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From Boat - SBI building on right side |
Dhanbad Express was a bit late to reach Howrah. We booked
a room in a hotel – the same hotel we used on last Thursday; and then started
our journey.
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Inside the boat |
Crossing Hooghly in a Boat
This time our first destination was Prinsep ghat. From Howrah
Jetty ferries are available to cross the river. Me and Antony bought tickets
for one such boat to reach the other side. After some 5 minutes, our boat came.
Slowly we crossed Hooghly – through the waters which carry the stories of thousands
of kilometers and millions of people.
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Rusting - keeping the memory alive |
After a while we reached Babu Ghat. After having lemon soda
mixed with Jal Jeera, we started walking towards Princep Ghat.
Prinsep Ghat
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In memory of one of India's great historian |
Before going further let me tell you something about James
Prinsep (Prinsep Ghat is named after him). This person completely changed the
way we, India's, understand our history. By profession he was an assay master.
James Prinsep started his career at Calcutta mint. Later he moved to Banaras
mint. In 1830, after the closure of Benares mint, he moved back to Calcutta and
joint in Calcutta mint and later became an assay master there.
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Me..... |
"In 1832 Prinsep succeeded H.H. Wilson as secretary
of Asiatic Society of Bengal... contributed articles on chemistry, mineralogy,
numismatics and on the study of Indian antiquities... Coins were Prinsep's
first interest. He interpreted doing from Bactria and Kushan as well as Indian
series coins, including "punch-marked" ones from the Gupta series.
Prinsep suggested that there were three stages; the punch-marked, the die-struck,
and the cast coins." - Wikipedia.
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At Pricept Ghat |
I think his most important contribution for India is the
deciphering of Kharoshthi using bi-lingual Indo-Greek coins and Brahmi script.
"In a series of results that he published between 1836–38
he was able to decipher the inscriptions on rock edicts found around India. The
edicts in Brahmi script mentioned a King Devanampriya Piyadasi which Prinsep
initially assumed was a Sri Lankan king. He was then able to associate this
title with Asoka on the basis of Pali script from Sri Lanka communicated to him
by George Turnour. These scripts were found on the pillars at Delhi and
Allahabad and on rock inscriptions from both sides of India, and also the
Kharosthi script in the coins and inscriptions of the north-west. The idea of
Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, a collection of Indian epigraphy, was first
suggested by Prinsep and the work was formally begun by Sir Alexander
Cunningham in 1877. His studies on inscriptions helped in the establishment of
date of Indian dynasties based on references to Antiochus and other Greeks...
Prinsep also delved into the early history of Afghanistan, producing several
works that touched on archaeological finds in that country. Many of the
collections were sent by Alexander Burnes." - Wikipedia.
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Small caravans... |
Palladian porch where we were standing in Prinsep Ghat,
on the banks of Hooghly River and close to a suspension bridge across Howrah -
was designed by W. Fitzgerald in 1843 and erected by citizens of Calcutta in
memory of James Prinsep.
After sitting there for some time, watching floated iron
structures in the river and vehicles moving across the bridge we left the ghat
and reached main road.
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A view from flyover - one of that big building in the background belongs to Tata Steel |
Fort William
This historical building is one of the prime witness of
British Rule in India. Unfortunately, this building is no more accessible to public.
Victoria memorial - Emperor and Empress
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The last remains of a bygone era - Victoria Memmorial @ Kolkata |
From Princep Ghat we moved towards Victoria Memorial –
probably the most iconic building ruling the Kolkata Skyline.
“The building is 184 ft high upto the base of the figure
of Victory, which is another 16 ft high. The groups of figures above the north
porch represent Motherhood, Prudence and Learning. Surrounding the main dome
are figures of Art, Architecture, Justice, Charity etc. The Memorial is
situated on a 64 acres of land with the building covering 338 ft by 228ft…Curzon
insisted that the Memorial should be built of white marble, and in the event
the stone was brought from the same quarries in Makrana, Rajasthan, that
supplied Shah Jahan.” - http://www.victoriamemorial-cal.org/architecture.html
St Paul's church
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Calm and quiet - British era church - St. Pauls |
From Victoria Memorial we walked towards St Paul’s
church. This is one of the oldest and beautiful church in Kolkata. I liked the
church from at the first sight itself.
We were hungry and thirsty after the long walk all the
way from Babu Ghat through the sides of EdenGarden, Judges Ghat, Princep Ghat,
Fort William and Victoria Memorial. Water from the tap in front of church
tasted like nectar from heaven :).
