Smita's Kolkata Chronicles

The office of the Principal Accountant General (Accounts & Entitlement), West Bengal, is housed in two buildings:  (i) Treasury Buildings at 2, Government Place (West), Kolkata – 700001 (main office buildings since 1882) (ii) Government of India Press Buildings, 8, Kiron Sankar Roy Road, Kolkata – 700 001.  A portion of the Manager’s Bungalow located in the Treasury Buildings premises was acquired by this office in 2002. The Principal Accountants General (A&E) are the representative of the Comptroller & Auditor General of India who is a Constitutional Authority deriving his powers from Article 148 to 151 of the Constitution of India and the Comptroller and Auditor General’s, Duties, Power and Conditions of Service Act, 1971 (CAG’s DPC Act 1971).  The Office of the Principal Accountant General (Accounts & Entitlement) also situated in Treasury Buildings is responsible for preparation of the Accounts of the State Government, Maintenance of the General Pro...

Dwijendralal Ray was a prominent poet, theatre personality, music composer, author and singer born on 18 th July 1862 at Krishnanagar. He was the youngest son of Kartikeya Chandra Ray, diwan of Krishnanagar royalty and Prosonnomoyee Debi a descendant of  Vaishnava  ascetic  Advaita Acharya , one of the apostles of the medieval Bengali saint Shri  Chaitanya . His elder brothers were Rajendralal and Harendralal, both scholars. In 1887, Ray married Surabala Devi, daughter of Pratap Chandra Majumdar, a renowned homeopath physician.  Mother Father With his children His son was the famous music composer Dilip Kumar Ray ( 22 January 1897 – 6 January 1980), was  musician, musicologist, novelist, poet, essayist and yogi. He was the recipient of the   Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship. Son, Dilip Kumar Ray He passed the Entrance Examination in 1878 and the First Arts Examination in 1880 at the Krishnanagar Collegiate...

Chacha’s Hote l was established in 1875 at the junction of Bidhan Sarani and Vivekananda Road. It started when Gosaidas Patra purchased a tea-stall along with the plot, from a Muslim person, whom the local’s would fondly call ‘chacha’. The iconic items included fish-fries, fowl-cutlet (made without onion, garlic or ginger), mutton sheek kabaab. Some of the notable personalities who frequented the place were Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Chhabi Biswas, Swami Vivekananda, Uttam Kumar, Mithun Chakraborty, Bappi Lahiri. Later the menu was extended to  Indian, Mughlai, Chinese, Tandoori and Thai cuisines. Sadly this heritage hotel is no longer operational. Dilkhusha Cabin on Mahatma Gandhi Road is the one stop destination for the iconic Kabiraji cutlet. Although kabiraji literally means ayurvedic practitioner in Bengali, no connection could be traced to its name. Probably the term originated from the word 'coverage' as it has a thick batter of well beaten eggs.  The delectable tel...

Travelling along the directions laid down by Swami Vivekananda, Sri Ramkrishna Ashram, Nimpith was established with the noble objective of imparting education and health care services as well as elevating the economically and socio-culturally backward people of Sundarbans .  Swami Buddhanandaji Maharaj (a member of the Ramakrishna Monastic order) founded the Sri Ramkrishna Ashrama (a Non-Governmental Organization), in 1960. It was constructed with the co-operation from the then Hon’ble Chief Minister of West Bengal, Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy. The Ashram is not a Branch of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math, but it follows the same ideals and ideologies.   It is a member centre of South 24 Paraganas Ramakrishna Vivekananda Bhava Prachar Parishad of Belur Math , and follows their practices.  The Ashram is situated at Nimpith in Jaynagar of South 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. The Ashram has 3 branch centres at Kaikhali, Jhargram...