This summer, me and mom and some of her friends visited Kolkata. We were invited at the residence of Mr. Falguni Ghosh, a writer and a poet. My first day was spent walking around the city footpaths and watching a movie in the film cultural centre, Nandan, with one of my dear friends from school. Later that day, our party watched a marvellous performance of Sojan Badiar Ghat, a poem written by Jasim Uddin.

Much of the following day was spent attending Chintak, an annual literature conference organized by Mr. Falguni for the publication of his magazine. There were writers, poets, researchers, and artists giving breif talks, singing and reciting. I myself accompanied a song in harmonium, and also recited one of Falguni's poems.

The next day, we visited the birthplace of Sri Sarada Devi, which is at Jayrambati, under the cruel heat of the summer sun. A much needed afternoon nap was then followed by a visit to Kamarpukur, which is the birthplace of Sri Ramakrishna. The evening was spent witnessing an Arati, where a lit lamp was ceremonially waved in front of Ramakrishna's marble statue, and chanting of the Krishna mantras.
The next day we returned to Mr. Falguni's home where we were all too tired to visit anywhere. We spent the evening watching a movie together.

At the final day, we visited the birthplace of Swami Vivekananda. There we watched two short films, regarding his speech at the Parliament of the World's Religions and an overview of his life. This was followed by a visit to Jorasanko Thakur Bari, the birthplace of Rabindranath Tagore. The house has been restored and preserved so as to offer a glimpse into Tagore and his family, much like a museum. It featured a vast collection, showing his work, ideas and his visits to Japan, China, Hungary, US, which were put up in their respective galleries. Unfortunately, we were short in time, and henceforth we had to rush through the hallways to atleast to get a glimpse of everything. Funnily, a security guard working there were watching us and then later remarked "You missed a lot of details and need to visit here again!".
Later that evening, we boarded our train that brought us back to our homes, with pleasant memories of the tour vivid in our minds.