ISSUE 27 July 31, 2015

News In Brief

Anshu Dubey

Monsoon Session

Subhasish Mitra

Punjab terror attackIn the first major terror strike in Punjab in eight years, heavily-armed militants in army uniform sprayed bullets on a moving bus and stormed a police station, killing six persons, including an SP, and injuring eight others in Gurdaspur bordering Pakistan.

BRICS Bank launched

Emerging BRICS countries Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and their “New Development Bank” is seen as a potential rival to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. The bank launched with $100 billion which is equal to 90 million Euros.

Ganguly bats for Pro Kabaddi League

Enthralling a packed crowd with his recitation of the National Anthem to kick off the Kolkata leg of the Pro Kabaddi League, former India cricket captain Sourav Ganguly batted for the sport and urged the local franchise Bengal Warriors to win it for the city.

Nabakalebar “RATH YATRA” in Puri

The millennium’s first Nabakalebar ‘Rath Yatra’ was held in the town of Puri in Odisha as lakhs of devotees from all over the country gathered and welcomed the festival with enthusiasm and a spirit of joy and devotion. The festival of chariot saw the new idols of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra commenced their 9 day journey to Gundhicha Temple and back to their abode.

Bhaijaan’s controversial tweet

Salman Khan has retracted his controversial tweets over the death sentence of 1993 Mumbai blasts accused Yakub Memon, following tumult over his remarks, and has ‘apologised unconditionally’ for his remarks. Earlier the Bajrangi hero had faced flak over his tweets that

A P J Abdul Kalam

“If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother and the teacher.”- Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam.Yes, the teacher, who did make a huge difference in the field of education, science and technology, Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, is no more.He was delivering a lecture at IIM Shillong, when he met a heart attack, and an hour later he left this world, at the age of 84.Dr.Kalamhas left a vacuum behind him as there is no person born who can ever replace the great, at the same time the most humble and simple man who changed the face of Indian science.He was born on October 15, 1931 to a Tamil Muslim family in Rameswaram, whose father was a boat owner and mother a housewife, being an average student in school, made his way to the heights of immense success through his hard work and his love for science.A fighter pilot aspirant in his early life, and the third of the list of Bharat Ratna awardees

Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam became the 11th president of India in the year 2002, thanks to his phenomenal set of achievements in the field of science, technology and education.His career as a scientist was an exceptionally successful one, as he was a part of the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for four decades and was intimately involved in India’s civilian space program and military missile development efforts, which earned him the name The Missile Man of India.But there was something else that he loved and lived for.

Education! He was not just a successful scientist and a president, but also a youth icon who was and will always be loved by students all over India and abroad. Possibly that was the planning of the almighty when he thought of taking him away from us, that he leaves the world doing what he loved the most… Teaching!

A great academician who loved interacting with the youth, was a guest lecturer at various eminent institutes including IIMs Shillong, Ahmedabad, and Indore; Indian Institute of Science , Bangalore; BHU and many others. It was his usual practise to keep a question hour after he finished delivering

a lecture at any institute. He wanted to be questioned because he never wanted students to follow anything said and done blindly. “I feel comfortable in the company of young people, particularly high school students. Henceforth, I intend to share with them experiences, helping them to ignite their imagination and preparing them to work for a developed India for which the road map is already available,” said the sagacious man.Not to forget his art of writing, Dr.Kalam has written numerous books that provide solutions to various issues in India, in every field. Some of his works appreciated not just in India but globally also, like Wings ofFire, Ignited Minds, India 2020, etc., which promised a far better India, and which can still be achieved if his ideas, philosophies and wisdom are brought to use.We might have lost a man of real substance, who has contributed immeasurably in the arena of science, technology and academics, but his ideas and philosophies are immortal and will stay in the Indian archive, treasured forever. RIP Dr.A P J Abdul Kalam.

