Smita's Kolkata Chronicles

City College ( located at 102/1, Raja Rammohan Roy Sarani ) was founded by Ananda Mohan Bose and the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj in 1881 .  Other illustrious Brahmo leaders associated with this institution were Pandit Sivnath Sastri and Umesh Chandra Dutta. Rastraguru Surendranath Banerjee later joined the College as teacher.  Today it is popularly called as the North City College to differentiate it from the South City College at Golpark. In 1961, the college was divided into three separate colleges– Rammohan College (morning), City College (day) and Ananda Mohan College (evening).  Till 2017, the college used to be administered by the Brahmo Samaj Education Society, a society constituted by the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj. After that, it became a grant-in-aid college under the Department of Higher Education, Government of West Bengal.  Today Ananda Mohan College offers 9 humanities, 4 commerce and 7 science stream undergraduate courses. Rammohan College has acquired the herit...

Just upon entering this historical building, we were met with an interesting anecdote. Although named as Swami Vivekananda's Ancestral House and Cultural Centre, it was the birthplace Narendranath Dutta . Upon being initiated into the monk order, Swami Vivekananda did not spend a single night here but came only to escort his mother to and from Calcutta High Court during the ongoing legal dispute among the heirs.  The present building The Entrance Statue decorated on 12th January, Youth Day Upliftment of Mankind At the entrance there is a bookshop housing several books on the lives, works and gospels of The Holy Trinity along with books on philosophy and self-improvement.  The staircase on either side of the life sized image of Swamiji seated in meditative posture leads to the first floor.  Way to the first floor Pictures of the contemporary landmarks of Kolkata are displayed.  Here one comes across tabloids depicting stories of Swamiji’s life. A light and sound sh...

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...