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Headquarters of South Eastern Railway (SER), Garden Reach, formerly Bengal Nagpur Railway (BNR)
South Eastern Railway (SER) Headquarters, Garden Reach
formerly Bengal Nagpur Railway (BNR)
The opening of the Mumbai-Thane line in 1853 marked the beginning of railways in India. The Bengal Nagpur Railway (BNR) was formed in 1887 for the purpose of upgrading the Nagpur Chhattisgarh Line and then extending it via Bilaspur to Asansol, in order to develop a shorter Howrah-Mumbai route than the one via Allahabad.
The BNR main line from Nagpur to Asansol was opened for goods traffic on 1 February 1891. It was only after Kharagpur was linked from the west and the south that it was connected to Howrah in 1900.
Lockdown Memories Continues, Wildlife Photography from Rooftop
Lockdown Memories Continues
Wildlife Photography from Rooftop (Part 2)
Also see: Lockdown Memories (Part 1)
Lock, unlock, lock… and the process goes on and on. It has been over four months since the lockdown started on mid-March 2020 and things are yet to come to normal. We have got adjusted to our modified routines. I still spend a couple of hours in the evening spotting and photographing birds and other wildlife from my residence terrace in Salt Lake, Kolkata.

Oriental magpie Robin
I uploaded my first blog post in mid-June and the list of wildlife spotted was as follows:
- Chestnut Tailed Starling or Grey Headed Myna (কাঠ শালিক) (Sturnia malabarica)
- Red Vented Bulbul (বাংলা বুলবুল) (Pycnonotus cafer)
- Oriental Magpie Robin (দোয়েল পাখি) (Copsychus saularis)
- Purple Sunbird (দুর্গা টুনটুনি) (Cinnyris asiaticus)
- Black Hooded Oriole (কালোমাথা বেনেবউ) (Oriolus xanthornus)
The second phase continued with the spotting of more birds and other wildlife, this new list includes:
- Coppersmith Barbet (ছোট বসন্ত বৌরি) (Psilopogon haemacephalus)
- Blue Throated Barbet (বড় বসন্ত বৌরি) (Psilopogon asiaticus)
- Rose Ringed Parakeet (সবুজ টিয়া) (Psittacula krameri)
- Indian Flying Fox (বড় বাদুর) (Pteropus medius)
Lockdown Memories, Wildlife Photography from my rooftop
Lockdown Memories
Wildlife Photography from my rooftop
Covid 19 has changed the way we lived, with the lockdown being implemented from 16 March 2020, there was nothing much to do. Stuck at home I started editing the Wikipedia.

Chestnut Tailed Starling or Grey Headed Myana
Although I have been attached with the Wikipedia Movement for almost a decade but my activity was more off line. The Covid 19 Lockdown first provided me to edit wikipedia on a regular basis.
Ghare Baire (The World, The Home and Beyond), 18th – 20th Century Art in Bengal, Old Currency Building, Kolkata
Ghare Baire (The World, The Home and Beyond)
18th – 20th Century Art in Bengal
Old Currency Building, Kolkata
2019 saw the opening of several themed based museums in Kolkata. They include the I am Calcutta (আমি কলকাতা) Museum in Metcalfe Hall, Icon of Nationalism Museum at the National Library, Reserve Bank of India Museum and the Theatre Museum in Salt Lake.

Old Currency Building housing the Ghare Baire, 18th – 20th century art gallery of Bengal
The beginning of 2020 was marked with the inauguration of a Bengal Art Gallery by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the historic Old Currency Building. Titled Ghare Baire (ঘরে বাইরে) The World, The Home and Beyond the museum focuses on 18th – 20th century Art in Bengal.
Kolkata’s very own Museum, Metcalfe Hall
Kolkata’s very own Museum
Metcalfe Hall
Museum – a series of artifacts arranged in rows with placards describing each of them. This has been the idea of a museum for most of the people. Over the years, like all other things, museums have also evolved.

Metcalfe Hall, Kolkata
Today museums are not just a display of artifacts. It comes in with audio visual effects creating a movie theatre like atmosphere. The visitor gets a real life feel of the artifacts as he moves from one gallery to the other.