Kolkata - City of Joy

KOLKATA - The city of joy, The city of Sweets, the city of tradition. its been a year now and I have started to like this city. Though being a pakka 'Puneri Punekar', I am now feeling a part of Kolkata. Before being to Kolkata, I have known It in books as a Huge Metropolitan and a home to the great Rabindranath Tagore, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Subhash Chandra Bose etc. From beginning itself I was fascinated by the charm of beautiful bengali 'Bahu' wearing a red bordered sari with huge red tika and sindoor and long hair. Its not difficult to recognize a bengali in the bunch even today by their typical bengali tone and skin texture.
Many of us have seen the bengali culture in movies like Devdas, The auspicious marriage ceremony, The Durga Puja, The Havelis and The Jamindars. During the British Rule, Kolkata was one of the important cities they had their impact on. Even today you can see the british architectured buildings here. Through the city flows the river Ganges making the city divine and the Famous Howrah Bridge which adds glitter to it.
Its little amazing to see a class of people who are simple, traditional, stuck to their roots, lost in past on one hand and the new, modern, sophisticated class of people on the other hand of the same city. Kolkata has lot of places forthe tourists - the famous Victoria Memorial, Science city, Eden Garden, Dakshineshwar Temple, Birla Mandir, Planetorium and many more. The most exciting place that I enjoyed being to was Eden Gardens on the First IPL Match of Kolkata Knight Riders Vs Deccan Chargers for which Shahrukh and troupe were present. You cannot get better crowd thean in Edens. Its electrifying and great stadium.
Moving to tasting the delicacies of Bengal, Kolkata is a place for Non Vegetarians. You can graze on variety of Fish, Chicken, Mutton Rolls, Kababs and Chops and Biryanis. Vegetarians do have a choice of Chats and Veg Rolls and the totally uncontrollable 'Phuchkas' . Phuchka is similar to Pani Puri but quite different at the same time. If you are a restaurant person you can drive to Park Street which is a street of Restaurants where you can get all kinds of cuisine and it is also a good hangout place. Try out the typical Bengali Cuisine at 'Bhojohari Manna'.If you are a shopaholic than ' New Market' isthe place where you can get anything and everything.
If you dont talk about sweets , you are missing out majorly. I swear by the soft,spongy and juicy 'Rossagulla'. I bet you cannot resist to have just one. One such speciality in sweets is a 'Khajur Gud' and sweets made by using it. I was knowing only a sugarcane 'Gud' but was really taken aback to hear of 'Gud' made of 'Dates' (Khajur). Every Bengali meal is incomplete without a Mithai and complete when you have a couple or more of them. :) Thats why people here are said to be sweet or mishti . On this sweet note i sum up my experience uptill now in Kolkata