Editor's Note

Mass Production

The subject of the cover story, Gopendranath Chakrabarti, is a handicrafts artist with no money or fame and works in a fairly unusual medium. He makes sculptures out of a special type of raw material, shola. Looking at the pictures of his Taj Mahals, it is obvious that there is a tremendous amount of detail in his work; it takes a whole lot of time and effort. Even though there seems to be a market for his work, Gopen Babu isn't seeing too many profits and is struggling financially like he always has. Insight brings you many stories of unknown artists and craftsmen, here is one whose work is in a sense “mass produced” (he has produced thousand of Taj Mahals, for example), but he has painstakingly crafted each and every one those pieces with his own hands.

There is also a report on the Sirajganj Reader's Club, one of the initiatives of the The Daily Star, coordinated along with Star Insight. Insight started with the goal of creating interest outside of Dhaka and to take English to those places. The Learners' Club page is there to help people out in those areas, and perhaps the state of the Reader's Club is a barometer for how Star Insight in performing in that regard.

Abak Hussain
From the Insight Desk

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