Emotional Gift

Emotional Gift

Gifts  we always  give and take from dear and near  and also from friends circle , personal and professional, for  occasions like birthdays , anniversaries , graduation, housewarming function, promotion , arrival of a new member in a family , retirement , and so on and on …

This exchange of gifts started from the day  in my life , when I was in a position to earn on my own  and give away gifts to others  and went on for 40 years and continuing.  When my  younger sister  Vidya was studying in school final , she asked me to help her to write an article for her School magazine. At that time I guided her to write  on a  title – “ Emotional Gift “. Her happiness got doubled  when  the same was published in the school magazine.  Now my memory could not recall  what I wrote at that time . But the same topic came for a discussion last week   during an evening chat with my wife’s sister family.  Again I recalled the topic and wished to share , what is emotional gift to my understanding  from a  borrowed material from web.( Courtesy : Mr.Jack Levine )

Let’s remember that not all gifts are wrapped in shiny paper and decorated with ribbon and bows. There are many intangible gifts of the heart we can share with those who deserve special recognition and attention ... for who they are, what they do, and the important role they play in our lives.

Here’s an Emotional Gift Guide I hope will be meaningful   as suggested by   Mr.Jack Levine .

Jack Levine is director of the Tallahassee-based 4Generations Institute.

+ To yourself: respect, confidence, faith and fortitude.

+ To a family member: communication and understanding, even if there has been pain.

+ To a friend: a heartfelt and caring spirit.

+ To our natural world, animal and plant life: protection and preservation.

+ To a good cause: generosity of time and treasure and ardent advocacy.

+ To a traveler: an open door of hospitality.

+ To our military forces, first responders and their loved ones: honor, support and appreciation.

+ To the ill and hurting: conscientious concern and healing comfort.

+ To the hungry and homeless: compassion, emergency services and creative community solutions.

+ To the abused, neglected and abandoned: representation, security and hope.

+ To someone with a special challenge: recognition, acceptance and opportunities to succeed.

+ To the addicted and troubled: a positive path to recovery.

+ To an infant and toddler: attention, attachment and safety.

+ To a child or teen: patience, guidance and a positive example.

+ To a parent in need: a helping hand and guidance.

+ To an elder: reverence, gratitude and dignified care.

+ To a customer or client: excellent service and lasting value.

+ To everyone you see, friends and strangers alike: a warm smile, acts of kindness and positive energy.

+ To people of every age: unconditional love.

+ To all the peoples of the world: justice and peace.

After giving a full reading we may feel that we are doing most of the act . Still we may feel to give material gift to the satisfaction of the receiver. But the receiver may be more happy on emotional gifts rather than the material gift , which has a price tag on it ( though we remove the price tag ) . We always think  that what others will  feel  if we do not gift for an occasion which may  be true in the case of people more attached to material. But we have to make them to understand , how strong is the Emotional Gift , which last in their memory forever  and the material gift will be forgotten very soon.



My wife Suganthi in the centre with GOS staff and kids



My wife is working as a teacher in a school for physically handicapped kids up to 5^th standard in Anna Nagar , a unit of Guild Of Service ( Central ) .  Whenever I visit them , they feel very happy to associate with me  in that small time and shower their love and affection towards me. They never expect any material gift and their longing is only our frequent visit.  I am emotionally linked to them and my presence is an emotional gift to them.



Guild of Service School for the Handicapped -kids



Some of my subordinates planned for a picnic and they wished me to join with them I felt I could give them an emotional gift by accepting their request and had been with my workmen for such outings whenever they plan. Their joy knew no bounds  in all the trips and I enjoyed my best time out of office with them. They are a better planner than mine !



Picinc to Auroville , Pondicherry with my workmen



My MD , Mr.Anand Sundaresan wishing me for a Happy retirement



On my retirement day in December 2010 , I was given a warm send off by all of my colleague and all well wishers  from top management gave a very nice speech touched me emotionally. My colleagues gave me gifts  to show their love and affection. In particular , my teammate Gopinath  read a poetic citation on me which touched me and I felt that is an emotional gift to me. He is too good  in writing tamil poems and moved me emotionally. My Managing Director’s speech on  that occasion was recorded in his mobile by a good  colleague  of mine , Srenivasan ,  and  he surprised me by passing the same by e-mail on the same night. This is also an emotional gift to me. I never expected that I will get a life time audio record of that nice evening event.




