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Published: October 20th 2008
Both Sunjay and I wanted to see the places we read about in the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. It is also Durga Puja time in Kolkota. Since Maya had a week off for Navaratri, we decided to take a trip to Kolkata, India's second largest city. We left on Saturday Oct 4th and got back on Tuesday Oct 10th. The text will be a bit long in this blog. This is mostly for me.
Many of India's great heroes during the Renaissance period and freedom movement were from Kolkata. There must be something in the water here that makes them great thinkers, inventors and revolutionaries. It was the British capital of India until 1911 and so there are many colonial buildings in the city. So there are so many things to see here. Kolkata has become one of my favorite cities to visit in India!! Kolkata is the capital of West Bengal which has mostly been a communist state since independence. Rent control laws that the communist government introduced backfired. Rents are so low (sometimes as little as 1 rupee) that the owners don't maintain properties.
There are many places in Kolkota where we could not take pictures. Not
a good thing for one with a bad memory (me)!!! I am still not used to calling Calcutta-Kolkata just as I am not used to calling Bangalore- Bengaluru. So I have had to correct myself many times so far.
There have been a series of terrorist attacks recently. So we asked Suvendu, our guide if this would be an issue during Durga Puja time. His reply was that a study concluded that Calcutta is safe from terrorist attacks since terrorists use it as a passageway. Not sure that alleviated our fears. BTW, our guide Suvendu was excellent. He has previously worked with National Geographic on a documentary about the Ganges. If you visit Calcutta (I am going to stop correcting it to Kolkata), ask for him.
We were on our way to Jayarambati (which is a beautiful drive by the way). We saw a Bihari family making clay pots for drinking tea. They only sell in bulk. When I asked them how much they would charge for 6, the lady went back inside and brought out 12 clay pots and refused to take any money from us. We have had many experiences like this where people who work
very hard to make ends meet don't think twice about being generous.
Maya's favorite place was a tearoom called
Flurys. It is 121 years old and was a favorite haunt of the British. We pretty much went there everyday during our stay in Calcutta and of course everything I ate was non-MA (Mark approved). Don't miss it! It is MA (Maya approved). We stayed at a hotel called Astor (an old colonial building). It was an ok hotel, but in a Central location (more importantly close to Flurys).
Kolkata was originally 3 villages - Sutanuti, Gobindapur and Kalikata which were signed over to the British. It was captured by Siraj-ud-daula in 1756. Robert Clive recaptured it for the British and later defeated Siraj-ud-Daula in the Battle of Plasey. It was the capital of British India. The British divided Bengal into West and East Bengal. It was unified in 1911 and the capital was shifted to Delhi after this. BTW, I remember reading all this in my history books and I hated history then. I really enjoyed learning history this way now. During partition, there were a lot of Hindu refugees that arrived from East Bengal. More refugees arrived
during the India-Pak war. Now, Calcutta gets a lot of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Now for the detailed report...
Netaji Bhavan The house of
Subhas Chandra Bose from where he fled. The car he fled in is on display at the house. We met a 10 year old boy who volunteered as a "guide" there. He would get upset when our guide started explaining anything.
-Bose was the 3rd Indian to join the Indian Civil Service (first was from Tagore's family).
-He didn't agree with Gandhi about using non-violence to gain independence. Bose said "If people slap you once, slap them twice" while Gandhiji said "If people slap you on one cheek, offer the other".
-When he took charge of the INA, a women's wing was introduced (possibly first in Asia).
Tagore's house Rabindranath Tagore's ancestral home was built by his grand-father Dwarakanath Tagore. The house is quite big and is built with a courtyard in the middle like traditional Calcutta homes (he enacted plays in the courtyard). It had been for some time the home of Rabindra Bharati University which was later moved when the ASI (Archeological survey of India) took over the building. I regretted not knowing Bengali
Netaji Bhavan
Subhas Chandra Bose's houseto enjoy the original works of Tagore. I thought of Suranjana many times at Tagore's house. I remembered the quote we wrote on the wall - Don't die before it is your time to die.
