Weekend Getaways from Kolkata

Kolkata, the original ‘British era’ capital of India is of the most interesting cities to travel. It has an eclectic blend of history, architecture, culture, food and people. Kolkata is one of the popular tourist destination due to its old heritage and culture. However, there are plenty of destinations situated close to Kolkata which can be accessed for a weekend away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

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Shantiniketan

One such place would be Shantiniketan. Also known as the Land of Tagore, this place is generally famous due to its relation to Rabindranath Tagore. Previously known as Bhubandanga after a dacoit who was notorious in the region. It is owned by the Tagore family and Rabindrnath’s father renamed it to Shantiniketan due to it’s calm and serene environment. It means the abode of peace in English. This town is a hub for learning and education. There are several poets from this region who lived in buildings such as konark, Udayana et all.

Shantiniketan

Kala Bhavan is also a college of art and crafts, Sangit bhavan depicts music and dance and many more such universities who teach some part of literature and art. This town has a liking towards music art and culture and these three things depict the nature of the town itself.

kalabhavan

Sunderbans

Sunderbans is one of the most beautiful forests you can come across. Situtated in both Bangladesh as well as India it is the go to place for adventure travellers as well as photographers. Known for the largest mangrove enclosure in the world as well as its rich biodiversity it is no wonder that it has been announced as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The section under India is known as the Sunderbans National park and covers a huge area of abour 38500 square kilometres. There are over 400 Royal Bengal tigers, the kind it is famous for and more than 30000 deer in the park. The land is covered by water and marsh mostly. It’s name is mostly originated from the sundari trees that it is home to. It gives the best wild life experience anyone can get.

Sunderban

Apart from the Royal Bengal tiger and herds of deer it also has fowls, giant lizards, wild boars and crocodiles that would be a wildlife enthusiasts delight. For the calmer serene type of people the huge group of Siberian ducks are always a treat to watch. 

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Royal-Bengal-Tiger

The point where you can catch most of the wildlife action is the Hiron Point. For bird watching one may head to Katka which also has trekking upto a point called kachikali. For wild tiger sightings there is no better place than tin kona island and the fishermen are seen flocking around to the Dublar char island. It is ideal for tourists to refresh their minds and soak in the natural beauty this place has to offer.

Deer-at-Sundarban

Darjeeling

Darjeeling is popular since the Britishers set foot into it and its location is towards the northern side of West Bengal and towards the south of Sikkim. The scenery and the beauty of the destination never ceases to amaze visitors and lures them into a daze of natural beauty. The word arises from Dorje which means thunderbolt or precious stone in the Tibetan dialect. It is believed that the thunderbolt in question is either a symbol of the Lord Indra or a part of the Lamaist religion. All north eastern tours make sure to consider Darjeeling as one of their stops due to its beautiful and important nature. It has an evergreen charm and with its various attractions and monuments it adds to the experience of the journey.

View-of-Kanchenchonga-in-Darjeeling

This city was earlier under the regime of the Sikkim king but later the Gorkhas lost it to the British Empire. The British used the area to great importance and also used it as a getaway to escape the harsh summer in other states. They facilitated tea growing as well as created it as a hill station destination for the people. This made the city famous for its sprawling tea gardens and industries as well as its popular trend of eco-tourism. Their economy is facilitated by the growth and development of timber, tea as well as their tourism.

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Darjeeling-Views

Along with tea gardens, they grow oranges and cardamom locally as well. Famous for these as well as the local and traditional handicrafts of Tibetan and Sikkimese nature, these factors make it a well known spot for shopping for traditional art. You are provided with an opportunity to buy shawls, handmade paper, carpets etc that give you an insight into their culture. Also, their food has flavours of Tibetan and Sikkimese infused alongwith the other Indian cuisines as well. The weather is quite pleasant with rainfall that occurs regularly and unexpectedly. Their main visiting seasons are Summer as well as Spring where the rest of the States have a hot and humid climate. With their perfect combination of hills and the amazing view alongwith the fresh and pollution free climate and smiling local friendly faces, this place has been rightfully crowned as the queen of hill stations.

Darjeeling-Tea-Garden

The tourists feel friendly and right at place with the welcoming smiles all around them. The popular sights are accompanied with a toy train that was built in the 19th century. Also marked as a World Heritage, The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway astounds visitors that hop on to it. It stretches over 70 kms and over and passes through an altitude of over 7500 ft. The toy train gives tourists a chance to capture all the beautiful scenery they pass through as well as breathe in the mountain fresh and crisp air. The famous ropeway or the Cable car which is situated in the north point of the city is one of the oldest ropeways carrying passengers. It has connectivity to the bottom of Darjeeling towards the city’s bazaar area.Famous for its picturesque scenery many movies ranging from Bollywood to Bengali film shootings take place here.