Gopinath,Chandrasekaran in left  and Venkataramanan , Srenivasan in right

 

Gopinath reading a poetic citation on my retirement



 I too once missed my emotional gift to one of my workmen, many years ago, when he was in his death bed and communicated his wish to see me  for a last time , through another friend . In those days our present day mobile was not there and also the transport  to quickly to reach the TB hospital where he was admitted . The exact moment of me entering the ward and the entrance of the room where he was in a bed , he passed away just few seconds before I leaped in. This was a lesson for me as I missed my emotional gift of seeing him when he wished to see me before his soul parted his body. The scene is still in my memory  . I share this real experience to  many  and tell them to attend whenever someone want to see them without a second thought , and in particular old people.

Next let us look into our parent’s expectation for their  wedding  anniversaries or birthdays , if they could remember correctly! Our old parents never expect material gifts and they only wish their children’s presence for any  family functions or their own anniversaries. The immense pleasure you can see in their faces when you visit them on such occasions and festival times. Of course childrens living apart at long distances cannot make it every time but they can share their emotion by talking to them from a distant land . My experiences with my parents are many and I am blessed to be with them till their last breath . 

Miss not any such occasion when there is an opportunity and apt time is there for you to show your emotional gift of  love and affection to your dear and near without bothering  whether you carry a  material gift for them . They will love you forever.

Chant Hare Krishna and be Happy .

Karma - a word that has got many meanings !

 Karma –  a word that has got many meanings !

I  thought about  this subject of  “Karma “  , when I  casually clicked a snap  during my trip to Kolkata. I wrote about Kolkata trip already in my blog. On reaching back to Chennai after the trip , I have downloaded all the photographs I  took there for my album folder in system.

 This  three photographs  kindled my mind repeatedly and I have put one of it as my desk top . The reason is , whenever I see the photo , I think of God  and thank Him for providing the present position in family, society friends and relatives.  But on the other way I think that I should not pity the rickshaw puller  comparing to the owner of the rich car in the back ground , as a contrast (  The Poor & The Rich ).

The Rickshaw puller may be a happiest person that the car owner ! Who knows ?

It is normal to think that   the driver of the car and the puller of the hand rickshaw are in their own position according to their Karma. Then what is Karma ?  There are  abundant  information available in web and a few sentences  are  taken  and given below :

Karma is not fate, for humans act with free will creating their own destiny. According to the Vedas, if one sows goodness, one will reap goodness; if one sows evil, one will reap evil. Karma refers to the totality of our actions and their concomitant reactions in this and previous lives, all of which determines our future. The conquest of karma lies in intelligent action and dispassionate response.

Karma is not punishment or retribution but simply an extended expression or consequence of natural acts. Karma means "deed" or "act" and more broadly names the universal principle of cause and effect, action and reaction,  that governs all life. The effects experienced are also able to be mitigated by actions and are not necessarily fated. That is to say, a particular action now is not binding to some particular, pre-determined future experience or reaction; it is not a simple, one-to-one correspondence of reward or punishment.

One of the first and most dramatic illustrations of Karma can be found in the Bhagavad Gita. In this poem, Arjuna the protagonist is preparing for battle when he realizes that the enemy consists of members of his own family and decides not to fight. His charioteer, Krishna (an avatar of god), explains to Arjuna the concept of dharma (duty) among other things and makes him see that it is his duty to fight. The original Hindu concept of karma was later enhanced by several other movements within the religion, most notably Vedanta, and Tantra.
In this way, so long as the stock of Sanchita karma lasts, a part of it continues to be taken out as Prarabdha karma for being experienced in one lifetime, leading to the cycle of birth and death. A jiva cannot attain moksha until the accumulated sanchita karmas are completely exhausted.^[31]

My quest is how long  the rickshaw puller has to spent his life time to  exhaust and attain the level of travelling in his own car , as depicted in the photo. I have seen in my life many rickshaw pullers , in  my native place  Mylapore , had served the public  for generations. Is that the karma of a single person passed on to his generations   and how long  the cycle continues ?

Individually I accept Karma for my own acts and deeds ,   but could not answer to others in situations like the rickshaw puller pulls always rickshaw and the car owner drives the car and thrives for upgraded luxury cars. This I am seeing among many of my colleagues , who changes car in few years , not for the age of the car but for the luxury. Are they  have more good acts to  their  credit ?

