## The city of joy

## Birla Planetarium

The Birla Planetarium in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, is a single-storeyed circular structure designed in the typical Indian style, whose architecture is loosely styled on the Buddhist Stupa at Sanchi. Situated at Chowringhee Road adjacent to the Victoria Memorial, St. Paul's Cathedral, and the Maidan in South Kolkata, it is the largest planetarium in Asia and the second largest planetarium in the world.

Popularly known as taramandal, the planetarium was inaugurated on 2 July 1963 by the then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. It has an electronics laboratory for design and fabrication of science equipment. It has an astronomy gallery that maintains a huge collection of fine paintings and celestial models of renowned astronomers. The Planetarium also has an astronomical observatory equipped with a Celestron C-14 Telescope with accessories such as ST6 CCD camera and solar filter. It offers to the public and students more than 100 astronomical projects dealing with various facts of astronomy, astro-physics, Space Science as well as myths concerning stars and planets. It has a capacity of 680.

## IndianMuseum

The Indian Museum is the largest and oldest museum in India and has rare collections of antiques, armour and ornaments, fossils, skeletons, mummies, and Mughal paintings. It was founded by the Asiatic Society of Bengal in Kolkata (Calcutta), India, in 1814. The founder curator was Dr Nathaniel Wallich, a Danish botanist.

It has six sections comprising thirty five galleries of cultural and scientific artifacts namely Art, Archaeology, Anthropology, Geology, Zoology and Economic Botany. This multi-purpose Institution with multidisciplinary activities is being included as an Institute of national importance in the seventh schedule of the Constitution of India. It is one of oldest museums in the world.

## Victoria Memorial

The Victoria Memorial (Victoria Memorial Hall) is a large marble building in Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal, India which was built between 1906 and 1921. It is dedicated to the memory of Queen Victoria (1819–1901) and is now a museum and tourist destination under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture. The Memorial lies on the Maidan by the bank of the Hooghly river, near Jawaharlal Nehru road.

## Science City

Science City, Kolkata is the largest science centre in the Indian subcontinent under National Council of Science Museums (NCSM), Ministry of Culture, Government of India, is at the crossing of Eastern Metropolitan Bypass and J B S Haldane avenue, Kolkata. It is considered by some people as the most distinguished landmark in post-independence Kolkata. Saroj Ghose, the first director general of NCSM, who is credited with having conceptualized this centre in 1997. This centre was inaugurated by two parts: the ‘Convention Centre Complex’ was unveiled on 21 December 1996 by Paul Jozef Crutzen in presence of the then chief minister Jyoti Basu and the whole centre was opened by the then prime minister Inder Kumar Gujral on 1 July 1997. On 10 January 2010, prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh laid the foundation stone for the second phase of Science City in presence of the then chief minister of West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

## National Library

The National Library of India on the Belvedere Estate in Alipore, Kolkata, is the largest library in India by volume and India's library of public record. It is under the Department of Culture, Ministry of Tourism & Culture, Government of India. The library is designated to collect, disseminate and preserve the printed material produced in India. The library is situated on the scenic 30-acre (12 ha) Belvedere Estate. It is the largest in India with a collection in excess of 2.2 million books. Before independence, it was the official residence of Lt. Governor of Bengal.

## Mother's House

Missionaries of Charity is a Roman Catholic Latin Rite religious congregation established in 1950 by Mother Teresa. It consists of over 4,501 religious sisters and is active in 133 countries. Members of the order designate their affiliation using the order's initials, "M.C." A member of the Congregation must hear to the vows of chastity, poverty, obedience, and the fourth vow, to give "wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor."

## Jorasanko Thakur Bari

The Jorasanko Thakur Bari in Jorasanko, north of Kolkata, West Bengal, India, is the ancestral home of the Tagore family. It is currently located on the Rabindra Bharati University campus at 6/4 Dwarakanath Tagore Lane Jorasanko, Kolkata 700007. It is the house in which the poet and first non-European Nobel laureate, Rabindranath Tagore was born. It is also the place where he spent most of his childhood and died on 7 August 1941.