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A Visit to Poland and Berlin: A Saga of Despair and Hope

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 Jayita Mukherjee   In July 2016, I got an opportunity to visit Poland as my paper was accepted for presentation at the Conference of International Political Science Association, being held at the Polish city of Poznan. This was my first visit abroad and I was excited and tensed at the same time, since I was going alone from Kolkata. The populace in the flight presented a mini-Bharat, Gujrati businessmen settled in US, Sikhs going to Canada, Bengalis going for Europe tour and so on, all scheduled to take different flights from the Frankfurt Airport. The journey was eventless, no turbulence and no missile attack about which I was a bit apprehensive as the flight was crossing the airspace of Afghanistan. The Frankfurt airport is like a mini city. The courteous airport support staff kindly guided me to take the   tram that will take me to the terminal for flight to Poland as airport signages were all in German language. Weird, I thought, since it is an international airp...

The Lost Inhabitants of Joka Birding Area

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Broti Majumdar Chatterjee The grassland behind the Indian Institute of Management Kolkata, in Joka, was once a part of a Wetland Ecosystem, overing a huge area, which was once a home to many species of local birds, housed many rare migratory visitors in winter, as well as many mammal species. Staying in Joka outskirts, very near to this grassland zone, I used to visit with my father and his photographer friends to witness the vibrant greenery and various bird species during winter since my school days. The outskirts of the wetland had a sparse population mostly of fishermen. The local people eagerly greeted the arrival of the winged winter visitors. My interest about photographing birds and watching them with shared binoculars grew as years passed by. Every year Gangaram, the local fisherman greeted us with a bright smile and informed us about the arrival of Bluethroat, Rubythroat, Siberian Stonechat or some other rare species. Let me share the story of JOKA BIRDING AREA, a Paradise Lo...

Bryce Canyon: A visit of a lifetime!

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  Atrayee Roy One of the natural wonders of the United States of America is the Bryce Canyon. Amid wilderness in the state of Utah stands tall with the spectacular geological feature called the Bryce Canyon, also known as “hoodoos”. I am so fortunate to have visited this canyon on 20.8.24. It is about a 4–5-hour drive from Idaho, the home of Prabir and Chitta (my brother and sister-in-law). Prabir has taken us to his amazing land twice, and Chitta made sure that there was plenty of fruit and snacks to last us for those few days! This gave us the liberty to move around and not be restricted to being close to the food joints. As we approached the 18-mile road that runs north-south through the park, the stunning geology of Southern Utah, the red rock wonderland formation by wind, water and snow gave the striking patterns and clusters of hoodoos, We reached there in the latter half of the day. We checked into a motel, kept our luggage, and quickly got ready to go to see the re...