I read  a chapter in Perfect Questions , Perfect Answers  ( Acting in Knowledge of Krishna, Chapter Seven )

by Srila Prabhupada , Founder Acharya of ISKCON  and quoted below :

So good karma means performance of the yajnas as they are prescribed in the Vedic literatures. And the purpose of this yajna is to satisfy the Supreme Lord. A good, law-abiding citizen is one whose actions satisfy the government.

So, good karma is to satisfy Lord Vishnu, the Supreme Lord. Unfortunately, modern civilization does not know what the Supreme Personality of Godhead is, what to speak of satisfying Him. people do not know.

They are simply busy with material activities. Therefore all of them are performing only bad karma and therefore suffering. They are blind men leading other blind men.

And both are then suffering by bad karma. That is very easy to understand. If you do something criminal, you will suffer. If you do something benevolent for the state, for the people, then you are recognized; you are sometimes given a title.

This is good and bad karma. So, good karma means you enjoy some material happiness; bad karma means you suffer from material distress. By good karma you get birth in a good family; you get riches, good money. Then you become a learned scholar; you become beautiful also.

One thing I wish to say is we have to see the people living below to our level and not to see the people who lives above our status and thank God  forever.   There are 101 quotes on Karma but not convinced by them as  it leads to  many  new meanings . So ,still my search for the right evidence of karma continues ! Should I accept Karma as it is ?

TITANIC sinking being remembered near and far today , 15 April 2012

TITANIC sinking being remembered near and far today ,15th April 2012.

It is 100 years since the great passenger liner  TITANIC ,designed as unsinkable , sank .

When I  read the news on Titanic sinking being remembered near and  far … I  wish to pay homage to the departed souls  in the disaster of  the wonderful creation , Titanic , 

a century ago, as a distant admirer of the ship . I had once been on board  I.N.S Vikrant  , Indian Navy War Ship   many years back in chennai and another vessel M V Doulos , The Floating Book Fair with my  very young nephew Vignesh , when it called Chennai port. 

I know about Titanic ship only in 1997 from the world famous movie TITANIC , directed by  James Camaron and the enchanting music by James Horner and Celine Dion’s song .

My son , who was just 13 years at that time , literally moved  in the last scene  in the theatre along with us , when Jack Dawson died in the icy ocean. He had many collections of paper cuttings on the movie and copied a book on original TITANIC , borrowed from his friend. I made it in a spiral binding and still preserving it.  The impact of the love story is believed as true by the viewers , though it is made for a movie !

The history of Titanic must be known to all but I just want to recall it from the internet.

RMS Titanic was a passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City. The sinking of Titanic caused the deaths of 1,514 people in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. She was the largest ship afloat at the time of her maiden voyage. One of three Olympicclass ocean liners operated by the White Star Line, she was built between 1909–11 by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. She carried 2,223 people.

 The 710 survivors were taken aboard from the lifeboats by RMS Carpathia a few hours later.

Since its rediscovery in 1985, thousands of artefacts have been recovered from the sea bed and put on display at museums around the world.Titanic has become one of the most famous ships in history, her memory kept alive by numerous books, folk songs, films, exhibits and memorials.

The Titanic storyline goes like this :

84 years later, a 101-year-old woman named Rose DeWitt Bukater tells the story to her granddaughter Lizzy Calvert, Brock Lovett, Lewis Bodine, Bobby Buell and Anatoly Mikailavich on the Keldysh about her life set in April 10th 1912, on a ship called Titanic when young Rose boards the departing ship with the upper-class passengers and her mother, Ruth DeWitt Bukater, and her fiancé, Caledon Hockley. Meanwhile, a drifter and artist named Jack Dawson and his best friend Fabrizio De Rossi win third-class tickets to the ship in a game. And she explains the whole story from departure until the death of Titanic on its first and last voyage April 15th, 1912 at 2:20 in the morning.

Yesterday I saw a documentary in History TV18 Channel , “TITANIC Mystery Solved “

By many scientists with the latest electronic gadgets and virtual reality in the space . They found a new piece between the front and rear portion of the ship and trying to solve the mystery and speculations on the ship design, rivet quality , speed of the ship and the iceberg and sand mounds under the sea.

So recalling the historical loss of an unsinkable ship and human lives ,  a hundred years before made me to write this blog. A few photos taken from IBN news website is attached for the interest of viewers and let us pay homage again to the souls left mother earth in the ocean.

 In the past hundred years many would have reborn  by virtue of their karma but without the past memory. Let us pay homage to them as it is 100 years passed and they would have left their body again and pray for their souls rest in peace.

 Good or bad . It is karma . Let us Chant Hare Krishna and Be Happy.

