Thomas Fanshawe Middleton Last Resting Place

by Subhadip Mukherjee, posted in Heritage, Kolkata

Thomas Fanshawe Middleton and His Last Resting Place

So where was Thomas Fanshawe Middleton the first Bishop of Calcutta buried? This question had always intrigued me for long, as there were no official document to backup. Many books, gazettes, and repots have mentioned him being buried at the altar of St. Jonh’s Church and the marble plaque at the altar of the church clearly mentions his name. Some reports state that he was buried on 11th of July whereas some put that date as 12th of July. Ultimately who know what lies beneath.

So was he buried at Fort William and not at St. John’s Church? The answer is “yes” and “no”. To understand lets go back in time and trip down history to get to know some fascinating story from a life of a person who forever changed the course of Christianity in India and beyond.

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Metcalfe Hall Kolkata

by Subhadip Mukherjee, posted in Heritage, Kolkata

Metcalfe Hall Kolkata

If you talk about book and libraries in Kolkata people always think about the National Library. It is indeed one of the biggest libraries in the country with a collection, which cannot be measured in money. I have myself got many information verified for my blogs through the large collection of old newspapers that it has in stock. What many including me did not know that the National Library that we see now was not the actual building that housed nations books but a completely different building, which almost all had forgotten.

It was the Metcalfe Hall, which was the nation’s first National Library and was once considered a landmark when it came to list of books that it had in its catalogue.

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Diamond Triangle of Odisha -Lalitgiri, Ratnagiri, Udayagiri

by Subhadip Mukherjee, posted in Odisha, Travelogues

Foreign tourist coming to India are mostly bound to do a common tourist circuit called the Golden Triangle. This Golden Triangle consists of Delhi, Agra and Jaipur. Apart from this, there is another very important site, which is referred to as the Diamond Triangle and is a very important part of India’s Buddhist heritage.

Lalitgiri, Ratnagiri and Udayagiri are referred to as the Diamond Triangle of Odisha and is often considered as some of the most important Buddhist sites of the state. The name Diamond Triangle is not due to the locations of these sites on map instead the very root or sect of Buddhism from where these have evolved.

Vajrayana which when you translate from Sanskrit would mean Thunderbolt Vehicle (Vajra = Thunderbolt and Yana = Vehicle). In Sanskrit Diamond is also known as Vajramaṇi thus Vajrayana was referred to as the Diamond Vehicle sect of Buddhism.

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Places To Visit In Udaipur

by Subhadip Mukherjee, posted in Rajasthan, Travelogues

Places To Visit In Udaipur

I was visiting Udaipur for the very first time and accompanying me was my office colleague. He had earlier visited Udaipur along with another colleague of ours thus he was not that much interested in going around Udaipur. On asking him, it became clear that the reason he was reluctant for another Udaipur City tour was that he had seen them all. I was confused when he only named a couple of them all located around Lake Pichola. I had done some basic homework about this place thus was sure that he was missing out quite a few tourist spots.

Udaipur is not just Lake Pichola it has many attractions spread all over the city however, you have to agree that most of the important places are all located around Lake Pichola thus people usually stick to few common places only. In this blog I am trying to list down all the major important tourist places in Udaipur City.

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Bagore Ki Haveli – Udaipur

by Subhadip Mukherjee, posted in Rajasthan, Travelogues

Bagore Ki Haveli - Udaipur

For two straight days, I was trying to locate Bagore Ki Haveli in Udaipur and I just could not locate it. If I Google it then nothing was showing up and when it did it had nothing out there. I had almost given up hope trying to track Bagore Ki Haveli until the last day when we were supposed to catch our flight back to Kolkata. After having our breakfast we wanted to stroll around Lake Pichola as we had already checked out of our hotels thus had some time in our hands to kill. We just wanted to sit by the lake and enjoy the bright sun as the winter chill was freezing us.

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Freemasons Hall Kolkata

by Subhadip Mukherjee, posted in Heritage, Kolkata

Freemasons Hall Kolkata

The year was 1990 and Bangalore then was still a small sleepy town. The city had very few cinema theatres and the number of them showing English movies were even less. Most of the theatres showing English movies were located on M. G. Road and Plaza was one of them. My introduction and in future addiction to Hollywood movies started from Bangalore and one movie that played a pivotal role was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. This was also the very first movie, which my father and me saw together. After this, there were several occasions when we had seen a Hollywood movie together.

My father was a fan of Steven Spielberg and over the years that same fan following was inculcated to me. I still remember some of the scenes from that movie where Harrison Ford was on a horse and last but not the least the scene on the Zeplin. I became a fan of Indiana Jones and that was something, which also made me the Indian Vagabond. My passion for exploring new and unknown places developed from the idea of Indiana Jones.

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