Kolkata & Calcutta
Enjoy Kolkata and create memories of a lifetime in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Relive history or just relax on the banks of the Ganges. Explore a cultural hub of art and entertainment, or check out the many famous landmarks around the city.
The columns provide a sequence of places to visit and enjoy. Colonial, bengali, historic, ethnic, modern, religious, oriental, tag them what you like - but these are what makes Calcutta Kolkata and Kolkata Calcutta to me.
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The Images and Tags are linked to info pages and Google Maps will inevitably guide you to them.
Kolkata Kalikata or Kalkatta the name is as varied as the city's inhabitants. All derivatives of Kalikshetra meaning “the land of Kali". Kali the pre-Aryan goddess of Indian mythology.
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The city is dotted with many temples dedicated to this ferocious mother goddess in a strange pose. The dark mother with her overhanging tongue symbolises an eternal contrition. Try these temples at Kalighat, Thanthania and Dakhineshwar to experience a heady (and sweaty) humanity that remains un-sanitised, raw.
Kalighat
Dakhineshwar
Thanthania
Parshwanath
But its not only Kali that dots Kolkata the other sacred gems include the ​Jain temples of Parshwanath and Sitalnath.
Sitalnath
And the Synagogues .....
And the Cathedral and Churches .....
Calcutta was the Jewel in the Crown of the British Empire for 221 years. The Anglophilic imprint is evident in the colonial architecture, culture, cuisine and other idiosyncrasies of the City. But that Anglicised Calcutta has finally made way for a modern Kolkata of the 21st century.
Victoria Memorial
The relics of the past has blended with ethnic modernism, apparent in its ever changing skyline.
Vidyasagar Setu
Old palaces, buildings and shanties have all democratically made way for sky scrapers, malls and fly-overs - obscuring and burying the past, somewhat. But its all still there. You'll just have to scrape the surface and they will come gushing forth - yielding the secrets, telling you their fascinating stories.
Jorasanko
And like the phoenix, that old Calcutta has re-emerged in Kolkata - reviving the past and contextualising the present.
Bosu Vigyan Mandir
