Calcutta Travel Guide
Calcutta retains much of the splendour of yesteryears, with a presence
that is at once regal, imposing and memorable, a city worthy of admiration and
love.
Calcutta, The largest metropolis in India, Calcutta is a vibrant city on the
move, volatile and unpredictable. The Gateway to India, till 1912, and the capital
of the Raj in India, it still bears the Victorian imprint on its streets and
structures. A city just about ready to burst at the seams, Calcutta is home
to more than 10 million people.
It is the commercial nerve-centre of the East, with major industrial plants,
textile mills and corporate units. Regal edifices, grubby alleys, bustling bazaars,
elegant hotels, people from all walks of life - Calcutta has it all.
The city is a hub of fervent activity in the realms of music, theatre, arts,
and sports. Calcutta has always prided itself on the many luminaries it has
sent forth, be it Tagore, Satyajit Ray, or Mrinal Sen. The intense dedication
to the arts manifests itself in a plethora of festivals, dance, music performances
and other cultural events. The Calcuttans are also famous for their all-consuming
passion for sports, especially, football and cricket.
Calcutta is a city of baffling paradoxes, a city that leaves its stamp on one's
mind ... forever.
Welcome to Job Charnock's 'chance-directed, chance-erected city, Lapierre's
City of Joy'. Calcutta was born in August 1690, following the midday halt of
Job Charnock, Chief of the British East India Company, on the eastern banks
of the River Hooghly, overlooking the bustling village of Sutanati. The city
grew around Sutanati and the adjoining villages of Govindapur and Kalikata (site
of the famous Kali Temple ), from which is derived its present name. Charnock's
halt ws, however, no accident. Fifty years earlier, Mughal Emperor Shah Jehan
had granted a concession of free trade in Bengal to an English surgeon, Gabriel
Boughton, as fee for effecting a royal cure.
Over the next 250 years, Calcutta grew into the leading city east of Suez, and
the second city of the British Empire. Inextricably interwoven into its history
are River Hooghly and the port (Kidderpore Docks), both witness to the eventful
and fast changing mulieu of the city. Calcutta's growth was further enhanced
by a hinterland rich in coal, iron ore and mineral deposits, and as the focal
point for the tea, jute and engineering industries. Today, Calcutta is India's
largest metropolis, with a population in excess of 11 million.
