AMIT MEMORIAL SEMINAR @ the 32nd KOLKATA BOOK FAIR
Yesterday we finally managed to organize a great seminar on Ragging v/s
Healthy Society at the internationally famous Kolkata Book Fair ( It is part of
the international cultural calendar. This year Australia was the theme country.
Apart from Australia, the U.S.A., Germany, Bangladesh, Latin American countries
were among the foreign countries that took part in the Mega-festival ).
I would like to offer sincere thanks to each and every member of CURE West
Bengal for this. Without them, it would have never been a reality.
I would also like to thank the organizers of the Mega event, Publishers &
Booksellers Guild for the tremendous support and help.
Thanks must be given the Mr. Dipankar Ganguly, a reporter of the Telegraph,
who published a big report on CURE & CURE-WB just on the day before.
It was much difficult with so little fund we could arrange, that too with
great difficulty, from our pockets
but we could finally materialize our dream.
The SEMINAR
Name : Amit Memorial Seminar
Organized by : West Bengal chapter of CURE
Topic : Ragging v/s Healthy Society
Time : 4-30pm 5-30 pm
Date : 21.02.07
Venue : Seminar Hall (A.C.Auditorium), Kolkata Book Fair-2007.
Panel
Dr. S. Banerjee, former Director of Medical Education, Govt. of W.B.
Prof. Dr. K. Chakraborty, Principal, Techno India College.
Prof. A.K.Burman, Head, Dept. of B.B.A., Scotish Church College.
Dr. G. Banerjee, reputed Psychiatrist, R.G.K.M.C.H.
Special Guest Speaker : Mr. Chandi Lahiri, famous Cartoonist.
Two ragging victims were also there and narrated their stories at the end of
the event.
As the one, who was to anchor the event, got ill suddenly, I had to do this
job combining with it, my speech on CURE.
Jayanta, Sumitava, Sankha, Pankaj were handling the off-stage jobs.
New members Samir & Rabindranath and some of Rabindranaths friends (new
members as well) were present.
It was named Amit Memorial Seminar, after Amit Sahay of Dr. B.R.Ambedkar
Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, who had committed suicide on 11th Oct, 2005
by jumping in front of a running train
due to extreme ragging.
It started with a brief introduction after which everyone observed one
minutes silence in memory of those ragging victims who have lost their lives
due to ragging.
Next the eminent speakers delivered their lectures, one by one. Copies of an
information booklet prepared by CURE-WB members were circulated among the 60-70
people who attended the seminar.
Speakers criticized ragging strongly and thanked CURE for pioneering such a
movement against the social evil. They appealed to the general people to come
forward and join hands to uproot ragging from the society. The educationists
and Mr. Lahiri narrated possible ways to curb ragging. Dr. G. Banerjee, a noted
psychiatrist , narrated the psychological background as well as the possible
solutions to ragging.
After their speech was over, the victims narrated their accounts and stressed
the utmost need of people to come forward to eliminate ragging in order to have
a Healthy Society.
Though we were running short of time and those who had booked the next slot
in the famous platform was already there, we couldnt prolong it. However it
was a grand success.
At the end we got several people who took our membership on the spot and
asked us for more forms so that their friends may join the platform of CURE.
Even people from the Guild (organizers of the fair) were there to take our
membership. CURE-WB possibly made a big leap forward towards setting up a CURE
student cell at the Jadavpur University (Indias 3rd best ranking university-
which was offered an IIT status by the centre).
The distinguished guests offered their full support to our movement in the
coming days.
After the end, we went to meet the chiefs of the Book Fair committee. We were
much appreciated by the Guild secretary who took our contact details and showed
full support to our movement.
We didnt have fund for a video recording, but we took photos with
professional photographers as well as with Jayantas mobile. We made an audio
recording of the event.
Today, I found short reports on our seminar with appreciation in every
newspaper I went through.
Hope next year, CURE-WB will be able to organize seminar in the larger and
more famous auditorium of the fair with much higher number in the audience.
Anyone interested to take part in ground level activities like this, may
contact CURE-West Bengal at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Thanks and regards,
Kushal.
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