A Journey Starts From Destination !

A Journey starts from Destination

This is not  a  story similar  to a movie “ Back to the Future “ , a comedic science fiction of 1985. The title may  look odd. Any journey starts from an origin to the destination. But in my case , my spiritual journey started from the destination , MAYAPUR in West Bengal .

Mecca is a holy city for Mulims  and Jerusalem is for Christians .  Mayapur ( a holy town in India , about 130 KM north of Kolkata in West Bengal) is for ISKCON devotees.

Mayapur is the birthplace of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

 He appeared in the year 1486 and then performed many of his early pastimes here. Mayapur is 130 km north of Calcutta and across the Ganges from the city of Navadvipa. Navadvipa was at that time the capital of Bengal.
Mayapur is one of the most sacred and peaceful areas in all of India. Sri Chaitanya is non different than Lord Sri Krishna. Lord Sri Krishna appeared as a devotee of the Lord in the form of Lord Chaitanya. He showed us all by example how to perform the Yuga Dharma and please the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna. At Mayapur Sri Chaitanya displayed His childhood pastimes and one can see through them Sri Krishna's lilas. Mayapur is non different than the holy land of Sri Vrindavan dham.
I got introduced to ISKCON by my daughter before her marriage . She took me once to the ISKCON temple in Burkit Road , T.Nagar , Chennai  for a Sunday evening prayer. I met her classmate Ananda Subramanian there , who  was  also a devotee . The congregational prayer by loudly chanting the Hare Krishna maha mantra and dancing attracted me towards Krishna Consciousness. My daughter gave me some books written  by  the Founder , Srila Prabhupada . Till such time I do not know much about ISKCON activities. After reading the small books on KC ,  I felt at that time that I missed in the  past very much  on not knowing KC.
The seriousness towards bhakthi yoga came to me very late . My son , my daughter and my son-in-law are all devotees of  Sri Krishna  and that inspired me to give a serious thought in Krishna Consciousness.

My son wanted to visit Mayapur and  , few years before,  I took him there on a short trip , one way by train and return by flight from Kolkata. The first visit was a great experience . Both of us took bath in the Ganges  by the side of a ghat near the temple. Overnight stay in the Gada Bhavan guest house was wonderful. We walked in the 108 stones laid for chanting the Maha mantra in front of the temple . I took the guidance from my colleague Mr.Niladri Bhattacharya of Kolkata and without any problem we made the trip a success.




Chandrodaya Mandir ( ISKCON Mayapur)



The highlight of the trip is , my daughter , who was in USA at that time , watched us online through a website of ISKCON,Mayapur and captured us in two snaps in the early hours , 4.30 am , during the arti inside the temple. It was amazing at that time by seeing us praying inside the temple through the webcam fixed there , whereas she was in other side of the globe !The snaps are attached here.

GoShala

 My second visit to Mayapur was with my son-in-law during Gaura purnima in last March (2011 ) , when he came from US on personal work. That trip was also a memorable one for me . We had been there by flight from Chennai and then by a cab straight to mayapur. Unfortunately we could not plan for temple guesthouse but stayed just opposite to temple in a tiny hotel room for two nights and on the third night we could get accommodated inside temple.Whole day was spent inside the temple and watched the ceremony of Chaitanya maha prabhu’s birth anniversary ( 525^th ) in the temple complex. This festival is celebrated as Gaura Purnima. About ten thousand people were in floating population and it was amazing that no untoward incident happened by the grace of Krishna. There were dramas , discourses in the tented grounds.



Pushpa Samadhi

 I was excited  by an incident inside the temple complex , when I was eating  prasadam snacks along with my son-in-law. When both of were sitting in the cement chair  near the entrance of the temple and next to Sri Garuda deity and about to start eating the Prasad  purchased from the counter , a saffron robed priest came to me and with both hands  asked   for  the Prasad . I do not know what to do as I had taken a portion already but not bitten it. Few seconds I am speechless and wondering what to do and is it right to share to a guru like devotee. But  my hands automatically gave the complete Prasad leaf bowl  to the priest. He immediately left the scene . My son-in-law was also by the side of me . Within minutes the  same saffron robed  priest came to me suddenly and gave back my Prasad and tapped my shoulder and said “ you have passed the test “ . Still I do not find an answer , what test I have passed . Only one thing I could realize is that when someone asks for food , we should not think twice and  give away whatever we have for us without any hesitation . Really I was excited for few moments and that incident will  never be erased from my memory !
My son-in-law and myself had a great bath in Ganga , and he swam to a small stretch happily.



