The City of Joy

The first ever metro that was built in India. The City of Joy has two major lines covering the city. The east-west corridor and the north-south corridor. The north south corridor being the oldest one to be in action since 1984 from Esplanade to Bhowanipur being the first route at that time. The newest metro line which is going to join the Kolkata Metro will be the east west metro which will connect Howrah to Kolkata. The connection is made by digging below the Hooghly river and setting metro tracks down there. The Kolkata Metro will be the first metro in India to have metro tracks underneath a river. 

The only bengali at the time of British Colonial rule in India, who got the title of "Sir". Sir Harinath De was a historian, scholar and a polyglot, who later become the first Indian Librarian of the Imperial Library (Now National Library). He served there as Librarian for four years, starting from 1907 to 1911. He knew a total of thirty-four languages in his entire life of thirty-four years. He died on 30th of August in the year 1911 due to typhoid. 

The one who stood by the side of the legendary Bhagat Singh, till his last breaths. In the Lahore Conspiracy Case, many young revolutionaries including Bhagat Singh and Jatindranath Das (AKA Jatin Das) were arrested following the murder of police officer J P Saunders.  Bhagat Singh, Jatin Das and some other revolutionaries went on an hunger strike as there was a discrimination between the Indian prisoners and British prisoners. The kitchen where food for the Indian prisoners were being made was latching with cockroaches and rats. The British prisoners were provided lot of benefits like fresh clothing, newspaper to read etc. while the Indian prisoners were not. Jatin Das died right after the British Government accepted their demands. He was also a talented bomb-maker as he was in the Hindustan Republic Association (HRA) and got the skills to make a bomb.

The Kolkata tram is the oldest form of street car ever built in Indian by the Brits. It is oldest network of the Indian street car, starting in the year 1902. It was first handled by the Calcutta Tramways Co. and soon after it's dissolution it is maintained and operated by the West Bengal Transport Corporation.

Did somebody ever noticed the physical aspect of this road? The Red road's physical structure defines why this road was ever made and what this road was actually used for. The straight stretch and that wideness of the road was the main runway to test bomber flights for the both World Wars of the British Army as a major part of the British empire was also functioning from here as well. 

About 230 years ago a duel happened year between the two top British officials. If that duel had different outcome on such fateful day it could have altered the Indo - British history. The duel happened between the then Governor general of Bengal (de facto India) Sir Warren Hastings and Philip Francis, member of the Governor General's council. The two fired single shots at each other and any one of them could have died that day. The duel suspiciously happened between the two because of egoistic quarrel. 

The bridge which connected the Howrah to Calcutta from the colonial period and its still holding its place very proudly. It was the first balanced cantilever bridge in India and also one of the three balanced cantilever bridge in the whole world at that time. First it was a Pontoon Bridge, which was constructed in the year 1871. But due to sudden miss happenings the bridge was severely damaged and the Brits decided to build a new bridge. The bridge which we see now was finally made in the year 1943. There are no bolts and nuts in this bridge and the entire structure is been held by rivets. It is was the sixth longest cantilever bridge in the world back in 2013.

The name of this road follows its legacy of the theatre that was built by the Britishers in the year 1813. The theatre was commonly known as Chowringhee theatre which was also know by the name of 'Subscriptions Theatre". The first ever maiden play was held here and the name was 'Castle Spectre'. Several dramas have been performed here in course of time. However, the theatre was not making that much money and the then prince Dwarkanath Thakur acquired the theatre in the year 1935 and renovated the theatre to put it back to work again. Unfortunately it was incinerated in the year 1839 and since then it was never revamped and play acting never resumed here.  

It was the Birthday of both Lord Canning and lady Charlotte Canning and Lord Canning threw a party for that. The dessert was made by the Famous pastry Chef Bhim Chandra Nag for that occasion. That sweet which was created by Bhim Chandra Nag was so much admired by Ld. Canning that the name for that sweet was kept 'Ledikeni'. When this Ledikeni was eaten by another British person who was a watch manufacturer, he liked that dessert so much he gifted a wall clock to Bhim Chandra nag. However at that time people at Calcutta were unable to understand roman numericals. This fact was disclosed by Bhim Chandra to such Britisher. So keeping in mind he desinged a clock and gifted it to Bhim Chandra which has bengali language written in the dial instead of roman numericals. That clock by Coke and Kelvi is still ticking the right hours of the day and it is still in the same spot on the wall of the shop when it was first hanged. 

The sweet of Kolkata which was made by Bhim Chandra Nag and the name was followed by the name of Lady Canning. 

Back in the British era the streets of Calcutta was not having Trifola which we see today. It was not even having electric lamps. The street lights used to use Kerosene as it was much cheaper than coal lit gas lamps. In 1889 when the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC) Started promoting electricity in the City of Joy, the Harrison Road was the first place which was lit by installing electric street lamps. The road which we now know as Mahatma Gandhi Road which connects Burrabazar to Sealdah.