No easy way out for BJPThe lead up to the 2015 monsoon session of the parliament has been nothing but nerves for the BJP government. Congress has thrown in a barrage of attacks aimed at bringing down the public iimage of the party and specially its leader and the current prime minister of India, Narendra Modi. The Lalit modi fiasco and the Vyapam scam has only added to the woes of BJP with Congress now pointing to a “no resignation, no discussion” angle. BJP has certainly been under tight scanner ever since it came into power in 2014, ending a decade of Congress rule and every move from there on has been met with scrutiny from the opposition party. Net neutrality has been a raging issue amongst the youth of the country as they demand to not pay more for the usage of social media applications like Facebook, Whatsapp, Viber, etc. The last session of the parliament saw Rahul Gandhi accusing the Narendra Modi government’s stance in ending

Net neutrality. Modi has been further accused of favouring certain corporate houses and telecom companies as Congress described a paragraph in the telecom department report as anti-consumer. Congress has demanded the resignation of foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh chief

ministers, Vasundhara Raje and Shivraj Singh Chouhan respectively over the Lalit Modi and the Vyapam scandals. Sushma Swaraj has accepted that she had helped disgraced cricket Czar Lalit Modi obtain British travel papers at a time India had revoked his passport. This, according to a senior congress leader falls in the

category of treason. Backed by the support of the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samajh Party, Janata Dal United, RJD and the Left - Congress has decided to play aggressively as they feel that the gravity of these scams would be undermined by allowing normal parliament proceedings. ‘Monsoon Session’, as the name rightly suggests has started with a lot of thunderstorms. Opposition parties came in wearing black arm bands and some came in carrying placards and they got enraged as the speaker, Sumitra Mahajan reminded everyone that she would not hesitate to take appropriate action against the erring members which ultimately led to the shutdown of the Loksabha. The Rajya sabha too faced similar situations as Mayawati charged BJP with the Lalit Modi scandal. With a business agenda of 11 bills pending in both the houses, it would be interesting to see how all the parties, especially BJP, react under pressure under these grim circumstances.

Yakub Menon hanged to death in Nagpur Central Jail under high security on his 53rd birthday.Yakub was convicted for his involvement in march 12,1993 serial blast in Mumbai.He was sentenced to death by a special TADA court in 2007 and had spent more than 21 yrs in prison.

Yakub Menon hanged to deathIndia loses visionary teacher

ISSUE 27 July 31, 2015

The Team: Anshu Dubey, Indrajit Bhattacharjee, Koustabh Das, Lahari Basu, Madhushri Banerjee, Sananya Datta, Santanu Ghosh, Sreetama Karmakar, Shubhasish Mitra, Subhecha Mitra, Sushobhita Kar, Sanjana Sharma, Tapatrisha Das ,Nilanjan Sanyal. Design Team: Banhishikha Ghorai, Rishin Bose

Chief Mentor: Dr Buroshiva Dasgupta Mentors: Debanjan Banerjee, Reshmi Naskar, Bhaswar Bhattacharyya, Sourav Basu, Barnali Ray

Campus Buzz! Dwijendralal Roy, the forgotten geniusThis song penned by the great Dwijendralal Roy, the late postmodern playwright, poet and musician has become the identity and face of Bengali culture and patriotism. Roy has long faded from our memories, his name can only be found in the pages of history, classroom lectures, and with a handful of musical enthusiasts who has still kept his songs alive.

This 20th July 2015, the West Bengal Government along with our chief minister Mamata Banerjee celebrated the 150th birth anniversary of this great poet. But we fail to understand that remembering such great artists for just one day is not enough. Their contributions are too important and vast to be cherished and applauded for just a day.In modern Bengali literature, Dwijendralal Roy is regarded as one of the most important figures. Best known for his compositions Dhana Dhanya Pushpa Bhara, Bangla Amar Janani Amar etc. Roy created a separate genre of music known as Dwinjendrageeti, similar to his contemporary Atulprasad’s Atulprasadi or Rajanikanta’s devotional numbers. Roy often composed his songs on the lines of Indian raga combined with western music; unlike Atulprasadi songs having thumri featured prominently. Dhana Dhanya was so popular as a nationalist anthem that it was reportedly considered as a possible choice to become the national anthem of Bangladesh in 1971. D.L. Roy’s music characterised by truth, beauty, joy and has seamlessly become a part of our Bengali culture. Thus in his memory the government of West Bengal has acquired a 3 acre plot to set up an international standard cultural complex named “Dhana Dhanya”.

