Swapno Bhor is a the state's only senior citizen's park, in New Town kolkata The park came up on 3.5 acre of land. There is a two storeyed-building housing a library and a coffee corner along with administration offices and a lounge on the ground floor and a auditorium on the first floor.
Bishop Lefroy Road in South Kolkata is famous by association. Ray stayed here for 22 years. In 2016, the street underwent a makeover of sorts. The Ray house was declared a grade-1 heritage building by Kolkata's civic body. And the sodium vapour lights on the street were installed with Victorian-era street lightis on which you can see replicas of the posters of celebrated films designed by Ray himself. This stretch is now an open-air gallery of his work.
The name change has gone through the state government (though the national parliament in New Delhi has yet to ratify it). Now comes the fun part. Firmly believing in the adage "the more the merrier," the state will be called Bangla in Bengali, Bengal in English and Bangal in Hindi. That, of course, should mean that my home city should be called Kolkata in Bengali, Calcutta in English and Kalkutta in Hindi, but logic was never the strong point of governments. In the toxic fight over naming states, it's almost welcome that the new state of Bangla is open to different strokes from different folks.
The two elevators from the ground floor lead you up to the restaurant. The restaurant is divided into slots. From 12 to 5pm, one can buy a ticket for Rs 100 and go up and enjoy tea or coffee along with delicious snacks that are served while you witness the panoramic view of the city. The ticket is valid for just one hour. The place transforms into a fine dining restaurant after 7pm. The restaurant can accommodate 72 people at a time. But for now, it is open to only 50.
Some of the enduring things I remember about my photographer father were his Rolleiflex camera (which used 120 film), his bulging black camera bag, and the smells of the chemicals with which he developed his black-and-white prints in the small open space in front of the family kitchen. This was the 1960s Kolkata, a city with a legacy of violence and trauma that my father had witnessed starting in 1947, when the country was divided to form the two nation-states of India and Pakistan.
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