Dharitri E-Paper:
http://www.dharitri.com/epaper/020612/p6.htm
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Monday, June 25, 2012
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Shakespeare's Curtain theatre unearthed in east London | Culture | The Guardian
Shakespeare's Curtain theatre unearthed in east London | Culture | The Guardian:
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Shakespeare's Curtain theatre unearthed in east London
Theatre where Romeo and Juliet was first performed is rediscovered in Shoreditch centuries after it was dismantled
EmailRemains of Shakespeare’s Curtain theatre are uncovered in Shoreditch, east London
Well preserved remains of Shakespeare's original "wooden O" stage, the Curtain theatre where Henry V and Romeo and Juliet were first performed, have been discovered in a yard in east London.
The Curtain theatre in Shoreditch preceded the Globe on the Thames as Shakespeare's first venue, showcasing several of his most famous plays. But it was dismantled in the 17th century and its precise location lost.
Now part of the gravelled yard in Shoreditch where the groundlings stood, ate, gossiped and watched the plays, and foundation walls on which the tiers of wooden galleries were built have been uncovered in what was open ground for 500 years while the surrounding district became one of the most densely built in London.
Experts from Museum of London Archaeology (MoLA) have found two sections of exterior wall, crucial for giving the dimensions of the theatre, and are confident of revealing more as the site is cleared for redevelopment. An outer yard paved with sheep knuckle bones could date from the theatre or slightly later housing.
It has long been known that the Curtain – named after the ancient road it fronted – was in the area, but its exact site was lost after the building fell into disuse in the late 1620s. The site in Hewett Street is only a stone's throw from a remarkably accurate plaque marking the best guess for its location. The Curtain, built in 1577, was only a few hundred yards from another theatre further along Curtain Road, imaginatively named the Theatre, whose foundations were discovered in 2008, also by MoLA. Both were among the earliest purpose-built theatres in London, and intimately connected with Shakespeare.
When the actor-manager James Burbage fell out with his landlord at the Theatre, the company – according to cherished theatre legend – dismantled the timbers overnight and shipped them across the river to build his most famous theatre, the Globe, on Bankside.
Until the new theatre was ready, his company used the Curtain for at least two years from 1597, where Henry V, and it is believed Romeo and Juliet, were first staged. The vivid image of a theatre as a wooden O comes from the prologue to Henry V: "Can this Cock-Pit hold within this Woodden O, the very Caskes that did affright the Ayre at Agincourt?"
Rumours of the rediscovery of the Curtain have caused great excitement in the Shakespearian community, in the middle of the summer-long international festival devoted to his work. Dominic Dromgoole, artistic director of the reconstructed Globe, described the discovery as "hugely exciting".
"I love the fact that we are excavating London, and slowly clearing away the miserable piles of Victoriana and Empire, and revealing the wild, anarchic and joyous London which is lurking beneath. It reminds me of the Zocalo in Mexico City, where all the Spanish palaces are slowly sinking into the earth, and the old Mayan temples are being squeezed back up."
Michael Boyd, director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, said: "It is inspiring that the Museum of London has unearthed the foundations of the Curtain Theatre. I look forward to touching the mud and stone, if not wood, and feeling the presence of that space where Shakespeare's early work, including the histories, made such a lasting impact."
The site is part of a large block owned by a development company, Plough Yard Developments, which plans to incorporate the remains as public open space into a proposed mixed office, retail and residential development, now going for outline planning permission. Therese Bak, of the architects Pringle Brandon Drew, said they were thrilled by the discovery, and hope to incorporate a performance and exhibition space in the new buildings.
The only contemporary illustration, showing a tower-like building flying a flag, thought to be the Curtain in 1600, is an implausibly idyllic scene with a horse crossing green meadows and a charming wooded hill in the background. In reality the site is flat as a pancake, and by 1600 it was a lawless and fairly noisome district just outside the City limits, with slaughter houses and tanneries, and the now buried river Walbrook an open sewer and rubbish dump.
