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Three books were published in Bengali and English in 2018 Pintu, a teenager from Murshidabad, is in awe to hear the history of Raibenshe, a folk martial dance from south Bengal, from Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, while Tito, a boy from Kolkata, is surprised to learn that behind the Chhau masks …

The country is set to become the world’s second largest wine consumer by 2021, led by its burgeoning middle class A $300 bottle of wine sold in the U.S. and Europe is made in the unlikeliest of places: at the foot of the Himalayas in China, where farmers sing traditional …

What struck British Deputy High Commissioner Bruce Bucknell on his visit to the Bhawanipore War Cemetery in Kolkata on Sunday was the age of the fallen soldiers of the First and Second World Wars. “In most of the war cemeteries I have visited across the world there is one thing …

Egyptian archaeologists also found painted wooden cobra and crocodile sarcophagi Archaeologists in Egypt said they had discovered a rare collection of mummified scarab beetles, as well as an apparently pristine Fifth Dynasty tomb that they plan to open in the coming weeks. The mummified beetles were among artefacts found in …

Tripura NGOs oppose special booths The Bru refugees stranded in makeshift camps in north Tripura will find it tough to join in the election exercise in Mizoram owing to stiff protests from hardliner Mizo social groups. NGO Coordination Committee, a new forum, spearheaded massive protests mainly in Mizoram capital Aizawl …

Writes to Centre seeking steps to protect architecture Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday demanded an inquiry into alleged replacement of artistic stone carvings of the Konark Sun Temple with plain stones. The Sun Temple, an ASI-protected world heritage site, is known for its outstanding architecture. The 13th Century …

The killing of five Bengalis in eastern Assam’s Sadiya on November 1 has led to an uneasy calm in a State divided over language amid a bid by the Central government to pass the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016. Why the controversy? The Assamese and the Bengali, the two largest linguistic …

After changing the names of Mughalsarai, Allahabad and Faizabad, BJP leaders in Uttar Pradesh are demanding renaming of more places associated with Mughal and Islamic rulers. While many names are being whispered about, Muzaffarnagar, Agra and Sultanpur are among those being discussed openly. Sangeet Som, Meerut MLA, has said Muzaffarnagar …

The 24th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF), which opened in the city on Saturday, will not only celebrate 100 years of Bengali cinema but also cinema from the faraway land of Australia that is more than a hundred years old. Cinema in Australia goes back to 1906, much before Bengali …

The credit goes to the Shia community of Kashmir for keeping alive papier mache art — colourful, exquisite, highly decorative and delicate — in the Valley since the 14th century. “This wealth has been handed down to me by my father who inherited it from my grandfather and so on. …