Victoria Memorial | Great Banyan Tree | Behala | Howrah Bridge
The British built this monmument between 1906 and 1921 to honor Queen Victoria. Kyle's uncle Budhukaka took us here for a visit on our first full day in Calcutta. The first time Kyle visited India in 1976, this was one of his favorite places, so he was anxious to see it again. We were still pretty tired after 24 hours in transit, so we really enjoyed strolling through the lush, tranquil gardens that surround the main building.
This banyan tree stands in the Indian Botanical Gardens in Howrah, which is just across the Hooghly River from Calcutta. This 200 year-old tree is reputed to be the world's largest banyan tree, with a circumference of approximately 330 meters. We went to visit the tree on one of our initial sight-seeing trips in the Calcutta area and it was really incredible. This single tree looks like an entire forest! The central trunk of this tree died in the 1920s, but its outer limbs live on. One really cool thing about banyan trees is that their roots grow down to the ground from the limbs; most of the vertical elements you see in this picture are actually the roots of the tree.
While
in Calcutta, we stayed at Kyle's uncle Madhukaka's house in the Behala section
of Calcutta. His house is the yellow one that you see on the left in the foreground
of this photo. Madhukaka is an architect and he designed this house himself.
As you can see, even nice neighborhoods are pretty crowded in Calcutta. Multiple
generations of a family generally live together in the same house. As the family
grows, floors are added to the house. You can see construction underway on several
houses on the right-hand side of this photo. Most of the houses are made of
concrete, which is a popular building material in India because it resists the
fungi and insects that thrive in tropical climates, and it helps to keep interiors
cool. Residential streets in Behala are very narrow, which favors pedestrians
and limits car traffic.
During the month that we spent in India, we spent about two weeks in Calcutta. We spent quite a bit of time visiting Kyle's relatives in their homes, which was great. We also visited a number of sites where we weren't able to take good pictures. We visited the Indian Museum, Mother Teresa's grave at the Missionaries of Charity convent, and several Hindu temples, including Kalighat where Kyle's uncle Gopalkaka even arranged for us to go inside and receive a blessing. At the end of our stay, Budhukaka arranged a special tour for us at the National Library.
After spending about 10 days in Calcutta, we travelled by train to New Delhi. In order to get to one of the two main train stations in Calcutta, you have to cross the Hooghly river. Built originally in 1943 to transport munitions to Burma, the Howrah Bridge is the longest single-span cantilevered bridge in the world. As one of only three bridges that span the Hooghly in Calcutta, is nortoriously busy and crossing it can be quite an adventure.