goutammitra's VirtualTourist Home Page
| Page Views: 22,788 | Welcome To Our Life Thru' VT!! by goutammitra - last update: Oct 17, 2009 |
HAPPY DIWALI TO YOU ALL!!!! | Let's move from Darkness to Light: Happy Diwali! |
We wish Happy Diwali to all our friends & viewers in VT! Let the festival of Light bring peace, happiness & prosperity in your life! Let's unite to stop attrocities to womankind and stop abuse of girl child in India and other parts of the world! Let mother Maha Lakshmi bless you and your family!!
Happy Diwali!!
Finally we have booked ourselves for Bangkok/ Thailand from 3rd. January to 10th January'10.
Please visit my Kolkata page for videos ( pl. follow the link below). Please visit my travelogue below to have a glimpse of the picture, I have taken of Kolkata Durga Puja.
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/vb/10cd7c/6f618/*
We are celebrating our own Puja at Golf Green, Phase-I, Kolkata( Where we stay). I am putting lots of picture and videos too. Please follow the link below of our own website:
http://golfgreenph1puja.org/*
This Puja was started 30 years ago and has gone through good times and bad times. Last year it was in a mess as some wrong people were involved and they made a hell out of the contribution. Now this year the young Turks has taken over, this puja is now drawing crowds and is amongst competition. We are sure, next year it will bring prizes and draw crowd as well. Lots of our friends and friends' relatives, the boys and girls of Golf Green who have settled abroad and Phase-I residents contributed well to over come the loss of previous years and helped the organisers to present a grand Puja in 2009.
This year, I have decided to post some video clips on the festivities of Durga Puja in VT, to give our VT friends a first hand/ ring side view of Durga Puja. I have just now posted a video clip on Durga Puja in Dance form performed by famous Odissi dancer Debarati Goswami & her troupe in my Kolkata Page. In this clip Debarati is presenting how Mother Durga is conquering over the demon Mahisasura ( The Buffalo Demon). I am sure all of you are going to enjoy it. I shall be posting more clips on Durga Puja:
Last month I made a trip to Andaman& Nicobar Island, its' surely one of the most beautiful places on the earth! Tough I did not visit the entire Island( It's not possible also) my main travel and visits remained confined to the touristy area of Port Blair and surroundings. We missed Havelock Island ( due to lack of time) but compensated with visit to Viper Island, Ross Island, Cellular Jail, Light & Sound Show at Cellular Jail, North Bay( Snorkelling), Corbin's Cove,Chidiya Tapu, Anthrolpogical Museum, and so many other places, known and unknown both. It was a highly satisfying tour of the Island.
I have left space to come back again to visit Havelock Island and for exploring Andaman Trunk Road ( 333kms, which travels thru' the places of Aborigins) for our next visit to Island. Please visit my Andaman & Nicober Island page for many pictures and texts.
Andaman: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/6f618/5f4/*
Pictures of Solar Eclipse: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/abdf2/#TL*
Chandannagore Page:
those rare photographs on Chandannagore, please visit my Chandannagore page!
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/6f618/10cce1/* |
| One of the most wonderful creeks in Sunderbans!! |
|  | Home of Royal Bengal Tiger in now devastated !!
Yesterday, we did go to Sunderbans along with my office colleagues with some relief material for the Aila victims. At the time of going, we received many food items like rice, puffed rice, flat rice beyond our expectation. We divided our team into two and choose different directions to distribute relief. I took my team to Choto Mollakhali and the other team went to Bali. The place we selected was three hours by boat from Gathkhali, the river pier opposite Gosaba. We started from Kolkata at 6.30AM and reached Gathkhali at 10.00AM. Then next one and half hour we loaded the two boats with relief items. We could collect many items( listed below) before going. We reached Choto Mollakhali at 3.00PM, there were hundreds of hungry women, children and men waiting for us to get some food items as the relief they received so far was inadequate. Since, we went thru' the Tagore Society( www.tsrd.org), an NGO working there for many years), their volunteers( led by Mrs.Pramila Dingal, who is with the society for 33 years , see pic.) had done survey and prepared a list which family needs what. They had issued stamped slips ( see picture in Sunderban Travelogue) to the women so that we are not mobbed and our relief item are not looted by villagers. They formed queue and collected relief almost peacefully. We ensured that all family gets almost 8-10kgs of rice, women with small children gets a mosquito net, a schoolgoing gets an umbrella, lamp less gets a hurricane lantren or lamp, women get a sari. It was not possible to give everything to everyone as whatever relief was given was inadequate for them. In all we carried almost 10-12 mt of relief materials. We noticed the village does not require the mineral water any more as now water is coming out from the lone tube well there. So, we took the 1500 lts of water to Rangabelia Project Hospital run by Tagore Society for hunderds of Diarrhoea patients. As team leader, I felt this was the most logical decision at that time.
