Own The Past Gurukul

Restoring job charnock lohia hospital

Jaya Cinema was built in 1968 drawing more directly from art deco cinema hall styles. Of course in the 60s art deco was still somehow in vogue here, while it had gone out of fashion elsewhere.
But it is an exceptional building for its technology of the stage

Thanks Adhiraj Bose

Pastconnect Talks was formally launched on the 6th of March at the Jadunath Bhavan Museum and Resource Centre to celebrate story telling. Hosted by OwnThe Past, Pastconnect in collaboration with Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, the event showcased authors and publications from Eastern Himalayas - Siliguri, Kalimpong, Darjeeling and Gangtok. Authors Anuradha Sharma and Sharda Chhetri were present to talk about their recently published books, while Lekha Rai spoke at length regarding  different publishing houses that are engaged in the region. Chuden Kadimo, an award winning author could not be present but his book, Song of the Soil was discussed at length by the moderator Dr. Parjanya Sen and Anuradha Sharma. Subhas Babu’s (Prof Subhas Ranjan Chakraborty’s) anecdotes from his own years in Darjeeling were a welcome addition to the discussion!

An important initiative in bridging the centre and the periphery, conversing with authors and publishers from Darjeeling and Kalimpong, and discussing their book, the Gorkhaland movement is mostly read through a unilinear state vs people framework, but what is often missed are the complex and polyvalent identities. In the absence of a recorded archive, stories (some of which are based on real-life people and incidents) become a form of recording a peoples’ history of the region, its long struggle for self-determination and the aspirations of the different ethnic groups. the people. the place.

The audience was treated to a riveting account of the region’s literary efforts at addressing issues of identity, language, and their many pasts, recent and older.  This is the first of a series that Pastconnect Talk plans to organize  annually in which different modes and styles of storytelling will  bring to attention and public knowledge, less-heard voices and untold experiences from regions and people that don’t often feature. 

Re Parjanya Sen and Tapti Roy

A Legacy of Sorrow
By Sharda Chhetri
The Queen of Hills - A Legacy of Sorrow is the story of three women who
were destined to carry their loss and pain across thirty years and then once again get caught in
the Gorkhaland movement which hit the idyllic hill station from June to September 2017.
It is a story which needs to be told and heard by people around the world for whom the loss of identity remains a constant reminder of the legacy of sorrow that they must carry.
This book is a ‘thoughtful, probing meditation on the fragility of memory and the indelible inheritance of pain.’

The forum hopes to capture and record voices from afar, and also to bring to wider attention, initiatives locally of writing and producing high quality books.

Stories Matter for they enable the unravelling of circumstances/situations;  they help retrieve lives and experiences  from the recess of personal memories. Writing acts as catharsis of pain. Memories help the retelling of stories and recasting the past.
The books and the discussions address different ways of story telling, reiterating their significance in outlining space and in defining identities.

6th March
Register WA 9883520202






EasternHimalayas

The talk deals with issues relating to internal displacement, borders, boundaries, partitions and the larger question of forced migration. Stories of social dynamics, stratification, survival and hope

With a focus on East and North East of India, this first  set of discussions we will be discussing three texts- fiction and a nonfiction - with three authors and a publisher.

Presentations and discussions of literary writings intend to bring less-heard voices,  untold experiences and overlooked regions.
It is the first of a series focussing on Eastern Himalayas, especially North Bengal.

Harry Hobbs and other forgotten lives by Devasis Chattopadhyay

Glorious

Prof. Arka Acharjee, Asstt. Professor, PG Department of History, Acharya Brojendra Nath Seal College, Cooch Behar, West Bengal, recently rediscovered an ancient Terracotta Shiva Temple in Adityapur, near Bolpur, Birbhum, West Bengal.

Re chiro sur

Calcutta 1931
A double decker, a tram and a British girl driving a single seater car💕

Re Sragdhara