Hi

Keeping with my promise to post more scenes of 'Indurbanity', here's

Amar Sonar Kolkata -- "Our Golden Kolkata"

..from photos I've collected over the last several months. I initially feared overexposure of the subject (Suncity beat me to a Kolkata thread ), but I realized that this Kolkata is rarely covered outside a hackneyed Mother Teresa-esque dickensen streotype of the city. Also, Suncity's thread is a great introduction and orientation to the city whereas I'm going for the goal of capturing the city's character and life. Be sure to check his brilliant thread out, first.

Anyway, introductions first. Kolkata (English name formerly Calcutta), is the capital of West Bengal state in India. Originally founded by the British, it was the intellectual and the political capital of India before New Delhi. Even today, Kolkata is the focal point of modern Indian art, literature and independant media. Bookstores, small as a street vendor's cart or large as a warehouse, are on every block. The permiating intellectual nature of the city is so that even the most uneducated taxi driver can hold you in deep theological discourse as he drives you to the touristy.


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Some Kolkata Aerials


^ Looking towards the river over old Kolkata


^ Over the many bungalows that make up the city. I like this pic because you can actually see the Monsoon rain creep toward the foreground.


^ The aftermath of such a downpour. Kolkata is not far from Cherrapunji, the wettest place on this planet, and torrential rain is as much a fact of life as Kolkata's communists or books.


^ The city is situated in the delta of the confluence of the Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers, and many of its tributaries (ex: the Hoogley) run through the city


^ Kolkata, like all Indian cities, is experiencing a construction boom of new towers. Not only are tall apartment and s