time and again through severe earthquakes, tsunamis a

Pujo means shiuli phool , pujo means kash phool , pujo means ponds filled with  padma phool  and blue skies filled with white cotton-like clouds. Although dressing well is the major part of pujo but it is much more than that. The fun involves many other things. Starting with Durga Pujo and ending with bhaidwitiya its all about things we do not do the whole year. Bathing early in the morning, getting dressed and off we go to explore the city. Food loving Bengali strike out the word 'dieting' from their dictionary when it comes to high calorie pujor khabaar. And the crowded pandals does not seem to bother us at all, these seem so heavenly.   Sitting in the pujo pandals the whole day does not boar us at the least. Everything seems good. Walking long distances with friends and family to catch the wonderful pandals results in aching legs but no one can stop us. New shoes bother us a lot with the boils but it is too small a factor to stop us during pujo. Pujor prem

Everywhere something or the other was being told about the 9/11 on its 10th year. So, i thought of catering my thoughts to to the people too. So, just a brief post after all the greats of the world has spoken yesterday. People of USA are still mourning for their friends and family who had passed away 10 years back but the world has gone much ahead leaving back those memories behind. But, have we really gone ahead in real terms of the word? We cannot forget this incident, it has been one of the worst massacres the world has seen. And the then president of USA had declared war against terrorism on the 9/20 of the same year. What resulted was massacre of many many more innocent people and torture of many more. At last Saddam was dethroned and hung. but. did the terrorism end here? The world saw another attack at a Bali nightclub killing more than 200 people. There was an attack at a Miss World contest killing more than 100. There were attacks in India, which killed many many more.

This is the field where woman may have been sidelined but from time to time they have proved themselves to be really sporty. India has seen tough girls coming to the foreground and taking sports to a new level every time. So, this post is a tribute to some of those prominent sports women. P.T. Usha is considered one of the greatest athletes India has ever produced. and is often called 'Queen of Indian track and field' and is nicknamed 'Payyoli Express' after the name of her village in Kerala. In the 1982 New Delhi Asiad she got noticed when she got silver medal in the 100 m and the 200 m. At the Asian Track and Field  Championship she took gold in 400 m and even made a new Asian record. Between 1983-89 she garnered 13 medals at the ATF meets. And this journey seemed like a never ending dream run. She has won 101 medals so far and has been conferred with the Padma Shri and Arjuna awards. She runs the Usha School of  Athletics in Kerala. The most sort after wome