Amitav

We, at Amitav, would personally like to thank everyone who came to our Food walk on 15th December, 2017. Like all our events, this too was important for us. It meant a lot to us that so many came to show their love and support.

We are sharing some pictures with all of you.

Credits to the respective owners.

We, at Amitav, would personally like to thank everyone who came to our photo walk on 28th October, 2017. It was an important event for us as it marked our return after a long time. It meant a lot to us that so many came to show their love and support for us.

In addition to the photo walk, we held a competition on the same day. It was a competition to select the best photographer where the winner would receive a cash prize of Rs.1000. After going through many submissions, Team Amitav and Ragini Z. Anand , an ace photographer herself, chose our winner: Yuvvraj Singh. His submission has been attached. Congratulations!

Royal Misery

Imagine an entire day in our lives without electricity. Sounds terrible, right? What if I asked you to imagine what it would be like to live without any electricity at all, in today’s world? Located in one of the busiest areas of Delhi yet standing wrapped in a painful silence is Malcha Mahal, a place without electricity and water.

There is a lot of argument around how Malcha Mahal came into existence.
One theory is that it was one of the three and the biggest hunting lodge built by Feroz Shah Tughlaq in 14th Century. This theory is however highly disputed because the architectural style of Malcha Mahal, does not fit with the other monuments from that period.
Second and more agreeable theory suggests that it was built by people of Malcha as a community house in 1600 AD. Malcha was one of the historical villages around Raisina Hill, in Delhi which, along with several other small villages of that time was moved by the British during the construction Lutyens Delhi. It was later acquired by the government under the Land Acquisition act.

The security of the residents is limited to a few dogs, a few guns and a metal signboard that declares:
'ENTRY RESTRICTED
CAUTIOUS OF HOUND DOGS
PROCLAMATION
INTRUDERS SHALL BE GUNNED DOWN.'

This house is now included among India’s top most haunted sites. Why? Nobody knows. The only ghost that haunts this house is of misfortune and misery. There are only two people living in here now, a brother and a sister who are direct descendants of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Oudh. Nawab Wajid Ali was deposed by the British more than a century ago and all his property seized. After Independence, Nawab’s great grand daughter Princess Wilayat Mahal remained in dispute with the Indian government for a long time in order to win back the property. She, in an attempt to humiliate the government, lived in the waiting room of New Delhi railway station for a long time until the government agreed to compensate in the form of Malcha Mahal in 1985. But by then, Malcha Mahal, a centuries old building was in ruins and out of pain and mental stress Begum Wilayat Mahal committed su***de by drinking crushed diamonds. She left behind her two kids, Princess Sakina and Prince Riaz. These two kids are the now the sad residents of Malcha Mahal.

No one knows how true the stories are but it is said that after Begum Wilayat Mahal died, her dead body remained lying on a table for 10 days while her kids mourned in grief. A few days after she was buried, some grave robbers entered the premises and tried to dig up the grave in hope of finding a part of the royal treasure. They could not find anything but the decaying body of the princess, post which Prince Riaz did not bury her again but rather decided to burn the body. It is also said that the night before Prince Riaz buried her, both the kids slept with their mother’s dead body and ever since then, Prince Sakina has only wore black.Today her ashes rest in a crystal vial.
The prince and princess were given a revolver and permission to shoot in self-protection by the Lt. Governor of Delhi after this incident. Robbers often attack the "Mahal" in search of Treasure, they have stolen a silver table, lamps and some coins till date.

Haunted or Not, the residents deserve a better life. Don't you think?
Comment with your views.

This post is pertaining to something that the Amitav Team has been wanting to do for quite some time now. We are proud to finally launch our OFFICIAL SYMBOL and what it symbolises (besides Amitav, that is).

History. Heritage. Culture. Tradition. Collective Past.
All of these mean something to us. We have a sense of belonging to them. But in the end, they are just words. Our connect with these words only develops when there is something tangible to represent them. Monuments are these tangible symbols of our heritage, of our past and of our culture. And thus the
skyline of monuments forms the head of the symbol that represents Amitav. The skyline in question has a tinge of saffron like that of the rays of the sun, representing the everlasting hope.
Amitav is written in green that is an ode to the everlasting beauty that Mother Nature is...The brackets in the corners make the symbol a complete picture, as well as complete the colours of Patriotism.

We are proud to announce that we have partnered up with Art For Sale which is an initiative to rebuild humanity by promoting talent. We would appreciate it if you could support by liking their page and Instagram account the links to which are given below:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BAG-Dj0QitO/
https://www.facebook.com/artforsalee/?fref=ts

Art For Sale on Instagram: “Our January collaboration is with the organisation 'Amitav', which... “Our January collaboration is with the organisation 'Amitav', which aims at conserving the culture we were blessed with but have started taking for…”

The Antique Trail
After our previous initiative of P.U.R.E, Amitav introduces 'The Antique Trail'. As we have previously stated, our culture has degenerated. 'The Antique Trail' aims to spread awareness about the glorious past of our society.

We will be conducting cultural walks through the various monuments and parks of our yore. We will be walking the paths once trodden on by our forefathers and perhaps some would even revel in the magnificence that is our past. We hope that those who participate do so with enthusiasm and an appreciation for true remembrance!
We plan to launch this Campaign soon!

