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Folk opera on London blasts to rock
rural Bengal
London bombings are not just big time TV spectacles. Now
Bengal's traditional folk drama performers would take the
events in the form of an explosive new open air opera to the
far-flung rural areas. Prompted by the recent bombings of
London, Digbijojee Opera, a yatra (Bengal's famous open air
folk drama) company of Kolkata is scripting a new play titled
"Bisphorone Jolche London" (Explosion Scalds London)
which would begin its tour of the rural heartland in October
this year.
Yatra or high-decibel Bengali folk drama forms performed in
the open grounds in the villages of Bengal since centuries
are immensely popular in rural areas despite the growing reach
of satellite television and cinema.
"We have conceptualised the play drawn by the recent
London bombings because current affairs are a big draw in
rural belts despite penetration of television," Digbijoee
Opera playwright Haradhan Roy said. "Tony Blair, George
Bush and al-Qaida terrorists are naturally the characters
of this play rehearsal for which will begin on August 15.
We will hold our first show in Gangajalghati in Bankura district
on October `3," said Roy.
"The play would be exciting for its great special effects
by artisans and lightmen from Chennai and Orissa. Audience
would witness four stages and gasp at the sight of trains
and double decker buses blowing up before their eyes,"
Roy boasted. "We are getting the bookings now and going
by the trend it is going to be a big hit in rural Bengal,"
said Roy.
"If there are new developments in the investigation of
the London bombings we will introduce new characters in the
play and make it most current," he said.
Digbijoee Opera, which also coming up with a play on the tsunami
disasters, had earlier produced plays on the World Trade Center
bombings, the hanging of rape and murder convict Dhanonjoy
Chatterjee, et al.
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Bula-di
bends it like Beckham to fight AIDS
Buladi, the animated middleclass housewife icon of
HIV/AIDS awareness in West Bengal, is the new brand
ambassador of community soccer. Soccer is the new weapon
to raise awareness against the AIDS menace in Kolkata.
The governing body of soccer in the state – Indian
Football Association – and the West Bengal State
AIDS Prevention and Control Society (WBSACS)have got
together in organising the `` Buladi Pada (locality)
Football Tournament" that will be played among
teams representing different localities of the metropolis.
The tournament, aimed at spreading the message of AIDS,
starts on August 6 and will be concluding later in October.
"The popularity of the sport in the state has inspired
us to dovetail the AIDS awareness project with it,''
Suresh Kumar, WBSACS chief, told reporters. Trained
counsellors appointed by the government body will be
interacting with the spectators and the participants
before every match. "By doing this we hope to involve
a greater part of the society,'' said Mr. Kumar.
The tournament has named after the animated character
``Buladi'', who personifies the ongoing campaign in
the state against AIDS.
The sate has 8400 known cases of AIDS, 35 per cent
of which is in the city. "These figures we feel
indicate the tip of the iceberg. There are many more
undisclosed cases and that is why we want to make people
aware of the disease,'' said Kumar.
IFA will be lending its technical support by designing
the fixtures and appointing officials to conduct the
matches, informed its secretary Subrata Dutta. The tournament
will be held in two stages.
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Wales University
accreditated B-school opens campus in Kolkata
A British management degree validated by the second
largest university of United Kingdom is now pepping
up the B-school scene in this resurgent eastern metropolis
of Kolkata.
Renowned British management school TASMAC (Training
and Advanced Studies in Management and Communications
Ltd.) announced the launch its Kolkata campus at Salt
Lake offering aspiring students a validation of the
course by the University of Wales, the second largest
and one of the four federal universities (others being
Oxford, Cambridge and London varsities) in the UK.
TASMAC is validated by the University of Wales to offer
MBA programmes in Kolkata besides BA (Hons) in Business
Administration.
"The degree certificate that a student receives
after having studied in TASMAC, India is the same as
that received by students studying within the University
of Wales, UK," said TASMAC India managing director
Dr. Giri Dua. "The course content of the programme
is tailored for Indian needs and has been put together
jointly by the University of Wales and TASMAC,"
said Dua. TASMAC began its Indian chapter in Mumbai
in 1990 followed by Pune and Bangalore.
The one-year MBA course would be offered at 3000 pounds
while for the BA course the cost of a student for three
years is 4950 pounds.
"The price at which you attain the degrees is one
sixth of what it would have cost a student who would
travel to UK to take admission," Dua said.
"Most of our students go to the UK to pursue a
Ph.D programme or go back to their family business.
The rest get good placements here," Dua said.
"While we are starting the Kolkata campus with
only 15 students now, we will enroll candidates who
can demonstrate an ability to work well in a group setting.
Our faculty would include visiting lecturers from the
UK and the classes would be intensely interactive,"Dua
said.
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Olympic
historian hopes an Indian turnaround in 2010 Commonwealth
Games
The hosting of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi
could be a turning point for India which fares miserably
in the Olympics and sends more officials than sportspersons
to this world sports carnival.
"The 2010 Commonwealth Games can be of historic
significance for India which has chosen to ignore the
Olympic movement while its neighbour China rose as one
of the largest sports power in the Games in just two
decades," said Olympic historian Prof. John MacAloon
in Kolkata.
"Indian delegation to the Olympics is sizeable
but not in proportion to the population. There are more
officials than athletes," said John speaking at
a panel discussion on "Good Governance in Sports"
at the American Center.
"India's sports development is interwined with
its political posturing since the days of Jawaharlal
Nehru and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and perhaps
that is the reason why India is so unaccomplished and
relatively disinterested in Olympics," said John.
Major Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won the country's first
individual Olympic silver medal at Athens in 2004 as
the 34-year-old bettered the three individual bronze
medals won for India by wrestler Khashaba Jadhav in
1952; tennis player Leander Paes in 1996; and women's
weightlifter Karnam Malleswari in 2000. India's eight
Olympic golds have all come in field hockey, the last
at the western-boycotted Moscow Games in 1980.
Speaking as a panelist, former union minister and current
chairman of Sports Commission, Indian Olympic Association
(IOA), said India's allocation for sports development
annually is not even Rs 500 crore as against two billion
USD spent by China.
"Sports is a way of life in a country like Australia
but it is no so in India. In India there is no professional
management. It is a bureaucratic management in India
and so professional management is a dark area,"
Deo said.
"What we have now is authority without responsibility
and this won't do," said Deo who also offered hope
of a better insurance policy for the sportspersons covering
them when they are not in any competition or national
coaching camps.
"We have governance by government and governance
by sports bodies like IOA. But professional management
should be universal," he opined.
Prof. Brian Stoddar, a sports researcher from Australia's
la Trobe University said the sports commission in his
country only increases the budget every year unlike
India and when in the 1960s and 1970s the country fared
poorly in Olympics they started making meaningful investment
in sports.
Journalist and Star-Ananda executive producer Suman
Chattopadhyay said the bane of Indian sports is the
intrusion of politicians of every hue in the system
as sports administrators.
"Good governance is not even an election issue
in India. How come you expect it in sports? Politics,
politicians and politicking are at the roots of the
evil," he said
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