alcha – Antima Khanna

Year 2014 was pretty exciting for me.
I did some solo travels and got to experience life outside the comfort zone.

It was from a long time that I was planning for a trip to Calcutta (West Bengal).
They say that December would be the best month to visit there.

Hence, I took my last journey of the year 2014 to Calcutta & Shantiniketan.

I love to travel by Train, but this time because of dense fog in New Delhi & Uttar Pradesh
it became a 30 hr long journey :'(

But, reaching Calcutta at 1:00 am was also a thing because the city was lit up with Christmas decoration.

My reason for this vacation was to attend Poush Mela in Shantiniketan.

I have a very good friend of mine, from Bangladesh, Nevine Sultana.
She is the one, who introduced me to this festival and a lot more in that town.

Shantiniketan, is a small town near Bolpur, West Bengal.
It is some 2 Hrs away from Howrah by train.
You can take Shantiniketan Express, which is probably the best train to commute on that route.
It runs around 10:10 am from Howrah and reaches Bolpur at 12:25 pm.

I was lucky this time, as I got to share this journey with the famous
Ecomonist and Noble Prize winner , Mr. Amartya Sen.

Shantiniketan is a town found by Rabindranath Tagore.

I got to stay there with Nevine, in her relatives house.
You can also book a guest house easily,
The rent would be 2000 per night (approx) during the mela,
otherwise 700 per night

cal 27 — Nevine’s Aunt : An Accountant, Singer, Animal Lover, Packing Queen and a beautiful Human Being

I got to visit some interesting places in that town like,
the Poush Mela, Adivasi colony, Pottery Studio, Kala Bhawan etc.

I shall be writing about each one of them in my upcoming posts.

I also got to visit a small store ; Alcha
It is the store of Nevine’s friend.
And a beautiful place to spend time and shopping for a handicraft lover like me 🙂