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Showing posts from December, 2021

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Seville

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SEVILLE Sevilla After living up to some wonderful moments at Granada, the birthplace of the renowned Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca, we decided to further our coadventure through the heartland of the southern Iberian Peninsula, composed of lowlands, mountains and valleys. You’ve got it right. To arrive at Seville, we traversed the fascinating Spanish heartland. The landscape presented some vistas composed of rustic plains, lowlands, winding roads through the Sierra and then vast stretches of olive orchards. About 200 years back, a couple of decades after Napoleon’s army plundered and destroyed parts of Alhambra, an American diplomat and writer, Washington Irving and his Russian counterpart traversed the path from Seville to Granada. It was highly adventurous then, because of the fact that the transport system at that time was horse-drawn carriages and muleteers. It was such that they could ‘wander among the romantic mountains of Andalusia’ (Tales of Alhamb...

Durga Puja in Stuttgart, Germany

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Durga Puja in Germany – from Calcutta to Stuttgart Calcutta, India Only after marriage did I take interest and started delving more deeply into the insights of the timeless social phenomenon of 'The Generation Gap'. My wife belongs to a family who hails from Choto Kalia in Bangladesh. The Sen family from this small village in Bangladesh is referred to as ‘Choto Kaliya Sen Parivar’, a distinction only because of families' unbounded stint in maintaining close-knit relations generation after generation. In fact, when I first visited my wife's ancestral house Harrison Road (near College Square) in Calcutta, I was surprised to see photographs/ painted portraits of forefathers of my father-in-law decorating the walls of the living room. Another reason which brought prominence to this family is Durga Puja, which, I understand is almost 200 years old. The Kalia Sen Bari Puja shifted its venue mid-1960s and ever since continues to be held at Mitra Institu...