Kolkata(originally known as Calcutta), capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, former capital of India, is one of the 6 metros of India. Also known as the cultural capital of India, sometimes city of joy, city of festivals, Calcutta as a city still depicts as a true cultural, political, festive and an antique city in India. Almost 300 years old, Calcutta has really grown with ages and diversities, and is currently trying to compete head to head with other metros in India in terms of development too.
I Worked and stayed for almost 3 and half years in this joyous city and could say in short, there are a lot of things that we can learn from this lovely city. For those who are planning a short trip or a vacation in Calcutta, I would like to bring this post as an initial opening, wherein one can get an overall idea about the city. Soon I will be adding more contents to the discussion. It has literally become my second home now.
As a city to visit, Calcutta is not short of places to visit, and is arguably India’s best food hub.
I will be dividing this post into 4 parts:
Part 1: This part will cover the major places to visit in Calcutta and various city monuments
Part 2: This part will cover the details about the city of festival
Part 3: This part will describe the city as arguably the best food hub of India.
Part 4: This part will describe the city mad about sports (especially football and cricket)

Part 1 will be covered in this post and Part 2, 3 and 4 in the next.

Part 1: Places to visit:
In brief here is a short list of places that immediately attracts tourists:
1) Victoria Memorial
2) Birla Planetarium
3) Botanical Garden
4) Maidan (also known as Garer Maatth)
5) Dakshineshwar (Shiv temple)
6) Belur math (Headquarter of Ram Krishna Mission)
7) Ghats of Hooghly river( Ganges is better known as Hooghly in west Bengal-Princep ghat, Outram ghat etc)
8) Indian Museum
9) Swabhumi
10) IT city salt lake and Rajarhat
11) Esplanade Market (Dhamatala), Park street, Dalhousie, Writer’s Building
12) Eden Gardens
13) Kalighat Temple
14) Trams of Calcutta and Calcutta Metro. (more…)

In August I visited Kolkata along with my parents. Our schedule was just full of meeting friends and relatives. We had just one day to do sightseeing around Kolkata. So here is an account of my trip.

Day 1 – 13th Aug 2009:- Mumbai Howrah Mail reaches Howrah at 5.50 am as per Indian Railways. But the moment it entered Howrah’s  nearby region, there was no line clearance and the train started moving at snail’s pace. We reached at 8.30 am!!

Then there was the long queue at the prepaid taxi booth. (If you don’t go by prepaid, the taxi drivers will fleece you).

That is a view of the red building of Howrah Station and The Howrah Bridge

(more…)