We went inside. There were a lot of tablets pasted in the
wall to honor British War Heros. After reading descriptions given in some of
the tablets I walked towards the prayer room and sat in a table at one end. It
didn't take much time for me to sleep. I never believed that I could sleep so
quickly. While sleeping our entire journey from Bangalore, train, Kolkata,
Patna, Pawapuri, Ragjir etc moved in front my eyes as a slow-motion movie. In
between I woke up and looked towards Antony, he was sleeping - with his eyes wide
open. I slept (in sitting mode) for some more time and then we left the church.
It was so calm inside - big building, some 10-15 people.
Hardly anyone made sound, except a young girl in her late teens. Her friend, sitting
next, was trying to console her. But that sad, fragile sobbing sound continued
till we were thre.
Birla Planetarium
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Where you can see the sky - Nabho Sparsham Deeptham |
Planetarium is located right in front of the church.
There was already a long queue, hence we didn't try our luck there. We walked
forward. I was eager to reach Ho Chi Minn Sarani. You may be wondering why I am
so eager to reach there. ok, let me tell you that story as well.
US Department's second oldest consulate is located in
Kolkata, in an area called Harrington Street. Date goes back to November 19,
1792. When communist government came to power in West Bengal, they renamed the street
to 'Ho Chi Minh Sarani', in memory of Vietnam National Hero... Ironically,
mails to US Consulate in Calcutta during Vietnam War had to carry the address
of their greatest nemesis.
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An empress who ruled the world |
Post-independence many roads and streets in Kolkata got
new names.
Chowringhee Road became Jawaharlal Nehru Road; Park
Street was renamed after Mother Teresa; Theatre Road was renamed after William
Shakespeare (an exception!!! interestingly there wasn't any street named after
Shakespeare during more than two century long British Raj; Harrington Street
was renamed after the leader of the Vietnam independence movement, Ho Chi Minh.
Camac Street has been renamed after great artist Abanindranath Tagore; Russell
Street became Anandi Lal Poddar Street. Free School Street was renamed after
the Urdu/ Persian poet Mirza Ghalib. Kyd Street was renamed Dr. Md. Ishaque
Road. Lindsay Street was renamed after Nellie Sengupta so on and so forth
(courtesy for data: Wikipeida)
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Me... |
After walking through Camac street we reach Park street
and had Pizza from a near-by Pizza Hut.
Kalighat
Then we went to Park Street Station and took metro to
reach Kalighat station. After passing through a number of stations, we finally reached
Kalighat and climbed the steps to reach main road. After checking Nokia Maps
again we started walking towards the temple. In front of a bakery we met one
person who, without asking, told that the shortcut to the temple is on left
side. I checked the map again, it showed a line which ends up somewhere. It may
be a shortcut, we started walking through that road.
That guy also followed us, why? To get dakshina when we
reach the temple? I developed a particular resistance against these type of
practices after the incident on Hot Springs at Rajgir. So we tried to avoid him
by walking fast, he too increased speed. So we walked slow and allowed him to
overtake us. Interestingly he waited (for us?) at next turn. Finally we ignored
him. Rest of the path to the temple was densely populated by small stores.
After ignoring a lot of offers for easy darshan we finally reached the temple
gate and I went inside.
There was not much crowd inside the temple. I reached sanctum
and prayed in front of Kolkata Kali. Her face looked ferocious, deadly for enemies
and friendly for allies.
From the temple we walked towards the next Metro train
station. On the way we had ras malai as well, sweet and costly :) We had only
limited time left in Kolkata, probably a couple of hours were there for our
train to start the journey towards Bangalore. What to do next?
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Poem in Marble |
From there we got in another train to reach Dum Dum. A
lot people came in and went out. Students going to home after spending day in
school, college and outside. Ladies wearing a tiresome look after day long work
and gentlemen carrying black leather bags were heading towards home to reunite
with family. Finally we reach Dum Dum station, unlike other stations this
particular station is an underground one.
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Front end. |
There was nothing much to see, or more specifically we
didn’t had much time left. Hence quickly bought another ticket to MG Road Station.
From MG Road to Howrah in a bus and then to Bangalore in ‘HWH-YPR’ Express.
Sajeev.
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Antony - at a distance |
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Here it is - beautiful gardens of Victoria Memmorial |
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From another angle |
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Edward VII - On top of horse |
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A view from other side, with Emperor |