I request my friends to visit Sunderban page and the travelogue too see the pictures and video. The condition of people there is so pathetic that it is unexplainable. I could not eat my dinner last night as I was thinking of those people, without home, cloths, food, electricity, roads, sanitation. There is not even a shop to buy any thing. The land is filled with saline water and it is smelling like anything. The land will remain barren for at least year or two unless the govt does anything serious. I wonder, how people of Sunderban live after 60 years our independence! There is no job, no employment, nowhere to go but work as labour and do fishing and little bit of cultivation, that's all. How can a human live that way? It brought tears in my eyes to see the face of those hungry people and their living condition. One is also compelled to think, what this Marxist govt. was doing in the last 32 years?
Now we have zeroed in a village " Mollakhali" about 3 hours mechanical boat ride from Gosaba ( Gathkhali), with 110 families consisting 456 people. We are taking with us about 6 tons of rice, 200 mosquito nets, 110 large tarpaulins, 20 sacks of potato, 1 sack of salt, cooking oil, 1 ton of puffed rice, 1 ton of Flat rice, Baby Food, 100 kg of Lentils, old and new cloths,400 ACC branded umbrella, 24 cartons biscuits, 110 hurricane lanterns, 1000 match box, 1000 packs ORS, Medicines, Mosquito repellants, 2000 liters of purified water and so on. We know this is indaquate but then relief is pouring in from various sources. We could gather Rs.2,00,000/- in cash from our colleagues and associates and some food articles and rice donated by our dealer and friends.
In case any of my VT friends wants to donate something then please write to me. I shall tell you how you can also help.
THE PICTURE & VIDEOS ARE POSTED IN SUNDERBAN PAGE TRAVELOGUE. PL. VISIT THE LINK BELOW.
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/6f618/10c142/ |
I did it, White Water Rafting on Teesta
So, finally I did it! I had the chance to go to Gangtok once again on 14th April, exactly after a month of our visit to Gangtok & North Sikkim. On return we did White Water Rafting on the Teesta River for an 11 KM long stretch from Melli to Teesta Bazar! It was again an wish fulfilment as I was longing to do this from a long long time since I did it at Pokhara in Nepal long back. More details on Gangtok Page ( Sports travel). I have a video clip of 20mts taken on my Handycam with size of 375mb. I wish I could edit a small portion of about two minutes in reduced size to load it on VT. I shall welcome any suggestion from any VT member on how to do it ( reduce the size).
Please visit my Gangtok Page: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/6f618/10c370/
We are back from our trip to North Sikkim destinations ( I had a dream to visit this place for the last three years). North Sikkim is really dangerously beautiful and Gurudongmar Lake at 17800 feet with temp hovering around -18 to -24 degree Centigrade( we visited on 17th March) it has to be beautiful no....... dangerously beautiful!!!!! We had heavy rain and snowfall the night before at Lachen. The temperature was already -4 to -6 at Lachen itself which is at 8500 feet. By the time we reached at Thangu at 12900 feet the temperature was -8 or-10 degree Centigrade, that's what the Indian Army people told us at Kalep camp. We had breathing trouble when we reached Gurudongmar Lake. But it was a great experience of life to be able to survive for 1/2 an hour at Gurudongmar in that temperature ( -20 degree Centigrade) and able to walk straight without much acclamatization of altitude. We took video clips, took at least 24 to 40 photographs and came back in one piece!!!
Oh It was some experience. I am going to build a full page on Gurudongmar and North Sikkim.
Please visit my North Sikkim Page :http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/6f618/5e9/ | | | Rafting on Progress, we hired a photographer! |
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| Lord Krishna with his consort at ISKON Temple |
| | Lord Krishna Bless Us all !! We wish all our VT friends a very Happy New Year! May Lord Krishna bless you and your family members.
I have got requests from many to write something about our culture, country, songs and dances etc. but as you know India is a very large country with several states, several languages, several styles of dance and music. It is very difficult to sum all of them in to a small page. However, I shall try to load as much pages on our tourist detinations and off the beaten path as well gradually. I shall also try to up load videos on various places, the various cultures, dances, songs as and when I am able to record them. I am sure it will never be complete as India is vast and life is very short....... till then please bear with me!
I request you all to visit my pages and the videos I have loaded to learn more about this country, our culture, our music, our folk dances and all. |
Last VT meet of the year with Lynne & Richard Our VT friend Lynne and Richard from Sydney are currently visiting Kolkata. They paid us a visit to our place yesterday evening. We had dinner together at Flame Sigree & Grill, at South City Shopping Mall. They arrived at Kolkata around 3PM around 3 hours behind their scheduled arrival, tired but they made it to our place. Thanks to you both Lynne and Richard, you are such nice people, we love you and want you in Kolkata many more times.