While all this is praiseworthy, we should question ourselves why we need a cultural complex to remember a Dwijendralal

Roy when we have his vast contribution to cherish. If Tagore and Nazrul can become a part of our daily lives why not D.L

Roy, Atulprasad or Rajanikanta? A little effort from our side is all we need to pay respect to these forgotten heroes.

Q1)Are you aware of Dwijendralal Roy?

Q3) Have you heard the song ‘Dhana Dhanya Pushpa Bhara’?

Q2) Did you know that the nation is commemorating his 152nd birth anniversary?

When Vishal Bhardwaj collaborates with Gulzar, rise of expectations for quality music is inevitable. Considering Haider’s mesmerizing soundtracks still trending our playlists, it’s time to see if this duo recreates the same magic in the Ajay Devgn starrer Hindi remake of the Malayam movie Drishyam, directed by Nishikant Kamat, that is releasing on the 31st of July, 2015. The movie being a serious

thriller drama and the music being extremely plot driven than recreational, it might be a bit too much to expect a blockbuster album.‘Kya pataa’, the opening track in Arijit Singh’s voice, that gives the song a drunk-punch feeling, might initially give a short recall of ‘Gulon mein rang bhare’ or ‘Khul kabhi toh’ from Haider. However, gradually the track arrangement delves into a jazzy mood with the lyrics giving a fair idea about the storyline of the movie. Ash King, yet again leaves his signature style of soothing westernized vocals in ‘Carbon copy’. The colloquially conversational kind of lyrics, breezy guitar-laden arrangement and endearing tune that is on the

lines of ‘Ae zindagi gale laga le’ by Suresh Wadkar from the Kamal Haasan starrer Sadma is definitely charming.‘Kab Kahan se’, is a number of the hard rock genre, whose lyrics are a variant of ‘Kya Pata’. The song has a dark and thrilling approach along with KK’s energetic vocals. However, it still misses the edge required. There is a constant incompleteness that lingers throughout its flow.The last track is the finest of all. Vishal brings Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and wife Rekha Bhardwaj for the duet ‘Dum Ghut-ta hai’. The composition gives a feel familiar to most of the songs Rekha has previously sung for Vishal like Namak Ishk Ka from Omkara or Darling from 7 Khoon Maaf. The Ghatam piece with

the accompanying guitar in the second interlude brings out the essence of the song.

To wrap up, Drishyam is not really a movie that will be known well for it’s music just as the Malayalam version. It won’t really make you put the songs on loop like Haider did. The soundtrack is tailor-made for the movie’s storyline which again bars the expectations of a complete commercial score. Thus, it is kind of disappointing since one always expects more in a Vishal-Gulzar combination. However, let us just hope that the soundtracks fit better on screen as their shelf-life as a music album is pretty limited.

- Subhecha Mitra

Music– Vishal BhardwajLyrics – GulzarVocals – Arijit Singh, Ash King, KK, Rekha Bhardwaj, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.Label – Zee Music Rating – 2.5/5The Chartbuster – Dum Ghut-ta hai

Music Review: DRISHYAM

Dwijendralal Roy (19 July 1863 – 17 May 1913), also known as D. L. Roy, was a great poet, playwright, and musician. He was known for his Hindu mythological and Nationalist historical plays and songs known as Dwijendrageeti or the Songs of Dwijendralal, which number over 500, create a separate subgenre of Bengali music. Among many, two of his most famous compositions are Dhana Dhanya Pushpa Bhara and Banga Amar Janani Amar. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in early modern Bengali literature.It is a pity that this generation has no clue about this great person. We are only busy with Tagore, and a tiny portion is occupied by Nazul, but rest in oblivion. If Tagore and Nazrul can become a part of our daily lives why not D.L Roy? This issue’s Campuss Buzz pays tribute to the forgotten hero.