Discussion on Taj Mahal : Bengali Language class (10/19) taken by Susmita

In the year 1631 Shah Jahan, the Mogul Emperor in central India lost his beloved pregnant wife Mumtaz Mahal only a few minutes after giving birth to her fourteenth child, a daughter. The final request of his wife was for him not to marry again and prove their endless love by building a dreamlike beautiful mausoleum. The emperor mourned his dearest wife for two years, changing his wealthy appearance into pure and simple. It was told that his hair turned white in one night because of his deep sadness. As promised, Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal, in Agra in northern India by the river of Jamuna fulfilling the dream of his wife.

The enormous Taj Mahal with a dome height of 240 feet which carries approximately twelve thousand tons was enriched with lovable gardens. ~ edited from tajmahal.com website content.

Jhansi Ki Rani – Lakshmi Bai : 19th Centry India history and culture class (10/19) taken by Shyamal

Lakshmi Bai, who would later become the Queen of Jhansi, was born on November 19, 1835 in Kasi to ordinary Hindu parents Moropant Tambe and Bhagirathi Bhai. She was named Mani Karnikka (one of the names of for the sacred river Ganges) but was called Manu. Soon after she was born, Manu lost her mother and was raised by her father. Since her mother passed away and her father was busy, Manu often played with Nana Sahib, Rao Sahib, and Bala Sahib, children of a Maratha peshwa (prime minister). There Manu learned to read, write, and more importantly learned to ride horses, how to use swords, fly kites, and race.

Manu’s father was a respected man who often traveled to the court of Raja Gangadhar Rao of Jhansi, a Maratha kingdom in northern India. In 1842 Manu was married to the Raja and she became the Rani (Queen) of Jhansi at the age of 8. As per Indian royal tradition Manu was given a new name and it was Lakshmi Bai and then onwards she was called by Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi.

In 1851 Lakshmi Bai gave birth to a baby boy but the child died within few months. In 1853 Raja Gangadhar became very ill. Since it was an Indian royal tradition to pass-on the kingdom to a male child and since their only male child had died, the Raja adopted Damodar Rao, a child from his extended family. Raja was worried that British East India Company which was expanding may not accept their adopted child.

On the day the Raja died, the Queen was only eighteen years old and with a small child. The British wanted to take over the kingdom of Jhansi. In order to do that they used a rule called “Doctrine of Lapse”. According to this rule if an Indian king died without an heir, the kingdom will be governed directly by the British Government. The Queen appealed to the British that she should continue to rule the kingdom until her son came of age. However, the British didn’t accept her argument or the adoption of the child, even though it was done in presence of British officers and while the king was still alive. The people of Jhansi and Queen were very upset. But, during all this time the Queen was training herself the people of While this was happening in Jhansi, on May 10, 1857 the Sepoy (soldier) Mutiny of India started in Meerut. This incident will become the starting point for the first war of Indian Independence. The mutiny started because both the Hindu and Muslim soldiers resented the fact their new bullets for their Enfield riffles were coated with pig/cow fat. It was offensive to both religions. In addition, there was genuine desire to be freed from the British Empire. Unfortunately, during this rebellion several British men, women, and children were killed by the people of India. The rebellion started to spread from Meerut through the Gangetic plain.

The kingdom of Jhansi was located in an important intersection between Delhi, Lucknow, and Allahabad and Queen of Jhansi became one of the persons involved in the rebellion. She was already upset with treatment she was receiving from the British, so she issued a proclamation to both Hindus and Muslims to fight against the British. In 1857 the Queen successfully defended Jhansi from the neighboring Rajas of Datia and Orchha. In 1858 the British soldiers started to advance toward Jhansi and later that year put a siege on the city. Soon the city would fall and many people will die. However, Rani fought courageously and escaped disguised as a man taking her young son with her.

