First Time In Kolkata? Here Are 8 Awesome You Must Experience

This jaw-dropping mansion is a throwback to the Raj era and the wealth of zamindars. Made purely with Italian marble in 1835, the Marble Palace was the residence of one of the richest merchants and landlords of Bengal— Raja Rajendra Mullick Bahadur. The palace is like a hotchpotch museum of art objects and paraphernalia collected over years. Check out the marble flooring and wall panels, the Belgian glass mirrors. the five enormous halls, and the over  70 rare artworks brought in 1830 all the way from Italy and Belgium including busts of Greece’s gods — Praxiteles to Phidias, Venus to Apollo, Homer to Diana.

You need a permit from the West Bengal State Tourism Department to get in, which is not really a problem.

This is the house of Rabindra Nath Tagore and his ancestors. Here you can even visit the room in which he breathed his last. A large part of the house is now a fairly well-maintained museum that keeps artifacts related to Tagore, from around the world. This is easily a couple of hours of quality time waiting to be spent.

Bow Barracks is located in central Kolkata — just behind the Bowbazar police station. As per hearsay, the Bow Barracks was a garrison’s mess built for the army during World War I. Today Anglo-India families live here. Because of the photogenic red houses with green buildings, this place is often a part of photo walks in Kolkata. These days it’s one of the best places for Christmas celebrations.

Now this is a place that is full of activity and hustle. If you ever wondered where the intelligent Bengali gentry comes from, you might be in the right place. The Indian Coffee House is beyond a doubt the best place to sit in a large hall and absorb the chatter sound. This sound has been here since ages – cheers to the people of Kolkata!

We as a society can and should develop by keeping things from the past still intact. Trams are one of those things that this city has deliberately kept with them — because they wanted to. Head to Esplanade and hop onto any tram without worrying about the destination. You’ll be amazed to imagine that these trams must once have been packed with people.

Children playing football and cricket, adults busy chatting over a walk and horses grazing over the green. If you want to experience this India, you need to be there at dawn as the cold mist over the maidan grass is still fresh. It is rare to find such a huge stretch of empty green in the middle of such a big city. Maybe other towns around the country could take a cue from Kolkata.

You are probably thinking “of course, everyone knows Victoria Memorial”. You are right, but the secret to this place is going there at dusk. It’s only when the soft sunlight hits this place at an inclined angle when it appears best. So make sure you get there before the sun starts going down.

You may have seen the sun go down behind the horizon many times but here is a guarantee – the sunset that can be viewed as the sun goes down behind the Vidya Sagar Setu is one of the best in the world. The sky turns magical as the hues of red paint the sky. Princep Ghat was erected to commemorate the arrival of the Prince of Wales during the Raj and trust us it gets even better during night when the lights turn on.

I have made a film around this gorgeous city that straddles the past and present so elegantly. It’s called Stop Look Go | Kolkata and is on my YouTube channel, Ethereal. It will give you enough reasons to drop all other plans and come visit Kolkata immediately. Watch it here.