Darjeeling-Ropeway

The natural attractions present in this city have no other justifiable substitute and the beauty is incomparable. The mode of transportation in the destination is preferably a four wheeled drive such as Land rovers as they can navigate through the path easily. The trained drivers can skill their way through narrow and steep areas of the hill. This place has an abundance of local festivals all around the year. The festivals are rich and vibrant and colourful and add to the overall experience gained whilst in the city. The tourist can experience and celebrate the festivals himself or herself

Tibetans-in-Darjeeling-cultural-festival

Digha

Digha is also situated in the East Midnapore district with the bay of Bengal on its north. It is only about 200 kilometres away from the city of Kolkata. Due to its close proximity it is one of the most popular sea resorts of Kolkata. It was initially known as Beerkul. It was first set foot upon by the Britishers and was described as Brighton of the east by them. The shallow nature of the sea makes it easy to carry out activities such as swimming, scuba diving, jet skiing and surfing. It is also known  for its various plantations growing around the place. It also has two other beaches in close proximity known as the Udaipur beach and the Shankarpur beach.

Digha-sea-beach-Old

Also for cleanliness purposes and to reduce the ill effects of erosion a new Digha beach has been formed around 2 kilometres away from the old one. The connectivity options are plenty with it having its own railway station and also direct bus facilities. The Netaji Subash Chandra Bose International Airport at Kolkata is the nearest airport.Apart from the beach it also has the largest aquarium in India as well as its own Science centre.

Sunset-in-Digha-Beach

Mandarmani

The next place is Mandarmani. It is a seaside village with a resort facility that is located next to Kolkata. It is quite up and coming and is developing as the next tourist spot. Located in East Midnapore with the Bay of Bengal next to it, it can be accessed through a highway from Kolkata or Howrah. Some statistics claim that it is the longest beach that one can drive upon in India. With comparatively low waves and formations of dunes all around this place is quite calm and serene. If you wish to travel by train getting down at Contai station would be adviced. The sunrise and the sunsets are a specialty and this place is perfect to relax and rejuvenate.

Mandarmoni-sea-beach

Diamond Harbour

Diamond Harbour is in the southern suburbs of Kolkata and is only around 50 kilometres away from the main city. It was initially known as hajipur and has the Ganges flowing next to it. With the industries cropping up in Haldia and the river on the other side this place is an unusual destination to go to for the weekend. It was said to be inhabited by the Portuguese pirates earlier who left behind the ruins of the Chingrikhali Fort. Apart from the fort the Sarisha Ramakrishna mission ashram is also a must see. It also has an ancient light house which compliments the day spent watching the river and passing boats. All these qualities make it the perfect spot to go on a picnic for. It has a pollution free environment and also offers boat tours to the visitors as well as a ferry ride towards Haldia. Diamond Harbour can be accessed through private cabs or buses from Kolkata. Trains also pass through this place.

Diamond-Harbour

Surdas - Indian Poet

करत करत अभ्यास के, जड़मति होत सुजान रसरी आवत जात ते, 

सिल पर परत निसान.हरी दर्शन की प्यासीअखियाँ हरी दर्शन की प्यासी (३)

देखियो चाहत कमल नैन को..निसदिन रहेत उदासीअखियाँ निसदिन रहेत उदासी..

अखियाँ हरी दर्शन की प्यासीआये उधो फिरी गए आँगन..

दारी गए गर फँसी..अखियाँ हरी दर्शन की प्यासी..

अखियाँ हरी दर्शन की प्यासी..

केसर तिलक मोतियाँ की माला..

ब्रिन्दावन को वासी..अखियाँ हरी दर्शन की प्यासी..

अखियाँ हरी दर्शन की प्यासी..

कहोके मंकी कोवु न जाने..

लोगन के मन हासी..

अखियाँ हरी दर्शन की प्यासी..

अखियाँ हरी दर्शन की प्यासी..

सूरदास प्रभु तुम्हारे दरस बिन..

लेहो करवट कासी..

अखियाँ हरी दर्शनदरसन की प्यासी..

अखियाँ हरी दर्शन की प्यासी.. 

The group of 16th-century Hindi poets, four of whom were disciples of Vallabha, and four of his son and successor, Vitthala.

The greatest of the group was Surdas, a blind singer whose descriptions of the exploits of the child-god Krishna are the highlights of his collection of poetry, the Sursagar, is admired throughout the Hindi-speaking areas of northern India. 

It is particularly rich in its details of daily life and in its sensitive perception of human emotion, the parent's for the child and the maiden's for her lover.  Other members of the Astchap group were Paramananddas, Nanddas, Karsandas, Govindswami, Kumbh-andas, Chitaswami, and Chaturbhujdas. What is commonly spoken of as Hindu is actually a range of languages, from Maithili in the east to Rajasthani in the west. 

