Protecting language: Bangladesh high court order

Sunday, 19 Feb 2012 9:47 pm

This is apropos of news item, ‘Bangladesh court outlaws ‘Banglish’, published on 17 February. As per the report, Bangladesh high court has ordered radio and TV presenters and anchor persons not to use words which are foreign to Bengali language. This order came as an effort to protect Bengali language in the backdrop of widespread distortion of the language with usage of English. Unfortunately, this phenomenon is not limited to Bangladesh but is present in all the third world countries. In our region, we see it in the form of Urduish, Hindish, Punjablish and so on.

International Mother Language Day Celebration

International Mother Language Day was proclaimed by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in November 1999 (30C/62).

On 16 May 2009 the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution A/RES/61/266 called upon Member States “to promote the preservation and protection of all languages used by peoples of the world”. By the same resolution, the General Assembly proclaimed 2008 as the International Year of Languages, to promote unity in diversity and international understanding, through multilingualism and multiculturalism.

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International Mother Language Day has been observed every year since February 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. The date represents the day in 1952 when students demonstrating for recognition of their language, Bangla, as one of the two national languages of the then Pakistan, were shot and killed by police in Dhaka, the capital of what is now Bangladesh.

Languages are the most powerful instruments of preserving and developing our tangible and intangible heritage. All moves to promote the dissemination of mother tongues will serve not only to encourage linguistic diversity and multilingual education but also to develop fuller awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions throughout the world and to inspire solidarity based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue.

Environmental Science Projects: Learn about the environment

CHEMICAL CONTAMINATION
OF LAKES AND STREAMS

One way to test for contamination in water from lakes, rivers and streams is with a bioassay.

A bioassay uses a living organism–usually a plant or a bacteria–as a test agent for the presence or concentration of a chemical compound or a disease. The idea is to choose a test agent that is very sensitive to the condition you are testing.

Have you ever read about how miners took canaries down into mines to act as early warnings of gas leaks? Because canaries are more sensitive to gas than people, the birds reacted to very small amounts of gas and gave miners a chance to escape. You could say canaries were a bioassay for underground gas.

Newton Papers

Cambridge University Library holds the largest and most important collection of the scientific works of Isaac Newton (1642-1727). We present here an initial selection of Newton’s manuscripts, concentrating on his mathematical work in the 1660s. Over the next few months we will be adding further works until the majority of our Newton Papers are available on this site.

One mosquito coil equals 100 cigarettes

New Delhi:  Smoke emitted from one mosquito repellent coil is equivalent to those of 100 cigarettes, thus causing harm to a large number of people in India, an expert said on Wednesday.

“Not many people know about it, but the damage done to your lungs by one mosquito coil is equivalent to the damage done by 100 cigarettes. This was according to a recent study conducted in Malyasia,” said Chest Research Foundation director Sandeep Salvi.

UGC sponsored national level seminar

Department of Zoology, Vidyasagar College, sincerely thanks all participants to make the UGC sponsored national level seminar a grand success. 

Date: 9th and 10th December, 2011 at the “Acharya Prafulla Chandra Alochona Kakshya”- 17, Bidhan Sarani, Kolkata- 700006 (Vidyasagar College Bidhan Sarani Campus).

This seminar was organized in collaboration with Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata.

Lending card Issue notice for 3rd year students

3rd year students are request to obtain their library lending cards immediately for the session 2011-2012. They are also requested to bring their acknowledgement card along with original money receipt for this purpose.

Sarat Rachanabali

বঙ্কিমচন্দ্র ও রবীন্দ্রনাথের পর বাংলা সাহিত্যের আকাশে উজ্জ্বলতম জ্যোতিষ্ক হলেন কথাশিল্পী শরৎচন্দ্র চট্টোপাধ্যায়, যিনি তাঁর সীমিত কালখণ্ড ও ভূমিখণ্ডকে স্বচ্ছন্দে অতিক্রম করে এক যুগোত্তীর্ণ মর্যাদায় অধিষ্টিত হয়ে আছেন বাঙালি পাঠকসমাজে, তাঁর কালজয়ী খ্যাতি দেশের সীমাকে বঙ্কিমচন্দ্র ও রবীন্দ্রনাথের পরিলঙ্ঘন করে বিশ্বের বিভিন্ন দেশে বিস্তারলাভ করে বিদেশি পাঠকদের মনকেও জয় করেছে।

বাংলা উপন্যাস সাহিত্যে শরৎচন্দ্র এমন একটি নূতন পথ ধরে অগ্রসর হয়েছেন যা বাঙলা কথাসাহিত্যের পরিধিকে প্রসারিত করে দিয়ে তার মধ্যে এনেছে এক অদৃষ্টপূর্ব বৈচিত্র্য। সংবেদনশীল হৃদয়, ব্যাপক জীবনজিজ্ঞাসা, প্রখর পর্যবেক্ষণশক্তি, সংস্কারমুক্ত স্বাধীন মনোভঙ্গি প্রভৃতির গুণে শরৎসাহিত্য লাভ করেছে এক অনন্যসাধারণ বিশিষ্টতা যা পরবর্তীকালের বাঙলা সাহিত্যের গতিপ্রকৃতিকে অনেকাংশে নিয়ন্ত্রিত করেছে।

Rabindranath Online

রবীন্দ্রনাথ তাঁর লেখনীতে বাঙালির জীবন যাপন, সংস্কৃতিকে যেমন তুলে ধরেছেন, তেমনি বাঙালির চিরদিনের হাসিকান্না, আনন্দ-বেদনারও রূপকার তিনি। জগতের সকল বিষয়কে তিনি তাঁর লেখায় ধারণ করেছেন। মানুষের এমন কোনো মানবিক অনুভূতি নেই যা রবীন্দ্রনাথের লেখায় পাওয়া যায় না। তাঁর সম্পর্কে কবি দীনেশ দাশ বলেছেন, ‘তোমার পায়ের পাতা সবখানে পাতা’। সভ্যতার সকল সংকটে রবীন্দ্রনাথ এক বিশাল সমাধান। অন্ধকারে এক বিরাট আলোর প্রদীপ।

College Annual Day: Celebration

Report of the Central Library up to 31.3.2011 (Summary):

Collection:

• Reference Books: 4489; Text Books: 37615
• Total Books: 42104
• Number of subscribed journals (Hard copies): 14
• Back volume of journals: 13625
• Online journals: N-LIST membership ensures more than 2500 journals along with full text options. Besides these there are more than 50000 e-books.

Library Management Software: SOUL Version 1.0; Number of documents in the database: nearly 34000.

Archive: Rare and valuable books are kept there and scholars are permitted to visit these with prior permission from the Principal or Librarian.

Report of the PG Section Library (Salt Lake Campus) up to 31.3.2011 :

• Books:
• Zoology: 537; Geography: 558; MCA: 37
• Journals: 116 (Science subjects)