Weekend-Kolkata

Victoria Memorial, a perfect example of beauty and grace

Summer Vacation: The trademark edifice of Kolkata – Part – VI

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The Victoria Memorial stands tall at the heart of the city, as a perfect example of beauty and grace. A trip to Kolkata is incomplete without visiting Victoria Memorial. You always expect there is something special whenever you will go to any new place, as well as your eagerness to explore the new place a lot more. However, there is a possibility that you may still feel a little unfulfilled, may think that few things will be skipped or missed entirely. Apart from the above, you can visit Rabindra Sadan, which is a cultural centre and theatre, located near the Nandan cinema (a cultural complex) or the Academy of Fine Arts. All these are just a stone-throw away distance from Victoria Memorial.

The city offers almost everything for everyone. Depending on your choice and interest, you can plan your trip accordingly

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Burha luit tumi Burha luit buwa kiyo?

Summer Vacation: A beautiful river and a few Necklaces – IV

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These are some of the places of Kolkata, which you may like to visit if you travel to the city. There are good and there will be bad things in any city. There are plenty of examples or perception to believe the city is not worth a visit or a second look. Whatever I find attractive, may not be as attractive to you. Everyone has their own rights to judge things differently. However, there are so many places around in any city, not in Kolkata alone, to come and explore.

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The Seige & Tragedy of Lucknow’s Residency – A History Lesson

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As you enter the main gate of Residency, the din of Lucknow city recedes until just the distant hum of traffic remains. It is a quite green oasis in the middle of cacophany that Lucknow is today. The pervading hush makes it hard to believe that this eerily quite place was witness to one of the bloodiest fights of Indian Mutiny of 1857. This is nature’s way of soothing the Residency with eternal balm and tranquility to anesthetize the tumultous past. The dewy green grass absorbs the shock of looking at the cannon scarred red brick walls. Most of the buildings are heavily damaged with few having roofs.

Barring the green grass, it seems that the siege ended just yesterday. The shattered walls carry the echoes of tragedy, doom, valour, disease and gore. Walk the grounds and you are immediately transported to those turbulent days. Residency is a sprawling compound with neat manicured gardens. Signs indicate the names of various buildings. During the rains, the green moss covering the red brick broken walls lends an exquisite charm to the place. Spend some time in the museum. The church’s cemetry has the graves of about 2000 people including Lawrence. Visit Nawab Saadat Ali Khan’s Tomb. Stay back for the light and sound show in the evening.

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Travel to Konark Sun Temple and Puri

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We decided to relax for couple of hours before we pay our visit to Puri temple. Finally we went for Darshan at 7 pm and it took us hardly 10 minutes get inside the Garbha Grih. Now here is the word of caution, the religious place is a house notorious panda’s and one has to be careful dealing with them. One of them took us to small room within the temple premise and forced us to pay him huge in order to get the blessings. Since we were well aware, we avoided that well within time and moved ahead. Such panda’s were there every meter, and they kept asking for donation in the name of god. Note: I am not calling them as priest as they don’t behave like.

The temple complex is beautiful from inside, having many small temples, very similar to any other temple in India. The structure is inspired by Kalinga art, and it is the highest temple in Orissa from the sea level. Details of origin and legend can be obtained from shrine’s official website.

In the evening we had an early dinner and went to sleep as the day ahead was packed with action.

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Summer Vacation – A trip to Bakkhali, the Delta of Ganges & my childhood place

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After a full 3 hours in the sea and breakfast, we went to visit Henry’s island (2 km) – a must visit place. During 1980s, the West Bengal Fisheries Department took the initiative of turning Henry’s Island into a tourist spot. More than 50 ponds were dug under pisciculture project, occupying over 25 bigha on 100-hectare of land. Fresh fish and shrimps straight out the ponds are a must try for the visitors. Trees such as gora, kankru, palm, naturally growing sundari and hetal have been planted.

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Summer Vacation – a wonderful run through NH-2 from the Ghats of Varanasi to Home – Part II

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I went to check whether they washed the car or not, as promised yesterday. The outer body of the car looks like we just finished, sorry ‘Won’ the cross-country rally…several layers of dust all around the body and required a considerable amount of time and efforts to bring it back to its’ original colour. The security guard was of immense help and cleaned the car within next half an hour.

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Hundred in Gangtok – Part 5 (Final)

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But me and my camera was not having any desire of sleeping as I wanted to capture the beautiful Teesta river in my eyes as well in the camera lens. The views from the bus window were amazing. Early morning, cloudy weather, green high mountains and flowing Teesta; I could not ask more from the Nature. I clicked endless photographs. After some time it started raining which made the surrounding more beautiful. Around 7.30 we stopped in the middle near a small tea shop just near the banks of the Teesta. It was a great experience to have tea on the banks of Teesta while is was raining outside.

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Hundred in Gangtok – Part 4

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The very first place to visit was Tashi View Point. It was around a distance of 7 km from our hotel. It is an observation point at an altitude of 6000 ft developed be erstwhile king of Sikkim, Tashi Namgyal. On clear days in early morning, this is the best place in Gangtok to view the mighty Mount Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world. One final destination still remained to visit and it was Ban Jhakhri Falls. It is a theme park surrounded by lush green forest on the outskirts of Gangtok.

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