- Tagore had 15 siblings and dropped out of law school. He died at the age of 80.
- He was the first Asian to receive a Nobel prize. He was awarded the Nobel prize for literature for his collection of poems Gitanjali. Quite a few Nobel laureates from India have had something to do with Calcutta: Rabindranath Tagore, Amartya Sen, C.V. Raman (lived in Calcutta) and Mother Teresa
- He has written the national Anthem of both India and Bangladesh.
- He was conferred Knighthood by the British which he gave up after the Jalianwala Bagh massacre.
- They were Brahmo's. The first Brahmo marriage ceremony was conducted at this house.
- Tagore traveled extensively and had visited more than 30 countries. They owned a good collection of fine China. The dining table was interesting. Since they entertained a lot of Englishmen, the table was built to accommodate both Indian and western style dining.
- Some of Tagore's paintings and paintings of his contemporaries
are on display here.
- There is a picture of Einstein and Tagore, one with wacky hair and the other with a wacky beard 😊
- There are many other distinguished people from Tagore's family whose artifacts are on display here.
- The first female doctor was from Tagore's family (daughter-in-law). She had to go abroad to study since women were not allowed to study medicine in India
- I hope we get to see Shantiniketan someday
Hooghly river cruise Hooghly river is a distributory of river Ganga. It was quite muddy. There are some industries on the banks. At the end of the Durga Puja festivities, the idol is immersed here. There were several people bathing in the ghats. We got a view of the New Howrah bridge and the new bridge (Second Hughlee Bridge or Iswarchandra Vidyasagar Bridge) from here. The
Howrah bridge expands 4 feet in summer. It was built during World War II for soldiers to move tanks to Myanmar. Tata Steel (Jamshedpur) was used to build the bridge. There are a total of 5 bridges in Calcutta???. There are a lot of Hindi speaking folks from UP, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bihar in the town
of Howrah. Maya enjoyed the cruise.
Aurobindo Ashram Our hotel was right across the Aurobindo Ashram. So we walked there one Sunday morning. But many buildings were closed.
Aurobindo was a freedom fighter who later turned to spirituality. He was imprisoned in connection with the Alipur bomb case and was released with help from Chittaranjan Das. He started his Ashram in Pondicherry since it was a French colony.
Saurav's and Oh Calcutta!! Saurav is
Saurav Ganguly's restaurant. The food was not all that great. The ambiance could be better as well (it could have been a cricket theme). We only visited the 3rd floor. Perhaps the other 2 are better??
- We went to
Oh Calcutta!!! for lunch one day. The food was good.
Hilsa is a delicacy here. Hilsa like the salmon, live in the sea for most of its life, but migrates up to 1,200 km inland for spawning. Our daughter was better informed since she had read about it in a magazine!!! Surprisingly though, we were told that the fish that is sold in the fish markets come from Andhra Pradesh.
Belur Math Belur Math was started by Swami Vivekananda and the other 7
disciples on 108 acres of land. The disciples lived here after it was built. There are 155 Ramakrishna centers around the world and they all follow a similar architecture. The land here was raised since it is on the bank of the Ganges. It has never flooded since it was built. The stones came from Varanasi. Swami Vivekananda died here. There are temples of Sri Ramakrishna, Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda here. The temple is built using Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and Christian architectures.
No pictures allowed inside. It was crowded (as expected). They had a Durga Puja pandal inside.
Belur Math is on the banks of the Hooghly. One disappointing thing was that many people were using the river bank as a park and were having a picnic. There were people bathing in the river of course.
Sarada Math No, there is no Wikipedia page for Sarada Math. I really enjoyed our visit to Sarada Math. It was more personal for me, there were not as many people and Prav. Amalapranaji, (the general secretary) arranged for us to take prasad there since she knows mom and dad. Next time, I am taking a letter of recommendation that my mom asked
me to take!!!! The Math was one of my favorites on this trip.