Bathing ghat near Ganga



But the under current was strong and he immediately retrieved  himself to the shore.  The three days stay gave me  big change in my thinking and action. I was wearing  at that time a gold chain with Krishna  dollar around my neck along with Thulsi mala, since my retirement , as the same was purchased from the contribution money my colleagues gave. But to my surprise among the pilgrimages I have not seen any male devotee  wearing a gold ornament in their neck. It sparked like a blow on my cheek ( normally in Tamil film , the hero will feel a blow on his cheek by an invisible hand for giving the audience a punch dialog). At that moment I have decided not to wear a gold chain in my neck ,  and wear only  a thulsi mala . When I returned from Mayapur , I gave the gold chain to my wife  for alternate use by her.



Ferry crossing in Nabdeep Ghat



There is no TWO without a THREE ! This statement  was made by a white dressed guruji  to me when I visited for the third time to Mayapur in March 2012. It must be Krishna’s wish I believe. He showed me a colourful book dedicated to Nabdeep covering the entire islands where Sri Chaitanya Maha Prabhu travelled, chanted and danced to the tune of hare Krishna mantra and spread Krishna Consciousness in that  region. I bought that from him and talked to him for some time. He enquired about me and family and where from I am coming. When I told him about the service of my son-in-law  and daughter  for KC , he told me that I am blessed  by Krishna. This time also I took a bath in Ganga on the banks and spent half a day inside the temple and took  Prasad in Govinda’s restaurant. Bhog arti was great and the deities dress  colour combination was too good. Unfortunately , this time no one is allowed to take pictures and we have surrendered our mobiles in the counter.



Crossing Ganga



The temple of Vedic Planetarium is coming in a big way and the entire construction is handled by Gammon , our company’s prestigious customer.  The route I took this time was from Sealdah Railway Station to Krishna Nagar city and from there by a share auto to Nabdip ghat and then by ferry crossed the ganges and reached the other shore. A mini bus took me to the gate of Sri Chandrodaya  Mandir, Mayapur , the International HQ of ISKCON.

Now I will reason out the title of the blog . For everyone Mayapur is the destination and so to me, to experience KC. So  my journey of understanding more on Krishna consciousness , dedicated   time to read the books of Srila Prabhupada , Bhagavad Gita again and again  and not to miss chanting the maha mantra daily , practice what I talk on KC  , starts from the destination – Mayapur .

Chant Hare Krishna and Be Happy .



Sree Krishna Chaitanya Math



Sree Chaitanya Gauditya math



Oh ! Calcutta ! … Now it’s Oh ! Kolkata !

 Oh ! Calcutta !   … Now it’s  Oh ! Kolkata ! 

Once upon a time , I was longing to visit  Calcutta  which has a nick name “ City of Joy” . Coinciding to this nick name , in 1969 there was a  longest running  musical show in Broadway and in London with 3900 performances ,  based on the controversial off-Broadway musical comedy revue.  It is a series of musical numbers about sex and sexual mores ! In Indian news papers the news of Oh! Calcutta ! was like a mirchi !  But I do not find any  link between the title of the musical and the city , Calcutta . Any way it was sensational at that time , when I was 17 !

Though I had travelled  to many places in India on official duties , Calcutta was missed out  for quite a long years. At last I had a chance to visit for an audit work to Calcutta in 2000 for my previous company , Greaves Cotton. I felt very happy on seeing the City of Joy. When I got down at Howrah railway station , the historical bridge welcomed me !

Calcutta is located on the east bank of Hooghly river and served as the capital of India until 1911 under the East India Company and later under the British Raj.

But in my first visit I could not move  around much to enjoy the richness of the city. Later when I joined Schwing Stetter , I got a good opportunity to visit many places in the city and suburb. The thrill of travelling in the TRAM , is a great pleasure , as the Tram services in old Madras was terminated  in 1953, I believe. It is a new mode of transport to see and enjoy travelling for me and every new visitor will love to go for a ride. It moves very slowly in a track along with other motor vehicles .

The places I have visited are  Victoria Memorial Museum , St.Paul’s Church , National Museum , under ground Metro train travel , Dhakshineswar , Belur Math ,  ISKCON temple  and  Birla Mandir . In the present Kolkata ( Calcutta has been renamed in 2001 as Kolkata ) , lot of infrastructure development is happening and a new city  has already come up in the suburb. The charm of old Calcutta  is still there in the present Kolkata in certain areas with hand pulled rickshaws and  cycle rickshaws. You can see all mode of transport in Kolkata , which you may not see in any other states .