After their visit of Kolkata and Sunderbans, we again had the chance to show them around the city. So again we went out on Sunday 3rd January. This time we visited many places of Kolkata city, what is unknown to the tourist, the new city with futuristic look. We also went to The Dakshineshwar Kali Temple and Belur Math of Swami Vivekananda by a river cruise made with country boat from Dakshineshwar to Belur and back.
Then Richard & Lynne treated us with sumptuous lunch at Machan. Thanks to you both for the treat, we really enjoyed your company.
The couple left for Haridwar yesterday for a 3 day trip but with some harrasment and hassles. Their train ( Rajdhani Express) was to leave from Howrah at 5.00PM for Delhi, but the Railway enquiry did not inform them about the delay in departure. So they arrived at the station on time only to find that the train will leave at 11.30PM from Howrah due to accident near Kanpur. We hope they will have a peaceful and happy time in Haridwar!
More pictures on travelogue. | | | Lynne & Richard at our place on 29th December'08. |
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| Usha Uthup is blessing Munu on 27th. |
| | Welcome to my world I am Goutam Mitra; from Calcutta, India. I am married. My wife is Rakhi, a school teacher and my Daughter Aparajita (Munu) is in 6th standard with St.Joseph & Mary's School , Kolkata. I stay in Calcutta, now it is called kolkata. I was away from this city for about 22 years due to my postings in different parts of the country. I had the chance to see my country very deeply and learn several Indian languages.
Things I love to do: Traveling, Reading, writing to friends, listening to music (I love music of all sorts from Rock to Indian classical); work hard, photography is my passion. If I have nothing to do I watch movies and read simultaneously. Besides all these I am still a student of history and I have interest in Archeology.
I have not been to many places abroad except Bangkok and Singapore. But I have been to our neighboring country Nepal about 150 times and to Kathmandu about 50 times. I have traveled almost all the parts of our country. It's really an amazing country to see. Many religions, many cultures, many states, the Himalayas, the Indian ocean, great beaches, the Thar desert, beautiful hill resorts, its sunrise, its sunset, 6 great rivers, the age old tradition and the mixture of modern civilization all makes it a great place to see an learn. In my view, India is the only country in the world where all six seasons can be witnessed. Now ,is not that ,an amazing thing? If you don't believe it, may be that is the reason you will have to visit India. Though I would love to build many pages on India, but most of the photographs are taken with Analog Camera, those photographs will have to be scanned and then put into for the viewers of V.T. may be if time permits, I will.
Since, I have interest in various cultures and history, I would be most willing to help any of our V.T. viewers, intend to visit India or who would like to know about our cultures, customs and the country. Please feel free to ask. |
Weekend Trip to Fraserganj in Sothernmost Bengal. We recently had a weekend trip for two night three days trip to Fraserganj/ Bakkhali beach. It's situated at the Southern most tip of Bengal in the Bay of Bengal. I have the page ready with lots of videos ( some very rare like catching of Mud Fish). You may have a look:
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/6f618/10dc51/ | | | Munu enjoying at the beach. |
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| Munu with one of the Holy Cows at Mayapur! |
| | ISKON
During this time, I also got a personal letter from Sri Gopijana Ballbha Das, who maintains the official website of ISKON, "www.mayapur.com" asking for my permission to use the text and photographs of my Mayapur ( the World Head Quarters of ISKON) Page in VT, to be used in their official website for the benefit of the travellers visiting World HQ of ISKON. I feel this is proud moment for any VT member to be officially associated with The Lord. I am a Lord Krishna devotee, I am grateful to The Lord for this rare honour and opportunity to serve the Lord.
I request all of you to find out time for visiting their website www.mayapur.com |
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 Comments for goutammitra | | | | |
black_mimi99 Sun Nov 8, 2009 01:33 UTC
Salut Mitra, I didnt go anywhere yet, cos no time and also feeling tired always.... so how are u??? | Faiza-Ifrah Sat Nov 7, 2009 01:51 UTC
shukriya itni janamdin kee mubarak ka. aap kee greetings ka maza hee aur hay :-D | jumpingnorman Fri Oct 30, 2009 04:22 UTC
Hi Goutam! Thailand would be awesome!!! That's great - unfortunately, I have not done much tips on Thailand because it has been a long time. Will look forward to your pics and hello to JumpingMUNU and Rakhi....Cheers, Norman :) | Florida999 Fri Oct 23, 2009 16:22 UTC
Thanks , hope you had a happy Diwali:) nice picture!! |
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