Noble but fetid, cultured but frantic, are few adjectives to describe Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal. This city is an everyday festival of human existence. For Westerners, Kolkata might conjure up images of destitute condition and human suffering but it still remains the intellectual capital of the nation.
Kolkata relishes its feast of dramatic colonial architecture and an array of heroes including Nobel Prize winners- poet Rabindranath Tagore and film director Satyajit Ray and philosopher Ramakrishna. Situated on the riverbanks of Hooghly River, Kolkata is the most important academic, cultural and commercial hub of East India.
Kolkata is known for hot and sultry weather during summer in India but this year it recorded the highest maximum of a decade in the month of May. With maximum reaching 41.4°C at the Dum Dum Observatory on Tuesday, Kolkata surpassed its previous record of 41.2°C as maximum in May, 2009. The city has been reeling under heat wave conditions since a week as day temperature has been persistently above 40°C and about 5°C above normal average.
It has not rained for the last 10 days and the city received only 60 mm of rain till now as against the normal average of 137 mm for this month. According to the latest weather update by Skymet Meteorology Division in India, we can expect some rain next week but it is likely to remain deficit for May.
Kolkata seems friendlier than any other metropolitan cities of the country, especially to Jhal Muri and Puchka lovers. But considering the unbearable heat, it will definitely become a nightmare if rain does not come to rescue the people of the city.
picture courtesy- wikimedia
