Finally, we arrived in Kolkata. Rao's brother Ramakrishna Sarma was on the platform to receive us. He arranged a car to take us home. After the ordeal we had on the train, we did have a comfortable journey and we were very happy to see a familiar face (that too from our family) !! We reached their flat and his wife Lakshmi made us very comfortable. We had hot water for the bath. We did the laundry and had great meals.
What did we do in this city? The car was at my brother-in-law's disposal during our stay. So, it was quite enjoyable, We saw the Botanical gardens. Dakshineswar, Howrah bridge (we passed this during our train journey), shopping alleys etc.
The Lotus pond, the famous Banyan (Ficus bengalhensis) tree were quite impressive in the gardens. Dakshineswar Temple is very famous. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (Swami Vivekananda's guru) worshipped Mother Kali here. Paramahamsa Yogananda had visions of The Mother here.
Here is a quote from OM-GURU:
"The second type of experience mentioned by Yogananda is devotional in nature. In this experience, he had a vision while meditating on a statue of the goddess Kali in the Dakshineswar temple, Belur Math. This is the temple near Calcutta where the noted nineteenth century saint Ramakrishna Paramahamsa worshiped and had many visions of the divine mother in the form of the goddess Kali."
The Kali Temple was not clean like many other Temples in the northern part of India. The Kali shrine itself is small, but the compound is big. We had to walk for a long time to go around the shrine and inside the shrine. But the Aarati ritual is a wonderful experience. Once you witness that you will understand how those two great spiritual leaders had visions of Kali. You just have to experience it. Thanks to my family there, I witnessed this three times in my life.
The Botanical gardens was founded by the East India Company during the British reign and used to go by the name 'The Royal Botanic Garden in Calcutta'. It was one of the largest tropical gardens in the world during the nineteenth century. The herbarium is a huge one, specializing in the native flora from all of the regions of India. Orchids, Bamboos, Nagalingam and Palm trees are still in abundance. It remains an important center for botanical research. The classified listings of plants are arranged by their name in fourteen languages with Latin next to each name. We did not see the details of the herbarium. The walk within the gardens tired me out. I loved the lotus pond the most. The banyan tree had spread so much, the area covered appeared like the size of a tiny village (?) I took beautiful photos of the banyan tree, but it is too big to load. I may do it in the future with some help from the younger generation.
We did not see the Planetarium which is also very famous. Well, we did not see the famous Mosque, Synagogue, Birla Temple, The Jain Temple and so on. For those interested in seeing more and can afford the time, the list of famous cultural and spiritual centers of Kolkata are The Armenian (oldest) church built in 1764, Belur Math on the banks of Hubli (Ganga's another name?) ( Ramakrishna Temple was built here) ,
Lakshmi knew the ins and outs of all the shopping alleys. She was fluent in Bengali and a patient and a capable shopper - all these were very helpful. Nirmala bought some beautiful Bengal cotton sarees for her family and friends. I did not buy any.
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