Chris Thomas of MoLA, who led the excavation, said the remains were remarkably well preserved, probably because for centuries they remained under open space as the theatre fell out of use and was redeveloped as housing, becoming back gardens, a pub yard – the entrance was probably where the small Victorian pub, the Horse and Groom, a listed building which will be retained, now stands – and then a garage with an inspection pit which, unknown to its builders, almost laid bare the Tudor foundations.
The site has already yielded bits of broken clay pipe, which could date from the theatre, and fragments of later china and wall tiles, but Thomas is confident of finding artefacts as more of the site is uncovered.
"On other Tudor theatres we've found quantities of little pottery money boxes, which the punters put the price of admission into on the way in, which were then smashed at the back of the theatre to get the takings – I'm sure some from the Curtain are still there, just waiting for us to find them."
• This article was amended on 6 June 2012 to correct the spelling of Dominic Dromgoole's surname.
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Sunday, May 27, 2012
Cops to take ex-minister's brother on remand - The Times of India
Cops to take ex-minister's brother on remand - The Times of India
(Arrest of Khirod C. Mallick of BISWA)
(Arrest of Khirod C. Mallick of BISWA)
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
The Hindu : NATIONAL / NEW DELHI : IIM graduates, IT professionals to play agents of change in Naxal areas
The Hindu : NATIONAL / NEW DELHI : IIM graduates, IT professionals to play agents of change in Naxal areas:
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IIM graduates, IT professionals to play agents of change in Naxal areas
‘If Maoists attract youth through ideology, Govt. has to counter it in similar way'
As many as 78 districts affected by Maoist menace will soon witness a surge of energy and optimism, with young professionals ready to make a difference. A total of 156 youngsters aged between 22 and 30 will don the mantle of agents of change, working in the Naxal-affected region for two years, in the first batch of the Prime Minister's Rural Development Fellows Scheme (PMRDFS) to be formally launched in Hyderabad on Saturday.
Aim is to win confidence
The aim of the unique scheme is simple. “If the Maoists attract youth through their ideology, then the government has to counter that in a similar way,” Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said, speaking to The Hindu earlier this month. As many as 8,600 applications were received for 156 posts, and the applicants ranged from social workers to IIM graduates to IT professionals, Mr. Ramesh said about the project he introduced in 2011.
“The scheme is one way of gaining back the confidence of people in the Naxal areas. It is necessary to create a perception change among the youth,” he said.For the Fellows themselves, this is an opportunity to “be a part of the solution,” as 25-year-old Vishnu Nair states. An engineer from NIT Trichy, Vishnu gave up his job with an MNC in Chicago to return to India.
“Most of the educated youngsters in India today are heavily skilled in solving the problems of the rich or those of the developed countries. I was into risk analytics, and I felt that it was not helping the development of my country in any way. NIT, where I studied, was heavily subsidised by the government, so I felt like I should be giving back to the society.” As Fellows, they will not be part of the ‘permanent bureaucracy' for which the Naxals have contempt. “We will work as goodwill ambassadors, as agents between the government and the people to restore their faith,” said Mr. Nair.
‘Sherpas to Collector'
The role of the Fellows, according to Mr Ramesh, is best described as “sherpas to the District Collector.” They will be placed in the Naxal-affected districts of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Odisha covered under the Integrated Action Plan — a project of the Planning Commission and the Home Ministry to intensify development work. “A Collector has a lot of responsibility, and the Fellows, with their experience and training, will help in the development process that includes planning and monitoring,” Mr Ramesh said.
The Ministry is set to spend Rs 60 crore on the scheme, with stipends amounting to Rs. 53 crore and the training cost Rs 6.5 crore.
The Fellows will be paid Rs 50,000 in the initial two months of training to be organised by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, and then Rs 75,000 for the rest of the fellowship period. However, for Neeraja Kudrimoti, like most other Fellows, it is not money but the sense of being part of the development process in the most affected conflict area of the country that matters more.