The first major work in Hindi is the 12th-century epic poem Prthviraj Rasau, by Chand Bardai of Lahore, which recounts the feats of Prithviraj, the last Hindu king of Delhi before the Islamic invasions. 

The work evolved from the tradition maintained at the courts of the Rajputs. 

Noteworthy also is the poetry of the Persian poet Amir Khosrow, who wrote in the Awadhi dialect. 

Most of the literature in Hindi is religious in inspiration; in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the reform-minded Kabir, for example, wrote sturdy short poems in which he sought to reconcile Islam and Hinduism. 

The most celebrated author in Hindi is Tulsidas, who renounced the world early in life and spent his days in Benares as a religious devotee. He wrote much, mostly in Awadhi, and focussed Hinduism on the worship of Rama. 

His most important work is the Ramcharit-manas, which is based on the Sanskrit Ramayana. More than any other work it has become a Hindu sacred text for the Hindi-speaking area and annually has been staged in the popular Ram Lila festival. 

Outstanding among the followers of Vallabha, philosopher and bhakti advocate of the Middle Ages, is the blind poet Surdas (died 1563), who composed countless bhajans (chants) in praise of Krishna and Radha, which are collected in the Sursagar. 

While many of the bhakti poets were of modest origin, an exception was Mira Bai, a princess of Jodhpur, who wrote her famous lyrics both in Hindi and Gujarati; the quality of her poetry, still very popular, is not as high, however, as that of Surdas. Significant also is the religious epic Padmavati by Jayasi, a Muslim from former Oudh state. Written in Awadhi (c. 1540), the epic is composed according to the conventions of Sanskrit poets. 

The 18th century saw the beginning of a gradual transformation from the older forms of religious lyric and epic to new literary forms influenced by Western models that began to be known. The new trends reached their pinnacle in the work of Prem Chand (died 1936), whose novels especially Godan and short stories depict common rural life; and in the work of Harishchandra of Benares (died 1885), honoured as Bharatendu, who wrote in the Braj Bhasa dialect.

Some of the modern Indo-Aryan languages have literary traditions reaching back centuries, with enough textual continuity to distinguish Old, Middle, and Modern Bengali, Gujarati, and so on. Bengali can trace its literature back to Old Bengali charya-padas, late Buddhist verses thought to date from the 10th century; Gujarati literature dates from the 12th century Shalibhadra's Bharateshvara-bahubali-rasa and to a period when the area of western Rajasthan and Gujarat are believed to have had a literary language in common, called Old Western Rajasthani. 

Jñaneshvara's commentary on the Bhagavadgita in Old Marathi dates from the 13th century and early Maithili from the 14th century, Jyotishvara's Varna-ratnakara, while Assamese literary work dates from the 14th and 15th centuries Madhava Kandali's translation of the Ramayana, Shankaradeva's Vaisnavite works. Also of the 14th century are the Kashmiri poems of Lalla Lallavakyani, and Nepali works have also been assigned to this epoch. 

The work of Jagannath Das in Old Oriya dates from the 15th century.Amir Khosrow used the term hindvi in the 13th century, and he composed couplets that contained Hindi. In early times, however, other dialects were predominant in the Madhya-desha as literary media, especially Braj Bhasa, Surdas' Sursagar, 16th century, and Awadhi, Ramcaritmanas of Tulsidas, 16th century. In the south, in Golconda, Urdu poetry was seriously cultivated in the 17th century, and Urdu poets later came north to Delhi and Lucknow. Punjabi was used in Sikh works as early as the 16th century, and Sindhi was used in Sufi (Islamic) poetry of the 17th-19th centuries. 

In addition, there is evidence in late Middle Indo-Aryan works for the use of early New Indo-Aryan; e.g., provincial words and verses are cited. The creation of linguistic states has reinforced the use of certain standard dialects for communication within a state in official transactions, teaching, and on the radio. 

In addition, attempts are being made to evolve standardized technical vocabularies in these languages. Dialectal diversity has not ceased, however, resulting in much bilingualism; for example, a native speaker of Braj Bhasa uses Hindi for communicating in large cities such as Delhi. 

Moreover, the attempt to establish a single national language other than English continues. This search has its origin in national and Hindu movements of the 19th century down to the time of Mahatma Gandhi, who promoted the use of a simplified Hindi-Urdu, called Hindustani. 

The constitution of India in 1947 stressed the use of Hindi, providing for it to be the official national language after a period of 15 years during which English would continue in use. When the time came, however, Hindi could not be declared the sole national language; English remains a co-official language. Though Hindi can claim to be the lingua franca of a large population in North India, other languages such as Bengali have long and great literary traditions--including the work of Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore, and equal status as intellectual languages, so that resistance to the imposition of Hindi exists.