Upholding Heritage Buildings in the era of Development

It is a big challenge to safeguard heritage structures in a city which is growing and developing fast. Unfortunately, this development happens without a plan to save old heritage structures which define the city character and culture. It is indeed heartening to see the awareness campaign lead by the writer Amit Chaudhuri and his group. The campaign is garnering support as one of the themes of oldest locality  in Kolkata’s biggest festival of Durga Puja depicts this very concern through its installation art!!

One can only hope the city planners and local authorities will come up with a master plan to restore the old glory and plan new buildings keeping in mind the true aesthetics of the city.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Heritage-gets-a-helping-hand/articleshow/49425515.cms
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Syrian Refugee Crisis – Is History repeating itself with role reversals?

Last whole week disturbing images and stories of migrants crossing precariously into Europe from Syria have gripped the media headlines and rightly so! We humans love creating conflicts/wars without giving a thought to the fallout of the conflict. Human instinct is to survive, even if it requires to flee one’s homeland. The walk of refugees to the Austrian border from Hungary has created history and so has Germany’s open welcome to refugees. It is the human movement and dynamics which creates the political history and geographical realities of the world. We are living in an highly intriguing era where demographic distribution of population is all set to change forever and so will the image of Germany! Germany is finally able to absolve itself of its historic Nazi era guilt by welcoming refugees and migrants. What goes around, comes around indeed!!!!

A Musical Take on Decadence

There is a nice reference to the idea of being ‘decadent’ in Marianne Faithfull’s interview here . Its something to ponder upon…are we psychologically tuned to be decadent? But Marianne Faithfull has such a creative musical force within her that she has shown the world how not to let it destroy the mind and body, how to rise to be a witness to the universal decadence and heal the wounds that real decadent society inflicts upon our land and souls…

Another Tale of Our Decadence

Fox News Latino: Doomsday Disaster! The so-called Mayan Apocalypse didn’t occur, but an ancient temple nearly met its end. Tourists in Guatemala for “end of the world” parties last week have damaged an ancient stone pyramid at Tikal, noted as the largest archeological site of the ancient Mayan civilization. “Sadly, many tourists climbed Temple II and caused damaged,” said Osvaldo Gomez, a technical adviser at the site to local media, to The New York Daily News. “We are fine with the celebration, but (the tourists) should be more aware because this is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.” FULL STORY: http://fxn.ws/10jeE7i Original Facebook Status: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/profile.php?id=104628022923934&v=wall&story_fbid=441065195946880 Sent via TweetDeck (www.tweetdeck.com)

Shaniwar Wada – Historical Palace Fort

shaniwar wada

Pune is an important historical city in India. Here too, within city limits there are many protected monuments. Shaniwar Wada is one of them. It was built in 1746, destroyed by fire in 1828. In spite of destruction what remains is a strong big fortress, a reminder of the historical era of rise of Maratha empire and its fight with reigning Mughal empire. Sadly, its not well-maintained due to the cultural decadence of our mindset.

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaniwar_Wada