Kolkata ami tomake bhalobashi-Kolkata I love you, the credo of every one born in Kolkata. A stagnating 350 year old city to some, city of joy to others, home to many more, Kolkata is a mishmash that not only sizzles the taste buds, but also the heart and brains alike. Established from 3 villages supposedly by Job Charnock, Kolkata served as the capital of various shades of India British India, intellectual India, cultural india and so on. Kolkata is interesting in her own right and here are some facts to pique you:
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350 year old Kolkata was the capital of British India between 1772 and 1911.
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Called the city of joy, Kolkata is also famous as the city of processions
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Kolkata has the second oldest modern university in India as the Calcutta University and was established in 1857.
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Kolkata is home to the Royal Calcutta Golf Club which is the oldest golf club outside of Britain and was established in 1829.
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National library in Kolkata is the oldest library in India, just as the zoological garden is the oldest zoo in the country.
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Howrah bridge spanning across the river Hooghly and bridging Kolkata with her twin city howrah is one of the largest cantilever bridges in the world.
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Calcutta polo club is the oldest in the world.
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The Calcutta Football and Cricket club known as the CC&FC is the second oldest cricket club of the world. Only the MCC based of the Lords is older and rightfully referred to as the Mecca of cricket.
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Kolkata people was probably the inspiration behind Amartya Sen’s argumentative Indian, considering argumentative discussions lead to brilliant thinking and maybe that is the reason that the city has given the most number of Nobel laureates of the country. In fact in asia only Tokyo has more Nobel laureates. Sir Frank Ross, C V Raman, Rabindranath Tagore, Amartya Sen and Mother Teresa are illustrious names of that list who have roots in Kolkata.
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The third largest conglomeration of books happens at the Kolkata book fair, which is Asia’s largest book fair.
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The countries only river port, Hooghly river port is at khiderpore, and is the oldest modern port in India.
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Kolkata was the referred to as the second city of the British Empire, after London, and no wonder it also has the oldest organized football league outside Britain-the Calcutta football league.
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Usurped of it’s importance by Delhi and Mumbai, the city of joy still stands second in terms of core area covered, second only to Delhi. It is also one of the most populous cities of the country.
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The botanical garden just off Kolkata is home to a banyan tree which is the biggest in the world and encompasses and enormous 330 meters as its circumference.
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The football stadium at salt lake called Yuba Bharati Krirangan has the second largest seating capacity in the world. The Eden Gardens on the other hand is the third largest cricket stadium of the world.
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Kolkata si also home to the largest planetarium of Asia and the second largest of the world in the form of the Birla Planetarium.
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In terms of rapid transit systems, Kolkata metro was operation al decades before the Delhi metro or the much newer Bengaluru and Mumbai metros.
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US consulate in Kolkata is the second oldest consulate of the world established in 1792.
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Durga pujas is an esoteric mix of culture and religion that takes the city by frenzy every year mid October. Devotion to the Mother Goddess Durga is taken hand in hand in a journey splashed with the colors of food, fashion and fun.
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Indian cinema is also richly served by Kolkata, with Satyajit Ray the first Indian lifetime achievement award winner at Oscars hailing from Kolkata.
