As a learner to Pallava Dynasty

Work without break gives us not only physical stress, but also makes the professional life monotonous too. Planning to take a short break after 5 years of work, finally, I planned to visit the specific places of Pallava Dynasty in southern part of India, which not only brings me a freshness in life but also to face our heritage and learn about its depth. On thinking to make an adventurous trip, I went alone to Chennai where I was invited as a guest to a Tamil family to celebrate the biggest festival of India - Diwali with Tamil tradition. They welcomed me with warmth as if I'm one of their family members. After watching a different sort of Diwali celebration which is quiet different from from my city of east o even from North India, I started my adventure from very next morning of Diwali. It was the beginning of November, so the weather in Chennai and its neighborhood is far better than any other time to roam around the places.

Arjun's Penance in Mahabalipuram

First day, I went to Mahabalipuram, the ancient city of Mamallapuram where the Pallava kings depicted their creativity in cave sculptures in Mahabalipuram caves, Pancha Rathas and also in Sun Temple area. Most of the existing statues are of 7th and 8th centuries depicted on Sand stone, though the work was started from 2nd century. Lot of French tourists use to visit this ancient town, as it is very near to Pondicherry.
Next day, I went to the capital of Pallava kings, i,e, Kanchipuram which almost 70 km west from Chennai. Kanchipuram , also known as Kanchi, is nowadays is famous for its sari and as the city of 1000 temples though most of them are demolished by time, now 150 temples exist only and 20 among them are well- maintained for visitors and devotees. With the help of an auto rickshaw I managed to visit 15 of them within 4 hours, the driver was friendly and became my guide to show the famous temples, houses explaining significance of some places.

Corridor of Sri Ekambaranathar Temple in Kanchi

On third day, I went to Thirukazhukundram village to visit the Eagle temple which is known also as Pakshithirtham. It is also a part of Pallava dynasty, established by one Pallava king 1200 years ago. There are 2 parts of the temple, the biggest one in plan land on which the entire village is surrounded and the hill temple where till 2004 the Eagles use to come at 12 pm everyday to take Prasadam from the priests of the hill temple. To climb to the top of the hill is not an easy task, but after reaching there, I've seen a beautiful view of village, far landscape, nearest city Chegalpet, the big tank of the temple beside the hill and the temple at the bottom. The priest also offer Prasadam to each visitor in the hilltop temple. Due to difficulty to climb, most of the visitors avoid this temple. But, for the sake to viewing the natural beauty of that place, every visitor should try to climb, it would be a life-time experience if you reach there with a camera.

Vedgiriswarar temple in Thirukazhukundram

From Mahabalipuram to Thirukazhukundram, it's like a dream journey to come back to the lap of my motherland. A history book can give lot of information of an era, but to feel the era, the best way to visit that place.

Chegalpet Lake

Mind Refreshing Language Teaching

MACE 

English Centre

Though I'm a Linguist by profession, I always feel more refreshed while teaching the language. Though I'm a translator, interpreter , tour guide, language analyst, Sub-title maker, editor and proofreader, but my priority in profession is always teaching and providing language training to the students of different age groups ( from 8-80!) from various sectors ( school kids, college goers, university professor, architect, BPO workers, Sales manager, Business personnel, Home maker, IT technicians, journalists, Pilots, Artist, Dancer, Painter , Golf Player almost impossible finish the list till now whom I taught and I'm still teaching). Teaching is not only demanding my concentration on this language, but also, to share my experience of different dialects, movies, literature, native speakers' style of life to the hungry queries of my dear students. Till now, I teach 10 schools, examine paper in one renowned school ( La Martiniere for Girls, Kolkata) and attached to a Government office and many more personal students with different demands ( communicative/ basic language skill/ literary/grammatical analysis). These help me to enrich myself everyday and also to learn a lot from them. 

YIELD

MACE

People who think that teaching is just like sitting on a chair comfortably and taking a coffee are wrong that this is probably the most passionate profession which require vast knowledge, ability to present the fact blending with stories and information and of course the most

Spanish Study center

Spanish Study Center

Exam in Spanish Study Center

Exam

vital one- patience. 

Tribute to My School

Certificate awarded to me

Since mid of 2007, Spanish Study Center is an inseparable part of my life. I joined in this school as a learner of Spanish language. Thanks to my professor Asesh Ray, my interest then was getting extended to Spanish culture and literature. Since then, I didn't miss a single opportunity to participate the cultural events like Spanish film fests, Latin American film fests, Kolkata International Book festival, Seminars on Spanish culture and its influence on our culture, cinema and literature, Annual Convocation organized by our school. This school enriched me and gave me the confidence to confront with various Spanish dialects when I work with Spanish speakers of Latin American countries and of course from Spaniards from South Spain. Last year when I was told to teach in the south Kolkata branch of this school, I felt a big surprise awarded to me. As I like to take always the new responsibilities, I agreed immediately to join hand with my beloved professor and to rub shoulder with Friends cum colleagues of this schools. Till now, we work hard together to expand our brand value from north to south, from India to Spanish speaking countries and I feel happy to be a part of this school now. 