She quickly reached near by Kapli and joined the forces with people of that city and fight. That city also fell. So the Rani joined the people of Gwalior and continued the rebellion. During the battle of Gwalior the Queen of Jhansi was killed by the British. Even the commander who captured the city said that “(the Queen) was the bravest and best of the rebels”. Because of the Queen’s courage, bravery and sacrifice she would become one of the famous Indian Freedom fighters. She was not only a role-model for freedom fighters but also a role-model for Indian women’s causes.     ~ Shyamal

New class: Science & Tech and Chess

We are proud to announce a new class in Bangla School: 

Science & Tech and Chess.   

The class will be conducted in two parts.  25 minutes Science and 35 Minutes chess.

The class will be taken by Laxmikanta Dash (Laxmi Da).  

We will update the exact time of the class soon.  

Here is what Laxmi Da has to say about the class:

"To start with I will just begin with Science or Technology related projects that kids can demonstrate. This will be a peer learning process under guidance of adults. They can share the new ideas and innovations. 

This is just empowering kids to prepare something, talk, demonstrate and allow peer to question and participate on experiments. 

The topic has to be something new or improvements on an existing process.  It can be very small or big does not matter as long as kids are able to tell the difference and how that can be achieved in the form of prototype or design  or story or live demonstration. 

This will just better prepare them for future to be a innovator or scientist etc."

So we look forward to see all the little science and chess enthusiasts in Bangla School next Sunday.  

Bangla school kids enjoying snacks during class break

Topic for Culture and History class (10/5/2014): Rabindranath Tagore

This class will be taken by Shyamal Chattaraj.

Mystic, painter and Nobel laureate for literature, Rabindranath Tagore was a prolific writer (3,000 poems, 2,000 songs, 8 novels, 40 volumes of essays and short stories, 50 plays), who drew inspiration both from his native Bengal and from English literary tradition. His major theme was humanity's search for God and truth. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his collection of well-known poems Gitanjali (Song Offerings).

Born in Calcutta on May 7, 1861, Rabindranath was the youngest of fourteen children. His father, Debendranath Tagore, was a Sanskrit scholar and a leading member of the Brahmo Samaj. Rabindranath's early education was imparted at home. In school, while others use to learn their lessons, he would slip into more exciting world of dreams. Inspired by his older nephew, he wrote his first poem when he was hardly seven. At the age of seventeen, his first book of poems was published.

From 1878 to 1880 Tagore studied law in England, and in 1890, having returned to India, he took charge of his father's estates, where he saw firsthand the suffering and backwardness of India's rural poor and grew to love the serenity of the Indian countryside. Devoting himself to the agricultural development of the land and the health and education of the people, he founded, in 1901, Santiniketan ("Abode of Peace"), which became an international university with a wide-ranging curriculum. He was knighted in 1915, an honor he renounced four years later as a protest against the Jallianwala Bagh massacre by the British in India.

Tagore was keenly aware of India's socio-political condition under British rule. He supported the Swadeshi movement and had been deeply influenced by the religious renaissance of 19th century India. Coming out strongly against orthodox rituals he wrote, "Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads! Whom dost than worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut? Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee!" (Verse 11, Gitanjali)

Tragically, between 1902 and 1907, Tagore lost his wife, son and daughter. But out of his pain emerged some of his most tender work, including Gitanjali, published in 1910. Tagore remained a true patriot, supporting the national movement and writing the lyrics of the "Jana Gana Mana", which is India's national anthem. Between 1916 and 1941, Tagore published 21 collections of songs and poems and held lecture tours across Europe, the Americas, China, Japan, Malaya and Indonesia. In 1924, he inaugurated the Viswa Bharati University at Santiniketan, an All India Centre for culture. Tagore died in Calcutta on 7th August 1941.  Tagore's works are classics, renowned for their lyrical beauty and spiritual poignancy. He is remembered for his literary genius and Santiniketan remains flourishing institute. In Tagore's own words, "The world speaks to me in colors, my soul answers in music".His profound symbolism, abetted by the free-flowing nature of his verse, create a universe of haunting beauty that expresses God's infinite love and humanity's deep compassion for all things beautiful.

                                                                                                                             ~ Shyamal Chattaraj