The scenic route 🍂🚙 | j_kreiss

Location: Bristol, Sullivan County, Tennessee, United States

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Unarguably the first location on every tourist’s itinerary when visiting Calcutta, the massive Victoria Memorial complex, one of the finest structures ever built in the country, has become an icon for the beautiful city that Calcutta is and also for the prominent architectural and artistic heritage left behind by the British in the city when they reigned supreme over the vast country. As the name suggests, the colossal memorial is dedicated to Queen Victoria, the British monarch under whose reign the Indian territories of the British East India “trading” company had lapsed into the hands of the British government and who had notably prefixed in her name the title “Empress of India”. This foremost of landmarks in Calcutta, designed in the budding Indo-Saracenic architectural style (combining Indian architectural practices that were a fusion of Hindu and Islamic designs with Victorian,Venetian and Egyptian influences and layouts) by Sir William Emerson, the president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, with inputs from the supervising architect Vincent Esch (especially responsible for laying the foundation of the gigantic memorial after taking into learned consideration the soil and ground conditions of the location), was a brainchild of Lord Curzon, the then Viceroy of India (in reality, it was his secretary who came up with the idea but Curzon got the credit), and is best summed in Curzon's own words – 

"Let us, therefore, have a building, stately, spacious, monumental and grand, to which every newcomer in Calcutta will turn, to which all the resident population, European and Native, will flock, where all classes will learn the lessons of history, and see revived before their eyes the marvels of the past." 

Please click here to read the original content about Indian tea- Chai

Masala Chai, a beverage brewed out of milk, sugar, tea leaves, ginger and other Indian spices is what the Google would say. This Indian sweet and spicy beverage is something about which even the Wikipedia would fail to describe its worth. 

Would you not agree that Tea is an important drink with a strong irresistible aroma keeps Kolkata going? Masala Chai is not merely a flavored tea but a strong addiction in the lives of the Calcuttans with any standard of living. Mornings need a kick start to the day and that people mostly begin with ‘Subah ki chai’.

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Kolkata is my city, my home. It stirs up my emotions, it stirs up my soul. The city at dusk through the heavy dark thunder clouds, the incessant noise from the crowded streets, the familiar and the unfamiliar faces, the multiple options of local savouries, the hurtling riot of colours – these rejuvenate me. Born and brought up for the most part in Kolkata, my Bengali genes are to be blamed not only for my relentless creative pursuits but also my unsatiated taste-buds. Wherever I go or whichever city I have lived in and set up our homes later in my life, there has always been a reference to something or someplace or somebody or some incident in Kolkata.

For me, the only way to experience Kolkata is to feel the city, live the city. And that is as good as living in a kaleidoscope. For those who haven’t had any prior ‘Kolkata’ experience, I hope I can show them the true Kolkata – in my way. For, I cannot ever severe my soul Konnection. I know that’s not the Korrect spelling but Connection with a Kis the only random thing that matches up to the chaos that is my city, Kolkata!