Bartan boy' Subodh Gupta shines at India Art Fair

The shine of a large miror and the collective gleam of bright steel utensils arranged with an artistic purpose catch visitors eye at the ongoing India Art Fair here. And, by now, the artist behind the work is a familiar enough name.

Subodh Gupta, internationally renowned artist known for fashioning signature installation art out of mundane steel and kitchen utensils is presenting another iconic art bearing his trademark. There are three other works by him showcased at the four-day fair which opened to public viewing today after a special VIP preview yesterday.

Titled, "Mirror Stage", and carried by an Italian gallery has been priced at 275,000 euros. The exhibit made out of steel glasses, bowls and cutlery juxtaposed vertically over a flat mirror, and visitors were seen admiring their reflection in it.

Asked if he'd created it especially for the fair, the artist said he doesn't work just for the fair but this is just one aspect of his creative pursuits.

"I don't work just for a fair. I have other works on which I continuously work on and art fairs like these only display a part of my collective oeuvre which is much deeper than what people see here," Gupta told.

The 49-year-old artist who is known to produce large oil painting works has exhibited smaller canvases with incidentally a Victorian frame running around it.

Two smaller-scale oil paintings depicting a breakfast table with china and cutlery, a half-sipped tea in a cup, also adorn the wall at the Galleria Continua's space at the India Art Fair, being held at the NSIC complex here.

The 'Hungry God' famed artist said he's working to develop the work into a full series.

"Yes, I'm working on this idea, the glimpse of which I have shown here but I'm doing a series soon," Gupta told.

"Subodh works with oil has always been on large scale and his choice of the Victorian frame is very deliberate to give throwback to the classic painting that were framed that way. But, if you see his subject here, its trademark Gupta," said Ananjay Bhushan, a Patna-based gallery owner and a long-time associate of Gupta.

"While the installation is priced at 275,000 euros, the two oil paintings are euros 50,000 each," Mylene Ferrand from Galleria Continua said.

Subodh's other works are being displayed by the city-based Nature Morte gallery where two of his classic steel wonders, "Still Life" and "Family Portraits" are up for sale.

Eight architectural companies keen to design Nalanda University

Eight architectural companies, including six from abroad, have shown interest in designing the upcoming Nalanda University in Bihar, the vice chancellor said Friday.

"We are happy that eight companies, including two Indian companies, have submitted their proposals for a global competition to finalize the design for the university," Gopa Sabharwal said here.

She said the short-listed firms would be called to make their presentation either this month or next month.

The university is set to come up on 446 acres in Rajgir, 10 km from the site of the ancient university in Nalanda district, southeast of Patna.

The university will be fully residential, like the ancient Nalanda university. It will offer courses in science, philosophy and spiritualism along with social sciences.

The project took shape in 2006 at the initiative of then president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

The ancient university at Nalanda was home to over 10,000 students and nearly 2,000 teachers.

It existed until 1197 and attracted students and scholars from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia (now Iran) and Turkey.

Bihar exceeds procurement of foodgrains target by Jan end

The Bihar government has exceeded the target set up for procurement of foodgrains from farmers by by purchasing 3.43 lakh tonnes of grains till January end.

The government had set a target to purchase 3 lakh tonne of grains during the period.

A total of 2.75 lakh tonnes of grains was procured by the government by January end in 2011-12 fiscal, state Food Minister Shyam Rajak said.

The Nitish Kumar government has set a target to procure 30 lakh tonne of foodgrains by April this year.

The process of purchase of produce from the farmers have picked up with the easing of winter when grains are not in good condition due to moisture.

"We will achieve the procurement target within time," Rajak said.

The official figures reveal that procurement by the end of January was maximum in Magadh region comprising Gaya, Jehanabad, Arwal, Nawada and Aurangabad with lifting of 68,928 tonne of grains against the target of 42,800 tonne.

The minister said as part of efforts to augment storage capacity for foodgrains the state government has sanctioned creation of 500 tonne capacity godown in all the blocks of the state.

A total of 423 godowns would be established across the state of which 300 have already been achieved, he said.

Rajak said the department was taking effective steps for strengthening distribution of subsidised foodgrains through 42,000 ration shops in the state.

To streamline the PDS functioning, the government has ordered observation of "Foodgrains diwas (day)" across the state during last three days of every month.

Though the Union government is providing ration to 65 lakh BPL and APL beneficiaries in Bihar, the state government is providing subsidised ration to 80 lakh more people from its own kitty as according to its count, on the basis of Saxena committee and Tendulkar committee, there are 1.45 crore eligible people for subsidised ration in the state.