Vivekananda House No Wikipedia page for this either. This place was another favorite for me. The house has been very nicely restored. It was very quiet and peaceful. I was impressed by the fact that Swami Vivekananda's mother wrote a book and could speak English. His father was a lawyer, a respectable profession in those days😊.
Vivekananda preached the doctrine of universal brotherhood. He went to the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago from Madras. Before his trip, he went to Kanyakumari. He died at the age of 39 because of renal failure.
Cossipore Garden This was very peaceful as well and I would have enjoyed it more if I was feeling better. Wish we could've spent more time here and gone here when there was light. A place I would like to revisit if possible!! Sri Ramakrishna spent the last days of his life here.
Jayrambati and Kamarpukur The drive to Jayrambati and Kamarpukur was very scenic. We drove by lush paddy fields and saw several potato growing and storage areas. There are also potato chip factories around here, Potatoes
were being sprayed with red brick powder to make them look like they came fresh from the field. We also drove by several families that were making clay pots used to drink tea. They were mostly from Bihar. I love these tea cups and got some from a Bihari family here. There were also fisherman fishing in the small ponds around the fields.
We also drove by the town of
Singur which is in the news a lot lately. Tata was going to manufacture its 2500$ car, the Tata Nano here. The opposition led by Mamata Banerjee opposed the move since this was very fertile land, farmers protested and so Tata decided to go to Gujarat instead. Sad thing is that the land cannot be given back to the farmers since the government has already acquired the land. Also, a study determined that the farmers were grossly underpaid for the land. So the farmers are left without their land and without the factory as well.
Kumarpukur (kamar is ironsmith) was the birthplace of Sri Ramakrishna. There were no pictures allowed inside here either. The house where he was born is preserved, along with the banyan tree, lake, garden,
Tagore's house
No pictures allowed inside. a shrine dedicated to Sri Ramakrishna, and a Shiva temple. We didn't visit any of the All Ramakrishna mission buildings are closed from 11:30-3:30. So we didn't spend a lot of time here.
Jayrambati is the birthplace of Sri Sarada Devi. We saw the place where Sri Sarada Devi was born, where her mother lived and so on. It was surprising to see vendors here, which never happens in Ramakrishna mission venues. In Kamarpukur, they stop issuing tickets for prasad at 9:00 AM, whereas they give tickets out till 12:00 here. So there was a long line for prasad. It was also very crowded. So we didn't spend a lot of time here. Where is the letter of introduction when I need it!!!!
Dakshineshwar Kali Temple This was Rani Rasmani's private temple and was opened to the public after Sri Ramakrishna's death. Sri Ramakrishna stopped the goat sacrifice ritual when he became the head priest. The architect was Macintosh Burns. The idol of Kali is built with 8 metals. I liked visiting the temple. Maya befriended a stray cat and dog here.
Victoria Memorial We had to rush through this since we didn't have enough time on the last day.
It was very good and I wish we could have spent more time here. Interestingly, Queen Victoria never visited India. There is a room depicting the history of Calcutta, paintings, and artifacts used during the British period. It was built using the same marble as in Taj Mahal.
Mother Teresa's house
This was one of my favorites in Calcutta. We attended morning prayers for a few minutes and rushed through the museum since we went there on the last day. Wish we could have spent more time here.
Kumartuli This is a potters town where idols are made for the various pujas. What was interesting were the conditions the potters and their families lived in. The place was extremely dirty. They made beautiful idols though.
Durga Puja We were lucky to be in Calcutta during Durga Puja time. The pandals were very interesting. There were pandals with different themes: global warming, tata nano, Hampi etc. There was even one where there were no idols, but people standing dressed as the gods and goddesses. It was interesting to see how folks just open their homes for people to come in and see the idols during this time. We visited some
He must be pulling at least 150 Kilos!!
A possible solution to the rising gas prices houses and some pandals. There was one house (Rani Rasmani's) where the married women in the family dance with fire pots on their heads. Kumari puja (a girl below the age of 12 is worshiped) is performed by some.
