The diary of an ordinary person — looking closely at our interesting world — Second Write up

5 min readSep 13, 2015

Prologue-Unless I write a little bit about my birthplace — Calcutta, my country India, my family root, my childhood, the perspectives of the next narratives coming up will not be clear, These will help in the perception of the valued readers. So, in the second and third writeup of my series, I will give a brief description of these basics. If reader intends to drill down into details, they may click on the links. Hope this will make a clear picture of my people around me in my childhood days, from locational perspective

Today I will make a brief narration of Kolkata, my birthplace, with beautiful pictures, the next write ups, I will make a mention of my country India, my family root and a little bit on my childhood days, then the day wise diary will be placed before you

Kolkata, a little history of my birthplace

I was born in Calcutta [Now Kolkata] in 1955, after 8 years India got independence after a prolonged freedom struggle

Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta in English, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal and is located in eastern India on the east bank of the River Hooghly.

We are known as Bengalis, I’m proud to be a Calcuttan and a Bengali

Kolkata existed for many many years, but came to limelight when British East India Company touched Calcutta shore, by navigating thru River Hooghly, by Job Charnock in Sutanuti in 1690.

The initial agenda was to connect to Calcutta to spread trade and commerce, later they took political control in 1757

Kolkata was the capital of the British Indian empire until 1911 when the capital was relocated to Delhi. Kolkata grew rapidly in the 19th century to become a vibrant metropolis.. The British presence in spite of its colonial exploitations and deprivation of the freedom to the ‘natives’, infused a culture of European philosophies with Indian tradition. The European philosophies of liberty, equality and fraternity opened up the mind of many intellectuals like Raja Rammohan Roy, and a cultural and social renaissance was initiated in the 18th and 19th century, in the heart of Calcutta

The city is also noted for its revolutionary history, ranging from the Indian struggle for independence to the leftist Naxalite and militant trade-union movements. Labelled the “Cultural Capital of India”, “The City of Processions”, “The City of Palaces”, and the “City of Joy”, Kolkata has also been home to prominent people such as Thakur Shri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa, Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, Subhas Chandra Bose, Kazi Nazrul Islam, the famous film director and writer Satyajit Ray, and the nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen.

Kolkata is well known to the Catholics, as the being the workplace of Mother Teresa.

The most profound impact in the literary and cultural landscape of Kolkata, Bengal and Bengalis, was made by Rabindra Nath Tagore, who died in 1941 at the age of 80. His poetry, novel and short stories are still popular and widely read by Bengalis. He was awarded the Nobel prize in literature in the year 1913, for ‘Gitanjali’, a selection of poetries. If you walk in deep alleys of Kolkata, still can find music schools teaching Rabindra Sangeet [Songs]. Tagore still lives in the heart of every Bengali. He dreamt of a society..a country.. a world, ‘where the mind is without fear and the head is held high’.

See his handwritten manuscript of this verse, as below

Calcutta has many attractive tourist spots, and great icons, like Victoria Memorial and Howrah Bridge which connects Calcutta to the outside world. Both were the products of British India

But, real Calcutta’s intellectual soul resides in college street book shops and coffee house, which was and still today the center, of intellectual exchange and the favourite place of political and social activists, where they consolidate and firm up the neo ideas of their next move. This place also frequented by the known and aspiring writers and poets, and if you visit, can see someone reading out his poetry, just fresh like morning lily, composed just couple of hours back, and his followers listening to it with all attention. Coffee and the snacks add to the taste of the poetries and stories

Kolkata people are crazy for soccer and cricket. There are very good schools, and people are quite knowledgeable and of high intellect, and concerned of world events. Calcutta has witnessed many rallies protesting against American aggression of Vietnam, and also aggression in Iraq. Calcuttans consider themselves as international citizens, and well appraised of the global events

What am I today, is for Kolkata, the rich cultural biosphere which helped me to grow up as an updated person , the quality education I got at an unbelievable low cost, the support from my friends, comrades, teachers and neigbour, all these need to be mentioned with utmost gratitude. The city is continues to be politically vibrant and exciting, and is quite different from other cities India and world with its unique flavour