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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.
Theatre Museum, Salt Lake, Kolkata
Theatre Museum
Salt Lake, Kolkata
Recently Kolkata witnessed an opening of a large number of theme based museums. Included among them is Ami Kolkata, a museum dedicated to the city itself and Reserve bank of India (RBI) Museum.

Portion of the modern theatre gallery, Theatre Museum, Kolkata
But the city has never been new to theme based museums. Birla Industrial & Technology Museum, Nehru Children Museum, Kolkata Police Museum, Postal Museum, Boat Museum, etc are integral part of Kolkata’s heritage.
Centenary of the end of World War I, Remembrance Day, Kolkata
Centenary of the end of World War I
Remembrance Day, Kolkata
I’m privileged to be here in Kolkata and had the opportunity to pay tribute to those who lost their lives in war. We recognise India’s remarkable contribution to the war efforts….
Bruce Bucknell. British Deputy High Commissioner, Kolkata

100th Remembrance Sunday at Kolkata. L: Bhowanipore Cemetery, C: Glorious Dead Cenotaph, Maidan and R: St. John’s Church
It was the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year 2018 the buglers sounded the Last Post followed by a two minutes silence, which was broken by the sounding of The Rouse.
Cycle Polo, Poor Man’s version of the Royal Game
Cycle Polo
Poor Man’s version of the Royal Game
Polo reminds one of galloping horses and the sound of the wooden mallet hitting the bamboo ball. Polo, often termed as the “Sport of the Kings,” is played on horse back on a large rectangular field.
Each team consists of four players and the object is to score goals by driving a small hard white ball into the opposing team’s goal using a long-handled wooden mallet. The team with the more goals wins.
Restoration of Jewish Cemetery, Kolkata
Jewish Cemetery, Kolkata
Kolkata Jews retrace their ancestor’s graves
Also See: Kolkata (Calcutta ) Jews
Rosemary Cohen has come all the way from Australia, with a inverted family tree. A few of the branches of the family tree stressed back to five generation. She, accompanied by her husband, was looking for the graves of her ancestors in the newly renovated Jewish Cemetery of Kolkata.

Looking for their ancestor’s grave, Jewish Cemetery, Kolkata
As we made our way through the thickly packed maze of, freshly painted, white graves of the Jewish Cemetery, Rosemary narrated her fond memories of Kolkata, the city of her birth.
Beth El and Magen David Synagogue, Kolkata, Re-dedication & Celebration of Restoration
Beth El and Magen David Synagogue, Kolkata
Re-dedication & Celebration of Restoration
Also See: Kolkata (Calcutta ) Jews
As the Muslim boys of Elias Meyer School (popularly known as Jewish Boys School) sang Hebrew song of peace Oseh Shalom at the Magen David Synagogue in Kolkata Ezra Moses could no longer hold his tears.

Re-dedication and Celebration of Restoration of the Beth El Synagogue, Kolkata
A emotional Ezra Moses, presently a resident of Miami, USA, murmured “this is where my parents got married, long time back, probably in 1943. This is the city of my birth.”
Unveiling of Dutch plaque at Suriname Memorial, Kolkata
Unveiling of Dutch plaque at Suriname Memorial
Balu Ghat (Suriname Jetty), Garden Reach, Kolkata
Also see: Suriname Memorial
“My ancestors must have stood here for the last time before leaving India forever. The men carried two dhotis and two kurtas each. The women carried two saris each. Apart from this, some carried religious books like the Ramayana, Mahabharata or Quran,”
Aashna Kanhai Ambassador of Suriname

Unveiling of the Dutch plaque at Suriname Memorial, Kolkata. L – R: Dave C Prasad (High Commissioner Trinidad & Tobago, Aashna Kanhai (Ambassador of Suriname), M J Akbar (Union Minister of state for External Affairs), Alphonsus Stoelinga (Ambasador of the Kingdom of Netherlands), Vinit Kumar (Chairman of Kolkata Port Trust) and Kajari Biswas (Branch Secretary, Kolkata, Ministry of External affairs)
Suriname Memorial, a small non – descriptive memorial, on the banks of Hooghly River in Metiabruz and Garden Reach area was unveiled, on 7 Oct. 2015, by the Union External Minister Sushma Swaraj, in the presence of Aashna Kanhai, Ambassador of Suriname.