New Actor from Bihar to Bollywood

Bihar has another star son waiting for the release of his debut Bollywood film. Akash, son of veteran Bhojpuri actor Kunal Singh, is playing the lead role in an action thriller, Bloody Isshq opposite Shilpa Anand and Tripta Parashar, which is scheduled to be released in February.

Akash's mother Arti Bhattacharya was a renowned actress and her father also played roles in a few films. But the 26-year-old Akash had to struggle to get a break in Bollywood. He had to wait for many years for the release of his debut film.

Despite this, Akash does not attach much significance to his identity as an actor from Bihar, saying only talent establishes an actor in the industry.

Sex worker elected twice as ward councillor in Muzaffarpur

A sex worker turned politician and was twice elected as the ward councillor of Bihar's Muzaffarpur district. Rani Begum has now put her past behind and is working towards a better future for people like her. "Initially, I faced difficulties working in the society. But gradually, when people saw my work they starting accepting me," Rani Begum said.

With determination and an unrelenting spirit, Rani Begum has exorcised her past ghosts, mostly following her marriage to a local resident. Begum, who also has two children from him, is now trying to improve the lives of others like her.

Rani Begum is grateful to her friends who funded her political plunge. Now she ensures that their voices and issues are heard. Rani today is the voice of more than 20,000 residents of the area, mostly sex workers or pimps. It's because of her initiative that slowly the lives of residents are also changing for good.

Rani Begum has started vocational programs for kids, especially the girl child so that they are not sucked into this profession. Though she lost the race of becoming the lady mayor of the city, she has certainly made a place for herself in the hearts of its people.

US-based linguist discovers a new dialect in Bihar

Mohammad Warsi, who teaches linguistics and Indian languages at the Washington University in St. Louis, said the main language for communication in Darbhanga, Madhubani, Samastipur, Begusarai and Muzaffarpur, is Maithili. But when Muslims speak among themselves, they speak a dialect that is different from Maithili, Hindi, and Urdu.

This dialect does not have its own script or literature, he said.

This might be the reason that this dialect went unnoticed to linguists so far, said Warsi, who is a recipient of James E. McLeod Faculty Recognition Award for 2012.

While doing a comparative study, Warsi said he found that this new dialect is completely different from Hindi, Urdu, and Maithli and their verb conjugation and sentence structure, is quite different from each other.

For example "We are going" would be rendered  "hum jaa rahain hain" in Hindi, "hum jaay  rahal chhii" in Maithli and "hum jaa rahain hain" in Urdu sentence. But in the new dialect it would be: "ham jaa rahaliya hae". Also, there is no agentive marker "-ne" in Mithilanchal Urdu.

Only one second person pronoun "tu" is used in the new dialect instead of "tu, tum and aap".

From these examples, it is clear that the verb conjugation in the new dialect is completely different from that of Hindi, Urdu, and Maithli, Warsi said.

Warsi, a native of Darbhanga district in Bihar has given the nomenclature of 'Mithilanchal Urdu' to this dialect.

"Language does not have any boundaries, nor is it dependent on any boundary," he said.

"Dialects are the contact languages of particular regions, and they have a deep impact on their cultural heritage," he said. "Slowly with time these dialects begin to take shape of languages."

The convergence of a dialect into a language is a symbol and pride of the people who speak it, Warsi said suggesting the inclusion of the new dialect in a recently initiated nationwide linguistic survey.

65-yr-old principal of Mahendra Das College in Gopalganj marries student

A 60-year-old college principal of Mahendra Das College in Gopalganj eloped and got married to his student, which has enraged the students of the college. The irked student unions staged protests outside the college and burned the effigy of the principal. They said that they want the dismissal of the principal.

The principal – Ramdular Das became close to intermediate student – Nibha, who was a studying in his college. He also promoted her as a professor before marrying her.

The principal eloped with the girl and married her in a temple in Gorakhpur on January 16, just to disappear again. The students and other faculty of the college came to know when they returned to the college on January 21.

Surprisingly, Ramdular Das says that, “Getting married at the age of 65 is not right”, adding that “I will continue with my saintly life as I was leading before.”

Nibha said, “I think our marriage was destined. I respected him a lot before we tied the knot and will continue respecting him.”

The incident has left the students and faculty of Mahendra Das College enraged and they say that it is simply unacceptable. The leader of the student union said, “We demand his ouster from our college. If needed, we will not refrain from going on strike.”