Discussions and book launch on ‘Mosiacs of a Locale’

The Departments of History and Geography, in collaboration with the Library Committee, The Bhawanipur Education Society College organized a discussion session on the book ‘Mosaics of a Locale: The Stories of Bhawanipur’ entitled on 21st March, 2022 from 3: 30 pm onwards in the 6th Floor Knowledge Resource Center. The programme was attended by 65 participants which included 10 invited guests, 29 faculty members, 5 members of the staff and 21 students of various departments.
Dr Debika Banerji, Department of Geography and coordinator of the Heritage Society welcomed the audience with a small Welcome note. She emphasized and introduced the audience to the project and how memory studies form an important aspect in mapping unknown aspects of a locality. This was followed by the introductory speech by Dr. Subhabrata Gangopadhyay, the honorable Teacher in Charge of the college. He congratulated the participants of the Bhawanipur Project whose hard work has taken the shape of the book ‘Mosaics of A locale: The Stories of Bhawanipur’. The book, edited by Dr. Debika Banerji and Ms. Debjani Ganguly tells the explicit and implicit heritage of the localities of Bhawanipur which has a significant role in socio-cultural growth of the city over the years. Ms. Debjani Ganguly, Vice-Principal of the Arts Department, BESC and one of the editors of the book highlighted on the multi-ethnic migration and changing character of the Bhawanipur locality in her speech.
Among the student contributors, three students named Poulami Sinha, Shreya Dhar and Saqlian Shakil expressed their experience during the interviews conducted for the project. Their perseverance guided by the teachers involved in this work was indomitable enough to overcome many challenges caused by pandemic during 2020 and 2021, without which the book would have been published in expected time.
Ms. Nidhi Sukla, introduced the dignitaries invited for the panel discussion on their experience of living in Bhawanipur. The invitees were Dr. Archana Bandopadhyay, Dr. Rekha Nariwal, Mr. Prasanta Ray, Mr Rangan Datta and Mr. Tathagata Sen. Other residents like Sreeta Chakraborty, Mr. Rana Roy and Mrs. Amita Vora also shared their experiences of living in the locality. They highlighted on several less-known facts and histories of Bhawanipur. Social and cultural development, economic fluctuations, popular cultures, cemetery history were some of the themes that came up during the discussion. Few of the guests suggested that such initiatives should be taken up in future to preserve the cultural and intangible heritage of their locality.
The valedictory session was accomplished by Ms. Piu Chatterjee with her vote of thanks. All participants especially the students got the chance to experience history and heritage out of the text books which was a unique experience in itself.

Image 1: Panel discission as Prof Archana Banerjee shares her experience of living in Bhawanipur

Image 2: Welcome Address by Dr Debika Banerji

Image 3: Ms. Debjani Ganguly, Vice Principal of Arts explaining the details of the Project and the book

Image 4: Poulomi Sinha, Student of Semester 6 presenting her experiences to the audience