CR PARK SPEAKS NEWSLETTER

The Transformation Of E Block, C R Park, Durga Puja Park Courtesy Chittaranjan Park Purbachal Durga Puja Samiti And Resident’s Welfare Association, E-Block, C R Park by Sri Saibal Ghosh, Member, EC of CPPDPS and E-Block RWA, with inputs from Shri S S Roy Burman. The C R Park, E Block park has been the centre point of my life for the past 50 years encompassing my growing up years, since the first time I put my foot on it as an 11-year-old pre-teenager, in the winter of 1976! Since then, for the next 12 years, the air around this park rented with our shouts of joy and despair during our evening football games, cricket matches and of course our ubiquitous ‘addas’.   I remember the hours we spent as teenagers, slogging away to swipe the park with brooms to get rid of the prickly thorns on the ground, hurt our young feet often! Those days C R Park was developing and slowly getting populated with erstwhile wild open spaces turning into makeshift playgrounds with the removal of wild b...

 GOLPO... Sunday Lunch Robibarer Mangsher Jhol by Chandralekha ~ 24 May 2024 The cumin seeds spluttered and the garam masala released its signature aroma signaling for the meat to be added. Marinated in yogurt and ginger-garlic paste, the mutton pieces sizzled as they touched the smoking mustard oil. “Potatoes and carrots go in next and the papaya is added last for it cooks first.” I could hear my mother’s voice in my head instructing me from Kolkata. I covered the dekchi to let the meat cook. Mangsher jhol was on its way. It was ten-thirty. Guests would be arriving in two hours. I picked up the duster to tidy the living room. Vitamix’s powerful whirring stopped abruptly. “Here, have some of this,” offered Orko, my son. “It’s got beta-carotene, Vit C, E, and K.” He scraped the remnants of 12 large Bunny-Luv’s, bought from the organic section in Berkeley Bowl, into the composting bin. He placed the large jug of freshly squeezed carrot juice on the kitchen island. I filled ...

MONO CHALO NIJO NIKETANE Musings By Sanjoy Das Gupta Sri Ramakrishna first met a young Narendranath and heard him sing in November 1881 at the house of his householder devotee, Shri Surendra Nath Mitra. Shri Ramakrishna used to visit Shri Mitra’s house in Calcutta to deliver spiritual lectures and other forms of enlightenment. On this particular occasion too, Shri Mitra had arranged a spiritual festival at his house in Shimla Street wherein Sri Ramakrishna would be present. When the appointed singer for the occasion failed to show up, a young Narendranath Dutta, Mitra’s neighbour and a talented singer, was asked to fill in. Narendranath was then around eighteen years old, preparing for his FA exams of Calcutta University. Narendra sang several devotional songs. His performance was soulful and deeply impressed Sri Ramakrishna. One of the songs sang by him was a Bromho Sangeet “ Mono Chalo Nijo Niketane…” composed by Sri Ayodhyanath Pakrasi, an eminent educationist and scholar in Ben...

More Than a Wedding — A Reunion of Roots When sixty voices filled a hall and reminded us what family truly means. By Jaya Ray, Financial Advisor &  Citizen Journalist , Civic Media, CR Park Speaks I recently realised the value of a large, extended family, when my nephew got married and my entire family of 60 plus people turned up for the mega event. Although few members were still missing(that would take the count to about 75!), the strength was enough to fill the wedding venue to more than half! The biggest takeaway for me and my cousins were when our children bonded like they were never away from each other. Such has become the bond, that soon after the wedding, when the children were back to their own cities, my son formed a whatsapp group to stay in touch. We often say, that this generation likes to stay within themselves and are not social enough. But given an opportunity, they also bond, and how! I also saw, how the children have imbibed values such as touching the f...

Record induction of 640 Life Members marks an unprecedented chapter in the legacy of Chittaranjan Park Kali Mandir Society A bright sunny morning welcomed 640 newly inducted members on the rain-washed precincts of Chittaranjan Park Kali Mandir Society on 24th January 2026. The occasion was to Meet and Greet the record breaking 640 members who have been warmly welcomed at the Lotus Feet of Devadidev Mahadev, Maa Dakshinakali and Radha Govind Ji. With Maa Saraswati lovingly watching over the proceedings, the members were most cordially invited to be formally inducted in the large family of KMS Life Members. KMS management team led by Dr Rajiv Nag, achieved this unprecedented feat which was hitherto thought impossible by the residents of CR Park. And now, this achievement has been recorded in the history of KMS and CR Park of being the highest induction of Life members ever.               After attempting multiple times to become a member of this cov...

Swami Vivekananda: Awakening the Youth, Igniting the Nation Today, 12th January , we bow in reverence to Swami Vivekananda on his birth anniversary—a day celebrated across India as National Youth Day . It is not merely a tribute to a great monk and philosopher, but a reminder of a clarion call he gave to the youth of India: “Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached.” Born in 1863 in Calcutta , Swami Vivekananda was the spiritual heir of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa , yet his vision reached far beyond the walls of monasteries. He believed that spirituality was not escape from life, but the strength to face life fearlessly . To him, the youth were not passive inheritors of tradition but active builders of the future —fearless, disciplined, compassionate, and rooted in values. Swami Vivekananda’s thunderous address at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago (1893) awakened the world to India’s spiritual wisdom. But his deepest concern was always India herself—her...

Happy 2026 to our CR Park Family! As the first few days of the Gregorian New Year settle in, there’s a distinct freshness in the air. 2 026 has officially arrived, heralding new beginnings and that familiar sense of hope we all carry into January. To every reader of  CR Park Speaks , we want to wish you a very  Happy New Year!  Whether you spent your countdown at a quiet family dinner or joined the bustling crowds at the Mandir, we hope your start to the year was filled with warmth. The Turning of the Sun:  The days have started getting longer and brighter. What does it signify? That we are going into Uttarayan from Dakshinayan. So, what is Uttarayan? Uttarayan is a time of 6 months when the Sun God decides to move up north of the planet. The Gods who were asleep for the last 6 months during Dakshinayan are finally waking up. This is the time when warmth, life, sustenance, abundance, freshness start coming into our lives. The universe turns its face towards gro...