“Leaving the security of an IT job is a big deal, but there was no sense of contentment working in a cubicle. There was always a sense of ‘what am I doing this for?' This was a great opportunity to contribute and be a part of the change we all hope for, sitting outside,” said the 24-year-old employee of Patni Computer Systems, from Pune.
Integrated planning
Soumita Basu, a development worker with the Azim Premji Foundation, said the fellowship provided an opportunity to participate in integrated planning. “People have lost faith in the development process, and this is one way of restoring that. I would want to contribute to the cultural and social process of bringing the region back on the development agenda.”
Security concern
Asked if security is an issue, Neeraja is honest to admit that it is. The recent Odisha incident in which an MLA was abducted by Maoists has in fact escalated the fears, she said. “I am scared, and I am aware that the government has not really shared a rosy relationship with the Maoists. But facing danger is a part of the journey that we have agreed to take on. Hopefully with the work we do, we will make things easier in the region, and for the next batch. For that, I am willing to take the risk.”
156 youngsters will work in Naxal-affected region for two years
PM's Scheme to be formally launched in Hyderabad today
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IIT, IIM passouts selected under PM's scheme to spend 2 years assisting collectors in Maoist areas - The Economic Times
IIT, IIM passouts selected under PM's scheme to spend 2 years assisting collectors in Maoist areas - The Economic Times:
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IIT, IIM passouts selected under PM's scheme to spend 2 years assisting collectors in Maoist areas
NEW DELHI: A bunch of 20-somethings are raring to swap the security of blue-chip firms for the grave hazards lurking beyond the invisible yet palpable thick red line that marks out Maoist-affected areas across the country.
Armed with little more than developmental zeal, these professionals are readying to venture into some of the most dangerous areas in central and eastern India. This is where, for instance, a state government recently agreed to free 27 prisoners to secure the release of an abducted MLA and a foreign national.
The first batch of 156 candidates selected for the Prime Minister's Rural Development Fellows Scheme will spend the next two years assisting district collectors in implementing welfare programmes across 78 worst-affected Maoist districts.
Their deployment, as per the scheme conceptualised by Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh last September, will be part of the government's measures to answer critics who have long maintained that Maoism cannot be contained by force alone.
Even as the government grapples with the security threat that the insurgents pose in these districts, the fellows are not scared. "Security is not a big concern for me," says Rajendra Kondepati, who did his BTech in Chemical Engineering from IIT-Madras before going in for a post-graduate degree in public policy from Singapore.
"It is perceived to be very dangerous, and possibly is, but there is still the district administration," says the 28-year-old, focusing on the opportunities more than the threats.
"Unlike administrative services that are extremely rigid, the fellowship promises a range of possibilities. Even compared to the private sector, as far as general management experience is concerned, this will equip us with much better skills."
District collectors, who handle everything from general administration and finance to security and development, feel that the fellows can help devise better ways to evaluate and monitor welfare schemes.
MONTHLY PAY OF RS 65,000
"Our job is too large and we have limited workforce available to us. These young boys and girls will have better perspectives and they will help us utilise modern technology to make implementation and monitoring of these schemes more efficient," said a collector who did not wish to be named, adding, "Ensuring the security of these fellows will be our responsibility."
Like Kondepati, most of the other fellows hail from premier institutions such as the Indian Institute of Technology, Indian Institute of Management and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. They have given up jobs with companies such as Infosys, Wipro and Patni to be a part of this one-of-a-kind programme in the country.
The ministry received a whopping 8,560 applications in the introductory year for the fellowship scheme that will provide a monthly remuneration of Rs 65,000. "The aim was to get professional, out-of-the-box thinkers into the Naxalaffected districts so as to make development initiatives work," Ramesh told ET.
"In one sentence, these people will act as sherpas for the collectors," the minister said, adding, "This is also the first large-scale entry of professionals into government activity." The fellowship awards will be officially announced and conferred by Ramesh and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwaliain Hyderabad on April 7.
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