Cooch Behar - An Introduction

Cooch Behar is another district which forms the Dooars region of North Bengal.

Headquarters : Cooch Behar

The Cooch Behar Palace and the Madan Mohan temples are important tourist locations in the district.

This district used to be a princely state before independence. Maharani Gayatri Devi of Jaipur hails from here.

Jalpaiguri - An Introduction

Jalpaiguri is one of the districts which make up the Dooars region of North Bengal.

Headquarters : Jalpaiguri

Jalpaiguri is the largest district of North Bengal. The main industry of this region is tea.

There are several wildlife sanctuaries in this region the most famous being Jaldapara and Gorumara. Jaldapara is the home to the endangered species of Asian unihorned rhinoceros.

The Dwarf, the Fairies and the Wizard

The island is so tiny that it seems that the wind will blow it away. This is why it is called the Island of the Wind. It is surrounded on all sides by the sea. The plants and trees of this tiny island are tiny as well and so are the birds and animals. There are flowers of many clors there but all the size of a pea seed. There is only one person who lives in this island; even he is tiny - he is a dwarf.

Two fairies used to come to this island everyday - Red Fairy and Blue Fairy. They were very good friends of the dwarf. Everyday they would dance with the dwarf, the dwarf would gift them butterflies. Together they were very happy.

The dwarf used to live in a small hut on the bank of a small waterfall at the edge of the forest. All day long the dwarf used to search for something in the island. He would stand here, sit there, turn a leaf, dig a hole and many other odd things but no one knew what he was looking for. And in the evening he would sit beside the waterfall and read an age old manuscript in the moonlight.

The fairies would dance all day long in the island, drink honey from the flowers and and at the day's end they would come to the dwarf and sit beside him with their feet in the river water. They would sprinkle water at the dwarf and ask him, "How are you dear dwarf?"

The dwarf would say in an annoyed tone, "I am busy. Do not disturb me."

One day Red fairy said, "You are always reading this book. What do you read?"

Blue fairy said, "Some day I will throw your book in the sea water. What will you do then?"

The dwarf replied, "Don't you dare do any such thing. This manuscript is priceless. It will be a huge loss if I lose this manuscript".

The fairies asked together, "What is in this manuscript of yours, dwarf?"

Th dwarf replied in a very serious tone, "There are treasures hidden somewhere in this island. Ricjes that you cannot imagine. Gold, diamonds, pearls, sapphires, rubies and emeralds. This manuscript contains the clues to find out the treasure. I am trying to find out the hidden treasure."

The faires said, "Oh! Such a little thing? What would we do with the treasure if we find it out dwarf? We drink honey from the flowers and you eat tree roots. We have nothing to do with gold and diamonds. Forget the book. Come on let's dance. Look there is a beautiful moon in the sky tonight"

So the dwarf had to leave his manuscripts. They started dancing together hand in hand but after some time the dwarf started to jump around. The fairies asked, "What are you doing dwarf?"

"Dancing".

"Where is the rythm?"

The dwarf started to jump even more. The fairies started laughing and after some time they left the dwarf and flew away. After the fairies left the dwarf alone, he came back to the manuscript and started to read it again.

Days went by. Every night the dwarf would use one trick or another to get rid of the fairies and then he would read the book night and day. He dreamt only about the treasures, about how he would surprise the fairies by gifting them a necklace made of the largest pearls and emeralds.

One day the fairies came to the dwarf and said in a sad tone, "If we find you reading that manuscript again we shall throw it in the sea water".

"Don't you dare do any such thing", the dwarf said.

That night the dwarf had almost found out the where the treasure was hidden. A little more effort in the night could find him the treasure. He said, "Please forgive me for today. I shall dance a lot tomorrow".

"But we had come only for you".

The dwarf got irritated and sai, "Go away. Do't disturb me. Don't you have anything else to do other than dancing?"

The fairies becme very sad. The dwarf did not love them as he used to love them before and all of this because of that manuscript. They took the manuscript away from the dwarf and threw it away and said, "Let you manuscript go to the land across three seas."

"What?", the dwarf got scared. He ran behind the manusript but it flew across the waterfall, over the small hilltops of the island and then into the deep sea beyond. The dwarf could go no further.

He returned to the fairies and told them how he had planned to gift them a necklace when he found the treasure. The fairies replied, "We don't need the treasures dwarf. We are happy when we dance".

The dwarf also thought that perhaps it was a good riddance. What would he do with all the treasures of the kings? They started dancing merrilly.

* * *

Bengal - An Introduction

The state of West Bengal in the India and the country of Bangladesh together form the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal. That there are two divisions in Bengal one being a part of the secular Indian state and the other being the Islamic country of Bangladesh, has several politico-religious reasons.

This blog primarily focuses on the Indian part of Bengal which is called West Bengal with its capital in Kolkata.

It is one of the smaller states in the Indian nation but at the same time the most densely populated. The reason behind such a population explosion in the state can easily be found in the history behind the creation of the Indian and Bangladeshi states. Often cited as the worst victim of the partition of the subcontinent, the state had two major influxes of refugee population from the eastern parts of earstwhile Bengal which is on today's date the country of Bangladesh - once during Indian independence in 1947 and again during the Bangladeshi War of Independence in 1971.

West Bengal is primarily an agriculture dependent state with its prime crop being paddy. Jute and tea are other important agro-industries in the state.

Often cited as the cultural capital of the country, the city of Kolkata, is the capital city of the state. It was previously called Calcutta and was the capital of British India until 1911 when the capital was shifted to New Delhi which is still the capital of India. The city of Kolkata and the state of Bengal has a rich cultural history.

The most important festival in the state in the Durga Puja which is held in the season of autumn in September or October. It is during this festival that the culture of Bengal is displayed to its fullest grandeur to the rest of the world.

West Bengal has recently seen some upsurge in political violence centering land acquisition for industry by the government.