Love
The Amitav Team

Dear all
Recently Amitav gave an Interview to an online supporter and friend Ragini Anand, to be published on her blog. The following is the link to her post. Do give it a read and share it further.

http://iglooonthebeach.blogspot.in/2015/12/amitav-caring-for-history.html

Love
The Amitav Team

Igloo on the Beach: AMITAV - CARING FOR HISTORY A blog of complete and utter random-ness. Hence the name : Igloo on the Beach! You'll find poems and stories here ranging from lost sisters, to my account on a particular shade of lime green; from my dream of Michael Jackson to a curious girl. So go ahead, take a peep into my world, and I hope you e…

Recently Amitav had participated in an Ideation challenge, hosted by the IILM business school. In the challenge one had to identify a social problem, think of a solution for it and then convert the solution into a business prospect. The Amitav Team presented its ideas, won the challenge and was awarded Rs.11000 to start up this endeavour.
This may seem like a small amount, but for the 2 months and 29 Days that we have existed, this achievement has bolstered our motivation to take Amitav to greater heights !

Preserving Ubiquitous Remembrance (P.U.R.E.)
The problem our society faces today is that all of us wish to become the same. Not same as in equals (for that would have been good) but same as in uniform, monotonous. We wish that all have the same religion, same complexion, same figure, same sense of dressing, same language, same ideology and so on. On a millennium basis we chose one civilization and then, like robots attempt to ape all their societal components. We fail to realize that beauty doesn't lie in uniformity, it is in uniqueness that true beauty blossoms.
P.U.R.E. aims at preserving all diverse heritage, no matter the religion, country, ideology or citizenry.
Let us Unite in this holistic approach! Let us, today vow to Preserve Ubiquitous Remembrance!

Our past and future Cleaning Drives will be based on the doctrine of P.U.R.E.

"Hum Honge Kamyab"

We have hit a much wanted double century!
It may seem small but it is a big achievement considering we had made a 100 likes less than two weeks ago! This feat wouldn't have been possible without you!
This number has helped us realised that we will always have the support and well wishes of all our supporters. Thank you!
The Amitav team will always strive to make your support and time worthwhile.

Love,
The Amitav Team

For men may come and men may go but they go on forever…

As many of you might have seen, AMITAV recently visited the Purana Qila on 22nd November to conduct a cleaning drive. While our efforts have been chronicled in form of an album on our page, the description would be incomplete without recounting the splendor and history of this monument. Purana Qila in itself is a union of numerous cultures and dynasties, mythical or otherwise. It is said to have been built on a site which was perhaps that of Indraprastha, the legendary capital of the Pandavas, a millennia before the birth of Christ. Its present form was built by Afghan King Sher Shah Suri. The ASI has discovered a rare 12th century sculpture of Vishnu, terracotta seals from the Gupta Period, Pottery from the Kushan and Gupta Periods, structures from the Rajput and Kushan period, copper coins, terracotta human figurines, charred wheat and rice grains from the Mauryan period.
Many of you might not know that starting last Wednesday, the world has been observing ‘the world heritage week’. This week is celebrated all over the globe from 19th – 25th November. The chief purpose of celebrating the world heritage week is to increase awareness and encourage people to preserve the rich culture that our country owns. This aim coincides with the motto of Amitav and we also came to a startling realization: We were walking on the same grounds that Emperors might have walked on. We were reminded of our own mortality and came to a realization that we may be crumbled to dust but these Monuments will keep on telling our stories till the end of time!

Recently Amitav carried out a cleaning Campaign at the Purana Qila. There were six of us, a small yet enthusiastic team. We reached the Puran Qila at 10:30 am and started our campaign by telling about Amitav, its motto and about the history of Purana Qila, after which we entered the fort through famed ‘Bada Darwaza’
As we started walking inside, we saw that the front gardens were relatively clean. However, we could not say the same about the lawns that lay on either side of the path one walks on after turning towards the ‘Sher Mandal’ side of the fort. We noticed that packets of chips, biscuits and chocolates; plastic bottles were carelessly strewn across the lawns in spite of notices that politely informed the visitors that this was a plastic free zone . In addition to that we noticed that some visitors tear their entry tickets into minuscule bits and throw them on the ground, and not in the very conspicuous green trash cans.
Having seen all this, we started to pick up the bits of paper and the packets, collecting them so that we could throw the garbage into the trash cans. As soon as our bags were near overflowing with plastic, paper, polythene, etc., we started towards one of the trash cans to empty them. Now get this. There were two trash cans in the lawn and both of them were completely, absolutely, empty! We repeated this process of collecting the trash and throwing in the bins for around four or five more times because of which we managed to fill those two bins.
While we were cleaning around, we noticed people looking at us. So much so a teacher accompanying a group of school students told them to be more careful! After a while without having the teachers to tell them anything those same children threw their chips packets into the dustbins. After a while some of them even started picking up the garbage along with us. It wasn't as though a Bollywood scene had been created which would have the Heroine cleaning in a white sari and the public magically joining her, with Bapu's favorite bhajan playing in the background and the country being converted into Meluha. No. That does not happen, the drives that we have started cannot possibly do this, however if we can make a difference in even two - three children at every monument we visit then this Dream is achievable.