Kolkata - Drive, Design and Connect

I went to Kolkata with my friends in holidays. We went there via railways, I still remember the great journey from New Delhi to Howrah through Rajdhani Express. We were three friends who agreed to visit Kolkata after a fierce debate. We want to travel to a city we have never been to. But this doesn't mean us to go to a lonely island. We preferred the city that must be well connected with the rest other parts of India and with good roads to drive on because we didn't want our body to be shaken by jerky roads while travelling the city. Kolkata was an ideal choice for us to enjoy our holidays.

While reaching the Howrah junction, first we kept noticing the size of the station, the number of platforms and the number of people. I at once said this is too big! All my friends agreed. We also noticed the design and cleanliness of Howrah Junction. It is very much common to the Grand Central station of New York. While we were enjoying the beauty of Howrah junction, one of my friend brought four cups of tea with the “Indian Railways” logo. After taking a sip of that tea, we realised that it was one of the worst tea we ever had. None of us agreed to sip it once again. After the tea, we didn't look Howrah junction's beauty anymore. It took half an hour to exit.

It was approx 11 am on the clock. We took a yellow taxi from the taxi stand which was painted yellow from the car parked there. The driver was the bonus because he was also a travel guide for us. While travelling from Howrah to Kolkata, we saw the famous Howrah Bridge and noticed its unique structure. We spared some moment at the Strand Road Riverfront from where we could see an incredible visual of Howrah Bridge. Then we roamed around the city of palaces and noticed the buildings of British colonial era architectural design when Kolkata was the capital of British India. But what we liked the most was the Victoria Memorial. It was Lord Curzon's idea to build a memorial to the Empress of India and queen of United Kingdom, Queen Victoria after her death in 1901 which was modelled on the Taj Mahal. We kept looking its aesthetic design which was driving us crazy. We wanted to go inside but we didn't have much time to invest just looking a building and seriously we had no interest in history at that moment. we had to leave for Delhi in the next morning and so we moved on after taking some pictures of the Victoria Memorial.

Our travel guide cum driver suggested us to visit Alipore zoo. We agreed and he took us there. The zoo was quite big and has many lakes. We saw birds, rhinoceros, giant tortoise, and of course our trademark the royal Bengal tigers. We saw the sunset while we were relaxing near one of the lakes in the Alipore zoo. Then we asked our driver to take us to a budget hotel where we can stay the night. He took us to the Free School Street where we got a hotel where we stayed. In the morning, we left to the Howrah Station to catch the same train to Delhi.

Kolkata holidays will always be remembered by us. We connected very well to the people of Kolkata despite having some difficulty with language. I want to give two suggestion to you if you are planning to travel Kolkata. First, people talking to each other peacefully can appear to be quarrelling but they're not. And the second, don't mess up with anyone who is a fan of 'didi' or 'dada'. In a nutshell, I can say that Kolkata is Made of Great!

This post has been written for Indiblogger contest and Tata Motors campaign #madeofgreat.

Comments

The Indian Society And The Struggle Of Our Sports Fraternity

India, the world’s second-most populous nation, fails to show its dominance in sports. In fact, India's performance remains terrible except in few games. So, what's holding India back when it comes to competing in world sporting events like the Olympics? First, it's the conservative Indian mindset of the Indian society. You might be aware of the saying in India “ Padhoge likhoge banoge Nawab, kheloge kudoge banoge kharab ” which translates to “You can be a king if you study, can be spoilt if you play games.” Social life of a person who took the plunge of making a career in sports in India can be challenging and demotivating. An Indian parents or teachers, being part of the society, don't consider sports as a career. They have the biggest influence in a child's future ambitions. They may scold the child that “playing a sport will get you nowhere in life, but to make a life you need to be good in academics”. In other words, young Indians are discouraged from playing s...

My Tribute To The Missile Man Of India

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was his name, like his 'big name' he leaves behind a very big legacy which cannot be forgotten. He was an example for the underprivileged children that just by will-Power and determination you can reach the top post. The thing matter is "your dream" and how much you work to achieve your dream. If you have a legitimate dream and at night you are not enjoying a sound sleep because you want to achieve that dream as soon as possible, then nothing can stop you from achieving your dream. In his words: "Dream is not that you see in the sleep, but it is something that does not allow you to sleep." There was nothing negative about him. Everything he said or done had a positive impact to such extent that he was elected as 11th President of India unusually by the BJP and Congress together. The awards he got from Government of India includes — Padma Bhushan in 1981, Padma Vibhushan in 1990, Bharat Ratna in 1997 and Veer Sa...