On the death of Queen Victoria in January 1901, Lord Curzon, who was then Viceroy of India, placed before the public the question of setting up a fitting memorial to the Queen. He suggested that the most suitable memorial would be a "stately", spacious, monumental and grand building surrounded by an exquisite garden.This was to be a historical museum where people could see before them pictures and statues of men who played a prominent part in the history of this country and develop a pride in their past.The princes and people of India responded generously to his appeal for funds and the total cost of construction of this monument amounting to one crore, five lakhs of rupees, was entirely derived from their voluntary subscriptions.Sir William Emerson, President of the British Institute of Architects, designed and drew up the plan of this building, while the work of construction was entrusted to Messrs. Martin & Co. of Calcutta. Vincent J. Esch was the superintending architect.

St. Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral of the Church of North India - a united church which is part of the Anglican Communion - in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It is the seat of the Diocese of Calcutta, and the incumbent bishop is the Rt. Revd. Ashoke Biswas.^[1]

The building itself stands on the "island of attractions" in Kolkata - beside the Victoria Memorial, Nandan, Rabindra Sadan theatre complex, and the Birla Planetarium.

Belur Math, sprawling over forty acres of land on the western bank of the Hooghly (Ganga), in Howrah district, an hour’s drive from Kolkata, is a place of pilgrimage for people from all over the world professing different religious faiths.  Even people not interested in religion come here for the peace it exudes.

It was at Belur Math that Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), the foremost disciple of Sri Ramakrishna (1836-1886), lived the last years of his brief life.  He consecrated the grounds in 1898 by worshipping the urn containing the sacred relics of Sri Ramakrishna, which he himself carried on his shoulders to the place of worship. 

The Dakshineswar Kali Temple (Bengali: দক্ষিনেশ্বর কালী মন্দির Dokkhineshshôr Kali Mondir, Sanskrit: दक्षिनेश्वर काली मन्दिर) is a Hindu temple located in Dakshineswar near Kolkata. Situated on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, the presiding deity of the temple is Bhavatarini, an aspect of Kali, meaning, 'She who liberates Her devotees from the ocean of existence i.e Saṃsāra'.^[1] The temple was built by Rani Rashmoni, a philanthropist and a devotee of Kali in 1855. The temple is famous for its association with Ramakrishna a mystic of 19th Century Bengal.
The temple compound, apart from the nine-spired main temple, contains a large courtyard surrounding the temple, with rooms along the boundary walls. There are twelve shrines dedicated to Shiva—Kali's companion—along the riverfront, a temple to Radha-Krishna, a bathing ghat on the river, a shrine dedicated to Rani Rashmoni. The chamber in the northwestern corner just beyond the last of the Shiva temples, is where Ramakrishna spent a considerable part of his life.

Kalighat Kali Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to the Hindu goddess Maa Kali.^[1] It is one of the 51 Shakti Peethas.
Kalighat was a Ghat (landing stage) sacred to Kali on the old course of the Hooghly river (Bhāgirathi) in the city of Calcutta. The name Calcutta is said to have been derived from the word Kalighat. The river over a period of time has moved away from the temple. The temple is now on the banks of a small canal called Adi Ganga which connects to the Hoogly. The Adi Ganga was the original course of the river Hoogly (the Ganges). Hence the name Adi (original) Ganges.

Apart from the above land mark places I have travelled  around  and seen the co-existence of rich and poor  in the old city. A barefoot rickshaw puller and a rich man in a luxury  car  move together on the streets.



Rich & Poor contrast !



Convoy of rickshaws



Another way of transport ?



Joy ride for whom ?



Famous Haldiram Sweets are made here!



Sharma Tea House - for delicious samosa and tea



Flyover to new city



yellow taxi on the bridge



Indian National museum Estd.1814



Road side economic shave !

Merging of Tram and Taxis in a busy street



Superfast roads to Delhi and Mumbai



Tender coconuts on two wheelers !

There are many photos I took in my last trip during March 2012 but could not share all here. Hope you all will have the pleasure of viewing Kolkata through the lense of my Blackberry ! A seperate story line is  getting ready on my trip to Mayapur , the International Head Quarters of ISKCON , a holy Dham , about 130 KM north of Kolkata. Chant hare Krishna and Be Happy .