Night View from my Window

This is the night view of our locality from my south facing windows. One can see the buildings of South Kolkata from the top of the buildings in our area. Click on the image to go to flickr and see the image at its largest size by clicking "All Sizes" there.

Visitors till this post: 6250 visitors

View from my Room

This is the view from the south facing windows of my room. It is the Palace of the Adhikaris of our Locality. It is called Thakurbari of Adhikaris. Click on the image to go to flickr and see the image at its largest size by clicking "All Sizes" there.

Visitors till this post: 6200 visitors

Bengali Year 1415 on 2008 - 2009

This Nabobarsho (Bengali Year 1415), we (Gaurav and me) had planned a long walk from my Home to Shyambazar. We did as planned. We started off from my home at 10.30am and as we walked through Amherst Street, Surjya Sen Street, Bankim Chatterjee Street and finally Bidhan Sarani. As we arrived at Bidhan Sarani, I took a snap of Presidency College Gate. After that as we walked towards Shyambazar, we took pictures of all the Heritage Buildings on that road (I am going to post these pics later here) like the existing portion of College Street Market, Lahabari, , Arya Samaj Hall, Hardinge Hall, House of Swami Vivekananda, Bethune College, Scottish Church School and many more.

There was a big mela (fair) going on at Beadon Street. We had a good time there at the mela. Again we took Bidhan Sarani and proceeded towards Shyambazar. At Hatibagan we took a snap of Star Theatre and I charged up myself with a Thumbs Up with Gaurav sitting idle because of his sore throat. At the Citi Mart, I bought myself a Bermuda short and Gaurav helped me with the payment as I was short of money. Finally we took a snap of the Shyambazar tram depot before taking two big snaps of Netaji on a horse at Shyambazar Crossing. With our long journey by walk coming to an end, we took a bus to Bank of India at 1.30pm.

That evening I sat idle before our television talking cute snaps of beauties on television. Mummy had gone to fetch Bui from her friend Gouri’s house and daddy had gone to give his tutorial classes. Mummy even treated us with momo and chow from Momo-Hut, Salt Lake for dinner. It was a wonderful Nabobarsho 2008 for me and was the best Nabobarsho till date. Shubho Nababarsho to You All.

Visitors till this post: 5150 visitors.
Post No: 97th post

Shubho Nabobarsho All My Readers

I wish a very very very big Shubho Nabobarsho to all my Readers. May this Bengali New Year bring all around Prosperity and Happiness to All.

I would like to start the year by dedicating the famous Rabindrasangeet to all of you.
"Esho esho, hey boishakh, esho esho"

Have a mishti (sweet), shundor (beautiful) and boro (great) year ahead.
from
Vaijayanta.
CHATTORAJ

Some info about Poila Boishakh (Nabobarsho)
Some info about Bengali Calendar

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Post No: 96th post

BOOK FAIR 2007

This year's Book Fair was not looking like one. It seemed like a normal fair that was unable to draw people to it. I had the opportunity to visit Book Fair 2007 with Gaurav and stayed there from 2.00pm till 9.00pm on Sunday the 18th of Feb, 2007.

The poor infrastructure at Salt Lake Stadium made the fair look lean. Maidan, where the book fair is held every year has its own charm. No other fair grounds can ever have the same charm or copy the charm from maidan. People travel by Metro Rail to visit the book fair at maidan each year which was something people missed a lot this year.

Even the collection of books were less compared to the previous years. Leading publishers were also not seen this year.

Firstly, a fishy stinking smell was coming out from the mud and the sand that was laid before the stalls. The lanes between the stalls were narrow, that made it difficult for the crowd to pass during peak hours. Only one good thing was that there was no puddles here and there that is a common site in Maidan.

Another thing that draws praise is the paper-pickers who picked the papers lying here and ther on the ground. The collected the papers to keep the place clean. They were sponsored by a leading FM Station. (I don't remember the name) . Those paper-pickers did a great job.

The toilet facilities were good for the males, but I saw a great queue in front of the female toilet. Only the authorities knows the actual reason.

The price of food items touched the sky. Cost of any food items was charged twice their normal price. This is a common phenomenon seen in Kolkata nowadays. The food items have become really costly. It is really difficult for the middle class people to afford them. The quality was also lacking.

There were only about 900 book stalls but most of the book stalls were extended around the stadium making most of the people unaware of the stalls there. So many remained aloof of the stalls around the stadium. All the people concentrated on the stalls that were erected behind the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

There was a grass field where couples and lovers haad the good opportunity to sit together and chat their heart out. This grass field was behind the stadium and was secluded from the main fair which made the couples have a good time.

While returning there were absolutely no transport facilities by the transport department and most of the people has to return to the next more (crossing) by walking and catch a bus or a cab from there. As for our case, we had to walk till Beliaghata CIT More to catch an auto to Sealdah. Others had to walk till Phoolbagan or Ultadanga or Chingrighata to catch a bus or auto to their home. The inadequate transport facilities disappointed the enthusiastic crowd.

Next day, I saw on the newspaper that there were about 90,000 footfalls at the book fair on Sunday the 18th of Feb, 2007., which was about 1/9th compared to the normal footfall at the Maidan. Hats off to Rani Rashmoni for gifting the people of Kolkata the Maidan which is both culturally rich and filled with heritage.