IS SECULARISM FADING AWAY?

First, a disclosure: I am a Hindu and have full faith in Hinduism but to show my faith I don't stoop to blaspheme other religions and troll using foul and filthy language on social media like some sick people who consider themselves as the biggest follower of Hinduism but actually insults it. I boast of Indian secularism and our constitution has a very important place for it as we know there is a huge cultural, linguistic and religious diversity exists in India. Since Independence, we never had a muscular secularism in which minorities have to live in fear. Anyone can practice any religion of his/her choice. But the present scenario in India is somewhat disturbing. Some nominal Hindu groups are making full efforts to make India as a Hindu Nation . Our prime minister does not speak to these issues and stick to his development agenda while opposition parties which call themselves as secular (probably because of vote-banks) demand an answer directly from PM and disrupt the parli...

Why India Couldn't Compete The Developed World At Olympics?

India has, over the years, struggled to find medal-winning athletes for the Olympic Games. Let's take a look at the past performances of our players and team. As an independent country, India won the first gold medal in 1948 in field hockey defeating Great Britain in the final. In the subsequent years, the expectation of medal was from our hockey team alone. After winning gold in 1980, the hockey team went downhill. Several times after 1980, Indian contingents have to come back empty-handed with a few exceptions in between. We have been helplessly standing close to the bottom in the league of third world countries. India saw a watershed performance at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where Abhinav Bindra stunned everyone and became the first Indian to bag an individual Olympic gold along with wrestler Sushil Kumar and boxer Vijender Singh winning bronze medal. Only four years later, a large 83-member contingent from India took part in the London Olympics, while setting a new bench...

Nuclear Friction - Are We Moving Towards Nuclear Doomsday?

It was a moment of joy for the North Koreans when they heard the news that North Korea has successfully tested H-bomb on January 6th and thus “guaranteed the eternal future of the nation”. But it was also a shocking and despairing moment for others. Followed by the claim, came the condemnation from most other countries of the world including US, Japan, South Korea, and even China (supposed friend of N. Korea). But it was not unexpected that the North Koreans will do a further nuke test after the three previous ones in 2006, 2009 and 2013. But nobody on this earth, or even in space, thought that they would be able to do an H-bomb test. It was a second nuclear test only in four years during the rule of Kim Jong Un, the young head of the mafia family that controls North Korea is a sobering reminder of the progress that three generations of Kims have made in expanding their nuclear capability—despite outside efforts to curb it. Few think that North Korea has yet managed t...

The Magical Castle - Unravelling The Myth

One day, Peter and team decided to give a final try and search the deepest part of the sea. Sadie noticed that there was a large number of aquatic animals moving in and out of a particular place. On further inquiry, she saw a castle, yes it was the magical castle. She felt immense pleasure to see it. She also saw a whale there. She informed Peter about this. Peter and John came there with swords and harpoon, hidden with them. They sent Sadie back to the ship for her safety. As they move forward, Octo uncle saw them and he at once spilled ink as a mark of danger to alert everyone there. Then, came the orca out of the ink to attack them. They moved back in three different directions. The orca chose John and started chasing him. John realised that he can't swim faster than a Whale. So, he aimed the harpoon towards Orca and shot it one after another. This made the orca even more aggressive. John realised that it is his last breath when the aggressive whale was mere 2 ft distance fro...

Bihar Liquor Ban - The Political Perspective

Whether you call it Nitish Kumar's masterstroke for gaining publicity and support of people or a responsible chief minister batting for people's interests, on the face of it, it is great that Bihar is free from alcohol abuse. The Bihar excise (amendment) act, 2016 – a very old 1915 act has been converted into a very stringent law – is haunting the alcohol gang of Bihar. This law banned manufacturing, selling or consumption of liquors (strong or mild) and even prescribes the death penalty for the manufacturer, suppliers and sellers of hooch in case of death as a result of consumption of spurious liquors. Although Biharis can drink outside state boundary, they'll be punished if they create nuisance after returning home. The government had actually proposed to ban only 'desi' liquors. The sale of non-country or ‘Indian Made Foreign Liquor’ (IMFL) was allowed, although, with some caveats. However, within five days, the government extended the ban to IMFL as w...

The Sunshine Within You

Search This Blog