What I thought I would find was a black and white
city, with slum dwellings here and there and hand pulled rickshaws, an image I
had of Kolkata from the 70s movies.
On my trip I witnessed the unexpected and well
unfortunately it wasn’t one of my best trips. Even though, Kolkata is a city
everyone needs to explore. And by explore I mean see the sights not the
metropolis arcades.
It all started when my friends and I at IIMC packed
our bags and took a bus from Cuttack to Kolkata for a 3 day trip.
The bus halted at Babu Ghat bus terminus near Eden
Gardens and the view was not at all black and white. It was 5 in the morning
and I was wide awake taking in the beautiful vista. From there it was dumping
our bags at our abodes and exploring the bustling streets of New Market and
Park Street.
Day 1, we couldn’t explore too much and that
dampened our spirits and we all became grumpy and cranky because of our
unplanned spree. But the day had not ended and we feasted our eyes at the
photogenic yet distinctly seedy vantage point, the Princep Ghat. The Hooghly
River, a distributary of the Ganges, below the impressive elegant Vidyasagar
Setu suspension bridge was a spectacle in the evening. We were lucky
enough to witness the day of kali Visarjan where devotees plunged the divine puja images
into Hooghly waters. From there it was an evening well spent with a boat ride
down the river, which washed away all the tautness we had from earlier.
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| Vidyasagar Setu, also known as the Second Hooghly Bridge. |
Dinner
at KFC was longed-for as we are the famished souls from Dhenkanal, who crave for
fast food day after day.
So, you see, it was something of a
relief for me to be delivered from the clutter, filth, and dilapidation to the
relative urbanity of Calcutta. As my trip was urban focused I missed out on the
exploring part, which by the way no passionate traveller should do.
The second day started on a good
note, with Science City on the agenda. We boarded a traditional tram from Park
Street to Park Circus to get the feel of the heritage rich city and then took a
cab to reach Science City which is at the crossing of Eastern Metropolitan Bypass and J B S Haldane avenue. It indeed was a city in itself. We took the
ropeway to go inside which was an exhilarating experience. The earth
exploration hall and the evolution park were a feast to the eyes and food for
the brain. The artificial dinosaurs and the evolution of humans were worth
admiring. In the science park we played and had fun like a bunch of kids
enjoying each minute in Kolkata, the City of Joy.
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Science City, Kolkata-the largest science centre in the Indian subcontinent
|
One of the main hurdles in Kolkata
was lack of transportation. We had a hard time commuting and since we were on a
tight budget we couldn’t book a cab for the whole day. This meant that we
couldn’t explore the whole city which extends from North to south Kolkata in
such a short time.
Day 3 came and we marched our way
to the famous and beautiful Victoria Memorial Hall, a memorial building
dedicated to Victoria, Queen of
the UK. Oh yes, a tourist attraction it was. With extravagant gardens spread
around the vicinity and a museum containing a large collection of memorabilia
relating to Queen Victoria and the British presence in India and other work of
arts, The Victoria Memorial with its royal gallery was a sight to
behold.
 |
The magnificent gardens that surround the Memorial Hall
|
The façade standing tall containing
major collection of paintings, sculptures and manuscripts from the British
period and made with White Makrana marbles was inaugurated in the year 1921 and
certain additions were made in the later years.
 |
Mesmerizing Beauty Of Victoria Memorial
|
Exhausted from roaming the great
halls inside, we looked forward to the tanga ride (horse cart ride) on the busy
roads near Victoria memorial which was a royal feeling in itself. Enjoying the refreshing
breeze in our faces and drinking the lemonade, we had a priceless time and some
of us wanted another go on the tanga.
 |
| Riding on traditional Tanga (Horse cart) |
But our hungry stomachs goaded us towards a food joint,
Arsalan, on Park Street which is famous for its Calcutta Biryani. It was the first time I tasted this kind of Biryani,
which uses Potato along with meat and is much lighter on spices than compared
to other Biryani's. I was not
disappointed as everything we ordered, including kebabs and chicken, was
delicious. The restaurant was moderately priced and is the perfect place to
savour one of the best biryanis in the city, according to my Bong friends.
After wandering around the city more, we went to the
Xavier’s college which had a great infrastructure and since one of my friends
completed her graduation from here, it was imperative that we went there and
honestly we didn’t regret visiting the place as it was one of the most
beautiful colleges I have ever seen.
Dropping in at a café to please our urban needs we
chit chatted and relaxed a bit.
After that it was time to say goodbye to the
culturally rich city and so we boarded a bus from Babu Ghat bus terminus and slept
our way to Cuttack.
It was an enjoyable experience what with the company
of friends and the travelling binge but honestly we needed to delve into the
city a bit more.
Actually, a lot more.
A key to my freedom
