KOLKATA

Kolkata: What started as a British trade settlement in 1650 has now mushroomed into a sprawling city of over 13 million people, home to the variety that is India: from the richest to the poorest, from the palatial colonial mansions to the slums, from the global software specialist to the ragpicker.

Kolkata, once known as Calcutta, is the city of Mother Teresa. It is also the city of the poet and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, the greatest of Indian saints Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekanada and film maker Satyajit Ray. But above all it is the city of people from all walks of life who need a shelter and a source of living. No wonder Lonely Planet calls it “a city with a soul”.

Though Kolkata is no longer the business capital it once was, it still is considered the cultural capital of India. It is located on the banks of the Hooghly River, a part of the delta of the Ganges, the holy river of India that starts its journey 3,890 m in the Himalayan mountains more than 1000 kilometres away. The Bay of Bengal is 120 km to the south of Kolkata and less than 1000 km away is the Himalayan range of mountains.

Kolkata is where Mother Teresa started her Missionaries of Charity in 1950 and served the poorest of the poor, the destitute, the suffering and the dying. She set up several homes for them - Nirmal Hriday (home for the dying), Shanti Nagar (home for the lepers) and Nirmal Shishu Bhavan (the children’s home). From humble beginnings at Kolkata the Sisters of the Poor now serve people the world over, though mainly in India.

Hundreds of people from the world over, particularly young men and women, come to help the Sisters of the Poor everyday. Many other charitable and religious organisations, besides the Government, have opened centres for helping the poor.

Beyond the city’s poverty and confusion is a warm and friendly city that has endeared many a foreigner. As it may well endear you!

Some Facts about Kolkata:

Country                                                                                  India

State                                                                                      West Bengal

Capital City                                                                            of the state of West Bengal

Latitude                                                                                  22 degree 82 minutes North

Longitude                                                                               88 degrees 20 minutes East

Altitude                                                                                  5 m above sea level

Distance from sea                                                                   120 km from Bay of Bengal

International Time                                                                   + 5 hours 30 minutes from GMT

Temperature (min-max)                                                          Winter (12-27 °C), Summer(24-38 °C)

Average Rainfall                                                                     160 cm

Total Population                                                                     13.22 million (2001)