Reading my translation

Let me tell you one more important point without which this tribute would be incomplete: La Culture Hispanica is our literary magazine which gave me the opportunity to publish my Bengali translation of Spanish poems of Carlos Herman Belli. I also get to reach to audience by reading my Bengali translations several times during our Annual Convocation. This boosts my encouragement to enter into the  Spanish literary world by publishing my Spanish poems in several magazines of Argentina, Peru & Colombia and to connect with the contemporary authors there. 
Surely, this is an unforgettable experience which turned me from India to world wide family.

Reading my own Spanish poems

Picnic

2012 Book fair: Pavilion of Peru

in 2013 Book fair

Asbesco- Algeria Again

Asbecco (India) Pvt. Ltd , Kolkata is one of my old clients with whom I work with ease and comfort. Moreover, they always appreciate my work. This July end, they again called me to accompany another Algerian company CAMEG's Production Head, Mr. Boufalou Mahommad. He reached here at 10:30 p.m. on 30th July and received our welcome with warmth and smile. Through out our five days visit to Kolkata and factory inspection, I saw him always keen to learn by a curiosity of new comer with his gentle smile. He used to address us always as my brother, a heart-touching person! Though he interacted only in French with me, he talked a lot with local people through his newly learnt English. I visited some enchanting tourist spots of Kolkata with him on 31st and he tasted local Bengali dices

Mr. Boufalou in front of Victoria 

Mr. Boufalou in Factory

Me in front of Victoria

and translated  the road-side market through his camera. From 1st to 4th August, he was in the two grand factories Asbesco, in the suburb of Howrah, sister city of Kolkata. Lot of practical tests were done with Eletrical tools and materials: Slip test, Break test etc. 
He was very much astonished to see the potentiality of the local technicians in the factory and of course the warmth received from the Indians. Finally, he was quite happy with the tests and approved all tested materials for Algerian Electric Transmission Process. The hearty voyage ended on 4th August evening and I came back with a nice experience again. 

Literary Tourism

Sometimes, unexpectedly, life  becomes more soothing, musical, generous with joy. One day, I received a call from a young Spanish writer and professor Pablo Martinez from Pune just to accompany him and his friends in their Kolkata trip. Thanks to Dr. Shyama Prasad Ganguly, renowned scholar of Hispanic Culture and literature and Ex-Professor of JNU, New Delhi and our Spanish Study Center, Kolkata, I was awarded to accompany them. Last evening of April they arrived here bringing also soothing rain and reliving wind in the mid summer.  From next morning I started to execute my plan blended with my passion as this was the first time I worked with people from my own world- literature. I told about Pablo already- he is from Murcia, Spain, and his mother possesses a publishing house where Spanish translation of Sunil Ganguly's poems were published from for the first time. His friend David Seidenberg, a Californian Sociology teacher and a Guitarist by passion and Emi Noguchi, a Californian English teacher and a young essayist also came with Pablo. So, when I met them in the hotel, I came to realize that I should taste every corner of Kolkata so that they would get a clear idea of Bengali culture. We started with Bengali breakfast, then visited Nandan, and the cultural hub of Nandan area, then Victoria Memorial, St. Paul's Cathedral, Art Galleries, attended also ICCR 's program on Tagore's birthday. Next day, we visited the north- Tagore's birth place, Marble Palace, Star Theatre, College Street's grand book market, tasted coffee of Coffee House ending with a Bengali dinner. For next few days, I made a plan chart for them and according they visited Shantiniketan, Birth place of the novelist Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhya, some more places in the suburbs areas. After 1 week long trip, they happily called me again just say goodbye! What is heart-touching is that they promised me to come again here in the next year! 

David, Emi & Pablo

Me, David & Pablo

In ICCR on Tagore's birthday program

Tagore's House

Medical Interpretation: New experience

Albert David is Kolkata's one of the oldest pharmaceutical companies with a good reputation. Thanks to their good connection with our renowned Spanish Study Center, Kolkata they called us in mid May 2013 for assisting an audit inspection by a Peruvian team in their factory. Due to my serious illness, I could attend only one day, other three days my colleagues ( Atasi Chatterjee & Surjit Sanyal )  attended the meetings and interpreted the Peruvian pharmaceutical team. Though I attended only one day, I found it's very tough to work in this stuffy atmosphere( especially in the lab area) , though quite enjoyable with friendly employees and Peruvian doctors ( I accompanied two Peruvian doctors during their lab inspection and afternoon meeting with the quality control team of AD). It's new experience in my interpretation job. Definitely, this will help me to jump into more medical interpretation in near future.

My colleague Atasi ( 2nd from right) with Quality Control team of AD and the Peruvian Lady ( 3rd from let)

Again Kolkata with a friend of Forlan

It was on a excessive hot morning of 26th April, 2013, that Mr. Nelson Alpuy, the owner of Garnie Uruguay and a friend of Golden Boot winner of the last World Cup Football- Diego Forlan, arrived at Kolkata. Same morning, we started roaming around the city and suburbs to visit some leather goods factories and leather processing factories too. He was very happy to see the quality provided by the people here. After a haring work and tiring day, we tasted some Italian dishes. The very next day, I assisted him in some business contracts and they went on to visit some tourist spots like Victoria Memorial, St. Paul's Cathedral, Nandan to have some idea of the cultural side of cultural capital of India. It was nice memory to accompany him here.

Nelson Alpuy in Victoria