Epic Public School holds a pre–World Museum Day celebration on 15th May with an inspiring speech and interactive session by archivist and researcher Rzishikalpa Paul. Students enjoyed learning about the heritage, culture, and history of Cooch Behar through engaging discussions, quizzes, and student contributions.

Yet another event at Epic Public School! This is a pre celebration of International or World Museum Day, hosted by our beloved Epic Public School on 15th of May. World Museum day is actually celebrated on 18th of May.

Coming back to our celebration, as usual, the celebration was held in a Epic way, thanks to our director sir and principal ma’am. The celebration was not just any celebration, but a speech, slight quiz session on the heritage of Cooch Behar, and we, the students, even got to ask anything we wanted to know related to this topic. The celebration began by a introduction to world museum day by one of our students, Purba Nandi. You must be wondering who the speaker is, right? Well let us take a quick look at our speaker!!

Before proceeding, let me tell you a bit about him.

During his student life, he distinguished his merit as a student in receiving the “Manindra Chandra Sharma Adhikari Medal” for securing the highest marks in Botany from Acharya Brojendra Nath Seal College, Cooch Behar, in 2009. He later completed his postgraduate studies at the University of North Bengal, with Microbiology as his special paper. As a data collector in Botany, his first book focused on the plant diversity of the urban areas of Cooch Behar. In addition, he has worked on bacteriology. His joint research on fish received the first prize from Hooghly Mohsin College. He served for some time as a Guest Lecturer of Botany at Tufanganj College.

At present, he is a Visiting Faculty at the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Gol Park, Kolkata. Besides students from various Indian universities, scholars from the Oxford University also attend his classes on Indian Art and Culture. From an early age, he developed a keen interest in the history, archaeology, culture, and heritage of Cooch Behar. This passion led him to feel a strong responsibility to preserve the history of the former Princely State of Cooch Behar. Many of his research papers and book chapters have already been published at both national and international levels.

The central focus of his work is Cooch Behar. His research spans museums, archives, foreign settlements, banking and education systems, Durga Puja, classical and folk music, life of Rani Kamala Devi and other eminent personalities, family histories, and the overall heritage of Cooch Behar. Without formal training, he has successfully worked as an archivist for many years. He is currently the Founder President of the nationally and internationally recognised organisation Cooch Behar Archive. Recently, a library has been established by the organisation to support research activities. Although he has not yet obtained a Doctoral degree himself, he has served as a resource person for research on education, culture, literature, dance, the Brahmo Samaj and related subjects.

Under his guidance and with his acknowledged contributions, many researchers have earned Ph.D. and M.Phil. degrees from the University of Calcutta, Visva-Bharati University, Jadavpur University, Assam University, North Eastern Hill University, Bankura University, the University of North Bengal, and Cooch Behar Panchanan Barma University and he continues to support such work. In addition to being a writer and archivist, he is also an Organiser.

He is associated at the national and international levels with numerous institutions, societies and forums, including the —Institute of Historical Studies; Archives of India; Corpus Research Institute; West Bengal Museum Association; Paschimbanga Itihas Samsad (lit. West Bengal History Association); Numismatic Society of Calcutta; Society for Heritage, Archaeology and Management; East Himalayan Society for Spermatophyte Taxonomy; Indian Botanical Society and others as a life member, general member, or natural member. He is also specially associated with the Lime Finishes Group, Scotland, United Kingdom.

His work has received institutional recognition from organisations such as the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur; the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata; and the India Harmony Foundation, Delhi. Recently, at an international conference organised by the Society for Heritage, Archaeology and Management, his research paper entitled — “From Protective Isolation to the City of Beauty: A Forgotten Capital” received the Prof. Amita Roy Memorial Award for Best Presentation. Owing to his distinctive personality, he appears under his own name as a semi-fictional character in the autobiographical work “Dhubri: Swargadapi Gariyasi” of the renowned numismatist Shanker Kumar Bose.

He has also represented the region twice during visits of the Consul Generals of the United States of America and Australia to Cooch Behar. He has been an honorary member of the Government of West Bengal–constituted District Heritage Committee, Cooch Behar, almost since its inception. Recently, at the invitation of the State Government of Gujarat, he has been associated in an honorary capacity with the conceptual development of the under–construction Museum of Royal Kingdoms of India at Ekta Nagar, Gujarat. Remarkably, his personal collection contains over thirty thousand original hard-copies of historical documents related solely to Cooch Behar, occupying approximately two kilometres of floor space.

Through his own initiative, he has so far digitised over one hundred thousand historical documents and more than ten thousand photographs related to the history of Cooch Behar and he continues this work. His other collections include coins, postage stamps, gramophone and stereo records, old books and manuscripts, antique textiles and embroidery artworks etc.

Postscript: At one time, he was actively involved in cultural activities and various fine arts. At present, he is primarily devoted to study and writing.

I hope that’s enough information to get a brief understanding of him. Oh!! Just look! I completely Forgot to mention his name! He is Rzishikalpa Paul.

Now, that you know him pretty well, let’s come back to the celebration. I really loved his speech. I really enjoyed his speech, there wasn’t a single moment that I felt bored. His way of presenting was so interesting that I didn’t even want to look away from the stage! Honestly, among all the speeches I’ve heard I found this one the most interesting….

Thank You Rzishikalpa sir for giving us your attention and time.

Thank you Director Sir and Principal Ma’am and all other teachers who helped in organizing such a wonderful program. Let us take a look at our students’ contribution: