Ram Kahani

Sudipta Das: Assistant Professor
Centre for Television Production & Film Direction
7th avatar of Lord vishnu Sri Rama; one of the most popular deity in Hinduism, probably most important & popular mythological character in this subcontinent. Major political changeover took place in his name (lord Rama) even in recent past. 

Camil Bulcke ( Known as Baba Bulcke), a Jesuit missionary from Belgium landed in India in the year of 1935. Bulcke had a short period stay in Darjeeling and had taken Theological training in Kurseong for couple of years. Later he completed his masters (M.A.) in Sanskrit from Calcutta University. Though before coming to India Bulcke had acquired B.Sc degree with Civil Engineering as major from the University of Lou-vain, Belgium. He was surprised & pained when he found educated people in India were mostly unaware of their rich tradition and speaking in English is considered a matter of pride to them. He was immensely  influenced by ‘Tulsidas - great poet from 17 th century. He came Allahabad University to pursue his doctorate in Hindi literature, more specifically on Ramayana written by Tulsidas. After couple of refusal from University administration he proved himself to enrol his name as a research fellow in Hindi Literature. His doctoral thesis is called “Ram Katha ka Vikas” (1945-49) (Development of the tale of Rama), probably the  most valuable research work on our epic. His masterpiece in original is kept in Allahabad university Library. His dictionary English - Hindi with 40,000 words of translation is the most popular Dictionary till date. He had also translated Bible in Hindi along with many other books. ‘Baba Bulcke’ had received highest civilian award from Government of India for his work in  the field of Literature & Education in 1974. 

Couple of months back I was in a remote village near Kushinagar, UP with my friend Rajmohan - a singer & musician who came from Amsterdam couple days back. Rajmohan’s root was in somewhere  near UP & Bihar border which is lost. It was quite hot a day, we managed a comfortable place under a mid sized banyan tree, outer of the village. He was engrossed telling and singing his ancestor's migration story to Dutch colony in Africa.  More than 100 years ago people from Bihar & eastern Uttar Pradesh were brought to an unknown land. They were offered for a voyage to ‘Lanka’ - the ‘Ram Rajya’ , the land of Lord Rama after defeating Ravana where people eat on the plate made of gold, a land of heaven. Those innocent people were brought as contractual labour for sugarcane plantation in Suriname, Africa, thousands nautical mile away from their home. People faced the worst longest days of slavery. At time contract ended, they were offered piece of land and staying back there. Very few of them agreed to go back by months long unbearable sailing. Rajmohan is one successor of those people who retained. Rajmohan was singing another Ram Katha of his own in‘Suriname Bhojpuri’ language.

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Assistant Professor – A gold medallist from the prestigious Federation of Indian Photography and a post-graduate from the coveted SRFTI in Kolkata, Sudipta Das has been a producer and a director and a cinematographer in multiple national and international projects. He has also been a media delegate with the United Nations. Sudipta has also had teaching stints as a guest faculty with Wigan & Leigh College, NSHM, ISB&M and many other institutions. He was also a member of a media delegation to the Honourable Vice President of India. Other than photography, his interests include reading books, travelling, watching films and listening to music.

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