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Kolkata (or Calcutta) situated on the left bank of the River Hooghly is capital of West Bengal. It is India's second most populous metropolitan city and main gateway of north-eastern India. Kolkata was founded in the late 1600s. There is some controversy as how Kolkata derived its name. According to some Kolkata was named after "kalicut" -one of the village located in that area. Some others say that it is named after Goddess "kali". It was capital of India from 1773 through 1911.
Kolkata covers an area of 185 sq km (71 sq mi).
Buses,metro rail and Circular rail are the main media of transportation. Electric trams still
operate in some parts of Kolkata. Taxi,auto,Rickshaw are also means of transportation
.BBD Bag (formerly Dalhousie Square) is the main business and financial zone of the city. Writers' Building (1880)-the state government's administrative center and
General Post Office (GPO) is also located in this area.Close to BBD Bagh is
is Kolkata's main greenery- the Maidân,Its a large area including
a racecourse under the supervision of Royal Kolkata Turf Club, a monument (Shaeed Minar),
The famous Eden Garden known to all cricket lovers, several soccer
fields,the historic Fort William and wonderful Victoria Memorial(1921).Other places of interest in Kolkata are the Traditional Indian
Museum(1875); the Raj Bhavan (1802)- formerly known as the Government House;
the Birla Industrial and Technological Museum;Jawaharlal Nehru Children's Museum;Marble palace and Birla Planetarium .
The Botanical Gardens (1786) in Howrah, Kolkata's twin city, features many tropical
plants in addition to a famous banyan tree which is known for its age and structure.
The holy places of the city includes Kali Temple,Dakshineswar Temple; Parasnath Jain Temple (1867),
and Nakhoda Mosque (1926) .
Kolkata is connected to other parts of India by two major train terminals: Sealdah in
the east-central part of Kolkata and Howrah across the river.
Netaji Subhas Bose international airport at Dum Dum provides service
for both national and international airlines.
Population according to the 1991 census, Kolkata had a population of 4,399,819, with an Extremely high population density of 23,720 persons per sq km (61,970 persons per sq mi). The metropolitan area had a population of 10.9 million and a density of 8761 persons per sq km (22,661 persons per sq mi).
Kolkata is center of education , there are three Universities - The University of Kolkata (founded in 1857), Jadavpur University (1955) and Rabindra Bharati University (1962).More than 70 percent of Kolkata's population were literate in 1991. Several languages are spoken in Kolkata, including English. Bengali speakers constitute 60 percent of the city's population, Hindi (23 percent), Urdu (11 percent), and Oriya (1.3 percent) are other common languages.
Another Nobel laureate, Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, who received
the Nobel Prize in physics in 1930 for his discovery of the Raman effect
on light, worked and researched in Kolkata for a long period. Sarat Chandra Chatterjee,
a highly regarded Bengali fiction writer of the early 20th century,
lived in nearby Hâora. Ram Mohan Roy, sometimes called the father of modern
India, began his social reform for abolition of suttee
(burning to death of a wife with her deceased husband) in Kolkata.
He also founded Brahmo Samaj, a modern Hindu religious sect, in the city
in 1828.
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