Amḷān S.

Soon after I arrived in Kolkata in 2023, I came to watch my first @INDWomensLeague fixture. KO may have been 1:00 or 1:30PM I have been vociferous about girls not playing under lights & tonight, 2.5 years on, they are playing for the first time under newly installed lights. ❤️💛

@sridatta_a @ShivamPatnaik5 @OdiaCulture Even when much of Orissa was being annexed by British in 1810s it remained a separate division within the Presidency, unlike Medinipur which had remained part of Bengal proper and eventually got assimilated.

@sridatta_a @ShivamPatnaik5 @OdiaCulture Iirc the modern boundary established in 1936 can be traced to its precursor in Maratha-Bengal treaty of 1751, which demarcated Balasore & Medinipur and eventually brought in the ethnic, cultural & political realities, visible during the Orissa province movement post 1870s.

There are many brahmin families from Odisha that migrated to Bengal during the Bengal Presidency for work opportunities. They settled and these days call themselves bengali. A person who is very well known to me is a Panigrahi. He calls himself settled in bengal and have converted to bengali. It has happened in all states. India has seen so many waves of migrations, it is difficult to genetically establish any "pure" blood. And if you check the blood of bengalis and many Indians from South as well as Maharashtra you are likely to find ethiopian blood. Many people have forgotten about the recent influx of Africans to India. Abyssinians (known as Habshis in India), Zangis (east africans), Bantus (known as siddis. The meaning of Siddi denotes someone who is captured in war). Basically people from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and surrounding areas were captured and sold as slaves. Islam had already taken its roots, so these slaves often converted by arabs to islam, found it easy to assimilate in the various sultanates in India in South, west as well as in east. Today people remember the fall of Bahmani kingdom and the various sultanates that sprung afterwards in south and west. Not many remember about Bengal. Gauda often known as Gaur was the capital city of Bengal sultanate and was prominent between 1453 and 1565. In 1487 Sultan Jalaluddin Fateh Shah was murdered by one of the Habshis known as Shahzada Barbak. He was a slave and was commander. After murdering Sultan Jalaluddin Fateh Shah, Shahzada Barbak declared himself the ruler and called himself Ghiyasuddin Shahzada Barbak. After few months he was killed and Malik Andal came to power. Malik Andil called himself by the title Saifuddin Firuz Shah and ruled from 1487 to 1489. Saifuddin Shah too was killed and after his death a kid called Mahmud Shah II was on the throne. But the throne was controlled by a Habash Khan who was an African noble. Then came Shamsuddin Muzzaffar Shah who ruled. He is also known by the name Sidi Badr and he issued coins proclaiming the stability of his reign. There was an internal revolt led by Syed Hussain who won and called himself Alauddin Husain Shah and founded the Hussain Shahi dynasty. He banished all Habshis and they went to south and west. During this period of dominance as rulers, the africans had legitimacy. And there were thousands of soldiers in not only Bengal but also in entire South India, Maharashtra and Gujarat. So, there is considerable genetic infusion since the late 1400s. In Hyderabad as late as 1904, there were African soldiers with the Nizam. Whatever blood/dna came from wherever it got cooked in this big melting pot called India and has found expression in us - the 21st century Indians.

The #IWL2 Final Round kicked off in Bengaluru today, with Juba Sangha, Mumbai Knights & HOPS FC making winning starts 📈 Watch every game live on the #IndianFootball YouTube Channel 📺

@ShivamPatnaik5 @generalusername Have observed certain shared conjuncts bet Odia & E. Nagari, where a Nagari equivalent parallels in Odia rather in a conjunct glyph. -tra ত্র ନ୍ତ୍ର (in -ntra) -t ৎ ତ୍କ ତ୍ନ ତ୍ମ ତ୍ପ ତ୍ସ (-tka, -tna) Then there’s ଞ୍ଚ/ঞ্চ, ଷ୍ଣ/ষ্ণ and others.

@generalusername For a lot of Odia letters (eg. କ), the essence is in the portion that lies below the "cap". The "cap" is the equivalent of Nāgarī's śirorekhā. With the cap out of the way, it becomes slightly easier to guess. Not always though. Some glyphs are indeed almost independent.

The real deal is the Odia script. It comes with several conjunct letter forms that don't always resemble anything close to simple stacking of the constituent base letter forms, as is the case with Telugu-Kannada, modern Devanagari, etc.

@FootballOdisha @Guy7Alex Samaleswari Sporting is back in the national tiers after more than a decade, in I-League 3 now.

Full-time in I-League 3 ⚽ Samaleswari Sporting Club fought hard but fell short against Zinc Football Academy, ending in a 1-3 result.Heads high, stronger comeback ahead 💪🔥 #ILeague3 #SamaleswariSC #IndianFootball

@KempFCBLR @INDWomensLeague @SportsKPI @roots_football @OdishaFCW @IndianFootball Tommorrow the final round of #IWL2 is starting in a single round robin format. The top 2 teams qualify for the next season #IWL. Matches are happening in Bengaluru and streamed on @IndianFootball YT and @SportsKPI YT

Down there squad of the Indian U17 Girls Squad. Also the state representation of the players @Doppelg40906183 @NavinSports Source @IndianFootball

The #IWL2 Final Round kicks off on May 2 in Bengaluru 🏆 6 teams. 2 promotion spots. 1 champion. Watch every game live on the #IndianFootball YouTube Channel 📺

Officially kicking off the #IWL second phase tomorrow ⚽️ Here are the revised kick-off timings for Thursday 🆚 Watch all games live on the #IndianFootball YouTube Channel 📺

Sribhumi FC have brought in the Ghanaian duo who have earlier played in IWL. Philomena Abakah played for Kickstart, while Veronica Appiah played for Gokulam Kerala. Appiah was instrumental in Gokulam’s 2nd place GS finish in the 2023 AFC Club Champ.

Sesa FA had earlier brought Sangita Monger from Bhutan, and have also brought in Kenya’s Maurine Achieng, who had played for East Bengal in IWL last season.

#IWL transfers for 2nd phase Lot for activity from 6 teams except the top 2 East Bengal & Sethu, ahead of March week 8 and have brought in new reinforcements in the mid season transfer window. As of updated on CMS

@indiafemmefooty Yeah I think she and Renuka were there, finished as runners-up. Gokulam’s Bhandari ran rampage then.

@alnshbdr Sara Limbu started for Kickstart I think 2 to 3 seasons ago.

23 #YoungTigresses ready to roar. 🐯 This is India's squad for #U17WAC 🇮🇳 More details 🔗 bit.ly/4u6gJD7 #AsiaDream #IndianFootball

@indiafemmefooty I think AIFF in an article last year mentioned this fixture as the women’s Kolkata derby after Sribhumi got promoted. Ofc this is also due to the longtime absence of the other club.

And #IWL starts back for the 2nd phase with a Kolkata derby!