According to our guide, the first one that was held inside was as a kind of thanksgiving when Robert Clive defeated Siraj-ud-daula. Nabakrishna and his friends were sent away when they wanted to see the idol. So they decided to celebrate Durga puja outside with their friends. We visited the traditional pandal. Ganesha (mouse), Karthikeya (peacock), Laxmi(owl), Saraswati(swan), Durga (lion) and Mahishasura are usually the idols in the pandals. In the traditional one, Laxmi always has a golden face, Saraswati white and Mahishasura green and it is against a single backdrop.
National Library
Cookie Man
Other tidbits, famous Bengalis Raja Ram Mohan Roy: Abolished Sati and Antar Jal Yatra. He was influenced by the Protestantt movement.
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar : Brought about changes in women's education and widow remarriage
Keshab Chandra Sen a very controversial person. He later met Sri Ramakrishna
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Sare Jahan Se Accha was written by Mohammed Iqbal who was involved in the Independence movement but llater wanted the India-Pak partition. However, the song continues to be
popular in India
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Vande Materam was written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and is the National song of India. From the wikipedia page: "In 2003, BBC World Service conducted an international poll to choose ten most famous songs of all time. Around 7000 songs were selected from all over the world. According to BBC, people from 155 countries/island voted. Vande Mataram was second in top 10 songs."
-We got to drive on a stretch of the
Grand trunk road which is the longest and oldest road in Asia. It is 150 years old and runs all the way from Bengal to Peshawar.
- Englishman William Benting although British started schools in India. Until Queen Victoria, Indians had equal opportunity. Queen Victoria didn't want the British to get involved in social and religious activities of the natives.
- There is a Gun and Shell factory where Kalashnikov s are manufactured???
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Bethune College - First college for women in India
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Eden Garden - Oldest cricket stadium in India and second largest. It can seat 100,000 people.
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Jagadish Chandra Bose - The first Indian to receive a US patent. He was recognized later to have the discovery of radio along with Marconey. He also discovered that plants have
life and found a way to measure height increase of plants and trees per day.
- Town Hall: Was used as a ball room during British time. Tagore was facilitated here after he won the Nobel prize.
- We also saw the Treasurer's building, governor's house (Gandhi's grandson is currently the governor), Writers building Headquarters of British India when Calcutta was capital?), High Court, Hindu school, Presidency College, Coffee house etc on College Street, Red tank (mix red dye during holi), HSBC building, St Andrews Church
- St John's church - Oldest Anglican church in Calcutta. The land was donated by Navjeevan who was Warren Hasting's teacher???. Charnock's mausoleum is inside. He opposed Sati and married a widow.
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National Library: The biggest library in India. Every book published in India can be found here. Even mum's book in Kannada is in the library.
- Tipu Sultan mosque: After Tippu was defeated, a lot of his descendants moved to Calcutta. It is the biggest mosque in Calcutta.
- Our guide told us that the maidan is army property. Horses and goats can feed here for 8 Rs/goat/year. That was funny!!!
- Famous football clubs are Mohan Bagan, Mohammadean Club and East
Bengal.
Lessons learned - I should make notes as I go along. Lot of places don't allow pictures
- We spent too much time in Netaji Bhavan and Tagore's house the first day and had to rush through Victoria Memorial and Mother Teresa's house on the last day.
- We didn't have any time for shopping . I wanted to buy Tagore and Mother Teresa books.
- We should have taken a letter from the Ashram so we didn't have to stand in lines. I have to go back with mom to see the rest of the places.
- We should not have taken Maya. Although she remembers a lot of things from what we saw, she was a bit bored, but was a very good sport. She missed Freckles a lot and started petting stray cats and dogs in Calcutta.
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Nibedita Ghosh
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Fascinating images of Sri Aurobindo
Photo of Aurobindo Memorial is really fascinating. I am overwhelmed to see.